Summarize

Giordano Lupini delivered the race of his life on Saturday, when the Franschhoek youngster bounced back from a devastating crash that destroyed his yellow Accelerate 102/CIR Construction/La Vie de Luc VW Golf on Friday morning, to dominate on Saturday and move into the overall Burly Pro GTi Challenge championship lead after a superhuman team effort to ready a replacement car overnight.

“If you had to tell me that we would walk away from today with a double win, pole position and lap record when I was standing dizzily looking at my wrecked racecar 24 hours ago, I’d tell you that you were dreaming,” Giordano admitted. “But somehow we pulled it off and I am absolutely delighted — this was without doubt the race of my life.

“I went out to shake the car down on Friday morning, so we would be ready to race nice and early, but my car's right rear stub axle broke as I turned into Turn 3 on the warm-up lap, the wheel went under the car and it launched it into a series of rolls — I'm not sure how many times, but they say five or six. “I was devastated — surely my championship lead was in jeopardy, but my dad was quick to respond and we soon found out that my old car was available and we bought it back!

“The black car had not been raced for a year, but we managed to get out in the final session Friday evening and I was impressed — it was still so sweet, but there was a hell of a lot to do. “We put in an all-nighter with my race engineer Gozzi, the old man and a few others and it was ready at 3am — we got a few hours sleep in and were back at the track at 7am.

“The car was very good and I was able to push like hell and we qualified on pole —  I could not believe it and would never have pulled it off without my team, who turned that car around overnight. “Race 1 went well — I got away initially, but I faced another challenge — the Class B cars ahead were slowing me in the bends and allowing my Class C rivals to close in, so I had to work hard between a rock and a hard place, but I kept it together and we took the most incredible win in my life!

“Race 2 was more of the same — with the dicing in Class B, I actually managed to sneak ahead of all of them for a lap, but they were just too quick in a straight line and I was soon forced to lift too often to avoid contact mid-corner and that brought a few awkward moments, but I pulled it off and we enjoyed a clean sweep on a day I was sure we were not going to race 24 hours before!

“There are so many people I need to thank, not least of all Gozzi and my dad and Umpie. “We all worked so hard to pull this off and I could not have thanked everyone better than by dominating the races. “I am super happy — we now lead the overall GTi Challenge and I'm in a strong class lead too, but this one was a team effort par excellence — thanks so much guys!"

Scuderia Lupini proudly races with Accelerate 102 Special Gasoline, CIR Construction, La Vie de Luc mineral water, acciDent Guru, Taki's Place and GAP Racing.