|
WesBank V8 Championship leader, Marc Auby (ELT International Jaguar)
without a win since Killarney in May, will have to get back to his
winning ways when a full field of V8’s line up at Zwartkops this
Saturday (15th August). That is if he is to clinch the
South African WesBank V8 Championship this year.
Driving the most powerful V8s to have ever raced at this
international raceway near Pretoria. Marc, his talented 17-year-old
brother, Brandon in a similar car, and father Deon in the ELT
International Holden, are on the brink of creating South African
motor sport history. They lie first, second and third at the top
of the Championship points table at the moment. If they finish in
the same position at the end of the year they will win the South
African title and take the top three positions. It has never been
done before.
The
competition is going all out to prevent this happening. Three
times WesBank V8 Champion, Hennie Groenewald (Team Timken Holden),
needs two wins at Zwartkops to keep his chances alive of winning
four titles in a row.
Groenewald with two wins and two seconds in the ten races held so
far trails Marc Auby (3 wins) by 40 points, Brandon (2 wins) by 21
points and Deon Auby (2 wins) by 9 points. So these four are on a
mission to get to the chequered flag first on Saturday.
Just
one point behind Groenewald is Danie Correia (Liqui Moly Corvette)
from Welkom, one of only three drivers to have finished all ten
races held so far this year. The others are Marc Auby and veteran
Franco di Matteo (Varta Batteries Jaguar). Danie is a regular top
three finisher. His elder brother, Jaco, also a winner at Kyalami,
is within reach of Groenewald for 4th spot overall.
Di
Matteo is totally at home at Zwartkops and flies at this circuit, as
seen when he races his big V8 Super Saloon car there with good
results. He should repeat one of his top three finishes on
Saturday.
Groenewald’s team-mate, Richard Pinard (Team Timken Jaguar), has had
two good thirds lately but has also had a season filled with crashes
which is unlike him and his normal racing style.
East
London’s Darron Gudmanz (Crazy J’s Corvette) returns to the track
after missing Kyalami and can be assured to be in the action of this
close WesBank V8 racing.
Surprising all her fellow male competitors is Clare Vale (Gatorback/RAM
Mustang) who lies 12th overall in the field of 22 points
scorers and she is not afraid to mix it with the best in this 450 kW
class of racing.
Steve
Smith (Cool Catz Racing Jaguar) is another front runner who now
needs reliability to equal his previous best front running race
results.
Instrument maker Steve Herbst (Prei Instrumentation /Corvette) is
also in the line up with a new car this year and against relatively
new men to the class. Romano Sartori (Jaguar) who dived in at the
deep end of V8 racing in March, improves with each meeting. Carel
Pienaar (Team Timken Jaguar) who builds the WesBank V8 racing cars,
has tested his ability in three hour races with good results.
Wimpy van Zyl (Cold Bond Corvette) has re-entered this class of
racing after testing the water a few years ago. Harry Meyer, an ex
250 Karter and Sonax man is racing a Mustang for the first time.
Two
legends of South African motor sport are likely to join this field
of WesBank V8 Super Saloons at Zwartkops. They are former champion
Ben Morgenrood driving a General Motors Lumina for the first time
with “The Stig” as his sponsor. He has been challenged by another
motor racing champion, 66-year-old Willy Hepburn (Lumina) to race
head-to-head. They want to prove they have lost none of their
speed and their ability to compete with some of the others who shape
in WesBank V8 racing. Both are right on form at this formula of
high speed racing as they regularly compete in Historic and Super
Saloon racing at this track and also win at record breaking speeds.
The
WesBank V8 cars have provided close racing all year at all the major
South African circuits. Zwartkops by its very nature should be no
exception with even closer competition forecast. |
