Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria - the 2015 Extreme Festival series kicked off in spectacular fashion on Saturday, combining national championship and club racing on the same bill for a full day of entertaining racing.
Headlining the programme were three races for National Production Cars, running to a new single-class format. Given bigger wheels, more turbo boost and unrestricted suspension, the two-litre, turbocharged front-wheel drive cars, formerly known as Class T, were on the pace with the bigger-capacity all-wheel drive cars formerly known as Class A.
Michael van Rooyen proved the point when he led the first race from start to finish in his Chevrolet Cruze, chased all the way by Michael Stephen (Audi S4), who was just 0.2 seconds adrift at the line.
Third and fourth, separated by a scant 0.3s, were Gennaro Bonafede (Audi S4) and Gary Formato (Ford Focus ST), with Simon Moss (Audi S4) and the irrepressible Graeme Nathan (Volkswagen Golf GTI) rounding out the top six places.
Freek Blignaut Jr took the category for older privateer cars in his Mazda 3 MPS, ahead of the identical car of Freek Blignaut Sr, and the Mini Cooper S of Jordan Sherratt.
Sadly, the BMW 3-Series race cars were absent due to sponsorship issues.
AUDI BACK IN CHARGE
The second leg, started from an inverted grid, saw Hennie Groenewald (Audi S4) lead all the way, followed by the Focus STs of Formato and Shaun Duminy. Moss grabbed the fourth place from Van Rooyen, with Stephen taking sixth.
This time Mark du Toit won the privateer category with his Audi A4, beating Freek Blignaut Sr and Greg Maloney (Mini Cooper S) to the line.
The Audis of Stephen Bonafede and Groemnwald set the pace in Race 3, thanks to their slower tyre wear, helped by all-wheel drive - although Van Rooyen helped by spinning the Cruze in the first corner, rejoining the field stone last.
Then Simon Moss was punted off the track in the hairpin, dropping his Audi out of contention, and Stephen went on to win from Bonafede and Groenewald.
Formato took fourth, posting the quickest lap of the race in the process, followed by Duminy and a recovered Moss.
Freek Blignaut Jr won the privateer category from Mark du Toit and Blignaut Sr.
National Production Car Championship spokesman Formato said afterwards: “As we've seen, the new rules allow the various cars to exploit their strongest points.
“The Audis benefitted from all-wheel drive in the final race and won, but we managed to set the quickest lap with our front-wheel drive Focus, while the Cruze was uncatchable with fresh rubber in the opening race.”
VOLKSWAGEN CUP
Reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde started his title defence in the best possible manner, winning all three of the day's races. Tasmin Pepper finished second twice, while Shaun La Reservee took the remaining runner-up spot.
Mathew Hodges came home third overall - and first Master - in Race 1.
La Reservee took second in Race 2, ahead of Master Class driver Juan Gerber.
Miss Pepper stepped up again to take second in the final outing after 12 laps of door-handle bashing racing, ahead of Gerber and Hodges, which earned her second overall for the day ahead of La Reservee, while Hodges went home with the big silverware in the Masters category - although Gerber was awarded Driver of the Day.
THUNDERBIKES
The open-class motorcycle riders produced the day's quickest lap times as usual, as Nicolas Grobler (BMW S1000 RR) taking the first race from former SA champion Greg Gildenhuys and Garrick Vlok, each on a Kawasaki ZX-10R.
Daryn Upton, also Kawasaki-mounted won Race 2, followed home by Grobler and Gildenhuys.
Graeme van Breda won both the Red Square Kawasaki Masters Cup races, with Kyle Robinson and Pieter de Vos taking turns in the second places, respectively.
Round two of the Extreme Festival Series will be run at Zwartkops on Saturday 21 March, before the circus moves to Killarney in Cape Town for the third round on 11 April, where the big bangers will be hoping to get their own back at sea level.