Mandla Mdakane joins SA's Toyota Gazoo Racing team

He follows in the footsteps of his racing driver father, Hamilton

01 May 2020 - 10:37 By Motoring Reporter

Johannesburg racing driver Mandla Mdakane has been signed up as the second member of Toyota SA's Global Touring Cars (GTC) squad.

Mdakane will be partnering Michael van Rooyen in a new generation Toyota Corolla in the GTC track series when motor racing resumes after the lockdown.

Mdakane follows in the footsteps of his racing driver father, Hamilton.

He has been racing since the age of four. After starting in karts, he worked his way up through the ranks.

Mdakane made his mark on the local circuit before moving to Asia to race in the 2013 AsiaCup Series. This was followed by a stint in the Formula Masters China Series, during which Mdakane had the opportunity to race on world-renowned circuits such as Sepang and Shanghai.

Mdakane joined the local GTC championship, and raced with the Altron/Nexus team during 2019.

Competing in the competitive GTC2 class, he finished fifth in the championship, before being called up to the Toyota Gazoo Racing SA GTC squad to race alongside Van Rooyen.

The Rustenburg Rocket, as Van Rooyen is known, became the first racer to campaign an official Toyota entry since Charl Wilken and Mark Cronje competed in Class B of the SA Production Car Championship back in 2002. Wilken won the championship that year, and Van Rooyen came close in 2019, taking the title fight to the final round when he narrowly missed out on the championship crown.

GTC is the premier track racing championship in SA and comprises a field of 2.0-litre turbo-powered racing cars.

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