Kelvin van der Linde

Promising race turns to frustration for Kelvin

While the Lausitzring Eurospeedway’s German ADAC GT Masters weekend may have been a tough pill to swallow, Kelvin van der Linde was able to take a good few positives home. The South African 2014 ADAC GT champion and his Spanish Car Collection Audi Motorsport teammate …

Kelvin revels in Euro Speedway Challenge on DTM weekend!

Kelvin van der Linde is intent to turn his recent great German ADAC GT Masters pace into solid results at Lausitzring 4-5 June when the German GT Championship returns to racing alongside the DTM. 2014 series champion Van der Linde has regularly shown great speed …

Van der Linde quick but unlucky at Sachsenring ADAC GT Masters

Kelvin van der Linde showed great pace through the weekend’s Sachsenring German ADAC GT Masters racing, only to lose out on the promise of good points positions, none of which issues were of his own doing.

Van der Linde’s first race was compromised by the Safety Car compromising the second half of the field shortly after Kelvin took the car over from Spanish co-driver Isaac Tutumlu-Lopez for the second stint. “The Safety Car ruined the first race,” Kelvin pointed out. “Not sure why, but they failed to release us on time and the pack got away, which limited my progress to 25th.”

Kelvin then qualified is Car Collection Audi R8 in 7th for the second race and drove a storming first stint to hand the Aude R8 over to his young teammate in fourth position. But Lopez picked up a puncture to drop out of a promising sixth only to have to serve a drive-though penalty for a pit lane indiscretion to drop the duo out of contention for any of the slim pickings they may have come by following the puncture.

Still Kelvin was delighted with his result: “It was a fantastic stint for me,” German-based Dainfern driver explained. “I’d made my way up to fourth by the time we pitted, made a few good overtakings on the way and was involved in some great battles, so from my side it was a brilliant race. “It’s a pity we had the puncture and my teammate got the penalty — that’s life, but I’m very happy with my day.”

The next ADAC GT Masters race will take place at the Lausitzring 4-5 July

KELVIN RETURNS TO HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS

Van der Linde relishing racing at his happy hunting ground in the ADAC GT Masters. South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde is ready to race at one of his favourite racetracks as the German ADAC GT Masters series heads to its second round at the …

Hard weekend comes Good for Kelvin

Top ten finish for Kelvin van der Linde despite a trying ADAC GT Masters weekend Despite showing great pace, South African GT race star Kelvin van der Linde found the going tough as he started his third year of racing in the German ADAC GT …

Kelvin Confident for GT Masters success after Pre-Test

South African GT race star Kelvin van der Linde is set and ready for his third year of racing in the German ADAC GT Masters series. 2014 champion in his rookie year in the series, Kelvin switches to new Audi team Car Collection Racing for 2016 and heads to the 16-17 April Oschersleben season opener confident of a strong season ahead.

“I’m 100 percent ready for the new season,” Kelvin confirmed. “The new Audi R8 is a huge step forward and we are confident that we will be competitive.”

Indeed the new Audis filled the top four places in the GT Masters pre-season test at Oschersleben last week with Kelvin fifth on the second day, but the German-based South African refuses to read too much into those results as he provided a most interesting insight into the test days. “We work very similarly to how they do in F1 testing nowadays,” Kelvin pointed out.

“The balance of performance specs have not yet been accurately set for all cars on the grid due to the many new GT3 machines entering for 2016 and most teams were hiding their full potential, which made it almost impossible to read much into the lap times. “So our test results were really nothing special.”

“Internally we used the test as an opportunity to help our customer drivers to learn the new car and track and to have as much driving time as possible,” Kelvin explained. “Fellow factory driver Christopher and I therefore only did basic setup work and installation outings before handing over to our customer teammates. “Our job from there was to advise our teammates and observe operational systems within the new team with a view to see what could be improved for the race since Car Collection is new to GT Masters.

“So I left the test not much wiser than I was on Monday, but I have developed a great understanding, having made myself right at home in the new team environment and we are confident for the first race and the season ahead – I am so looking forward to it!”

Kelvin shares his all-new 440kW 5.2-litre V10 Car Collection Audi R8 LMS with Spanish driver Isaac Tutumlu-Lopez this year with the ADAC GT Masters commencing its eight round roadshow through Germany, Austria and Holland at Oschersleben 16-17 April with Qualifying 1 and race 1 Saturday and Quali 2 and race 2 on Sunday. The races will be live streamed with live timing also available via http://www.adac-gt-masters.de/uk/.

Kelvin ready for new GT Masters Challenge

New Audi R8, new team mate, new team for 2014 Champion Kelvin van der Linde’s ADAC GT Masters attack Kelvin van der Linde has been confirmed as an Audi Customer Sport driver for Car Collection Racing in the German 2016 ADAC GT Masters championship. It is 2014 …

KELVIN VAN DER LINDE SIGNS AS P1 NUTRITION ATHLETE

Audi Factory driver and teenage sensation, Kelvin van der Linde, is the newest driver to join the P1 Nutrition Athlete programme. The South African Audi R8 LMS driver is the youngest ever GT Masters Champion Having secured a contract with Audi Sport, the South African factory …

Compliments of the season – KVDL

Hi All,

I wanted to get something personal on my website to start the year off before all the chaos gets started as we head into the new season!

Firstly, I wish all of you a fantastic year ahead. May it be a year where you reach new milestones in your lives and become even closer to the people that matter most in your life. Strangely enough it does feel like the older you get, the faster the year goes by! Maybe I’m the only one feeling that way but it made me adamant to really live my days to the fullest, and yes unfortunately that does mean less social media and just generally spending less time looking at an iPhone screen.

Moving on towards the 2016 racing season. It’s looking very exciting, especially for the whole Endurance racing and GT3 world. Manufacturers have really gone all out for this season, with almost every manufacturer releasing an all new version of their GT3-spec cars.

From my side, I will carry out another season as an Official Audi driver, which gives me the great pleasure of driving the all new R8 LMS around some of the world’s most historic race tracks in 2016. My full schedule has not been made official yet, and I expect to get the whole calendar by the end of January/Early February. This time of the year is generally quite a dull period for a racing driver competing in Europe, because the season only fully gets into swing in March/April.

Anyway, I can guarantee that 2016 will be one to remember and I am extremely excited to get started on another chapter of the journey. I hope that you all will be there to follow it each step of the way!

Watch this space, and here’s to a great year!

-KVDL

New Experiences for Kelvin at the Green Hell!

After experiencing his very first race on the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife, Kelvin van der Linde has added one more tick to his list of experience. Last weekend Kelvin competed in his first ever VLN race on the Nordschleife in preparation for the 2016 24 Hours …

Author: Kelvin van der Linde