SUMNER USES LAST CARD AT RALLY NEW ZEALAND
After a credible six consecutive podium finishes in the New Zealand Rally Championship, including two outright wins that took him to his Championship win last season, Sumner has retired from Rally New Zealand at the weekend on Leg two of the event, slipping off the road in Whaanga Coast while battling for third place.
Sumner’s demise has opened up the series fight with the top four drivers in New Zealand all with a chance of taking the crown, including Sumner who is setting his sights on retaining his title.
Heading into the weekend, Sumner was comfortably sitting in second place behind Hayden Paddon, although was very aware that with the new overall result bonus points structure introduced this year, that dropping from a Leg in any of the events, would essentially open up the chance for the close chasing pack to pounce.
Leg 1 was held in changing conditions with passing showers following a night of heavy rain on the coastal roads. Sumner performed well through the first group of stages, quickly positioning himself in 2nd place behind a hard charging Paddon, with Chris West, Richard Mason and Emma Gilmour close behind.
“The first stage had a lot of water across the road from the overnight rain and we slowed down a bit too much as we didn’t want the engine to take in water and this affected our stage time quite a bit, but we went well through the next two stages and got ourselves in second place by the midday service,” said Sumner.
Wanting to have an edge over the other competitors, Sumner took a gamble to run dry weather tyres for the afternoon group of stages, hedging his bets on the stages being swept and drying out from the ever increasing sunny patches. However the weather gods had played their hand and a heavy passing shower had caused the stages to have more slippery sections than Sumner had counted on. Dropping from 2nd to 4th Sumner kept pushing hard, but the damage was done as he brought his ITM sponsored EVO9 home for Leg 1 just 6.8 seconds behind Gilmour, with Mason second and Paddon leading.
“We looked closely at what the weather was doing and knew it was going to be a gamble, but decided to take the risk” said Sumner.
“Unfortunately our gamble didn’t pay off and we struggled, but we’re happy to pick up points for fourth.”
Running in fourth position for Leg 2, Sumner concentrated on the positions available in front of him, however it was going to come to an end in the first run through the Whaanga Coast stage. Confident with his car and pace notes, Sumner charged through Whaanga Coast, but in the exact same place as former World Rally Champion, the late Colin McRae, Sumner slipped off the road and beached his car, a disappointing and premature end to his event.
“We had the corner noted as we knew cars had crashed there before, I didn’t brake late or do anything silly, I just couldn’t pull the car up and we slipped off the Road. We tried to get it back on the road again but just couldn’t move it,” said a disappointed Sumner.
Not finishing Leg 2 means that Sumner has missed out on scoring valuable Leg 2 and bonus points, dropping him to 4th in the championship.
“It’s a hard blow, especially with the new points structure. With Hayden (Paddon) not competing in the next round and because we didn’t score points for Leg 2, our focus will change now for the rest of the championship, we have to concentrate on winning.”
Round 3 is in three weeks time on the 28th – 29th May.
2011 New Zealand Rally Championship Points:
1. Hayden Paddon 256pts
2. Richard Mason 186pts
3. Emma Gilmour 154pts
4. Dean Sumner 128pts
5. Glenn Inkster 117pts
6. Chris West 107pts
7= Ben Hunt 105pts
7= Matt Van Tuinen 105pts
9. Josh Marston 88pts
10. Ben Jagger 77pts
11. Brian Green 71pts
12. Sloan Cox 70pts
13. Dave Strong 51pts
14. Phil Campbell 18pts
15. Matt Jansen 14pts
