Summarize

The Northern Regions Extreme Festival put the long wait for its second round behind it with an entertaining day of racing at the Red Star Raceway near Delmas on Saturday. Race 1 winner Warren Lombard hauled reverse grid heat winner Terry Wilford in to take the Dunlop V8 Supercars day, rookie Christopher Tait dominated the ATE VW Challenge, Lee Thompson and Andre van Vuuren doubled up in the BMW M Performance Parts races, as did Lendl Jansen in DOE Formula Vee. And Mark du Toit ended best of the three winners in Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons.

Pole man Warren Lombard’s Ford Mustang held Thomas Reib’s Corvette off to take the opening Dunlop V8 Supercars race win. Terry Wilford’s Mustang grabbed third from Franco Di Matteo’s Jaguar XKR on the final tour with veteran Larry Wilford’s Ford Falcon and Sam Dahl next up in a Holden Monaro. Wayne Spicer’s Jaguar took GT2 honours from Steve Herbst’s Corvette and Gerald Beech in a Camaro. Mr. Reverse Grid, Terry Wilford then took race 2 as Lombard passed Reib for second from Di Matteo and Larry Wilford and Spicer repeated his GT2 win from Herbst and Alan Ryan.

Volkswagen Rookie champion Christopher Tait likewise converted his ATE VW Challenge pole position into a race win over veterans Anthony Lessing, Ian Walker, and Francis Aldrich. Jonathan Konig, Chris Davison, and Roberto Cosani took the conservative approach to top Class B after trouble hit among the middle class’ regular young guns, while Bryce Pillay kept Stuart Konig and Dimitri Zapheriou at bay in Class C. Tait went on to do the double over Lessing while Joshua Moore fought back to third in race 2. The young guns, Keyaan Dwomoh and Sebastian Boulliart fought back to take the B win from Konig, and Pillay repeated his C win over Stuart Konig and Zapheriou.

Lee Thompson turned the BMW M Performance Parts status quo on its head when he came saw and conquered the Turbo Cup. Bob Neill could only watch from second from the dicing Lenard Archer and Nishal Singh once the red flagged heat 1 restarted. Renier Smith took Class B and Wessel Mostert beat Bennie Luyt and Reinhardt Miller to Class C honours. Thompson then romped to the double in race 2, while Anton Pommersheim rose through the pack to second from pole man Leon Loubser. Smith took Class B, while  Miller turned the C tables on Mostert and Luyt.

Andre van Vuuren got ahead of pole man Richard Gerntholtz on the opening lap of the first BMW M Performance Parts NA Cup race to lead to the flag with Olerato Sekudu, Ignus du Plessis and Paolo Cavalieri in chase. Nicolas Herbst took Class B from Ruan van Der Walt, and Zaheer Seedat won Class D from Reinhardt Miller. Van Vuuren went on to the double from Gerntholtz and Sekudu, du Plessis, Troy Cochran and Cavalieri as Miller continued the day of the doubles over Justin Brown and Henty Platt in Class D.

Lendl Jansen left Vaughn Hills to fight Gert van den Berg off for second in the opening DOE Formula Vee race partnered with CIM Fuels. MD Bester and the duelling Brandon and Peter Hills, Theodore Vermaak, Marcel Blignaut, Anton van der Merwe and James Carter benefited Kyle Watt’s late exit from fourth to complete the top ten. Jansen went lights to flag to make it a double on the day over Vaughn and Brandon Hills in race 2 with Bester, Vermaak, a recovered Watt, the delayed van den Berg, Blignaut, Jaco Schriks and James Carter in chase.

Volkswagen Polo duo Jared Rossouw and Strati Yiannakis sandwiched GTA rival Mark du Toit’s BMW Z4M up front in the opening of three Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons races. Wayne Robb’s Focus took GTB, Golf trio Melanie Spurr won Class A, Piet Potgieter B and Henry van Vledder Class C. Dean Parker’s Alfa Giulia won Class D and Mimi Le Roux’s Polo E and Ishmael Baloyi took Superhatch in his Honda. 

Yiannakis and Marius Truter’s Polos broke out to hand race 2 to du Toit with the same winners in the classes. Shaun Vermaak then took the final heat in a BMW 1-2 over day winner du Toit, Rossouw and Truter. Robb, Spurr, Potgieter, van Vledder Parker Le Roux and Baloyi all took triples class wins. The Extreme Festival switches to National action for this Saturday’s Zwartkops third round. The Regional Festival returns to wintry Zwartkops for its third round on 13 June.