The Ex-motocross extraordinaire  donned his helmet and climbed on his bike again to compete in the ultimate desert race the Tatts Finke Desert Race at Alice Springs in the Northern Territory over the weekend.

The race is 226 kilometres each way, competitors have four and a half hours to complete the first leg of the race and then they stay the night and have four and a half hours to return. 

Harding finished 66^th overall and 23^rd in his class out of 607 riders.

The Narromine News and Trangie Advocate spoke to Harding before he went and he said he was looking forward to it.

“It’s been on my bucket list for a while, but I thought I’d better do it now, before I turn 40,” he said.

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Harding was a MotoCross and SuperCross champion when he was younger, but stopped around 10 years ago and started playing rugby league. 

He has friends who have tried the race in the past but haven’t been able to complete it. 

“I have a friend who has been three times and only finished it once,” he said.

Luke and his family left for the Territory last week to get some practice runs before the big race.

“We went up about a month ago, with a couple of mates from Dubbo, the course took about three hours and it wasn’t too bad,” he said. 

Luke specifically wanted to thank the sponsors from Narromine who made the trip possible; Macquarie Clothing, Brett Hignett from Macquarie Ground Spray, Walkers Service Centre Narromine and Warren, Dubbo City Motorcycles Warren, Pluim Group and LH Tiling.