Hennie Groenewald (Team Timken Holden), well on his way to his third successive WesBank V8 title, is going to the Zwartkops Raceway outside Pretoria this Saturday (6th September) to the circuit where he provided fans with some of the greatest racing ever seen at this International track.
In May, Groenewald started the second WesBank race at the back of the field and passed the entire field of 18 high-speed cars in just fifteen laps to record his 6th victory of the season and the 35th win of his V8 career. He has since increased this score to 38 wins. Despite finishing every race so far this year, and in fact 44 consecutive races in a row for an incredible record of skill and reliability, Groenewald is not safe yet for his 3rd championship.
Chasing hard and sharing second position are veteran V8 man, Willie Hepburn (Project Orange Corvette) is his last year of WesBank racing after a 43-year career, and Mark Auby (Jonnesway Tools Jaguar). Mark is one of the real young talents in racing, able to handle the most powerful cars in the country. With gearbox problems sorted out, he is now more than a challenger and could win at Zwartkops.
After leading the championship at the beginning of the year and taking another win at East London, Robert Briggs (Team Timken Jaguar), twice a Polo Saloon Car Champion, is certainly not giving up yet despite battling with a few technical problems. He trails the two drivers in 2nd place in the championship by just 4 points. His other team-mate in the Team Timken Equipe, Richard Pinard (Jaguar) hauled in another win in the Free State at his last outing to keep himself just ahead of the fastest father in the business, Deon Auby (Meta Forge Holden). Auby lies 6th overall, 3 points behind Pinard and 3 points ahead of another WesBank stalwart and father who races with his son, Larry Wilford (Fuchs Lubricants Mustang). Wilford picked up at 3rd spot at Phakisa.
Competitive as ever are the two Correia brothers from Welkom in their Omega Motor Spares Corvette muscle cars. Jaco, the elder brother, after a couple of heavy crashes at the start of the season has now caught up to his younger brother, Danie. Danie scored a great 4th on his home track in Welkom to keep his record of finishing all races this year intact.
Franco di Matteo (Optima Batteries Jaguar) is always in the picture and is handily placed to pull off the second race at Zwartkops, which uses a reverse grid. Terry Wilford (Fuchs Lubricants Jaguar) had a terrible weekend in the Free State with two D.N.F.s, including being involved in a crash on the first corner of the second race where he luckily sustained minor body damage. He will be determined to get back to scoring points again. Roelf du Plessis (Venter Motors Corvette) is now back in the line-up but his two non finishes in the Free State also did him no good through no fault of his own.
East London’s Wade van Zummeren (Border Towing Mustang) is one of the formula’s wild up and coming talents with a win in East London to his credit. He could also pull off a few surprises.
Needing more luck than he currently enjoys at the moment is 16 year-old racing sensation, Brandon Auby (Massana Petroleum Jaguar), carrying on the talented Auby family tradition of fighting it out for the lead. Before long he will be in the Winner’s Circle. Zwartkops could be his day.
Another racing father, Des Gutzeit (Dezzi/Trysome Mustang) is also capable of staying with all comers and now in top form with a good place in the Free State. Scoring lots of points since his comeback to WesBank racing is East London’s, Darron Gutmanz (Crazy J’s Corvette). In just a few meetings since his comeback in East London, he has already amassed 17 points.
Clare Vale (The Truck Man Mustang) doing a sterling job in her 6 litre V8 and has now got up to 6th spot at the Welkom Race Meeting following good finishes in East London and Kyalami.
Kick-starting his comeback into racing is the talented 1996 South African Karting Champion, Bjorn Roos from Vereeniging who scored points at his first meeting and is sure to improve this at Zwartkops.
Nothing beats and sights and sounds of WesBank V8 cars racing in close company at high speed on a circuit that guarantees passing in the most impossible places.
