R5 RACES – Champion Paul wins exciting Konica finale
5/8/2002 14:24 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Paul Dumbrell completed a triumphant, record-breaking Konica V8 Supercar Series campaign yesterday with his fourth straight round victory at the championship finale at Mallala Raceway.
The 19-year-old Victorian, who secured the Konica title at the last round at Winton Raceway, won two of yesterday’s three races.
Dumbrell finished the series on 1332 points, an emphatic 494 clear of second-placed Dale Brede.
After Brede surprisingly won the first round at Wakefield Park, Dumbrell’s championship aspirations were never seriously threatened.
He becomes the most successful Konica graduate in the series’ short history, with an amazing 12-3 win/loss race record this season, four round wins and pole position at all five rounds.
Last year, when Dumbrell finished runner-up to Simon Wills in the series, he won one round and three races.
And while he spent much of the series in front, Dumbrell displayed a cool racing temperament in the heat of battle, particularly during the top ten reverse grid races.
Brede tested that yesterday.
The luckless Canberra-based driver, recently recruited by Briggs Motorsport for this year’s endurance races, tried to spoil Dumbrell’s party with an outstanding back-to-front performance (engine dramas on Saturday saw him start from the back of the grid).
He won the second 20-minute sprint, his second race win of the year, fending off Dumbrell and veteran Greg Crick, who made a charge for second in the championship.
Imrie Motorsport’s Steve Owen also impressed, producing an exciting battle for the 5500-strong crowd at the circuit, near Adelaide.
"That was probably one of the best races I have had," Dumbrell said of the second race. "I thoroughly enjoyed [it].
"Dale and I really battled for the lead on the closing lap, we even swapped for the lead a couple times, but he got me just before we crossed for the chequered flag."
Brede, a deserving vice-champion, said his season was “a dream come true.”
“We were the only team to take race wins away from Dumbrell this year and I grabbed the only round win from him as well,” he said.
“He [Dumbrell] had awesome reliability all the way through and we suffered some bad luck at the last round at Winton, so all in all I’m really happy with the way it panned out.”
It was mission accomplished for Owen, second overall yesterday, who qualified his Imrie Motorsport Commodore for the Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 at Bathurst by finishing top six in the championship standings.
"I really owe a lot to Mike Imrie and the team at Imrie Motorsport who have invested a lot of time and money into getting me through the rest of the series,” he said.
“Our goal was to make the cut for Bathurst and we picked up a couple of podium finishes along the way so we really did exceed our own expectations.”
Crick held onto third in the championship, ahead of rookie Kiwi Mark Porter.
Race one results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?04/08/2002.MALL.R6
Race two results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?04/08/2002.MALL.R10
Race three results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?04/08/2002.MALL.R13
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