What Extreme Festival presented by Coca-Cola Round 5 Report
Where East London Grand Prix Circuit
When Saturday 19 July 2025
Community South Africa National
van der Watt stars, van Rooyen tightens SATC title grip
It was quite literally the Day of the Vans as championship leader Michael van Rooyen placed one hand on the 2025 South African Touring Cars title when he escaped a crunching opening heat to storm back to victory for Gazoo Toyota in the second race at a dramatic East London Grand Prix Circuit Extreme Festival powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday.
It was also a good weekend for Volkswagen man Julian van der Watt, who took his maiden win of the season in that opening race to take the day and move up to second in the chase. In another championship twist, not even a double win would help Jonathan Mogotsi overcome the disappointment of a late exclusion from a similar result in the previous SATC SupaCup round. That leaves Tate Bishop with little more than a formality to wrap that crown up at home after a double East London second.
Clearly relishing in a subtle Balance of Performance massage since the last round, van der Watt took full advantage of his Chemical Logistics WCT Golf GTI’s newfound grunt to show great practice pace before taking pole position in a red flagged qualifying session. Championship challenger Keegan Campos was just a tenth off the pace in second aboard his Campos Racing Chemical Logistics FAST Racing BMW 128tc ahead of fellow rookie Jagger Robertson in the second Chemical Logistics Sparco WCT Golf GTI.
Championship leader van Rooyen lined up fourth in the best of the Gazoo Toyota Corollas ahead of Andrew Schofield’s second FlySafair CLR FAST BMW 128tc. Sa’aad Variawa was next up in the second Gazoo Corolla, substituting for brother Saood away on World Rally Raid duty in his Hilux, from teammate Nathi Msimanga. Siya Mankonkwana’s Investchem Corolla would not start after his red flag qualifying off.
There was huge drama in the build to the SATC SupaCup weekend when MSA overturned an official edict that had let two cars off the hook after they were found to have too potent petrol in their tanks at the previous Zwartkops round. The result was that VW duo Jonathan Mogotsi and Jason Loosemore were excluded from the Pretoria races to shake up the championship.
That promoted Charl Visser to second in the chase, but he did not bother travelling to East London after those cars initially escaped sanction. Which left Tate Bishop in a commanding championship lead. Bishop made no mistakes to put his privateer Angri Racing LTR SupaPolo on pole position as the track dried following the earlier rain.
Mogotsi’s factory version was second by a quarter of a second from the surprising Zimbabwean Dylan Pragji’s Stylin Auto car. Loosemore lined up fourth in the second VW factory effort ahead of Kalex lass Karah Hill, Nicolaos Vostanis, Dawie van der Merwe in the solo Gazoo Toyota SupaStarlet, Dean Venter’s Platinum Mile car and Weltevreden Master Andre Bezuidenhout.
The opening race was an entertaining affair. Campos muscled his way past
van der Watt to lead the way early on, with Robertson defending third from van Rooyen. They tangled coming out of Copabana a few laps later to drop van Rooyen back. Out front meantime, van der Watt fought his way back past Campos with Robertson in close attendance and Msimanga next up from Schofield and Variawa.
But as they sometimes say, the fat lady had not yet sung. As the field passed through the final turn at Beacon, Campos’ BMW suddenly slowed from second to allow Jagger Robertson up to a Volkswagen Golf 1-2 behind van der Watt, delighted to finally take a 2025 race win. Nathi Msimanga inherited third from Andrew Schofield, Michael van Rooyen and Sa’aad Variawa as poor Campos pushed his car across the line to no avail.
Tate Bishop led SupaCup early on but Jonathan Mogotsi had none of it and muscled his way past for the win. Dylan Pragji was the hero, however, with a splendid third place just behind Bishop. He was clearly content to just follow his now closest title rival Mogotsi home. Loosemore was fourth from van der Merwe’s Toyota and the rest of the VWs, Hill, Masters winner Bezuidenhout and the delayed Dean Venter after Vostanis retired.
With Campos ruled out of the reverse-grid finale and three GR Corollas starting in front, it did not take too long for the Toyota trio to engineer Michael van Rooyen into the lead, from where he escaped to a sizable advantage. That left Julian van der Watt and Jagger Robertson to deal with the second and third Corolla roadblock of Msimanga and Variawa, but van der Watt wasted little time to fight up to second.
Then Msimanga and Robertson tangled in the complex to leave van der Watt chasing down van Rooyen. The Volkswagen closed the gap dramatically on the Toyota, but Julian was just unable to catch Michael in the fading light at the end. Behind them, Andy Schofield was delighted to take a South African Touring Car career best third from Variawa and the delayed Msimanga and Robertson.
Further back, Jonathan Mogotsi made up for his and his team’s recent disappointments to storm home to a lights to flag second race win to make it a double for the day. He left Tate Bishop to wrestle his way past Jason Loosemore for second, with Dylan Pragji fourth from Nicolaos Vostanis, Karah Hill, Dawie van der Merwe, Dean Venter and Master Andre Bezuidenhout.
So Julian van der Watt took the day overall from Michael van Rooyen, Andrew Schofield, Jagger Robertson and Nathi Msimanga. That also turned the championship on its head behind leader van Rooyen who takes a provisional 22 point lead into the final four races of the season with 66 points still available. Van der Watt moved up from fourth to second from Robertson in third as Campos slipped from second to fourth.
Tate Bishop meantime takes a provisional 55 point SupaCup advantage home to Cape Town, where he hopes to wrap the title up on 13 September. That after the South African Touring Cars and SupaCup have taken their two month winter break through to the penultimate next round of the national Extreme Festival powered by Coca-Cola at the Killarney International Raceway.
Issued on behalf of South African Touring Cars
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