Summarize

Guy Fawkes may not be as popular as it once was, but if you want some real fireworks in the week of that festival, why not head down to Zwartkops raceway for the Northern Regions Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola on Saturday 8 November? With most of this year’s Gauteng titles still very much up for grabs, racing from the top drawer can be expected across the board in Pretoria this weekend. While the Dunlop V8 Supercars, ATE VW Challenge are all to play for, there are also several classes to be settled in the likes of the BMW M Performance Parts Series and ACD Welkom 111s. The DOE Formula Vee title is however decided, leaving them to just race in their season finale.

It’s however not so simple in both the Dunlop V8 Supercars and wild ATE VW Challenge, where just two points separate the overall leaders in both those classes with just two heats each left to race. Warren Lombard’s Mustang and Thomas Reib’s Lumina sit just two points apart in the Supercars after a tumultuous up and down season. Terry Wilford’s Mustang is still in with a tiny championship chance but he needs a catastrophe for the others and a grand slam himself to win. Watch for wildcard Ben Morgenrood to mix it up too, while Sam Dahl’s Mustang, veteran Larry Wilford and GT2 top men Auke Compaan’s Jaguar and Steve Herbst’s Corvette all in the mix. Light that blue touch paper!

The ATE VW Challenge battle up front will be between Class A duo Jayden Goosen and Wayne Masters with Ian Walker, Mike Barbaglia, Elna Croeser and Dewald Lubbe playing interference. The real interest there is however another two-point battle for the title between Class C lad Adriaan de Beer and Class B top dog and reigning champion Stuart Mack. Mack has newcomer Mauro da Luz, Francis Aldrich, and wildcard Anthony Lessing to deal with, while de Beer has Bryce Pillay way too close for comfort and the whole brat pack out to prove a point. Step back five yards!

Class B man Renier Smith has clinched his class and all but wrapped up the overall BMW M Performance Parts Series championship, where Leon Loubser is also the Class A champion. But the other class battles will go all the way at Zwartkops on Saturday. Hein van der Merwe is within striking distance of Salvi Gualtieri in Class C, while Bernard De Gouveia and Andre van Vuuren are locked in battle for the Class D title. Wessel Mostert has an outside chance of stealing the Class E title from Bernard De Gouveia and it’s between Shaun Dodd, Caren Nienaber and Henry Platt for Class F.

It’s a similar scenario in the ACD Welkom 111 GT sports and saloon races, where Wayne Robb and his Focus ST have wrapped up both the overall and Class A titles. The fight there is for second between GT champion Wouter Roos’ Golf and Class D youngster Keegan Nathan separated by but a point. It’s also super tight between Wayne Lebotschy’s Golf and Mike O’Sullivan’s Ballade in Class C, while young Nathan is not yet out of the woods in Class D with two more young guns, Chris Tait and Sebastian Bouilliart in chase. The 111s will share the track with a few Superhatch entries too.

One class that can just race is DOE Formula Vee powered by Lubri Fuel, where champion two years in a row, Lendl Jansen is certain to have a target on his back. Gert van den Berg is also relatively safe in second, but Theodore Vermaak has family business in Pretoria with father Peter and sons Vaughn and Brandon Hills all over his back for that third place. 

So there you have it, expect fireworks all the way at the Northern Regions Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola on Saturday 8 November. See you at Zwartkops!