ADAC GT Masters – KELVIN OUT OF LUCK AT EUROSPEEDWAY

But SA’s van der Linde shows purple sector GT Masters pace

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 Isaac Tutumlu both showed excellent pace for the fledgling team, but decent results escaped them through what proved a tough race meeting.

“It was another frustrating weekend,” Kelvin admitted. “But for sure there were many promising moments – I was very happy with my second race, while Isaac was the quickest of the Audis in Race 1, so definitely we are moving in the right direction.”

The first race was one Kelvin wants to forget beyond teammate Tutumlu’s newfound pace. “I resorted to comfort food to get over my disappointment,” Kelvin confided. “I was much happier with my second race though — I boxed hard to jump from thirteenth to seventh in my stint before the pitstop,” van der Linde explained of a stint where he kept ahead of home rival Jordan Pepper’s pursuing Bentley at bay as the South Africans duo rose through the field together.

“Unfortunately my teammate Isaac had contact with another car and we did not finish, but I’m happy with my performance and purple sector times and after a weekend like this, we can only try and find the positives. “Looking ahead, right now, podiums are not yet within reach, so we need to optimise the package and put everything together,.

“I’m sure that we will be able to fight for the top three toward the end of the season — we are on the right track – I’m excited for the rest of the year, so let’s see what happens…”

The ADAC GT Masters now pauses for its winter break before heading to Austria’s Red Bull Ring at the end of July, by when Kelvin’s Car Collection team hopes to be that much closer to its podium promise…