Tauranga's Andrew Garner made it two victories in three years after a very consistent drive through the most demanding Suzuki Extreme 4x4 Challenge course yet at Turakina yesterday.
Garner was facing a smaller elite field of 10 drivers to tackle the ten hazzards, which included two speed-based rounds and a first on organiser Dan Cowper's farm - where drivers raced tandem on the Fast Track Customs & Logistics-sponsored Two Truck Time Attack.
Garner, who broke a drive shaft last year and missed competing in two hazzards while repairs were made, had a mechanical-fault free day and was able to clear most of the obstacles with high scores out of the maximum 1000 points for each, finishing clear winner with 7200 overall points.
He had watched his leading rivals in Whanganui's Hamish Auret and Auckland's defending champion Scott Biggs have to overcome several problems, with Biggs driving brilliantly after he had to miss the fourth obstacle in Goodman's Highway to Hell while he borrowed parts from another driver due to breaking the intake on his engine.
But even in misfortune there was the spectacular - as Whanganui 4WD Club's Kevin Hermansen and co-driver Nick Hamilton proved with their 'all-guts' approach which saw them roll over on three occasions while on the higher cliff courses.
No crash beat the first - the steep climb back up Highway to Hell - where Hermansen got an extra surge on the final part of the near vertical climb and flipped right over onto his roof and then rolled back up the right way and stopped facing the roaring crowd on the edge of the precipice.
The pair had somehow barely avoided a dangerous tumble back down the cliff face.
"I just got extra grip [on rear tyres]. Everyone didn't think four cylinders would get to the top - we proved that wrong, didn't we?" Hermansen laughed.
"[Upside down] we saw the crane and the skyline. We were right on the limit. That's the sport."
Whanganui drivers were still very much in contention after the first half of the day as Garner shared top spot with another consistent performer in Dargavill's Aaron Guest, while third equal was Auret and 40-year veteran John Cowper, who was doing very well driving the only manual truck model in the competition.
All drivers had their moments of seemingly having navigated sharp turns until they slip and landed on one of the flags which marked a gate, losing 100 critical points, while Te Puke's Nathan Fogden deserved a better fate than his low score on ARB 4x4 Accessories Locked and Loaded.
Going for the final gate, Fogden did a complete backwards roll but immediately gunned the engine once he landed to still go right back up the cliff face - however he had side-swiped the boundary tape earlier in the run.
Garner now had to see off Auret, Guest and Hermansen after seven obstacles, until Hermansen's third spill put paid to his chances, while Biggs was coming right back at them and had a great run on the Two Truck Attack, which he then followed with a perfect score on the Brunton Engineering Shoot to Thrill.
Shoot to Thrill started with a big leap before swinging sideways across the cliff, and it was here that Auret's extra horsepower in his LS7 V8 would be his undoing, as he overshot to the right of the climb and landed on the boundary rope, which dropped him back from second to fourth in points.
With a 700 point buffer, all Garner needed was a reasonable drive in the final Roof Improvements Stuck in the Gutter obstacle - basically just a bog run - and his title was confirmed when Biggs gunned his truck but struck the boundary rope nearing halfway.
Guest made a similar halfway score to Auret, which was enough to head him off for third place in what was his challenge debut.
Garner felt having his wife as co-driver must have been the lucky charm, as she was with him to win the 2015 challenge but on children duty last year.
"Really lucky to have the day finish up without breaking anything," he said.
"I didn't really know where I was [after eight rounds] and I was like, 'it's actually achievable'.
"Biggs was still there. That was anybody's day right to the end."
Another to give a top effort was first-timer Levi Sherwood, as the world freestyle motocross star proved he was more than a gimmick driver in Dan Cowper's current NZ1 truck by finishing sixth overall.
Sherwood had his issues and got stuck in the mud a couple of times, but he was still the first driver to make a perfect score when he cleared the Highway to Hell, and he repeated that effort on Shoot to Thrill.
"If you had said that [before today], I would say 'cool, I'll take that'," Sherwood said.
"I know I'm the biggest rookie here, but I'm a competitive person.
"To get up that hill first, and that last jump, that would be my highlights. I had a good time.
"[Co-driver] Kayne Newman did an excellent job - we had fun."
John Cowper took some cautious lines in the latter obstacles, choosing the tactic of sacrificing some gates in deep mud by going around them and trying to obtain the honour of finishing.
He may have had to settle for eighth overall, behind Hermansen, but Cowper senior and his co-driver Ian Templeton can hold their heads high as the oldest crew on course, driving a previous generation truck.
"I'm very happy apart from hitting the tape [on Two Truck Time Attack] - other than that it went very well," Cowper said.
"Daniel [Cowper] is fortunate with the weather, very lucky with the sponsors he's got.
"People who aren't here don't know what they're missing.
"People say this is the best motorsport. Most exciting."