He and Ross have been going at it hammer and tongs all season with the Aussie starting to gain the upper hand on a regular basis, leaving the rest of the field to battle it out for the minor places.
Bargwanna knows that the smallest of mistakes on his behalf this weekend could make for a close run championship at the last round at Pukekohe, April 25-27, the V8 Supercars New Zealand event. "I know Nick is really going to be hard to beat this weekend and I'm looking forward to getting back behind the wheel again," said Bargwanna.
"We had dramas in the first couple of rounds and the two clean sweeps have helped us get back into contention.
"I'm going to Taupo this weekend to win races and let the championship take care of itself.
"If you don't get the first corner right, then the next one right and the one after that, there is no championship.
"Nick's going to really step it up at Taupo, and I know he's quick and he's going to do everything he can to get one over me," said Bargwanna.
The man who's taking it to the Aussie, Nick Ross, also can't wait to get back into his car and do all he can to regain the lead from Bargwanna. He led the championship after the second round but at round four Bargwanna usurped him after he suffered his first DNF of what has been a remarkably consistent season.
"I want to go down to Taupo and take back my lead. We managed to get in a little bit of testing there so hopefully this weekend we can get ahead of the Australian," said Ross.
"I'm looking forward to getting back in the car and going out there to break Barg's winning streak. If we want to win this championship we need to go down there, get race wins and beat him.
"We made some changes, some of which worked, some didn't, so we will put it all into practice in race conditions and see how we go."
In the TL class the battle is between traditional foes Ford and Holden with Ian Booth leading from Brad Lauder and James McLaughlin in third. The fight for the leading spot started at the opening round in Pukekohe and has continued throughout the season.
In a classic ding-dong of young against old, veteran driver Booth has used his maturity and experience to put in a solid and consistent season to put himself in the lead despite only winning one race, making the most of the old adage that points mean prizes.
McLaughlin, on the other hand, has taken numerous wins only to suffer more than his fair share of DNFs with a mechanical gremlin playing havoc, leaving the door open for Booth and Lauder to move ahead.
It is Lauder who now, after a slow start to the season for several reasons, is looking like a strong contender for the championship in the remaining two rounds as he looks to improve on his finishing second to his older brother AJ in last year's championship.
Taupo is a long, technical track with plenty of passing opportunities for the brave, but with tight turns and high-speed sections the chances of being caught up in an incident are pretty high.
Points after four rounds
Category TLX
1. Jason Bargwanna - 809
2. Nick Ross - 748
3. Lance Hughes - 647
4. Shaun Varney - 621
Category TL
1. Ian Booth - 635
2. Brad Lauder - 614
3. James McLaughlin - 607
4. Brock Cooley - 500
