TimesLIVE racer finishes second overall at Aldo Scribante
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.
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