Going into the final GT Masters race weekend of the year at Hockenheim, Kelvin van der Linde still had a realistic chance of securing his second GT Masters crown at just 21 years of age.

The South African born and German resident, together with team mate Markus Pommer, gave Aust Motorsport their first ever GT Masters win as a team earlier in the season at Nurburgring and was in the thick of the action come the last 2 races of the season.

By winning the Saturday race in Hockenheim, Jules Gounon secured himself the 2017 title, however the fight for second position was still wide open between Kelvin, Sebastian Asch, Philip Eng and reigning champions Connor di Phillipi and Christopher Mies.

Kelvin secured a strong 3rd position on the grid for the Sunday race, putting himself in a strong position to attack during the race. However, his race did not last past turn 1 as the Audi driver had contact and was spun around resulting in a left front puncture. All hopes of becoming vice champion were trashed and Kelvin had to settle for 5th overall in an extremely competitive GT Masters season with many highs and lows.

Next up for Kelvin will be the 8H of Laguna Seca, taking place on the 15th of October in California, USA.

• Audi Sport customer racing in Belgium with four factory-supported Audi R8 LMS cars
• Fourth overall victory in the crosshairs
• A total of ten Audi R8 LMS competing at the 24-hour race

Ingolstadt, June 15, 2017 – The Audi Sport customer racing driver line-up for Spa has been confirmed: twelve international drivers compete with four factory-supported Audi R8 LMS cars at the next great endurance classic in the international GT calendar. In addition, six other privately entered Audi R8 LMS cars will race. The aim: to take the fourth victory after 2011, 2012 and 2014. The race takes place on July 29 and 30 on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Belgian-German border region.

Just three weeks ago, Kelvin van der Linde, Christopher Mies, Connor De Phillippi and Markus Winkelhock triumphed at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. In Belgium they will once again line up for Audi – this time however in three different teams. The Spa 24 Hours counts towards the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup as well as the Intercontinental GT Challenge. “We are sending our four factory-supported race cars to compete under the supervision of experienced teams who regularly contest the Blancpain GT Series,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “Together we have drawn up promising combinations of drivers that should enable us to fight for victory in the Ardennes.”

Audi Sport Team WRT has taken part in the event as a factory-supported team ever since 2011. I.S.R. Racing from the Czech Republic and Saintéloc Racing from France are given this status for the first time ever in Spa. Three experienced professionals alternate in every car. In René Rast, Frank Stippler and Markus Winkelhock, there are three veterans on board who have already won the endurance classic with Audi. In addition to this line-up, Belgian Club Team WRT is set to enter privately four more Audi R8 LMS cars. I.S.R. Racing and Saintéloc Racing each plan to compete with an additional race car.

Audi Sport customer racing supports the following teams:

Audi Sport Team I.S.R.

Pierre Kaffer/Kelvin van der Linde/Frank Stippler (D/ZA/D)

Audi Sport Team Saintéloc

Jules Gounon/Christopher Haase/Markus Winkelhock (F/D/D)

Audi Sport Team WRT

René Rast/Nico Müller/Antonio García (D/CH/E)

Christopher Mies/Connor De Phillippi/Frédéric Vervisch (D/USA/B)

Round 3 of the Australian GT Championship at Barbagallo Raceway marked another important step in the 2017 Australian GT title race for Kelvin van der Linde and Geoff Emery, as the pair leave Barbagallo Raceway second in the drivers Championship.

After a closely contested Qualifying on Friday afternoon, Audi secured a 1-2-3 on the starting grid with the 74 entry of Kelvin van der Linde and Geoff Emery lining up in second place on the grid.

For Race 1, Jamec Pem Racing decided to gamble on the tyre strategy at a circuit where tyre degradation was extremely high. Expecting a safety car at some point in the race, it was decided to start the first stint on a used set of tyres from Qualifying and planned to change to a set of new tyres at the pitstop. With 90% of the grid starting on new tyres, Kelvin had to work extremely hard to stay with the lead group in the opening stint, managing to maintain a 3 second deficit to leader Ash Walsh before the pitstops. One lap before the pitstop window opened, the safety car was called out, playing perfectly into Jamec Pem Racing’s hands. The field was bunched up and car 74 was now the only car on fresh tyres going into the final 25 minutes of the race. Geoff Emery drove a brilliant race fighting to P2 before having to serve a drive through penalty caused by a Yellow Flag Infringement while Kelvin was entering pit lane. The drive through dropped the pair back to P8 but Geoff was not willing to give up and brought the car home in P4 after a fantastic recovery drive.

Race 2, the team opted for the same strategy that worked so well in Race 1. Geoff drove a great stint holding off the group behind to bring the 74 car into the pits in P4. With a new set of tyres and a big gap to the cars in front, Kelvin got straight to work and started picking off the field one by one. After a thrilling stint, one that Kelvin descried as “One of the best in my career”, the Jamec Pem Racing car for Kelvin van der Linde and Geoff Emery came home in a fantastic P3 at a racetrack which never suited a PRO-PRO driver pairing due to the Australian GT Pitstop Penalty Regulations based on driver ranking.

The result bumped the pair to second in the Australian GT Championship with 2 Rounds to go in Townsville and Sandown.

Kelvin is set to miss the first Round of the AGT Endurance Championship at Phillip Island in 2 weeks time due to a clash with the Nurburgring 24HR race. Kelvin will be replaced by Garth Tander for this round and will be back in the car for the remaining rounds of the year.

P3 today from the back! P2 in the Championship – Ready to fight for the Title in Townsville & Sandown! ???? pic.twitter.com/miyK3t5HoT

— Kelvin van der Linde (@KelvinvdLinde) May 7, 2017