Summarize

Championship leader Julian van der Watt and delighted maiden winner Andrew Schofield shared the South African Touring Cars wins at a thrilling Zwartkops’ third round National Extreme Festival in Pretoria on Saturday. Van der Watt overcame an initial challenge before storming to the opening feature race. Reverse grid pole man Schofield then sped to a lights to flag race 2 win, while Jason Loosemore reignited his SATC SupaCup championship charge with a double victory. 

Van der Watt celebrated his new sponsor in style when he put his new look We Buy Cars Investchem WCT Volkswagen Golf GTI on pole position. Julian put two hundreths of a second on rookie teammate KC Ensor-Smith, who also trotted out a bright new look on his African Heating Investchem WCT Volkswagen Golf GTI. 

Another two tenths back, fellow rookie, Jason Coetzee made it the championship 1-2-3 at the front of the grid in his Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla. Coetzee’s teammate, champion Michael van Rooyen lined up alongside him on row 2 ahead of Chemical Logistics trio, Keegan Campos’ Veloce Campos FAST BMW 128ti Robert Wolk’s WCT Volkswagen Golf GTI and Andrew Schofield’s FlySafair Chemical Logistics BMW 128ti.

Behind them, Jason Loosemore’s Nathans machine pipped rookie log leader Rory Atkinson’s Volkswagen Motorsport entry to pole in the all-Volkswagen SupaPolo SATC SupaCup. AF Fans lass Tyler Robinson continued to impress in third alongside Judd Bertholdt’s Union Power Energy SupaPolo. Nico Vostanis and David Franco shared row 3 from Jared Rossouw, Niko Zafiris, Paulo, and Rick Loureiro.

Michael van Rooyen made a great start off the second row to lead the way but Julian van der Watt wasted no time in fighting back at the tabletop to take control of the race from the front. Van Rooyen settled down in second ahead of teammate Coetzee, Ensor-Smith, Campos, Wolk and Schofield. Campos and then Wolk found a way past Smith before Coetzee came to a stop, to leave van der Watt to the win from van Rooyen, Campos and then Wolk, Ensor-Smith and Schofield.

 

Behind them, Jason Loosemore got away to a clean start in SupaCup but there was drama behind him that saw the order reshuffled as Judd Bertholdt moved up to second from Nikki Vostanis, Tyler Robinson, Rory Atkinson, and David Franco. Rick Loureiro came out on top for an entertaining and panel shedding spat for seventh from Niko Zafiris, Paulo Loureiro, and the delayed Jared Rossouw.

Andrew Schofield made perfect use of his reverse grid pole position to keep KC Ensor-Smith in check as Wolk slotted up to third early in race 2. Behind them, van der Watt took a lap or two to dispose of the Toyotas when the safety car was dispatched to clean up after an errant SupaCup machine. Schofield worked the restart perfectly to lead Ensor-Smith, Wolk, van der Watt, Campos, and van Rooyen off to an emotional maiden win after Coetzee ground to a halt again.

Jason Loosemore took charge of the second SupaCup race from the get-go with Tyler Robinson Second from Rory Atkinson, until Rory ground to a halt. That left Bertholdt third from Vostanis, Franco, Paulo Loureiro, Rossouw and Rick Loureiro. Overall, van der Watt took the SATC day from van Rooyen, Campos, Wolk, Ensor-Smith and Schofield, with Loosemore top SupaCup from Bertholdt and Robinson. The South African Touring Cars and SupaCup head to Gqeberha and the Aldo Scribante racetrack next for the fourth round of National Extreme Festival on Saturday 27 June.