Reigning New Zealand Rally Champion Dean Sumner handed over the title in style at the weekend to past champion Richard Mason, with a dominating drive at Hawkes Bay, that would have seen the Rotorua driver win convincingly had it not been for a puncture with just four stages to go.
Resigned to the fact that a successful title defence was out of reach heading into the final round, Sumner and co-driver Paul Fallon had a single-minded goal, to win the rally at all costs.
In cold and damp conditions on Saturday morning, Sumner attacked from Stage 1 and quickly slotted into second place behind Mason by just 2 seconds. The lead quickly changed after the second stage with Emma Gilmour taking charge, but this was short lived as Sumner took over the lead after Stage 3 however the battle lines were drawn with just 2 seconds separating the top three competitors.
Sumner then stamped his authority on the event with outright wins on Stages 4, 5 and 6, giving him the Day win and a 15.2 second lead heading into the overnight halt.
The teams woke to a still, clear day on Sunday and again Sumner launched into the day by winning the first two tests ahead of a chasing Mason.
The third stage of the day was to be the undoing of Sumner’s hard work as the ITM Mitsubishi punctured 10kms into the 30km stage forcing him to stop and change the tyre and lose two minutes in the process.
“We were having such a good run and the car was a dream to drive. Saturday’s stages were fast and challenging and the day ran faultlessly, and then we made our charge again on Sunday morning, it’s really disappointing to have a simple thing like a puncture put an end to our changes for a win.” Said Sumner.
Down but not out, Sumner then concentrated on salvaging what he could of his deficit and cranked up the volume in the next stage and came away with another stage win.
He was then third quickest in the following stage, took another win in the penultimate stage and was second fastest in the final.
Clocking up a total of eight stage wins out of the event’s 13 stages, Sumner managed to climb back up to a podium spot in the New Zealand Rally Championship field.
“It would have been really nice to hand over the title with a rally win” Said Sumner, “However sometimes bad luck strikes, and to be honest it has been a season of little strokes of bad luck. We're happy to have finished the event on the podium though”
Sumner finishes the 2011 New Zealand Rally Championship in fourth place behind Richard Mason (1st) Emma Gilmour (2nd) and Hayden Paddon (3rd).
