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Bad day at the office for The Citizen in Toyota GR Cup
Two races to forget at South Africa's fastest racing track in East London.
Mark Jones in action in the Toyota GR Cup in East London. Picture: Toyota
Last weekend’s Toyota GR Cup racing in East London was mostly about one man, Brendon Staniforth. This holiday home towing legend, colloquially know as Caravan Fanie, finally put his head down and converted his season-long, one-lap pace into solid race pace.
In race one, he bolted away, untroubled, from pole man, Setshaba Mashigo, for the win.
Setshaba returned to the pits and had to sheepishly admit to making a rookie error: he had forgot to switch his aircon off.
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Tight at the top in Toyota GR Cup
An easy mistake to make, as these Toyota GR86’s still run all their factory luxury, which includes the likes of electric windows, infotainment system and an aircon that robs the car of a bit of horsepower when in use.
In race two, Fanie held off a back up to pace a hard-charging Mashigo almost right till the end, but the youngster eventually got past for a hard-fought win.
They ended up tied on points, but the caravan man had pipped the SIM specialist by a mere 1.5 seconds after two race heats for the overall win on the day.
Ever-consistent Denis Droppa managed two closely contested third places for a third overall on the day. He hasn’t quite managed to shrug off his bridesmaid tag, but it must just be a matter of time before he picks up a win.
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Down the field
Chad Lückhoff fought a strong mental game again, and despite finishing last in race one, picked himself up and got back on the pace to finish fourth in the second for a fourth overall on the day.
Reuben van Niekerk had a mishap in practice that put him out of the running for the weekend, and despite my fourth in race one and a fifth for Mario de Sousa, we were left to fight it out for the wooden spoon. It was a real dog fight, he went left, I went right, he messed up, I messed up and we swapped places a few times .
But in the end, he crossed the finish line of the East London Grand Prix Circuit in fifth and me in sixth in race two, giving him fifth overall by 11 hundredths of a second after 16 laps around the fastest circuit in the country.
Its Cape Town next, on 8 September. I doubt that will go according to script either in Round 6 of the Toyota GR Cup.
