There is only one more outing in the Toyota GR Cup. Picture: Toyota
They say time flies when you are having fun which means that the six members of the motoring media competing in this year’s Toyota GR Cup have had great fun. There is just one round to go in the seven-leg racing series that feels like it only started yesterday.
The 2024 season fittingly concludes at the place where it all started – Zwartkops Raceway. It was at the Gazoo Racing South Africa headquarters overlooking the eight-corner 2.4km layout where we fitted our racing gear with great excitement for the first time back in February.
With two shakedowns under our belts, the GR Cup started at Killarney before moving to Gauteng for an epic weekend at Kyalami followed by Zwartkops. The next three races all took place at the coast in Port Elizabth, East London and for a second time in Cape Town.
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It was at Killarney where pre-season favourite Sean Nurse (AutoTrader) was crowned champion. The meticulous Nurse, always first at breakfast in his racing suit staving off the impression that he slept in it, have won 11 out of the 12 races. His only flaw was when he had to retire due to an electrical issue on his Toyota GR Corolla on the formation lap of the second race at the East London Grand Prix circuit.
Our Biltong Italian Alex Shahini (Carmag) have pretty much sewn up second place ahead of TV man Hannes Visser (La’t Wiel). That is unless Shahini is arrives too late for either of the races at Zwartkops, something he can be prone to during time-sensitive schedules. Yet we can’t stay mad at him, especially when he silences the “tardi” (late in Italian) chirps with “passione” (passion) while waving his upright hand with the fingers clutched together.
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With magazine man Bernie Hellberg (Driven) paying the price for missing both GR Cup races in East London for crashing out in qualifying, the only position up for grabs is fourth place. The Citizen Motoring and Kumbi Mtshakazi (Kumbi-M on Cars) is tied on points and it’s all to race for at Zwartkops.
Mtshakazi has shown immense improvement throughout the season and will be a hard man to beat. The two of us have had some epic door-to-door battles this season and it will be fitting to finish things off with yet another one. Even if it will sadly be the last one. May the best man win.
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