This weekend (13-14 September) will see a host of BMW ///M Performance Parts Race Series title contenders return to the starting grid for Round 7 of the 2024 championship at Zwartkops Raceway.
This will be the fourth of five visits to the Pretoria circuit this season and will start a whirlwind final portion of the year with four rounds in just over two months. However, it is not only the frequency of events that will increase. The heat at the top of the points table has also been turned up, with a mere eight points separating the top six in the overall championship. It is a similar situation in the five classes. Although the coastal sixth round saw minimal changes at the top, the absence of some season-long frontrunners has decreased the gaps, with a host of fringe-contenders closing in on top five positions. All this raised the stakes heading into the final few rounds.
The defending Series and Class A champion, Leon Loubser, will look to get back to winning ways this weekend. Loubser’s last win came in May’s fourth round at Red Star Raceway. However, he did win both races in Round 2, also held at Zwartkops Raceway. With 69 points to his name, he leads Fabio Fedetto (61 Points), Bob Neill (47 Points), Nian du Toit (44 Points), and Ryan Naicker (40 Points). Neill is yet to compete at Zwartkops Raceway this season. He missed the first two rounds while his BMW E92 M3 Turbo was being rebuilt, and in Round 5, he had to withdraw on Friday due to mechanical issues. However, his six starts thus far have already seen him take three wins. A driver who will look to continue his impressive form, is Naicker. He showed remarkable pace after a challenging start to the Class A campaign, which started in Round 3. The last Zwartkops Raceway visit saw him take both wins, and he followed this up with two runner-up finishes at Killarney International Raceway.
Renier Smith shot to the top of the Class B points table in Cape Town, albeit while being tied on 73 points with defending class champion Nek Makris on 73 points, but with a 3:1 win advantage. This changed with Makris being absent from the lineup in Cape Town. In Round 5, the last time both drivers competed, saw both taking a win, a runner-up spot, and fastest lap. However, this battle is set for more than a classic head-to-head, with Andreas Meier only three points adrift. This will also be the latter’s first outing since Round 4, which turned out to be a torrid event for him due to terminal mechanical failure on his BMW E36 320iT STC that saw him relinquish the points lead to Makris. However, Meier won two of the three completed races at the circuit at the start of the season and will not make things easy for the pair ahead. Oz Biagioni will complete the Class B quartet 26 points behind Meier, but with his last outing, also in Round 4, ending with his first podium of the season.
In Class C, Gary Martins, with 59 points, retained the lead despite being absent in Round 6. Zwartkops Raceway saw him take one of his two 2024 wins, and he will look to extend his advantage by doing the same. However, Reinhardt Miller took advantage of Jan Eversteyn and Hein van der Merwe not attending the Cape Town round and took two wins to take his tally to 52 points. This sees the reigning Class D champion tied with Eversteyn but with a 2:1 win advantage and now a serious contender for 2024’s Class C honours. Van der Merwe, three points behind, will also be in contention at Zwartkops Raceway. His best result at the circuit this year is second, a position he took twice, while his sole win for the year came at Red Star Raceway. Bennie Luyt is eight points adrift and took his first career win at the circuit in Round 2. Other drivers who capitalised in Cape Town and will look to continue this momentum are Bernard de Gouveia, Troy Cochran, and Varish Ganpath. Alan Hilligenn, who last competed in Round 3, will be back on the grid, while Lenard Archer hopes to have put his misfortunes behind him. Neil Reynolds will also be back after missing Cape Town, while Nishal Singh will also look to be in contention, with his last race win being in Round 3. Rob Gearing has only competed in two rounds this year but will compete at Zwartkops Raceway, where he was victorious in the season opener. Anand Naidu will look to make his first start of the 2024 season.
Class D saw the least amount of changes at the top. While leader Nicholas Herbst, with 76 points, and third-placed Cobus Bohmer, with 56 points, did not attend the Cape Town trip, Second-placed George Economides, with 62 points, had to withdraw due to mechanical issues. Zwartkops Raceway is, however, the circuit where Herbst took his sole win of the year. Economics, Class D’s most successful driver at the circuit in 2024, won both races at the last encounter but will have to work against the clock to have his BMW E36 330i ready for the weekend. Bohmer is still searching for his first win of the year but has visited the Zwartkops podium twice. Claudio Jardim has closed the gap to Bohmer to one point in Cape Town and now has three wins, the first of which came at Zwartkops Raceway in Round 2. Shane Grobler’s consistency sees him fifth despite having not recorded a podium finish yet in 2024. Trevor Long took his first win of the year in the most recent race and will look to build on this, while Dewald Smith and Roland Hopkins will also look to add more points. A host of drivers who missed the Cape Town trip will also be back on the grid, such as Arri van Heerden, Craig Herbst, Eddie Rodrigues and Olerato Sekudu, Ferdi van Staden and Shaun Dodd, who both missed the winter rounds, will also be back.
Class E leader Johan Miller, with 77 points, took one of his two wins at Zwartkops Raceway in Round 5 and has a 20-point advantage over Matthew Wadeley, the other driver who won in that round. Former leader Zaheer Seedat is two points behind Wadeley and will look to make up the position he dropped while skipping Cape Town at the circuit, where he started the season with a victory. Tihan van Rooyen, who also missed Cape Town, trails Seedat by 11 points and looks to make up ground. Caren Nienaber and Mike Grobler, two other Cape Town absentees, will also look to close in. Jacques Smith, a driver with a host of bitter luck in 2024, will look to open his account at Zwartkops Raceway. Bertie Rietveld and Mariaan Emmenis are set for their first outings of the year, while Justin Brown will debut in the series.
Overall, Johan Miller leads Nicholas Herbst, Renier Smith, Makris and Meier.
The BMW ///M Performance Parts Race Series will form part of this year’s sixth Regional Extreme Festival, with races starting at:
11:00 – Race 1 Classes A, B & C – 10 Laps
13:00 – Race 1 Classes D & E – 10 Laps
14:30 – Race 2 Classes A, B & C – 10 Laps
16:10 – Race 2 Classes D & E – 10 Laps
Spectator tickets can be purchased at the Zwartkops Raceway entrance gate. The full Extreme Festival race day programme will be broadcast live, free-to-air, on the Extreme Festival website. A detailed preview of the BMW ///M Performance Parts Race Series will also form part of the BMW Car Club Gauteng’s monthly BMW Club TV Show.
Issued by Brandsponential on behalf of BMW Car Club Gauteng
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