Top 10 for Kelvin and Audi Sport Team I.S.R at 24 Hours of Spa

During the past weekend, Kelvin van der Linde secured a respectable top-10 finish at the latest edition of the Spa 24 Hours along with his Audi Sport team mates, Pierre Kaffer and frank Stippler.

The weekend got off to a steady start after Qualifying for top 20 Shootout, where the fastest 20 drivers of the 63 car grid would go head to head in a 2 lap shootout which would determine the starting positions of the top 20 cars in the 24 Hours of Spa.

Kelvin managed to put in a decent lap without any major mistakes, which would eventually be good enough for P12, a good position to start a 24 Hour race, where qualifying is not of utmost importance.

Frank started the raced with Kelvin then jumping in shortly after, followed by Pierre in the driver cycle. The car was running as high as P3 just before midnight before a few mis-timed full course yellow and safety car periods put the car out of sync with the leaders.

The race was far from trouble free with the team having to do most of the 24 Hours with no team radio and a non-functioning drinking system in the car.

2017 was a learning experience. First 24H Spa in the bag. P9. We were running in the top 3 early on. But lost out. We’ll be back next year! pic.twitter.com/W2FzRrUY29

— Kelvin van der Linde (@KelvinvdLinde) July 31, 2017

“It sure was a very physical race. The issues we had with the radio made it very difficult to execute strategic calls accurately and in the end I think this was a major part that actually prevented us from getting a much better result. that wasn’t all, our drivers drinking system was also faulty, so it was extremely exhausting for us drivers to complete some of the double stints during the daytime. However, this race was a great learning experience for me and it will be an important asset to me when I return next year!”

In the end, the car #76 of Kelvin, Pierre and Frank, was able to hold on to position 9 after another gruelling 24 Hour race, this time, unfortunately,  with no champagne at the end.

Kelvin is already on the road towards the next ADAC GT Masters race weekend taking place in Nurburgring this weekend and hopes to continue the team’s strong so far this season.