TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA) enjoyed another highly successful outing this past weekend, as the 2026 GR Cup and South African Touring Cars (SATC) championships visited the Aldo Scribante Circuit near Gqeberha for Round 4 of the season.
Changing conditions characterised the opening stages of the weekend, with rain on Thursday and Friday morning making life difficult for drivers and teams alike. By Saturday, however, the weather had improved considerably, allowing competitors to enjoy a dry day of Qualifying and racing around the fast and flowing Eastern Cape circuit.
The weekend proved particularly rewarding for TGRSA, with victories, podiums and several standout performances across all categories.
In SATC, the GR Corolla package continued its encouraging development, with Jason Coetzee and reigning champion Michael van Rooyen both showing strong pace throughout the weekend.
Practice was disrupted for Coetzee after a dashboard failure in the second session prevented him from shifting gears, leaving the team playing catch-up for much of the weekend. Despite this, both drivers remained firmly in the mix.
Qualifying saw Van Rooyen and Coetzee secure fifth and sixth on the grid respectively. Pole position was set in a time of 1:01.886, with Van Rooyen 0.713 seconds adrift and Coetzee a further 0.169 seconds back.
Race 1 featured a spirited fight near the front of the field. Van Rooyen worked his way into third position on the opening lap and enjoyed an entertaining battle with Keegan Campos and Julian van der Watt before eventually finishing fourth. Coetzee, meanwhile, battled through steering issues caused by a broken bell crank to bring his GR Corolla home in fifth.
“The weekend was a bit of everything, to be honest,” said Coetzee. “The wet conditions suited us early on, but then we lost a lot of time when the dashboard failed in Practice 2, which meant I couldn’t change gears. That left us playing catch-up for most of the weekend.
“Race 1 was frustrating because Michael and I were running well when a bell crank broke on my car, which made it very difficult to steer. The team did an incredible job to repair the car for Race 2.”
The hard work paid off handsomely in Race 2. Starting from second and third on the grid, Coetzee and Van Rooyen made excellent starts and immediately moved into first and second places. Coetzee then controlled the race from the front to secure victory, crossing the line 2.808 seconds ahead of his teammate, while Van Rooyen successfully defended second place despite sustained pressure from behind, completing a memorable one-two finish for TGRSA.
“Race 2 was a fantastic result for the team,” said Van Rooyen. “Jason and I got another great start and we were running first and second from Turn 1. I then had my hands full with Keegan, KC and Wolk, and the four of us had a proper fight all the way to the end.
“To come away with a one-two finish for the team was a great way to end the weekend. The car was much better, and I really want to thank the team for all their hard work.”
The result marked TGRSA’s first one-two finish of the 2026 SATC season and underlined the progress made with the GR Corolla package since the opening rounds of the championship.
In the GR Cup Media Challenge, SuperSport’s Nabil Abdool maintained his perfect record in the 2026 season.
After showing strong pace throughout practice, Abdool secured pole position with a blistering lap of 1:10.739, establishing a new GR Cup lap record around Aldo Scribante.
Race 1 saw Abdool convert pole position into an uncontested lights-to-flag victory, immediately building a gap to the chasing pack and controlling proceedings from the front. News24 Motoring’s Craig Nicholson continued his excellent season with another second-place finish, while Brandon Jacobs, representing the shared Khulekani on Wheels and Kumbi-M on Cars entry, secured his first podium of the year in third place.
Abdool repeated the feat in Race 2, once again leading every lap to claim his eighth consecutive victory of the season while also setting the fastest lap of the weekend. Nicholson again finished second, with Jacobs claiming another third-place finish to cap his strongest weekend of the campaign.
“A perfect weekend for ‘Zeus’ and I in Gqeberha,” said Abdool, referring to his car. “The pace of the new GR Corolla package has been incredible, and it’s difficult to put into words just how rewarding weekends like this are.
“A huge thank you to Toyota and the entire team, whose hard work behind the scenes makes weekends like this possible. Every session also pushes us all to raise the bar, and it’s a privilege to race against such a talented group.”
The GR Cup Dealer Challenge produced another outstanding performance from Paul de Vos of the GR Driving Academy, who continued his winning streak with another double victory.
NMI Toyota Menlyn’s Werner Venter narrowly secured pole position before De Vos struck back in the races, taking victory in both outings to further strengthen his championship position.
The battle behind the winner proved equally entertaining. Venter and Rola Toyota’s Andries de Villiers produced some of the closest racing of the weekend, with De Villiers securing his maiden podium finish in the category. Rola Toyota’s Marius Claassen added another pair of strong points finishes to his season tally.
The GR86 Development Academy once again produced some of the finest racing of the weekend, with championship rivals Connor Weston and Kobus Reyneke proving almost inseparable throughout.
Reyneke secured pole position and converted it into victory in Race 1, with Weston finishing a close second and Reagile “Spice” Mailula claiming his first podium finish of the season.
Race 2 then delivered one of the moments of the entire weekend. Weston and Reyneke spent much of the race locked together before arriving at the final corner side-by-side. The pair exited the turn so close that their wing mirrors folded in, yet somehow avoided body contact as they sprinted to the finish line.
Weston ultimately prevailed by a mere 0.019 seconds, with Reyneke second and Kian Fussell completing the podium after another strong drive.
The remainder of the Academy field continued to make encouraging progress. Vatiswa Mokhonoana showed impressive pace despite suffering a measure of bad luck, while Tshepang Shisinwana improved steadily despite missing valuable track time on Thursday because of school commitments. Emma Dowling continued her impressive development before a suspected power issue hampered her progress, and Russell Davidson made an encouraging debut in place of Miklos Hegyi, recovering from technical problems in Race 1 to finish strongly in Race 2.
The championships now head into a short mid-season break before returning to action at the East London Grand Prix Circuit on 15 August 2026.
