R4 RACES – Dumbrell crowned Konica King at Winton
8/7/2002 13:19 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Paul Dumbrell is the 2002 Konica V8 Supercar Series champion.
The 19-year-old Victorian clinched the title yesterday with another impressively dominant display at the penultimate round of the series at Winton Raceway in Victoria.
Dumbrell’s faultless weekend included pole position and victories in each of yesterday’s three races. He now holds an unassailable 403-point advantage on the championship table.
His only threat, Dale Brede’s challenge ended yesterday with two costly non-finishes.
It is the first time the three-year-old series has been decided before the final round.
And Dumbrell becomes the youngest winner of a V8 Supercar championship, now destined to graduate to the major league next season, reportedly taking a plum seat at Perkins Motorsport.
Unfortunately for the exciting youngster, his victory goes unnoticed. The sport’s idle public relations department failed to cover the event, leaving the non-attending media in the dark and today’s press free of the news.
Dumbrell deserved better.
Engine failure put Brede out of action in races one and three, according to a team statement, with a barnstorming drive to third in the reverse grid second race failing to rescue Brede's championship hopes.
“Firstly I would like to congratulate Paul on another fantastic drive and taking out the championship. Apart from the first round [won by Brede] he has been pretty much unstoppable and deserves to be where he is,” Brede said.
“It was a double disappointment today. Obviously having to concede the championship was not nice but also having the problems in race one and three made it a pretty hard day at the office.”
Imrie Motorsport’s Steve Owen was second overall yesterday, an impressive result in the underpowered Imrie Commodore. Konica Series veteran Craig Harris was third.
Andrew Jones made a solid start to his V8 Supercar career, climbing up the order to be seventh in the final race.
Jones, nephew of OzEmail racer Brad Jones, will share Brede’s Falcon for an assault on this year’s endurance races.
The final round of the series, now a ‘dead rubber’, is at Mallala Raceway near Adelaide next month.
Race one results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?07/07/2002.WIN.R6
Race two results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?07/07/2002.WIN.R9
Race three results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?07/07/2002.WIN.R13
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