KEY POINTS:
After a seven-week lay-off, the New Zealand Rally championship slides its way around the roads of Hawkes Bay for the fourth round of the title chase. The two-day event starts today.
Only 40 points separate first and fourth place and with 64 championship points, plus three bonus points for overall weekend position available, it's anyone's guess who'll come out on top tomorrow afternoon.
"It's going to be a pretty tough weekend having to sweep the road again first like last year," said table-topper Hayden Paddon. "A bit of rain will help our cause a bit but at the end of the day it's about making as few mistakes as possible and going at 110 per cent all the time."
Paddon can't change the fact he starts first and creates a racing line for those following and is philosophical about it. He will concentrate on what he has to do to stay on the gravel, stay out of trouble and get on with it. Last year's experience of being first away will stand him in good stead for the weekend.
A resurgent Chris West will have his tail feathers up after a good win in Whangarei that closed the gap to Paddon and he appears to be have his car working really well.
"We had a recent test at Waitomo with new tyres in certain conditions," he said. "We haven't changed anything with the car as it going well and we've had some great success in the past on the roads around Wairoa."
Despite dropping a round when a bank "leapt out in front of me" at the last round in Whangarei, Richard Mason is still in touch with the leaders a mere nine points back from West. Although Mason's wallet is considerable lighter after the crash, he does have a virtually new car and it's not unknown for him to drop a round and still go and win the New Zealand title.
Stewart Taylor, back in fourth place just eight points back from Mason, can't be ruled out of the mix.
New Zealand's fastest woman rally driver Emma Gilmour is not having the best of it this year and languishes in ninth equal with Grant Barber. However, after a poor start to the series, Gilmour's steadily improved her points tally but needs to bag a haul this weekend to salvage her season.
The Group N 2WD class is tight at the top with Ben Jagger leading Patrick Malley who's in second despite not scoring any points in round two. Chris Lange is a long way back in third.
Aaron Cook appears to be marching confidently on towards the Kiwi 2 title after commanding performances in the preceding three rounds and has a comfortable 50-point lead over Dave Strong with Jagger in third.
After two rounds in the Classic Challenge, Rob Wylie has a slender lead over Robert Murray with Keith Franklin further back in third.
The two-day rally gets under way from Wairoa at 8am for the first of six gravel stages totalling 163.72km before returning to Napier for an overnight stop.
Starting at 7.20am tomorrow, there are a further fives stages totalling 100.36km.
