Punctures and suspension damage has left the podium spots in the National Rally Championship undecided after the penultimate round on the Coromandel Peninsula yesterday.

Driver Ben Hunt. Photo by: Geoff Ridder.

Tauranga's Phil Campbell was the top points scoring national championship driver at the event, although he finished runner-up to Palmerston North's Geof Argyle who is only contesting the regional Rally Xtreme series.

Masterton's Richard Mason, who has already won the title, led from the outset in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI, albeit under close pressure from Nelson's Ben Hunt in another WRX STI.

But Hunt lost three minutes and 20 seconds when he stopped to change a puncture on the fifth stage, the second run through the Coroglen – Tapu road.

'We hit a rock with the left front wheel,” says Hunt. 'We had no option but to stop and change it.”

That dropped him to seventh overall among the national championship drivers.

Mason had a lead of two minutes 23 sections at the end of that stage when he went into the Castle Rock – 309 Road stage which was being used for the second time as stage six. But he broke the toe link of his left rear suspension after hitting a rock and his goal of going through the season unbeaten had disappeared.

Efforts to affect a repair in the stage were in vain.

Hunt won the last two forestry stages in his efforts to make up lost time after the puncture and climbed back to fifth place, just 3.8 seconds behind Clint Cunningham.

Without the time consuming puncture he would have won the event and taken maximum championship points and finished more than 80 seconds in front of Argyle.

Tauranga's David Holder was second among the championship contenders just 17.2 seconds behind Campbell but, like Hunt, was left wondering what might have been.

Holder's co-driver Ben Hawkins was physically car sick on the second and third stages on the tight and winding roads and wasn't always able to read the pace notes properly to Holder.

While Mason did not add to his points tally, there was a shuffle around among the other drivers battling for the podium positions. Holder is now second overall, just three points in front of Hunt going to the final round in the Manawatu in five weeks' time.

Goldrush Rally of Coromandel – Round 5 National Rally Championship

1, P Campbell, V Fabbro (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9)1hr 41mins 53.4secs;

2, D Holden, B Hawkins (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo8) 1.42.10.8;

3, G Featherstone, C Davison (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo7) 1.42.19.2;

4, C Cunningham, G Ruka (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo4) 1.42.53.6;

5, B Hunt, T Rawstron (Subaru WRX STI) 1.42.57.4;

6, A Hawkeswood, J Cress (Mazda 2) 1.44.16.0;