What Blockbuster Extreme Festival Review
Where Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
When Saturday 12 April 2025
Community South Africa National
The Blockbuster Extreme Festival was huge for Dunlop Racing
Kyalami’s Blockbuster combined National and Regional Championship Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola wasn’t just a huge and spectacular affair last Saturday. It was also a monster weekend for Dunlop Racing.
“Kyalami was a record breaking weekend for Dunlop,” motorsport partner ATS CEO Heinz Bose explains. “We had every national car racing on Dunlop tyres and virtually all of the regional entries running on Dunlops too. We supplied in excess of 600 Dunlop Racing Tyres and our Dunlop ATS fitment centre mounted more than 250 tyres on site at Kyalami over the weekend, in spite of some unexpected equipment issues.”
Dunlop Tyres showcased its exceptional performance at Kyalami, dominating the competition and proving their superiority on the track. “Dunlop utterly dominated this weekend’s racing at Kyalami,” said Dunlop Tyres Marketing Manager Joanne de Freitas.
“Our tyres are trusted by every competitor on the circuit to race and win. If that’s not a tribute to the race on Saturday, sell on Monday philosophy, nothing will ever be! Racing improves the breed. Kyalami once again proved beyond any reasonable doubt what Dunlop can do for your car too.”
The blockbuster Festival highlighted Dunlop’s commitment to excellence and its ability to deliver top-notch performance in even the most extreme conditions. With every national car racing on Dunlop tyres and virtually all regional entries running on Dunlops’ too, the brand quite simply ruled the roost.
The big weekend action commenced with Friday qualifying, where South African Touring Cars driver Michael van Rooyen, SATC SupaCup man Jonathan Mogotsi, Astron Energy Polo Cup lad Rory Atkinson and Toyota GR Cup driver Nabil Abdool picked up their R3000 Dunlop cheques for putting it on Pole Position. Saturday followed with quite literally dawn to dusk action.
The returning Saood Variawa’s Toyota got the jump on pole man van Rooyen to take the opening South African Touring Car win, with rookie Jagger Robertson third. Debutant Keegan Campos then made best of the reverse grid second race to storm to a win from Robertson and his VW Golf teammate Julian van der Watt. Which leaves van Rooyen provisionally leading Robertson and van der Watt in the SATC championship. But how long will it take before late starers Variawa and Campos catch the leaders?
Dominant pole man Jonathan Mogotsi led from lights to flag in SATC SupaCup to beat Charl Michael Visser and Tate Bishop to the first race win. But Mogotsi and Visser were among the cars penalised on a push to pass issue to elevate Bishop to a hat trick of wins from Dylam Pragji and Mogotsi. Jonathan made no mistakes to take heat 2 from Bishop and Visser. Bishop provisionally leads Mogotsi by a dozen points in the chase with Visser close behind in third.
Racing lass Tyler Robinson then took the Astron Energy Polo Cup Superpole before she drove a brilliant race from lights to flag to win from Ethan Coetzee and debutant Anthony Lessing. Log leader heading to Kyalami, Mo Karodia then bounced back to win heat 2 from rookie Shiren Rajpaul and Coetzee. All of which left Ethan Coetzee provisionally leading Karodia by a couple in the chase, with Robinson another six points adrift.
In other national action, Bradley Liebenberg made it an Extreme Supercars driven by Dunlop triple in the opening race from Ryan Naicker’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Jonathan du Toit’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO. Du Toit put one over his young rival in race 2 only for Liebenberg to suffer a penalty to allow Naicker to end up second.
In regional action, Warren Lombard’s Mustang took the opening Dunlop V8 Supercar win from Thomas Reib’s Lumina, before Reib turned the tables to win the second race from the legend, Ben Morgenrood’s Falcon. It was a day of the doubles in the other three Dunlop shod classes. Wayne Masters took two back for the older generation over teenage Jayden Goosen in the ATE Brakes VW Challenge, Ryan Naicker both BMW M Performance Parts races and Lendl Jansen went unbeaten in DOE Formula Vee.
The Dunlop-shod Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola heads to the third round at the Aldo Scribante Racetrack in Gqeberha next on 10 May, before the Regional Festival visits Zwartkops a week later. But there’s even more big racing news coming up from Dunlop Racing before the end of April. Watch this space!
Issued on behalf of Dunlop National Race Report
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