RACE REVIEW | 2026 HATTAH DESERT RACE

If anyone thought the rain would tame Hattah in 2026, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead of the deep bulldust that normally defines Australia’s biggest desert race, more than 600 competitors were greeted with heavy, moisture-laden sand, deep ruts and corners that riders described as “like hitting a wall”. The lack of dust made visibility better than usual, but the heavier conditions punished both rider and machine, dramatically increasing fuel consumption and catching out more than a few teams.

As always, Hattah attracted the country’s biggest names in off-road racing and delivered one of the strongest fields in recent memory. KTM DM31 Racing arrived looking to defend its crown with Korey McMahon, while Honda Racing Australia continued its rapid rise in the desert scene after its breakthrough Finke campaign just weeks earlier. By Saturday afternoon, the two manufacturers had stamped themselves as the teams to beat, with McMahon topping both the Prologue and Top 10 Shootout, while Honda’s Sam Pretscherer and Corey Hammond locked out second and third outright in qualifying aboard the CRF450RX.

Race day, however, became as much about strategy as outright speed. The heavy conditions forced many teams to abandon carefully planned fuel strategies after discovering the wet, energy-sapping circuit was using far more fuel than testing had suggested. Honda was among those caught out, having planned to complete two laps between refuelling stops before being forced to pit every lap. Despite the setback, Pretscherer charged back to finish second outright, with Hammond recovering from an early mistake to fourth, proving Honda’s Hattah campaign had firmly established the CRF450RX as one of the premier desert weapons in Australia.

None of it mattered to the man out front. Korey McMahon simply disappeared. After claiming pole in the Prologue and backing it up in the Shootout, the KTM ace produced one of the most commanding Hattah performances in recent memory, controlling Sunday’s four-hour race from the opening kilometres to claim his second consecutive Hattah Desert Race victory. Teammate Lyndon Snodgrass completed KTM’s dream weekend with third outright in his first Hattah outing for the team, while Jye Dickson rounded out another strong result in fifth. For McMahon, though, the victory was about far more than another trophy. It was the culmination of years spent chasing success at Hattah after putting his Finke ambitions aside to become the rider many now regard as the fastest flat-track desert racer in the country.

We sat down with McMahon to find out how he pieced together the perfect Hattah, why this year’s victory was different, and the long road that led to becoming Australia’s king of the desert.

The McMaster

While his 2025 victory had surprised both himself and the team, this year he arrived in Mildura expecting to defend the number one plate. That changed the mindset completely. “Honestly, it felt a bit more natural this year,” McMahon explained. “Last year was a surprise to both myself and the team to get the win, whereas this year it was our expectation to win again. It was the same sort of race and the same game plan, really. We wanted to drop the hammer early, create a gap and then manage it from there. It worked again, which was really cool.”

McMahon says one of the biggest differences this year was refusing to think beyond the next corner. “I never got ahead of myself, which was good. I wasn’t thinking about the end of the race, I was just thinking about executing the start and then executing the first lap. Once the first lap was done, it was just about ticking the boxes one by one. We never started thinking we’d already won it, and I think that kept us on our toes for the whole race.”

Despite kicking arse all weekend, McMahon wasn’t completely happy with Saturday. “I actually struggled a little bit in the Top 10 Shootout. I ended up winning it, which I was really happy with, but I felt like my riding was a bit average. The sun made it hard to judge everything and I just wasn’t pushing the limits like I normally do. There were never any doubts in our minds, but there was definitely no point where we thought, ‘We’ve got this won.'”

Sunday’s conditions threw another challenge at every rider in the field. The rain had transformed the famous Mallee sand into something heavier, deeper and far more physical than usual. The track formed up deeper in the corners and made the bike heavier to race. “It was very grabby,” McMahon said. “As soon as you got over the front of the bike, it was pretty much time to fall over. You had to be super light all the time and really think about timing everything because you couldn’t always see what was coming. It actually played into my wheelhouse a little bit because I was on the 500. They suit those conditions pretty well, but it was definitely one of the toughest Hattah tracks we’ve had for a while.”

People often get caught-up chasing bike fitness at the last minute for Hattah. But McMahon explained that needed to be done in pre-season if you want to win Hattah. The KTM ace believes his fitness made the biggest difference when the race became a four-hour grind. “It was probably my best ride at Hattah. It was really clean, really smooth and my fitness was much better than last year. Towards the end of the race I was actually surprised how good I felt, especially considering how tough the track was.”

“It all goes back to the pre-season. I started really early in December and just spent a lot of time on the bike. We were down there with Beaton’s crew doing pre-season with the motocross boys and that intensity really helps with races like Hattah. The gate drops, everyone sprints and you’ve got to be ready from the first corner.”

“People think you just have to ride the roughest tracks possible leading into Hattah, but I actually think the most important parts of the race are Prologue and that first lap. We do all the fitness work early in the year. By the time Hattah comes around you’re not trying to get fitter, you’re trying to perfect the skills that matter. Flat-track work, corner speed and getting everything right early in the race are what make the difference.”

Even then, Hattah still had one last trick to throw at him. Despite having peak fitness, McMahon nearly threw it away when he noticed his clutch fade a little formt he heavy, deep and wet sand. “About lap six my clutch started fading, so from there it became about managing the gap and riding my own race. Funny enough, worrying about the clutch actually helped because it made me focus on something other than the gap behind me.”

Bike setup also played a crucial role. Although KTM DM31 Racing had changed suspension partners since McMahon’s 2025 victory to Krooztune, he said the team quickly found a package that suited the wet conditions. “Because last year was dry and this year was wet, we were always going to run a different setup anyway. We had about six weeks of testing before Hattah and got a really good base setting straight away. We actually used our Australian Enduro Championship setup from Casterton as the starting point and only changed a few clickers, sag and small things from there. The bike was honestly in a really good place before we even got to Hattah.”

The rain also forced a rethink on fuel strategy, something that caught several front-running teams off guard. Traditionally you can get two laps at Hattah without needing to refuel but with the heavier sand, deeper corners and wet conditions the drag on the motor and drain of power sucked more fuel than most expected.

“This year we went one lap, one lap and then twos. Previous years we’d normally do one lap and then two-lappers, but those first two laps were just sucking the juice. We couldn’t have made the second two-lap stint, so the team made an awesome call to change the strategy early and it worked perfectly.”

While McMahon crossed the finish line almost three minutes clear of Pretscherer, he says the race was really won long before Sunday afternoon. All his prep from a fitness perspective and bike setup was done long before July. If you don’t do the work early, you won’t win.

After two straight victories, it’s hard to argue with the formula. On a weekend where Hattah demanded more from riders than ever before, McMahon never looked flustered. He simply executed, lap after lap, proving that in 2026 the road to Hattah glory still ran straight through the KTM number one.

Coop’s conundrum

Yamaha’s Cooper Sheidow had an eventful weekend after busting his radiator and losing precious coolant. The Yamaha team had to keep refilling the radiator every lap and he finished an impressive 9^th.

Push and shove

Ducati rider Callum Norton had a weekend he’d rather forget after his Ducati failed and he had to push his bike over the finish line, reminiscent of Corey Hammond at Finke only a few weeks earlier.