After winning nine of the first 10 races in this year’s Wesbank V8 season, current champion Johan Fourie is looking to increase his imposing lead when the cars next meet.
After winning nine of the first 10 races in this year’s Wesbank V8 season, current champion Johan Fourie is looking to increase his imposing lead when the cars next meet.
With 20 cars entered into rounds 11 and twelve scheduled to race Kyalami on July 31, Fourie holds a commanding 50 points lead over the rest of the field.
It is unlikely that he will be beaten again this year since the only time he was beaten was when a correct chassis setup was employed at Kyalami in May. A bunch of hot talent is on his tail though and seriously plotting to cause an upset.
Grant van Schalkwyk is Fourie’s closest challenger after a sluggish – by his standards – start to the season. Hennie Groenewald, on the other hand, is the only other winner of a race this season and could show Fourie up on a circuit where he has already recorded many wins.
After struggling to get his car to handle, former Wesbank champion Gary Formato, is hoping to taste victory again after his last V8 win in October 1999.
Mackie Adlem, veteran Larry Wilford and Steve Smith are continually gaining speed at each outing, while Melvill Priest may cause an upset if he manages to stay on the tar.
The GTC class for cars using Chev or Ford engines with carburettors with fractionally less power, has attracted 12 entries. Jaco Correia leads this class by 20 points after winning seven of the ten races in his Omega Spares Corvette muscle car.
Andrea Taurino is next up, followed by former Wesbank V8 champion Roelf du Plessis who is now just a point behind him and making a great effort to take top honours.
Franco di Matteo and Richard Ransome will continue to offer serious competition in the GTC class while Zane Pearce chases his first class win.
Ian Young, Gordon Connelly, Frans Bakker, Johnny Eekhout, Wade or his father Martin van Zummerin, Paul Rechberger (Camaro) and newcomer Clinton Nassif in his Chev Corvette will add the excitement, hunting the leaders down throughout the race and capable of reaching speeds of 300 km/h.
