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- Reuben Van Niekerk leads the unofficial overtaking standings in this year's Toyota GR Cup.
- The Series heads to the historic East London Grand Prix circuit this month.
- In a one-make series like the Toyota GR Cup, skill matters when all the cars are identical.
When it comes to motorsport, "overtaking is key to success" might seem pretty obvious - and a cliché - but it is something that very few get right, especially in a one-make series like the Toyota GR Cup, where the cars we are competing in are 100% identical.
Our recent visit to Aldo Scribante outside Gqeberha, as part of the Toyota GR Cup, demonstrates my point fairly accurately. A typical race weekend consists of three practice sessions on Friday, followed by qualifying on Saturday morning and two races.
Friday's three sessions are 10-15 minutes long. The first session is merely to blow out the cobwebs and figure out the track's direction.
Once again, we were first out, and the track was still damp, meaning the session was really just about seeing which way the track goes. In session two, it's time to get to work and try some things out to start stringing a good lap time together. Unfortunately, the session was red-flagged when one of the GR Yaris youngsters got closely acquainted with the tyre wall.
The third time was lucky; we got an entire session on a perfect track. Finally, it was possible to string a couple of good laps together, and the times started tumbling. While I did improve throughout the day, I still found myself at the bottom of the time sheets, albeit within half a second of most of the other drivers.
I have quickly realised that the results from the practice sessions and qualifying don't really mean much and that how you perform on race day really counts.
Saturday morning, we went to qualifying, and I was able to find some more time. But so did everyone else, and I would go racing from seventh on the grid. Sure, a better qualifying position will make getting onto the podium easier, but it also means there are fewer cars to overtake, and where is the fun in that?
The Toyota GR Cup utilises a rolling start concept where you must remain in position until you cross the start line. The concertina effect means you really need to be awake when the first guys start accelerating.
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Despite a slightly hesitant start, I could make up some ground down Aldo Scribante's long front straight and easily mug Brendan Staniforth into Turn 1 for clean overtake number one. This put me behind Toyota Exec Anand Pather, whom I followed closely for a few laps looking for an opportunity. I got a good drive through Esses, carried more speed through the hangar and could take him on the inside into the very tight hairpin to overtake number 2.
Midway through the race, I caught up to Chad Luckhoff, and then he ran into the kitty litter rather spectacularly. We later heard that he was battling a slow puncture. His misfortune became my fortune, and I bagged overtake number three.
I had been slowly catching Mark Jones, but we soon ran out of laps, and I crossed the finish line in fourth place. My pace in the race had also improved compared to Friday, and I set the fourth fastest time, which is used to determine the starting grid for race 2.
While the fourth position is a much better starting position, it does put you on the outside going into turn one. When the lights went green, Jones managed to get his nose past me into the first turn but then missed a gear. I had a good line, got ahead of him, and managed to sneak past Luckhoff as we exited the first turn, bagging overtakes four and five and moving up to third place.
This was followed by a reasonably uneventful five or six laps until Luckhoff snuck past me in a massive dive. I had to give him space to avoid contact, which, unfortunately, relegated me back to fourth. Staniforth and Jones were having a ding-dong behind me, and we crossed the line in that order.
When the chequered flag dropped in the fading light, I had secured my second fourth-place finish for the day and had made the highest number of overtakes by a large margin. Unfortunately, overall positions are determined by total elapsed time, and I missed the podium by just two seconds.
However, I am happy with my performance. From struggling to get to grips with the Aldo Scribante layout and qualifying seventh to finishing fourth overall and making the most overtakes. I'll take that. Best of all, we got all the cars to parc fermé without as much as a scratch on them.
The Toyota 86s we are racing in this year's GR Cup have been incredible, and we have had absolutely no issues. We are racing these completely standard cars, equipped with automatic transmissions as hard as possible. We are leaning on them in every corner and asking a lot from the paddle shifters under braking.
We have had no trouble with the vehicles. After four race weekends, the only non-finish across the field was when Denis Droppa broke his suspension due to contact at Zwartkops.
All that the Toyota GR 86 race cars will need is a wash and some fuel, and we will be ready to go racing in East London on the weekend of the 21 and 22 July.
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News24 Motoring contributor Reuben van Niekerk is racing in the Toyota GR Cup to raise awareness for Jumping Kids.
