East London wreaks havoc with National Extreme Festival
Julian van der Watt took his works Volkswagen Motorsport Golf GTI to victory in Saturday's opening South African Touring Car race. Photograph: Brandsponential.
Adverse weather conditions played havoc with round five of the National Extreme Festival Presented By Coca-Cola at the East London Grand Prix circuit on Saturday.
Programme rescheduled
Rain overnight and into the early morning left the circuit sodden, with little rivers running over some of the fastest parts.
Following no less than two massive accidents in early morning qualifying that requires tyre barriers to be rebuilt, racing only commenced in the early afternoon, forcing the organisers to cut the programme drastically.
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At the centre of this was the complete cancellation of both SunBet Kawasaki ZX10 Masters races, a reduction in lap count to eight for all the other classes, and a single 'long' race over 12 laps for the Toyota GR Cup.
Eventually, with the weather cleared and the track repaired, the event got underway, producing some excellent racing.
Touring Cars
Premier billing went to the South African Touring Car category, with the day's opening race providing a one-two finish for the works Volkswagen Motorsport Golf GTI entries of Julian van der Watt and Jagger Robertson.
Nathi Msimanga took the final podium place in a rather battered Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla after a crash in practice, leading home Andrew Schofield (Safair BMW 128it), Michael van Rooyen (Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla) and Saood Variawa (Toyota Gazoo Racing Corolla).
Keegan Campos (Campos Transport BMW 128it) fought with the leaders until the pit straight of the final lap, where his car cut out.
Campos heroically pushed it the last 200 metres to the flag, to clinch seventh place championship points.
Starting from an inverted grid, van Rooyen led race two all the way, though behind, a mid-race clash between Msimanga and Robertson in the tight complex section prevented another Volkswagen 1-2 finish.
Van der Watt was, therefore, second ahead of Schofield, Msimanga, Variawa and a less than pleased Robertson.
Not taking the grid was the privateer Toyota Corolla of Siyabonga Mankonkwana after a monstrous accident in the complex in race one that completely destroyed the car, without any harm to the driver.
SupaCup
Jonathan Mogotsi (Volkswagen Genuine Parts SupaPolo) won the opening SupaCup category from Tate Bishop (ANGRI Volkswagen SupaPolo), Dylan Pragji (Styling Auto Volkswagen SupaPolo), Jason Loosemore (Volkswagen Genuine Parts SupaPolo) and Dawie van der Merwe (Toyota Gazoo Racing SupaStarlet).
Jonathan Mogotsi (Volkswagen Genuine Parts SupaPolo) won both SupaCup races. Photograph: Brandsponential.
Mogotsi took race two as well, leading home Bishop, Loosemore, Pragji and Nicolaos Vostanis (Campos Transport SupaPolo).
Polo Cup
Bradley Liebenberg returned to the Astron Energy Polo Cup arena in an unsponsored Polo, and won race one by a narrow margin from Mohammed Karodia (Fast 5).
Bradley Liebenberg returned to the Astron Energy Polo Cup arena on Saturday, and won the race. Brandsponential.
They were chased to the flag by Judd Bertholdt (Rookie Cup), Rory Atkinson (Industry Petroleum) and lady racer Tyler Robinson (AF Fans).
Wayne Masters (Performance Masters) took the Masters category from John Kruger (Harbot Lubricants), Derek Smalberger (SABERTEK) and Mike Barbaglia (Pabar Polo).
GR Cup
The one and only GR Cup race, in the GR86 class, went to Jason Coetzee ahead of Kent Swartz and Kanya Ngwenya.
Jason Coetzee (Toyota GR86) won the day's only Toyota Gazoo Racing Cup round overall. Photograph: Brandsponential.
Runaway championship leader Nabil Abdool (SuperSport) took the GR Yaris media section win from Yaris Cup victory from Phuti Mpayne (TimesLive) and Kyle Kock (CAR Magazine).
GR driving instructor Devon Scott won the GR Corolla leg from GR dealers Mario da Sousa and Werner Venter.
MSA4
The opening heat for the Investchem MSA4 single-seaters saw numerous spins and off-track excursions, as the drivers of the new cars got to grips with the conditions.
KC Ensor-Smith (Investchem MSA4) won both the races for Investchem MSA4 single-seaters. Photograph: Brandsponential.
Eventually, the victory went to KC Ensor-Smith (Investchem), leading home Mikel Bezuidenhout, Shrien Naidoo and Karabo Malemela.
Ensor-Smith won race two as well, chased to the flag by Naidoo, Bezuidenhout and Malemela.
Ending on a low
The race day ended early when the second Astron Energy Polo Cup race was red-flagged after two laps.
First Rory Atkinson lost his car through the ultra fast Potters Pass sweep and plowed into the tyre barrier. He was unhurt, but the Polo became a lot shorter.
On the next lap, Tyler Robinson lost control of her car in the main straight after putting a wheel off into the muddy veld and rolled it at high speed.
The young lady crawled from the wreck having escaped injury, but the tyre barrier was knocked down and the organisers were forced to end the meeting before daylight ran out.
Staying at the coast
The next round of the National Extreme Festival Presented By Coca-Cola will be at the Western Cape Killarney circuit on Saturday, September 13.
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