VW Cup provides closest racing at Extreme Festival
The Extreme Festival kicked off SA’s premier motosport class.
We take a closer look at some of the results.
Bikes
Multiple national champion Clint Seller (MiWay Yamaha Racing R1) signalled his return to form at Killarney on Saturday when he won both 1000cc races at the opening round of the 2017 DEOD SuperGP Champions Trophy. In the SuperMasters category defending champion Lance Isaacs (LIR BMW S1000RR) continued where he left off at the end of 2016 with two comfortable wins.
In the Super600 races the wins were shared by Hayden Jonas (Samurai Racing Kawasaki ZX6) and Steven Odendaal (Petra Yamaha Racing R6) while a new star emerged in the opening SuperJunior race. Sam Lockoff went from the back of the grid to take the win. Ricardo Otto (Otto Racing KTM RC390) took the second heat.
VW Cup
A full field of no less than 22 title drivers lined up on the grid in what proved to be one of the weekend’s highlights on the racing programme, and after the final checkered flag was waved, it was Shaun La Réservée who claimed the first overall victory of the season.
For the first qualifying session of the year the first 15 drivers were all covered by just 1 single second. Right in the middle of this mix was 2016 Volkswagen Driver Search winner Jonathan Mogotsi, who put his Volkswagen Motorsport Polo in a solid 11th position overall in his first ever qualifying session. “We are very pleased with the way that Engen Volkswagen Cup is developing,” says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “And there is no reason why it shouldn’t continue to develop and produce future motor racing champions as it has done for more than 20 years.”
Once the overall times were tallied, it was La Réservée that topped the standings to claim the first overall victory of 2017. Clinton Bezuidenhout claimed second position with Juan Gerber and Tasmin Pepper taking 3rd and 4th respectively. Devin Robertson would have been disappointed with his 5th overall after winning the first heat while the first of the Oates brothers Justin finished in 6th, just 2 tenths of a second ahead of Jeffrey Kruger with Darren completing the Oates sandwich in 8th. In a field as strong as this one, a top 10 position is an achievement, especially in your debut race, but this is exactly what Volkswagen Motorsport driver Jonathan Mogotsi achieved by finishing 9th overall. “We were very pleased with Jonathan’s consistent performance in his first ever race weekend,” continued Rowe. “And to make it even better for our team, his teammate Kuda Vazhure finished right on his heels to round out the top 10 in a field of 22 cars.”
GTC
With the first 6 qualifiers separated by under a second GTC is starting to show its promise of delivering fast and close racing. The grid was led by Gennaro Bonefede who went on to win both races and take overall honours for the day. Behind him was PE local Simon Moss and in 3rd place overall was 4th place qualifier, Johan Fourie.
Formula F1600
The next round of the Extreme festival takes place at Kyalami on the 22nd of April.
