Hot weather, great spectacle at 2026 Regional Extreme Festival opening round
Hot weather, great spectacle and lots of really close racing boded well for this year’s inland circuit racing on Saturday, when the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria hosted round one of the 2026 Regional Extreme Festival.
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 E90 335i), leading home Jared Rossouw (AXON Sparx VW Polo), Marius Truter (Strategic Gear & Diff VW Polo) and Mark du Toit (Trans Africa BMW Z4M).
Rossouw won race two ahead of Truter, Du Toit and Wouter Roos (Origen Oil VW Golf 6).
Wayne Odendaal (959 MotoTech Golf Mk1) took the opening Class X race from Tihan van Rooyen (Vision Centre BMW E82 125i), Arthur Thorne (VW Polo) and JA Freckleton (VOKit Golf Mk1).
Odendaal and Van Rooyen took the first two places again the next time out, followed by Thorne and Freckleton.
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 BMW E46 M3), followed to the flag by Sav Gualiteri (SavSpeed Auto BMW F30 340i), Lenard Archer (ACD Welkom BMW E90 335i) and Nishal Singh (Antonische BMW E92 M3).
Race two, run from a partially reversed grid, saw Pommersheim win again, followed past the flag by Sav Gualiteri, Bon Neil (Delmon Mining BMW BMW M3) and Lenard Archer.
The first Normally Aspirated race was taken by Andre’ van Vuuren (Curvent International BMW E36 M3), leading home Olerato Sekudu (Rampage BMW E36 M3), Richard Gernholtz (NextRep BMW E30 M3) and Troy Cochran (Tyremart Boksburg BMW E36 M3).
Van Vuuren repeated the victory in race two, followed by Gerntholtz, Sekudu and Cochtran.
The first Dunlop V8 Supercar race was red-flagged after both Terry Wilford (Johnspeed Corvette) and Sam Dahl (ArcProTech Ford Falcon) went off the road and got stuck in sand traps.
After the restart Tomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Corvette) took the victory from Larry Wilford (Jet Bearings Holden), Warren Lombard (Pepboys Automotive Ford Mustang) and Sam Dahl.
Reib won race two as well, chased over the line by Dahl, Franco di Matteo (Di Matteo Mustang) and Larry Wilford.
Josh Moore (Worx BPW Polo) won the first ATE VW Challenge race ahead of Anthony Lessing (Raless Polo), Christopher Tait (King Price Extreme Polo) and Francis Aldrich (VW Polo).
Moore won race two from Lessing as well, this time with Aldrich third and Stuart Mack (AutoZone Polo), in fourth.
Reigning champion Lendl Jansen (Bull Security Rhema 2) won the opening DOE CIM Fuel Formula Vee race from Gert van der Berg DOE Parts Rhema 2), Brandon Hills (Mangaza MXTwo Rhema 2) and Jaco Schriks (Cube Coatings Rhema 2).
Race two was won by Hills, ahead of Van der Berg, Jansen and Peter Hills.
Arthur Thorne (VW Polo) took the first SuperHatch race ahead of Karel Stolts (Toyota Etios), Hendrik Venter (4Js Auto Corsa) and Ishmael Baloyi (TAR Honda Civic).
Thorne won race two as well, followed by Stolts, Venter and Baloyi.
The next event at the Zwartkops Raceway will be a round of the Historic Inland Championship on Saturday, 28 March.
Andre’ de Kock
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