It is a landmark year for WesBank and the championship, said WesBank motorsport manager Greg Moloney. “No other racing series in the world can boast of 25 years under the umbrella of a single sponsor, and we are looking forward to another great year of competition.
“We are also delighted to continue a 12 years association with Goodyear as control tyre suppliers to the Wesbank V8 Supercar Championship. This year also sees the return of Sasol as a co-sponsor and they will supply high performance fuel to our competitors.”
Moloney added there were one or two unique aspects about the this year’s championship, which opens at the first round of the WesBank Super Series at Kyalami on March 15, that stood out. Chief among them will be 16-year-old Brendan Auby, the youngest driver in the series, racing alongside 65-year-old veteran Willie Hepburn who will retire at the end of the season.
Young Auby will join father Deon and brother Marc in the early rounds of the championship. He will then be joined by another brother, Jimmy, who is currently competing for Lebanon in the A1GP series.
“A father and his three sons all competing in the race series must be another record,” said Moloney.
There will also be a rose among the thorns when this year’s championship kicks off. Experienced woman driver Clare Vale will be the first competitor from the fair sex to compete in the WesBank V8 series.
The championship also boasts two other father son combinations in Des and Jade Gutzeit and Larry and Terry Wilford. A set of brothers in Welkom-based Jaco and Danie Correia completes a strong family orientation in the series.
With fields throughout the season likely to be in excess of 25 cars, the championship will again be highly competitive. The early season favourite will be Hennie Groenewald, in the Timken Lumina, who will be looking for a hat-trick of titles.
His major opposition is likely to come from team-mate Robert Briggs, the 2007 rookie of the year, in the Timken Jaguar. In the absence of Grant van Schalkwyk, who will campaign in the United States this year, Briggs is the driver who will probably trouble Groenewald the most.
Down the years the WesBank series has supplied a stage on which some household names have performed. The likes of Sarel van der Merwe, Terry Moss, Chris Aberdein, Ben Morgenrood, Graham Duxbury and George Fouche have provided for high speed entertainment.
Nothing has changed when it comes to entertainment value and for Moloney there is also a strong family connection to the WesBank series. His father, Peter, is a former WesBank motorsport manager and is today co-ordinator of the WesBank V8 Supercar Championship.
