What Regional Extreme Festival Round 5 Preview
Where East London Grand Prix Circuit
When Saturday 23 August 2025
Community South Africa National
Regional racing heads to East London Grand Prix Circuit
The anticipation is palpable as the Gauteng Regional Extreme Festival emerges from its hiatus to head to its annual away meeting at the iconic East London Grand Prix Circuit on Saturday 23 August. There’s great excitement among many of the drivers who will race at the literal home of South African motorsport for the first time looking forward to tackling the Circuit’s daunting reputation and great legend.
The program will see all the regular top Northern Regions championships descend on the Border Region racetrack, not least of all the Dunlop V8 Supercars. Other highlights East London fans can look forward to including the ATE Brakes VW Challenge and BMW M Performance Parts Series. Add the DOE Formula Vees and Ferro Energia 111s and SuperHatch. And there’s something for everyone too.
The East London faithful will be anticipating the return of the thundering Dunlop V8 Supercars, as much as the Dunlop V8 Supercars are keen to get to grips with the highest speeds of their season flat out down the straight, through Potters Pass and Rifle Range bend. Thomas Reib and his Lumina arrive in East London with a healthy 30-point advantage after main rival Warren Lombard’s Mustang hit trouble last time out. Both will be wary of the legend, Ben Morgenrood and his experimental GTX class Falcon, which has won races, as has Terry Wilford, who has found recent form in his Mustang. Corvette GT2 rivals Auke Compaan and Steve Herbst will also keep on fighting.
It’s close in the ATE Brakes VW Challenge, where dominant Class B man Stuart Mack is the thorn in the side of Class C overall championship rivals. Leader Adriaan de Beer, Bryce Pillay in third, and Mitch Coetzee and Stuart Konig in fourth and fifth. Mack however has an additional headache at this coastal race, where his normally aspirated class rivals the likes of Francis Aldrich and Nicole Lombard will have a power advantage this weekend. It will be a similar story up front where the turbo Class A cars will have it less easy against their aspirated kin as young gun Jayden Goosen fends the likes of Wayne Masters, Ian Walker, Elna Croeser, Dean Ross and Mike Barbaglia off.
A similar turbo versus aspirated twist awaits the BMW M Performance Parts series. Stalwarts Leon Loubser, Bob Neill and Ryan Naicker continue their Class A big battle, and it’s between Renier Smith, Andreas Meier and Nek Makris in Class B with Anton Pommersheim looming large. It’s close in Class C between Hein van der Merwe, Salvi Gualtieri and Varish Ganpath, with Oz Biagioni and Rob Gearing in their mirrors. Classes D, E and F race on their own. Bernard de Gouveia, Michael Grobler and Paolo Cavalieri do battle in Class D, Andre van Vuuren, Eddie Rodrigues, Wessel Mostert and Karabo Malemela in class E. And Shaun Dodd, Justin Brown, and Zaheer Seedat in F.
Lendl Jansen is without doubt the man to beat in the DOE Formula Vee National Challenge partnered with CIM Lubricants. But it’s super close behind him, where Gert van den Berg sits second with father and son Peter and Vaughn Hills, Shaun van der Linde, Theodore Vermaak, MD Bester, Kyle Watt, the other Hills sibling, Brandon Hills in chase. Other Vee stalwarts to keep an eye on, include Mile and Danie Stewart. James Carter, Jaco Smit and Johan Gouws.
The Ferro Energia 111 Sports GTs and Saloons are always fun to watch. GT man George Economides’ Golf may not enjoy its regular altitude advantage down in East London but never let that man out of your sight. He’ll have the likes of Wayne Robb’s Ford Focus, Mark du Toit’s BMW, and Phillip Meyer’s Porsche to fight for GT honours. Robb must deal with Wouter Roos and Pieter Potgieter’s Golfs in A. Golf duo Wayne Lebotschy and Maritz Le Roux fight over Class B, and youngsters Chris Tait, Sebastian Bouilliart Class and Keegan Nathan are in the C war. 111s race together with Superhatch.
Expect East London to put its best foot forward and for the Regional Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola to deliver a truly memorable day of racing at the home of South African motorsport. That means much side entertainment, food and drink stalls, off-track thrills and more, while local fans can examine the racecars close-up and catch up with the teams and drivers in the pits too. Entry is R100 per person over 12. See you at the Grand Prix Circuit, Saturday 23 August!
Issued on behalf of Extreme Festival
Photography by: Colin Windell
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