A trio of Germans, Jakous Stenglein, Fabian Doerfler and Tobias Kargl, filled out the top-six, while Sutton's younger brother Jamie was ninth, 4.20secs behind his older sibling. Olympic whitewater slalom bronze and silver medalists Hannes Aigner and Vavra Hradilek were eighth and 13th respectively.
The Sickline title remains the only major extreme crown Dawson has yet to win, despite second placings in 2009 and 2011 and now a third, though his disappointment was again tempered by Sutton's performance.
"No-one wants to come second or third but I'm stoked to be standing on the podium with some of my really good mates," the 26-year-old said. "If I was to finish second or third to anybody, it would be Sam and Dejan and to see Sam on top of the podium three times in a row is amazing."
And despite the fearsome rapids, the Tauranga-raised Rotorua resident found the event thoroughly relaxing after his Olympic campaign, where he finished 15th in the slalom.
"The Olympics is a whole different level of event - it's huge, it's got so much following, so much media and crowd and for me now to come here or to any other event is easy to stay relaxed and confident and that's something I've brought into this. It's almost like a little bit of a holiday to get back in the boat and back to racing and just enjoying being on the water again."
Sutton admits his latest title was the toughest yet, though he's already looking forward to having a crack at four in a row.
"It's probably the most difficult victory for me because I just wasn't feeling great and it's probably the highest level of competition we've ever had here," Sutton said. "It's also a slalom Olympic year, so everybody is extremely fast and to top it off, we probably had the strongest field ever.
Sutton paid tribute to his training buddies back at Okere Falls near Rotorua, crediting them for helping him continue his dominance.
"There's probably three dudes in New Zealand that could beat me and I'll probably go home to Okere Falls and race with a friend of mine on Wednesday and he'll probably beat me. I don't know what's up with New Zealand but it's just an extremely competitive environment and if you can win a race back home, you can probably win any international race."