Night-time spectacle, close racing and sizeable crowd at Regional Extreme Festival
Night-time spectacle, close racing and a sizeable crowd typified Saturday’s fourth round of the 2025 Regional Extreme Festival presented by Coco Cola at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria.
Heading up proceedings was the annual Zwartkops 200 event, the season’s only endurance race for the Ferro Energia 111 Sports and Saloon Car category.
The 84-lap race brought the great spectacle of night competition, plus the drama of pit stops against the clock to the event.
Add close racing and unexpected winners, and the spectators got absolute value for the price of their tickets.
The race was won by Louis Scholtz in his Car Care Clinic Honda Ballade.
Second, three seconds adrift, was Wayne Robb in his Ford Focus 225 STI, with Wouter Roos and Peet Visagie (Origen Oil VW Golf 7) rounding out the podium just another two seconds further back.
Johan Labuschagne (Muller Developments Subaru Impreza) was fourth, leading home Rob Clarke/ Mike O’Sullivan (Containerforce Honda Ballade) and Shaun Vermaak/ Strati Yianna (Gapcon Developments BMW F22 235i).
Earlier in the day, the category’s eight-lap sprint race saw George Economides win in his Golf, chased to the line by Mark du Toit’s BMW Z4, the VW Golf of Wouter Roos and the Ford Focus ST of Wayne Robb.
The opening BMW /// Performance Parts race for cars in Classes A, B and C went to Rick Loureiro (Combined BMW F30 330i), ahead of Leon Loubser (Monaco Motors BMW E92 335i), Fabio Fedetto (BMW F82 M4), Lourenzo Gualtieri (SavSpeed BMW E46 328i Turbo) and Renier Smith (BMW E36 M3 Turbo).
Loureiro won race two as well, followed by Loubser, Gualtieri and Smith.
The first race for Beemers in Classes D, E and F went to Mario Hattingh (Bravio Investment BMW F87 M2), leading home Andre’ Scheepers (Curvent BMW E36 325i Turbo), Richard Gerntholtz (FKN Army BMW E30 330i) and Neil Reynolds (Valve Hospital BMW E46 330i).
Dawie Olivier (International Race Supplies BMW E30 330i) led race two from start to finish, followed by Scheepers, Bernard de Gouveia (De Gouveia Accountants BMW E46 M3) and Eugene Gouws (Master Mowers BMW E36 M3).
Jayden Goosen (Ferro Energia Polo) won the first ATE Volkswagen Challenge race ahead of Ian Walker (Mellow Velo Polo), lady racer Elna Croeser (ATE Brakes Polo) and Stuart Mack (AutoZone Polo).
Goosen, Walker, Croeser and Mack took exactly the same positions in race two.
Veteran Ben Morgenrood (Morgenrood Ford Mustang) won the first Dunlop V8 Supercar race, followed by Terry Wilford (Fuchs Ford Mustang), Thomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Chev Lumina) and Franco di Matteo (Di Matteo Jaguar XKR).
Warren Lombard (Pepboys Automotive Ford Mustang) won race two, started from an inverted grid, from Thomas Reib, Franco di Matteo and Richard Fuller (PotAbout Ford Falcon).
Defending champion Lendl Jansen (Bull Security Rhema) won the first DOE CIM Lubri Fuel Formula Vee race, narrowly ahead of Vaughn Hills (Mangaza MXTwo Rhema), MD Bester (Mangaza MXTwo Rhema) and Gert van den Berg (DOE Parts Mangaza Rhema).
Jansen won race two as well, this time leading home Bester, Hills and Theodore Vermaak (DOE Parts Forza.
The all-new Liqui Moly Super Vee category put up a good show, with their first race going to Jeanre le Roux (Liqui Moly Stealth).
He led home Luchen Ramchander (Liqui Moly Stealth), Earl Swart (Liqui Moly Forza) and Phillip Bellingen (Liqui Moly Lantis).
Race two was won by lady combatant Fabienne Lanz (Stealth), followed by Jeanre le Roux, Phillip Bellingen and Grant Will (Liqui Moly Ashley).
The next Extreme Festival event at Zwartkops will be a national round on Saturday, 21 June.
Andre’ de Kock
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