FOR the second time in three editions of the event, Bathurst’s Andrew and David Travis have taken out the Classic Outback Trial and they did it in stunning fashion earlier this month.

The race took competitors all the way from Parkes to the South Australian border town of Renmark. After a blitz on day three of the trial, the father-and-son pairing dominated.

Son Andrew, who drove with his father as navigator, said it was up there with the biggest achievements in their partnership, which is now in its 13th year.

“We won the Outback Trial in 2010 so that was a big result and because of that, we were definitely going to this year’s edition with high hopes of doing it again,” he said.

“We’ve come third in an edition of the Australian Safari as well though, that wasn’t a win but it was probably our biggest achievement.

“The way we won this year and the time we put into the other entries means this was still pretty special.”

The Travis’ were on top from the earliest moments of the trial which started with a leg that took the field from Parkes to Condobolin.

With a lead of around five minutes over their nearest rivals, they were the first car on the road on day two. However, they gave up some time as they went from Condobolin to Cobar.

It was on day three where they blew the race open.

“As car one on the road we lost a bit of time on day two and slipped back, it is hard to maintain a lead when you’re the first car out and you’re known as the ‘minesweeper’ that discovers any problems,” Andrew explained.

“We decided that on day three [Cobar to Ivanhoe] we were going to have a big go and really drive as hard as we could. We won all stages that day while a few of our rivals had some issues and that’s where we built a sizeable lead.

“You can’t go at 60 or 70 per cent, that’s when you start to make mistakes and you’re better off going full-tilt if you can.

“It was pretty taxing, a lot of the stages were up to 90 kilometres, so you’re concentrating as hard as you can for 50 minutes trying to go as fast as you can without making any mistakes.”

Courtesy of their big push on day three, the Travis’ had established a 16-minute lead.

By that point it was going to take a major mishap for them to give away top spot.

No mistakes were forthcoming, and another pair of past winners in Matt Swan and Paul Franklin were the nearest challengers to the Bathurst pair. By the time the field reached Renmark they were 20 minutes clear.

To give an idea of the sort of dominance the Bathurst pair showed, only 11 minutes separated the next five cars.

Not bad for a team driving a 43-year-old Datsun 1600, though Andrew Travis said the car wasn’t quite as elderly as it sounds.

“It’s a Datsun, but there isn’t a lot of Datsun left in it,” he said with a laugh.

“It is a very old car, so you have to modernise them if you want to stay competitive.”