Summarize

The 2025 Extreme Festival Finale powered by Coca-Cola delivered epic action as it crowned South African National Circuit Racing Champions at Zwartkops on Saturday. Subject to final MSA ratification, Michael van Rooyen is South African Touring Cars champion, Tate Bishop took the SATC SupaCup and Rory Atkinson and Wayne Masters the respective Astron Energy Polo Cup and Masters titles. Jonathan du Toit is the 2025 Extreme SuperCars Driven By Dunlop champion, KC Ensor-Smith took the inaugural Investchem MSA4 title and Clinton Seller another SunBet ZX10 Masters Cup. Chris Tait won the Volkswagen Rookie Cup, Jason Coetzee GR 86 Rookie, Nabil Abdool the GR Yaris Media and Mario da Souza the GR Corolla Dealer Cups.

Veteran Michael van Rooyen clinched a popular maiden South African Touring Cars title aboard his Toyota Corolla when he shadowed Keegan Campos’ BMW to second in the opening heat. Jagger Robertson’s Volkswagen Golf GTI was third from Sa'aad Variawa’s Toyota, Julian van der Watt’s Volkswagen and Andrew Schofield’s BMW. They started the second race on reverse order as van der Watt and Robertson got the better of Schofield with Variawa Campos and van Rooyen in chase when Campos crashed to bring out the red flag. Robertson won the day, but Campos did just enough to provisionally take the championship second from Robertson.

With Cape Town lad Tate Bishop already crowned as  SATC SupaCup champion, his predecessor Jonathan Mogotsi took the opening race win from Volkswagen teammate Jason Loosemore, an impressive Nicolaos Vostanis, David Franco, Leyton Fourie and Tate Bishop. Loosemore then made certain of his championship third behind Mogotsi and Bishop by storming to the second race win. The on-form Vostanis made Mogotsi work for his second place with champion Bishop fourth from Dylan Pragji and Franco.

Jonathan du Toit wrapped up the Extreme Supercars driven by Dunlop title with a triple victory in his Lamborghini Huracan, but only after Charl Arangies’ Mercedes-AMG GT3 was docked the first heat win for a jumped start. That left Gianni Giannoccaro to second in his Nismo GT-R from Arangies, who was second in the other two races from Gianni and Ricky Giannoccaro’s Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3 with Kris Budnik’s Viper and Paul Hill’s Audi R8 in chase. Du Toit also took GT3 honours, Ricky Giannoccaro won Class A, Jimmy Giannoccaro’s Porsche 911 Class B and Uli Sanne’s BMW Z4 Class C.

In the race of the day, the Investchem MSA4 championship lead changed twice as the leaders suffered hit and miss weekends. KC Ensor-Smith ultimately pinched the title back from Mikel Bezuidenhout with an unlikely third heat win on a day that was all about Namibian Adriaan Nel. Ensor-Smith lost his nose to retire from the opening race as Nel won from Bezuidenhout and Karabo Malemela. Nel won again from Malemela and Bezuidenhout in race 2 with overheating Ensor-Smith sixth as Bezuidenhout topped the log. But he punctured in the red flagged and restarted finale as Ensor-Smith picked up the win from Nel and Nicholas van Weely after first home Ndzalo Khoza was excluded. So Ensor-Smith is champion from Bezuidenhout with Nel provisionally third.

The Astron Energy Polo Cup similarly sat on a knife’s edge, but Rory Atkinson took charge when he chased winner Hannes Scheepers home second with lady racer Tyler Robinson third in the opening heat. Title rival Mo Karodia ended outside the top ten after an early off. The second race delivered a shock winner when debutant Jayden Goosen led from lights to flag as Scheepers fended Ethan Coetzee, Robinson, and new champion Rory Atkinson off for second. Another disastrous heat would not prevent Karodia from provisionally taking the championship second as Scheepers jumped to third in the final standings. Derik Smalberger’s double Engen Polo Masters wins were however not enough to prevent Wayne Masters from taking a second Astron Energy Polo Masters title on the trot. Cup Champion Atkinson earns a 2026 SATC SupaCup drive for his efforts.

Clinton Seller was back to take his customary double race win and wrap up another SunBet ZX10 Masters championship over Damion Purificati, Hein McMahon, Class B winner Graeme van Breda and top Class C man Jayson Lamb in the opening race with Keith Agliotti, Henk Kruger, and Johan le Roux in chase. The same top four graced the second heat ahead of Agliotti, Reginald Seale, Kruger, and Renatus van Niekerk.

Chris Tait won the first Volkswagen Rookie Cup race from title rival Josh Moore, Uzair Khan, Luke Hill and Mauro Da Luz. Tait then followed Khan home to wrap the title up with Moore, Hill and Da Luz in chase. Tait now has the choice of Astron Energy Polo Cup, or Investchem MSA4 drives for 2026. With Toyota Gazoo Cup champions, GR86 Rookie Jason Coetzee, GR Yaris Media man Nabil Abdool and GR Corolla Dealer winner Mario da Souza already crowned, only the Dealer Cup went against form, when Werner Horn beat veteran Da Souza to win on the day in Pretoria.

That concludes the Extreme Festival National Championship presented by Coca-Cola for 2025. With some thrilling new developments expected across the board, race fans can look forward to another vintage season in 2026.