Team South Africa travels to Malaysia this week to join 24 other nations in contesting the fifth round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix of Nations series at the ultra-modern Sepang International Circuit 60 km south of Kuala Lumpur.

Twenty-one-year-old Stephen Simpson was poised to give Absa Team South Africa its best result of the series when he crashed out of the feature race at Australia's Eastern Creek two weeks ago. It was a blow to a team that has worked hard to obtain the optimum set-up for the car called Vulindlela ('clear the way').

After a good start in the opening round at Brands Hatch in England, where Simpson finished sixth in the feature race, the team has struggled to achieve the right balance for the car. The A1GP car has a chassis and engine made specifically for the historic new racing formula created by Dubai's Sheikh Maktoum, the 28-year-year-old businessman and member of the ruling family. Not all of the 25 teams competing have been able to extract the maximum out of their identical cars and some drivers with big reputations in other racing formulas have struggled to get to grips with the car's characteristics.

"We are committed to engineering our car to win races and the entire team continues to put in a total effort to achieve this," said Mike Carroll, sporting and technical manager at Team South Africa.

"We have learnt a great deal over the past four race weekends (the only time teams may use their car) and we managed to achieve our best set-up yet in Australia. Unfortunately, our race performances were compromised by crashes over which the driver had no control.

"Stephen (who missed the second and third rounds when Vulindlela was driven by Tomas Scheckter), continues to gain in experience with the A1GP car and is working hard to provide the engineers with valuable feedback and improve his own performance.

"We will have to wait and see what happens in Malaysia this weekend to learn how far we have progressed."

Dana Cooper, CEO of Team South Africa, is upbeat about the team's chances this weekend. "We've come a long way and, but for the accidents in Australia, I'm sure we would have scored a few more valuable points.

"France are clearly the team to beat at the moment and it's worth noting that they have two very talented drivers with GP2 experience pushing each other (they alternate race weekends) and a team (DAMS) who run both the French and the Swiss cars. This means they effectively have four cars and three drivers (including the talented GP2 driver and recently appointed F1 driver Neel Jani) for feedback, which has allowed them to learn more quickly about the A1 race car than any other team."

Vulindlela carries the numbers 29.1.06 and the word Durban and KZN, to signify that South Africa will host one of the 12 rounds of the series in January.

Plans are well underway for the 'Absa A1 Grand Prix of Nations Durban South Africa', which will provide the series with its only street race and promises to be a highlight of the first season of this World Cup of Motor Sport.

Sepang International Circuit is a clockwise 5,54-km circuit featuring 15 turns and eight straights and is located 60 km south of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The circuit is covered by 27 closed circuit television cameras via fibre optic cabling and includes on-line, real time tracking of race cars, combined with electronic marshal posts that flash coloured warning lights to the drivers instead of flags.

Its architecture is unique and blends modern technology with the Malaysian culture. It can accommodate some 130 000 spectators with 30 000 alone in the unique double-fronted main grandstand whose roof resembles a banana leaf. The Canopy Tower, nestling at the tip of the V-shapd double grandstand, has a roof resembling the Malaysian national flower, the hibiscus.

Vulindlela's driver will be announced in Malaysia at the start of the race weekend.