Toby Price will be embroiled in a fantastic finish to the Dakar Rally, homing in on a third motorcycle crown but with only the slenderest lead to shield him going into the finale in Saudi Arabia.
Not only will the former Hunter product start Sunday's 14th and last stage with just a 12-second advantage, but the man hunting him down is his friend, Red Bull KTM teammate and fellow former champ Kevin Benavides.
It's the closest finish ever in 45 editions of the famous race. The previous narrowest gap going into the final stage was 26 seconds that separated leader Stephane Peterhansel from Nani Roma in the car race in 2014.
On that occasion, Roma prevailed on team orders and it wasn't clear whether the KTM factory team would be happy for their pair to race to the finish.
Either way, it's not just a two-rider race, with American Skyler Howes (Husqvarna) still firmly in the hunt in third place in a remarkably tight contest, just one minute 31 seconds behind the Gold Coast-based Price.
Despite making navigation errors and suffering a fall, the 35-year-old Price managed to cling on to his lead despite a winning ride from Argentine Benavides in Saturday's penultimate stage, a 675km trek from Shaybah to Al-Hofuf.
"I just knew I had to give it large but I actually had a crash today and made a couple of mistakes, I honestly thought I made a bit of a mess of it all," Price said, after finishing third on the stage.
"I made one little mistake at around 130 kilometres. We went too far right and I took a fall while looking at the top of a dune.
"At this stage here, you need to push to keep the lead. The last days, the dunes have been really soft, you can get stuck very easily.
"But I'm happy, I've put a hundred per cent in every day."
Under the Dakar rules, the field will start Sunday's deciding leg in the desert from Al Hofuf to Dammam in the reverse order of the standings, so Benavides and Price will be the last two to ride in what they both agree will be a mad dash to the line after two exhausting weeks.
Benavides didn't finish first but was promoted once he recovered the 23 minutes he lost when aiding his stricken teammate, Matthias Walkner, who'd had a bad crash near the start of the stage.
In the cars category, Sebastien Loeb set a Dakar record of six stage wins in a row but Qatar's reigning champion Nasser Al-Attiyah still looked unstoppable in his quest for his fifth title.
Frenchman Loeb, a nine-times world rally champion, took his seventh stage win of the fortnight but is still nearly one hour 22 minutes behind.
