Regional Extreme Festival starts year off on a high at Zwartkops
2026-03-09 - 07:03
Hot weather, great spectacle and lots of close racing boded well for this year’s inland circuit racing on Saturday, when the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria hosted round one of the Regional Extreme Festival. 111 Sports & GTs Heading up proceedings were two races for Digit FMS 111 GT and Class X cars. The first GT heat went to Lenard Archer (ACD Welkom BMW 335i), leading home Jared Rossouw (AXON Sparx Volkswagen Polo), Marius Truter (Strategic Gear & Diff Volkswagen Polo) and Mark du Toit (TAR BMW Z4 M). ALSO READ: Regional Extreme Festival finishes season finale on a dramatic note Rossouw won race two ahead of Truter, Du Toit and Wouter Roos (Origen Oil Volkswagen Golf GTI). Wayne Odendaal (959 MotoTech Volkswagen Golf) took the opening Class X race from Tihan van Rooyen (Vision Centre BMW 125i), Arthur Thorne (Volkswagen Polo) and JA Freckleton (VOKit Volkswagen Golf). Odendaal and van Rooyen took the first two places again the next time out, followed by Thorne and Freckleton. BMW///M Performance The BMW///M Performance Parts contingent arrived with a massive number of entries, divided into separate categories for turbocharged and normally aspirated cars. The opening Turbo Cup race went to Anton Pommersheim (Eagle Granite M3), followed by Sav Gualiteri (SavSpeed Auto 340i), Lenard Archer (ACD Welkom 335i) and Nishal Singh (Antonische M3). The BMW///M Performance Parts Turbo Cup races both went to Anton Pommersheim (Eagle Granite M3). Photograph: Dave Ledbitter. Race two, run from a partially reversed grid, saw Pommersheim win again, followed past the flag by Gualiteri, Bob Neil (Delmon Mining M3) and Archer. The first Normally Aspirated race was taken by Andre’ van Vuuren (Curvent International M3), leading home Olerato Sekudu (Rampage M3), Richard Gernholtz (NextRep M3) and Troy Cochran (Tyremart Boksburg M3). Van Vuuren repeated the victory in race two, followed by Gerntholtz, Sekudu and Cochtran. V8 Supercars The first Dunlop V8 Supercar race was red-flagged after both Terry Wilford (Johnspeed Chevrolet Corvette) and Sam Dahl (ArcProTech Ford Falcon) went off the road and got stuck in sand traps. Tomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Chevrolet Corvette) won both the Dunlop V8 Supercar races. Photograph: Willie Pretorius. After the restart, Tomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Chevrolet Corvette) took the victory from Larry Wilford (Jet Bearings Holden Commodore) and Warren Lombard (Pepboys Automotive Ford Mustang). Reib won race two as well, chased over the line by Dahl, Franco di Matteo (Di Matteo Fordw Mustang) and Larry Wilford. ATE VW Challenge