This coming weekend (11-12 April) will see 60 entrants for Round 3 of the 2025 BMW ///M Performance Parts Race Series at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit.
As part of the Double-Header Extreme Festival Presented By Coca-Cola, Round 3 will mark the 12th occasion that the series will visit the revamped circuit since 2016, the most for any circuit-racing series in South Africa. Unlike last year’s corresponding event, Round 3 will see the customary split between the two groups, with Classes A, B & C competing separately from Classes D, E & F.
There will be no less than six Class A cars starting Friday’s first practice session. Defending Class A champion Leon Loubser heads up the points table from Bob Neill, with 36 and 32 points accumulated by the pair, respectively. While they both have two wins and two runner-up spots to their names, Loubser does have an advantage with all four fastest lap points. Fabio Fedetto, with 22 points from his four third places, is third on the points table. Paulo Loureiro will have his first outing in 2025, and while Ryan Naicker participated in some of the practice sessions in Round 2, he, too, will look to start his first race of the season. Sav Gualtieri will field his BMW F30 S65 V8 Turbo, last seen in 2024’s penultimate round at the same circuit.
Defending champion and Class B’s points leader Renier Smith has 34 points and a six-point advantage over Nek Makris, the latter not entered for Round 3. This could see Andreas Meier, five points adrift, make up ground. Anton Pommersheim is set for his maiden Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit outing, while Lorenzo Gualtieri will start his first race weekend of the season.
Salvi Gualtieri heads up Class C after his dominance in Round 2. With 31 points, he is six clear of Hein van der Merwe. Rob Gearing, not entered for Round 3, and Oz Biagioni are tied on 22, with Nicky Dicks seven adrift. Regular campaigners Alan Hilligenn, Anand Naidu, Bennie Luyt, Gary Martins, Lenard Archer, Neil Pillay, Nick Naidoo and Nishal Singh will also be in contention. Bilal Ahmed, formerly in Class D, has moved to Class C. Defending class champion Reinhardt Miller will hope for a strong weekend to move up from his lowly eighth place on the points table.
The Class D battle has proved to be fierce in the first two rounds, and with 15 drivers starting the weekend, the status quo is set to continue. Bernard de Gouveia heads up the points table with 31 points and took two wins thus far. Varish Ganpath is five points adrift, and his form in the first two rounds indicates that he could soon take the podium’s top step as well. Michael Grobler, with 20 points, recently took his first Class D win and will fondly look back at his Kyalami visit, where he took his first Class E win. Paolo Cavalieri has looked strong this season, and will also contest the top spots, The defending Class D champion, Nicholas Herbst, is another driver who will look to channel a successful previous visit. Other drivers who will also form part of this brat-pack challenge are Craig Herbst, Dawie Olivier, Dewald Smith, Eugene Gouws, Johan Miller, Mario Hattingh, Neil Reynolds, Olerato Sekudu, Trevor Long, and Troy Cochran.
Eddie Rodrigues’ 32 points see him 14 ahead of Wessel Mostert in Class E. The battle for second place is a close contest, with only three points separating Mostert, Roland Hopkins, Karabo Malemela, and Shane Grobler. Richard Gerntholtz, Stefano Cavalieri, and Tihan van Rooyen will be some of the regular contenders, while Heinz Bose from ATS Motorsport will have an outing in the BMW Car Club Gauteng Track Taxi.
With 37 points, Shaun Dood has a 10-point lead over Justin Brown. Ferdi van Staden leads Arri van Heerden and Caren Nienaber in the battle for third place. They will be joined by Gerald Anthony, Kyan Boodaya, Zaheer Seedat, and Selvan Kistnasamy. The latter has competed in some official practice sessions this year but has yet to make his race debut.
Andre van Vuuren is back in Willie Kok’s former BMW E36 325i Turbo, with his class to be determined following the start of the weekend’s official sessions.
The bumper-edition schedule will see races contested over a set time instead of laps. All the BMW ///M Performance Parts Race Series races will be contested over 20 minutes and will start at:
08:00 – Classes D, E & F
08:50 – Classes A, B & C
12:55 – Classes D, E & F
16:40 – Classes A, B & C
Tickets for Friday and Saturday are available via Computicket. More information regarding the event, such as the programme, etc., will be available closer to the event on the Extreme Festival Presented By Coca-Cola website. A handy mobile device-friendly event link portal has also been created for easy access to important links and downloads.