Organisers of the iconic Finke Desert Race in central Australia are outraged by a Victorian event being upgraded to clash with the race.

Last month, the Finke race was pulled out of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) off-road championships due to a dispute over merchandising and filming rights.

But the race organisers say CAMS has now given championship status to a race at Sea Lake in Victoria on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June, the same weekend on which the Finke Desert Race has been held for 37 years.

In recent years, fields of more than 600 motorcycle and buggy drivers have taken part in the gruelling race.

Finke race president Antony Yoffa says it forces Australia's top riders and drivers to choose between two traditionally big races.

"Some of the top drivers and teams are livid and can't understand why the governing body sport would want to put two events up against each other to effectively split the sport," he said.

"We are very disappointed."

Alice Springs mayor and race vice-president Damien Ryan says it is a bad move.

"It would seem to be a little bit of 'we'll show Finke'," he said.

He says the timing has triggered a backlash from off-road racing teams who want to compete in the Finke race.

"The charge was lead by the Peter Kittle Racing Team," he said.

"They have put out there that they won't run in the Australian series at all this year because they could not believe that the organisers of the Australian series would put an event on the same weekend as the Finke desert race.

"They felt that the Finke Desert Race was actually the pinnacle of off-road racing in Australia."

Mr Yoffa says he is not sure if the CAMS move was deliberate retaliation.

"I don't really want to comment on why it was done, but I just think the loser out of all this is the sport," he said.

Motorcyclist Rick Hall says many elite competitors will choose the desert race.

"They are what they call in the sport trophy hunters," he said.

CAMS says it will not comment on the issue until after a meeting today.