A LOCAL car dealer will be swapping the dealership for the wide open road when he joins the Black Dog Ride to the red centre later this year.
Les James, from Cars on Cook hopes to raise $10,000 to go towards suicide prevention and awareness.
He will join an estimated 500 riders from across the country who will converge on Alice Springs on August 22.
Les said the ride, which he will do on his Kawasaki Vulcan, will take about a week from WA.
“I’ve always ridden motorbikes and rode from Melbourne to Perth in my twenties, but it’s quite a challenge to ride 3800km and back on a motorbike,” he said.
“It should be a good ride – the worst part will be riding back,” he laughed.
With three months of fundraising ahead of him, Les hopes to beat his fundraising target.
“At this stage I’ve set my fundraising goal at $10,000 and I would be ecstatic if I reached that, but I am hoping to do even better.
“It raises awareness of depression, of which there have been a few incidents of in my family.”
This will be the fourth year the Black Dog Ride has done the ride to the red centre.
The proceeds from the ride go to Lifeline Australia and Mental Health First Aid.
To donate head online to redcentre2013.everydayhero.com/au/les-james