18.09.2004 Lamborghini driver Paul Stokell, just crowned Australian Nations Cup Champion by virtue of the cancellation of the final round, claimed his sixth pole position of the season at Mallala today

Newly crowd Australian Nations Cup Champion, Paul Stokell blasted his Lamborghini Diablo GTR to pole position today at Mallala for tomorrow's final rounds of the series.

Stokell was handed his second straight Nations Cup title when the season was shortened from eight rounds to seven, denying nearest rival Nathan Pretty the chance to reduce his points deficit enough in the remaining races.

Stokell, arrived at the Mallala Motorsport Park as the winner of five of six possible pole positions and 10 of 18 races so far, as well as a 94-point lead over Pretty when the maximum score available on this final weekend will be 93.

With little now to lose, the final Nations Cup races, at this former RAAF airfield which first became a race track back in 1960, promise to turn into no-holds-barred encounters from the South Australian fans.

Team Lamborghini Australia is celebrating its success with a flourish, for the first time this year it has entered a second Diablo GTR, driven by Formula 3 champion Peter Hackett.

The Lamborghini pair will face strong challenges in the GT class for outright honours from James Brock in the Team Brock 7.0-litre Holden Monaro, David Stevens, whose turbocharged Porsche GT2 has gone faster at every round, and the Brabham Honda NSX turbo of Ian Palmer. Title protagonist Nathan Pretty elected to withdraw from the event once his hopes had vanished.

The qualifying session saw Stokell claim his sixth pole position of the year, his 1:08.317, 137km/h average speed, fastest lap around this demanding circuit, which is located an hour's drive north of Adelaide, proving to be just over a second quicker than James Brock in the Poolrite Holden Monaro CV8 could manage.

Half a second further adrift was Peter Hackett in the second Lamborghini Australia entry, while Allan Simonsen, with a fastest time of 1:10.055, led out the Trophy runners, in one of the three Ferrari 360 Challenge racers out at Mallala this weekend.

Final Qualifying Times: 1st Paul Stokell  Lamborghini Diablo GTR  5707  1:08.3167, 2nd James Brock  Holden Monaro CV8  1:09.3946  +0:01.0779, 3rd Peter Hackett  Lamborghini Diablo GTR  1:09.8398  +0:01.5231, 4th Allan Simonsen  Ferrari 360 Challenge 3586  1:10.0549  +0:01.7382, 5th David Stevens  Porsche 911 GT2  1:10.2975  +0:01.9808, 6th Ian Palmer  Honda NSX Brabham  1:11.7366  +0:03.4199, 7th John Teulan  Ferrari 360 Challenge  1:12.7750  +0:04.4583, 8th Peter Coles  Porsche GT3  1:14.1685  +0:05.8518, 9th John Kaias  Porsche GT3  1:15.0880  +0:06.7713, 10th Trevor John  Porsche 944T  1:15.9903  +0:07.6736, 11th Ted Huglin  Ferrari 360 Challenge  1:17.0352  +0:08.7185