Cape winds, fast Yaris, new champ: GR Cup's penultimate drama

The outcome of round six of the Toyota GR Cup at the Killarney racetrack in Cape Town last weekend wrote itself into fine-print, but not in the way expected.

- Charl Bosch

Besides being the penultimate round of this year's championship, and also of the National Extreme Festival, it also marked the second and final visit to the Cape track, the only facility to host two rounds alongside Zwartkops where the finale will take place next month.

Although the circuit has been etched into our memories from the first round in March, it was to be the first time with the more powerful GR Yaris fitted with the eight-speed Direct Automatic Transmission.

Equally as uncertain was the role the unpredictable Cape weather would play as before the weekend commenced, rain was predicted overnight for qualifying, with overcast conditions on a greasy track waiting come race one.

"Unpredictable" happened to be the right description as race day dawned dry, sunny and windy, with a capacity crowd present to witness one aspect that proved accurate, the crowing of a new champion.

Having dominated the entire year, SuperSport's Nabil Abdool sowed the championship up after the first race, albeit not in his customary first place.

Instead, CAR Magazine's local hero, Kyle Kock, took a clean-sweep of victories to deny Abdool's record streak continuing.