Summarize

The Gauteng Northern Regions Extreme Festival racing series presented by Coca-Cola delivered a splendid day of action at a fresh but sunny Red Star Raceway near Delmas on Saturday. On a day of close racing with several shared wins across the classes, the BMW M Performance Parts Series, ATE VW Challenge, Dunlop V8 Supercars, DOE Formula Vees and Ferro Energia 111 races all starred throughout the day.

Elwyn Steenkamp took the opening BMW M Performance Parts Series Class A, B and C race from Bob Neill after Class A rivals Leon Loubser and Fabio Fedetto both retired. Renier Smith won Class B from Nek Makris and Anton Pommersheim, and Nishal Singh defeated Lenard Archer and Ethan Coetzee in Class C. Neill then turned the tables on Steenkamp to take the second race. Pommersheim did the same to Makris and Smith in Class B and Polo Cup racer Ethan Coetzee stepped up to make it a debut win in Class C over Archer and Singh. Steenkamp, Pommersheim and Coetzee thereby took the respective overall class wins.

Andre Scheepers van Vuuren took the opening BMW M Performance Parts Class D,E and F race on a packed 33-car grid from Bernard De Gouveia and Eugene Gouws. Karters, Karabo Malemela and Kent Swartz sandwiched Cobus Bohmer in Class E and Zaheer Seedat took Class F from Shaun Dodd and Ignus du Plessis. Scheepers van Vuuren made it a double in race 2 from yet another young karter and MSA4 racer, Olerato Sekudu and Troy Cochran, Malemela beat Bohmer and Swartz again in Class E and Ignus du Plessis won Class F from Chloe Stuart and Seedat.

Ian Walker took the ATE VW Challenge holeshot to lead the opening race from pole kid Jayden Goosen. But it was Wayne Masters who emerged from the back of the class A grid to take the win after missing qualifying. Champion Stuart Mack once again dominated Class B but there was a huge fight in Class C where Bryce Pillay overcame a terrific battle with log leader Adriaan de Beer to take the win. Walker made another great start to lead before Masters and Goosen took over in the second race. Mack won Class B from Francis Aldrich again while Pillay had to deal with Stuart Konig’s close attention to take a second Class C win.

Pole man Terry Wilford turned the Dunlop V8 Supercar status quo on its head when he put his Mustang on pole position before claiming the opening heat from title fighters, Warren Lombard’s similar machine and Thomas Reib’s Lumina. Auke Compaan took GT2 honours in fourth after Alan Ryan and Wayne Spicer retired. Thomas Reib then clinched the day overall when he took race 2. Which delivered a further twist when championship rival Warren Lombard retired to leave Compaan second from Wilford.

Lendl Jansen and Peter Hills overcame pole man Gert van den Berg to take the opening DOE Formula Vees partnered by Lubri Fuel race. Vaughn and Brandon Hills followed from Daine Stewart, Shaun van der Linde, Kyle Watt, Thor Tulloh, and Jaco Smit. Jansen then held van den Berg and the family Hills, dad Peter, ahead of Vaughn and Brandon, van der Linde, Stewart Marcel Blignaut, Tulloh and Watt to stake a significant claim on the 2025 championship.

Phillip Meyer’s Porsche 924 held Wouter Roos’ Golf, Jonathan Visser and Jared Rossouw off to win the opening Ferro Energia 111 GT Sports and Saloons race. Wayne Robb’s Focus beat Piet Potgieter in Class A. Keegan Nathan took Class C from Christopher Tait and Quintus Viljoen and Keith Meintjies took SuperHatch classes T1 and T2. Roos then turned the tables to take race 2 from Marius Truter and Meyer as Robb won A again from Potgieter and Lindsey Clur, and Nathan won C from  Sebastian Bouilliart. Viljoen did the Superhatch double from A winner Ishmael Baloyi and top T1 man Leon Bredenkamp.

The Regional Extreme festival now takes a break as it prepares for its annual away meeting in East London on Saturday 23 August, but not before the National Festival presented by Coca-Cola, visits the Grand Prix Circuit of its fifth round there on Saturday 19 July.