Only his teammate can prevent a van der Watt championship

South African Touring Cars veteran Julian van der Watt holds a 24 point championship advantage as he heads to Zwartkops’ 2026 South African Touring Cars finale. Simply finishing the first race will be enough to wrap it up. But as they say in the classics, it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings. SATC SupaCup champion elect Jason Loosemore is even closer to that title and he too, simply needs to drive it home on Saturday.

Both those deals are easier said than done, however. Ask World Rally Championship loser last week, Oliver Solberg why… The only man who can stop van der Watt and his We Buy Cars version from taking the title, is Investchem WCT Volkswagen Golf GTI teammate, rookie KC Ensor-Smith’s African Heating version. So the Stuart Thompson run team is guaranteed of another SATC title.

The race for second is far tighter. Ensor-Smith will be aiming for a team 1-2, but he has four drivers within striking range behind him. Fellow rookie and double reverse grid race winner Jason Coetzee and his Gazoo Toyota Corolla teammate, champion Michael van Rooyen are breathing down his neck within ten points. And late starter Keegan Campos is just 14 points adrift in his Veloce Campos Chemical Logistics FAST BMW 128ti, with his teammate, Andrew Schofield’s FlySafair 128ti on his case too.

Moving on to the all-Volkswagen SupaPolo SATC SupaCup, it should be a formality for former Astron Energy Polo Cup champion Loosemore to wrap it up in his Renegade Nathans SupaPolo. He needs just three points to put Polo champion successor Rory Atkinson out of contention. Union Power lad Judd Bertholdt, Niko Zafiris, Nicholas Vostanis, Paulo and Rick Loureiro and Jared Rossouw may however have other ideas.

South African Touring Cars and SupaCup are among the star attractions of a full National Extreme Festival finale in Pretoria on Saturday. See you at Zwartkops!