Summarize

Chemical Logistics Racing endured a successful yet most frustrating day of South African Touring Cars competition at the Killarney International Raceway on Saturday. While its cars indeed set the pace with pole position and two race wins, the penultimate Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola for 2025 proved a win or bust outing as all four cars also hit trouble in the Cape. 

“They say that mama warns us about days like these,” team principal Ian Schofield explains. “But Killarney all but saw the 2025 South African Touring Cars title slip through our fingers despite the team starting from pole position and winning both races “All four cars also had issues in their other races, while our main rival enjoyed a consistent weekend to consolidate his championship advantage. So all we can do is congratulate Michael van Rooyen on that.”

Chemical Logistics Racing’s woes began behind rookie Jagger Robertson storming from pole position to his maiden race win in his WCT-run Volkswagen Golf GTI. Almost simultaneously on the second lap, both Julian van der Watt’s second Chemical Logistics WCT Volkswagen Golf GTI had its onboard fire system deploy on its own, forcing him to stop, and Keegan Campos’ Campos Transport FAST Racing BMW 328tc bonnet flew open causing him to pit for emergency repairs too. 

If that was not enough, Andrew Schofield ran into trouble a few laps later while lying fourth in his FlySafair Investchem FAST BMW 328tc to leave Robertson the only of the four team cars to finish. Just in case that was the whole of it, all four cars were ready for race 2, only for Robertson to grind to a halt on the second lap of that reverse grid race. Which left Campos to race to a dominant win over championship leader van Rooyen with van ser Watt third and Schofield fifth.

“I was delighted with my first pole position and then a maiden South African Touring Car win in my Chemical Logistics Volkswagen Golf GTI,” Jagger Robertson explained. “But the glory was short-lived when the car stopped early in the second race. That leaves me the only team car with a chance of the championship, albeit only mathematical in reality.” Teammate van der Watt was despondent: “Lady Luck went on holiday this year it seems,” Julian owned up. “We had decent pace but that extinguisher issue put paid to our weekend and our championship chances too.”

“The first race basically ended our title aspirations, so yeah, you could say I’m pretty peeved,” Keegan Campos frowned. “But the second race was perfect and my Campos Transport BMW was right on point to allow me to dominate, so it wasn’t all that bad a weekend.” Andrew Schofield was happy to bounce back in the second heat aboard his FlySafair Investchem BMW. “It’s a pity we had an issue on the first race, but the second was better, so here’s to ending the season on a high.” 

Chemical Logistics Racing’s South African Touring Car season concludes at the National Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola finals at Zwartkops in Pretoria on Saturday 25 October.