A novel nonlinear control scheme is applied to the TORA benchmark system. This approach incorporates a continuous implementation of sliding mode control and an extended high-gain observer, and is based on previous work on the stabilization of a non-minimum phase nonlinear system, under the assumption that its associated auxiliary system has a stabilizing controller. The rotor angle is the only measurement required by this controller, and the closed-loop system thus obtained has quite interesting properties. The performance characteristics of a full-order observer-based second order linear system were recovered through an iterative tuning procedure. The final design provides good transient performance and some robustness to perturbations in the masses of the cart and rotor.