Summarize

The Gauteng Regional Racing Festival returns home to celebrate spring in style at Zwartkops Raceway following a treacherous previous outing at an icy cold, dark and miserable Killarney and Cape Town. All of which means that Gauteng race fans can celebrate Pretoria’s great weather with a day at the races, as much as competitors can relish driving in it, on Saturday 14 September.

Topping Saturday’s bill, the thundering Mobil1 V8 Supercars play host to the Cape V8 Masters. Which adds a neat north versus south element to the weekend. The V8s missed their second heat at Killarney and will be keen to make up with some top drawer racing on home ground. So expect champion Julian Fameliaris to be planning to romp off in his Corvette. Just as much as Thomas Reib’s Lumina and Terry Wilford and Warren Lombard Mustangs, and the rest to be out to prevent just that. Also watch for Sean Moore, Jason Ibbotson and Gary Thomson among the Masters visitors.

Don’t be surprised if Cape man Nian du Toit returns to Zwartkops to race the BMW M Performance Parts regulars, following his domination at home last time out. And his previous away success at Zwartkops in February. Should he do that, the locals will be hell bent to prevent Nian from getting away with it again. Du Toit sits fourth in the Class A points, and not too far behind leader Leon Loubser, with Fabio Fedetto and Bob Neill also in close attendance. Will he make the trip?

There’s always action right through the field in the BMW M Performance Parts Series, and Saturday should be no different. Renier Smith leads Nek Makris and Andreas Meier in the Class B chase, while Gary Martins heads Reinhardt Miller and Jan Eversteyn in the C fight. Classes D and E race alone, where it’s between Nicholas Herbst, George Economides and Cobus Bohmer in D and Johan Miller, Matthew Wadeley and Zaheer Seedat in Class E.

It's all even in the PABAR VW Challenge, with fifteen year-old Class C charger Chris Tait’s Vivo and the experienced Class B man Stuart Mack’s Nathan's Polo sharing the overall championship lead. The action up front will however be between Masters brothers Bevin and Wayne, Miguel Dias, Mydi Mfana and the Class X turbos driven by Luigi Ferro, Chris Dale and young Bjorn Bertholdt. Mack holds a sizeable Class B lead over Shiren Rajpaul, Ethan Coetzee, Mo Karodia, Ian Walker, Dewald Theron and Anthony Lessing. And Tait has Andy Gossman, Judd Bertholdt, Kyle Petersen and Philip Croeser among his Class C competition.

There’s been a change of form among the DOE Formula Vee Partnered with CIM Lubricants frontrunners, where Veteran Peter Hills has taken the baton of domination over from Lendl Jansen, who had made the early season his own. Now it appears that Zwartkops stalwart Hill is in charge. So, far from the foregone conclusion that Jansen would run away with it, the title chase is now wide open. Fans can also expect more fierce Formula Vee action on Saturday among their rivals too. Theodore Vermaak, Brandon and Vaughn Hills, Shaun van der Linde Hills’ Richard Carr and the rest will all fight their own battles too.

The Ferro Energia 111 & GT Sports & Saloons put on a great show at Killarney. Now they will be looking to do the same in front of their loyal home fans at Zwartkops on Saturday. So watch for more close racing between GT trio, Phillip Meyer’s Porsche 924, George Economides’ turbo Golf and Dawie Olivier’s BMW, and the rest as usual. Also look out for the class action, where Lindsay Clur and Piet Potgieter’s Golfs fight over A, Polo men Luigi Ferro and Mydi Mfana’s battle in Class B, and Wouter Roos’ Polo, Rob Clark’s Honda are the Class C and D favourites. The Superhatch action should see Jonathan du Toit’s BMW fighting it out with Karel Stols’ Etios and George Aldrich and Seten Naidoo’s Corsas. Bring it on!

So there you have it! The full Gauteng Regional Racing Festival presents a brilliant prospect to lap up the Pretoria sunshine trackside on Saturday. There’s far more than just racing at Zwartkops too. Visit the pits, mix with the drivers, take a close look at the cars and get involved in myriad activities too. There’s a cool variety of food and drink stalls and much more off-track entertainment too, and there’s even kids entertainment. Entry is R100 per adult, R80 for students, and free for kids under 12. Contact 012 384 2299 or log on to www.zwartkops.co.za for more details. See you at Zwartkops!