What Regional Extreme Festival Report
Where Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When Saturday 14 September 2024
Community Gauteng Regional
Zwartkops Regional Festival delivers thrills, spills
Zwartkops Raceway treated Gauteng race fans to an epic day of early spring racing that actually ran into the night with the annual Ferro Energia 111 200 endurance race on Saturday. In a dramatic day at the races, there was a double bonus of V8 racing as the Cape Pirelli Cape V8 Masters joined the regular Zwartkops classes alongside the Mobil 1 V8 Supercars.
Elsewhere, the regular PABAR VW Challenge, BMW M Performance Parts Racing Series and DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Lubri Fuel Regional Festival highlights kept an enthusiastic crowd on its toes with great racing and extreme drama. It wasn’t all plain sailing however, as red flags flew to stop a few races to clean up after accidents and pepper up the action.
The opening Mobil1 V8 Supercars race went to form when reigning champion and 2024 leader Julian Fameliaris rumbled to victory aboard his Corvette from Warren Lombard’s Mustang and Thomas in his Reib Lumina. Terry Wilford brought his GTX Mustang home fourth ahead of GT1 rivals, Sam Dahl’s Falcon, Antonie Marx in his Corvette and Shaun Holtzhausen’s Falcon. There was an upset in race 2 however, as Wilford put one over Fameliaris, with Reib, Lombard, Dahl, Marx and Holtzhausen in pursuit.
The visiting Cape Town Pirelli V8 Masters quite literally started with a bang. The opening race was stopped after Stuart Spooner crashed with one-time karting rivals Barry Ingle leading Fabio Tafani. Ingle won the second half of the restarted race to take the heat from Tafani, Mark Voget, Gary Thomson, Joshua Voget and Ken Finneran. Ingle then went unbeaten in race 2 from Tafani, Mark Voget, Carl Nel, Jason Ibbotson and Spooner.
The opening PABAR VW Challenge race went trouble free as brothers Wayne beat Bevin Masters with Dean Ross, Miguel Dias and Mydi Mfana in chase. Stuart Mack beat Mo Karodia and Shiren Rajpaul in Class B as Christopher Tait overcame Andy Gossman in Class C. The same could not be said of race 2, where the last mentioned duo made contact and Gossman was collected by Philip Croeser, who lost count after the third time his Vivo flipped over. Wayne Masters later won the restarted race from Luigi Ferro and Bjorn Bertholdt, Mack beat Karodia and Anthony Lessing in B and Tait survived to win Class C from Kyle Petersen.
Ryan Naicker took the opening BMW M Performance Parts Racing Series heat from Class A rivals Leon Loubser and Bob Neill. Renier Smith won Class B from Bennie Luyt, and Reinhardt Miller took Class C from Lenard Archer and Devin Robertson. Shane Grobler won the smaller class race from Class D rivals Claudio Jardim and Eddie Rodrigues, while Matthew Wadeley took E from Johan Miller and Zeyad Ismail. None of the A cars made the distance in race 2 leaving Class B men Smith to win from Nek Makris, and Class C frontrunners Miller, Robertson and Bennie Luyt. Rodrigues took the second D heat from Nicholas Herbst and Grobler as Wadeley again beat Grobler and Ismail took Class E honours.
Lendl Jansen was back to his winning ways in DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Lubri Fuel. He took the opening heat from Brandon Hills, Theodore Vermaak and title rival Peter Hills. Marcel Blignaut ended fifth from Shaun van der Linde, Kyle Watt and Vaughn Hills. Jansen then did the double over Brandon and Vermaak, while Marcel Blignaut turned the tables on Peter Hills with van der Linde, Watt and Vaughn Hills next home.
It was a big day for the Ferro Energia 111 GT Sports and Saloons racing with Superhatch racing a regular sprint earlier in the day, before their annual 200 km affair racing into the evening. George Economides made no mistake to take the sprint in his rapid turbo Golf ahead of GT rivals, BMW duo Dawie Olivier and Mark du Toit, Class A winner Lucas Bezuidenhout’s Lexus, Melanie Spurr’s Golf, Wayne Robb’s Focus and B winner Luigi Ferro’s Polo. The smaller classes raced alone as Wouter Roos’ Polo beat Elke van Vledder’s Golf 1 to Class C, Mark du Toit’s BMW won Superhatch Rob Clark’s Ballade took Class D.
Dawie Olivier however hung in to take the 200 from Class A winner Wayne Robb and B man Michael Grobler. Melanie Spurr shared her Golf with Elna Croeser to end fourth from Luigi Ferro and Wayne Masters, D winner Clark and Superhatch victor Ishmael Baloyi’s Civic. Lenard Archer was next home in his Getz, from C winners Keegan Nathan and Mauro Da Luz in a Polo, and the George and Francis Aldrich Corsa. Clark meanwhile pipped Olivier and Baloyi to the coveted Index award.
The Regional Festival visits Red Star near Delmas next on Saturday 12 October, a week before Zwartkops’ next big race, the National Extreme Festival finals on 19 October.
Issued on behalf of Extreme Festival
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