Gauteng teenagers Kelvin van der Linde and Jordan Pepper impressed during the opening round of the Volkswagen Scrirocco R Cup with a fourth and seventh overall respectively in their international series debut on Saturday.
The series, which is contested by 19 young drivers from 10 countries as well as guests from other motorsport formulae, kicked off 2013 with a win by DTM legend and F1 alumnus Nicola Larini, who competed in the Legends Cup. Second, and the first of the regular Scirocco R-Cup contenders, who are aged between 16 and 22, was Kasper Jensen (21) of Denmark and fellow Dane Michelle Gatting (19).
Van der Linde (16), the reigning South African VW Cup champion, had impressed by qualifying just behind Larini on a wet circuit on Saturday and briefly led the race on the opening lap until power steering problems slowed him down.
Pepper, also 16, qualified 13th and did well to make up six places in the closely contested 11-lap race around the 4,5-kilometre grand prix circuit.
“It was a great experience,” enthused Van der Linde. “I quickly settled into the Scirocco after Friday’s practice and qualifying. It’s a great race car and not that different to the (Class T) 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 of the Scirocco R-Cup happens at the Red Bull Spielberg circuit in Austria on June 1 and 2.
