Regional Extreme Festival delivers the magic to Zwartkops faithful

Night-time spectacle, close racing and a sizeable crowd typified Saturday’s fourth round of the Regional Extreme Festival Presented By Coca-Cola at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria.

ATS 200

Heading up proceedings was the annual Zwartkops 200 event, the season’s only endurance race for the Ferro Energia 111 Sports and Saloon Car category.

The 84-lap race brought the great spectacle of night competition, plus the drama of pit stops against the clock to the event.

Add close racing and unexpected winners, and the spectators got absolute value for the price of their tickets.

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The race was won by Louis Scholtz in his Car Care Clinic Honda Ballade.

Second, three seconds adrift, was Wayne Robb in his Ford Focus ST, with Wouter Roos and Peet Visagie (Origen Oil Volkswagen Golf GTI) rounding out the podium just another two seconds further back.

Johan Labuschagne (Muller Developments Subaru Impreza) was fourth, leading home Rob Clarke/Mike O’Sullivan (Containerforce Honda Ballade) and Shaun Vermaak/Strati Yianna (Gapcon Developments BMW 235i).

111 Sports and Saloon Car sprint

Earlier in the day, the category’s eight-lap sprint race saw George Economides win in his Wealth Avenue Volkswagen CitiGolf Turbo, chased to the line by Mark du Toit’s TAR BMW Z4, the Car Care Clinic Volkswagen Golf GTI of Wouter Roos and the Ford Focus ST of Wayne Robb.

BMW M Performance

The opening BMW /// Performance Parts race for cars in Classes A, B and C went to Rick Loureiro (Combined 330i), ahead of Leon Loubser (Monaco Motors 335i), Fabio Fedetto (M4), Lourenzo Gualtieri (SavSpeed 328i Turbo) and Renier Smith (M3 Turbo).

Loureiro won race two as well, followed by Loubser, Gualtieri and Smith.

The first race for Beemers in Classes D, E and F went to Mario Hattingh (Bravio Investment M2), leading home Andre’ Scheepers (Curvent 325i Turbo), Richard Gerntholtz (FKN Army 330i) and Neil Reynolds (Valve Hospital 330i).

Dawie Olivier (International Race Supplies BMW 325i) led race two from start to finish, followed by Scheepers, Bernard de Gouveia (De Gouveia Accountants M3) and Eugene Gouws (Master Mowers M3).

ATE Volkswagen Challenge

Jayden Goosen (Ferro Energia) won the first largely Polo campaigned ATE Volkswagen Challenge race ahead of Ian Walker (Mellow Velo), lady racer Elna Croeser (ATE Brakes) and Stuart Mack (AutoZone).

Goosen, Walker, Croeser and Mack took exactly the same positions in race two.

V8 Supercars

Veteran Ben Morgenrood (Morgenrood Auto Ford Mustang) won the first Dunlop V8 Supercar race, followed by Terry Wilford (Fuchs Ford Mustang), Thomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Chevrolet Lumina) and Franco di Matteo (Di Matteo Jaguar XK8).

Warren Lombard (Pepboys Automotive Ford Mustang) won race two, started from an inverted grid,  leading home Reib, di Matteo and Richard Fuller (PotAbout Ford Falcon).

Single-seaters

Defending champion Lendl Jansen (Bull Security Rhema) won the first DOE CIM Lubricant Fuel Formula Vee race, narrowly ahead of Vaughn Hills (Mangaza MXTwo Rhema), MD Bester (Mangaza MXTwo Rhema) and Gert van den Berg (DOE Parts Mangaza Rhema).

Jansen won race two as well, this time leading home Bester, Hills and Theodore Vermaak (DOE Parts Forza.

The all-new Liqui Moly Super Vee category put up a good show, with their first race going to Jeanre le Roux (Liqui Moly Stealth).

He led home Luchen Ramchander (Liqui Moly Stealth), Earl Swart (Liqui Moly Forza) and Phillip Bellingen (Liqui Moly Lantis).

Race two was won by lady combatant Fabienne Lanz (Stealth), followed by Jeanre le Roux, Phillip Bellingen and Grant Will (Liqui Moly Ashley).

Nationals next

The next Extreme Festival event at Zwartkops will be a national round on Saturday, 21 June.

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