Combined Extreme Festivals put on a show of note at Kyalami

Local circuit racing got its only opportunity of the year to perform at Kyalami on Saturday, and the chance was not wasted.

A reasonably large crowd turned-up to witness 297 contenders in ten competition disciplines, on a National Extreme and Regional Extreme Festival level, thrill in the most dramatic way possible.

Touring Cars

Heading up proceedings were two rounds of the year’s South African Touring Car championship.

The drama started on Friday afternoon, when top contender Robert Wolk lost control of this his pole-sitting BMW 128ti just before the pit corner and planted it in the wall. The team worked throughout the night to fix the car, and Wolk took up his place at the start.

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BMW teammate Julian van der Watt took the lead on the opening lap and won the race, chased to the flag by Wolk, Michael Stephen (BMW 128ti), Anthony Pretorius (Toyota Corolla), Michael van Rooyen (Toyota Corolla), Saood Variawa (Toyota Corolla) and Nathi Msimanga (Toyota Corolla).

Variawa drove superbly to win race two from Wolk, Stephen, Pretorius and Van Rooyen.

Polo action

Keegan Campos (Volkswagen SupaPolo) took the first SupaCup heat from Dominic Dias (Volkswagen SupaPolo), Charl Visser (Volkswagen SupaPolo), Jonathan Mogotsi (Volkswagen SupaPolo) and Jason Campos (Volkswagen SupaPolo).

Nathan Victor won the first Astron Energy Polo Cup race from Charl Smallberger and Jason Loosemore. Race two was red-flagged and cancelled after a huge crash involving three cars at the second to last corner.

The PABAR VW Challenge heat went to former champion Rory Atkinson in a borrowed Polo. Second was Bevin Masters ahead of Wayne Masters.

Supercars

The first Dunlop Extreme Supercar race went to Stuart White (Lamborghini Huracan), narrowly ahead of Franco Scribante (Porsche 911 GT2 RS), Jonathan du Toit (Lamborghini Huracan), Xolile Letlaka (Lamborghini Huracan) and Arnold Neveling (Audi R8 LMS GT3).

White won race two from Scribante as well, setting the day’s quickest lap time of one min 43. 492 seconds in the process. Third was du Toit, followed by Neveling and Letlaka.

The first Mobil 1 V8 Supercar race, held on Friday afternoon, was won by Thomas Reib (Chevrole Lumina), followed by Julian Familiaris (Chevrolet Corvette) and Warren Lombard (Ford Mustang).

Familiaris won Saturday’s race two from Reib, Lombard and Terry Wilford (Ford Mustang).

Single-seaters

Saturday’s opening Investchem F1600 race went to Jagger Robertson (Mygale), leading home Karabo Malemela (Mygale) and EC Ensor-Smith (Mygale). Robertson won race two as well, this time chased by Ensor-Smith and Jason Coetzee (Mygale).

A once-off 12-lap DOE Formula Vee race was won by Lendl Jansen (Rhema), ahead of Brandon Hills (Rhema) and Peter Hills (Rhema).

Pack of BMWs

Bob Neil (M3 Turbo) won the opening BMW ///M  Performance Parts race ahead of Carlo Garbini (328i Turbo) and Andreas Meier, (320i STC Turbo).

Neil won race two as well, heading home Garbini, Nek Makris (335i) and Fabio Fedetto (M4).

GR Cup

The opening Toyota Gazoo Racing Cup race was red-flagged when the Corolla of Hannes Visser ran out of track at the end of the pit straight and ended up balanced on the crash barriers due to brake failure.

After clearing up operations, youngster Dawie van der Merwe (GR86) won from Sa’aad Variawa (GR Yaris) and Niko Zafiris (GR86). Van der Merwe, Variawa and Zafiris took the podium places in race two as well.

In the media section, Sean Nurse (GR Corolla) made it a double with victory in race 1 over Alex Shahini and The Citizen‘s Jaco van der Merwe.

The second race ended early following another severe accident, this time involving Shahini in a fashion similar to the Visser, reportedly due to the same problem.

Behind Nurse in second came van der Merwe and motoring influencer Kumbi Mitshakazi.

Two-wheels

Multiple former Superbike champion Clinton Seller made his first SunBet Kawasaki ZX10 appearance and promptly won both races. He was chased to the flag by Damion Purificati and Trevor Westman on both occasions.

111 Series

George Economides (Volkswagen CitiGolf Turbo) won the first 111/GT Sports and Saloon Car races, beating Lenart Archer (BMW 330i), Dawie Olivier (BMW 325i) and Lucas Bezuidenhout (Lexus IS 300) to the flag.

Race two also went to Economides, ahead of Archer, Phillip Meyer (Porsche 924), Olivier and Melanie Spurr (Volkswagen Golf GTI).

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