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For the first time since the inaugural series, six of the country's selected media, including The Citizen for a fourth straight time, will pilot the Toyota GR Yaris. Images: Charl Bosch
“By my own wildest dreams, this didn’t just happen,” were my first thoughts after a lengthy talk on the telephone with The Citizen’s Head of Motoring, Jaco van Merwe, in early January.
A few minutes prior, I was informed that we had been invited back for the fourth straight year to contest the media leg of the Toyota GR Cup, this time in the facelift GR Yaris fitted with the new eight-speed Direct Automatic Transmission (DAT).
As elated as I was, something about the call didn’t seem right, a notion that came true a few minutes later when Jaco asked if I was standing up or sitting down.
Lowering myself onto the couch in my lounge, the penny dropped. “Toyota has asked that you represent this year. (Road Test Editor) Mark (Jones) has done it twice, and I did it last year. It is now your turn”.
ALSO READ: The Citizen back in-gear for fourth Toyota GR Cup
While an announcement like this would ordinarily spell euphoria in the highest possible sense, I was horrified. “But why me?” were my first words. “I am not a racing driver, I don’t drive fast, and I have too much mechanical sympathy”.
Track driving is something any motor journalist has experienced at least once or twice in their career at the launch of a new product. But these are often processional, behind an instructor in a lead vehicle or having him/her in the passenger seat guiding you along.
You don’t engage in door-to-door racing, there are no stopwatches, no numbers of laps and nothing is broadcast on television or streamlined on social media.
The GR Cup is quite the opposite. Having watched and heard from Jaco and Mark during their endeavours, I knew full well what to expect, but preparing hadn’t been on my mind.
As the days went on and the shakedown date at the Zwartkops Raceway drew closer, the thought of what I was about to embark on hit hard.
Motorsport had been the reason I got into cars almost exactly 30 years ago.
Back then, a golden age was reaching its zenith, led by the World Rally Championship (WRC), the British Touring Championship and, here at home, the Stannic Group N series, as well as what was known as the AA Fleetcare South African Super Touring Championship.
Sans Formula 1, which at the time hadn’t made an impression on me, I was glued to the television recordings of racing events my late grandfather had recorded onto VHS tapes.
The foundation had been laid for a then four-year old who later on would stage impromptu races on the floor of his bedroom or in the garden with his toy cars.
As much as the action had played its part in shaping me, getting behind the wheel of an actual racing car never crossed my mind.
As much as I was staunchly supporting my child heroes, Mike Briggs and John Cleland, I was more taken aback by what I couldn’t see, the unseen face of the person talking over the coverage.
Being a motorsport commentator and emulating my other heroes, the late great Murray Walker and Roger McCleery, was more of a career I wanted to pursue in motorsport than being on track.
Fast forward 30 years, talking into a microphone had been replaced by a full season of driving and doing the talking on the track rather than from a commentary box.
Having watched my first live race at the Aldo Scribante track outside what was then known as Port Elizabeth – also three decades ago – and having attended numerous events since, observing the row of GR Yaris’ outside the Toyota GR Academy building at Zwartkops drove the message home.
As before, a total of six media outlets will be present across seven rounds over two races each, starting this weekend at the Killarney racetrack in Cape Town.
Setting eyes on my #16 Yaris, with my name on the rear windows, drove the fear factor higher as the pressure started to intensify.
As much as making small talk with my colleagues didn’t help reduce my nerves, we were then ushered up the stairs by the instructors about the day’s proceedings and what would become the norm for the rest of the season.
While racing lines, braking points and where to overtake seem natural and easy from your sitting room, we soon found out that racing is much more complex.
All our progress would be monitored by a sophisticated Garmin data logger, and although no race engineer would be shouting at us as in Formula 1, the overload of information and how to transcribe it left us more confused and apprehensive for what was to follow next.
Squeezing myself into the “office” of the GR Yaris, another dose of racing reality hit. Besides the roll cage, the tight racing seat had the obligatory three-point harness that restricts movement for obvious reasons.
This brought another dilemma Jaco mentioned during his season. With the exception of our race suits, we were provided with race shoes, gloves, a balaclava and a helmet with the whiplash preventing HANS device.
While our first run was to be a guided one behind the instructors driving a GR Corolla, the sequence of how to get dressed became a talking point.
Because of the roll cage, space is restricted inside, making putting the helmet on virtually impossible as a result of the HANS device that clips on to the side and then goes behind your neck.
Following this, there are the belts and the fact that once you are strapped in, movement is limited even more, making a task as simple as reaching for your gloves impossible should they be on the floor or the dashboard.
But before all this, there was the sighting lap. Strapped in, which took a while to master in tightening the belts, carefully venturing onto the track had me going into a trance.
As mentioned earlier, exploiting the red line or hammering a car is not something I do when conducting road tests.
This, however, isn’t applicable to the GR Yaris, which, despite still having its infotainment system and air conditioning, no longer conforms to being a road car.
Safe to say, I was out of my depth. In addition to hitting the rev limiter a few times, getting my brake markers right and knowing where to shift down proved the most difficult.
Because of availability and time, the Killarney opener will involve the battle-hardened six-speed manual GR Yaris, as the DATs will only be ready for round 2 at Kyalami.
By my own admission, the first laps in anger were terrifying and by the second, with the instructor seated beside me, my mind had become cooked.
As a result of the track’s layout, second, third and fourth gears are the most crucial, and on more than a few occasions, I mismatched my brake while in the wrong gear.
A simple solution was to change down from fourth to second, something I dread from a mechanical standpoint.
Using the brake as told by the instructor to set the Yaris up and balancing it without going down the ‘box in order, felt instantly better and installed a bit more confidence.
What scared me the most, though, was driving side-by-side. “Putting absolute faith in the person next to you” when driving door-to-door is a well-used phrase by commentators. And for good reason.
Whether on the inside or outside, space between you and your rival, regardless of him passing you or you passing him, is of importance to avoid either contact or both heading into barriers – refer to the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix as a prime example.
For our final run, we donned the full gear at our disposal, which changed everything. As one of my colleagues, who has previous racing experience, pointed out, your field of reference immediately decreases.
While putting the HANS device and helmet on didn’t come with much hassle, the already limited movement in the cabin becomes even worse.
It is here that you need absolute trust in your brake markers and the rear mirrors, as the in-car one is of little use.
Surrounded by the other cars, which will include fresh-out-of-carting youngsters in the GR86 Cup and select dealers in last year’s GR Corolla, the overall experience is nerve-shattering, and although no times were being taken or clocked, assertive confidence still wasn’t present.
Talking to another colleague afterwards, the overall enjoyment factor isn’t present the moment the visor goes down. In that instant, you need to become one with the car and trust it, something we obviously weren’t full on after the shakedown.
As Killarney will be a new experience for almost all of us, bringing the car home in one piece had become my main objective, all the while without getting disqualified for being too slow as Canadian Al Pease famously was at its home Grand Prix in 1969.
For the time being, thoughts of a victory or even a podium don’t matter. It is all about learning what driving in real anger is all about, getting to know the circuits and then improving as the season wears on.
With this though, enjoyment still remains and as terrifying as the experience is, it also promises to be an incredible one that four-year old standing trackside cheering his hero 30 years ago, could never have imagined would one day happen.
As before, the GR Cup forms part of the National Extreme Festival and will be contested on the following dates:
NOW READ: The Citizen finishes Toyota GR Cup season on a high at Zwartkops
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