Going out with a bang, not a whimper, in the Toyota GR Cup

It ended with a bang, not a whimper.

After high hopes of finishing second in the Toyota GR Cup championship, I’m misquoting TS Eliot’s The Hollow Men poem and rueing what might have been.

Setshaba Mashigo from ASAMM had already clinched the title at the previous round, but there were four of us in contention for runner-up spot as this one-make series for motoring journalists headed to Zwartkops for the season finale this past Saturday. After missing the first round at the beginning of the year, I’d gradually moved up the standings during the season with podium finishes at Killarney, Port Elizabeth and East London.

I arrived at Zwartkops in my TimesLIVE car holding second place in the championship on 37 points, but with the narrowest of leads. The Citizen’s Mark Jones and AutoTrader’s Chad Lückhoff were tied on 36 points behind me. Maroela's Brendon Staniforth was a further two points back, setting up what would have been an intense four-way fight for second in the series, but he was sidelined with illness on Saturday morning and had to miss the big showdown. His place was taken at the last minute by guest driver Mario de Sousa.

I had to finish ahead of Jones and Lückhoff to ensure second place in the series but left myself a lot of work to do in the two eight-lap Zwartkops heats by qualifying fifth, behind both of them. Newly-crowned champ Mashigo had pole ahead of Lückhoff, followed by Jones and Toyota’s Riaan Esterhuysen, making his second guest drive in the championship.

At the start of race one I dived past Esterhuysen and Lückhoff but the race was stopped after one of the GR Yaris drivers that share the track with us had a big crash.

On the restart, after we’d had to start in our original qualifying positions, I managed to nip past Esterhuysen again and gained a further place when Mashigo retired with a puncture, picked up by driving over the debris of the Yaris crash.

What followed was one of the closest, most intense races I’ve had all season. Lückhoff and Jones drove off into the distance while Esterhuysen and I duelled for third place all race long. He was all over me like a rash and our two GR86 cars were often separated by millimetres as we battled for the final podium position.

With three laps to go, Esterhuysen dived past me in the right-hander at the Toyota GR clubhouse, but I retook him in the same place a lap later. For the final two laps I had to pull out all the stops to keep him behind me, but managed to hang on and finish third.

Luckhoff won the race from Jones, which meant the AutoTrader man had overtaken us for a narrow lead for second in the championship, with Jones and I tied in third.

It was all to play for in the final eight-lapper, which saw me lining up behind Lückhoff, Esterhuysen and Jones as the starting grid for race two is determined by the fastest laptimes of heat one.

My only chance was beating both of them in this final race and I went for it. At the start I saw a half-gap to try sneak past Jones into the turn two hairpin, but we made contact. It was a hard thump that unfortunately broke something in the steering and I was unable to continue.

I parked the damaged GR86 off the track and just like that, the race and season were over, ended with a bang. I stood at the side of the circuit thinking of TS Eliot poems as I watched Lückhoff win the race from Esterhuysen, Mashigo and Jones. There was no need to do the math: Lückhoff was second in the championship, with Jones third and me fourth.

It had all come down to the wire and I had failed. It was a bitter pill to swallow but I consoled myself with Ayrton Senna’s words: “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.”

I chose the number on my car, 12, as it was the one Senna most often used before becoming Formula One world champion.

Despite the non-optimal end to the season, I really enjoyed myself out there this year in that sweet-handling, rear-wheel drive Toyota GR86. Motorsport is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, but there were some fine duels along the way and I experienced some of South Africa’s finest racetracks. I bagged a few trophies along the way, and the other drivers and I are still friends. You’d be a hollow man if you found reason to complain about that.