It was the ultimate mic drop moment of the 2026 Tatts Finke Desert Race.
After beating competitors to the finish line in Alice Springs, Western Australia’s Travis Robinson confirmed he would be retiring from off road racing for good.
The announcement not only drew the curtain on Robinson’s dazzling off road career in Australia, but that of his esteemed navigator, fellow Western Australian and Robinson family relation Paul Currie.
In this Spotlight On feature, Currie talks about his decades-long affiliation with the Robinson family in the Comiskey Mining Services Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship (AORC), and why it was timely to bow out of the sport on top.
EARLY DAYS AND FIRST EXPERIENCES ALONGSIDE TRAVIS
Currie is Robinson’s cousin, and has been involved in Travis’ racing endeavours from the early days. So he’s a pretty good authority on what makes Travis so good behind the wheel, but is also clearly a key part of his success.
“He raced quad bikes and minis for a while, and I remember in the car, he was tipping it in straight away and he was always very fast right out of the box,” Paul remembered.
To trace back to Currie’s beginnings as a navigator, you need to go back to Travis’ father, the late Brian Robinson.
“I started with Brian Robinson back in the 90s and then as soon as Trav was old enough to get a car, I was asked if I would help him,” Currie explained.
Travis remembers spending his early years at off road events, shadowing his father Brian, mother Faye, brother Beau and of course Paul as the broader family and team travelled around the country, including myriad attempts to win Finke.
When the time was right for Travis to have a go in off roading, Currie seemed a logical choice as navigator – offering a safe pair of hands and excellent guidance on varying terrain.
“That was in 2007, or 2008. Travis didn’t have an actual drivers licence back then,” Currie remembered.
“I’ve done a lot of years with Trav and learned his style. He’s obviously very fast and over the years he’s got really good at being fast in the right spots.”
The pair would go onto develop an almost telepathic-like relationship in the cars they shared, a skill that Paul has embraced as they have gotten collectively faster.
“All I really do is sit there and confirm things to him,” Paul explained. “As I see a question pop into his head I’m supposed to give him an answer so he doesn’t have to think about it. It might be something like, ‘Is it clear over this crest?’
“Being inside that family is huge. An event like Finke is always big, we bring a lot of people away with us and the phone is blowing up from our family and friends back home, as well as our crew.
“Whether you’re related or not, this team is a really big team. We’re cousins but I guess we’re more like brothers. We spend a lot of time together, me riding shotgun.”
For the past two years, Currie and Robinson have made a fearsome combination at Finke; not only possessing raw speed, but the race craft to effectively manage the race from the front. The pair was unstoppable from the opening Method Race Wheels Prologue in 2026, leading from Saturday right through to the chequered flag on Monday.
BOWING OUT ON TOP AND WHAT’S NEXT
It has been a huge couple of years for Robinson and Currie.
The pair won Comiskey Mining Services Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship in 2025, as well as those aforementioned Finke victories and several other event wins along the way.
The run of success isn’t by coincidence, according to Currie.
“When Trav confirmed he was getting a new Mason truck he rang me and said, ‘Listen, do you want to have one more tilt at the championship?’” Currie said.
“I said, ‘Yes, I’ll do the season with you’ and we went onto win the championship and then win Finke twice.”
With some more silverware in hand the pair decided to call it a day.
While Travis will focus on his family and business interests, Paul has turned his eye to building up a new cattle business in Western Australia, as well as maintaining his work with a mining company.
Although he doesn’t plan to continue competing, Currie said it wouldn’t be the last we see of him at AORC events.
“We’ve still got the number two car with Beau, so we’ll definitely be back here, at most of the rounds this year and next,” he said.
“That’s until the young kids take over, and chase the records that Trav and I have set.”
The Comiskey Mining Services Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship continues in South Australia later this month with the annual Loveday 400 on July 24-26, Round 3 of the title race.
