Summarize

The 2025 South African National Championship Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola exploded into action with thrilling motor racing action across the board at Killarney in Cape Town on Saturday.

Cape home hero Julian van der Watt put his Golf GTi on pole position for the opening South African Touring Car race from Anthony Pretorius’ BMW 128ti and Michael van Rooyen in a Corolla. Van der Watt and Pretorius fought for the lead until van der Watt hit car trouble. Which left Pretorius to an easy win from a lonely van Rooyen. Rookie Jagger Robertson’s Golf overcame Mandla Mdakane’s Corolla for third. 

Drama on the reverse grid second race start saw van der Watt become the meat in a fast closing sandwich. That left van Rooyen in a handy lead over Pretorius, who relentlessly closed in to steal the win in a dramatic run to the line. The drama continued when Mdakane and Robertson collided and Mdakane provisionally classified third. Pretorius took the day with his double win over van Rooyen.

Two more home heroes, Tate Bishop and Charl Visser beat Jonathan Mogotsi to pole for the SATC SupaCup race. Bishop then withstood Visser’s pressure all the way to take the opening race win. Mogotsi was third from rookie teammate Jason Loosemore and Nicolaos Vostanis, all of them driving VW SupaPolos. Solo Toyota SupaStarlet lad Dawie van der Merwe ended sixth. 

Visser jumped ahead at the start of race 2 as Mogotsi muscled past Tate Bishop. By the time Tate was past Jonathan, it seemed all over, bar the shouting. But Bishop hunted Visser down to steal an unlikely win with the drive of the day over Mogotsi in third from Loosemore, van der Merwe and Vostanis.

Extreme Supercars driven by Dunlop rookie Brad Liebenberg’s Audi R8 and stalwart GT3 rivals, Charl Arangies’ Porsche 911 and Jonathan du Toit’s Lamborghini Huracan were all under the magical 1 minute ten second barrier in qualifying. Liebenberg then took a dominant debut victory over Arangies and du Toit in race 1 with Franco Scribante’s Porsche 911 Turbo fourth from Kris Budnik’s Viper. 

That set the tone for the day. Liebenberg went on to beat Arangies and Scribante to the second win, while Budnik also put one over fifth placed du Toit. Liebenberg then did the triple from comeback du Toit, Arangies and Class B winner Budnik. Roy Obery’s Porsche won Class C and Jimmy Giannoccaro’s BMW took Class D for the day.

There was action from the get-go when Astron Energy Polo Cup pole man Rory Atkinson fluffed his first race start to leave debutant Shiren Rajpaul to lead under pressure from Mo Karodia and Ethan Coetzee. Coetzee went around Karodia to take second, before Rajpaul slipped wide to leave Coetzee to win from Karodia, Hannes Scheepers lady racer Tyler Robinson and Rajpaul. 

Atkinson made no mistakes to fend Coetzee, who passed Karodia off for a lights to flag race 2 win. Kyle Visser and Robinson were in chase. Karodia then blasted off the second row of the grid to streak to a lights to flag final race win from Atkinson, Robertson, Rajpaul, Scheepers and Coetzee. Wayne Masters bounced back to take two wins to steal the over 50 Masters win from race 1 winner John Kruger and Derick Smalberger. 

On two wheels, Clinton Seller quickly dashed any other riders’ dreams of beating him this year. He sped to a compelling double SunBet ZX10 Masters victory. Seller beat B winner Graeme van Breda, Class A rival Hein McMahon and Class C winner Jayson Lamb to the opening race win with David Veringa, Adriaan van Dalen, James Barson and Johan Le Roux in chase. Seller beat van Breda in the second race, where Lamb took third from Veringa, Barson van Dalen and le Roux.

Uzair Khan took a lights to flag Volkswagen Rookie Cup season opener from oval track graduate Gio Fiorotto, VW Challenge Class C champion Christopher Tait, Josh Moore and karting kids, Luke Hill, Berlin Robinson, and Mauro da Luz. The second race however proved a thriller as da Luz outsmarted the rest to hold Fiorotto, Khan, Hill, and Tait at bay with the top five all covered by under two seconds at the flag.

GR86 Rookie Jason Coetzee beat class rivals Mikel Bezuidenhout, Khanya Ngwenya and Kent Swartz to the opening Toyota Gazoo Racing Trophy win. Dealer GR Corolla winners Devon Scott and Mario de Sousa were next up from Media GR Yaris winner Brandon van der Nest. Dealer man Scott then turned the tables on Rookies Coetzee, Bezuidenhout and Swartz, with Dealer de Sousa fifth. Nabil Abdool beat Jordan Moodley and van der Nest to Media honours.

The second round of the Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola is the national and regional blockbuster that goes down at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit blockbuster over the weekend of 11 and 12 April .