Summarize

The Killarney International Raceway crowned South Africa’s first National circuit racing champions of 2025 at an epic Cape Town Extreme Festival powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday. Home hero Tate Bishop clinched the SATC SupaCup title with third on the day, while  Jason Coetzee, Nabil Abdool and Mario da Souza wrapped up the three GR Corolla titles. ZX10 Masters champion Clinton Seller meantime missed the weekend yet still tied up a back-to-back title. The rest of the championships however, among them super-close, must wait to be claimed at the 25 October Zwartkops finale.

Winning the day overall was not enough for South African Touring Cars bridesmaid in both heats, Michael van Rooyen to clinch a maiden title. A consistent weekend for Michael and his Gazoo Toyota teammates delivered an overall 1-2-3 for van Rooyen, Sa’aad Variawa and Nathi Msimanga, to leave Michael all of four points away from the title. A hit and miss weekend saw Jagger Robertson’s Volkswagen Golf GTI win a maiden first race before retiring from heat 2. Keegan Campos’ BMW and Julian van der Watt’s Golf struggled in race 1 before ending first and third in the second. That leaves only Robertson with a mathematical chance of stopping van Rooyen.

The Cape Town fans however celebrated one of their own, taking the SATC SupaCup title, young Tate Bishop sidestepped some robust action to follow maiden winner Jason Loosemore home in the first race, before shadowing rival teammates Jonathan Mogotsi and Loosemore in the second to clinch it in his Volkswagen SupaPolo. Another local, David Franco came home fourth for the day from Dean Venter, Karah Hill, Dylan Pragji and SupaCup Masters winner Rob Franco.

The Extreme Supercars driven by Dunlop delivered three bites of the fastest action of the day. Charl Arangies’ rumbling Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO edged Jonathan du Toit’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO to take a thrilling first race win. Home hero Charl Michael Visser’s Class A Porsche 911 followed in third from Marcel Angel’s Ferrari 488 GT3, Paul Hill’s Aston Martin Vantage and Ricky Giannoccoro’s Lamborghini. Du Toit gained revenge on Arangies in heat 2 with Visser, Ricky and Gianni Giannoccoro’s Nissan GTR R35 GT3 in place, before overall winner Arangies took the final from Ricky and Gianni Giannoccoro, Marius Jackson’s Porsche, and Visser.

Killarney enjoyed its first glimpse of the new Investchem MSA4 single seaters, where Mikel Bezuidenhout did his championship chances no harm at all to win both races off pole position. That allowed him to keep the chase wide open after leader KC Ensor-Smith ended second and third in the two new turbo-litre Volkswagen powered wings and slicks class races. Renzo Ribeiro was third from Liam Polome, Karabo Malemela and Adriaan Nel in the opening race. Shrien Naidoo bounced back to second in race 2 from Smith, Polome, Ribeiro and Malemela. Rick Morris took Formula Ford Kent honours from Allen Meyer.

 

Three brilliant Astron Energy Polo Cup heats were perhaps the highlight of the day. Title challenger Rory Atkinson benefited Hannes Scheepers stopping on the final lap to take the opening heat from racing lass Tyler Robinson, Shrien Rajpaul, rookie Judd Bertholdt and log leader Mo Karodia. Ethan Coetzee came from nowhere to take race 2 as Scheepers spun to leave Bertholdt to second from Karodia with Atkinson eighth. Scheepers finally claimed his maiden win from Atkinson and day winner Robinson in the finale as Karodia hit trouble. So Atkinson heads to the Zwartkops finale with a four-point advantage over Karodia. Derik Smalberger and John Kruger overcame Masters leader Wayne Masters to keep that chase open too.

The Volkswagen Rookie Cup also thrilled as leaders Josh Moore and Chris Tait clashed in the first race to leave Uzair Khan to win from Marco da Luz and racing lass Berlin Robinson. Robinson impressed in the lead of race 2 before she was passed by Tait and Moore, who now go into the finale tied in the championship lead. The Toyota Gazoo Cup crowned its dominant champions, Jason Coetzee in the GR86 Rookie Cup, GR Yaris Media champion Nabil Abdool and GR Corolla Dealer Mario da Souza. 

And in champion Seller’s absence, local hero Trevor Westman took the opening SunBet ZX10 Masters win from David Enticott, Jayson Lamb, Hein McMahon, Graeme van Breda, and Keith Agliotti. Westman doubled up to take race 2 from Lamb, Enticott, McMahon, van Breda and Agliotti. Which leaves all eyes on Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria for the National Extreme Festival Finals presented by Coca-Cola on Saturday 25 October.