Max McRae heads to the Lewis & Hunter Cambrian Rally on 24 October leading the British Rally Championship - with everything on the line to settle the 2026 title.
The 21-year-old Scot sits on 103 points after taking his second BRC victory of the season at Rali Ceredigion, seven clear of Osian Pryce on 96 and twenty ahead of Meirion Evans on 83.
Three crews can still win the championship, and all of it comes down to one day in the North Wales forests.
The maths are straightforward enough. Win the Cambrian and Max takes the title. But the picture is tighter than the points gap suggests, because Pryce still has his Joker to play.
The Castrol MEM Rally Team driver held his nomination back and will use it on Saturday, meaning a top-five finish would earn him up to five additional points. Max played his at Ceredigion, where it delivered thirty points and put him in front. Evans played his there too.
So Max's job is simple to understand and harder to do: outscore Pryce on the day and don't leave it to the Joker arithmetic.
It was on the Cambrian last October that Max scored his maiden British Rally Championship win, a result that ended a near three-decade gap since the McRae family's last success at British championship level. Twelve months on the same rally can crown him champion.
The season has been his strongest by a distance. Victory on the Jim Clark Rally in May was his first BRC win on tarmac, and he added Rally North Wales earlier in the year.
Consistency has carried him to the top of the table as much as outright pace has: twelve points on the Severn Valley opener, eighteen on the Grampian after a Friday night that went badly wrong, then the full thirty at Ceredigion.
The Cambrian offers no margin. One round, one shot, in a championship where events have been decided by just a few seconds more than once this year.
"We've put ourselves in the best position we could ask for going into the last round," said Max.
"Everything we've done this season comes down to Saturday, and I'd much rather be going into it leading than chasing. The car's been strong on gravel all year and I know what it takes to do well on the stages at this rally."
The Lewis & Hunter Cambrian Rally runs on Saturday 24 October from Llandudno.
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