The number 12 GR86 of Denis Droppa, Setshaba Mashigo, Chad Lückhoff and 'The Citizen’s' Mark Jones won The Index of Performance class and finished 14th overall. Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
A carefully calculated approach for its foray into endurance racing produced the results for Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) at the end of season national Kyalami 9-Hour in December last year.
Proving its worth as the “newcomer team” TGRSA entered the final round of the South African Endurance Series on 15 and 16 December with a pair of GR86 that contested all rounds of the national Extreme Festival as part of the GR86 Cup.
Campaigned by a selection of motoring journalist that raced in the GR86 Cup, as well as senior Toyota staff, the GR86s, though never likely to be considered for an outright win against much more powerful GT-honed opposition, had The Index of Performance crown in its sight after having snapped the accolade in question up at the first local nine-hour with the GR Yaris in Cape Town a year prior.
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The task facing journalists Denis Droppa, Setshaba Mashigo, Chad Lückhoff and The Citizen’s Mark Jones in the number 12 car, and the number 19 of journalist Brendon Staniforth and Toyota’s Riaan Esterhuysen, Mario de Sousa and Anand Pather was simple; drive for a finish.
No race strategy was in place other than to do as many laps as possible on a tank of fuel and not to crash. Nobody had any further expectation; the glory of an outright first step on the podium had to be set aside for a year.
Stock standard with no modifications to the powertrain or suspension, race day saw the target time being set; a single stint of two hours 15 minutes for each driver with a lap time no faster than two minutes 20 seconds.
In the first stint, it was Jones and Staniforth that would head out first, and despite having to deal with early race madness from those around them, they handed the cars over to Droppa and Pather without anything negative to report.
This duo was to be the last to get a clean run, because by the time they handed over to Lückhoff and De Sousa, the weather was rolling in, and the torrential rain that soaked Kyalami shortly after saw cars skating off the track resulting in the safety car being deployed more than once.
Despite the chaos, the GR86’s continued to run to clockwork, to by nightfall and subsequent darkness, it was up to Mashigo and Esterhuysen to bring the cars home.
While an unscheduled pit stop threatened to undo the number 19 in the closing stages, when the clock hit nine hours, both cars were present at the finish.
In total, over 210 laps and 960 km were completed without any mechanical dramas, and on the same tyres and with the same brake pads started nine hours before.
Taking 14th overall and second in class, the number 12 took The Index of Performance silverware for Jones, Droppa, Mashigo and Lückhoff, while the number 19 of Staniforth, Esterhuysen, de Sousa and Pather took 15th, third in class and third in The Index of Performance.
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