Summarize

The Rustenburg Rocket, Michael van Rooyen clinched a most popular South African Touring Cars championship with a steady drive to second in the opening heat at Saturday’s National Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola finals at Zwartkops Raceway in Pretoria. 

Van Rooyen’s consistent season paid off in the end as he left opening race winner Keegan Campos to fight overall winner Jagger Robertson and final race winner Julian van der Watt off for second in the championship. Teammates Jonathan Mogotsi and Jason Loosemore shared the SATC SupaCup wins, where Tate Bishop had already clinched that title at the previous round.

Keegan Campos started the weekend on the front foot as he put his Campos Transport Chemical Logistics FAST BMW 128tc on pole position, two tenths of a second clear of champion elect Michael van Rooyen’s Gazoo Toyota Corolla TC. Second in the chase, Jagger Robertson lined up third in his Chemical Logistics WEC Volkswagen Golf GTI TC alongside Nathi Msimanga’s Gazoo Corolla, Julian van der Watt’s Chemical Logistics Golf GTI, with Sa'aad Variawa’s Gazoo Corolla and Andrew Schofield in his Fly Safair Chemical Logistics BMW next up.

SupaPolos blocked out the top seven places on the SATC SupaCup grid. Volkswagen Motorsport teammates, Genuine parts man Jonathan Mogotsi and Jason Loosemore’s Astron Energy car closed off the front row from returning former champion Leyton Fourie’s Express Hire car. Nicolaos Vostanis’ Campos Transport machine followed from Niko Zafiris’ AZNetworks entry, Graphix Design lad David Franco and newly crowned champion Tate Bishop’s Angri car. 

Dawie van der Merwe’s Gazoo Racing Toyota Starlet lined up eighth ahead of Platinum Mile man Dean Venter and newcomer, Jared Rossouw’s OMG&Trend SupaPolo, Zimbabwean Dylan Pragji’s Stylin car, another newcomer, Combined Racing driver Rick Loureiro and solo Masters representative Andre Bezuidenhout’s Weltevreden Estate entry closed off the grid.

Keegan Campos made no mistakes as he sped off to an easy first race win, but the big news was Michael van Rooyen taking second to secure the 2025 crown. Nathi Msimanga made a great start to run third early on, but just as quicky slipped back to let Jagger Robertson take third from Sa'aad Variawa, who passed  Julian van der Watt for fourth early on, while Andrew Schofield made a late move on Msimanga for sixth.

Jason Loosemore moved ahead of Jonathan Mogotsi in the early running, but his teammate made a last lap move to steal the opening SATC SupaCup win. Behind them, Nicolaos Vostanis and David Franco slipped past Leyton Fourie early on to take third and fourth with champion Tate Bishop following in sixth from Dylan Pragji, who made up five places by the time he’d passed Niko Zafiris and Dawie van der Merwe. Debutants Jared Rossouw and Rick Loureiro followed from Dean Venter and Master Andre Bezuidenhout.

So Andrew Schofield stood on pole for the reverse grid final race of the year from Julian van der Watt, Sa'aad Variawa, Jagger Robertson, Michael van Rooyen and Keegan Campos. Van der Watt made short work of moving into the lead and Robertson was also by Schofield and Variawa by the end of the second tour. Behind them, Campos battled van Rooyen and Msimanga, until Campos walked away from a heavy crash exiting the final turn on the penultimate lap for the red flags to fly to end the season.

The result therefor shifted back to the beginning of that lap to see van der Watt win from Robertson, Schofield, Variawa, Campos, van Rooyen and Msimanga. Jagger Robertson won overall from Campos, van der Watt, van Rooyen, Variawa, Schofield and Msimanga. That was enough for Campos to provisionally tie for second with Robertson, and take the runner up slot by virtue of a count back to his several race wins to fellow rookie Robertson’s one, with van der Watt fourth in the final championship standings.

Jason Loosemore found his way past Jonathan Mogotsi and cleared off to win the second SupaCup race and leave his teammate to fight back past Nicolaos Vostanis for second by the time the race was stopped. Champion Tate Bishop made up a couple of places to end fourth from Dylan Pragji, David Franco, Leyton Fourie and Dawie van der Merwe in the Toyota. Zafiris, Rossouw, Loureiro, Venter and Bezuidenhout followed as Loosemore took the day from Mogotsi, Vostanis, Bishop, Pragji and Franco, with Bishop champion from Mogotsi and Loosemore.

South African Touring Cars and the SATC SupaCup now look ahead to a most exciting new season with the 2026 return of both a former multiple champion and a factory team to the top class fray among the early plans for the year ahead…