Summarize

Dunlop Tyres South Africa made history at Saturday’s fifth round Aldo Scribante National Extreme Festival. Every single car that raced across the six categories on the day, raced on Dunlop tyres. At the same time, among Dunlop’s 2026 National Championship outcomes became apparent, but it is still very much all to play for in the other classes.

“We’re not sure the last time this happened, or if it ever did, but Saturday’s fifth round National Extreme Festival raced exclusively on Dunlop Tyres,” Dunlop Marketing Manager Joanne de Freitas explains. “Over the years, some of the classes have had freedom of choice and others ran other tyre makes so it’s always been a bit of a mix. But on Saturday, each of the six classes that competed, ran exclusively on our tyres. We see that as a bit of a feather in our cap!”

It was also a splendid day on track. South African Touring Cars log leader Julian van der Watt started on the front foot by putting his Volkswagen on the Dunlop Pole Position before leading Keegan Campos’ BMW and KC Ensor-Smith’s Golf to heat 1 victory. Jason Coetzee then repeated his previous lights to flag reverse race win under pressure from Campos and Toyota teammate Michael van Rooyen. That leaves van der Watt in a handy 24 point championship lead over rookies Ensor-Smith and Coetzee, van Rooyen and Campos.

Jason Loosemore consolidated his SATC SupaCup advantage with a dominant Aldo grand slam. Starting from the Dunlop Pole Position, Jason beat Niko Zafiris, Rory Atkinson and Judd Bertholdt in the opening race and then had little trouble in keeping Atkinson and Zafiris at bay in a similarly orderly second race. Loosemore needs only extend his advantage over Atkinson by five points to clinch the title at Killarney in September.

Bjorn Bertholdt surprised the Astron Energy Polo Cup by claiming the Dunlop pole position. Beaten to Superpole by Mauro Da Luz, Bertholdt then dominated race 1 from Charl Smalberger, Chris Tait and Roshaan Goodman. Smalberger turned the tables to win race 2 from log leader Hannes Scheepers, Da Luz and Tait, as Smalberger won overall from Tait and Da Luz. While Smalberger reduced the gap to Scheepers, Hannes is still in control of the championship with da Luz provisionally third. Dad Derick meantime made it a Smalberger family double with both Polo Masters wins over log leader Wayne Masters.

Championship leader Aqil Alibhai finally broke the Investchem MSA4 win sharing tie he had with Mikel Bezuidenhout. Starting from his Dunlop pole position on Saturday, Alibhai went on to win both races while Bezuidenhout minimised the title damage with second both times. Lady racer Anastasia Gerasis impressed with a fine third overall. Alibhai thus extended his advantage over Bezuidenhout, but it’s still way too close to call with four races still to run.

Also racing on Dunlop tyres Kobus Reynecke won the first Toyota Gazoo 86 Rookie Cup heat from Connor Weston. Then they clashed to end up tied in the log lead as Kian Fussell won race 2. Devon Scott GR won both Corolla Dealer wins to sit two points behind Werner Venter in the chase, while Nabil Abdool remains unbeaten in the GR Yaris Media Cup. And home hero Jack Moore won Volkswagen Rookie Cup heat 1 from race 2 and 3 victor Sebastian Dias, who now leads Luke Hill, Sebastian Venkov and Moore in that ever evolving title chase.

The Dunlop shod National Extreme Festival now heads to Cape Town and the Killarney International Raceway for its penultimate sixth round on Saturday 19 September.