Image: John Pearson.

Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) rookie, Jack Simpson, locked up his very first E1 championship at Penshurst’s final round of the 2016 series over the weekend in Victoria.

Aboard his KTM 250 SX-F, the former motocross and supercross ace put together a pair of impressive riders during rounds 11 and 12 to take out the championship 29 points head of Husqvarna’s Glenn Kearney.

“My plan this year was to come in, learn the ropes of the sport and have no expectations,” said Simpson. “Just target the rounds and the championship will take care of itself.

“I’ve been going after that number one plate all year, and now finally the weight’s off the shoulders and I can relax. That will never ever get taken off me; it’s in the history books.

“I finished first in my class and third Outright the first day, and had a bit of good luck as well, because Riley Graham and Scott Keegan both lost their chains and DNFed or were way out of the picture. Glenn Kearney had a couple of big crashes and was down in 14th or 15th, so all I had to do was just stick to what I was doing.”

After claiming the E1 round win and capturing his first Outright podium of his young off-road career, Simpson returned on Sunday to duplicate those results taking home the E1 title and closing in on a top five Outright placing for the year.

“Today was basically a carbon copy,” he added. “Still had no idea about the Outright situation, but by winning the class and finishing on the podium outright I made up 35 points on [Lachlan] Stanford and [Beau] Ralston and was two points short of finishing fourth – so that was a good thing.”

In addition to claiming the 2016 Australian Off-Road Championship E1 title, Simpson finished sixth overall in the Outright standings.