Wilksch Wins Maiden AORC Title

Husqvarna racer Andy Wilksch has secured his first career national title, clinching the Pro E3 class championship win at the 2022 Australian Off-Road Championship (AORC) finale in Wynyard, Tasmania, on the weekend.

Equipped with his powerful Simford Racing Husqvarna FE501, 26-year-old Wilksch mastered two slippery rounds of enduro racing on Tasmania’s north coast to finish with a brace of P2 performances and comfortably win the E3 crown.

After two days of rain on a clay surface, Saturday’s penultimate round was tight and technical. Despite several small crashes trying to close the gap to the lead, Wilksch decided to play it safe and settled in to claim as many points as possible, finishing second in class.

Sunday’s final round of the AORC today saw conditions improve and Wilksch again looked at the big picture as he tore around the final tests of the 2022 season to again comfortably finish in second position.

In the process, Wilksch secured his first ever Australian championship, capping off a memorable year for the Victorian. And what a lot of people don’t know (thanks to the AORC’s ongoing coyness about divulging the series’ Outright standings) is that Wilksch also finished a very credible second place in the AORC’s Outright standings behind 19-year-old Tasmanian sensation, Kyron Bacon.

Andy Wilksch: “I had a bit of a taste of racing in Tasmania at the Australian 4-Day Enduro in 2015 and I knew that if it rained, I’d be up against it as Jonte [Reynders] is great in the mud and this is his home event. Initially, it was tough to accept there was someone better than me on the weekend, but I readjusted to get better and learn from it so I could manage the championship. I came into Wynyard with a 20-point lead in E3, so I could afford to drop 10 points a day, but I still wanted to finish the year strongly. Saturday’s tests were really technical and slippery, so you couldn’t afford to relax at all, but conditions improved a lot for Sunday, and it was a lot of fun. 2022 has been an awesome year and to finish as the E3-class champion has made it even more special.”