The Citizen gears up for epic battle in Toyota GR Cup grand finale

Motorsport is a funny old game were things seldomly works out the way you planned, hoped or though it would.

Back in March The Citizen Motoring left Killarney after the first round of the Toyota GR Cup with our tail between our legs. Wet qualifying, a puncture suffered in the first race and brake issues in the second race which contributed to us losing a tremendous duel against Bernie Hellberg (Driven) in the second race meant we started the season dead last on the points table with three points.

Scoreboard doesn’t reflect improvement

After the next four rounds at Kyalami, Zwartkops, Port Elizabeth and East London, we set off for the season’s second date with Killarney with a score to settle. But despite being almost nine hours of seat time more experienced in the Toyota GR Cup with more confidence in our raving craft leading an improvement on our best lap times at the 3.26km layout, we again lost a massive duel against Hellberg.

And once more left the Killarney circuit with only three points which saw us drop to fifth in the overall standing. Enter head-scratching emoji.

First things first is that Sean Nurse (AutoTrader) deservedly wrapped up the championship in his Toyota GR Corolla in the first race of the day despite conceding pole to Hannes Visser (La’t Wiel). The TV man held of a hard-charging Alex Shanini (Carmag), who finished ahead of Kumbi Mtshakazi (Kumbi-M on Cars), The Citizen and Hellberg.

Beginner’s mistakes

Despite Shanini securing pole for the second outing, Nurse again fought his way to the front where he finished ahead of Shani and Visser.

Not capitalising on our lonely race for fifth in the morning, a poor lap time meant we started last on the grid, which led to yet another battle to overtake Hellberg. Patience was rewarded twice in corner two and eight, but driver error gave the magazine man his fifth place back twice. First by virtue of a miss-shift into turn one and then overshooting corner four’s exit onto the dirt.

And yet, I again fulfilled my promise that I got out of the car after another Toyota GR Cup round sporting the biggest smile of the lot. And duly congratulated Hellberg for his relentless persistence.

ALSO READ: The Citizen ready to burn rubber in the Toyota GR Cup again

Toyota GR Cup draws to a close

The result means fourth is the only position up for grabs at Zwartkops. Nurse (77), Shanini (53) and Visser (39) will finish on the podium in likely that order, with Hellberg (18) very much stuck in sixth place. This means that Mtshakazi (30) and The Citizen (29) has all the play for come at Zwartkops Raceway in four weeks’ time.

Mtshakazi’s improvement has been impressive and it won’t be easy to leapfrog him, but this old man will be out to try and finish the Toyota GR Cup season with a bang. May the best man win.