Kelvin van der Linde and Jordan Pepper will be amongst the starters when round one of the Scirocco R-Cup kicks off the season at Hockenheim, Germany this coming weekend. The teenagers from Gauteng will be competing in the hotly contested series this year.
Both lads contested the Engen Volkswagen Cup series in South Africa last year. Van der Linde won the title, making him SA’s youngest ever national champion, and Pepper finished the season as the Rookie of the Year.
At a pre-season practise session Van der Linde and Pepper produced excellent lap times. In the five sessions that took place, Van der Linde topped the timesheets in three of them while Pepper placed in the top five in every session.
Making the change to left-hand drive also proved less of a challenge than the two expected. “Using a DSG gearbox means things are not too bad on the gear changes,” says Van der Linde. “Having moved over to the left by about a half-metre, it does take a lap or two to spot the apexes, but after that you get used to it.”
The Scirocco R-Cup series is similar to the Engen Volkswagen Cup championship in that it is a single-make series. While the Volkswagen Polo Vivo is used locally, the Volkswagen Scirocco R is employed as the racing car in Germany. This series is also unique in the world of motorsport as the Volkswagen Scirocco race car is the most eco-friendly in the world.
It makes use of a 2,0 litre TSI engine which is powered by natural gas (CNG). This results in an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions when compared to an engine powered by conventional fuels. The Scirocco R produces 170 kW and 275 N.m of torque in CNG guise.
“The car is nice to drive,” says Van der Linde. “It handles better than the Polos in Engen Volkswagen Cup, but you can’t just jump in and race. With the additional power and the level at which you’re driving, you’re always busy in the car.”
The Scirocco R-Cup formula will, as in previous seasons, be one of the support formulas to the German Touring Car Masters (Deutsche Tourengwagen Masters) or DTM as it is well known.