by
Roger McCleery

The WesBank South African V8 Supercar Championship will be decided in the final two races of the season at Kyalami on Saturday (17^th October 2009). 

Marc Auby (ELT International Jaguar) is the favourite to win as he leads by 5 points and has led the championship from the start of the year.   But he is under tremendous pressure from a relentless three-time WesBank V8 Champion, Hennie Groenewald (Team Timken Holden) lying 2^nd overall and going for his 4^th title.   There are 30 points to play for at Kyalami. 

Groenewald, trailing the Auby family of Marc, 17 year old Brandon and father Deon, was lying 4^th behind them in the championship at the start of the last meeting at Killarney.   He qualified 6^th on the starting grid with the Auby’s filling the first two rows.   The championship looked lost for Groenewald until Marc Auby, leading the first race comfortably, joined his brother, Brandon, in the pits with their gearboxes stuck in 4^th. Groenewald then swept past Deon Auby who had taken over the lead, to win. 

Race 2 saw Brandon crash into Ben Morgenrood, Deon spun and was collected by Richard Pinard (Team Timken Jaguar), who had nowhere else to go at the Cape Town Corner.   Marc finished down the pack to score just 1 point for the day. 

It is still a big ask for Groenewald to win as this unique family of Auby racers are quick and could be joined by the 3^rd  brother, Jimmy.   He is in the Lebanese A1 Grand Prix team and also races in the Volkswagen Challenge Single Seater Series in South Africa. 

Just to add spice to proceedings and with an outside chance of taking the championship, if none of the others finish and he wins both races, is Welkom’s Jaco Correia (LiquiMoly Corvette).   He also took a brilliant win in Cape Town in appalling weather conditions on extremely wet roads. 

Twenty three of these 450 kW V8 cars have entered for Kyalami so the circuit is going to be busy with high-speed cars and a host of drivers with their own agendas. 

Franco di Matteo (Varta Batteries Jaguar) is on top form after winning a pair of super saloon car races last month.

Backing up Jaco Correia is his younger brother, Danie (LiquiMoly Corvette) who has made rapid progress up the ranks this year.   He lies 7^th overall but is under threat from Richard Pinard who is 8^th in the standings.   Clare Vale (Gatorback/RAM Mustang) has also had a brilliant year and she lies 10^th and could improve on this position as Terry Wilford (Fuchs Titan Jaguar) in 9^th has got married and is away. 

Larry Wilford, Chairman of WesBank V8 Racing, takes over his son’s Jaguar for the race and is joined by a host of returning drivers. 

Wade van Zummeren (Border Towing Mustang) from East London, has missed five meetings due a back injury but is fit and well to go racing these heavy motor cars.   Also from the Border is Darron Gudmanz (Crazy J’s Corvette) who also shines in this formula of racing.   Mackie Adlem (Jaguar) could beat everybody on Saturday after a four-meeting layoff.    

Many times South Africa Motorsport Champion, Ben Morgenrood from Randfontein, is bringing out his Mustang whilst popular Roelf du Plessis, also from that neck of the woods, will be back driving the Venter Motors Lumina currently campaigned by Morgenrood. 

Another flyer, Des Gutzeit (Dezzi/Trysome Mustang) is racing again after sorting out his business interests.   Carel Pienaar (SP/Team Timken Jaguar) is having another outing although his main focus will be on making sure that Groenewald’s car that he builds is in top condition. 

From Cape Town after his debut in WesBank racing is Neil Hawkins (Opel Astra) who scored a brilliant 2^nd place at Killarney in pouring rain against all the other heavyweights in this category of racing. 

Steve Herbst (Prei Instrumentation Corvette) who has competed in every race, comes back to his favourite track where he has scored most of his points.   Romano Sartori (Jaguar) has made good progress this year, and is lying 16^th out of the 27 drivers who have scored points. 

To complete the line-up are newcomers to the series this year who are getting into the points.   They are Harry Mayer (Sonax Mustang) and Wimpie van Zyl (Coldbond Corvette). 

A South African Motorsport Title is at stake and these thundering WesBank V8’s, driven by some of the top talent in the country, are going to provide an exciting end to the 2009 season, which has seen some of the closest competition ever in South African Motorsport.