Summarize

A brisk Highveld winter’s day greeted the third round Regional Festival races at Red Star Raceway, where some entertaining racing unfolded on the tight twists and turns of the Delmas racetrack on Saturday.

Mobil1 V8 Supercars champion Julian Fameliaris was untroubled as he thundered to the opening race win in his Corvette from Warren Lombard’s Mustang, Thomas Reib and his Lumina, Auke Compaan and Steve Herbst. There was little change up front in race 2 as Fameliaris led Lombard and Reib. Larry Wilford took his turn in fourth ahead of Herbst.

It was a Masters class in PABAR VW Challenge as brothers, Bevin’s Class A car beat the close attentions of Wayne’s X car to take the first race from Miguel Dias and Mydi Mfana. Stuart Mack picked up the Class B pieces to beat Ethan Coetzee and Dewald Theron, and Judd Bertholdt led a schoolboy Class C 1-2-3 over Chris Tait and Kyle Petersen. Wayne beat Bevin Masters and Dias up front in race 2 as Coetzee defeated Mack and resurgent Mo Karodia in B, and Bertholdt led Tait and Andy Gossman home in C.

Bob Neill took top honours in the opening BMW M Performance Parts Racing Series heat from Leon Loubser and Fabio Fedetto. Renier Smith led Oz Biagioni and Andreas Meier in C and Hein van der Merwe took C from Bennie Luyt and Jan Eversteyn. Loubser avenged Neill to win race 2, where Smith was the only B finisher and Eversteyn took C from Gary Martins and van der Merwe.

Racing alone, George Economides took the opening Class D win from Nicholas Herbst and Cobus Bohmer, while Tihan van Rooyen beat Johan Miller and Zaheer Seedat in E. Economides then did the D double from Roland Hopkins and Bohmer, while Miller took the second Class E win from Eddie Rodrigues and Matthew Wadeley.

Lendl Jansen remains unbeaten in DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Lubri Fuel in 2024. He held son Brandon, and dad Peter Hills, Kyle Watt, Shaun van der Linde, Marcel Blignaut, Tjaden Tromp and Jannie Geyser off to win the opening heat. Race 2 was much the same as Jansen led  Brandon and Peter Hills, Watt, van der Linde and Blignaut home. Vaughn Hills and Jaco Smit mixed it up a little lower down the order.

GT trio, Phillip Meyer’s Porsche 924, George Economides’ turbo Golf GT and Dawie Olivier’s BMW topped the Ferro Energia 111 GT Sports and Saloons pops ahead of the Class A lot, Mel Spurr’s Golf, Wayne Robb’s Focus and Craig Priestley in a Polo. Luigi Ferro was best of the Polo objectors in Class B and Chris Dale in X, while Wouter Roos’ Polo took C and Trevor Stinger’ Peugeot 206 Class D. Ishmael Baloyi’s Honda meanwhile toppled Mark du Toit in a BMW and George Aldrich’s Peugeot in SuperHatch.

George Economides closed his weekend off with a third win in two categories from Meyer and Olivier, Spurr did the double from Robb and Priestley. Nicole Lombard took a welcome Class X win, it was Ferro again in B, Roos in C and Stinger also did the D double. Du Toit however avenged Baloyi in SuperHatch with Aldrich again third. Regional festival racing will return to Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria on Saturday 8 June.