By: Kumbi Mtshakazi
If you had told me during the first round of the GR Cup in Cape Town that it would go down to the wire between myself and The Citizen’s motoring editor, Jaco van der Merwe, I would not have believed it.
After that first round in what I described as a “baptism of fire”, I did not think that I would vie for fourth in the championship.
As the final round approached, I almost shed a tear as I looked at my silverware. “Third Place GR Cup” for the second round at Kyalami with the only other trophy coming from the track I feared the most, East London raceway.
Many thoughts ran through my mind, only a point separated Van der Merwe and I going into the final round at Zwartkops and the target had been set, finishing ahead of Van der Merwe and securing fourth. Drop a point, and you finish fifth. The pressure was immense.
Testing sessions played a critical role and Van der Merwe was on it from the first session. Giving the untouchable Sean Nurse (Autotrader) a run for his money with Riaan Esterhuysen (Toyota South Africa Motors) showing us that he also has pace and securing second position. I struggled during both practice sessions and this would chip away at the little confidence I had going into qualifying.
Qualifying saw me improve drastically, however, so did everyone with the season champion doing it again to grab pole while Esterhuysen was right behind him. Hannes Visser (La’t Wiel) would round up the top three by narrowly out qualifying Alex Shahini (CAR). Bernie Hellberg (Driven) was the stand out driver of the day, somehow managing to out-qualify Van der Merwe (fifth) as well as myself, rounding off the grid.
The first race was a show for the spectators, immediately as the lights went out. Marius Claassen tried his best to pass me; however, I could not afford to have any other car, besides Van der Merwe in my sights. But he kept getting away and it would remain like that; however, Shahini and Visser dropped behind and I managed to finish in fifth position, with Hellberg getting his first podium.
The result meant that Van der Merwe and I would be tied on 30 points heading into the last race of the season. With the second race set to be the curtain drop of the extreme festival, I was reminded of just how blessed we had all been to be given the opportunity to race in the GR Cup this season.
The cars were always amazing and with all the extreme conditions we put them through, they just kept running. While some mishaps were human error, our GR Corolla’s soldiered on the whole season.
With the final race grid being decided by the best times in race one, I found myself on the backfoot yet again, starting the final race of my short career as a racing driver at the back of the grid.
This time around, Hellberg would be the cushion between Van der Merwe and myself, and taking the position from Hellberg would not prove easy.
This would be all the points he would need, and with Visser and Shahini failing to maintain their positions at the front, Van der Merwe moved into second place with Hellberg taking another podium and a third position overall for the day for #Gramps. At the end of the day Van der Merwe would take fourth position in the championship, beating me by three points.
This season and everything we experienced has been nothing short of amazing.