Legendary East London Unkind to ‘Team 6 Speed’
The legendary East London Grand Prix Circuit refused to prove third time lucky for 6 Speed racer Giordano Lupini and his Tork Craft Polo.
The legendary East London Grand Prix Circuit prove third time unlucky for 6 Speed racer Giordano Lupini and his Tork Craft Volkswagen team in this year’s CompCare Polo Cup races there. Lupini was just happy to score points and come home with a straight car after a tough weekend at the epic racetrack.
The Grand Prix Circuit is hugely historically significant. It hosted the South African Grand Prix in then 1930s and 1960s, but it also has a very special place in Giordano’s heart. “My great grandfather entered cars in most of the 1960s East London South African Grands Prix, my grandfather often raced there too, as did my dad, who even competed in the first ever Polo Cup races there back in the ‘nineties,” Giordano explains.
Little Reward at Daunting East London
“So this one stands apart every year. Not only for those special reasons, but also for the daunting challenges South Africa’s fastest racetrack holds. Unfortunately, it’s also not my luckiest track. So let’s just say that East London and I are finding it difficult to be friends! This weekend was another we won’t remember all that fondly!
“We struggled to find any real pace on Friday, so I was happy to deliver a more or less decent qualifying lap. Still, in typical fashion here, that was just a thousandth of a second shy of Superpole, so I started seventh. Race 1 got going well enough, and I was chasing for fourth. But I was helped off and dropped back to eleventh or something. I fought back to ninth and the guy who bumped me off was placed behind me, so I ended eighth.
“The second race went a bit better. I started seventh again and was shuffled a place or two back in the confusion on the first lap. But I put my head down again and fought back to sixth and defended like hell from there. That wasn’t quite the weekend we were looking for and it’s been a bit of a barren patch in the Eastern Cape following Aldo Scribante last time out, after our great if late start to the season.
Heading Home to a Happier Hunting Ground
“We head back to my home track next for a three-race weekend at Killarney in Cape Town.” Gio, who has been on pole position for the last three Killarney races and won three of the four races he has started there, concluded. “I have a decent record at home, which is a bit of a double edged sword, because of the expectation. But we will give it our best to thrill my home fans!”
Photos: Andre Laubscher
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