TimesLIVE tops Toyota GR Cup practice at Red Star Raceway

The fourth round of the 2022 Toyota GR Cup got under way at a freezing (it was literally -2º when I arrived at 6:45am) Red Star Raceway on Friday morning. Located slap bang in the middle of Delmas in Mpumalanga, I and the five other motoring scribes picked to represent our titles in this single-make series were the first cars out on this 4.2km circuit for our first of three timed practice sessions of the day. The asphalt was cold, the corners covered in dust and the grip — for the first few laps at least — was almost nonexistent. 

Still, feeling very much at home at this rather technical track, I put the hammer down early and set about seeing what my TimesLIVE GR Yaris could do. Given how slippery the conditions were I dialled the variable all-wheel drive system into Track mode (a 50:50 split between the front and rear axles) and managed to crack a session best lap time of 2:11.377.

Earlier in the week I had predicted that this Toyota would be somewhere in the 2:09s, which now seems somewhat optimistic. That said, it's still a decent pace for what's effectively a standard road car and almost half a second faster than the quickest VW Polo Cup Car — the class us GR Cup drivers have been “yardsticking” ourselves against all season. It also meant TimesLIVE was at the top of the timing sheets with main rival Ashley Oldfield (cars.co.za) finishing the session with the second fastest lap time of 2:13.440. 

Feeling confident with the way things were going I basically spent the second practice session experimenting with lines and braking points to see if I could improve on my P1 results. I thought this would happen considering that the circuit was now a bit warmer and more rubbered-in but in the end the best I could turn was a 2:11.763. Next best was Oldfield with a 2:13.477 followed by Citizen Motoring's Mark Jones who clocked a 2:16.207. 

Practice session three? Well because of some tyre wear issues I elected to keep my GR Yaris parked in the pit lane and save my precious Dunlop Direzza semi-slicks for Saturday morning's qualifying session — where all-out pace will really matter. Oldfield did manage to find some time, however, and finished the session first with an impressive 2:12.351. 

Qualifying begins at 10:15am on Saturday. For more updates as and when they happen follow me on Facebook or Instagram. You can also click here to watch all the action live.

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