Kelvin van der Linde, the 15-year-old rising star of national championship circuit racing, reached a new milestone last weekend when he totally dominated his class in the Pro Tour’s regional championship Goldwagen Challenge for Volkswagen Golfs at East London’s famous former grand prix circuit.
On his first visit to the country’s fastest and most fearsome road circuit, the grade 11 pupil from Dainfern College in Gauteng was not intimidated by the high-speed challenges of Potter’s Pass and Rifle Range Bend and comfortably won both class B races in a Ferodo/Autoquip Golf 1. He now leads the Northern Regions championship overall and is well ahead in his class.
After setting the fastest time in qualifying, he won the first race (for class B and D cars) by more than six seconds from Peter Thompson (VW Golf 2) and Quentin Thompson (VW Golf 1), who was a further seven tenths of a second behind.
His dominance was even more emphatic in race two (all four classes combined) and he completed the nine laps over 14 seconds ahead of Quentin Thompson and Rory Atkinson (VW Polo) and finished an impressive seventh overall in the 36-car field.
The back-to-back wins were his third in succession and took Van der Linde’s tally for the year to eight from 12 races. He now leads the Northern Regions Goldwagen Challenge overall by 12 points from class C leader Keagen Blanckensee and is 30 points ahead of his nearest class B rival, Quentin Thompson.
Van der Linde is also the youngest competitor in the Engen Volkswagen Cup national championship, part of the WesBank Super Series, where he is currently third in the points standings in his first season of senior circuit racing.
He will next be in action at the fifth round of the national WesBank Super Series at the Aldo Scribante Raceway in Port Elizabeth on August 5 and 6.
Ends
STORY COURTESY OF PETER BURROUGHES COMMUNICATIONS
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