What National Extreme Festival Finals Preview
Where Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When Saturday 25 October 2025
Community South Africa National
Expect an epic National Extreme Festival finale in Pretoria
Pretoria’s Zwartkops Raceway will, as usual, crown the majority of South Africa’s National circuit racing champions at what can be expected to be an epic Extreme Festival Finale powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday 25 October. While a few drivers and riders have already wrapped things up, the rest of the National titles still seek champions. So expect the action to be fraught all day long in Pretoria.
Veteran Michael van Rooyen is tantalisingly close to clinching his maiden South African Touring Cars title in his Toyota Corolla, but he still has the bother of rookie Jagger Robertson’s Volkswagen Golf GTI close enough to steal an unlikely title. A solid first race should however do it for Michael, leaving Jagger to deal with Keegan Campos’ BMW and Julian van der Watt’s Golf for second, with Sa’aad Variawa and Nathi Msimanga’s Toyota and Andrew Schofield’s BMW also looking for their fair slice of the pie.
Cape Town lad Tate Bishop already wrapped up the SATC SupaCup title at home last time out, so there’s no championship pressure there. But with Bishop and several other drivers including outgoing champion Jonathan Mogotsi, his Volkswagen teammate Jason Loosemore, Dawie van der Merwe’s sole Toyota SupaStarlet and the rest of the SupaPolos including Karah Hill, Dylan Pragji, David Franco, Dean Venter and Masters men Andre Bezuidenhout and Rob Franco keen to end their campaigns on a high, this should be one of the races of the day.
Jonathan du Toit’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO leads the Extreme Supercars driven by Dunlop way to Zwartkops. But he has a bit of a double jeopardy on his hands. Class A duo Ricky Giannoccaro’s Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3 and Kris Budnik’s Dodge Viper may be his biggest title rivals. But on track, his competition is more likely to come from GT3 class pair, Charl Arangies’ Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO and Gianni Giannoccaro in his Nismo GT-R 7. In the classes, Ant Blunden’s McLaren MP4-12C leads B, Uli Sanne’s BMW Z4 C and Jimmy Giannoccaro’s Porsche 911 Class D.
Zwartkops will also crown South Africa’s first Investchem MSA4 wings and slicks single seater champion on Saturday. KC Ensor-Smith arrives with a slight five-point title advantage over archrival Mikel Bezuidenhout and three races still to go through the day to decide who the boss is there. Renzo Ribeiro and Karabo Malemela still have an outside chance to steal an unlikely title. They, as well as Liam Polome and Adriaan Nel are all still chasing their maiden wins in the series. So cue a tense weekend there too!
The Astron Energy Polo Cup is another National championship sitting on the knife’s edge as it heads to its Zwartkops showdown. Rory Atkinson moved slightly ahead of long-time log leader Mo Karodia last time out and it boils down to a battle between them for the 2025 title and a factory Volkswagen SATC SupaCup drive in 2026. Behind them Volkswagen rookie champion Judd Bertholdt sits tied in third with Ethan Coetzee, Hannes Scheepers, racing lass Tyler Robinson, Shrien Rajpaul, and the rest hard on their heels. A good first race result will tie a double Polo Masters title up for Wayne Masters with Derik Smalberger and John Kruger still out to stop him.
The Volkswagen Rookie Cup title chase is the closest of all. Chris Tait and Josh Moore arrive in Pretoria separated by a single championship point, with Mauro da Luz and Uzair Khan right on their tails. This champion will also earn a factory drive with Volkswagen in the Astron Energy Polo Cup for 2026.
The rest of the 2025 National Extreme Festival champions are already crowned, leaving them all to just race at Zwartkops. Can Toyota Gazoo Cup GR86 Rookie Jason Coetzee, GR Yaris Media champion Nabil Abdool and GR Corolla Dealer winner Mario da Souza win again? And will champion Clinton Seller return to close his SunBet ZX10 Masters motorcycle season in style against Trevor Westman, David Enticott, Jayson Lamb, Graeme van Breda and the rest?
All will be revealed at Pretoria’s epic Zwartkops Extreme Festival National Championship Finals presented by Coca-Cola on Saturday 25 October. Be there!
Issued on behalf of Extreme Festival
Photography by: Abri de Bruyn
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