The third round of the National Extreme Festival and, by extension, the 2025 GR Cup, saw Kyle Kock’s second overall championship position under threat as the weekend unfolded at Aldo Scribante Race Circuit in the friendly (and windy) city of Gqeberha.
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With so much work to be done at CAR magazine in the build-up to the third round of GR Cup, I had precious little time to prepare, but I had a built-in confidence for the race weekend ahead at Aldo Scribante. Over the last two decades, I’ve been to this 2.480 km circuit numerous times on CAR’s Performance Shootout and in a variety of sportscars and supercars. It felt like I was on my way to a home circuit.
Related: GR Cup round 1: CAR on the podium.
With the initial weather forecast looking cool, with rain only on the horizon well after the day’s racing would be concluded, my fellow Media Challenge contenders and I had every confidence that we’d be running lap times closer to the GR Corollas with the brand new 2025 model update GR Yaris’ – all finished in the new black livery and individual color accents we’d chosen at the beginning of the year. With more power and more torque than before, the only real task would be to figure out how best to use the 8-speed automatic, leaving it to its own devices or shifting up and down via the stick or paddle shifters.
In addition, the new GR Yaris Cup cars would have even more stopping power, but we’d been cautioned about running our cars into the back of another contender, as they’ve been kitted with an engine oil cooler in the front right corner and a transmission cooler in the front left. Having arrived in SA ahead of the official local introduction, mere weeks ahead of GR Cup round three, Leeroy Poulter and his team of mechanics had performed miracles to get our cars ready, but there would be no spare parts available and we were warned against getting our elbows out.
The trepidation only crept in when we were given the running order for the day. The GR Cup field, comprising of the Development Drivers and karters in 86s, Dealer Challenger members in Corollas and the Media Challenge contingent in the new Yaris, would be out first on the circuit. The early morning dew, dust from the ongoing development of the Coega industrial area and a track that had yet to be rubbered in had most of us, certainly yours truly, sweating bullets. My initial quickest lap was a 1:12.871, fifth fastest in the field and more importantly just a tenth behind championship leader Nabil Abdool’s 1:12.704.
Errors in the second practice session with my brake and turn-in points were not conducive to competitive times, and for the first time since the first round at Killarney, a few of us in the Media Challenge suffered from the dreaded error message on the instruments that advised that all-wheel drive had been disengaged due to high temperatures and the drivetrain was now sending all the power to the front wheels only. The mercury had hit a maximum of 34 degrees, and all I could manage was a 1:14.026.
Related: GR Cup round 2: second in class at Kyalami.
The new GR Yaris cup cars have an intercooler spray button to the right on the driver on the facia, with a reservoir in the boot next to the battery. The mechanics scrambled to fill these up with distilled water ahead of the third practice session after lunch with the proviso that when the driver has activated this system, it only bursts for 10 seconds under full throttle acceleration. I used it to full effect to top the Media Challenge timesheets with a 1:13.533, though was blissfully unaware that my set of Dunlop semi-slicks had expired and, trying to hustle around the circuit even faster, had an unceremonious off at the hairpin. Fortunately, there were no more transmission and rear diff issues.
A fresh set of rubber all-around and cool conditions early on race-day allowed me to qualify onto the second row of the Media and Dealer grid with a 1:12.934. This advantage was one I would ultimately throw away in the first race, as I botched the start, and after allowing the #222 GR Corolla of Werner Venter to slip past me on the inside of turn 1, I ran wide before the esses, and lost two further positions to dealer cars, with TimesLive’s Phuti Mpyane charging hard behind me. Mpyane lined me up at the last turn, not a traditional overtaking point on the circuit, and took the narrow line up the inside while I ran two seconds behind him to third in class.
Chasing Mpyane in Race 1 gave me a fastest recorded lap of 1:13.522, which put me on the second row of our starting grid yet again. This time, with renewed focus, I put up more of a fight even though Venter and Mpyane caught me napping at the line once more. This time, I had the #555 Corolla of Riaan de Ru in my mirrors. Up front, Mpyane had made an error at the same point I did in race one, which allowed Venter and I to slip through. Mpyane would finish half a second behind me this time – which was enough for him to finish ahead of me in terms of overall times for both races. Abdool took our class honours on the day.
I’ve probably spent more time at Zwartkops Raceway than any other circuit in the country, with all the events and launches I’ve attended there, so I’m looking forward to tackling the Big Z in a race-prepared car. It’s even shorter than Aldo Scribante, at 2.400 km, and theoretically there’s only one overtaking point on the track; the hairpin at turn 2. I have to be on the pace early and qualify as far up the order as possible.
Round 4 of the National Extreme Festival happens at Zwartkops Raceway on 20 and 21 June 2025.
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