Hockenheim, Germany - South African racing prodigy Sheldon van der Linde scored an emphatic double win on his international race debut in the opening round of the Audi Sport TT Cup at the weekend.
Along the way, the 17-year-old from Dainfern in Gauteng simply walked away from a competitive international field that included former F1 driver Scott Speed and World Rally Championship star Andreas Mikkelsen.
Van der Linde was fastest in practice on Friday and was well on his way to pole position in qualifying when a red flag cut short his hot lap - and even then he qualified second.
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At the start of his debut race in the Audi, Van der Linde wisely slotted in behind pole-sitter Dennis Marschall and bided his time for three laps before neatly outbraking Marschall to move into the lead - a lead which was never to be challenged as he moved away to a comfortable winning margin.
"I had a really good start and then passed Dennis on the third lap," he said later. "But to do that in my first Audi Sport TT Cup race is just incredible.
"It simply doesn't get better than this - what a surreal moment!"
It did get better, however, as Van der Linde, starting from third for the second race, moved up to second at the first turn, disposed of Marschall on lap two and pulled away at about half a second a lap to win by 7.5 seconds.