Bathurst the “Right Time” for Van der Linde Driving Reunion

Photo: BMW

This weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour is the “right time” for Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde to reunite in the same car, with the South African brothers both seeking their first wins in Australia’s international enduro.

Kelvin, a newly appointed BMW factory driver, has joined his younger brother, who won last year’s pole, in the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 alongside Augusto Farfus.

It marks the brothers’ first time sharing a car since the 2018 ADAC GT Masters season in a Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 that also included other GT3 appearances over a two-year period.

Of note, they won their last race together that season, in GT Masters Race 2 at Hockenheim, en route to a runner-up finish in the championship.

“The time has flown, to be honest,” Kelvin told Sportscar365. “To think that time has gone by so quickly. [Sheldon’s] gone on his journey with BMW and I carried on with my journey with Audi.

“I think it was the right time for us to reunite.

“This race is one that’s very special to both of us, one that we both haven’t won, one that BMW hasn’t won in the GT3 regulations.

“A lot of cool things come together, which maybe make for a bit of excitement in trying to tick this one off.”

Sheldon feels those seven years apart, often racing for rival manufacturers in GT3 competition, have helped shape them as different types of drivers.

Twenty-five-year-old Sheldon, who won the 2022 DTM championship, has gone on to becoming one of BMW’s star drivers in its M Hybrid V8 LMDh car, while Kelvin was most recently an ABT-contracted driver and also spent a season in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Akkodis-ASP’s Lexus LMGT3 program.

“I think we’re at very different points in our careers now than back then in Audi,” said Sheldon.

“Obviously I was just starting up. It was my first works contract with Audi that year and he was kind of showing me the ropes.

“Now we’ve both established ourselves in the last five years.

“We’ve driven DTM against each other. We’re very different drivers and very different people as well because we’re a lot older.

“It will be exciting to see how different it is driving together, [seven] years later, than what it was back then.”

The last time brothers won a race at Bathurst was nearly 30 years ago, when David and Geoff Brabham took a factory-supported BMW 320i touring car to victory in the 1997 Bathurst 1000 Super Touring car race.

“Obviously it’s a good omen,” said Kelvin. “It’s exciting but I don’t want to call it too early because I’ve tried this race so many times and had the opportunity to win and in the end it didn’t work out.

“I want to come here with a level head.

“Yes, we do have all of the ingredients. WRT is mega on pit road. My brother put the lap in for pole last year, so he’s very comfortable here.

“Augusto has also been here in the past and I had the podium here last year.

“All of us have a good relationship with the race. Just all three of us are missing that win.”

Kelvin: Rolex 24 Served as ‘Good Prep’ for Bathurst

The elder van der Linde, who got his first laps in BMW’s GT3 challenger in last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, feels the race offered him good prep for Bathurst, despite noticeable differences in car and series specifications.

Kelvin helped take Paul Miller Racing’s Michelin-shod, EVO-spec BMW to a fourth place class finish in GTD Pro.

“I was relatively surprised by the performance in Daytona,” he said. “I didn’t expect to be in the mix so quickly, having done limited mileage at the Roar and jumping straight into the race, I had very low expectations for myself.

“It was just to get mileage before coming here, and this was really the race I was gunning for, to be ready for.

“I think Daytona worked out even better than I expected. I felt straight away comfortable with the car. I think the experience with the Lexus [in WEC] helped me a lot more than I initially though, just having that concept of car.

“I come here, honestly, ready to go for it.”