SA teen clinches ADAC Masters title

Published Oct 7, 2014

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Hockenheim, Germany - South African teenager Kelvin van der Linde made more motorsport history in Germany at the weekend when he and German co-driver René Rast, 27, won the international ADAC GT Masters Championship for GT3 sports cars at the famous Hockenheimring Grand Prix circuit.

Driving an Audi R8 LMS ultra, the 18-year-old matric student from Dainfern in Johannesburg and GT Masters rookie was 10th in the first of the weekend's two races on Saturday and scored enough points in the one-hour race to make it impossible for his nearest rival, who finished 11th, to overhaul him in Sunday's one-hour race.

After Race 1, Van der Linde and Rast had 206 points, while Jaap van Lagen, a 38-year-old Hollander driving a Porsche 911 GT3R, was on 170. With only one race - worth 25 points - still to be run, that meant the Audi partnership couldn't be beaten.

The pair finished sixth on Sunday - from seventh on the grid - with Van Lagen and his German co-driver Christian Engelhardt second after starting from third; the final championship points were Van der Linde/Rast 214 and Van Lagen 188.

After 16 one-hour races in eight rounds at some of Europe's iconic motor racing circuits, including the famed Nürburgring in Germany and the Red Bull Ring in Austria, Van der Linde became the youngest winner yet of the prestigious GT Masters Championship.

He and Rast took three wins and finished in the top 10 in each of 16 races, thus scoring points every time they lined up on the 26-car grid.

That equalled his performance in his international racing debut in 2013 when was the youngest winner in the history of the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Championship - also in his rookie year - and in 2012, aged 16, he was the youngest winner of the South African Volkswagen Cup series.

And the future?

"Next year I'd like to increase my experience in GT racing for another season and move closer to my ultimate aim of competing in world championship long distance sports car racing."

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