Scheepers on brink of title at Kyalami Polo Cup decider

The 30th anniversary Astron Energy Polo Cup reaches its climax over the Kyalami 9 Hour weekend of 13-14 November. Hannes Scheepers stands on the verge of the 2026 Cup championship, but it’s a far closer fought affair in the Masters class.

Following a turbulent penultimate round at Zwartkops in October, Scheepers carries a commanding 42-point advantage into the season finale over Charl Smalberger. With a maximum of 43 points on the table across qualifying and the two final races, Scheepers needs just two points to officially secure the National crown.

Scheepers’ Dainfern Dental Polo took a crucial Race 1 victory at Zwartkops and backed it up with second in Race 2 to move to a provisional 225 points. Smalberger remains his lone mathematical challenger on 183 points, but the Sabertek driver faces a mammoth task and must sweep the weekend while hoping the championship leader hits total disaster.

Behind the top two, the battle for race glory and podium honours remains wide open. Mauro Da Luz arrives on a high in his Retail Insight machine after taking his maiden Polo Cup win in Pretoria, while Roshaan Goodman in the Upward Spiral 1471 Polo and Automobile Association driver Jayden Goosen remain locked in a close fight. Volkswagen Motorsport rookie Christopher Tait will also be one to watch after claiming a sensational outright Superpole lap at Zwartkops in his factory entry.

The talent-filled chasing pack is headed by Shiren Rajpaul’s Goldwagen Polo, Joshua Moore, Cyril Jacobs Jr.’s Auto Perfect machine, Liam Crystal in his TurnMeOn car, and Pierluigi Muzzulini’s FSS International entry. They’re joined by Milan Emslie in the Triton car, Dean Ross’ Norbrake Distributors machine, Bjorn Bertholdt for Union Power Energy, Nirav Singh in the Kyalami Exhausts Polo, Berlin Robinson’s Fantech car, and Albert Moffat in the Moffat Creations entry.

The Astron Energy Polo Masters title fight will also be settled in Midrand, where Derick Smalberger in his Sabertek Polo and Wayne Masters in the Performance Masters entry head to Kyalami separated by just a handful of points after sharing the Zwartkops race wins. Expect John Kruger to be right in the mix in his Habot Lubricants machine, alongside PABAR man Michael Barbaglia, Elio Muzzulini’s FSS Polo, and Byron Thomas in his Byron Thomas Properties car.

Official practice and qualifying kick off the action on Friday, before the two race finale wraps up the 2026 championship alongside the international Kyalami 9 Hour endurance spectacle on Saturday. See you at Kyalami!

Volkswagen Motorsport salutes its Polo Cup partners, naming rights sponsor Astron Energy, Dunlop, Pabar and Ferodo.