by
Roger McCleery

Hennie Groenewald (Team Timken Holden), posting two wins at Kyalami on Saturday, snatched his fourth consecutive WesBank V8 Championship from Championship leader, Marc Auby (ELT International Jaguar) in the final race of the season.   This is also a great prize for Team Timken, who pulled out of South African motor racing at the end of this race. 

At the start of the first 8-lap race at Kyalami, Groenewald from pole position was trailing Marc Auby by 5 points.   Marc had lined up 3^rd behind his younger brother, Brandon (ELT International Jaguar).   As the cars were about to depart on their rolling start lap the heavens opened and a record 23 cars were allowed ten minutes to swop to treaded Goodyear rain tyres in the pits. 

From the start of the race, run in pouring rain, Groenewald opened up a gap on Marc Auby, who took over 2^nd place from his brother on the first lap.   Brandon made a mistake and faded back to 6^th mainly due to bad visibility. 

Jaco Correia (LiquiMoly Corvette) took over 3^rd spot until Brandon recovered to finish 3^rd behind his brother.   Then came Correia and Franco di Matteo (Varta Batteries Jaguar) who fought out 5^th position with a returning Roelf du Plessis in another ELT International Lumina.   With the track drying Marc Auby closed onto Groenewald’s tail with a few laps to go and only missed winning by .3 of a second. 

Race 2 saw Groenewald, only 2 points behind Marc Auby in the Championship, going into the final race of 2009.   Two race meetings ago Groenewald was 4^th overall and trailing Auby by 30 points with no real hope of winning a fourth championship. 

Using the reverse starting grid, which is a feature of WesBank 8 racing, Groenewald lined up 10^th at the start behind four ELT International Auby racing cars.   By turn 13 three quarters of the way around the first lap, Groenewald with a stint of brilliant driving, was in the lead with Marc Auby right on his tail.   That is how it stayed until coming out of the bowl on the second last lap, Marc Auby gave his Jaguar too much gas and he spun out of the championship.    

He recovered to slot in behind his brother, Brandon.   Mackie Adlem (Jaguar) had a strong finish in 4^th position with Deon Auby (ELT Holden) 5^th, and Jaco Correia from Welkom in 6^th. 

RESULTS

RACE 1

1. Groenewald;  2. Marc Auby;  3. Brandon Auby;  4. Jaco Correia;  5  di Matteo;  6.  du Plessis. 

RACE 2

1. Groenewald; 2. B. Auby;  3. M. Auby;  4. Deon Auby; 5.  Adlem;  6. Jaco Correia.

FINAL POINTS POSITION FOR THE WESBANK V8 SUPERCAR SEASON 

1^st        Hennie Groenewald – 166

2^nd       Marc Auby - 163

3^rd        Brandon Auby – 153

4^th        Deon Auby – 134

5^th         Jaco Correia – 134

6^th        Franco di Matteo - 106