Warren Lombard ((PepBoys Automotive Ford Mustang) got his quest for the 2025 Dunlop V8 Supercars championship off to a great start, emerging at the top of the log after the opening round at Zwartkops Raceway on 1 March.
As he has done on many occasions at Zwartkops, Lombard topped the time sheets after Friday’s practice sessions before taking pole position in qualifying on Saturday morning. He lined up at the head of the grid with veteran Ben Morgenrood, in the GTX class Ben Morgenrood Ford Mustang, alongside him. Thomas Reib (Café 9 Automotive Chevrolet Lumina) and Terry Wilford (Fuchs Lubricants Ford Mustang) filled the second row ahead of the leading GT2 class car in the hands of Antonie Marx (ReMan Holden). Regular Finnish visitor Sam Dahl (ArcProtech Ford Falcon) qualified in sixth place. 2024 GT2 class champion Auke Campaan (Hurricane Automotive Ford Mustang) had to settle for seventh ahead of Steve Herbst (PREI Instrumentation Chevrolet Corvette) with newcomers Alan Ryan (Wellness Group Ford Falcon) and Wayne Spicer (Wellness Group Jaguar XKR) rounding out the top ten.
In the opening heat, Lombard led from pole position and was never troubled on his way to victory. However, the race was cut slightly short after Herbst and Ryan tangled a couple of laps from the scheduled finish in the final corner, leaving both cars in dangerous positions. Morgenrood followed Lombard over the line with Reib in third place on the road and the second GT1 car. Marx, in fourth place, took GT2 honours. Dahl was next up ahead of Compaan and Spicer. Despite suffering a steering rack failure while lying in fourth place, Wilford was classified in eighth, ahead of Herbst and Ryan.
Spicer led the field away from the head of the reverse-grid second race but was soon pushed down the pack by Reib, who had Lombard and Morgenrood in hot pursuit. While Lombard could close up on Reib, he couldn’t find a way past and dropped back behind Morgenrood at one stage while he prepared to mount another challenge. Lombard moved back into second place on the penultimate lap, but could not close the gap to Reib and had to be content with second place, nearly 2.5 seconds back. Morgenrood crossed the line in third ahead of Dahl. Spicer, in fifth, took the GT2 class win ahead of Herbst.
With GTX competitors not eligible to score points in the national challenge championship, Lombard leads by just a single point from Reib, with Dahl in third. Spicer, the first of the GT2 class competitors, is in fourth place ahead of Marx and Herbst.
The Dunlop V8 Supercars’ next outing will be at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit from 10 to 12 April 2025.
