Coco-Cola Regional Extreme Festival kicked off 2025 activities in fine style at Zwartkops
This year’s Coco-Cola Regional Extreme Festival kicked off its 2025 activities in fine style at the Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria on Saturday.
Topping the programme in front of a sizeable crowd were two races for Ferro Energia 111 GT Sport and Saloon Cars.
George Economides (Wealth Avenue VW Golf Turbo) won the opening race from Mark du Toit (TAR BMW Z4), Marius du Plessis (Forklift Mining Nissan Primera), Wayne Robb (Ford Focus ST), Wouter Roos (Origen Oil Golf 7) and Lindsay Clur (Nathan’s Golf).
Economides won race two from Du Toit and Du Plessis as well, leading home Robb, Roos and Lucas Bezuidenhout (Pta Noord Lexus IS200).
After a huge race-long dice, Jayden Goosen (Ferro Energia Polo) took the opening ATE VW Challenge heat from Wayne Masters (Performance Master Polo), with the two cars separated by half a second over the finish line.
Rookie Judd Bertholdt (Sizanani Plastics Polo) took the final podium place ahead of Elna Croeser (ATE Polo), Dean Ross (Norbrake Polo) and Stuart Mack (AutoZone Polo).
Goosen, Masters and Bertholdt occupied the second race podium as well, chased by Ross, Croeser and Mack.
Warren Lombard (Pepboys Automotive Mustang) won the first V8 Supercar race from old-timer Ben Morgenrood (Morgenrood Ford Mustang), Thomas Reib (Café 9 Chev Lumina), Antonie Marx (Holden), Sam Dahl (AcPro Tech Ford Falcon) and Auke Compaan (Hurricane Auto Mustang).
The race ended in spectacular fashion when the Wellness Group Ford Falcon of newcomer Alan Ryan caught fire.
He stopped in the pit straight and got out, after which the ever-efficient Zwartkops marshals doused the flames.
Race two, started from an inverted grid, saw Reib snatching an early lead and hanging on to it.
He hung on to win from ahead of Lombard, Morgenrood, Dahl, Wayne Spicer (Wellness Group Jaguar) and Steve Herbst (Prei Instrumentation Corvette).
The first BMW/// Performance Parts race went to Bob Neill (Delmon Mining BMW M3 Turbo), followed by Leon Loubser (Monaco Motors BMW).
Loubser led the race up to the very last corner when he spun his car but recovered to grab second place ahead of Nek Makris (BMW 335i), Fabio Fedetto (BMW M4) Renier Smith (Fast Development BMW M3 Turbo) and Andreas Meier (#CEC BMW STC).
Race two was won by Loubser, leading home Neill, Fedetto, Meier, Smith and Salvi Gualtieri (SavSpeed BMW 328i Turbo).
Lendl Jansen (Bull Security Rhema) took the opening DOE CIM Formula Vee race ahead of MD Bester (Mangaza Rhema), Vaughn Hills (Mangaza Rhema), Gert van der Berg (DOE Parts Rhema), Peter Hills (Mangaza Rhema) and Shaun van der Linde (Truck City Rhema).
After a brilliant six-car war at the front end, race two went to Bester, from Van der Berg, Jansen, Kyle Watt (Mangaza Rhema), Vaughn Hills and Peter Hills.
The first four cars were covered by less than a second over the finish line.
The first SuperHatch race went to Lenard Archer (ACD Welkom Hyundai Getz) ahead of Tyron Pillay (TPAS VW Golf), Keegan Nathan (Nathan’s Polo), Mark du Toit (TAR BMW), Melanie Spur (Origen Oil Polo) and Ishmael Baloyi (Honda Civic).
Pillay won race two from Spurr, Archer, Nathan, Francis Aldrich (VaporWorx Polo) and Christopher Gerber (Executive Auto Polo).
The next event at Zwartkops will be an Inland Historic Championship round on Saturday, 5 April.
Andre’ de Kock
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