Summarize

With the National Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola running exclusively on Dunlop tyres, the East London Grand Prix Circuit saw some of South Africa’s prospective champions staking their title claims, while others remain immersed in furious championship battles.

“With two rounds of the National Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola left to run at Killarney and Zwartkops after East London, some of our 2025 Dunlop racing champions are on the verge of clinching their titles, while others are involved in huge battles,” Dunlop Marketing Manager Joanne de Freitas explains. “On the one hand we have intriguing fights going down in the South African Touring Cars and Astron Energy Polo Cup, and on the other we have drivers looking good to clinch titles soon in the SATC SupaCup, Toyota Gazoo Racing Cup and there’s already an Investchem MSA4 favourite.”

Toyota Corolla pilot Michael van Rooyen maintained his South African Touring Cars title advantage with a second race win. Dunlop Pole Position Prize winner Julian van der Watt and his Golf GTI took the other heat win and the day to move into second ahead of teammate Jagger Robertson. BMW man Keegan Campos had a race to forget to drop to fourth in the chase. But with van Rooyen consistently scoring, his 23-point advantage looks secure, leaving that eight-point fight for second as the likely centre of attention.

There was a huge shake-up when title challenger and double race winner there Jonathan Mogotsi and teammate Jason Loosemore lost their SATC SupaCup points from the previous round at Zwartkops in the lead-up to race weekend. Championship leader Tate Bishop then claimed the East London Dunlop Pole Position award, but it was all Mogotsi from there on in, as he shrugged off his disappointment with a storming double race win. That however still leaves Bishop with a 59-point advantage over Mogotsi, one hand on the title and looking to clinch it at home at Killarney in September.

There was a surprise in Dunlop-shod Astron Energy Polo Cup when former champion Bradley Liebenberg quite literally came, saw and conquered, taking the R3000 Dunlop Pole Position Award and storming to the opening race win over championship leader Mo Karodia. His closest title rivals, Rory Atkinson ended fourth to slip to just ten points adrift, behind Volkswagen Rookie Judd Bertholdt who finished third to move up to third in the chase. The dramatic second race was cancelled, leaving this Dunlop chase wide open. Wayne Masters continues to dominate the over-50 Astron Polo Masters. 

KC Ensor-Smith emerged as hot favourite to become South Africa’s first Dunlop-shod Investchem MSA4 champion when he added two more to his tally of four wins in five starts. Mikel Bezuidenhout however stole pole position on a wet track on Saturday morning before taking a second and a third place in the two races to leave East London in a tight spat for the championship second with Karabo Malemela, Shrien Naidoo and Liam Polome. MSA4 plays championship catch up at the Kyalami Festival of Motoring next at the end of August, following its delayed start to the season.

Like Astron Energy Polo Cup, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Cup was also limited to just one race on the day following all the rain and accident delays. Jason Coetzee had little trouble in extending his GR86 Rookie Cup title advantage to 23 points and Nabil Abdool opened his New GR Yaris Media Trophy lead up to 23 points. Devin Scott however beat veteran Mario de Sousa to prune a few points off Mario’s now significant GR Corolla Dealer Cup championship benefit. All of them of course race on Dunlop Tyres.

With the exception of Investchem MSA4 which adds a race at the Kyalami Festival at the end of August, the Dunlop-shod Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola heads to Killarney for its  penultimate sixth round in Cape Town on Saturday 13 September.