Champion van Rooyen Chasing First 2026 Podium As SATC Heads to Zwartkops

The 2026 South African Touring Cars Championship heads to the iconic Zwartkops Raceway next weekend for Round 3 of the season, where reigning and defending champion Michael van Rooyen arrives determined to reignite his title defence on familiar ground.

After a challenging opening two rounds to the championship, the “Rustenburg Rocket” is still searching for his first podium finish of the season. Despite showing flashes of the pace that carried him to the 2025 title, circumstances have prevented Michael from converting speed into silverware during the early stages of the campaign.

Now, with the championship returning to his home circuit at Zwartkops, the Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa driver sees Round 3 as the ideal opportunity to reset his season and begin mounting a charge back toward the front of the standings with five rounds still remaining in the championship.

Few circuits on the national calendar are as familiar to Michael as the tight and technical Pretoria venue, where local knowledge and confidence can often prove decisive in the ultra-competitive SATC field. With valuable experience around the flowing 2.4km circuit, Michael heads into the weekend motivated to capitalise on every opportunity as the championship battle begins entering a crucial phase.

“Zwartkops has always been a special circuit for me and it’s one I really enjoy driving,” said van Rooyen. “The start to the season hasn’t gone the way we wanted, but we know the pace is there. The championship is still long and there’s plenty of racing left, so the focus now is on putting together a clean weekend, scoring strong points and hopefully getting back onto the podium in front of the home crowd.”

The weekend’s action gets underway on Friday with a full day of practice before Saturday hosts qualifying and the weekend’s races around the demanding Pretoria circuit.