05/08/08 - The stakes will be high for a number of competitors chasing national titles when the WesBank Super Series moves to Phakisa on August 9 for round seven of a roadshow that never lacks interest.
The season is now at a stage where every point is a precious one for those in contention to win championships. There are a couple of fortunates who go to Phakisa wrapped in comfort zones, but there are other championships that are desperately close.
Only one, point for instance, separates Michael Stephen and Johan Fourie at the top of the Class A leaderboard in the Bridgestone Production Car Championship. Graeme Nathan has a slender 14 point lead in the overall championship and in Class T while just four points separate three drivers all fighting for second place in the WesBank V8 Supercar series.
It all adds up to a day of drama at a pukka Grand Prix circuit. The motorcycle brigade, in particular, will relish the opportunity to shine on a circuit where the likes of Valentino Rossi have strutted their stuff.
Barring accidents and the untoward, Sheridan Morais has the CitiBike Superbike championship all but wrapped up. But, on a high speed circuit like Phakisa, he will come under fire from a number of riders.

Bridgestone Production Car Championship
Class T frontrunners Graeme Nathan (SEAT Kaye Eddie Cupra) and Iain Pepper (PG Glass VW Golf GTi) continue to dominate the overall championship. Nathan has a slender 14 point cushion over Pepper with a pair of Class A challengers hot on their heels.
Only 10 points separate Pepper from Class A leader Michael Stephen (Xtreme Team Audi) with Johan Fourie (Indy Oil Audi) a further point in arrears. It is a situation where none of them can afford to drop points at such a critical stage of the season.
Only 10 points separate Stephen, Fourie and former champion Anthony Taylor, in the Afrox BMW, and that can all change in one heat. Taylor’s team-mate, Etienne van der Linde, is a further three points in arrears with reigning champion Shaun Watson-Smith, in the second Xtreme Team Audi, not yet out of the championship picture. Fourie and the Xtreme team and BMW pairs will be among the race favourites with the Sasol Nissan 350Z combination of Leeroy Poulter and Tschops Sipuka due for a win. Poulter returns to action fresh from winning a European kart title and will be full of confidence.
Darryn Lobb and Marco da Cunha, in the SAM Racing Tubular Nissan 350Z entries have shown good form recently and will come into contention if the second heat is run under a revers grid format. A third SAM Racing car could be out in the hands of Gavin Kelsey who has heaps of experience.
Nathan and Pepper, the reigning champion, have turned Class T into a two horse race but the category is now filled with potential winners. Reghardt Roets and Gary van Heerden, in the Webcom Opel OPCs, Gary Formato (Ford Racing Nandos Ford Focus) and Hein Bose and Etienne Prinsloo, in the MFC and Bizhub Mazda MPS entries all fall into this category.
Reliability has kept Nathan and Pepper at the top of the heap, but it is going to get hot up front. Graham Donker (Mini Maxi Panelbeaters Golf GTi) and Mark Silverwood (OKI Mini Cooper) have had their moments but look to be outgunned by some of the heavy artillery.
Ben Morgenrood (Mazda Motorsport RX8) loops set to win his umpteenth national title in Class B. He has a healthy lead over Danie van Niekerk (Stanger Auto Ford ST) but the KwaZulu-Natal driver will make him work all the way.

WesBank V8 Supercars
The accomplished Hennie Groenewald, poised to become the most successful driver in the 25 year history of the WesBank championship, is one of the title chasers able to savour a comfort zone.
Groenewald (Team Timken Holden Commodore) has won 12 times this season and has a 63 point lead over the amazing 65-year-old Willie Hepburn who will again be out in the Project Orange Chev Corvette. But Hepburn is only one point ahead of Robert Briggs (Team Timken Jaguar) and the consistent Mark Auby in the Jonnesway Holden.
The battle between the wily old veteran and young drivers who look to be champions of the future is going to be one to savour. Hepburn is a master in the heat two reverse grid format now part and parcel of WesBank racing, and that might give him an edge in the second race.
Behind the top four in the championship there are some serious battles raging. Jaco Correia (Liqui Moly Chev Corvette) and veteran Larry Wilford are locked together with 62 points apiece.
Another veteran, Deon Auby (Meta Forge Jaguar), is six points behind them and one point ahead of Franco di Matteo (Optima Batteries Jaguar) who, in turn, is a single point ahead of Richard Pinard in a third Team Timken car. Pinard has a win under his belt and a jump start penalty robbed Auby of a maiden win last time out at Kyalami, and he will want to put that straight.
Groenewald will be the outright favourite but the battles going on behind him and in the midfield set the scene for some hairy chested racing.

Engen VW Cup
The Engen VW Cup, restricted this year to drivers under the age of 27, is starting to turn into a two horse race.
Teenager Gennaro Bonafede (Champion/Ferodo VW Polo) has a 13 point lead over Bryan Morgan (Team Timken VW Polo) with third placed Miguel Pasqualli (Xtreme Team VW Polo) a further 20 points in arrears, For the likes of Pasqualli, who is something of a VW Cup veteran, Mathew Hodges (PG Glass VW Cup), karter Devon Robertson (Ferodo/Champion VW Polo) and Jarred Mortimer in the Emerald casino VW Polo it is imperative that they don’t let Bonafede and Morgan further widen the gap.
Consistency plays a major role in winning championships and this is where Bonafede, son of former SA rally champion Vito Bonafede, and Morgan have had the edge. Pasqualli, Mortimer, Hodges and Robertson have all had their moments but their form has been up and down.
Both heats will produce good racing throughout the field, but there will have to be heroics from the likes of Morgan, Pasqualli and Hodges if they are going to put Bonafede under pressure over the rest of the season.

Formula VW
The fledgling Formula VW series, running under national challenge status this year, goes to Phakisa for the first time and once again it is going to be interesting comparing lap times with those in the WesBank V8 races.
The Formula VW brigade have been very quick at all the circuits so far visted, with the championship a two horse affair. Gavin Cronje (Jonah Capital FVW) and Cristiano Morgado (Morgado Plant FVW), both of them former Rotax Max kart world champions, have between them won 11 of the 12 races thus far and are separated at the top of the championship by 10 points.
Cronje and Morgado will be the obvious favourites. But one cannot ignore the claims of drivers like Michael Stephen and Lee Thompson in the Terry Moss/Southern Sun entries, Formula Ford champion Jayde Kruger (Wap Alto/First Freight FVW) and Wesley Orr (SAM Racing Tubular Tech FVW) who is also a former Rotax Max world champion.
Much will depend on who can find the right car set up the quickest. In this regard Cronje and Morgado have had the edge this season. A good contest is on the cards with Cronje under serious pressure for the first time this season.

CitiBike Superbike Championship
Beaten only once this season Sheridan Morais, the 2005 champion, looks set to wrap up a second national championship this year.
Morais (Emtek Racing Kawasaki) has a massive 93 point lead over Clinton Seller, on the Nashua Mobile/Daikin Yamaha, and will be the obvious favourite at Phakisa. But in Sellar, who is a real charger, Morais is up against a talented youngster who has been threatening a win all season.
Reigning champion Arushen Moodley (Dynamic Express Suzuki) is also a Phakisa specialist with former champion Shaun Whyte, on the second Nashua Mobile/Daikin entry, the only rider to have beaten Morais this year. Seller, Whyte and Moodley will test Morais to the full and there are other poterntial winners in young Chris Leeson, on the second Emtek Kawasaki, Greg Gildenhuys on the Race Nation Honda and Robert Portman on the Sinotec Suzuki.
The pace up front in superbike racing is always frenetic. That won’t change at Phakisa and the scene is set for a pair of crackerjack races.

CitiBike Supersport Championship
With an 82 point lead in the CitiBike Supersport series teenager Dane Hellyer (Kyocera Kawasaki) looks set to follow in father Kevin’s footsteps and win a South African motorcycle title.
Hellyer has won seven times this year and will be a heavy favourite at Phakisa. In his first season in the category Hellyer had a penchant for crashing. He has settled down this season and like Chris Leeson, who won the championship last year, looks to have a bright future.
Hellyer, however, will have to be wary of the likes of veterans Graeme van Breda (Springs Suzuki), who scored his maiden win last time out at Kyalami, and Lance Isaacs on the Pretoria Noord Toyota Suzuki. Only eight points separate van Breda and Graeme Green (Leatt Brace Yamaha) and James Egan, on the Timefreight Yamaha with the two youngsters also potential winners.