Summarize

16 year old Franschhoek race driver Giordano Lupini continued his impressive start to his Engen Volkswagen Cup career at Kyalami over the weekend, but the Bridge House Grade 11 scholar continues to be dogged by bad luck with two retirements in two races over the weekend.

“I qualified ninth and eleventh despite missing one of Friday’s three practice sessions when we hit a little trouble,” Giordano explained. “But qualifying went very well and I put it in 11th and 9th for the two races, which was once again better than we’d hoped for, so I am delighted with my pace and progress so far.”

“Then I made a lightning start — the best I have ever made!” Giordano smiled. “I actually led the race from 11th on the grid — pity I was the only one to start when I did because I jumped the start in a big way. “I could not see the start lights properly and misjudged it completely — happily most people saw the funny side of it, but I don’t think I’m going to live this one down for a while!  

“I knew I was in for a penalty so I got out the way and let the quicker guys through and then settled into a good dice, but I had some braking issues and then the car got stuck in second, so that was it.  “The braking issue was actually my problem because I never realised that I have to pump the brakes after running over Kyalami’s ragged shark’s teeth rumble strips that unsettle the pads, so that’s one I won’t forget, but that’s part of my rookie year learning curve. 

“I managed to start race 2 with the rest, but I never had fifth gear from the get-go and lost a few positions the first time I could not find it. “I worked around the problem though and chased on toward the back, out-braking the guys every time only for them to pass me while I was supposed to change to fifth. “I tried to keep it off the limiter but the car eventually went into limp mode because I had to rev so high for so long and that was my weekend. 

“Motor racing is tough sometimes,” Giordano concluded. “This patch of bad luck is just one of those things and as tough as it’s been, we have some great positives to take out of it, so we are really looking forward to East London later in May. “Hopefully we can be third time lucky there and I can finally deliver some results worthy of the pace we have already shown.

“I would specially like to thank my team Pepper Racing for all their effort — we will get it right soon — as well as my hometown sponsors — La Vie de Luc, CIR Construction and BP Franschhoek — acciDent Guru and Cornright Motors and of course my folks for making this all happen. "Bring on East London!”