Oldfield teaches the rest of Toyota GR Cup field a racing lesson

I almost got it spot on when I predicted Thomas Falkiner would be the man to beat in the Toyota GR Cup in Round 4 of the Extreme National Race Series at Red Star Raceway at the weekend.

He went out in the practice rounds on Friday and comprehensively blitzed everybody by such a large margin, I could only think it was going to be a long Saturday for the rest of us to struggle around the ultra-technical circuit.

But almost is not good enough as series runaway leader, Ashley Oldfield showed his class once again, and out of the blue sneaked his Toyota GR Yaris on pole ahead of Falkiner.

This left the rest of us scratching our heads without any real clue as to where we would find the pace needed to challenge at the front.

Sean Nurse qualified just ahead of me, with Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger, Lerato Matebese and John Thomson making up the rest of the places.

Being so outgunned in terms of pure pace, the only plan I had was not to try and tangle with Nurse and let him chase the leaders. I would just come along for the ride and see what happens in the later stages of the race.

Did this work? No, we couldn’t hold onto them, and the first Toyota GR Cup race finished in the same order it started.

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Race 2 threw up a surprise in that a change in the regulations would see the winner of the last race meeting start at the back of the pack.

This would see Oldfield start last and try fight his way through the field if he wanted to win this race meeting, and in theory see a new winner on the podium.

Did this work? No, Oldfield drove around the outside of most of the field in the first corner. He then chopped down Nurse shortly after and then went hunting for Falkiner.

Falkiner defended like the champ he is, but Oldfield dive-bombed him proper near the end of the race and romped home for the double win.

This left Nurse and me to finish third and fourth once again in our Toyota GR Yarises. I wish I could say it was because we raced the second race in the dark, but the truth is we were simply handed a racing lesson out on the dusty mielie fields of Delmas.

Next up is Round 5 of National Extreme Series the East London GP circuit on the weekend of 5 August.

For more information on the Toyota GR Yaris, click here.