LEADER: South African teenager Kelvin van der Linde has a comfortable championship lead over compatriot Jordan Pepper with the pair sharing victories at the Nurburgring over the weekend.
Kelvin van der Linde, 17, scored his fourth win in a row when he took the honours in the weekend’s first race on Saturday after starting from pole position. The 17-year-old Dainfern College pupil from Johannesburg led throughout the race and increased his championship lead to 80 points over nearest challenger, Michelle Gatting of Denmark.
Gatting retired in Saturday’s race after a first lap collision. Pepper, 16, and also from Johannesburg finished eighth after qualifying 13th on the grid.
In yesterday’s round six it was Pepper’s turn to stand on the top step of the podium and claim his first win. He started from pole position as a result of the reverse grid employed for the second race in a doubleheader weekend.
He was able to control the race from the front, despite the close attentions of the chasing pack of 23 identical cars in the early stages of the race, and led from start to finish.Van der Linde, starting eighth as a result of his race one win, worked his way up to fourth on lap five of the 14-lap race.
But such is the competitive nature of the one-make formula that he found himself in seventh place by the end of the race after swapping places almost every lap.
The 2012 South African Volkswagen Cup champion retains a commanding lead in the championship 228 points with three rounds remaining. Pepper moves up to second place with 167 points.
The next two rounds are at Oschersleben on October 19 and 20.
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