Simmonds wins 2016 Hattah Desert Race

Tye Simmonds and Daniel “Chucky” Sanders gave KTM Australia the coveted Finke/Hattah double for the third straight year as they powered to an exciting 1-2 at this year’s Hattah Desert Race over the weekend near Mildura, Victoria.

Just three weeks after Toby Price claimed the first of the country’s big winter desert races – the Finke Desert Race – the runner-up from that event, Simmonds, and current Australian Off-Road Championship leader, Sanders, fought out an intense battle for supremacy for the second, exchanging the lead approximately ten times during the third and fourth laps of the rugged four-hour desert epic before Simmonds was able to break clear.

Switching from his regular KTM 300cc two-stroke to one of the team’s mighty 500EXC desert weapons, Sanders took the early advantage as he qualified fastest, earning the right to lead the field out onto the track, but when he took a tumble while battling for the lead with Simmonds late on the fourth lap, his teammate was able to open a gap that Sanders could not fully close. At the end of four hours, Simmonds won the event by over twelve seconds from Sanders; their battle dragging them almost eleven minutes clear of third placed Active8 Yamaha’s Beau Ralston.

“I hit a tree on my last lap and my hands are pretty torn up but I’m over the moon,” said Simmonds. “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 ten times over two laps.”

“The first time he passed me he was screaming his head off, and I sort of got a bit of a kick out of that – it was funny!” Simmonds continued. “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 a mishap and he did have one, and I managed to scoot away. It wasn’t a big win, but twelve seconds; we’ll take it!”

2016 Hattah Desert Race Results

1. Tye Simmonds, 4:06:28.673
2. Daniel Sanders, 4:06:41.133
3. Beau Ralston, 4:17:11.530
4. Glenn Kearney, 4:23:45.385
5. Peter Boyle, 4:30:50.831