Mark Jones to fly The Citizen’s flag in GR Cup

Toyota last week announced a brand new motorsport series to be competed in by members of the motoring media, the GR Cup Yaris Challenge.

The Citizen road test editor Mark Jones will battle it out against five other motoring journalists on various racetracks around the country, all piloting the Toyota GR Yaris. The other contestants are Jeanette Kok-Kritzinger, Thomas Falkiner, Lerato Matebese, Sean Nurse and Ashley Oldfield.

Jones, who competes in the M Performance BMW Car Club Challenge, is excited to fly The Citizen’s flag in the seven-race series.

“We are getting to play on a national level and in the process get to drive a really fun car. The GR Yaris is probable one of the most fun cars launched in 2021,” said Jones.

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Toyota is eager to showcase the GR Yaris, which is dubbed “a rally car for the road”. The car has been lightly modified for the new series, including the fitment of a roll case. racing bucket seat and four-point seatbelt.

“The GR Yaris really set the motoring press alight in 2021 and we felt that this is the perfect car to use for a media challenge race series – to show just what the GR Yaris is capable of, out-of-the-box.

“Thank you to our six journos for coming to play with us – we know you’re going to have a ball in this car,” said Leon Theron, Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Toyota South Africa.

The series will commence at Killarney in Cape Town on 5 March, with the rest of the race dates being 23 April (Zwartkops), 28 May (Aldo Scribante), 2 July (Red Star Raceway), 6 August (East London), 17 September (Killarney) and 15 October (Zwartkops).

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