Summarize

With Dunlop the tyre of choice at the National Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola, the Zwartkops Raceway’s midwinter fourth-round races served to inject a healthy dose of excitement to the various championship chases over the past weekend. 

“Looked at from a championship point of view in our various Dunlop-shod series, it may have worked out all even in the South African Touring Cars, but there’s great excitement elsewhere,” Dunlop Marketing Manager Joanne de Freitas explains. “Drivers in pursuit closed their title deficits down considerably in the SATC SupaCup and Astron Energy Polo Cup, while there’s just a point in it in the Volkswagen Rookie Cup. The Dunlop National Championship drama and excitement certainly is building up fast!”

A dramatic day of South African Touring Cars saw little change to that championship table. Other than it is now BMW man Keegan Campos who sits second in the chase behind Michael van Rooyen. The two of them shared the race wins over the weekend, where Keegan’s Dunlop Pole Position bonus point was enough to see him close the deficit down by just a point to eighteen.

Campos has however moved up to second ahead of VW rookie Jagger Robertson in the SATC championship chase, while Jagger’s VW teammate Julian van der Watt closed his deficit down to just five points behind Robertson with a positive outing on Saturday. Van der Watt has no room to move though, with Toyota’s former champion Saood Variawa all over him despite spending his day helping van Rooyen’s title chances. Another Toyota teammate, Nathi Msimanga and Andy Schofield’s BMW are next up in the chase.

Volkswagen factory pilot Jonathan Mogotsi was one of a few drivers to dominate off his Dunlop pole position when he won both SATC SupaCup races with the fastest lap each time. Enough to steal ten points back to sit just fifteen behind Cape championship leader Tate Bishop. Tate’s effort was further upset by Volkswagen number two Jason Loosemore getting between him and Mogotsi in the opening race. 

All of which leaves Mogotsi more or less as far behind in the championship chase as he was a year ago, before he fought back to clinch the ’24 SupaCup title. Loosemore’s effort saw him claw back into fourth in the chase behind Charl Visser and ahead of lone Toyota man Dawie van der Merwe. The consistent Nicolaos Vostanis sits another four points adrift; with lady racer Karah Hill and newcomer Muhammad Wally also tied a little further back in seventh.

Rory Atkinson meantime totally shook up the Dunlop-shod Astron Energy Polo Cup log when he sped off his three-grand Dunlop Pole Position to a triple race grand slam with the fastest lap in each race. Championship leader Mo Karodia shadowed Rory for the first two races, but an early third race crash and Karodia’s eventual retirement had a dramatic effect on the championship. It allowed Atkinson to slash the deficit down from 29 to just six points. 

Behind them, Ethan Coetzee also endured a tough weekend to slip from second into a three-way tie for third with Volkswagen Rookie Judd Bertholdt and Hannes Scheepers for third, with racing lass Tyler Robinson and rookie Shiren Rajpaul now tied for sixth and Charl Smalberger and Roshaan Goodman neck and neck for eighth. Wayne Masters’ triple win meantime saw him open his Astron Energy Masters advantage up to 30 points over the closely matched John Kruger and Derick Smalberger.

In another exciting new development, Dunlop-shod Investchem MSA4 heralded a new era for South African single seater racing over the weekend. Young KC Ensor-Smith now becomes the first MSA4 championship leader following double win on the day. The consistent Renzo Ribeiro sits second, just nine points adrift, but he has Saturday’s reverse grid final race winner Mikel Bezuidenhout just a point behind, with Karabo Malemela another two adrift.

The Volkswagen Rookie Cup is developing into a two-horse race between rookie Chris Tait and Sophomore Josh Moore, who have shared the past four race wins out between them. They still have race winners Uzair Khan and Mauro Da Luz close enough to be of concern. And it’s still a case of domination in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Cup, where Jason Coetzee has a 21-point advantage in the GR86 Rookie Cup, Mario de Sousa leads the GR Corolla Dealer Cup by double the points and Nabil Abdool sits 23 points clear in the New GR Yaris Media Trophy, with all of them racing on Dunlop Tyres.

The Dunlop-shod Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola now heads to the epic East London Grand Prix Circuit for its fifth round of 2025 on Saturday 19 July.