Jack Mentha’s journey from state league footy player to international desert rally racer
After letting go of his AFL dream, Jack Mentha turned to desert rally racing, and it’s taken him across the globe as he guns for a Dakar Rally ride. Hear his incredible story and harrowing tales.
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When one door closes, another tends to open.
The age-old adage has certainly rung true for Jack Mentha.
Like many, he chased the AFL dream. Relentlessly pursued it.
He came oh so close too, featuring in half a dozen AFL practice games, yet that coveted list spot would never open up.
His career spanned the VFL, NEAFL, QAFL, NTFL and a spattering of local leagues over half a decade.
It wears you down.
“I just got burnt out by the state league system which is quite easily done,” Mentha said.
“You’re working a 45-50 hour week and you’re turning up against guys that do it for a full-time job and you’re still playing good footy and it doesn’t quite crack for you.
“You get a bit sick of it.”
But when Mentha made the tough decision to turn his back on his AFL dream, it wasn’t just fatigue at play.
He had another passion quietly gnawing away at him.
“Things do happen for a reason … I sat down one night and said ‘I think I’ve had enough’,” Mentha recalled.
“Once I did swallow that pill, I guess not so much giving up on that AFL dream but just letting it go, it was a massive weight off my shoulders.
“I want to chase a dream that I really love.”
That dream was motorbikes. And in truth, it had never really left Mentha.
“I was still riding as much as I could on the side, as much as football clubs don’t agree at all and it wouldn’t go down well,” he said.
“I would sneak off with mates and go for rides and I’d be like ‘don’t post nothing, keep it on the downlow.’
“I tried to stay in touch with the motorbike world as much as I could.”
It proved to be a risk worth taking. One of many that would lead Mentha to where he is today, cementing his standing in the international desert rally scene and eyeing a Dakar Rally opportunity.
“It all started funnily enough just via a social media post,” Mentha said.
“I had Bryce Stavron from America who was racing for the team over there and he just reached out to me after seeing one of my Reels and asked if I’d be interested in riding for their team.
“I was like sure, why not, I’ll give it a crack and took a bit of a gamble.
“I lost my job and booked a plane ticket and packed my gear bag and went over there.”
Risk-taking has proved to be a common theme with Mentha.
He landed in the US - now jobless - with nothing guaranteed other than a simple trial.
A one-race contract followed, before Jano Montoya from Montoya Racing took him on for the season’s remainder.
‘Death is not too far away’
Mexico’s Baja Desert is certainly a far cry from the many football fields Mentha has graced, and while the change of scenery comes with its perks, it also has its perils.
“If you make a small mistake there’s kangaroos, there’s camels, there’s cows, you go over to America and there’s coyotes and bloody cactuses,” Mentha said, noting riders can hit speeds of up to 190 km/h.
“Death is not too far away.”
He discovered this first-hand last year, when he came off his bike and had to wait several hours for help to find him.
“I laid out in the desert for a while, I was pretty banged up,” Mentha recalls.
“I’d broken my collarbone and split that up right over, it actually broke into the edge of my throat and I had a bit of internal bleeding going on.
“In Australia, you’ve just got to hope like hell another rider goes through the next checkpoint and says that there was a rider down.”
He also tells of an incident several weeks ago in Baja where he lost an hour and a half looking for a teammate.
And was that teammate okay? Mentha hesitates.
“Uh, he’s, he’s alive. If you’re alive after a desert crash you’re okay,” he said.
“He was banged up, he’s done some damage to his back, damage to his femur, broke a few ribs, and after a recent MRI found out he’s got more damage, but he’s alive so it’s good.
“When we have a crash out in the desert the first question is: are they alive?”
Despite the lost time, March’s San Felipe 250 race would prove Mentha’s best international result to date, with him and his team finishing fifth.
He hopes it’s merely a taste of what’s to come.
Navigation is also a challenge, with days of pre-race study and preparation going into learning the route. It’s needed too.
Checkpoints can be as insignificant as a snapped rock or twig, and even then, you have to hope the lead riders haven’t moved them.
‘I just choose to block that out’
Mentha wouldn’t be where he is today without his family, but he puts them through the wringer every time he gets on the bike. It’s an inescapable paradox.
“My partner I definitely couldn’t do without, she backs me to the hills,” Mentha said.
“She’s probably one of my biggest parts of my support program as well as my family and my mum and dad, and my sisters and greater family.
“They all sort of let me go do it because they know that I love it.”
When asked how his loved ones cope with the worry that accompanies his caper, Mentha pauses. It’s a thought he’d rather not consider.
“I guess they probably just sit at home. I don’t know … it would be interesting to see that side of it but I don’t get to see that side of it,” he said.
“There’s certainly some nervous times for them, especially when they’re in another country, just trying to follow live streams and live navigation and it drops out.
“I could imagine it would get pretty nerve-racking at home, their toes and their fingers would be crossed, praying for the best that we’re alive and not dead out there in the desert.
“I just choose to block that out which is tough. At a certain point you definitely have a certain level of love and care you have to give them, but at the same time that’s what we love doing so we’re not going to stop doing that.
“It’s like an addiction.”
Mentha’s ‘end game’
Mentha made the decision to stop chasing his AFL dream at the end of 2022, relocating north to Mackay soon after.
He had initially hoped to work in the mines to fund his pursuits, but when his international opportunities kicked off he found work as a plumber on a casual basis.
He’s also found a happy home with the Eastern Swans, playing and assistant coaching with the club’s senior side.
In the near future, Mentha has his eyes on June’s Finke Desert Race in Alice Springs. It’s the sport’s pinnacle in Australia.
David Walsh has won the past four on bikes, while Toby Price was a six-time champion before he converted to buggies.
2023 was Mentha’s first taste of the event, and he finished 17th in a 400-strong field.
“It’s every kids dream in Australia that loves their racing to win Finke,” he said.
“I could be wrong but it’s taken some of the best multiple years to get on the podium and win it … if that wins there and I can get that win I’ll be going for it.
“To win Finke, I don’t even reckon you could describe the feeling, you’d have to ask Walshy or Toby … until then it’s just hope and pray and try my hardest to get that feeling.
“We’ll never count ourselves out.”
Long-term, a ride at the Dakar Rally is Mentha’s dream.
“For the time being, we’re just happy just following the journey.
“It takes you worldwide and Australia wide, you see so much of the country doing it, so for the time being it’s just to try and get the best results we can, and go wherever we can go to try and get that Dakar Rally ride.
“Toby price is the end game I guess you could say, that’s who I look up to and that’s who I want to be.”
Whether he can follow in the storeyed footsteps of Price or not, Mentha is content with what the sport has given him in his short career.
He takes nothing for granted - you can’t afford to when you put your life on the line as much as he does.
“There’s a lot just being a country boy from Australia trying to take on the world stage,” he said, a sparkle adorning his eye.
“It is what is and what comes of it will come of it, I didn’t believe it would ever happen.
“It’s every kid’s dream to race internationally if you’re a racer.
“All the stars lined up and it was meant to happen for a reason.”
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