Extreme weekend at Zwartkops Raceway

Extreme drifting during the Hankook Extreme Festival, held at the Zwartkops Raceway

@ROBERT_MABUSELA

Zwartkops Raceway in conjunction with automotive tyre company Hankook, hosted the Hankook Exteme Festival at the Zwartkops on the 9^th & 10^th of August. The two day motoring filled programme set out to entertain motoring fanatics whilst also appealing to women who were out at the track by making them feel special during women’s month.

While men were in the grand stands cheering on and throwing fists in the air during the qualifying races, women had the opportunity to be pampered and treated to a champagne breakfast and neck or foot massage at the ZOC Club house. Races in the programme included the TK Imports Brunch Run and Thunderbikes, Goldwagen SuperHatch, Hankook Formulae Vee, Red Square Kawasaki ZX10R Masters, Imperial Mitsubishi Super Saloons, SA Mechanical Seals Alfa Trofeo, Dotsure.co.za Extreme SuperCars and the Drifting Sideways Challenge.

Various off the track activities kept visitors entertained throughout both days, activities included various exhibitions, a kiddies play area, beer garden, live band performances and a Show and Shine & Sound-off competition that took place during the second day of the Festival. One of the biggest races on the days attracted over 19 exotic cars, in the Dotsure.co.za Extreme Supercars. On Friday Charl Arrangies driving a Motul Dodge Viper ACRX and Deon du Plessis in the KTM X-Bow won the supercar filled race. Arrangies returned to his winning ways in Saturday`s single race. Extreme times of up to 62 seconds were set on Zwartkops 2.4km circuit in the SuperKart races, Veron Pappas completed the circuit in a best time of 1.02 seconds.

 
Off circuit the Show and Shine and Sound-off competition brought a different kind of competitiveness, show casing some of the best custom rides that were entered into the show offs. Fantasy Rides Crew from Pretoria was well represented, showcasing two of their BMW M3 models in the Show and Shine competition. Nabeel Shamshoodeen`s Daytona Violet E36 German Spec M3 of the two, had one of the best pain jobs on the day. Other customs on his ride included customised 18” M3 rims which came out as 17`s from factory, an imported full touch screen Pioneer system and a two sub suede finish box. In the Sound-off category Nitro Crew specialist Leon Gounden, who is known to have the loudest Rookie 1 sound in Johannesburg and Durban looked to add on to his collection of trophies. Gounden`s 138 dbs music box sits on a 40mm drop, 17” LF Works, laminexed lights and his sound set up features 12” Viper Targa`s & a 5000w competition series Amp amongs other sound components.

Motorsports South Africa declared the event to be a success, which was due to a well packaged race programme. Kayalami Raceway will host the spring edition of the Extreme Festival series which will take place on the 14^th of September.