Summarize

A challenging day for Gio and his Bullion Banhoek Jetta

Giordano Lupini was looking forward to a great weekend aboard his Bullion IT Banhoek Chilli Oil Jetta CLi at Killarney on Saturday. Instead it turned into a most challenging outing for the young man and his brave championship challenge.

“We had incredible pace and I went out to do a few final checks in the last practice session before Friday evening’s qualifying,” Giordano explained. “But the air cleaner housing broke and the filter fell into the cam belt, which came off and we bent a whole bunch of valves. “We'd never make qualifying, but Nian, Munier, Sakkie and the NDT guys worked into the night to repair the head thanks to Brett Roach allowing us to pinch his car’s parts and we had it on the dyno first thing.

“There was another curved ball because not enough cars qualified in one class so they did not split the grid and the slowest car out there was a Class B car. “So instead of starting at the back of the class, I started at the very the back of the grid! “The first lap and a half were manic, but I was up to second in class into Turn 3 on the second lap. Eden Thompson was too far gone though and the car was still a bit off the pace, so I settled for second.

“The second race was a mess — I incurred a 30 second start line penalty, so I was classified fifth and ended up third in Class for the day. “That’s given Eden a pretty healthy championship advantage. “I suppose mama warned me about days like this, but the fat lady has not sung yet. “Just look what happened in the DTM last week! “Special thanks to Nian and the whole NDT team, and especially to Brett for turning our weekend back around. 

There is still a sting in the GTi Challenge tail — the 6 November Killarney final round includes a 1 hour double-points enduro that could very well turn the championship ladder on its head...

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Giordano Lupini

What:Cheapercars GTi Challenge Round 7 Report
Where:Killarney International Raceway
When:Saturday 16 October 2021
Community:Western Cape Regional

For further information please contact michele@lupini.co.za

Click on thumbnails to Download images