Summarize

It may not have been a quantity field, but the ATE VW Challenge certainly delivered some top quality racing when most of the championship leaders joined the Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola to visit the epic East London Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend. The upshot is an epic title fight as two points now separate the top three in the championship chase and just two rounds left to race.

With Jayden Goosen’s AA Certified Polo 6R the only class A car to make the trip securely in pole position, the real interest was in Classes B and C. Francis Aldrich used the expected advantage of the thick seaside air to put his normally aspirated 2-litre Vaporworx Polo on the Class B pole over the so far indomitable Stuart Mack’s turbo-litre Autozone Tour Plan car. There was another surprise in third as Elna Croeser stepped back into Class B in her ATE Brakes version ahead of Northern Bolt & Tool lad Jonathan Konig and stalwart Chris Davison’s Generator Services car.

Bryce Pillay took another point out of his championship deficit to lead the all-Polo Vivo Brat Pack class C grid ahead of ever-improving Stuart Konig’s Northern Bolt & Tool entry and championship leader Adriaan de Beer’s Ukwazi Engineering car. Andy Gossman back in his older new Goose Motorsport version, started fourth from Insurisk lad Dimitri Zapheriou after poor Philip Croeser’s weekend came to a premature end when he rolled his ATE machine in practice.

It was a splendid summery day when the first ATE VW Challenge race assembled on that historic East London grid and Jayden Goosen stroked away to his expected win. Behind him, Stuart Mack took half a lap to dispose of Class B pole man Francis Aldrich before romping away to his ninth straight class win of the season with Elna Croeser third from Chris Davison and a delayed Jonathan Konig. Bryce Pillay had to work for his class C win following an intense battle with Stuart Konig, who crucially took second from Adriaan de Beer to even further close the gap at the top of the overall points table. Andy Gossman and Dimitri Zapheriou followed them home.

While Jayden Goosen trotted off to make it an untroubled Class A and overall double win for the day, the rest of the second ATE VW Challenge race proved an absolute Humdinger. Francis Aldrich made full use of his low altitude power bonus and a rare mistake to finally usurp Stuart Mack in Class B after the defending champion out braked himself at Cocabana. Jonathan Konig bounced back to snatch third in class from Elna Croeser by all of six-hundredths of a second, with Chris Davison in chase.

The resurgent Bryce Pillay continued to dominate in Class C from Stuart Konig and Andy Goosen after Adriaan de Beer spun again before clawing back to fourth ahead of Dimitri Zapheriou to set up an epic Class B and overall title battle. Overall, Jayden Goosen trotted to an unchallenged Class A double, while Stuart Mack did enough in the opening heat to beat Francis Aldrich to second for the day in Class B from Elna Croeser. Bryce Pillay took the C trophy from Stuart Konig and Andy Gossman.

All of which provisionally leaves Stuart Mack leading the 2025 ATE Brakes VW Challenge by all of a point from Class C men Bryce Pillay and Adriaan de Beer now tied in second. Behind them, Stuart Konig sits fourth ahead of A leader Jayden Goosen with Francis Aldrich closing rapidly off his significant East London points haul. The ATE VW Challenge now heads to the Red Star Raceway for the fifth round of the Gauteng Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola on Saturday 4 October.