Summarize

It was a case of all quiet in the title chases as former champions Robert Wolk and Tate Bishop returned to victory lane in the Dunlop-shod Extreme Festival’s Touring Cars races, while the other major classes ran more or less to form at Saturday's Aldo Scribante National Extreme Festival. The only exception to that rule was in the Dunlop Extreme Supercars, where Charl Arangies’ Mercedes-AMG GT3 thundered off his Dunlop Pole Position to triple victory, move ahead in the chase and break his championship tie with Jonathan du Toit’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO. 

Former triple champion Robert Wolk snatched the Dunlop Pole Position award from his South African Touring Cars rivals before steering his Volkswagen Golf GTI to his first win since taking a year off. He beat Keegan Campos’ BMW 128ti and Julian van der Watt’s Volkswagen Golf GTI in the opening race. Rookie Jason Coetzee and Toyota Corolla teammate Michael van Rooyen then made the reverse grid second heat 1-2 their own from a feisty KC Ensor-Smith’s Golf GTI. Championship leader van der Watt meantime did enough to consolidate his advantage over Ensor-Smith and the Toyotas.

Reigning champion Tate Bishop returned to SATC SupaCup action after missing the first three rounds. He just missed out to Jason Loosemore on the Dunlop Pole Position Award, but Bishop had the better start and stormed to a dominant race 1 win from Judd Bertholdt, Rory Atkinson, Niko Zafiris, and a struggling Loosemore. Jason however made amends in race 2 over Bishop, Atkinson, Vostanis, Bertholdt and Zafiris. That leaves Loosemore leading the tussling Atkinson and Bertholdt in the title chase.

Mauro Da Luz and John Kruger claimed Dunlop Pole Position Awards, but it was son and father Charl and Derick Smalberger who stole the Astron Energy Polo Cup thunder by winning the Cup and Masters classes in the same race for the first time. Charl beat Hannes Scheepers and Da Luz to race 1, while Derick held Kruger off in the over-50s. Scheepers restored the status quo with an easy heat 2 win over rookie Chris Tait and Charl, while Wayne Masters, Kruger, and Derick in the Masters. Another strong day saw Scheepers consolidate his Cup championship advantage over Smalberger with da Luz up to third, while Masters leads the Masters. 

Mikel Bezuidenhout grabbed the Investchem MSA4 Dunlop Pole Position award, but it was back to the to and fro between he and Aqil Alibhai who took the first heat. Mikel then hit back to make it four wins apiece in the eight starts so far in the season. Renzo Ribeiro stole second from Bezuidenhout in race 1 and followed the title fighters home in the second race, which left Alibhai to retain a scant title advantage over Bezuidenhout. 

In the junior categories, Sebastian Venkov scored a breakthrough double in the Dunlop shod Volkswagen Rookie Cup, where Luke Hill and Sebastian Dias shared out the seconds and thirds. And also racing on Dunlop tyres, Kobus Reynecke and Connor Weston shared out the Gazoo Toyota GR86 Rookie race wins, Nabil Abdool took his customary GR Corolla Media double and Werner Venter and Andries de Villiers shared the GR Yaris Dealer honours. 

There was a late venue change as the Dunlop shod Extreme Festival commenced its midwinter break. The roadshow will return to Aldo Scribante, which now replaces East London Grand Prix Circuit on the calendar for round 5 on Saturday 15 August.