Kelvin van der Linde (18, South Africa) will begin his second ADAC GT Masters season with #1 on the door of his Audi R8. After winning the title last year alongside René Rast (28, Frankfurt), the champion will now mount his title defence with new …
Kelvin van der Linde, 18, the reigning Bridgestone SA / SAGMJ Motor Sportsman of the Year, has made it two in a row. Van der Linde, who last year at age 17 became the youngest ever recipient of this prestigious award, has again been honoured …
The meteoric rise of teenage motorsport sensation Kelvin van der Linde continues, with the announcement today (Tuesday, January 27) that he will be an official GT driver for Audi Sport in 2015.
The 18-year-old from Dainfern, Johannesburg, will thus defend his 2014 GT Masters crown assured of the best possible support from the manufacturer’s in-house motorsport department. He will once again campaign an Audi R8 LMS Ultra in what is Germany’s premier sports car series, which comprises eight rounds and includes races in Holland and Belgium. He will also drive for Audi in select endurance races.
Says Van der Linde, who will relocate to Germany at the end of February in preparation for the opening round at Oschersleben on April 24: “A contract with Audi Sport is another big step forward, and an important development in my objective to make a career out of motorsport. I’m privileged that Audi and VW Group as a whole have placed such faith in me in recent years, and look forward to driving for them in 2015 – and beyond. I’ve worked extremely hard to reach this point in my career, and my family and I have made many sacrifices on many levels. I’m thrilled that it is all paying off.”
Van der Linde’s career started in karting at the age of eight, and he proved his natural ability when he graduated to saloon car racing and promptly won the Engen Polo Cup title as a 16-year-old. This earned him a drive in the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup in Germany which he went on to dominate, winning the title. The prize money Van der Linde earned made it possible for him to secure an Audi R8 seat in the GT Masters series as a Junior driver with Prosperia C.Abt Racing (sharing with René Rast, who has since moved up Audi’s ladder), one of Audi’s top customer teams. Victory alongside Rast last year made him the youngest-ever series champion – this despite writing Matric at the same time.
In 2014 Van der Linde was also the youngest ever winner of the FIA Institute’s Young Driver Excellence Academy, an initiative to identify and nurture young talent, and supported by the global motorsport controlling body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile.
“I’m already looking forward to this year’s challenges – GT Masters is very competitive with many of the big automotive brands using it as a platform to promote their sports car lines. The immediate objective therefore is to defend the title for Audi. Who knows, a successful season could lead to an Audi seat in LMP1 endurance racing or DTM in the future. Either would be like a dream come true, but I am just happy to be where I am right now, and I’m loving every moment.”
With the total number of road accidents skyrocketing at this time of the year, it is important for people to understand the risk that they put themselves and their families at, every time they go onto our roads. “I want all my family, friends, fans …
Kelvin van der Linde and Rene Rast talk about the highs and lows of the 2014 ADAC GT Masters season. The title was theirs after 16 races and three wins, four pole positions and nine podiums in all. After an impressive season, Kelvin van der …
After winning the ADAC GT Masters Championship in 2014 with team mate Rene Rast, Kelvin is ready for his guest appearance at the Baku World Challenge event held in Azerbaijan!
A full grid of 30 GT3 cars will line up during the weekend of 1-2 November.
It will be a challenging weekend for me but I am ready for it. This will be my first real street circuit race so I will have a steep learning curve during the practice sessions. I am familiar with the Audi R8 LMS and of course my team Prosperia C.Abt Racing so I believe if we can work together as well as we did during the GT Masters season, we can finish the year off on a high! – Kelvin van der Linde
Event Schedule
Friday, 31 October 2014
City Parade : 19:45
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Free Practice 1 : 09:00 – 10:00
Free Practice 2 : 11:30 – 12:30
Qualifying Practice : 16:00 – 16:55
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Qualifying Race : 09:15 – 10:15
Main Race : 13:55 – 14:55
(all times local)
South Africa’s Kelvin van der Linde made more motor racing history in Germanylast weekend (October 4 and 5) when he and German co-driver René Rast, 27, won the prestigious international ADAC GT Masters Championship for GT3 sports cars at the famous Hockenheimring grand prix circuit. …
Kelvin van der Linde and his German team-mate René Rast (Prosperia C. Abt Audi R8 LMS ultra) increased their lead in the ADAC GT Masters championship for GT3 sports cars at the Sachsenring in Germany on Sunday. The 18-year-old Van der Linde and his experienced …
The title chase in the ADAC GT Masters is reaching a climax. In Saturday’s race at the Sachsenring, the current Top Three in the championship table were battling it out for victory. In a thrilling duel at the front, championship leader Kelvin van der Linde (18, ZA) and René Rast (27, Germany) in their Prosperia C Abt Racing Audi R8 saw off the challenge of the GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 driven by their closest rival for the title, Jaap van Lagen (37, NL) and Christian Engelhart (27, Germany). Saturday’s podium party perfectly reflected the current situation at the top of the championship table, with third place going to Claudia Hürtgen (43, Germany) and Austria’s Dominik Baumann (21) in a Pixum Team Schubert BMW Z4. “This second victory of the season was a lot longer coming than we had wanted,” said a beaming van der Linde after the race. “We are very pleased to have finished ahead of our closest pursuers – this gives us a bit more breathing space at the top.”
Pole-setter van der Linde needed nerves of steel in the first half of the race. The Audi driver converted pole position into a race lead, but then saw it whittled away by two safety car periods in the first seven laps. The yellow flags first came out after a collision involving Israel’s Alon Day (22) in a BKK MOBIL OIL Zakspeed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Max Sandritter (25, Germany) in a Pixum Team Schubert BMW Z4 on the opening lap, and again on Lap 6 after a mechanical breakdown left Patrick Assenheimer’s (22, Germany) Corvette stranded in the middle of the track.
After the restart, van der Linde managed to defend the lead ahead of pursuer Engelhart in the Porsche 911 but was unable to shake him off completely. It was only after van der Linde handed over to Rast at the mandatory pit stop that the Audi built up a 3.5-second advantage over the Porsche which now had van Lagen at the wheel. But the margin was once again eaten away ten minutes before the end of the race when the safety car was deployed for a third time after a technical defect forced Corvette driver Sebastiaan Bleekemolen (36, NL) to a halt at the side of the track. Six minutes before the end, the race was on again for a final five laps in which Rast and van Lagen slugged it out for the race win and championship lead. The Audi man held on to his lead and crossed the line 1.3 seconds ahead.
“The safety car period towards the end obviously didn’t help, but I managed to re-establish a small gap for the last few laps,” said Rast after his seventh ADAC GT Masters race victory. “We had to be careful with our strategy today. We actually wanted to take our pit stop early in Race 1, but if we’d done that, the Porsche might have been able to gain time, and the situation would have become a lot tighter. Consequently, we adapted our strategy in line with that of the Porsche and pitted late.”
It was also a sound strategy that resulted in third place for Hürtgen and Baumann, keeping the BMW duo in the title race. Hürtgen was running sixth after the start and pitted early in the ten-minute window, allowing Baumann to move up to P3 during the second stint. Sebastian Asch (28, Germany) and Switzerland’s Philip Frommenwiler (25) finished fourth in their Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911, much to their relief after a long barren spell in the campaign. Local favourite Philip Geipel (27, Germany) and co-driver Markus Winkelhock (34, Germany) in a YACO Racing Audi R8 LMS finished fifth, their best result of the season.
A drive-through penalty for exceeding the maximum speed in the pit lane cost Luca Stolz (19, Germany) and Maximilian Götz (28, Germany) of HTP Motorsport a possible podium spot. Their gullwing had moved up to third immediately after the start but dropped back to seventh after serving the drive-through, slotting in behind Maro Engel (29, Germany) and Jan Seyffarth (28, Germany) driving a Mercedes entered by ROWE RACING.
David Jahn (23, Germany) and Sven Barth (33, Germany) of RWT Racing Team were the fastest of the Corvettes, coming home in eighth position ahead of Fabian Hamprecht (19, Germany) and Nicki Thiim (25, DK) in a Prosperia C Abt Racing Audi R8. Austrian Herbert Handlos (31), championship leader and class winner in the Gentlemen standings, took tenth place in the TONINO Team Herberth Porsche 911 that he shares with Alfred Renauer (29, Germany).
“I didn’t have it easy at the start, because the Porsches were very fast. But with a bit of luck, I was able to stay ahead. At the two restarts after the safety car period, I had everything under control. This second victory of the season was a lot longer coming than we had wanted. We are very pleased to have finished ahead of our closest pursuers – this gives us a bit more breathing space at the top.” – Kelvin van der Linde
Changeable weather was once again a factor as the penultimate race weekend of the ADAC GT Masters at the Sachsenring got underway, but it was unable to put the brakes on Kelvin van der Linde (18, ZA) or Nicki Thiim (25, DK) in their Audi …