4x4: Challenging obstacles ahead for Saturday's National 4x4 Trial near Te Puke

Auckland's Jarred Biggs won the third round of the National 4x4 Trials Champs in January and is running second to his brother Scott in title standings. Photo / Photography Inmotion / Greg Henderson

The Bay of Plenty Four Wheel Drive Club has mapped out challenging obstacles for competitors in this weekend's 4x4 trials.

The rough and tumble of 4x4 trials and its cleverly engineered vehicles will be in action at Saturday's Advantage Tyres/BF Goodrich National 4x4 Trial, round five of six in the 2018-19 New Zealand 4x4 Trials Championship.

The Rangiuru Rd venue will test both driving and engineering talent with some steep terrain as New Zealand's leading 4x4 offroad competitors look to negotiate 30 obstacles — hillclimbs, descents, sidelings, time trials and mud bogs — while accumulating minimum penalties.

''The course is on open farmland and there are spectator points where it's possible to view the action that's happening at several obstacles from one spot,'' BOP 4WD Club president Mike Boston says.

''We've pegged out the rally taking into account the dry weather conditions recently and we're expecting competitors to get good traction and get a long way through many of the obstacles.

''Of course that can change in an instant. It only takes 10 minutes of rain and they will face some very different conditions.''

The top six are headed by defending national champion Scott Biggs, his brother Jarred, Neville Mather, Greg McDell (Waikato) on 381 points, Rowan Huckstep (Taranaki) on 371 and Russell Luders (Waikato) 368.

Previous rounds of the 2018-19 series have been held at Hutt Valley, Manawatu, South Waikato and Waikato venues and the final will be staged near Eltham in Taranaki on April 13.