Summarize

Rookie race driver Giordano Lupini was delighted to finally break his run of horrible luck with a productive 11th overall in Saturday’s Engen Volkswagen Cup races at Port Elizabeth’s Aldo Scribante Racetrack. The Bridge House Franschhoek Grade 11 scholar had endured a run of cruelly tough luck to start his Polo Cup career with a spate of troubles preventing him from showing as he would have liked, but PE finally allowed Lupini to show his true promise.

“PE was a much better weekend for us!” a hugely relieved Giordano beamed. “We had a completely clean weekend all the way from practice 1 to the final race which was great for me as I was able to get lots of laps done on a track that was new to me too. “I qualified 15th but didn’t make the best start in Race 1, which let a lot of cars through into the first corner, but I managed my tyres well and I was able to pull a few positions back to finish 16th. 

“I had a better start from 14th on the grid in Race 2 and I had to hold off the cars behind me for basically the whole race and through keeping my nose clean I picked off a few cars that ran into trouble.” Lupini fought off the intense attentions of fellow Cape driver Jano van der Westhuizen among others through that wild second heat. “I finished 11th and finally scored some points, but most of all I’m extremely relieved we finally got over our unlucky streak because we can now focus on moving forward.

“Thanks so much to Iain Pepper, Shane Mitchell and my dad for all their efforts — we are on the board at last — it’s onward and upward from here!” Giordano races at Zwartkops near Pretoria next Saturday 12 August