A day of speed and surprises

THE fifth round of the Extreme Festival and the Toyota GR Cup was everything we expected and dollops more as we tackled the blisteringly fast East London Grand Prix Circuit.

- WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE

It was a race that hovered constantly in the background as the season progressed due to its unforgiving nature, legendary fast bends, tight infield and hairpin corners.

As a result, Toyota Gazoo South Africa (TGRSA) had arranged for us to spend time on the simulator at their headquarters at Zwartkops under the watchful eye of instructor Devon Scott, so that we at least had an idea of the layout before getting in behind the wheel of our GR Yaris.

Practice

We were out early for practice on Friday morning to experience firsthand Potters Pass, a fast sweeping righthander, followed by Rifle Bend, taken with your foot on the floor before hard braking for the Cocobana hairpin.

It’s a lot different from the simulator, let me tell you, and the first session was spent getting familiar with the track, sussing out brake markers and turning points.

Border motor racing had resurfaced Cox’s Corner, which forms part of the twisty Complex section, and it proved to be the nemesis of quite a few of us as we struggled to find grip before heading flat out into the Sweep towards the final hairpin into the main straight.

My times steadily improved in practice two and three with the help of Lorenzo Gualtieri from Comprehensive Driving Solutions, who insisted I could carry a lot more speed and needed to be more aggressive with the turns at The Complex.

It takes a paradigm shift not to lift off on Rifle Bend to keep speeding at more than 220km/h towards the Beacon Bend hairpin.