Summarize

Franschhoek matriculant Giordano Lupini came back with a lot less than he’d hoped for following a crunching weekend in Class C of the BurlyPro GTi Challenge at Killarney’s second round Wingfield Power Series on Saturday, but the youngster was happy to at least take some positives back to the Boland. Lupini had proven extremely competitive in practice and was keen on a strong start before a broken hub took him out of qualifying to make it an uphill weekend from there.

“We were looking really good in practice and then I had to stop before I even put a lap in in qualifying so we had to start from the back,” Giordano rued. “But that’s racing! “Race 1 was hell — I ended up separated from the Class C bunch by a few slower Class B cars that held me up in the corners, but ran away down the straights and then when I finally passed them the car cut out! “I managed to get it going again and somehow ended fifth in class to score two crucial points — a few other guys hit trouble so I suppose I was a bit lucky there!”

It went from bad to worse for Giordano when he was caught up in a turn 1 melee at the start of the second race to be one of five cars eliminated from the race. “Marco Busi and Brett Roach came together up front and I thought I had slipped past when Marco was hit from behind and I tried to slip past, but bang! “Marco’s car clipped the back of mine and threw me up in the air - my rear axle was bent and I was out.

“Overall it was a really tough day, but we now know we have really good pace and I can’t wait to get back — hopefully have a clean weekend to show the winning pace we know we have next time out. “There’s a big break until the next race and we will be back with a pretty car at last as it is going in for a new coat of paint and some much needed panel beating at acciDent Guru and I’d like to thank my team — Brian and the lads at MRD, my folks and my sponsors — Accelerate 102, CIR Construction and La Vie de Luc. “We’ll be back - see you 19 May!”