Toyota GR Cup: Be careful what you wish for on the race track

When previewing the penultimate round of the National Extreme Series GR Cup at Killarney Raceway in the Western Cape last week, I predicted a few things – which played out exactly as imagined, and a few that didn’t.

I got it right when I said Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger wasn’t going to hold back for anybody on a track she knows only too well. I just didn’t think it would be me she went after.

Returning to Cape Town is pleasant, as always. It’s a pretty place, but my return to Killarney? Not so much.
What I didn’t get right was to predict my car would be plagued by mechanical gremlins which hindered my pace at various stages of the weekend.

I know race drivers have the biggest book of excuses known to mankind, but this slight lack of pace when it counted the most killed off the slim chance I had of trying to hang onto the back of the fast kids, Ashley Oldfield, Sean Nurse and Thomas Falkiner, who ran out ahead of us at the sharp end of the pack.

What it did do, though, was present me with the opportunity to get some great airtime on TV, while also having the most fun I have had this year so far – when I was thrown into an epic door-to-door race swapping, lose-one-win-one battle with a slightly under-the-weather Kok-Kritzinger.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Mark’s scary moment in the potent Toyota GR Yaris

She eventually beat me into submission to pick up a deserved fourth place, relegating me to fifth by less than a half a second over 12 laps.

Motorsport is said to be a cruel mistress, and there was a price to pay for this weekend – the chance of me wrestling the final step on the podium overall at the end of the series has gone up in smoke.

There is only one race left to come this year, which is back at Zwartkops on 15 October, and Oldfield has already got the inaugural 2022 GR Cup wrapped up, with Falkiner hot on his heels, as expected.

Young Nurse has charged up the table past me into a solid third position.

For more information on the Toyota GR Yaris, visit the manufacturer’s website.