Travis Robinson and Paul Currie have been crowned 2025 Champions of the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship after a thrilling final day at the Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race.
In emotional scenes, Western Australian driver Travis Robinson secured victory in the third and final section of the Kalgoorlie event to narrowly pip Kiwi ace Boston Morgan-Horan for outright round honours. The two cars went back and forth the entire weekend; in the end, just 20 seconds separated them after 163 kilometres of racing.
The result secured Robinson and Currie their second outright AORC title, having won the crown in 2023. It also caps a phenomenal year in which Robinson won the outright title, the Finke Desert Race as well as the Loveday 400.
To ice the victory, Travis’ brother Beau Robinson and navigator Shane Hutt finished fourth at Kalgoorlie, handing them runner-up honours in the AORC title race – a dream 1-2 finish. Furthermore, their late father, Brian Robinson, was inducted into the Motorsport Australia Off Road Hall of Fame in the build up to the weekend alongside Ben Erceg.
Fellow Western Australian competitor Jared Percival sealed third outright in the Championship after finishing third overall in Kalgoorlie.
“It has been an awesome weekend,” Travis Robinson said.
“I was halfway around the lap there and thinking to myself ‘I can’t end the year like this – I need to make sure we win the event as well’. We just turned the heat on and made sure we won it.
“We’re happy to win a couple of Championships and a Finke. We’ve got the 50th Finke race next year and I’ll probably pack it in after that and ride off into the sunset. It’s overwhelming but it’s good, I’m hoping Beau can do the championship next year – that’s all that’s left for us to accomplish.”
Despite missing out on a first title himself, Beau Robinson was left content with his team’s efforts this season.
“We chipped away at it and it’s worked out for the best,” Beau Robinson said.
“One-two in the championship, and we can’t ask for much more than that. To have two cars dominate all year – finishing one-two in three events – that’s a big accomplishment and it goes to show the [team] have done a great job.”
For Morgan-Horan, the final section presented its challenges, with his trophy truck enduring some torque converter problems through the lap, before finally packing it in as he crossed the finish line.
“It was pretty rough for the last lap. It’s soft, sandy and winding. It’s fun out there, though not fun knowing you’re getting caught,” Morgan-Horan said.
“From what I knew we were on par until the tight and twisty section – the last 20km. The entire lap for me, the truck was overheating. I got through the lap and heard the pop at the end.”
Earlier in the day, it was Morgan-Horan that shone in Section Two. Setting out first in clear, still conditions, the New Zealand driver posted a 1:05:05.9 lap to pip Travis Robinson by a mere 3.5 seconds.
Beau Robinson finally shook the effects of a poor Prologue on Friday to finish third in section two, three minutes behind Morgan-Horan.
Pro Buggy driver Jared Percival came home fourth outright in section two, before moving up one position for section three – completing a strong, consistent year for the Western Australian.
“We’ve had a great year, we’ve been consistent and where we can we’ve been pushing – third outright for the year, we’re stoked with that,” Percival said.
“It has been a great year. The car has been awesome and I feel like we’ve been quicker and quicker as the year as gone on.”
Stop five of the AORC, the Kalgoorlie finale also decided the competitive Motorsport Australia SXS Champions for 2025 – and it went well and truly down to the wire.
In the end, Lachlan Bailey did just enough to hold off a fast-finishing Glen Ackroyd to take SXS Drivers’ honours for 2025. However, it was Ackroyd’s navigator Michael Price that secured the SXS Navigators’ title. Greg Campbell and Ryland Burt secured third in the SXS standings after finishing sixth in class in Kalgoorlie.
“That last lap was a lot. I heard banging going on and we broke the sway bar midway through the lap – the car was a pig of a thing to drive but we got it home,” Bailey said.
“Glen was definitely on a charge. We knew that we had to almost DNF for him to beat us. We weren’t too worried about pushing the car.
“It was massive relief to finish. The Championship has been a lot this year and it’s good to finish.”
Ackroyd and Price arrived in Kalgoorlie sporting a new SXS entry, having written off their previous vehicle at the St George stop of the championship in August.
“I was definitely busy out there. There was no dust out there but I had oil all over our car and it sprayed onto my feet as well. It was very slippery trying to go for the brake pedal,” Ackroyd said.
“Our goal for this weekend was to come here and win it. Congratulations to the [team] who built the car. They did an awesome job.”
The Black Diamond Drilling Kalgoorlie Desert Race was a fitting finale to a fascinating year in the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship across the outright title race and various class championships, with other class titles to be confirmed in the coming days.
Competitors will now take a break before gearing up for a mega 2026 campaign, with next season’s calendar set to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
