The New Zealand Rally Championship has boiled down to a three-way tussle as the top drivers are separated by a mere nine points going into Saturday's final round at the Rally of Wairarapa.
Geraldine's Hayden Paddon (100 points), Masterton's Richard Mason (95 points) and Nelson's Ben Hunt (91 points) will all be looking to scoop up the 30 points on offer for the overall win.
Despite missing two rounds, while competing at World Rally Championship level, two-time national champion Paddon and co-driver John Kennard will return with their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.
The team has made developments to the car and repaired the damage caused from overshooting a jump last month at the penultimate Possum Bourne Memorial Rally round.
Paddon said there was still speed to exploit in the car and he was confident it would be fast.
''We have only one game plan - the same as Richard (Mason). And that will be to go flat-out and win. The rally and roads will be a lot of fun - and being a one-day event with shortish stages makes it a sprint event and I think that'll suit us well.''
Having won the rally for the past three years, Wairarapa couple Richard and Sara Mason are equally intent on victory in their Subaru STi - buoyed by their recent win at the Possum Bourne Memorial Rally.
The more reliable run allowed them to claw back significant points to leap-frog Hunt in the run for the title.
''I think it's probably [the] most exciting season-ending battle for a while - to have three right in the hunt, particularly since it includes Hayden and myself,'' Mason said.
Hunt said the weekend's title aspirations are a sidebar to his season aim of finishing every stage in his Subaru STi. The philosophy of consistently point-scoring allowed him and co-driver Tony Rawstorn to pop ahead of other chasing title rivals at the June, Manawatu-based Daybreaker Rally.
''Obviously, Hayden and Richard are top drivers and you'd be pushing to beat them in a Group N car like ours. So our goal will be to finish and put in good times to wrap up a consistent season. We can't ask for much more than that,'' Hunt said.
The category also caters for the new generation cars, led by Dunedin's Emma Gilmour who travels to Wairarapa ''quietly confident'' the team has eliminated the engine issue that has consistently sidelined her Suzuki Swift Maxi since its debut earlier in the season.
She thanked her sponsors and supporters for ''being patient with a season that hasn't gone as it should have''.
Also tackling the nine special stages, totalling 134km, of competition will be fellow Otago driver Rhys Gardner, of Balclutha, in his new Mitsubishi Evo 9.
