Summarize

The Volkswagen Motorsport Cup Rookies have enjoyed a wide variety of mostly fun races over the past few months with everything from the recent Top of the Hill climb to regional and endurance races and more. The Volkswagen Motorsport Rookie Cup rejoins the National Extreme Festival for its final round at Pretoria’s Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday, 19 October.  

“Our Volkswagen Rookies have enjoyed a very busy and interesting season as they learned the racing ropes through a wide variety of competition” Volkswagen Head of Motorsport Mike Rowe explains. “Not only has the Rookie Cup delivered some brilliant racing, but the boys have also been honed through a rigorous on and off-track racing program in different levels of the competition. From the bright lights of national racing through regional and endurance racing and even a bit of fun hill climbing, they’ve done it all. 

“The fun is however now over and it all goes down to the finale on Saturday. One of our Rookies will emerge champion and earn a drive in our Astron Energy Polo Cup racer. Best of luck to all four drivers. May our best Rookie win!”

Only three championship points separate Johannesburg youngster Judd Bertholdt and his Durban rival, Dhivyen Naidoo, at the top of the 2024 Rookie Cup table. Each has won four races so far this season, but Bertholdt has scored more second places. Still, there really is very little to separate them as Bertholdt and Naidoo head to the all-important finale. Third placed Uzair Khan has also won twice, while Gqeberha lad Josh Moore has improved consistently through the year to sit fourth in the chase. 

The rookies race with champion coaches Matthew Merton and Daniel Rowe keeping a close eye on their progress. The Rookie Cup academy trains its racing recruits hands-on in every aspect of racing. Its real-world syllabus covers it all, from driver fitness to physical and mental preparation, teamwork, data analysis, collaborating with the team and dealing with the media, and every other aspect of their future racing careers. 

The rookies will also be keen to emulate inaugural 2023 Rookie Cup winner Kyle Visser, who recently converted that success into his first Astron Energy Polo Cup victory. Well proving the program against South Africa’s strongest field of young racing drivers.