What Top of the Hill Challenge Report
Where Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria
When 25-26 July 2026
Community South Africa National
Volkswagen’s new Golf hill climber stars at Zwartkops
Volkswagen Motorsport thrilled the South African motorsport world with the debut of its hugely powerful new hillclimb Golf at Zwartkops’ Top of the Hill Challenge on Sunday. Jonathan Mogotsi’s efforts were however thwarted by niggling problems on the revolutionary new racer, but Matthew Merton brought the team reason to celebrate when he beat Rory Atkinson to a Volkswagen Golf 8.5 GTI 1-2 finish in their standard A1 class.
“This was an exciting week as we unveiled and ran our new Volkswagen Motorsport Hillclimb Golf GTI for the first time at Zwartkops’ Top of the Hill Challenge,“Mike Rowe, Volkswagen Head of Motorsport said. “The car showed huge potential and immediately jumped into the top three in practice and qualifying runs. Sadly, however, some new car niggles prevented Jonathan from racing the final. Fortunately, Matthew Merton and Rory Atkinson still gave us reason to celebrate with a standard class 1-2 finish in their Golf 8.5 GTIs.”
The all-new Volkswagen Motorsport Hillclimb Golf 8.5 GTI commanded much of the attention in the lead up to, and through practice and qualifying for the Top of the Hill Challenge. Powered by a turbocharged 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine capable of delivering 1000 horsepower (about 735kW), the highly modified Michael Allers built, carbonfibre bodied machine features Bartek specialised components and Motec engine management system. It is fitted with a Sadev ST4-917 all-wheel drive transmission.
Driver Mogotsi was immediately on the pace through practice and qualifying as the team fettled its new steed. Sadly, they never had the opportunity to test out its full potential when new car niggles halted progress and Mogotsi was forced to sit out the finale. That left Matthew Merton to scoop up the silverware as he defeated Rory Atkinson’s identical street specification Volkswagen Golf GTI to class A1 1-2 in en route to sixth and seventh among a field of road going supercars.
*Volkswagen Motorsport salutes its racing partners, Astron Energy, VW Genuine Parts, and Dunlop Tyres.
Issued on behalf of Volkswagen Motorsport
Photography by: Andre Laubscher
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