APRC wildcard driver Dean Sumner has won the 2010 New Zealand Rally Championship.
Sumner who finished 3rd of the APRC drivers at the New Zealand round in Whangarei has led the NZRC from the first round in Otago.
“That last stage was the hardest I’ve ever done in my life!” said an ecstatic Sumner. “It’s been a team effort this year, I’ve had a wicked team – excellent people helping me out. My sponsors that have been with me right from the start, they’ve stuck with me and this is a great way to repay them. And my family, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. I can’t describe how it feels… It’s awesome.”
Former APRC driver Emma Gilmour got extremely close with a commanding drive in Rally Whangarei, but the 31-year old Mitsubishi driver kept his cool finishing every round in the top three. Sumner stated his dominance by winning in Nelson and simply needed a respectable finish to get his name on the silverware in the final round, The Rally of Wairarapa last weekend.
Gilmour finished second in the championship driving the same Subaru Impreza STI that Cody Crocker used in last year’s APRC. Gilmours total was 291 ponts for the season, 31 points fewer than newly crowned champion Dean Sumner, but 65 more than former champion Richard Mason, who took third in the series after winning last weekend’s Wairarapa event.
“I started this weekend knowing that Dean would have to strike trouble for us to have a chance of catching him in the championship,” said Gilmour. “Unfortunately for us, he drove another good event and finished strongly.”
“Dean and I are the only two of the top drivers to have finished every championship round, and there’s usually been just a place between us at the end of each event, so we have had some great battles over the course of the year. I’d like to congratulate him on winning the national championship title for the first time.”
“For me it has been a case of going one-better than in 2009, when we finished third in the series. My sights are now set on going one-better again in 2011 and taking the title win.”
Gilmour has recently been announced as the worlds highest ranking female rally driver by the International Rally Driver Association (www.worldrallyranking.com)
Vantage New Zealand Rally Championship points after the Rally of Wairarapa:
APRC wildcard driver Dean Sumner has won the 2010 New Zealand Rally Championship.
Sumner who finished 3rd of the APRC drivers at the New Zealand round in Whangarei has led the NZRC from the first round in Otago.
“That last stage was the hardest I’ve ever done in my life!” said an ecstatic Sumner. “It’s been a team effort this year, I’ve had a wicked team – excellent people helping me out. My sponsors that have been with me right from the start, they’ve stuck with me and this is a great way to repay them. And my family, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. I can’t describe how it feels… It’s awesome.”
Former APRC driver Emma Gilmour got extremely close with a commanding drive in Rally Whangarei, but the 31-year old Mitsubishi driver kept his cool finishing every round in the top three. Sumner stated his dominance by winning in Nelson and simply needed a respectable finish to get his name on the silverware in the final round, The Rally of Wairarapa last weekend.
1, D Sumner, 322; 2, E Gilmour, 291; 3, R Mason 226; 4, Chris West, 199; 5, Hayden Paddon,
