Ready, steady: The media team races with a GR86 fitted with racing tires, big brakes and a roll cage.
ROne of the Toyota Gazoo Racing Cups at Zwartkops Raceway couldn’t have gone better for the Association of South African Motoring Media team.
The build up to the race weekend was packed with introductions to the South African Toyota Gazoo Racing team, Fast Developments, who are preparing the GR86 we will be racing, and my fellow motorcycle scribes who I hope won’t change the paint job. in the 2023 season.
The WargaDriver Mark Jones and the BMW Car Club return as a veteran of the 2022 season, Denis Droppa from TimesLiveBrendon Staniforth of mass mediaChad Lückoff AutoTrader with a background in drifting, and freelance writer Reuben van Niekerk, representing the Jumping Kids initiative, were selected to fight for the title of Fastest Motor Journalist in 2023.
The new Toyota GR86 Automatic was chosen for the campaign by the motoring media while the GR Yaris racing car last year, which Mail & Guardians motoring editor Lerato Matebese racing, dropped for young graduates of the Toyota Karting Academy. Our GR 86 car has been equipped with semi-slicks Dunlop Direzza 03G, Powerbrake four-piston large front brake, straight exhaust and partially stripped interior where the roll cage has been bolted on. OMP racing bucket seats.
Pre-season testing and familiarization with the car takes place on the Monday before the race weekend, where the goal today is to overlay the simulated racing experience with the real world.
My lap time in Friday’s official race practice session suggested that the connection clicked and I found the second fastest time behind Thomas Falkiner, who filled in for Droppa in this race. Heaven opens and turns the circuit into a skating rink, but GR86’s relatively light weight, low center of gravity and rear-wheel drive balance made for a communicative, intuitive and predictable racing platform.
Ominous clouds hovered over the Zwartkops there but they did not unload any rain. I bettered my best training lap time by seven tenths to 01:14.6, just 0.4 seconds from the purple lap the day before.
I made one more attempt to increase at that time but ended up overdrive the car. The time sheet showed Falkiner had shaved three tenths off his practice time with a pole lap of 01:13.9, putting me 0.7 seconds behind and second on the starting grid.
The agonizing wait for the first race to start only added to the nerves.
Falkiner began to lead into the distance. Staniforth filled the mirrors for three good laps and forced a mistake that saw me too late and touch the gravel in turn five. I closed the door to the right hand six turn before Staniforth got the idea. He made a mistake going into the last corner. This eased the pressure and I continued into second place.
The second race found me with a clearer head and more confidence. I spent most laps watching the raging battle between Jones and Staniforth in my mirrors. I crossed the finish line, cementing my second podium finish in second place.
It was a fantastic outing. I will be flying high the Association of South African Motoring Media flag in round two of the GR Cup at Killarney Raceway in Cape Town this weekend.