Summarize

The almost exclusively Dunlop Tyres-shod Northern Regions Extreme Festival made a midwinter visit to Zwartkops in Pretoria on Saturday, where fans were treated to a splendid day of action that ultimately raced into the night. At a meeting that saw the chasers succeed in the Dunlop V8 Supercars, ATE VW Challenge and BMW M Performance Parts Series, most of the Dunlop class chases came away closer fought. Only the DOE Formula Vees more or less ran to championship form.

Terry Wilford’s Mustang grabbed the Dunlop Pole Position Award in the thundering Dunlop V8 Supercars. But he hit problems early on to leave Warren Lombard’s similar car to romp to victory from Franco di Matteo’s Jaguar and championship leader Thomas Reib’s Corvette. Wilford came from the back to gain revenge with a second race win from overall winner di Matteo, Reib, and Lombard. Reib however did enough to maintain an albeit tighter title advantage over Lombard and Wilford.

Christopher Tait snatched the ATE VW Challenge Dunlop Pole Position Award before fighting Anthony Lessing and Josh Moore off for the first race win. Keyaan Dwomoh pipped Keegan Nathan in Class B and Stuart Konig picked up the Class pieces. Lessing then grabbed a last gasp race 2 win from Moore and Ian Walker after leader Tait hit trouble, Nathan turned the B tables on Dwomoh and Konig overcame Brice Pillay in C. That leaves the consistent Lessing leading the chase by just two points from Moore with Tait and B leader Dwomoh close behind. Pillay and Konig fight over Class C. 

Anton Pommersheim claimed the BMW M Performance Parts Dunlop Pole Award, but it was all about Lee Thompson in the Turbo Cup races. Ethan Coetzee won Class B and Reinhardt Miller and Michael Grobler classes C and D. Thompson then did the double as Reiner Smith, Miller and Craig Herbst won the classes to leave Pommersheim in a reduced Turbo championship lead. Andre van Vuuren and Olerato Sekudu shared out the Naturally Aspirated BMW race wins, where Nicholas Herbst and Karabo Malemela, and Philip Mostert Jr. and Justin Brown also shared the Class C and D wins. That leaves van Vuuren to provisionally lead another very close NA championship fight.

Vaughn Hills snatched a happy DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Fuel Dunlop Pole Position Award, but championship leader Lendl Jansen came from behind to win the opening race from Brandon Hills, Jaco Schriks and Peter Hills after early leader Gert van der Berg slowed. Vaughn Hills then won the restarted race 2 from Jansen, dad Peter, and brother Brandon Hills. That leaves Jansen in a handy 19-point championship lead over Brandon and Vaughn Hills as the Regional Extreme Festival heads to its midseason away race at Aldo Scribante in Gqeberha on 8 August.

Dunlop Racing’s logistical partner, ATS Motorsport backed the annual Digit FMS 111 Saloon and Superhatch 200 kilometre endurance race that ran into the evening and where most cars also race on Dunlop tyres. Tihan van Rooyen’s pole sitting BMW 125i  led before Melanie Spurr and Wouter Roos’ Golf GTI took over until the compulsory stops. From which Louis Scholtz emerged to speed to victory in his Class B Honda Civic from Class A duo, van Rooyen and Lindsay Clur’s Golf. Hendrik Venter and Charl Weyers’ Corsa took Class C and Joshua and Mark du Toit’s Honda Civic Superhatch.