Summarize

The past weekend was another busy one for South African motorsportsmen home and away with the action starting on two fronts in Northern Africa as desert racing set the ball rolling earlier in the week, where South African outfit Red-Lined continued its great start to the 2019 international cross country racing season with UAE amateur pairing Thomas Bell and Patrick McMurren delivering a hat trick of finishes with third in the T1 class in the gruelling Abu Dhabi Challenge in their Navara.

Also in Morocco, Botswana rider Ross Branch (KTM) won the last two days of the five-day two-wheeler Afriquia Merzouga Rally en route to second overall in that five-day raid, while Pretoria rider Kenny Gilbert brought his Husqvarna home ninth overall. The chalice flowed over as South African girls excelled, with Kirsten Landman (KTM) taking the Ladies award and another local lass, Taye Perry (KTM) riding home second.

Closer to home, the action was at the second leg of the SA national championship Extreme Festival at Pretoria's Zwartkops Raceway Saturday, where Simon Moss (Audi) made it a hat trick of wins to start his season, with the first race win ahead of VW duo Daniel Rowe and Keagan Masters, Tschops Sipuka (Audi), Micheal van Rooyen (Toyota) and Johan Fourie (BMW) as Brad Liebenberg beat Trevor Bland’s similar VW to GTC2 honours. 

Moss’s winning run ended with a race 2 shunt to leave Fourie to the win from van Rooyen, Masters, Sipuka and Daniel Duminy (BMW) as undefeated Liebenberg beat Adrian Wood’s VW to the GTC2 win. Overall, Fourie took the win from Masters and van Rooyen and Liebenberg took GTC2 from Wood.

Scott Temple benefited from race 1 winner Andrew Rackstraw’s jump start penalty to take a double Investchem Formula 1600 win ahead of Gerard Geldenhuys, Nick van Weely, Andrew Schofield, Tiago Rebelo and Alex Gillespie. Temple then took race 2 from Rackstraw, van Weely, Schofield, rookie lass Ivana Cetinich and Siyabonga Mankonkwana as Temple took the day from van Weely, Schofield, Rebelo, Mankonkwana, Rackstraw and top rookie Vos, while Cetinich won Class B.

Jeffrey Kruger took the wild re-started opening Falken Polo Cup race from Clinton Bezuidenhout, Bradley Liebenberg, Jason and Keegan Campos, Chris Shorter and Umpie Swart, before Kruger did the double to beat Jason Campos, Bezuidenhout, Shorter, Jonathan Mogotsi, Liebenberg, Keegan Campos and Swart in race 2. Liebenberg then overcame Kruger in the final, with Keegan Campos third from Delon Thompson, Bezuidenhout, Swart and Jason Campos, but Kruger took the day from Bezuidenhout, Jason Campos, Liebenberg, Keegan Campos, Shorter and Swart.

On two wheels, Lance Isaacs rode his BMW to double litre Superbike honours ahead of Yamaha five, Clinton Seller, Nicolas Grobler, Garrick Vlok, Morne Geldenhuis and Byron Bester in race 1 and from Vlok, Seller, Grobler, Allan-Jon Venter (Suzuki) and David McFadden (Yamaha) in the second race, as Isaacs took the day overall from Seller and Grobler. Blaze Baker beat the similar Yamahas of Kewyn Snyman, Jared Schultz and Dian Nelson and Brandon Staffen (Kawasaki) to 600cc Supersport honours in both races, while Ricardo Otto and Taric van Der Merwe’s Yamahas shared out the sixth places.

JP Nortje (Corvette) took opening Mobil V8 Supercars honours from Thomas Reib (Lumina), Roelf du Plessis (Corvette), Terry Wilford (Falcon), Julian Fameliaris (Corvette) and David Coetzee (Falcon), before Mackie Adlem (Jaguar) beat Wilford and Reib, Antonie Marx (Jaguar), Izak Spies (Mustang) and Nortje to race 2 honours. Reib took the day from Wilford and Nortje.

Franco Scribante steered his A+ class Porsche to both G&H Extreme Supercar wins to take the day from Jaki Scheckter’s GTC Lamborghini and Sam Hammond’s Class A Lamborghini. Rick Loureiro (BMW) won Class B, Johan de Bruyn (Porsche) Class C and Roy Obery (Porsche) Class D.