Logan Village resident Joshua Wiedman is set up for a great things off the back of his performance in the Finke Desert Race

The young driver, who has only just received his P Plates, said he felt well-prepared for the race which takes drivers along what many consider to be the one of the most challenging off-road courses.

"I was pretty keen," Joshua said.

"We had a reconnaissance lap in the car, which took us six hours so I knew it was gonna be pretty big.

"It was a pretty hard race, it is one of the hardest races in Australia."

Competing against a mixture of cars, trophy trucks, buggies in a field which included two-time Dakar Rally champion, Joshua finished 37th out of the 150 competitors in the car category.

Not only this, but the 17-year-old placed 6th out of the 68 competitors in his particular class, many of whom had competed before.

Joshua said he was "100 per cent" committed to competing in the race next year, but also explained this year's race could have gone much better.

"We did a drive shaft on the way up," he said.

"We only had rear wheel drive, which made us use more fuel than expected.

"We ended up having to sit on the side of the track for about 15 minutes. We lost a lot of time."

Despite losing precious minutes, Joshua finished the first leg of the race 13th in his class but then followed this up on the second day by finishing second in class.

This wasn't the only recent bit of bad luck for Joshua, as the steering column in his buggy failed during the recent Pooncarie Desert Dash and sent the young driver and his father careening into a copse, flipping the vehicle.

As well as his Can-Am buggy, Joshua also races behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta, and his next race is at the Queensland round of the Australian Rally Championship in July.

The Logan Village teenager is looking forward to the race, but said the rallying was a completely different ball game compared to the off-road racing.

Joshua said this was partly due to his choice of car, which was chosen despite being under-powered compared to some of his competitors, making him an underdog.

"All the guys said to stay in a low-horsepower, front wheel drive car for the season," Joshua said.

"Just to see if I can drive that thing fast enough, then step up to something quicker if budget allows.

"If you get the results people can sometimes assume it's the money you've put in. We don't have the money to spend like other teams do on their cars.

"Rally's a whole different thing compared to the off-road racing. It's a lot more expensive."

Joshua said he was grateful for all the support he'd been shown by his parents but also his boss, Jordie, who had helped the young driver juggle his racing career and his new job working at Shoreline Sea-Doo and Can-Am.

"My boss used to help out with the buggy," he said.

"We gave him a calendar of all the days I'm going to be off for racing, he's been pretty understanding."

Joshua also thanked his navigator Brice Derrick during for doing a great job keeping him focused during the gruelling Finke Desert Race.

Joshua's other supporters include KMC Wheels, UTV Surgery and F45 Jimboomba, and he said he would welcome more opportunities to work with local businesses.