After the opening two rounds of the 2025 Dunlop V8 Supercars championship, there is almost nothing to choose between Warren Lombard (PepBoys Automotive Ford Mustang) and Thomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Chevrolet Lumina). They make their way to Zwartkops Raceway, west of Pretoria, separated by just two points. Lombard holds the advantage thanks to the bonus points he has accumulated thanks to the pole positions he claimed in the first two rounds.
At the championship opening round, held at Zwartkops Raceway back in March, Lombard was the man to catch, setting the quickest times in practice on the Friday before grabbing pole position in Saturday morning’s qualifying session. He then took a lights-to-flag win in the opening heat, before Reib bounced back in the second race and took the win. It was similar at Kyalami in the second round; Lombard took pole position and the first race win, while Reib emerged victorious in the reverse-grid second heat.
Behind the leading duo, Sam Dahl lies in third place, but he is unlikely to hold on to that as he will not make the trip from Finland for this event due to other commitments. Both Terry Wilford (Wilford Racing Ford Mustang) and Franco di Matteo (Di Matteo Racing Jaguar XKR) have had their season starts spoiled by mechanical gremlins and will be looking to get back to the sharp end of the field where they belong, while Ben Morgenrood, in the GTX class Ben Morgenrood Ford Mustang, should also be up with the leaders. Richard Fuller (PotAround Ford Falcon) missed the opening round of the series but showed real pace at Kyalami, taking third place in GT1 in both heats to show he could be a force to contend with this season.
Series newcomer Wayne Spicer (Wellness Group Jaguar XKR) leads the GT2 contingent and occupies fourth place on the overall log. Steve Herbst (PREI Instrumentation Chevrolet Corvette) is just three points behind Spicer, with Auke Campaan (Hurricane Automotive Ford Mustang) just one more point back. Alan Ryan (Wellness Group Ford Falcon) has also suffered reliability problems this year, but hopes to bounce back at Zwartkops.
After three practice sessions on Friday morning, the drivers will head out for their qualifying session at 08h40 on Saturday morning. The two races on Saturday are scheduled for 11h40 and 14h35.
Spectator tickets can be purchased at the Zwartkops Raceway entrance gate. The event will be broadcast live on the Extreme Festival Presented By Coca-Cola website. A handy mobile device-friendly event link portal has also been created to access important links and downloads easily.