July
14th, 2003
Round 5
Stokell
takes lead with clean sweep
LAMBORGHINI driver Paul Stokell surged
past John Bowe to the lead the Donut King Australian Nations Cup
Championship after clean-sweeping the fifth round at Oran Park, near
Sydney, today.
Stokell dominated all three races in his Lamborghini Diablo GTR after also
taking the pole position in qualifying yesterday.
 Bowe,
driving a Ferrari 360GT, finished second in the round and lost the points
lead he had held since the start of the eight-round season.
Heading for round six at Victoria’s Phillip Island next month, Stokell
has 348 points to Bowe’s 345 in the Meguiar’s Drivers Championship.
Holden’s leading driver Nathan Pretty is on a distant 249 points in his
7.0 litre Monaro, with Peter Brock fourth outright on 166 points in the
sister car.
Stokell attributed his unbeatable speed to the choice of extra-soft
compound tyres, a new Holinger sequential-change gearbox and suspension
development by former V8 Supercar engineer James McKay.
“We had a great day today and of course I’m really happy to be leading
the championship. More importantly, while I’ve led in past years this
time we’ve taken the lead at the right end of the season,” said
Stokell.
“But we’ll have a big job at Phillip Island. Although it’s a
high-speed track I’m not at all certain we can beat Bowe.”
Today, Stokell won as he liked and for good measure lowered his lap record
from last year by a massive 2.45 seconds, to 1 minute 8.62 seconds, on his
fourth lap of the day.
Bowe also performed impressively, considering his 3.6 litre Ferrari was
surrounded in third place on the grid by two 6.0 litre Lamborghinis, two
7.0 litre Monaros and two 8.0 litre Chrysler Vipers.
He took two second places and a third.
His main rival was Nathan Pretty, who pressured the Ferrari throughout the
day. Although a spin after the first corner put him back to fifth at the
finish of race two, Pretty wore down Bowe in the 24-lap final to take a
deserved second place.
In the Group Two competition, James Koundouris from Canberra won all three
races in a Porsche GT3, consolidating his lead in the pointscore and
overtaking Sam Newman (Lamborghini) for sixth in the outright standings.
The Nations Cup was the highlight of the three-day PROCAR Champ Series
meeting, which was attended by more than 10,000 people.
In the Australian GT Performance Championship, Subaru Impreza driver Wayne
Boatwright won both races in round five, doubling up with ProTecnica
teammate Justin Hemmes for a 1-2 result in race two.
Despite picking up 60 points, Boatwright remains second in the drivers’
standings with a total of 245 points to Mitsubishi Lancer driver Mark
King’s 271. King collected only 11 points today for fifth place in race
one.
David Russell, driving a factory-entered Proton Satria, took outright and
class honours in the Australian Production Car Championship, presented by
the Cumberland Newspaper Group.
Round six of the PROCAR Champ Series will be at Phillip Island on 8-10
August. The national Seven Network will broadcast the races from Oran Park
Raceway on the following dates:
Saturday, 2 August(12 midday) – Nations Cup
Saturday, 9 August(12 midday) – GT Performance
Saturday, 16 August(12 midday) – V8 BRutes
Saturday, 23 August(12 midday)– Production Cars/Formula 3
|