Ferodo Racing survives a tough weekend in Cape Town

The penultimate round of the WesBank Super Series at Killarney in Cape Town on Saturday did not exactly produce the results Ferodo Racing was looking for.

The good news was that 16-year-old Kelvin van der Linde (Ferodo VW Polo) retained his lead over defending champion Devin Robertson in the Engen Volkswagen Cup Championship and remained on track to become the youngest ever winner in only his second year in the competition. Also, 18-year-old Ernie van der Walt equalled his best performance in the Formula Volkswagen Championship by finishing third in both races.

For the rest it was what Ferodo Racing’s 22-year-old production car driver Gennaro Bonafede described as “a horrible weekend”

Van der Linde’s lead in the VW Cup was reduced from 35 points at the start of the day to seven thanks to his not scoring any points in either of the day’s two races. A broken CV joint stranded him on the starting grid in the opening race and an incident involving another competitor in race two saw him finish 25th and well out of the points. Robertson finished fifth behind race winner Jordan Pepper.

After his race one disappointment, he was lying third in race two behind eventual winner Kosie Weyers and Jordan Pepper when he was hit from behind by Kyle Barnes. He spun off the circuit and was not able to restart the car for several minutes, rejoining the race at the back of the 28-car field. Robertson finished third.

“It’s very frustrating losing out because of someone else’s mistake,” said Van der Linde. “This is not the first time it’s happened this year and it’s cost me a lot of championship points. Now the challenge in the last round at Kyalami is even bigger, but at least we are still leading.”