What Extreme Festival 2024 Round 3 Report
Where Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When Saturday 18 May 2024
Community South Africa National
Splendid racing and great dices the order of the day
The Volkswagen Motorsport Rookie Cup delivered close and exciting second round action as its young guns entertained at Zwartkops’ Extreme Festival on Saturday.
All eyes may have been on young Durbanite Dhivyen Naidoo following his dominant performance at Killarney last time out, but fellow former karters Jayden Goosen and Uzair Khan topped qualifying with Naidoo third from Judd Bertholdt and Josh Moore. Goosen and Khan however fluffed their starts to allow Naidoo to lead Bertholdt and Moore, with coach Daniel Rowe in the mix and Goosen and Khan chasing back.
It was close fought between the top three as Moore initially challenged Bertholdt. That seemed to spur Judd on as he made off after Jayden up front with Moore in pursuit as a three-way battle ensued between the three. Bertholdt then outsmarted a defensive Naidoo to nick the lead, leaving Dhivyen to fight a charging Goosen off for second, with Moore and Khan in chase.
Moore started the second race on pole position from Bertholdt, Goosen, Khan and Naidoo with coach Rowe in the blend. But Moore and Bertholdt fluffed their starts to allow Naidoo to escape. Bertholdt regained second from Goosen and set off after the leader and soon drew level. His outside move however went awry to drop him to fourth behind Naidoo, Goosen and Khan.
Naidoo hung on from there to win from Goosen and Bertholdt, who passed Khan for third, with Moore fifth. But Naidoo was handed a penalty to be placed behind Bertholdt for his part in Judd’s awry moment. Then Goosen copped a 30-second jumped start penalty to hand the double win for the day to Bertholdt, with Naidoo classified second from Khan, Moore and Goosen, pending final MSA ratification.
“Rookie Cup delivered some brilliant racing today as our young guns put on a show to remember.” Volkswagen Head of Motorsport Mike Rowe concluded. “The racing was exceptional and the guys are learning by the lap and we also have a new race winner as our young talents continue to develop their skills in racing conditions.”
The Volkswagen Rookie Cup academy trains its racing recruits in every aspect of racing in a real-world hands-on raceday realm. The syllabus covers it all, from driver fitness to physical and mental preparation, teamwork, collaborating with the team, data analysis and with television and media training to every other aspect of their future racing careers.
Young drivers interested can email driving@vwsa.co.za for further information on joining the Volkswagen Rookie Cup.
Issued on behalf of Volkswagen Motorsport
MSA Publishes media releases from a host of different sources on our website as a service to the sport. It is not practically possible to vet/approve every release that is published. Some news items and articles are written by correspondents and do not necessarily represent MSA’s views.