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THE BATTLE BEGINS

Driven

The 2024 GR Cup, presented by Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa and driven by Netstar, got off to a flying start in the Mother City on 15 and 16 March as part of the National Extreme Festival at the Killarney International Circuit. 

The inaugural race of the 2024 GR Cup swept into Cape Town last weekend with six of the country’s top motoring media at the helm of identical near-standard Toyota GR Corollas, all vying for honours in this year’s edition of the popular racing category.

Since its inception in 2022, the GR Cup has proven a surprisingly popular series, and for this year’s instalment, Driven was represented by editor Bernie Hellberg Jr.

GETTING TO GRIPS

The weekend started with the usual practice sessions on Friday, with Sean Nurse (AutoTrader) and Hannes Visser (La’t Wiel) quickly showing their experience on the highly technical 3.24-kilometre track. With no previous racing experience, the other drivers – Alex Shahini (Car), Jaco van der Merwe (The Citizen Motoring), Kumbi Mtshakazi (Kumbi-M On Cars), and me – had a mere 30 laps (divided into three practice sessions of ten laps each) to rack up enough experience and gather sufficient courage, to take on the leading pair.

Although I had consistently improved my lap times during the course of the day, the final practice session proved to be somewhat of a low point as I couldn’t muster a faster lap time than 1:30.208, putting me dead last in the category and triggering a self-induced mental struggle ahead of the next day’s qualifying.

NO ESCAPE

“It’s all fun and games until you’re strapped in and waiting to start your first-ever race qualifier,” I thought as Saturday morning dawned. To make matters worse, an unseasonable spell of rain descended on Killarney, leaving me and my three inexperienced journalist-racer colleagues dealing with a wet track for our qualifying session.

Drawing every ounce of grip from his Dunlop Direzza semi-slicks, Sean Nurse set the fastest time of the session, besting Hannes Visser by just 0.317 seconds, while my naturally cautious driving style counted in my favour on the soaked track, as I set the third fastest time, beating Alex Shahini by a mere 0.196 seconds. Jaco van der Merwe and Kumbi Mtshakazi completed the grid for the start of our first race at lunchtime.

THRILLS AND SPILLS

By the time Race 1 of the 2024 GR Cup rolled around, the track had dried out entirely, allowing the field to push our GR Corollas to the max. My third-place start put paid to the previous day’s doubts that I do, after all, belong in the series. 

With Nurse and Visser at an almost untouchable pace, all the action happened in the middle of the pack, where Alex Shahini and I traded places a few times before an early-braking error on my part allowed both Shahini and Van der Merwe through into third and fourth place respectively.

As luck would have it, a late entry into Cape Town corner on lap eight saw Van der Merwe take a dramatic off-track outing, allowing me to retake fourth place behind Shahini in third position. 

Unfortunately for the Citizen scribe, his high-speed farming activities ultimately resulted in a left-front puncture near the end of the race, which saw him drop back to sixth place behind Mtshakazi, who celebrated his birthday with a fifth-place finish.

While setting lap time records during Race 1 is not the main objective, they do play a role in determining the grid positions for Race 2. Despite my fourth-place finish, I started the final tussle of the day in fifth ahead of Mtshakazi.

Despite being determined not to languish at the back of the field for long, an even more determined Shahini and Van der Merwe set a blistering pace ahead of me, and for most of the race, it seemed that my second-to-last fate had been sealed. 

Or had it?

Unfortunately for Van der Merwe, his earlier puncture had also damaged an ABS sensor, leaving him vulnerable under pressure. With my Powerbrake Big Brake kit and Ferodo track-spec brake combo performing beautifully, I managed to squeeze past my rival on the final lap, racking up six championship points in the process.

LAST WORD

If I’ve learnt anything from the 2024 GR Cup season-opening races, it is that, in the heat of battle, just about anything can happen and that consistency is the name of the game. I’ll be applying this knowledge during the next round of the National Extreme Festival as I mount another challenge for the podium at the venerated Kyalami International Grand Prix Circuit on 13 April 2024.

EXTREME FESTIVAL DATES 2024
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