Summarize

Zwartkops celebrated spring in grand style when the 2026 Northern Regions Extreme Festival visited the Pretoria Raceway for a cracking fifth round on Saturday. If the various classes were on a knife’s edge before the weekend, the Dunlop V8 Supercars, ATE VW Challenge, M Performance Parts BMWs, DOE Formula Vees and Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons racing and SuperHatch all left even closer fought.

With Thomas Reib’s Corvette and Terry Wilford and Warren Lombard’s Mustangs separated by a handful of points in the Dunlop V8 Supercars chase, Lombard took pole position from Wilford and Reib. Lombard then cleared off to take the opening heat as he left Reib to pass Wilford for second. Sam Dahl, GT2 winner Wayne Spicer and Vic Dias chased. Wilford then made best of the reverse grid race 2 start to lead Lombard by lap. But Rieb hit trouble to leave Dahl to third from GT2 winner Dias, Alan Ryan and Spicer as Lombard took the day from Wilford, Dhal and GT2 man Dias. 

The ATE VW Challenge proved a day of domination as Class A man Anthony Lessing, B lad Keegan Nathan and Class C winner Bryce Pillay all stormed to double lights to flag wins off pole position. Christopher Tait, Francis Aldrich, and Anthony Lessing chased Lessing home in race 1, while Tait was second from Josh Moore and Walker in the second heat. Nathan left Anthony Bouillart and Keyaan Dwomoh to fight in the first Class B race, before Dwomoh followed from a resurgent Max Corbett in the second. And Pillay fended Elna Croeser and Stuart Konig off in race 1 and beat a combative Konig and Croeser in the second heat to leave all three title chases wide open.

With all BMW M Performance Parts Series Turbo Series eyes on Lee Thompson, the  comeback kid delivered and then some with pole position and double race wins. All Anton Pommersheim could do to minimise his title damage was hold Bob Neill off for second. Ethan Coetzee beat Wessel Mostert and Oz Biagioni in the opening B race before Reiner Smith hit back over Coetzee and Mostert. Nicky Dicks took both C wins, from Bennie Luyt and Anand Naidu and then Reinhardt Miller and Hein van der Merwe.

Andre van Vuuren won the opening BMW Normally Aspirated race from Richard Gerntholtz and Olerato Sekudu. Ruhan van der Walt took Class B and lady racer Chloe Stuart Class D. Bernard de Gouveia then struck to beat Gerntholtz and van Vuuren in the second heat, where Claudio Jardim won Class C and Trent Williams took Class D.

MD Bester caused a stir when he beat recent form man Kyle Watt to DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Fuel pole position. Bester then fought Watt off for the opening race win, leaving Watt to also re-pass Peter Hills for third with another surprise, Shaun van der Linde fourth from Theo Vermaak, Jaco Schriks and championship leader Lendl Jansen. There was drama in the opening part of the red-flagged second race that eliminated Bester, Peter Hills, and Vermaak, among others. To leave Watt to win from van der Linde, Schriks, Vaughn Hills and Jansen as the Vee title too, tightened up.

The Digit FMS 111 GT and saloon races were split on Saturday as Wayne Robb’s Focus led lady racer Tyler Robinson’s SupaPolo Mark du Toit’s BMW, sister Berlin Robinson’s Polo, JP Nortje, and GTB winner Jonathan Visser’s Subaru to the opening race win. Tyler then beat Jarred Rossouw’s similar device, du Toit, Philip Meyer’s Porsche, and Robb in the second heat as Visser took GTB again. 

Craig Priestley’s Polo put one over Lindsay Clur’s Golf, Ernest Heather, and Lucas Bezuidenhout’s Lexus in both saloon races, where Piet Potgieter’s Golf beat Mike O’Sullivan’s Ballade to Class B, Henry van Vledder’s Golf took Class C and Arthur Thorne won Superhatch.

With most classes now poised on an ever sharper knife’s edge, the penultimate Northern Regions Extreme Festival should prove another cracker come the sixth round races at the Red Star Raceway near Delmas on Saturday 10 October.