19.09.2004 New Australian Nation Cup Champion Paul Stokell wrapped up his dominant season with a brace of wins for Lamborghini at Mallala

Paul Stokell had already wrapped up his second straight Australian Nations Cup Championship due to the cancellation of the final round, but his plans to close the season with a hat trick of wins at the Mallala Motorsport Park, north of Adelaide, earlier today fell flat when his Lamborghini Diablo GTR suffered its first non-finish in two years.

Stokell finishes year in the V12 Lamborghini with an amazing record of six pole positions out of a possible seven and twelve wins from twenty one starts, the defending champion once again dominating the Nation Cup with the impressive Italian sportscar.

He swept to pole yesterday, with more than a second's advantage over James Brock, and continued to dominate, taking wins in the first two of three races being held today.

However his Lamborghini stopped with gearbox problems while leading race three, curiously, at the same place and just one lap after his team-mate Peter Hackett retired with an almost identical problem in the sister Diablo.

In order to celebrate Stokell's title, Lamborghini Australia were running a second Diablo for the first time this year at Mallala, the car being pedalled on the occasion by Australian F3 Champion Hackett.

James Brock surged past in his Holden Monaro CV8 to take race and round honours, having finished second in each of the earlier heats.

It was Brock’s first win in his self-built Monaro and he said one of the first things he intended to do post-race was to telephone the news to his father Peter, who has shared driving duties this season.

David Stevens, at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT2, with a second, third and fifth place in the three races was classified third overall on the day.

“It’s been a long day and a long year, to tell the truth,” Stokell said on the podium. “I was hoping for a perfect score to end the year, but we had our first DNF in two years.”

The battle for the Trophy class title was eventually resolved in the favour of Gold Coast Ferrari 360 Challenge driver John Teulan, who came second in today’s round to young Danish star Allan Simonsen, driving an identical Italian machine.

Race 1 Result: 1st Paul Stokell  Lamborghini Diablo GTR  16:16.9464, 2nd James Brock  Holden Monaro CV8  16:24.7072, 3rd Allan Simonsen  Ferrari 360 Challenge  16:39.0006, 4th Peter Hackett Lamborghini Diablo GTR  16:42.5283, 5th David Stevens  Porsche 911 GT2  17:01.2419, 6th John Teulan  Ferrari 360 Challenge  17:22.1817

Race 2 Result: 1st Paul Stokell  Lamborghini Diablo GTR  16:42.3502, 2nd James Brock  Holden Monaro CV8  16:42.5167, 3rd David Stevens  Porsche 911 GT2  16:47.0891, 4th Peter Hackett  Lamborghini Diablo GTR  16:50.4637, 5th Allan Simonsen  Ferrari 360 Challenge  16:50.9340, 6th Ian Palmer  Honda NSX Brabham  17:15.4143

Race 3 Result: 1st James Brock  Holden Monaro CV8  16:31.9665, 2nd David Stevens  Porsche 911 GT2  16:39.8208, 3rd Allan Simonsen  Ferrari 360 Challenge  16:41.8048, 4th Ian Palmer  Honda NSX Brabham  17:13.4896, 5th John Kaias  Porsche GT3  17:32.1301, 6th Peter Coles  Porsche GT3  17:49.2640  

Final Australian Nations Cup Standings: GT: 1st Paul Stokell 572points, 2nd Nathan Pretty 415, 3rd David Stevens 309, 4th James Brock 238, 5th Ian Palmer 178.5, 6th Peter Brock 156. Trophy class 1st John Teulan 312, 2nd Theo Koundouris 291, 3rd Allan Simonsen 279.