Regional Extreme Festival hits the ground hard at Zwartkops

This year’s Regional Extreme Festival series started on an excellent note last Saturday, with more than 150 competitors in six categories tackling the opening regional events at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria.

BMW /// M Performance

Heading up events with 52 entries was the BMW /// M Performance Parts Race Series, divided into five classes and four races to accommodate the numbers.

The first Class A race went to Leon Loubser (330i), followed by Andreas Meier (318i STC), Nek Makris (335), Renier Smith (M3 Turbo), Fabio Fedetto (M4) and Sav Gualteiri (328i).

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Loubser led race two until halfway around the final lap, when the car cut out and stopped on the Zwartkops Tabletop.

Sav Gualteiri went on to take the victory, ahead of Meier, Smith, Makris, Oz Biagioni (M3) and Loubser, who managed to coax his stricken car down the hill and over the finish line.

VW Challenge

Chris Dale won the opening PABAR VW Class A Challenge race ahead of Luigi Ferro, Bevin Masters, Wayne Masters and Dean Ross.

Dale and Ferro took the front two places in race two as well, chased to the flag by Wayne Masters, Bevan Masters and Mike Barbaglia

111/GT and SuperHatch

The first 111/GT Sport and Saloon Car race was won by George Economides (Volkswagen CitiGolf Turbo), leading home Louis Cloete’s Subaru-engine Volkswagen Beetle, Dawie Olivier (BMW 325i), Melanie Spurr (Volkswagen Golf 5 GTI) and Lucas Bezuidenhout (Pta Noord Lexus IS 200).

Economides, Cloete and Olivier filled the podium in race two as well, with Lucas Bezuidenhout just ahead of Spurr over the finish line.

In the process Spurr clinched the day’s Class X victory, first time out in the Golf.

Supercars

Thomas Reib (Chevrolet Lumina) won the opening Mobil 1 V8 Supercar race, followed by Julian Familiaris (Jaguar XK8), Warren Lombard (Ford Mustang), Terry Wilford (Ford Mustang) and Sam Dahl (Ford Falcon).

Veteran Steve Herbst crashed his Chevrolet Corvette in the frighteningly fast turn 1, which left the car a lot shorter, but the driver luckily unhurt.

Familiaris won race two ahead of Reib, Lombard and Dahl.

Formula Vee

Lendl Jansen (Rhema) won both the DOE Formula Vee races, leading home Peter Hills (Rhema), Jaco Schriks (Rhema) and MD Bester (Rhema). Brandon Hills (Rhema) and Kyle Watt (Rhema) took turns in the respective fifth places.

Next up

The next event at the Zwartkops Raceway will be a round of the 2024 Historical Inland Championship, on Saturday, 20 April.

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