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20.06.2004 PAUL STOKELL CLAIMED THE OPENING AUSTRALIAN NATIONS CUP HEAT AT WINSTON TODAY IN HIS LAMBORGHINI DIABLO, BUT TWO WINS FOR HOLDEN'S RICHARD PRETTY HAS CLOSED DOWN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAP.

Holden Monaro driver Nathan Pretty boosted his chase for the Australian Nations Cup Championship with a double victory in round four at Winton Motor Raceway today.

Pretty, driving for the Garry Rogers Motorsport team, won two of three races in cold and damp conditions to narrow the gap to series leader Paul Stokell to 34 points after four of eight rounds in the 2004 championship.

Stokell won pole position and today’s first race, but Pretty was confident the Monaro would deliver the goods again after winning the round here last year.

“This is our second round win of the season and it’s great to do it here on my home track,� said Pretty, from Albury-Wodonga. “We’re now well and truly in with a chance to challenge Paul for the championship and I’m looking forward to the fifth round at Eastern Creek next month.�

While Stokell ran away with the first Nations Cup heat, the highlight was an eight-lap battle for third place between David Stevens' Porsche GT2 and a pursuing Peter Brock, in the first race for his new 7.0 litre Monaro. Charging up from 10th on the grid, Brock tried everything to pass the Porsche but was unsuccessful.

In race two, he made sure the Porsche was behind by the first corner and then focused his attack on Stokell in second spot, passing him briefly on the third lap. Stokell had surrendered the lead to Pretty around the same time and appeared content to sit back until late in the race. The pace built as Pretty, then Brock then Stokell recorded fastest lap times.

Three corners short of the flag, Stokell had the Lamborghini’s low nose wedged literally under the the tail of the Pretty Monaro but he could not convert the move into a pass and the Holden scored the win.

Brock came home strongly in third and as a result would have been in a good position for race three, but for a wrong tyre choice. The Monaro appeared to be the only car running dry tyres on a wet track and Brock worked hard to take fifth place.

Pretty won the race from Stokell by 15 seconds, with Allan Simonsen third in his Trophy class Ferrari Challenge and Ian Palmer fourth in Brock’s previous Monaro. Simonsen consistently raced among the outright cars throughout the weekend and wrapped up the class round win.

Round five of the PROCAR Champ Series will be at Eastern Creek circuit, near Sydney, on 16-18 July.
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20.06.2004 THE JAPANESE GT CHAMPIONSHIP'S ITALIAN CONTINGENT WAS SWELLED WITH THE ARRIVAL OF THE AMPREX LAMBORGHINI MURCIELAGO R-GT, AS THE SERIES HEADED OVERSEAS TO MALAYSIA THIS WEEKEND.

The Japanese GT Championship's Italian contingent was swelled to three as the series headed overseas to the Sepang International Circuit this weekend. Forty two cars arrived at the home of the Malaysian Grand Prix to take part in yesterday's 54-lap race around the 5.542 km track.
Malaysian outfit Amprex Motorsport took delivery of a customer Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT just in time to make a series debut at their home race. They were joined by a second Murcielago R-GT, run by Team JLOC, which briefly appeared in practice last time out at Sugo, and the Hitotsuyama Racing-run Prodrive-built Ferrari 550 Maranello.
With the first qualifying session hit by driving rain, the three teams, all struggling to get their evolving machines onto the pace, were left with only the second warm, dry session to fully prepare for what was to be a hot, dry race.
The brand new Michelin-shod Amprex Motorsports Murcielago R-GT, piloted by newcomer Norman Simon, led the way, his 2:05.056 fastest lap, just five seconds off pole position. Two places further back, and bringing up the rear of the GT500 field, came the similar car run by Team JLOC, which in the hands of Koji Yamanishi and Wada-Q, posted 2:10.571 best.
In the middle of this Murcielago sandwich was the Dunlop running Hitotsuyama Racing Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello, lining up 17th. At the front GT500 pole went to the Calsonic Nissan Z which set an unbeatable 2:00.16, just ahead of the two Tom's Toyota Supras, while in the GT300 class, the JIM Rodeo Drive Ferrari 360 driven by Hideshi Matsuda and Ichijyo Suga, could only managed 10th place, four slots ahead of its sister car.
After starting down in 13th place, the Denso Sard Toyota Supra GT pulled off a brilliant win following an intense battle in blistering Malaysian heat. The car had been quick throughout the weekend, lead driver Jeremie Dufour setting the fastest in time the wet first official qualifying session on Friday morning. The second session had been a completely different story however, as their hard-compound tyres slowed the car to the seemingly unlucky number 13 spot in the warmer conditions of the afternoon session.

Further back the Amprex Murcielago R-GT fared very well in its first ever race. After starting from 15th, Genji Hashimoto and Norman Simon, steadily all the way to the flag to be classified 12th overall, three laps behind the winner. It was pretty impressive considering the car had to make an unscheduled pit stop early on.

Contrastingly, the Team JLOC Murcielago RG-T, running on Dunlop compounds, was plagued by the same woes that had afflicted the black supercar during the morning's warm up session. A broken left rear suspension unit after 20 laps stranded the car out on track. It was an identical repeat of a fault first seen earlier in the day.
Fourteenth overall, and also three laps adrift, came the Ferrari 550 Maranello piloted by Hidetoshi Mitsusada and Tado Uematsu, while back in the GT300 class, the JIM Ferrari 360 Modenas crossed the line in fifth and ninth places.
Meanwhile, in mid December the JGTC will travel to the US for a one-off non-championship race at the Fontana Speedway in California, which will see the series' top 25 cars take on local entries. The event, known as 'GT Live', will also include a "JGTC Against The World" team time attack competition in which the top 6 finishers of the race on Saturday compete against 6 top cars from around the world.