18.04.2004 A first, second & third place in the three races at Oran Park keeps Lamborghini Diablo driver Paul Stokell at the top of the Australian Nations Cup standings

A first, second & third place in the three races at Oran Park over the weekend keeps Lamborghini Diablo driver Paul Stokell at the top of the Australian Nations Cup standings after two rounds.

Stokell started off the weekend by topping the timesheets in the official practice sessions for round two at Oran Park, near Sydney.

Stokell lapped the 2.6 kilometre circuit in 1 minute 9.84 seconds, almost half a second faster than second-placed Nathan Pretty but still well outside his own lap record set last year.

“We were fastest, but not by much and we were on new tyres,” said Stokell, the defending Nations Cup champion. “Nathan will be a problem tomorrow. He was only 0.4 seconds behind and he was on old tyres.”

Peter Brock was third fastest in his season return aboard the Bathurst 24-Hour winning Monaro, while Sydney’s David Stevens debuted another newcomer to the GT sports car series, a 600 horsepower Porsche GT2.

With first round rival Allan Simonsen in the ex-Rafanelli Ferrari 550 Maranello absent, Stokell consolidated his lead in the 2004 series with a flag-to-flag win in the opening race yesterday, while Holden Monaro rivals Nathan Pretty and Peter Brock fought a race-long battle for second and third places.

In his first race meeting of the season, Brock had pushed hard to qualify second fastest this morning, just 0.35 seconds behind Stokell. But at the rolling start he appeared to falter briefly and fell back to fourth place before regaining third at the end of lap one.

From then on, the 10-time Bathurst winner hounded Pretty for 15 laps and very nearly succeeded in getting past on the last lap. The gap between the Monaros on the finish line was just 0.13 seconds. Pretty’s result lifted him to second place in the championship standings.

Nations Cup newcomer Steve Borness, driving a Porsche GT3 Cup, won the Trophy class in Nations Cup, ahead of Ferrari driver John Teulan.

The second race, saw Holden power beat Italy’s best when Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Nathan Pretty claimed victory in the 7.0-litre Monaro.

Pretty went on to win both 16-lap heats run today while defending champion Paul Stokell battled to stay in contention with an intermittent electrical fault in his Lamborghini Diablo.

After three races during this weekend’s PROCAR Champ Series meeting, heat one winner Stokell retained first place in the series standings but saw Pretty jump into second spot, just 20 points behind.

The third round at Sandown next month, sees Pretty face not only Stokell but also the prospect of a second Team Brock Monaro for Peter Brock’s son James, the return of the Allan Simonsen Ferrari 550 Maranello, a rumoured second Lamborghini and a bigger field of Porsches.

Stokell took the lead from the rolling start in race two this morning, but slowed suddenly on lap four. He said later the electrical fault not only caused the engine to cut out intermittently, but also affected the steering, which is electrically-assisted.

Pretty took the finish with a margin of just 0.24 seconds as Brock made a lunge for the line. Brock’s eagerness to race cost him a stop-go penalty for jumping the start in race three. Pretty raced to an unchallenged lead, while Brock’s misfortune meant Stokell could hang on to second place even though his car was still giving trouble.

Championship standings – GT class 164 Paul Stokell, 144 Nathan Pretty, 78 Allan Simonsen, 64 Peter Brock, 54 James Brock, 34 Mark Eddy. Trophy class 144 John Teulan, 116 Theo Koundouris, 93 Steve Borness.