Global Touring Cars Killarney: TGRSA is ready for the challenge

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa’s (TGRSA) Global Touring Cars (GTC) squad is heading to the Western Cape this weekend, for Round 6 of the 2022 season. This is the penultimate race of the year, hosted at the Killarney International Circuit near the Mother City. And for TGRSA’s Saood Variawa, this will be the last chance to close in on the championship leader, Robert Wolk.

The young Variawa, racing in his first season in GTC, has shown remarkable pace throughout the year, and currently finds himself just 20 points adrift of the title lead. Bad luck early in the season, together with a sub-par result at the previous round due to an on-track altercation, hampered Variawa’s progress, and were it not for those incidents, he may well have been the man to beat this year.

Even so, he has proven his value to the team, and currently leads TGRSA GTC stalwart, Michael van Rooyen, by 26 points. Van Rooyen himself has faced a year filled with niggling issues, ranging from setup to tyres, but the Rustenburg Rocket still finds himself in third place overall.

Mandla Mdakane, who campaigns the third GTC Toyota Corolla for the team, is in sixth place in the standings, with a total of 84 points to his name. He is 19 points behind the man ahead of him, and has a gap of only 9 points to the nearest competitor behind him. With that said, the Volkswagen team has had to withdraw due to a devastating accident earlier in the year, which claimed both their GTC cars. As such, Mdakane has slightly more breathing space, and he is likely to maintain his position in the standings.

The team has traditionally found the going tough at Killarney, and the opening race of the 2022 season was no exception. A wheel that came off Variawa’s car, setup issues and a broken rim – not to mention several serious on-track altercations – kept the team largely out of the points. However, they’ll be aiming for better results this weekend, especially Variawa, who is still hunting for an overall victory in the series.

The action starts on Friday, with practice sessions. Saturday will see a qualifying session early in the morning, followed by two races during the course of the day.

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Posted by Toyota South Africa on Motorpress

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