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Three
talented South African youngsters head up the WesBank V8 Super Car
points table as 18 of the fastest racing saloon cars in the country
competing in the WesBank Super Series head for the historic high
speed East London Grand Prix Circuit on Saturday (6th
May).
Marc
Auby (ELT International Jaguar) with 77 points and his 17-year-old
brother, Brandon, in an identical car with 52 points are lying 1st
and 2nd in the championship, having won three of the six
races held so far this year.
East
London whiz kid, Wade van Zummeren (Border Towing Mustang), in his
early 20’s is 3rd, ten points behind Brandon. Van
Zummeren is a previous WesBank V8 winner on his home track and flies
in any car he races around this circuit.
The
third member of the Auby team, which is unique in South African
National Racing, is the veteran Deon Auby (ELT International
Lumina), who is the father of the two leaders.
Not
only is Deon more than capable of handling the 450 kW’s these Chev
or Ford V8 engines produce and the 300 kmh top speed that comes with
it, as will be seen in Rifle Bend on Saturday, but he is one of four
overall winners in the three rounds held so far this year. He won
the first race at Kyalami.
Welkom’s racing brothers, Danie and Jaco Correia in their LiquiMoly
Corvettes, are having a bumper year of results. Jaco won the
second race at Kyalami at the end of March with his younger brother,
Danie, in second spot. Jaco lies on 37 points with another veteran
of National and Regional V8 Racing, Franco di Matteo (Varta
Batteries Jaguar) sharing the points position and 6th
place with him.
Mr.
Consistency, Richard Pinard, (Team Timken Jaguar) got a strong 3rd
spot at Killarney in Cape Town in May and is notching up the points
at every meeting.
Three
times WesBank V8 Champion, Hennie Groenewald (Team Timken Jaguar),
after winning two races on the trot in America, started the WesBank
season struggling with his Jaguar. This has continued. A close
win in Cape Town saw Groenewald back in the groove, but this victory
was later taken away from him after a controversial decision by the
Clerk of the Course. This lost him 12 points which he desperately
needs if he is to win his fourth WesBank V8 Title in a row, which is
slowly slipping away.
Darron Gudmanz (Crazy J’s Corvette) from East London, in a car
prepared by V8 supremo, Willy Hepburn, missed Cape Town through
International business commitments and will want to show what he can
do on the street circuit he grew up on.
Hoping for a change of luck is the talented Terry Wilford (Fuchs
Titan Lubricants Jaguar) who first of all suffered from a car that
wanted to spin when he cornered hard in Port El.izabeth and Kyalami
and then had a down-on-power engine pop in Cape Town. A fresh
motor should see him running with the front runners in East London.
Mackie Adlem (Mackie Adlem Racing Jaguar) started his come-back
after a year’s sabbatical with an 8th spot in Race 1 in
Cape Town just to feel his way. Then he had a close second place in
Race 2 which used the reverse starting grid. He was challenging
Marc Auby for the lead and was right on his tail when the flag came
out.
The
only lady racer ever in WesBank V8 Racing is Clare Vale (Gatorback/RAM
Mustang) who flies in East London when she goes through the awesome
Potters Pass corner at 250 kmh plus. She has picked up 11 points
this season.
Instrument-maker Steve Herbst (Prei Intrumentation Corvette) is
doing the National circuit for the first time and getting the hang
of the away tracks and starting to score points into the bargain.
Others expected to make the trip to the coast are Steve Smith (Cool
Catz Racing Jaguar) who did well at Kyalami with a 5th
and a 7th, Johnny Eekhout (Johnspeed Cobra Corvette),
and newcomer to the series, Romano Satori in the ex-Gordon Connelly
Jaguar.
Something every motor racing fan has to see in South African motor
racing is the awesome sight and sound of the big field of WesBank V8
saloon cars going through Potters Pass and Rifle Bend that follows
at top speed. Saturday will be no exception. |
