Extreme Festival delivers national racing blockbuster at well-attended Kyalami
By: Motorsport Media
The blockbuster Extreme Festival delivered epic National racing to a large and enthusiastic Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit crowd over the weekend. They were entertained by action and drama of the highest order throughout a day that saw South African National Championship classes racing alongside the cream of Gauteng’s regional categories in a mad dawn to dusk spectacle.
The Extreme Supercars Driven By Dunlop races proved a true tale of tortoise and hare as the brilliant Stuart White and his Lamborghini Huracán overcame the disadvantages of Kyalami’s high altitude and Franco Scribante’s rudely fast turbo Porsche to take an unlikely victory.
Jono du Toit and Xolile Letlaka’s Huracáns, Arnold Neveling’s Audi R8, and Kris Budnik in a Dodge Viper made up the numbers. The second race proved more of the same as White overcame Scribante in another lesson in driving. Du Toit was third from Neveling, Letlaka and Budnik.
Julian van der Watt’s Volkswagen moved up from third to take the opening South African Touring Cars feature race. Julian overcame BMW rivals Robert Wolk and substitute Michael Stephen in a poignant victory at the scene of his frightful crash that saw him hospitalised last year.
Impressive Toyota rookie privateer Anthony Pretorius beat the factory Corollas to fourth. One of them, Saood Variawa then led the reverse-grid second race from lights to flag in spite of late pressure from Wolk. Stephen was third from Pretorius and Van Rooyen. Wolk took overall honours as he consolidated his title lead.
There was drama early in the first SATC SupaCup. A sea of Volkswagens engulfed and eliminated pole man Bradley Liebenberg’s lone Toyota. Keegan Campos emerged ahead from the chaos and went on to win from Dominic Dias and VW Motorsport duo Charl Visser and Jonathan Mogotsi, Jason Campos, and Calvin Dias.
Dominic Dias then took a lights to flag race 2 win from Keegan and Jason Campos. Keegan Campos later lost his first race win for his part in the Liebenberg incident to hand Dominic Dias the overall win from Visser and Mogotsi. Those results remain provisional.
Cape lad Nathan Victor sped from pole position to win the opening Astron Energy Polo Cup race despite late pressure from local lad Charl Smalberger. KZN driver Jason Loosemore and Ethan Coetzee were a close third and fourth, with Kyle Visser and Mo Karodia in chase. Loosemore then overcame Coetzee and held him and Victor off to take race 2 with Smalberger fourth from Karodia and Visser.
Wayne Masters benefited from title rival John Kruger dropping out to win Masters race 1 from Derick Smalberger and Luigi Ferro. Masters repeated his success from Smalberger and Kruger in race 2.
Rookie former Polo Cup racer Jagger Robertson dominated Investchem Formula 1600 race 1, leaving Karabo Malemela to fight KC Ensor Smith off for second.
Jason Coetzee made a late move on Siyabonga Mankonkwana for fourth. Robertson went on to do the double from Ensor Smith, Coetzee, and Nick van Weely, as Jagger took the day and the title advantage. Behind them, another substitute, Andrew Horne won his comeback Formula Ford Kent race from Graham Hepburn, who came from the back to second ahead of Rick Morris. Hepburn overcame Horne to take race 2 with Morris third.
In two wheel action, Clinton Seller continued his dominance of the SunBet ZX10 Masters since his arrival in the series. He won the opening race by four seconds from Damion Purificati and Trevor Westman.
Class C winner Jason Lamb followed from Hein McMahon and Class B three Graeme van Breda, David Veringa and Appanna Ganapathy. Seller continued his winning ways by 11 seconds from Purificati and Westman with van Breda fourth from McMahon, Lamb Veringa and Johan le Roux in race 2.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA Cup started the day’s action with a bang when media driver Hannes Visser mounted the tyre wall to red flag that dawn race. GR86 Cup driver Dawie van der Merwe had by then opened a five second advantage over Sa’aad Variawa driving one of the Media Corollas, and 86 rivals Niko Zafiris and Dylan Pragji.
Sean Nurse took the Media win and Paul de Vos Yaris Cup. The second race ran without major incident, delivering the same result and class winners.
But that’s just half the story. Regional classes, the super-fast Mobil 1 V8 Supercars, monster packs of PABAR VW Challenge, BMW M Performance Parts Race Series, DOE Formula Vee and 111 GT Sports & Saloons with SuperHatch added more than just a little spice to a spectacular day of racing. Read the Kyalami Regional Festival Report here.
The Extreme Festivals now go back their own way, with the Regional circus heading to the Red Star Raceway near Delmas in Mpumalanga next on 11 April, and the National roadshow off to Zwartkops in Pretoria a week later on 18 April. If Kyalami’s action was anything to go by, both promise to be well worth the visit.