Auret on path to the title

Hamish Auret and Paul Barnes are virtually uncatchable on the points table after the second to last round in the 4x4 National Trial Series in Taranaki on Saturday.

Whanganui's Hamish Auret can just about touch the Porter Group 4x4 National Trial series trophy after his runnerup placing at the penultimate round in a very wet Uruti on Saturday.

Auckland's Scott Biggs was in a world of his own with an outstanding drive through the 32 obstacles for a minuscule 281.46 penalty point final total.

However, Auret and co-driver Paul Barnes did enough to claim runnerup on the day for the overall and the D Class super-modified truck class with 437.53 penalty points.

After a couple of bad rounds at Pakaraka Rd in Waikato and Mangaroa in Upper Hutt, Biggs should not have enough series points to make up the gap on Auret heading into the final round at Turitea, near Palmerston North, on April 23.

Up at Uruti, Biggs pulled the maximum 100 penalty points on one obstacle (No26), while Auret's toughest test saw him concede 60 penalty points on No12, however Biggs completed far more obstacles faultlessly to be clear winner.

"Full credit to them, they definitely out-drove us on the day," said Auret.

"I couldn't keep up with them.

"It rained all day, things were really slippery, needed the whole 600hp.

"We held onto second by a single point."

Waikato 4x4 club president Greg McDell, another series contender, also recovered from a bad round at Mangaroa to have a strong day, especially in the afternoon session, to finish on 438.51 points.

It keeps McDell in the chase for series runnerup, being just behind Biggs.

However, baring the unforseen and any protests on results, Auret should regain the title he won in the 2014-15 season.

"It's not over till the finals. [But] certainly got one hand on it," he said.

Auret is keen for a safe but consistent round at the series finale at Turitea in April to wrap up the overall championship.

What really pleases him is his comfortable points lead removes any thought of needing to take it easy to protect his 7000cc LS7 Corvette during the private Suzuki Extreme 4x4 Challenge on organiser Dan Cowper's farm in Turakina on March 26.

"Now I can just go there and put on a really good display."

Cowper was last year's national series champion but has not competed this season.

Auret finished second to Biggs in the 2016 extreme challenge, but did create history as only the second driver to ever pull off a full 360 degree backflip.

In the other classes at Uruti, Whanganui's defending C Class national champion Kevin Hermansen was able to make up some ground on Wellington's Phil Conwell, who has Wanganui 4WD Club president Paul Chapman as his co-driver.

Conwell had to withdraw after just the second obstacle, while the consistent Hermansen finished second on the day for C Class, and 13th overall, with 721.88 penalty points.

The C Class round winner was Bay of Plenty's Nathan Fogden with 600.37 penalty points.

Grant Harrison did not have a good run, finishing eighth in C Class, ahead of only Conwell, with 1163.35 points.