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gsport’s favourite petrol head,
Clare Vale, the first female driver
in the Wesbank V8 Supercar Championship, writes in to relate news of her
sponsorship by Veyance Technologies Africa, who have re-entered motorsport
sponsorship with this ringing endorsement of the Flying Vale in her Ford
Mustang V8 Supercar, as she burns rubber around the country in the Wesbank
Super Series.

Clare
has done exceptionally well in her first season with the Ford Mustang V8
Supercar, culminating in a strong 6^th place overall at the last race
at Phakisa in Welkom. With support from Gatorback RAM, she is determined to
continue her rapid progression in the series.

“Our
team is a perfect fit with Gatorback RAM,” she says. “We share the same
dedication to excellence, and are constantly seeking ways to improve and
deliver our best performance. Motorsport is the ideal arena in which to test
and prove high performance products, and needless to say, both our Mustang race
car and International racing transporter are equipped only with Goodyear RAM
and Gatorback belts and hoses.”

“Gatorback
and RAM products have always been synonymous with high quality and exceptional
performance,” says Colin Preddy, GM Automotive Division of Veyance
Technologies. “We believe that our partnership with Clare Vale will emphasise
our total commitment to high performance service and products for the
automotive industry.”

The
Wesbank V8 Supercar Championship forms part of South Africa’s premier national
motorsport championship, the Wesbank Super Series. The cars are potent V8 muscle
cars, with 600hp on tap and can reach speeds of over 300km/h. The 9^th
round of the Championship takes place in Port
Elizabeth on 4^th October 2008.

Clare Vale writes in with her
Race Report, following the Zwartkops Round 8 encounter:

Our
team went to Zwartkops on a high, knowing that we now have the support of our
new sponsors, Gatorback RAM, and with a year to date best finish of 6^th
overall in Welkom under our belts.

It
was a tough pre-race week, as we had been waiting for parts since our Phakisa
race, and we only received them on the Wednesday night. This meant that the
team worked all night Wednesday and most of Thursday to put the Gatorback RAM
Mustang together and do set up. However, we managed to get the car to Zwartkops
on Thursday afternoon, ready for the first practice session on Friday morning.

Our
first session was wasted when I was black flagged immediately for the
transponder not picking up on the Zwartkops timing system. The next two
sessions were useful but gave the team plenty of work to do, as the car had an
elusive oil leak, which we could not trace. I also had chronic understeer, and
we tried various set up changes, which didn’t seem to help much.

Qualifying
was frustrating, with the car feeling better but not much improvement on the
times. As a result, I qualified at the back of the grid, and returned to the
pits with oil still stubbornly leaking into the floor pan. More work for the
tired crew…

The
first race on Saturday started off well, as I went from 16^th up to
11^th place. However, from mid race the brake pedal started to get
longer and longer, despite my frantic pumping going into the corners.

Two
laps from the end the pedal went to the floor and my race ended in the gravel
at the table top, and the Gatorback RAM Mustang cried enough and refused to
start. I was eventually classified 14^th.

Back
in the pits we discovered that the brake fluid had boiled – something that has
never happened before. We replaced it with fresh fluid and hoped for the best.

The
second race was started in single file in order to avoid a first corner pile
up, and this worked against me as the car in front held back to slingshot the
start. This left me with a lot of work to do to try and catch up to the rest of
the field.

Evil
understeer made the car a handful in the slow corners, but with the help of a
safety car period I made it to 10^th place before being punted into
the gravel again by another driver. The starter motor also let me down again,
leaving me stranded in 12^th position for the race and 13^th
overall for the day.

We
will be stripping the car to resolve our oil leak, and needless to say, the
starter motor will be overhauled before the next race in PE! We also have some
radical set up changes in mind to cure the understeer.

A
big thank you to our fantastic sponsor, Gatorback RAM, for their backing and
support! Thanks also to our loyal fans and supporters who came to cheer us on –
we really appreciate it. Our next race is on October 4^th at Aldo
Scribante in Port Elizabeth,
where we hope to continue our steady progress and add to our points haul for
the year.