Yet come the Top 5 eliminator, Wilson's White Noize craft was nowhere to be seen at the entry ramp, leading to officials to start the clock running before handing out a Did Not Start result.
At the last possible moment, Wilson's ute and trailer screamed around the corner into the ramp area, and the craft hit the water for Wilson and navigator Chris Hausman to pull out an excellent 46.352s lap under pressure " behind Travers (45.079s) but ahead of Haden (46.357s) and seemingly eliminating Edhouse (47.259s).
However, the Edhouse camp protested that Wilson had not made it in time, and he was added to the Top 3 by the officials.
Yet circumstances got more bizarre when Edhouse did not register a time because his transponder was not active, while Haden ended up getting a second run when the timers malfunctioned on his lap.
In the end, Haden's 46.507s lap on his second attempt still left him third behind Wilson (46.235s) and Travers, whose 44.557s effort was a brilliant drive.
The controversy will now be addressed by the New Zealand Jetsprint Association committee and Edhouse may yet be recognised as finishing third for the round, which will keep him ahead of Travers, who needs Wilson's result to stand as a points buffer.
Wilson said the track official made a mistake because they used the UIM World Series rule book from January to tell him he had 10 minutes to make it into the water, instead of the five minutes being used for the national series.
"I blew out the main bearing in the jet unit during the Top 8," Wilson said.
"I went down [to the entry ramp] and was told 10 minutes, which meant we had six and a half minutes left.
"We started to work to that time. We made sure we made every bit of that 10 minutes.
"If they had said five minutes, we would have been out there.
"[The engine] wouldn't have been quite where we wanted it, but we would have raced."
Wilson felt he should remain runner-up for the night because he followed the instructions given, but had little confidence of that result standing.
It reminded him of his 2014 championship winning series where he lost his victory points for the Baypark round at Mt Maunganui when the committee voted to discount all results due to alterations to the track.
"I can see it coming back and being taken off me.
"They've made an error and I say in the long-run we end up paying for it."
In any case, no one could have caught Travers who won his third round on the trot.
"I didn't think we'd do a 44.55s in the last one," he said.
"I told Shane, I didn't want to go faster."
While proving he is undoubtedly quicker than Haden, the engine problems which stymied Travers' chances at round 2 of the series at Shelterview in December will likely decide the championship, as his rival continues to lead by 5-6 points depending on the committee's decision.
"It's the one we had here where we had four things go wrong in one day.
"It's still Paddy's [title] to lose, in all honesty."
In the Altherm Group A division, Hamilton's defending champion Sam Newdick got to make up a lot of ground on series leader Blake Briant, who was one of several casualties that spun out in the early eliminators.
New Plymouth's Neil Marshall finished second while Hamilton's Ric Burke was third.
Results:
Biolytix Group B (Unofficial): 1. Ross Travers (Whanganui); 2. Hayden Wilson (Whanganui); 3. Patrick Haden (Te Awamutu).
Altherm Group A: 1. Sam Newdick (Hamilton); 2. Neil Marshall (New Plymouth); 3. Ric Burke (Hamilton).
