After so many years of heartbreak, Travis Robinson can finally call himself a Finke Desert Race champion. He dominated the race from start to finish with his older brother and defending winner Beau right behind.

The field had no answer for Travis, whose Mason four-wheel-drive truck set the fastest time across the Prologue and first day of racing to put himself up big. Travis beat Beau’s Mason 2WD by four seconds in the Prologue then by three minutes in the run from Alice Springs to Finke, giving him a comfortable lead going into the stretch back on the last day.

Travis finished Day 2 third overall, four minutes behind Beau’s 2WD rival Boston Morgan-Horan and one behind Pro Buggy winner Michael Zacka, though he had four minutes himself on Beau. It was a bit of a scary finish for the younger Robinson, who had to race more conservatively, but he got it done.

“I was hearing all sorts of noises coming out of the car for the last 100 Ks, and I took it very cautiously in the last corners,” commented Travis. “It’s just amazing.”

By the end, Travis cleared Beau by five minutes. Morgan-Horan, while losing to Robinson for the Extreme 2WD victory by just one minute, joined them on the overall podium in his Finke debut.

“There’s no other person I’d rather hand the King of the Desert crown to,” Beau proclaimed. “It’s a big accomplishment to finish 1 and 2; no one has done it before and I dare say no one will do it again. It’s a big accomplishment just to get one car to the finish, but to do it with two cars and to dominate all weekend is a dream.”

Brad Lovell smashed the Production 4WD track record by eight minutes with his Ford Ranger en route to winning the class for the third year in a row. The win continues a strong year for Lovell, who also won his class at King of the Hammers and Mint 400. His only opposition in the category, Geoffery Pickering and his Ford Ranger Raptor, finished over an hour back. Supercars legend Craig Lowndes and Chevrolet, who dueled with Lovell in 2024, did not take part.

Corey Hammond won both days for bikes to become the first Finke-winning rider not named David Walsh since Toby Price in 2018. Walsh, a five-time champion, retired from racing in late May but remained involved with Finke as a consultant for STE KTM Racing Team. The team was to field two bikes for his cousin Liam and Callum Norton, but the former withdrew before the race due to injury.

Norton won the Prologue by six seconds over Hammond, the only rider to set a time below 4:50 at 4:46. However, he contracted an illness the following day. Even with his condition, he managed to soldier on to Finke with the fourth fastest time on Day 1 before pulling out the next day.

“It was a super disappointing way to end our Finke campaign, but it’s the way it goes sometimes, unfortunately, and it’s out of anyone’s hands,” commented STE team owner Jason Stewart. “After such a solid lead-up with both the bike and Callum in a perfect position, he woke up really unwell on Sunday, catching the virus that was doing the rounds in town. He rode awesome to win the Prologue by ten seconds on Saturday, and then did a mega job to even get down to Finke on Sunday given the state he was in. He didn’t surface today, and we decided not to send him out for the way home; Finke is too much of a demanding race to head out there like that.

“No one is more disappointed than Callum, although we’ll rest up and come out swinging for Hattah now.”

Class winners

Cars

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Driver	Co-Driver	Vehicle	Day 1 Time	Day 2 Time	Total Time
Extreme 2WD	2	413	Beau Robinson	Shane Hutt	Mason TT	1:41:30.124	1:47:44.829	3:2:14.953
Extreme 4WD	1	813	Travis Robinson	Paul Currie	Mason AWD TT	1:38:26.019	1:46:09.761	3:24:35.780
Pro Buggy	4	51	Michael Zacka		Jimco Class 10	1:50:56.087	1:45:55.002	3:36:51.089
Production 4WD	43	773	Brad Lovell	Adam Lovell	Ford Ranger	2:49:12.511	2:50:20.768	5:39:33.279
Prolite Buggy	5	127	John Towers	Bruce Young	JT Lustrum Buggy	1:49:36.390	1:51:49.405	3:41:05.795
Sportslite	19	1001	Paul Tinga	Daniel Kelsey	Southern Cross MK5	2:09:25.292	2:07:11.067	4:16:36.359
Super 1650 Buggy	45	296	Gerry Coop	Tanya Coop	Toyota Buggy	2:53:44.971	2:50:19.333	5:44:04.304
SXS Pro	14	657	Kane Jones	Jermery Kempston	Polaris RZR Pro R	2:06:56.004	2:04:43.273	4:11:39.277
SXS Sport	56	6681	Ross Newman	Gary Taylor	Yamaha YXZ1000R	3:27:02.779	3:30:39.718	6:57:42.497

Bikes

Class	Overall Finish	Number	Rider	Vehicle	Day 1 Time	Day 2 Time	Total Time
Class 1 (251cc and Above, 2 Stroke)	67	199	Cameron Loder	KTM 300 EXC	2:44:33.590	2:36:44.326	5:21:17.916
Class 2 (451cc and Above, 4 Stroke)	1	4	Corey Hammond	KTM 500 EXC-F	1:53:50.631	1:52:39.529	3:46:30.160
Class 3 (Up to 250cc, 2 Stroke)	15	25	Liam Dinnage	KTM 250 XC	2:14:45.572	2:09:06.892	4:23:52.464
Class 4 (Up to 450cc, 4 Stroke)	12	496	Austin Shaw	KTM 250 SX-F	2:13:48.560	2:06:43.273	4:20:31.833
Class 5 (251cc–450cc, 4 Stroke)	3	8	Brodie Waters	Honda CRF450R	1:58:59.468	2:01:54.155	4:00:53.623
Class 6 (Masters, 35–44 Years)	11	20	James Heenan	Sherco 500 SEF Factory	2:12:17.004	2:08:02.905	4:20:19.909
Class 7 (Seniors, 45–54 Years)	40	732	Kenneth Hicks	Honda CRF450R	2:34:36.873	2:27:44.737	5:02:21.610
Class 8 (Veterans, 55 Years and Over)	107	895	Grant Prior	KTM 500 EXC-F	2:54:42.846	2:49:10.552	5:43:53.398
Class 9 (Women)	53	999	Madison Healey	KTM 350 EXC-F	2:39:25.589	2:34:12.692	5:13:38.281

Featured image credit: Outer Bounds Racing