TimesLIVE racer finishes second overall at Aldo Scribante
The Extreme Festival Tour powered by Coca-Cola visited Gqeberha's Aldo Scribante circuit this past weekend. If you've ever wondered whether a bunch of regular guys who write about cars, and others who sell cars for a living, could be turned into pro-racers in a season, this particular racing tour can give you the answer.
TimesLIVE has been right in the middle of the competition with five other media houses in a specific GR Yaris class. There's Toyota dealer staff in GR Corollas, and a youth development class racing in GR 86 coupes. The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA field is popular at race meetings for their menacing black paint colours and the close racing between the amateur race drivers.
Two rounds have been completed in Cape Town's Killarney circuit and Kyalami in Midrand thus far. Us media hacks had been using first generation GR Yaris models launched in SA in mid-2021, and equipped with six-speed manual gearboxes. My previous outings have yielded two third-place podium finishes.
This past weekend Aldo Scribante brought a lot of new things, starting with box-fresh MY25 GR Yaris car fitted with automatic transmissions, and a second place overall finish. It was a hard-won step up though.
The media field arrived at the Bay of Bluewaters with horns sharpened and cars visually transformed. Note the now black and yellow TimesLIVE car instead of the multicoloured cousin from last month's race.
The shock to the system and a true test of racing mettle started with Friday's two practice rounds. Aldo Scribante has a notoriously coarse tarmac surface, and we initiated ourselves with the track on old tyres. Not surprising that we slithered about all day, learning little about the new car's racing prowess.
Saturday morning's qualifying session, and both morning and afternoon races would be completed on fresh rubber though. A racing strategy was another first-time requirement for the band of media challenge racers.
Drivers had to make a call whether to use all of the eight qualifying laps on the abrasive surface to hunt for an advantageous grid start position, risking the vitality of the tyres for the main races, or use fewer qualifying laps to preserve the grip and rely on race craft for a good outcome. I opted for the latter, qualifying 14th overall at the start and fourth in the bunched-up dealer and media classes.
With fresher tyres fitted, the first race was a spirited affair that saw me pick out opponents, including my closest points and class rival Kyle Kock from Car Magazine after he left the door open at the Dunlop corner. The qualifying gamble paid off, with a second-place finish in the GR Yaris bunch at the end of race one. The second race was an even more frenzied fight.
Once more, on the rolling start I managed to outrun Kock and a dealer Corolla GR to the first corner, and onto the rear bumper of class leader Nabil Abdool, who was behind the leading GR Corollas of Paul de Vos and Mario de Sousa. A small lapse in concentration resulted in overshooting a braking point, and onto the grass we went but I held on, rejoining the field behind Kock, who hadn't wasted a second to capitalise.
The small, powerful and loud car that's been as fast and nippy in places where the bigger cars rule was just on song on the day. Though finishing race two in third place, a higher race lap time aggregate ahead of Kock was enough to secure a second overall podium finish on the day and a beautiful Aldo Scribante podium winner's trophy.
Four races are still to be staged during 2025, and with a new found vigour among the rookie competitors the series is starting to heat up, and the prospects of turning the car guy next door into a Top Gear Stig ever more curious.
Follow the action on YouTube, or better yet, come to the races.
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