While there were plenty of thrills and spills over the first four rounds of the Toyota GR Cup, the fifth stop in East London has overtaken the lot.
Roller-coaster is the most accurate description of the emotions the motoring media drivers experienced on the first track to host a Formula 1 race in South Africa. Daunting yet exhilarating.
While the six GR Corolla pilots left East London in the same formation in the GR Cup title race as the started the weekend in, drama galore resulted in plenty of big point swings that resulted in the championship staying alive.
GR Cup qualifying starts with crashFive practice sessions over two days - preluded by some time on the simulator had the racers as well prepared for a new track as weve been all season. But then Saturday qualifying tossed up an incident that no-one can ever prepare for.
Bernie Hellberg ( Driven ) lost control over his car through the high-speed Rifle Bend, which resulted in him darting from across the track. The car hit the tyre barriers on the inside in front, flipped over and came to a rest on its wheels. Much to our relief Hellberg managed to get out and walk away with only a bruised thumb, but the car was a wreck and his day was done.
