Summarize

The past weekend’s Northern Regions Extreme Festival races certainly stirred things up in the four Dunlop-shod classes that competed at Red Star Raceway near Delmas on Saturday. Most categories delivered different winners to the first round, which simply served to tighten up the top of three of the four Dunlop-shod championship chases.

“Dunlop Tyres once again enjoyed a brilliant day of racing at Red Star,” Dunlop Tyres SA marketing manager Joanne de Freitas explains. “Lee Thompson and Andre van Vuuren won the BMW M Performance Parts races to leave both titles tight at the top. Winners Warren Lombard and Terry Wilford closed in on Dunlop V8 Supercar leader Thomas Reib. Another rookie Christopher Tait dominated the ATE VW Challenge to close right in on first round winner Josh Moore, while Lendl Jansen took control in DOE Formula Vee.”

Lee Thompson came, saw, and upset the BMW M Performance Parts Turbo Cup applecart when he took the Dunlop Pole Position award before clearing off to a double victory. He beat Bob Neill and Lenard Archer in race 1 and Anton Pommersheim and Leon Loubser in heat 2. Renier Smith did the class B double while Wessel Mostert and Reinhardt Miller shared the class C honours. Which leaves ever-consistent class A man Anton Pommersheim in a 10-point championship advantage over class C leader Bennie Luyt and class D man Michael Grobler.

Richard Gerntholtz grabbed the BMW M Performance Parts NA Cup Dunlop Pole Position Award, but Andre van Vuuren passed him early on to win race 1 with Olerato Sekudu third from Ignus du Plessis and Paolo Cavalieri. Nicolas Herbst took Class B from Ruan van der Walt, and Zaheer Seedat Class D from Reinhardt Miller. Van Vuuren went on to do the double from Gerntholtz and Sekudu, as Herbst and Miller won classes C and D. That leaves B men van Vuuren and du Plessis split by a point on top of the NA log with D leader Miller another point back and C leader Herbst in fourth.

Warren Lombard stormed to the Dunlop Pole position award in his Mustang before holding championship leader Thomas Reib’s Corvette off to take the Dunlop V8 Supercar race 1 win with Terry Wilford’s Mustang third from Franco Di Matteo’s Jaguar, and Larry Wilford’s Falcon. Terry Wilford then turned the tables to take the reverse grid heat 2 as Lombard grabbed second from Reib, Di Matteo and Larry Wilford. That provisionally sees Lombard halve his deficit to log leader Reib with Terry Wilford closing in and dad Larry up to fourth in his tight tussle with di Matteo and Dahl.

Christopher Tait claimed the Dunlop Pole Award before turning the ATE VW Challenge tables on rivals Anthony Lessing and Ian Walker. Jonathan Konig, Chris Davison, and Roberto Cosani kept out of trouble to take the Class B top three, while Bryce Pillay beat Stuart Konig and Dimitri Zapheriou in Class C. Tait repeated his win over Lessing and round 1 double winner Joshua Moore, while Keyaan Dwomoh and Sebastian Boulliart bounced back to take the B win from Konig. Pillay repeated his C win over Stuart Konig and Zapheriou. That leaves Moore leading the closing Lessing and Tait overall and in Class A, with B and C leaders Bouilliart and Pillay close behind. 

Lendl Jansen started his DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Fuels day off by claiming the Dunlop Pole Position Award before clearing off to a double win. He left Vaughn Hills to fight Gert van den Berg off for second in the opening race with MD Bester Brandon and Peter Hills. Jansen then went lights to flag to take race 2 from Vaughn and Brandon Hills, Bester, Vermaak and Kyle Watt. Jansen provisionally leads the title chase from van den Berg Brandon Hills and Vermaak. 

“Congratulations to all Dunlop’s winners at Red Star,” Joanne concluded. “The Dunlop shod Northern Regions Extreme Festival returns to action at Zwartkops on 13 June, see you there!”