Defending Finke Desert Race champions Travis Robinson and Paul Currie have started their defence at the 50th anniversary event perfectly, securing the fastest time in the Method Race Wheels Prologue on Saturday.
In stunning red centre conditions in front of thousands of spectators, Robinson put on a clinic in his Mason Extreme 4WD entry to finish seven seconds ahead of brother Beau Robinson and navigator Shane Hutt – also in a 4WD entry – over the circa 7km Prologue course.
Click here to see the full provisional results.
Kiwi Boston Morgan-Horan and navigator Will Haddock finished third fastest in a cars field that numbered more than 150 entries.
“It was good, I kept the car clean and reasonably straight – there’s a couple of little things with the car that I’ve got to check over now but I’m happy,” said Travis.
The Method Race Wheels Prologue result lends a huge advantage to the Robinson brothers, effectively allowing them to manage the run to Aputula on Sunday from the front of the field.
With Beau debuting a new Mason 4WD truck for Finke, the 1-2 will provide him additional wiggle room to get his head around the new entry.
“Last year was a different deal, we hadn’t driven our car. But now we have driven it and Beau hasn’t had that much time in his,” Travis explained.
“It would be good for us, it would be good to win another one and go back-to-back. I reckon I’d be pretty content with that.”
Meantime in the SXS class, Finke legend Toby Price and Neill Woolley blitzed the field with a time of 4:59.038mins – good enough for a 10th outright and some four seconds clear of their next class rival, Lochlan Waters and Kevin Waters.
“I’m known for putting the foot into it and having some fun, so took it a bit easy on the big bumps – there was too sections of that I took my time to get through – anywhere else I was foot to the floor,” Price said.
“I’m now actually really damn nervous because I’ve got some heavy hitters behind us in big vehicles and we’re right in the mix of it. Hopefully I’ll have to do the rounds tonight and say ‘hey boys, when you’re hitting that button I’m out of the way’.”
Trophy trucks unsurprisingly dominated the Finke field in Prologue, with Toby Whateley (Extreme 2WD), Hayden Bentley (Extreme 4WD), Greg Gartner (Extreme 2WD), Nick Commins (Extreme 2WD), and Sam Bentley (Extreme 4WD) rounding out the top eight.
Brent Martin was the best of the buggy entries, finishing Prologue in ninth outright in his Prolite machine.
Long-time Finke competitor and former Comiskey Mining Services Motorsport Australia Off Road champion Shannon Rentsch was the first of the Pro Buggy machines, and 12th outright.
Meantime, Craig Lowndes and Dale Moscatt were fastest home in the Production 4WD aboard their Chevrolet Silverado ute, with a time of 6:14.839mins.
The Prologue sets the starting order for Sunday’s Section One between Alice Springs and Aputula, or Finke. Competitors will then complete their return journey to Alice Springs on Monday, where the eventual winners will be crowed the 2026 Kings of the Desert.
As always you can stay up to date with the latest Finke news and action via the Motorsport Australia website, YouTube and social channels.
