Spring arrived at Pretoria's Zwartkops Raceway with a bang on Saturday as the 2026 Northern Regions Extreme Festival rolled into town for a hard-fought fifth round. If the championship battles were close before the weekend, they are now positively claustrophobic after a day of racing that left the Dunlop V8 Supercars, ATE VW Challenge, M Performance Parts BMWs, DOE Formula Vees and Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons and SuperHatch categories even more finely balanced.
Dunlop V8 Supercars: Lombard Takes the Day
Thomas Reib's Corvette went into the weekend with Terry Wilford and Warren Lombard's Mustangs breathing down his neck, separated by just a handful of points. Lombard struck first with pole position ahead of Wilford and Reib, then promptly cleared off to win the opening heat while Reib muscled past Wilford for second. Sam Dahl, GT2 winner Wayne Spicer and Vic Dias gave chase.
Wilford made the most of the reverse-grid start in race two to lead Lombard, but Reib hit trouble, handing third to Dahl ahead of GT2 winner Dias, Alan Ryan and Spicer. When the dust settled, Lombard took the day from Wilford, Dahl and GT2 man Dias.
ATE VW Challenge: Clean Sweeps All Round
The ATE VW Challenge turned into a display of total dominance. Class A man Anthony Lessing, Class B lad Keegan Nathan and Class C winner Bryce Pillay all stormed to double lights-to-flag victories from pole position.
Christopher Tait, Francis Aldrich and Anthony Lessing chased Lessing home in race one, while Tait took second ahead of Josh Moore and Walker in the second heat. Nathan left Anthony Bouillart and Keyaan Dwomoh to squabble over the minor placings in the opening Class B race, before Dwomoh followed a resurgent Max Corbett home in the second. Pillay held off Elna Croeser and Stuart Konig in race one, then beat a combative Konig and Croeser in the second heat, leaving all three title chases wide open.
BMW M Performance Parts Series: Thompson Delivers
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All eyes were on Lee Thompson in the BMW M Performance Parts Turbo Series, and the comeback kid delivered in spades with pole position and a pair of race wins. Anton Pommersheim could do little more than hold Bob Neill off for second to limit the damage to his title hopes. Ethan Coetzee beat Wessel Mostert and Oz Biagioni in the opening B race before Reiner Smith hit back over Coetzee and Mostert. Nicky Dicks took both C-class wins, first from Bennie Luyt and Anand Naidu, then from Reinhardt Miller and Hein van der Merwe.
In the normally aspirated BMW ranks, Andre van Vuuren won the opener from Richard Gerntholtz and Olerato Sekudu, with Ruhan van der Walt taking Class B and lady racer Chloe Stuart Class D. Bernard de Gouveia then struck in the second heat to beat Gerntholtz and van Vuuren, where Claudio Jardim won Class C and Trent Williams took Class D.
DOE Formula Vee: Bester Causes a Stir
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MD Bester raised eyebrows by beating recent form man Kyle Watt to pole position for the DOE Formula Vee, partnered by CIM Fuel. Bester then fought Watt off for the opening race win, leaving Watt to re-pass Peter Hills for third. Shaun van der Linde came home fourth ahead of Theo Vermaak, Jaco Schriks and championship leader Lendl Jansen.
Drama struck early in the red-flagged second race, eliminating Bester, Peter Hills and Vermaak among others. That left Watt to win from van der Linde, Schriks, Vaughn Hills and Jansen — and tightened the Vee title race considerably.
Digit FMS 111 GT & Saloons: Robb and Priestley Shine
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The Digit FMS 111 GT and saloon races were split on Saturday. Wayne Robb's Focus led lady racer Tyler Robinson's SupaPolo, Mark du Toit's BMW, sister Berlin Robinson's Polo, JP Nortje and GTB winner Jonathan Visser's Subaru to the opening race win. Tyler then beat Jarred Rossouw's similar machine, du Toit, Philip Meyer's Porsche and Robb in the second heat as Visser took GTB again.
Craig Priestley's Polo got one over Lindsay Clur's Golf, Ernest Heather and Lucas Bezuidenhout's Lexus in both saloon races, where Piet Potgieter's Golf beat Mike O'Sullivan's Ballade to Class B, Henry van Vledder's Golf took Class C and Arthur Thorne won SuperHatch.
Next Up: Red Star
With most classes now balanced on an ever-sharper knife's edge, the penultimate Northern Regions Extreme Festival should be another cracker when the sixth round visits Red Star Raceway near Delmas on Saturday 10 October.
Colin Windell for Colin-on-Cars in association with
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