The Burrumbeet local is one of Australia's most elite off-road racers. As a nine-time Australian champion, he was inducted into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2016.

This year he was set to compete in his 21st Tatts Finke Desert Race - Australia's most gruelling off-road event.

Considered the Bathurst of off-road racing, the two-day race sees bikes, cars, quads and dune buggies race 240 kilometres from Alice Springs to Finke on the South Australian border and back again.

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The winner gets $10,000, as well as King of the Desert bragging rights.

Burrows has won five of them. He won three consecutive crowns in 1998 to 2000 before clinching back-to-back titles in 2002 and 2003. In 2020 he was hoping to claim his sixth crown, but coronavirus had other ideas.

"We had the car all ready to go," he said.

"Finke is one of the rounds of the Aussie off-road championships. It was super disappointing because we won the Australian championship last year."

Burrows was due to compete in the famous race again last month, however it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Luckily, as a former champion he gets automatic entry rights for 2021. And last week, he confirmed that he and his son Mathew have already put their names forward.

"My son navigates for me. He wants to move into the drivers seat but I don't want to move out yet," Burrows said with a laugh.

The father-son duo will hope to improve on last year's race, which saw the pair claim a top-five finish. But it's hardly a piece of cake.

"The terrain is really tough," Burrows said.

"Some dunes are a metre-and-a-half deep and it's never ending big rolling bumps. It's hot and dusty conditions and it's tough going.

"It gets below zero at night and 30 degrees during the day."

There are no rules either. Competitors race in an open category with corrected times, so if you finish with the quickest time at the end of day one, you head out first on day two. The format ensures that whoever crosses the finish line first is the winner.

What's more, there is no limit on vehicle modifications. However all cars and bikes must meet safety requirements.

"The quickest cars do it in about an hour and 50 minutes each way. The motorbikes do it in about two hours," Burrows said.

"We were the first car to beat the motorbikes back in 1999, so that has been our claim to fame."

It's been a long time between drinks from Burrows, since his last victory in 2003. But with an American-built buggy with a V6 twin-turbo Holden motor, he'll be in with a chance.