Locals the stars at Aldo Scribante Nationals

Port Elizabeth race fans can look forward to their annual dose of national championship motorsport in a fortnight, when the Extreme Festival brings the Sasol Global Touring Cars, Engen Volkswagen Cup and Investchem Formula 1600 to the Aldo Scribante Racetrack Saturday 15 July, where local racers and teams will be ready to thrill their Nelson Mandela Bay faithful.

Local interest will be quite extreme too and will no doubt center on the two Sasol GTC races, where home team Terry Moss Racing and its PE drivers, multiple SA and reigning GTC champion Michael Stephen and young gun Simon Moss continue in their quest to retain SA’s biggest race crown. Stephen and Moss sit second and third in the GTC title chase behind Jozi Sasol BMW driver Gennaro Bonafede and they will be out to maximise their hometown advantage.

Aldo Scribante also shares its home with Volkswagen South Africa just up the road in Uitenhage and the factory Volkswagen Motorsport Jettas will be out to score their first wins of the year at the company’s local stomping ground in the hands of another local lad, Daniel Rowe and Mathew Hodges, while the factory Golf GTIs will be out to stem the recent Mini tide in GTC2.

Aldo Scribante is also in essence the home round of the Engen Volkswagen Cup, where much of SA’s future racing talent will be on display with the likes of Devin Robertson, Jeff Kruger, Juan Gerber, lady racer Tasmin Pepper and Shaun La Réserveé set to mix it up with testosterone-charged kids Clinton Bezuidenhout, Matt Shorter, Daniel Duminy, Giordano Lupini and others keen to make a mark.

There’s another band of youngsters taking a different route to the top — the Investchem Formula 1600 single-seater lot will however have one task in mind and that’s to topple the so far unbeatable Julian van der Watt from his 2017 winning ways, with Stuart White, Cameron O’Connor, Alex Gillespie and Brad Beningfield among the drivers determined to topple the thus far Capetonian.

The three national classes will be backed up by a round each of the Red Square Kawasaki ZX10 Masters Cup Interprovincial Red Square Kawasaki Challenge, the ever-popular EP Regional Saloon Car Championship and the Algoa Motorsport Club Motorcycle Championship.

All of which will make for a magic day at the races — find the Aldo Scribante Raceway in the Coega IDZ just off the N2 in Markman, Port Elizabeth, there will be practice Friday 14 July with the racing starting mid-morning following warm-ups and qualifying Saturday 15 July. Entry fee is R80 per person with under-12s free.

See you at Aldo Scribante 15 July!