Summarize

The stubbled mielie fields of Delmas may well be lying in midwinter fallow, but that will certainly not detract the Regional Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola from rocking the Red Star Raceway, come Saturday 28 June. A full day of racing lies in wait and ready to warm the winter hearts of any Gauteng race fan.

The program includes all the regular Northern Regions highlights including the Dunlop V8 Supercars, ATE Brakes VW Challenge and BMW M Performance Parts Series. Add the DOE Formula Vees and Ferro Energia 111s and SuperHatch, and there will be more than good reason to step back those precautionary five paces.

A two horse race looks set to continue between Warren Lombard’s Mustang and Thomas Reib’s Lumina in the Dunlop V8 Supercars. Lombard has won more races but Rieb leads the chase thanks to his better consistency. Both must however still beat the legend, Ben Morgenrood, who does not score points racing his Falcon in the experimental GTX class, but he’s been winning and taking points away from the title fighters too. Auke Compaan meantime leads the GT2 chase over another veteran, Steve Herbst’s similar Corvette.

A war of the generations rekindles in the ATE Brakes VW Challenge. Old man Wayne Masters returns to take on young gun Class A leader Jayden Goosen. They must still hold the likes of Ian Walker, Elna Croeser, Dean Ross and Mike Barbaglia off if they want it all their own way. And while Stuart Mack continues unbeaten in Class B from Francis Aldrich and Nicole Lombard, it’s consistent young Class C leader Adriaan de Beer who leads the championship chase. By dint of the Brat Pack having more entries. Also keep an eye on Mitch Coetzee, Bryce Pillay, and comeback king Michael Zapheriou there.

Stalwarts Leon Loubser, Ryan Naicker and Bob Neill are the BMW M Performance Parts Class A big guns. Renier Smith, Andreas Meier, Nek Makris and Anton Pommersheim are the main Class B contenders and it’s close in Class C between Hein van der Merwe, Salvi Gualtieri, Varish Ganpath, Oz Biagioni and Rob Gearing. Racing on their own, keep an eye on Bernard de Gouveia, Michael Grobler and Paolo Cavalieri in Class D, Andre van Vuuren, Eddie Rodrigues, Wessel Mostert and Karabo Malemela in class E. And Shaun Dodd, Justin Brown, and Zaheer Seedat in F.

Lendl Jansen remains the man to beat in the DOE Formula Vee National Challenge partnered with CIM Lubricants. It’s super close behind him though, where Gert van den Berg and Vaughn Hills sit tied in second, with MD Bester, Peter Hills, Theodore Vermaak and Shaun van der Linde all breathing down their necks. And ignore the likes of Johan Gouws, Kyle Watt, Brandon Hills, Mile Stewart, and the rest at your own peril.

The Ferro Energia 111 Sports GTs and Saloons are always a gas. GT man George Economides’ turbo Golf and Wayne Robb’s Focus share that title lead, but 111 is another category that’s more about the classes. Economides has Mark du Toit’s BMW and Phillip Meyer’s Porsche to fight for GT honours, while Robb must deal with Wouter Roos and Pieter Potgieter’s Golfs in A. Golf duo Wayne Lebotschy and Maritz Le Roux fight over Class B, and youngsters Chris Tait, Sebastian Bouilliart Class and Keegan Nathin are in the C war. 111s race together with Superhatch and Classic Saloons.

There’s always something extra at Red Star and Saturday’s Regional Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola is no exception, with kids’ entertainment, food and drink stalls, off-track entertainment and more. Fans can examine the racecars close-up and catch up with the teams and drivers in the pits too. Entry is R120 per person over 12. See you at Red Star!