Burns and McRae will fight to the end

Subaru ace Burns took a 42.6s overnight lead into the final leg of the event, but with the first pair of stages completed, McRae has chopped that advantage in half.

Burns believes that he still has enough in hand to hold off the flying Scot, take Subaru's first win of the season and catapult himself right into the heart of the title fight with four events to go.

"It's kind of what we expected," said Burns at the final day's first and last service. "It's not as much fun being first on the road as it was being ninth yesterday (Saturday). It could be tight at the finish, but I'm not worried. The six remaining stages are all short and they are repeated. There is only about 25km of fresh gravel."

McRae, meanwhile, has his eyes set on an all-time record of 24 career wins if the Ford ace can catch and pass his arch-rival. More significantly, as the places stand at present, McRae will leave Auckland with a part-share of the series lead as Tommi Makinen is still one place away from a points finish and looking unlikely to get into the top six unless a driver ahead of him hits trouble. Should McRae pass Burns then the Scot will lead the championship having taken his fourth win of the season.

The cars are currently heading for service at Te Kauwhata before they face the final six stages, totalling 53.14kms, in the Maramarua forest with no service between them. In the two hours between leaving service and reaching the end of the final stage, the tension is likely to be unbearable...

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