Summarize

Changing conditions, epic action on track and a new crop of Gauteng racing champions were all part of the deal as Zwartkops closed off the 2024 Northern Regions Extreme Festival in fine style on Saturday. 

Julian Fameliaris did what he had to by cruising home third to take his second straight Mobil 1 V8 Supercars title in his Corvette behind Warren Lombard’s Mustang and Thomas Reib in his Lumina with Franco di Matteo’s Jaguar fourth. Julian then celebrated his title with race 2 victory over Lombard, di Matteo and Reib, while Ben Morgenrood was back to take GTX in both races in his Mustang and Shaun Holtzhausen took the first GT2 win. In spite of a weekend to forget on track, Auke Compaan wrapped up the GT2 title in his Mustang.

The PABAR VW Challenge went down to the wire, Class B veteran Stuart Mack emerged overall champion following a season-long battle with young gun Christopher Tait with his class C rival Andy Gossman third overall. Wayne Masters beat brother Bevin to the class A win in both races to draw even on points. And then took the class title on a count-back. Bjorn Berthold nicked the Class X title after sharing the Zwartkops turbo wins with rookie Jayden Goosen. Mo Karodia took the opening class B race win before beaching his car in a wet race 2 to allow wildcard Stelio Nousias to take the second win. Judd Bertholdt marched to a double Class C victory.

Ryan Naicker defeated class A campion Leon Loubser and Bob Neill in the opening BMW M Performance Parts Racing Series heat before Loubser turned it around on Neill and Naicker in the second. Andreas Meier won the first class B race from Renier Smith and Nek Makris, with those results reversed in race 2. That was good enough to hand Smith the B title. Nishal Singh beat Hein van der Merwe to both class C races with Varish Ganpath third in the opening race and Nicky Dicks third in the second. Shane Grobler

Nicholas Herbst and Bilal Ahmed topped Class C with the top two changing places in race 2 and Matthew Wadeley wrapped up class E with a double win while Zaheer Seedat and Mike Grobler shared the second places.

Lendl Jansen wrapped up the DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Lubri Fuel championship in a dramatic red-flag affected weekend. Jansen ended second to Jaco Schriks in the opening race with MD Bester third from Kyle Watt, title rival Peter Hills and his sons Brandon and Vaughn. Lendl then cruised home fifth in race 2 to wrap it up after Hills hit trouble, as Schriks took the final race win from Bester, Watt, Brandon Hills, Marcel Blignaut, Vaughn Hills and Tjaden Tromp.

George Economides calls his Golf 1 Monster. Appropriate for the car that took the Ferro Energia 111 GT Sports and Saloons GT title and overall win for the day with two straight wins over Phillip Meyer’s Porsche 924 and Dawie Olivier’s BMW. Melanie Spurr won Class A for the day as she also took that class title in her Golf, but that was not enough for Mel to prevent her partner Wouter Roos from taking the overall title away from her by just a point in his Class C Polo. D man Rob Clark was a close third in the overall chase.

That concludes the 2024 Gauteng Regional Festival roadshow. The new season will start at the Zwartkops Festival of Speed end January, before a whole new Regional Extreme Festival commences again at Zwartkops on 1 March. See you in 2025!