It’s racing time again for round three of the Extreme Festival tour powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday.
If you’re a fan of motor racing and reading this, you will know about the Aldo Scribante race circuit in Gqeberha. Numerous racing classes, including the Toyota Gazoo Racing Cup team I race for under the TimesLIVE banner will converge on the track with arguably the coolest sounding name.
It measures 2.480km and was built in the 1970s. Thanks to the hive of automotive industry activity, including vehicle and parts manufacturing and a port of entry, the region is known as the “Detroit of South Africa”.
My third outing as a rookie works driver for Toyota marks a number of updates. First, my racing car’s number will now match my age. I turned 50 in April and initially chose the digits to mark this milestone.
The bigger news, though, is the five media class rivals and I will be racing in new cars. The 2025 Toyota GR Yaris hatchback is launching in South Africa in May and we have the honour of giving the new, more powerful all-wheel drive hatchback a dynamic debut in stripped down, semi-slick fitted racing form.
Highlight features include a power hike for the 1.6l turbocharged three-cylinder engine, up from 198kW and 360Nm of torque to a feistier 210kW and 400Nm, and the first time availability of a new eight-speed direct shift automatic transmission also fitted to our racing cars.
The company says the control software of the new transmission with short-shift ratios is optimised for dynamic driving, delicately sensing the driver’s operation of the accelerator and brakes to anticipate gear shifts before vehicle behaviour changes and providing fast and intuitive shifting.
Other notable upgrades we will put to test include revisions to the seating position, a crucial aspect to horse and rider harmony, and suspension adjustments for greater handling prowess. Look out for a more detailed update of the new model in TimesLIVE in the near future.
The automatic transmission is a welcome debut and it’s perhaps apt to give an ode to the outgoing manual model that gave us our first taste of real racing. A conventional transmission in a racing car remains the stuff of purist dreams with peerless driver engagement. I shall treasure the memories of the multicoloured ball of fun rocketing down Kyalami’s Mineshaft on a knife edge in fourth gear — but not the missed gear that cost me a position at Killarney.
As driver standings go, I’m now third in the championship with four races still to go. The Aldo Scribante racetrack is clockwise with eight turns — five right turns and three left-handers. It’s short by South African track standards but it’s enjoyable and rewards hard-charge driving.
Mental and physical preparations for the race are ongoing and included an experience aboard the Shanghai Maglev — a bullet train that cruises at 300km/h. I enter the Gqeberha race marginally lighter and fitter, too, with renewed vigour and a more energetic car. The outlook for a better performance in the Eastern Cape is positive.
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