A large crowd and brilliant racing by an impressive number of entries earmarked the opening round of this year’s Regional Extreme Festival series at the Zwartkops Raceway this past Saturday.
More than 200 drivers took to the tarmac in eight separate competition disciplines.
Heading up proceedings were two races for 111 Saloon and Sports Cars.
The first was red-flagged after six laps when the BMW M3 of Jaco Storm crashed into the tyre barrier on the inside of turn one at over 140 km/h.
He was unhurt, but the same could not be said of his car.
Louis Scholtz (Car Care Clinic Volkswagen Golf GTI) won from Bob Neil (Delmon Honda Civic Type R), Adrian Dalton (Xtra Clothing Volkswagen Golf Turbo), Wouter Roos (Car Care Clinic Volkswagen Golf GTI) and Phillip Meyer (Pple Porsche 924).
Scholtz took race two from Neil and Dalton again, this time chased to the line by Meyer and Roos.
The first Car Care Clinic SuperHatch race went to Karel Stoltz (Pta North Toyota Etios), followed by Jonathan du Toit (Motul Honda Civic), and Andre’ Dannhauser (PAR Opel Corsa).
Dannhauser won the next time out, marginally ahead of Du Toit and Stoltz.
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The opening PABAR VW Challenge race went to reigning champion Rory Atkinson (BHIT Polo), leading home Wayne Masters (Performance Masters Polo) and Waldie Meintjies (AllWagen Polo).
Atkinson won race two as well, pursued by Wayne Masters and Bevin Masters (CPS Warehouse Polo).
Defending champion Gert van den Berg (DOE Rhema) won the first DOE Formula Vee race, leading home Lendl Jansen (Bull Security Rhema) and Lushen Ramchander (Liqui Moly Forza).
Race two was red-flagged after a huge crash between Marcel Blignaut (NMS Lantis) and Kyle Watt (Rhone Rhema). After the restart, Greg Wilson (Rhema) won from Van der Berg and Ramchander.
Jeffrey Kruger (Design Hut Birkin) won both the Lotus Challenge races from Thomas Falkiner (Adaptive Resources Taylon) and Mackie Adlem (Adlem Auto Birkin).
Paul Verios (Acrotek Volkswagen Golf GTI) won the first On the Track Clubmans heat from Fred Kruger (JDM Honda CRX) and Dirk Lawrence (JDM Honda Ballade).
Louis Cloete (Performance Parts Volkswagen Beetle) took race two from Lawrence and Eugene Gouws (Master Mowers Chevrolet Firenza).
Both Sports Car races went to Deon du Plessis (TAR KTM X-Bow) ahead of Mark du Toit (TAR Lola T70) and Klippies Krige (Lotus 7).
Marius Jacobs (AAA Opel Tigra ) won the first Silvercup 2.0 heat ahead of Ismail Peck (Opel Tigra) and Paul Veros (Acrotek Volkswagen Golf GTI).
Jacobs won race two as well, followed by Dewald Brummer (MAD Volkswagen Polo) and Verios.
The next Extreme Festival event at Zwartkops will be a round of the National series on Saturday, 23 April.
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