Image: John Pearson.

KTM Off-Road Racing Team’s Tye Simmonds led a factory 1-2 in the 2016 Penrite Hattah Desert Race on Sunday, in what rates as the biggest victory of his off-road and desert racing career to date.

Simmonds was able to withstand the challenge of current Australian Off-Road Championship leader Daniel Sanders for the Hattah win, the pairing mounted aboard KTM’s powerful 500 EXC in desert trim.

“I hit a tree on my last lap and my hands are pretty torn up, but I’m over the moon,” Simmonds beamed. “It was a hard one today, I definitely worked for every minute of the four hours, but it’s definitely the biggest one I’ve achieved so far. It was on all day with Chucky, I had a bit of a game plan and by the fourth lap I realised it wasn’t going to work.

“I wanted to try and outrun him and get out of there, but we probably swapped for the lead eight to 10 times over two laps. The first time he passed me he was screaming his head off, I sort of got a bit of a kick out of that – it was funny!

“But to have that many good clean passes, it was good racing and for it to come down to the wire that close, it was an awesome finish for us two boys and the team. But then I nearly had mishap and he did have one and I managed to scoot away. It wasn’t a big win, but 12 seconds, we’ll take it.”

At the end of four hours Simmonds won the event by over 12 seconds from Sanders, their battle dragging them almost 11 minutes clear of third-placed, 450cc winner Beau Ralston (Active8 Yamaha), while Glenn Kearney (Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team) was fourth and Peter Boyle (Penrite Honda) fifth.

Former pro motocrosser Jack Simpson continued his off-road racing success, backing up his Finke class victory in the 250cc four-stroke class with an identical one at Hattah, aboard the same KTM 250 SX-F.

Meanwhile in the Under 19s division, the Motul Pirelli Sherco Factory Team experienced its share of Hattah Desert Race success on the weekend as Wil Ruprecht claimed the class win aboard his Sherco 450 SEF-R.