KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Champion Peter Turner has the title already sewn up heading in to tomorrow's final round of the series on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour. And a back injury could rob him of the chance to win any more.
It is Turner's seventh championship title and he is pretty keen to notch up a few more - though there are rumours he may retire after this season.
Turner admits tomorrow's race could be his last competitive outing, but he is keen to keep going for another couple of years - if his back can hold out.
"I haven't decided it yet, I'll wait and see who is going to run again next year, but I'll certainly be trying to get out there that's for sure," said Turner, who had his boat out of the water for maintenance yesterday.
"I'm not sure how long it will last really with my back the way it is - it's in a bit of a bad state of affairs."
Of course, Turner has "retired" before. He started out in the sport in 1988 and quickly became a dominant force, claiming four titles in the space of five seasons from 1992-96.
He then had a four-year break before he started with his latest campaign, in which he and co-driver Craig Archer have claimed three straight titles in their 10.4m Phantom catamaran, Sleepyhead.
"This season we've probably won it more convincingly than we would have thought. Having a race to spare and winning it is pretty good."
Having achieved pretty much all there is to achieve in New Zealand powerboating, you begin to wonder what keeps him going. Turner said as well as having a huge passion for the sport, he has been heavily involved with the development of the series.
"I guess winning those titles and I also help set up this new class, which they're running now - a new superboat class. I sort of instigated that and have seen it take off really so I'm quite keen to support it."
Another motivating factor that might make Turner return next year would be if long-time rival Richard Shores chose to come back for another crack.
Shores, a five-time championship winner, had a disappointing campaign this year after crashing out in round two. While the veteran managed to escape unharmed, his Placemakers boat was not so lucky and Shores has been shore-bound ever since.
It was a huge disappointment for Turner that his main rival was out of the running so early and he said if Shores builds another boat, he'll be keen to stick around for a bit.
"I think he's looking at me and I'm looking at him and there's another couple of guys wondering what to do so I guess we're going to have to get together and just decide on what we're going to do so there's no secrets," Turner said.
In the meantime, Turner has had a bit of rebuilding to do himself ahead of the final race after his boat suffered hull damage in their round seven win in Napier.
"We sort of had a bit of an eventful race. On the last leg we had to drop an engine out, it kept overheating," Turner explained. "When we got home we found we'd broken the bottom of the boat and that was the reason the engine overheated so we've spent the last few days flat out trying to fix it."
Tomorrow's final race brings high-speed action to Auckland's doorstep as the boats race under the harbour bridge on their 15-lap journey.
