After a very successful season partnering Rene Rast in the ADAC GT Masters Championship, Kelvin van der Linde will make a guest appearance at the final round of the Blancpain Sprint Series with Christopher Mies in an Audi R8 LMS at the Baku street circuit. …
Kelvin van der Linde (ZA) has regained the lead in the overall standings after the sixth race weekend of the ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring (D). The Volkswagen junior, overall winner of the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup in 2013, finished in sixth place alongside his …
This past weekend, Kelvin van der Linde reached another new milestone in his career path towards DTM. After several good outings with Audi in the German ADAC GT Masters Championship, Kelvin was provided with the opportunity to drive Audi’s 2013 RS5 DTM Taxi car whilst taking important guests for a demonstration lap around the spectacular Nuerburgring race track!
“An amazing opportunity for me. It has always been a dream of mine to sit inside a DTM car nevermind to drive one! I used the opportunity to learn about the car in a pressure-free environment and made the most of every lap in the car. By the end of the weekend I managed to complete around 25 problem free laps.
I was particularly impressed by the car’s braking ability. This was my first experience of carbon brakes and this factor took me the longest time to adapt to, the rest was very similar to what I had driven before. To put into perspective just how good the braking was – I did not come across one taxi guest (Male or Female) that could keep their head up straight when I started braking.
For me this was my first real taste of the DTM environment and I grasped the opportunity with both hands and learnt valuable lessons which will help my career going forward.
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Audi Sport, Abt and everyone behind my career for making this once in a lifetime opportunity come true!”
-Kelvin
Dainfern, Johannesburg matric student Kelvin van der Linde and his German teammate René Rast (Audi R8 LMS ultra) scored their 10th top ten finish from as many races at the fifth round of the ADAC GT Masters championship for GT3 sports cars at the Slovakia …
Five different super sports car marques take wins in first eight races. Championship leaders van der Linde/Rast secure points in every race for the Audi R8. High-five: Cars from five different marques clinched wins in the first eight races of the season. Porsche 911, Mercedes-Benz …
| The eagerly awaited advanced driving workshop was finally upon us. Although everyone was keen to start another workshop it was also tinged with sadness, as it was to be our last as an Academy group.Day One It was an early start on Day One but everyone was eager to get going. We split into two different groups, conducting separate fitness tests that we then compared to our results from fitness tests from the first workshop. This showed us the advancements we had all made over the course of the Academy. We then headed to the Paul Ricard circuit where the majority of exercises were to be held during the workshop. We were given one-on-one coaching to help us develop fine details in our driving styles and techniques, with the opportunity to put in a number of quick laps. |
 |
 |
Day TwoBoth driving and classroom sessions featured on day two. Coming back to the core of the Academy’s targets, we received a detailed and interesting lecture on FIA road safety and motor sport safety projects. Following this, we discussed our various career path options and were given insight into future projects of the FIA to make the route to the upper echelons of motor sport clearer. We worked off the extra lunchtime dessert calories by driving as fast as possible around the track in a head-to-head time attack challenge. To finish the day we visited the karting track for two 30-minute races. This truly brought out the fighting spirits in everybody including the coaches who also joined in the race. I really enjoyed the karting as it was fun to return to some back-to-basics racing and relax rather than being under pressure when competing. It also reminded me that the Academy was almost at an end, which was a sad moment.  Day Three The start of Day Three gave all the participants a chance to have one-on-one conversations with the coaches and experts of the Academy. Questions regarding future steps and fitness, to name a few, could be asked. Valuable feedback was given from each of the coaches and all the drivers took careful note of the input. We headed back out on to the track to practice various challenges we had been set during the week. We then headed to the east section of the circuit to set some practice laps ahead of the final competition of the Academy the next day. |
|
| Day FourThe final day had arrived and you could feel the tension. Everybody also remembered that a memorable journey was nearly over which was a sad thought. Before heading to the track for the final challenge of the Academy, we revisited a task from the second Academy workshop in Chamonix that we had all enjoyed. We had to build a plastic racing car and the aim was to beat the record set by a previous Academy group. We set about the task using all our newly learnt techniques and we managed to beat the record of 25 seconds, completing the task in just 19.9 seconds. It had taken us seven minutes at our first attempt in Chamonix so this put into perspective just how much we had grown throughout the Academy. With a sad few minutes of reflection we got out onto the track to take the time-trial challenge. | |
 After the competition, we headed to a tense lunch table with deep curiosity as to who would win the 2014 Academy. The announcement felt like an eternity, and then I was announced as the winner. I simply could not believe it and felt a vast range of emotions, from happiness to pride. After a year full of laughs, incredible teaching and learning it had all come to an end. To win the trophy was great but I am sure the journey of all the drivers in the Academy has just started. I have no doubt that every person involved will go on to achieve amazing things in their racing careers. I would like to thank each and every person who has touched my life. The Academy will always have nothing but special memories in my heart. To everyone involved, all the way from the coaches to my fellow drivers, I want to say thank you. We had all become really close as a group. When the bus arrived and everybody was forced to go his or her separate ways it left all of us feeling extremely sad. We all departed without a good bye, it was simply a: “See you soon guys!” |
|
Kelvin van der Linde has won the Driver of the Year award for the 2014 Young Driver Excellence Academy.The 18-year old was presented with the trophy at the graduation ceremony, held at the end of the final workshop, which took place at the Paul Ricard …
This year’s FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy meets for its final workshop this week (7-11 July) at the Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet, France, where the focus will be on advanced driving skills. The workshop offers the drivers the chance to demonstrate their …
Teenage South African motor racing prodigy Kelvin van der Linde (17), combined with Germany’s René Rast (27), to finish 10th and second in a Prosperia C. Abt Audi R8 in the two one-hour races that made up the fourth round of the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Sunday. They have now finished on the podium six times in eight races and lead the eight-round championship at the halfway stage by 10 points.
They won the second race in round one in Oschersleben, Germany, in April, making Van der Linde the youngest-ever GT Masters race winner.
This weekend’s success was a major achievement for Audi, who had not previously managed a podium finish at the Red Bull Ring around a high-speed circuit that favoured the big capacity-engined American Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette. Both races were won by Oliver Gavin of Great Britain (41) and German Daniel Keilwitz (24) in a 5,2-litre V8 Callaway Chevrolet Corvette.
“Our top 10 finish in race one after starting from 14th on the grid was like a podium and second place in race two from sixth on the grid was like a win for the team,” said a happy Van der Linde after the races.
The reigning European Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup champion and South African Motor Sportsman of the Year was full of praise for his team: “It was a tough weekend and we had a difficult job to do today. We maximised our package at a track that did not suit our car. René is a great team-mate and drove magnificently and, thanks to a team that had a good strategy and did everything right, we proudly stand on the podium.
“Being the unofficial ‘halftime champions’ as they say here is very promising as the circuits that lie ahead are better suited to the Audi.”
The series is open to sports cars that comply with the International Automobile Federation’s (FIA) technical regulations and is contested by the Audi R8 LMS Ultra, BMW Z4 GT3, Chevrolet Camaro GT, Chevrolet Corvette Z06.R, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG gullwing, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 and McLaren MP4-12C GT3.
With four rounds and eight races remaining, the South African/German duo leads the championship with 120 points. Second is Holland’s Jaap van Lagen (37), in a Porsche 911 GT3 R (he has had three different co-drivers to date) with 110 points and third are Claudia Hurtgen of Germany (42) and Dominik Baumann of Austria (21) in a BMW Z4 with 94 points.
The next round of the championship is at the Slovakia Ring in Slovakia on
August 9 and 10.
A difficult weekend was predicted at the third round of the ADAC GT Masters for Prosperia C. Abt Racing. On extreme high speed circuits such as the Lausitzring, the Audi R8 LMS Ultra suffers from a significant top speed disadvantage on its bigger engined rivals …