Johannesburg teenagers Kelvin van der Linde and Jordan Pepper flew the South African flag high at the opening round of the international Volkswagen Scirocco-R Cup at Hockenheim in Germany on Saturday with impressive fourth place and seventh places respectively on their first visit to the historic German circuit and their first outing in the international one-make series contested by 19 young drivers from 10 countries.
The race was won by former German Touring Masters champion and ex-Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini (49) of Italy who was competing in the Legends Cup for former winners of the DTM and guest drivers from other racing disciplines. Next, leading the regular Scirocco R-Cup contenders, who are all between 16 and 22, were Kasper Jensen (21) and Michelle Gatting (19), both from Denmark.
Sixteen-year-old Van der Linde, the reigning South African VW Cup champion, had impressed with second place behind Larini in qualifying on a wet circuit on Saturday and briefly led the race on the opening lap until slowed by the loss of the gas-powered car’s power steering.
Pepper, also 16, qualified 13th and did well to make up six places in the closely-contested 11-lap race around the 4.5km Grand Prix circuit.
“It was a great experience.”
“I quickly settled into the Scirocco after Friday’s practice and qualifying, “ enthused Van der Linde. “It’s a great race car and not that different to the VW Golf I drove in the South African production car championship, although it’s a lot more sophisticated.
“I thought I had a good chance of winning the race, which was run on a dry track, but the loss of power steering made the car very difficult to drive and I had to work very hard to finish third among the regular Scirocco R-Cup drivers. I’m looking forward to the rest of the nine-race series and am confident we can pull off a win before long.”
Pepper, who finished third behind Van der Linde in last year’s South African VW Cup, was equally enthusiastic.
“Although I was disappointed with my qualifying result after being among the quickest in Friday’s practice, I had a good race and made a lot of passes. We can do even better and are confident for the races ahead.”
The next round will be at the Spielberg circuit in Austria on 1 and 2 June, when there will be two races.