Summarize

The 2026 Extreme Festival racing season commenced with a cracking Northern Regions season opener at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday. After damp practice Friday, race day dawned a splendid Highveld autumn’s day where fans were treated to great racing. Headed by rolling thunder Dunlop V8 Supercars backed by cracking ATE VW Challenge and BMW M Performance Parts races, the DOE Formula Vees thrilled and Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons and SuperHatch entertained all the way.

Thomas Reib started his Dunlop V8 Supercar season in style. He put his Corvette on pole before storming to a compelling first race win. Larry Wilford, who was on the grid for the first ever V8 race 30 years ago, celebrated by storming from fourth to second ahead of Warren Lombard’s Mustang, Sam Dahl’s Falcon, and Wayne Spicer’s GT2 Corvette after Terry Wilford and Franco di Matteo’s Mustangs hit trouble. Terry then led most of race 2 only for Reib to come from fifth to take a fine double win from Dahl, di Matteo, Larry and Terry Wilford and Steve Herbst’s GT2 Corvette.

It was a case of the young guns taking control as pole lad Josh Moore fought Anthony Lessing off to win a thrilling opening ATE VW Challenge encounter with Chris Tait holding a watching brief. Debutant Keegan Nathan ran away with the opening Class B race from fellow second generation Challenge rookie Sebastian Bouillart and veteran Chris Davison. And Stuart Konig overcame Bryce Pillay to take Class C. Moore led race 2 lights to flag from Lessing and Francis Aldrich as Nathan did the Class B double from a Davison and Bouilliart, and Pillay fought back to take Brat Pack honours from Konig. 

Anton Pommersheim took the opening BMW M Performance Parts Turbo race from Sav Gualtieri and Lenard Archer. Ethan Coetzee held Bennie Luyt off in Class C and Alan Hilligenn overcame Eugene Gouws for D honours. Pommersheim also took race 2 from Gualtieri and Bob Niell, while Luyt bounced back to take Class C from Anand Naidu and Craig Herbst won D from Michal Grobler. Andre van Vuuren won a restarted non turbo race 1 from Olerato Sekudu and Richard Gerntholtz, before beating Gerntholtz and Sekudu in race 2. Ignus du Plessis and Reinhardt Miller won both Class C and D races.

Gert van der Berg sounded a warning by outqualifying double champion Lendl Jansen for the opening DOE Formula Vee partnered with CIM Fuel race. Van der Berg led initially before Jansen pounced and then Brandon Hills passed them both to lead. Only for van der Berg to come from third to pass Jansen and Hills for a stunning last lap win. Jaco Schriks was fourth from dad Peter Hills and Theodore Vermaak. Van der Berg led Jansen  in race 2 only for Brandon Hills to pass Lendl on lap 4 and Gert on lap 5 before clearing off to win from overall victor van der Berg, Jansen, Peter Hills, Schriks and Vermaak.

GTA quartet, Jared Rossouw’s and Marius Truter’s Polos, comeback kid Mark du Toit ‘s BMW Z4M and Wayne Robb’s Ford Focus ST led a most entertaining opening Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons race. Lenard Archer’s BMW 335i held Wouter Roos’ Golf GTI off in GTB, while Charl Weyers Corsa took Class A, Piet Potgieter’s Golf Class B and Louis Scholz’ Honda Civic C, while Wayne Odendaal’s Golf 1 topped Class X. Rossouw had it all his own way over Truter and du Toit and GTB winner Roos in race 2. Weyers, Potgieter  and Odendaal doubled up and Henry van Vledder’s Golf took Class C.

Last but not least, T1 man Arthur Thorne’s VW Polo overcame A1 winner Karel Stolts’ Toyota Etios and Hendrik Venter’s Opel Corsa to take opening SuperHatch honours, where Keithin Meintjies won Class T2 in his Renault Sandero. Thorne had it easier in race 2, which otherwise delivered an identical result. The National Extreme Festival season opener is up next at Killarney in Cape Town this coming Saturday 14 March. The Regional series pauses for the Easter break before round 2 at Red Star, Saturday 16 May.