Rodney Faggotter: The Longreach Waterboy

Yamaha Dakar competitor Rod is a very down-to-Earth sort of bloke, but his riding achievements are out of this world. You might be surprised at just how much this cheerful bike-shop owner has done.

Mustering sheep and cattle in Australia’s outback must be an exceptional school for off-roaders. Not only does it teach riders to think and act fast, it makes them tough and innovative. Rod of Centretune Motorcycles in Longreach is a good example. The 2017 Dakar didn’t launch Rod into the spotlight. He’s been there, quietly achieving, for quite a while.

AdvR: How did you get into motorcycling to start with?

RF: I grew up on a property out here in central-western Queensland which my mum and my next-oldest brother still own. It’s a sheep and cattle property, so we grew up mustering with bikes from a young age, and riding really just progressed from there.

I always had an interest. We did gymkhanas in the bush, but I didn’t race until I was 19. I bought my first motocross bike – a second-hand 1992 YZ250 – when I was 18, and went out for my first race when I was 19. I raced motocross for a few years.

A dvR: How did you go on it?

RF: I got flogged, actually.

I had no idea what motocross was about when I started. I’d never actually been to a race. I’d watched a bit of it on TV and read ADB magazines, but there was no racing out in Longreach. It was a bit of a steep learning curve, I suppose. I got the bug pretty quickly, though.

AdvR: How did the move from motocross to rally raids come about?

RF: I didn’t race too much in the early- and mid-2000s because there just wasn’t time. We were getting the business going and we had family on the way. The first of our two boys arrived then. I dabbled in the odd clubday motocross, but nothing serious.

In 2006 I went to the Finke Desert Race. A couple of my mates had done it and reckoned it was a good thing. They suggested I have go.