The Citizen Motoring Road Test Editor Mark Jones in action during the first round of the Toyota GR Cup at Zwartkops.
That’s the first weekend of racing, from the Regional Extreme Series Zwartkops, done and dusted in the Toyota SA GR Cup 2023 in The Citizen Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa GR 86.
These rear-wheel-drive Toyota GR 86 cars are not as forgiving to drive as the all-wheel-drive GR Yaris cars of last year, and this made for a great weekend of racing.
Race 1 saw The Citizen Motoring start fifth and after defending against some eager driving right up front from a hard-charging Reuben van Niekerk, I managed to get past an outof-sorts Chad Lückhoff. I then spent the rest of the race chasing after Brendon Staniforth, who in turn was trying to catch Setshaba Mashigo, while Thomas Falkiner simply checked out at the front.
You could almost of called this the calm before the storm.
Race 2 was to be the highlight of my weekend. I got a great start and got around Staniforth coming out of turn two to move into third behind Mashigo.
Initially, I pulled a bit of gap and thought for a moment I could challenge the young gaming whizz kid, but all that happened was that I fell back into the hands of the very fast caravan towing man Staniforth.
Once he smelt blood in the water, he piled on the pressure and went a hunting. On the last lap I outbraked myself going into turn two and that opened the door up for him to get the drive out from under me going through turn three up to turn four. Him being on the inside for four compromised his speed up to turn five and this allowed me to get my nose in at five.
ALSO READ: WATCH: Mark’s scary moment in the potent Toyota GR Yaris
That meant we were once again locked door to door through turn six, seven and eight, with me just out dragging him to the line by one tenth of second. Hard, clean racing. Epic respect where respect is due.
By this stage, Mashigo and Falkiner had disappeared off into the sunset once again for a solid one-two for the weekend. Lückhoff and Van Niekerk rounded out the positions.
Battle will resume at the National Extreme Series Killarney Cape Town on 17 March. See you there!
For more information on the Toyota GR 86, visit the manufacturer’s website.
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