THREE GENERATIONS OF VAN DER LINDE CHAMPIONS
Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde are thirdgeneration racing drivers from the Randburg-based Van der Linde clan. Grandfather Hennie is a multiple South African saloon car champion, famous for his unburstable Nissan Skyline in the 1980s, while father Shaun is a former SA Touring Car Champion and Production Car Champion in BMWS, notching up huge successes between the early 1990s and 2002. Uncle Etienne was a Formula GTI single-seater champion in South Africa and also won the Formula Opel single-seater championship in Germany and Europe in 1998.
Kelvin and Sheldon enjoyed total dominance in South African karting, both winning titles in 2008. In 2012, Kelvin won the South African VW Polo Cup series and the following year he moved to Germany, winning the Scirocco R Cup in Germany at his first attempt. The next year was a huge step up for Kelvin as he won the first of his two ADAC Masters GT Championships in an Audi R8, the youngest driver to do so at the age of 18. Kelvin won his second ADAC Masters championship in 2019.
Sheldon van der Linde won the SA VW Polo Championship in his first season of car racing aged 15 and remains the youngest driver ever to win a South African racing championship. The next move was to Germany to contend the Audi Sport TT Cup, where he took four wins in his rookie year in 2016.
By 2018, he was contracted to Audi Sport and that year he and brother Kelvin shared an R8 LMS to place third in the Spa 24-Hour. He also placed second in the ADAC GT Masters championship, missing the title by just one point. Since 2019, Sheldon has been competing in DTM for BMW and scored a pole position in 2019 and a race win in 2020. This season is his third for BMW as a DTM driver. At the end of 2020, Sheldon won the Kyalami 9 Hour international endurance race for GT3 cars, driving a BMW M6 GT3.
race strategy is concerned. “Our cars are very different because the Audi is mid-engined, whereas the BMW is front-engined, so obviously the layouts are not the same and not much information is transferrable. We keep things professional; certain topics are off-limits, that need to stay within the team, and we both respect that,” adds Sheldon.
WIN AT ALL COSTS
The level of competition in DTM remains fierce. The BOP formula used to keep the grids close together has evolved from an idea where advantages once calibrated by seconds are now measured in tenths of a second. BOP sees “success ballast” of 25 kg, 18 kg and 15 kg added to cars that finish in the first three positions in a race, to be added for the following race and then removed.
The driver line-up is fierce, too. While Mercedes drivers include their top contenders in other GT3 series such as Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Goetz, Audi has DTM 2020 runner-up Nico Muller as a top contender. The grid includes Alex Albon, driving a Ferrari for the AF Corse team, as well as rising F2 Star, Liam Lawson. Former F1 star Timo Glock – who has three Grand Prix podiums to his name – is in the BMW ROWE Racing team, alongside Sheldon.
“It’s great to be able to measure ourselves against drivers who have competed in Formula One,” says Sheldon. “My teammate in the ROWE Racing BMW is Timo Glock, who raced in Formula One for Jordan and Toyota. I’ve learnt a lot from Timo, both on and off the track, in the way he conducts himself. And we get on well, which is important in a racing environment.”
Apart from DTM, Sheldon and Kelvin will be competing in various GT3 championships in 2021. Both will contend the GT World Challenge Europe Series, while Kelvin will also compete in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, which will see him racing once again in front of his home crowd at the Kyalami 9 Hour in November. Unfortunately, Sheldon’s schedule doesn’t allow for a return to Kyalami, where he won the 2020 9 Hour in an M6 GT3.