Summarize

All four Dunlop Northern Regions Extreme Festival championships will be decided at  the Zwartkops finale in Pretoria on Saturday 21 November. That follows a cracking penultimate round at the Red Star Raceway near Delmas on Saturday. None of the Dunlop V8 Supercars, ATE VW Challenge, the DOE Formula Vee and BMW M Performance Parts contenders have yet done enough to clinch a title. 

Mustang man Warren Lombard may have taken the Dunlop Pole position award in the Dunlop V8 Supercars, before holding title rivals, a resurgent Terry Wilford’s similar car and Thomas Reib’s Corvette in the first race and planting himself between reverse grid race 2 winner Reib and Wilford in third. But that’s still not enough to wrap it up. Provisionally, Lombard leads Wilford to the finale by nine points with Reib a further ten behind, but with 51 points still available, that fat lady is nowhere near singing…

Anthony Lessing is another man on a mission having scooped the Dunlop Pole Position award before winning both ATE VW Challenge races for the second meeting in a row on Saturday. His closest title rivals, rookies Chris Tait and Josh Moore could only watch Lessing disappear as they shared out the second and third places to leave the three of them separated by eleven points and up to nineteen available at Zwartkops. Behind them, Sebastien Bouilliart and Keegan Nathan shared the Class B wins to see them split by seven points. While Bryce Pillay’s double win leaves him eleven clear of Stuart Konig. Roll on Zwartkops!

Lee Thompson is building a handy collection of Dunlop Pole Position awards, but this latest one and his subsequent fourth double win on the trot, now see the late starter to the top of BMW M Performance Turbo Series log, too. His closest rival, Anton Pommersheim may be within a mathematical shot at the title, but based on Lee’s form, it may just take trouble for Thompson to stem that tide. Ethan Coetzee and Reiner Smith shared the Red Star Class B honours, and  Bennie Luyt and class leader Reinhard Miller Class C. Richard Gerntholtz and Andre van Vuuren meantime won a BMW NA race each as they continue that title tussle, while Tiaan van Rooyen and Claudio Jardim shared the D wins and Desmond Bloem won both E races.

The closest Dunlop man to a championship at this stage is Lendl Jansen, who sits on a 28-point DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Fuel title advantage over Vaughn Hills and 42 points still to pay. Jansen bounced back from a few races in the pack to take the Dunlop Pole Position Award and the day at Red Star and leave himself needing a good opening race at the Zwartkops season finale to wrap up his hat trick three titles in a row. Behind Jansen and Hills, it’s all to play for between brother Brandon and dad Peter Hills, Kyle Watt, and Theodore Vermaak for third.

Which leaves all four Dunlop Gauteng Championships to be decided at the Northern Regions 2026 Extreme Festival Finals in Pretoria on Saturday 21 November. Diarise it now! See you at Zwartkops…