Johannesburg - South African drivers will be racing all over the world on the weekend of 16-17 April, as what is believed to be a record number of South African drivers chase their international dreams in several top series.
The action starts in Germany and England on Saturday afternoon when SA duo Kelvin van der Linde and Jordan Pepper compete in the opening round of the ADAC GT Masters at Oschersleben, while young Jonathan Aberdein makes his ADAC German Formula 4 debut at the same meeting.
Across the channel, Eugene Denyssen and Sisa Ngebulana will be racing in British Formula 3 at Brands Hatch in Kent this weekend, while Stephen Simpson will race IMSA sports cars at Long Beach, California.
Former SA A1 GP driver Simpson finds himself at the top end of the US IMSA Prototype Challenge championship after winning the Daytona 24 and finishing fourth in the 12 hours of Sebring; he’ll be heading to the US with another victory on his mind this weekend.
The 2014 ADAC GT Masters champion Kelvin van der Linde switches to a new Audi team with Car Collection in an all-new R8 LMS, while 2015 race winner Pepper is one of the Bentley Boys in the new Team ABT Continental GT.
The South Africans will face a top class field of international superstars driving the world’s finest racing supercars when the 10th ADAC GT Masters kicks off on Saturday.
SA’s Pepper to be a Bentley Boy
Double Cape karting champion Aberdein meanwhile begins his overseas race career in the German Formula 4 series where he will face up to the likes of Mick Schumacher, son of former multiple F1 champion Michael, while multiple SA karting champion Denyssen and single-seat racer Ngebulana head off to Brands Hatch for the second round of this year’s British F3 championship.
With his eye on nothing less than making it into Formula One, Ngebulana takes on his second season of British F3 in 2016. The Johannesburg-born teenager was named McLaren Performance Academy Driver of the Year following an impressive debut campaign in single-seaters.
Simpson, van der Linde, Pepper, Aberdein, Deneyssen and Ngebulana are among a growing list of top South African drivers who are flying the flag overseas - not forgetting the likes of brothers Brad and Darren Binder in Motorcycle Grands Prix (elder brother Brad leads the Moto3 standings on a KTM) and Capetonian David ‘McFlash’ McFadden, who’ll line up on the Superstock 1000 grid at Assen on a Kawasaki.
Star Motoring