Unleashing the new Toyota GR Yaris: a unique racing challenge at Aldo Scribante Circuit

It’s a new car, a new track and a new challenge when the Toyota GR Cup heads into the third round of the National Extreme Festival at the Aldo Scribante Race Circuit in Gqeberha this weekend.

The Toyota GR Cup Media Challenge manual GR Yaris’ have been put out to pasture after three seasons and two races in the current season, which means we’ll be behind the wheel of the updated and more powerful Toyota GR Yaris.

First view 

It will be the first time the new versions will be seen in South Africa because they haven’t officially been launched locally. The first batch of six were scooped up by Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa (TGRSA) to make our stripped out racing cars.

Our outgoing track weapons produced 198kW and 360Nm, while the new GR Yaris is now good for 210kW and 400Nm from its 1.6-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine.

Significantly, the six-speed manual gearbox we’ve become accustomed to has been replaced by a newly developed eight-speed Direct Automatic Transmission (DAT) with upgraded software aimed directly at quick shifting and optimised gear selection. 

It’s also fitted with paddle shifters and we’ll have three practice sessions on Friday to determine which options work best. I have a suspicion I’ll settle for the electronic brain because I’ve read that the auto ‘box boasts world class shifting speeds.

It also means that you can keep both hands on the steering wheel, allowing you to focus on braking points, corner entries and exits.

Lessons

Braking too hard and coming in too fast has been something I have needed to focus on and to help me improve, I had a Sunday morning session at Redstar Raceway in Delmas with Lorenzo Gualtieri, the owner of Comprehensive Driving Solutions.

Gualtieri is a 27-year-old multi race winning driver that offers various driving skill improvements ranging from daily driving in your own car to tearing around a racetrack.  

Sitting in an open-topped race-prepped manual BMW Z3 with him next to me, he talked me through the various nuances and corner lines for a couple of laps and then analysed the footage and data from the Garmin Delta before a second session.

There was a marked improvement, and I’m holding thumbs that I’ll remember it all around the 2.48 kilometre five right-hand corner and three left-hand turn track.

Chasing

It means I’ll be continuing the challenge with my racing and media colleagues Charl Bosch (Citizen), Lawrence Minnie (Auto Trader), Phuti Mpyane (TimesLive), Kyle Kock (CAR Magazine) and Nabil Abdool (SuperSport).

Leading the media challenge currently is Abdool, followed by Kock and then Mpyane. With everyone gaining experience and becoming more confident Minnie, Bosch and myself will be charging hard.

The race weekend for us starts early on Friday with the first cars out for practice one, which means a baptism of fire in our new Toyota GR Yaris’ along with the dealers in the GR Corollas and the young academy drivers in their GR 86s’.

There’s a full weekend of racing including the Gazoo Racing Cup (that’s us), Polo Cup, MSA4 (open top), ZX10 Masters Cup (motorcycles), SA Touring Cars including SupaCup, Extreme Super Cars and the VW Rookie Cup.