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The fastest racing
saloon cars to have ever raced on the Historic Killarney Motor
Racing Circuit are in Cape Town this Saturday (9th May)
for Round 3 of the Wesbank V8 Super Saloon Car Championship.
The WesBank V8
Series has been turned on its head, almost like Formula 1, where
young drivers are starting to dominate. At the moment it looks like
an Auby/Correia Family Show.
Marc Auby (ELT
International Jaguar) with two wins, a second and a third in the
four races held so far, leads the championship on 52 points. The
other two wins have been taken for the first time by Marc Auby’s
father, Deon (ELT Corvette) making a bit of WesBank history, and
Jaco Correia (LiquiMoly Corvette) who also took his maiden win after
years of trying to be first past the chequered flag.
Whilst Marc Auby
leads the championship, his brother and 16 year-old driving
sensation, Brandon – also in an ELT Jaguar – who has proven he can
handle these 450 kW racing machines, lies joint second with Jaco
Correia’s younger brother, Danie (LiquiMoly Corvette). Both have
28 points.
Another youngster,
Wade van Zummeren (Border Towing Mustang) who picked up 16 points at
Kyalami, heads a bunch of talent consisting of veteran Franco di
Matteo (Varta Batteries Jaguar) who flies in a V8 on 25 points, with
aforementioned Auby Snr on 24 points, and Welkom’s Jaco Correia on
23 points. It can’t get much closer than that.
Terry Wilford
(Fuchs Titan Jaguar) started the season off in P.E. with a car that
liked to get its tail out and get away from him in corners. That
has been sorted out by his father and Chairman of the WesBank 8
Racing Association, Larry Wilford. Terry got 3rd place
at Kyalami. As a former champion a few years ago he can now get
on with scoring big numbers of points each meeting.
Languishing In 10th
spot overall in the championship is three-times WesBank V8 supremo,
Hennie Groenewald (Team Timken Jaguar). In the four races held so
far he has picked up a second, an eighth place and has been punted
off the track. His come-back effort to retain his title for the
fourth time starts at Killarney. His form is not a problem as he
has just returned from a successful racing car test in America where
he was super quick.
Hennie’s Team
Timken team-mate, Richard Pinard, who started the season with 13
points in P.E., was also pushed off the road at Kyalami. He too
needs to start getting back into the serious points.
Back into WesBank
V8 Racing with a bang after a year’s sabbatical is Steve Smith (Cool
Catz Racing Jaguar). He picked up 14 valuable points at the last
meeting at Kyalami and looks set to keep on scoring.
Talking about
returning to WesBank V8 Racing is Mackie Adlem in the Mackie Adlem
Racing Jaguar. He has been out of racing for a year as well after
coming home fifth overall in the championship in 2007. He is no
mean competitor and shouldn’t have lost any of his speed.
Killarney is the circuit where he shines.
Now into her third
season of racing these 300 kmh racing saloon cars, Clare Vale (Gatorback/RAM
Mustang) started well in P.E. but ran head-on into Deon Auby at
WesBank Corner at Kyalami, which put paid to her chances of scoring
any more points that day.
Johnny Eekhout (Johnspeed
Cobra Corvette) is making a pilgrimage to Killarney with Steve
Herbst (Prei Instrumentation Corvette).
Killarney and its
huge crowd of fans is going to thrill to the genuine speed and noise
of American V8 power when a strong field of these cars take to the
track for the two WesBank V8 Races on Saturday. |
