Summarize

The 2026 National Championship circuit motor racing Extreme Festival delivered supreme racing across the board at Saturday’s third round Zwartkops races. A splendid Highveld autumn’s day greeted an enthusiastic crowd at the Pretoria Raceway, before they were treated to everything one would expect from the cream of the South African motorsport crop.

That was epitomised by the Dunlop Extreme Supercars, which delivered three winners in the three races. A delighted Damian Hammond took a rousing maiden victory in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from Jonathan du Toit’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO and Charl Arangies in another AMG GT3 as Marius Jackson’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo won Class A in a bruising first encounter. Du Toit turned the tables on Arangies and Hammond in race 2 where Karah Hill won Class A in her Audi Evo, before Arangies took the final from overall winner du Toit and Index winner Hammond as Ricardo Giannoccaro’s Lambo took Class A. Roy Obery’s Porsche took Class B, Mark du Toit’s Ford GT Classic and Uli Sanne’s BMW Z4M Class D.

Pole man Julian van der Watt consolidated his South African Touring Cars title advantage with the full points feature first race win in his Volkswagen Golf GTI over Michael van Rooyen’s Toyota Corolla. Keegan Campos’ BMW 128ti and then Robert Wolk’s Golf GTI found a way past KC Ensor-Smith’s Golf GTI for third with Andre Schofield’s BMW sixth. Schofield then delivered a perfect race off his reverse grid pole position to take a delighted maiden SATC win from Ensor-Smith, Wolk, van der Watt  Campos and van Rooyen in race 2.

Jason Loosemore reignited his all-Volkswagen SupaPolo SATC SupaCup championship hopes with a double win off pole position. He benefited Judd Bertholdt, Nikki Vostanis and Tyler Robinson finishing in front of title rival Rory Atkinson in race 1. Jason then made off into the distance to take the second heat from Robinson after Atkinson retired from third. That promoted Bertholdt to third from Vostanis, David Franco and Paulo Loureiro.

Investchem MSA4 delivered arguably the most fascinating story of the day. Shrien Naidoo’s car was recovered from being hijacked on Friday, yet the Durban lad still stole pole position. Late replacement, former champion Troy Dolinschek was initially second on the grid but lost his time to allow second man, title contender Mikel Bezuidenhout onto the front row. Mikel led early on, only to be passed by championship rival Aqil Alibhai, while Karabo Malemela snatched third from Naidoo. A bruising race 2 saw Bezuidenhout dodge the drama as Naidoo and Alibhai clashed, before Mikel held Malemela off to win as Dolinschek and Alibhai fought from the back to third and fourth.

Hannes Scheepers may have raced to his third Astron Energy Polo Cup overall victory on the trot with wins in the first and second heats, but Charl Smalberger put an end to the dentist’s six-race winning streak with the final race win. Pole man, rookie Mauro Da Luz ended second in heat 1 while Jayden Goosen held Smalberger off for third. Shrien Rajpaul beat Da Luz and Smalberger to second behind Scheepers in the middle race before Smalberger fought Da Luz off to take the final with Scheepers under pressure from Goosen and Rajpaul. Wayne Masters took the Polo Masters win, but only after race 2 winner, dad Derick Smalberger stopped while leading the final.

In the two wheeled action, Damion Purificati continued to dominate the SunBet ZX10 Masters with a race 1 win over Hein McMahon, James Barson, Trevor Westman, Henk Kruger, and Keith Agliott. Race 2 delivered the same top four with Pieter Delport fifth from AD van Dalen. Kobus Reynecke upset Rookie rival Connor Weston to take the opening Toyota Gazoo Cup race, where Nabil Abdool took Media and Paul de Vos Dealer honours. Weston bounced back to beat Emma Dowling in race 2, where de Vos and Abdool doubled up. 

And Jack Moore beat Sebastian Dias, Sebastian Venkov, and log leader Luke Hill in the opening Volkswagen Rookie Cup heat. Dias then turned the tables on Venkov, Hill and Max Corbett in race 2. The National Extreme Festival now heads to Gqeberha’s Aldo Scribante racetrack for its midwinter midseason fourth round on Saturday 27 June.