The Citizen is fourth in the GR Cup title race. Picture: Toyota
It took four rounds and eight races for the Toyota GR Cup to produce an on-track battle that is going to be hard to topple for the rest of the season.
And this four-way scrap in Race 2 at Aldo Scribante Raceway in Gqeberha last Saturday wasn’t even for a place on the podium. It was just a good honest tussle between four of the six motoring reporters that applied all their learnings from the first part of the season to put up an exhibition for the ages.
The day started in familiar fashion with runaway leader Sean Nurse (AutoTrader) securing pole position during qualifying for Race 1, followed by Alex Shahini (Carmag) and The Citizen Motoring. Hannes Visser (La’t Wiel), Kumbi Mtshakazi (Kumbi-M on Cars), Toyota exec John Thomson and Bernie Hellberg (Driven) completing the grid.
Nurse went on secure his seventh win in seven Toyota GR Cup starts, followed by Visser, Shahini, The Citizen, Mtshakazi, Hellberg and Thomson. Despite finishing the first outing in last place, Thomson’s vast racing experience paid off and he put up the second fastest lap behind Nurse to secure P2 on the grid for the second race.
Visser started third, followed by Shahini, Hellberg and Mtshakazi. The Citizen Motoring was dead last in seventh.
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The two main things anyone racing at Aldo Scribante quickly finds out about the 2.48km layout is that it is severe abrasive on tyres and very narrow. The first part means that any part of the track outside the racing line quickly gets scattered with rubber, which makes the track even narrower because picking up debris is detrimental to a car’s grip and handling.
It might sound like a boring that Race 2 finished in the same order it started, but results can be deceiving. While Nurse disappeared into the sunset and Thomson held on to beat off Visser by almost a second, the big showdown was further down the field.
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With all four content by playing the patient game and waiting to capitalise on mistakes, Shahini, Hellberg, Mtshakazi and The Citizen Motoring produced some proper door to door and bumper to bumper racing to cross the finish line withing 1.3 seconds of each other. And though not one of Hellberg, Mtshakazi and The Citizen Motoring gained on Shahini, the joy and smiles after everyone’s faces at the finish line told the tale. There are some things in racing that is more precious than championship points.
Nurse leads the title race on a perfect 56 points, followed by Shahini (32), Visser (29), The Citizen (21), Mtshakazi (17), Hellberg (15) and Thomson.
The Toyota GR Corollas now head to East London at the end of July.
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