2010 New Zealand Rally Champion Dean Sumner has shut down the critics by finishing the 2011 rally season with a dominating win against newly crowned National Champion Richard Mason at the Manawatu based Daybreaker Rally on the weekend.
Not only was Sumner clearly the fastest driver winning six of the seven stages, he also finished what he set out to achieve against Mason at the final round in Hawkes Bay in August, where he won seven of the fourteen stages and was 2nd quickest on four, demonstrating controlled yet blistering pace.
“We’ve had this pace all year and should have been able to secure our second national title, however our season has been one of those to forget with frustrating problems that took hold of our chances to win again.” Said Sumner
With Sumner’s long-time co-driver Paul Fallon unavailable to attend the Daybreaker event, experienced co-driver Rocky Hudson stepped in to call the pace notes, however with Sumner’s display of pace and accuracy, one could be forgiven for thinking this was a usual pairing.
Fresh off the New Zealand Championship circuit, both Sumner and Mason elected to compete at the Daybreaker before working on future competition plans. The votes were split as to who would have the edge with the Mitsubishi supporters backing Sumner and the Subaru fans hedging their bets on 3-times NZ Champion Mason.
Sumner threw the first punch by winning the opening 43km test by 13.6 seconds over Mason and then continued to fire more blows by winning all four of the morning stages to open up a 21.7 second lead by the lunch break.
“Our plan was to get out of the blocks early and keep pushing for the stage wins” said an elated Sumner.
“The car was awesome, Rocky’s notes were spot-on and we just kept managing to dominate.”
Heading into the afternoon set of stages, Sumner was uncatchable with another two stage wins leaving Mason 45.5 seconds in the red heading into the final stage.
Hoping for a mistake from Sumner, Mason attacked in the final 34km stage and although the mistake didn’t come, Mason did manage to finally win a stage but it was too late to steal victory from Sumner.
“We knew Mason was going to ‘have a go’ in the last stage and we didn’t want to do anything silly” said Sumner. “We still kept the pace up and were second quickest. We still won by 34 seconds.”
“Winning this event was really important to us and our sponsors. We could have won Hawkes Bay if it wasn’t for the puncture, so to get this win under our belt is a fitting way to finish off the year.”
Sumner will be announcing his plans for the 2012 season shortly.
Visit www.deansumner.com
