#Zwartkops Raceway – Extreme Festival comes to town 12 May
Zwartkops Raceway is gearing up for its first national championship race weekend of the season when the Extreme Festival visits the Pretoria circuit for its third round national championship races and judging by the form book, it would be a very good idea to cross Saturday 12 May out of your diary right away. While the Sasol GTC championship is tightly poised across the board following a great outing in the Cape last time out, the Engen Volkswagen Polo Cup and Investchem Formula 1600s fields will be out to stop so-far dominant performances and a strong supporting bill will make for an excellent day at the races.
The Sasol Global Touring Car Championship heads up the national action and with just eleven points separating that championship top three, leader Simon Moss and his Engen Audi, Gennaro Bonafede’s Sasol BMW and double-SA champion Michael Stephen in the other Audi have it all to play for. Privateer Michael van Rooyen is likewise keen to extend his brilliant run of late aboard his RSC Racing BMW and the winner last time out, Daniel Rowe and his Volkswagen Motorsport Jetta will be out to prove that was no flash in the pan. Cue a seismic Zwartkops GTC weekend come 12 May!
There’s a surprise in front of the Sasol GTC2 title chase, where Trevor Bland has quietly gone about scoring consistent points to edge his Universal Healthcare Golf GTI into a slender two-point advantage over the otherwise dominant Keagan Masters’ Volkswagen Motorsport Golf GTI going into Pretoria. Mini duo Brad Liebenberg Ferodo and Devin Robertson and Charl Smalberger’s Sabertek Golf GTI are also all well poised in that title chase, so expect no-holds barred racing there too.
Affairs have however proven a little more clear-cut in the Engen Volkswagen Polo Cup, where Jeffrey Kruger has run amok with a perfect score so far, but Zwartkops being most Polo teams’ home track, rest assured that Kruger’s rivals will be baying for his blood and then some. So that Polo action can only be fraught as the likes of Masters ladies and gentlemen, Tasmin Pepper, Juan Gerber, Charl Wilken, Shaun La Reservee among them, and Junior chargers Clinton Bezuidenhout, Daniel Duminy, Keegan Campos, Delon Thompson and others now need to get their title chases into top gear. Another certain Zwartkops May 12 spectacle…
It’s a similar situation in Investchem Formula 1600, where Stuart White has so far been peerless in his pursuit of that series’ Mazda Road to Indy shootout prize, but rest assured that Cameron O’Connor, Alex Gillespie, Nicholas van Weely, Siyabonga Mankonkwana, Liam Pienaar, Andrew Schofield and Tiago Rebelo will be among several others out to stop Bloemfontein lad White’s so far almost perfect performance.
Talking about dominance, there’s one man that everyone racing in one of Zwartkops’ favourite series wants to beat and that’s Charl Arangies and his awesome Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Arangies had to start from the back to allow a Ferrari to get the better of him in the Cape, but there are a good few men out there intent to beat the indomitable Vereeniging driver on merit, so expect a gaggle of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches, among others to be out for Charl’s scalp.
Two-wheel race fans can also look to forward to the usual Red Square Kawasaki ZX 10 Masters Cup spectacle, where Sven Grune and Graeme van Breda continue to defy their age as they pick up where they left off up front last time around. Pieter de Vos, Jaco Gous, Brian Bontekoning and Gareth Bezuidenhout will be among those in hot pursuit — ZX10 Masters is another class that seldom fails to entertain at Zwartkops.
Two excellent Zwartkops Club Challenge series close off the 12 May action with the ever popular 111 Sports & Saloons now boasting fresh series backing from Car Care Clinic and all eyes on Neil Lobb and his yellow TVR Chimaera to see if he can once again ward off the likes of Gerhard Henning and Wouter Roos’ Golfs, George Bezuidenhout’s Primera and the rest, with action guaranteed throughout the classes down the pack.
Sparks flew in spite of wet conditions last time the autObarn Super Hatch brigade raced at Zwartkops and that can be expected to continue come 12 May when Honda Civic duo Brett Garland and Jonathan du Toit and Werner Pieterse’s Golf get back together, while that’s another category where class action can be guaranteed to put on a great show right through the field.
So there you have it — there is something special to diarise for Zwartkops Saturday 12 May when the Extreme Festival national championship races come to town. The racing will be backed by a broad selection of off track family entertainment as usual; adult entry is R120 per person, students enter for R90 and under 12s get in free. Find more info and book your tickets now at www.zwartkops.co.za.
