The Citizen Motoring's Mark Jones receives his trophy for finishing third in the 2023 Toyota GR Cup from Toyota's Riaan Esterhuysen. Picture: Toyota
To claim second spot overall in this year’s Toyota GR Cup, Chad Luckhoff, Denis Droppa, Brendon Staniforth or I had to win at Zwartkops. Anything less than that would be a very complicated process.
Practice on Friday didn’t throw up any surprises. But from qualifying first thing on Saturday morning the drama started, and one thing motorsport can throw up, is drama. Brendon couldn’t recover from his overseas flu bug and drag himself to the track. His championship was done before a wheel had been turned in anger.
Already crowned champion Setshaba Mashigo continued his dominance. He qualified ahead of Chad, while followed by me, GR boss Riaan Esterhuysen, Denis and Toyota VP of Marketing, Glenn Crompton on debut. It was so close that all of us were covered in the same second.
ALSO READ: The Citizen goes from hero to zero in Toyota GR Cup
I managed to get away ahead of Chad in Race 1, but the race was red-flagged after a GR Yaris hit the wall. Chad was ready for me after the restart. but what none of us were ready for was an uncharacteristically slow Setshaba. He caught a puncture from the Yaris debris and fate had just ended his race.
It allowed me and Chad to bolt. Denis and Riaan got into an almighty battle that dragged last minute replacement driver Mario de Sousa and Glenn along for the ride right till the end.
The result meant Chad moved two points ahead of me into second from what was effectively fourth. Denis and me were tied on third.
ALSO READ: The Citizen romps to double wins in GR Cup at Killarney
Chad had to keep me behind him and I had to keep Denis behind me in Race 2 to finish on the overall podium.
Riaan had jumped ahead on me on the grid thanks to a better lap time in Race 1, with Denis right behind me. Mario pipped Glenn, and Setshaba had his work cut out for him coming from the back. It was all to play for once again.
In Race 2, Denis saw a half chance, which had become somewhat less than that when we got to the corner. When he realised the move wasn’t going to stick, he had nowhere to go and ran into me. This stuff happens in racing. The contact was heavy, and his car suffered terminal damage, ending his race and championship.
ALSO READ: The Citizen gets another drive in Toyota GR Cup
This left me nursing a wobbly car to the finish, with Setshaba filling my mirrors sooner than I had hoped. There was no way I was going to hold him off and he was quickly past and went charging after Riaan and Chad who were battling it out for the win.
Chad pipped Riaan, to claim a much-deserved double win on the day and second overall in the championship. I finished fourth behind Setshaba. It was enough to earn me second place on the day and take third overall for 2023.
That’s it for 2023 Toyota GR Cup. Now we shift from mortal enemies to comrades in arms as a media team at the Killarney 9-Hour in December.
