Summarize

The 2025 Northern Regions Extreme Festival circuit racing season presented by Coca-Cola came to a spectacular end at the Zwartkops Raceway finale on Saturday. After another epic day of action, Warren Lombard emerged as the 2025 Dunlop V8 Supercars champion, Adriaan de Beer topped the ATE VW Challenge and Hein van der Merwe did the BMW M Performance Parts Series double. Wouter Roos emerged ACD Welkom 111 GT and Saloon champion to join the already crowned DOE Formula Vee double champion, Lendl Jansen.

Warren Lombard took his thundering Ford Mustang to the first Dunlop V8 Supercars win before ending second to Terry Wilford in the final race to clinch the championship on the 30th year since it switched to V8s in 1995. Championship rival Thomas Reib’s new Corvette GT was second in the opening heat from Larry Wilford, who has been racing since a decade before that V8 switch in his Holden Monaro, Sam Dahl’s Ford Falcon Terry Wilford’s Ford Mustang and GT2 top three Wayne and Steve Herbst’s Corvette and Alan Ryan’s Falcon. Terry Wilford won the second race from Lombard, Dahl, Reib, Larry Wilford, Spicer, Ryan, and another man who’s been racing since the ‘70s, Herbst.

The opening ATE VW Challenge heat went to form as class A leader Jayden Goosen led Anthony Lessing and Ian Walker home, Stuart Mack took Class B from fast lady Nicole Lombard and rookie and overall leader Adriaan de Beer kept challenger Bryce Pillay and Stuart Konig at bay in Class C. It was much the same up front as Goosen wrapped up the A title ahead of Lessing and Mydi Mfana, and Mack led the same top 3 in B. But there was drama in the Brat Pack when title contender Pillay was involved in an incident that saw a rival red carded to leave Adriaan de Beer to win from Dimitri Zapheriou and Kyle Petersen to wrap the title up from Mack, Pillay, and Goosen.

Rick may have led brother Paulo Loureiro and Leon Loubser to the first BMW M Performance Parts Series race as Anton Pommersheim beat Renier Smith and Nek Makris to the B win, but the big news was behind them. Hein van der Merwe took the Class C double to wrap up the first series double title as he beat Nick Naidoo in both heats, while Varish Ganpath and Anand Naidu shared the thirds. Loubser was the only A car to finish the first heat as Andreas Meier put one on Pommersheim and Smith in Class B. Bernard De Gouveia beat Eugene Gouws and Dawie Olivier to the opening DEF race win as Claudio Jardim took E and Henry Platt Class F. Gouws turned the tables on Johan Miller and De Gouveia in race 2 as Jardim and Platt did the D and E double.

Champion Lendl Jansen opted to sit out the DOE Formula Vee finale and let his rivals fight it out and it was Theodore Vermaak who beat Gert van den Berg and MD Bester to the opening win. Brothers Vaughn and Brandon Hills were next home from Johan Gouws, Daine Stewart, Shaun van der Linde, Anton van der Merwe and James Carter. Vermaak went on to do the double from van den Berg with Brandon Hills third from Gouws, Bester, Daine Stewart, Peter Hills, van der Linde, van der Merwe and Carter.

GT six, Polo SupaCup racer Dylan Pragji beat Jared Rossouw’s similar car, Mark du Toit’s BMW Z4, George Economides’ whistling Golf 1 Turbo and Marius Truter and champion Wouter Roos in two more Golfs to the opening ACD Welkom 111 GT and Saloon 1st heat win. Wayne Robb’s Ford Focus ST took Class A from Lindsay Clur’s Polo, Wayne Lebotschy’s Golf beat veteran Mike O'Sullivan’s Ballade Class B, and Keegan Nathan beat Rookie Cup champion Chris Tait’s similar Polo and another veteran, Rob Clark’s Ballade to Class C. Pragji went on to do the double from du Toit, Truter, Rossouw and Roos, with much the same results in the classes.

Rapidly returning to its former numbers, Superhatch raced on its own for the first time this season. Arthur Thorne’s Polo beat Karel Stols’ Etios and Ja Freckleton’s Golf to the opening heat win. Quintus Viljoen’s Polo followed from Hendrik Venter on his Corsa and Civic duo, Ishmael Baloyi and Leon Bredenkamp each side of the Keithin Meintjies’ Sandero. Freckleton took the second race from Thorne, Stols, Viljoen and Venter, with Baloyi, Joshua du Toit’s Civic and Meintjies in chase.

And so ended another spectacular season of Extreme Festival circuit racing presented by Coca-Cola. Zwartkops is not yet quite done with its year, however. That only happens once the unique annual Top of the Hill climb is done and dusted on Saturday 22 November. Be there!