Sheldon van der Linde – 2022 series champion – celebrates his first win of the DTM season this weekend after a win at Nürburgring on Sunday. He successfully completed 41 laps in the #31 Shell BMW M4 GT3, marking an auspicious start for Schubert Racing in the first race of the second half of the DTM season. “I really didn’t expect to win from eighth place on the grid or even to make it onto the podium,” said van der Linde in an interview after the race.
Those sentiments are understandable, knowing that Saturday’s results saw the racer finish in just 13th. As a result, the South African racer started in eighth but moved quickly in to third. Eventually, he moved into second place and overtook when then-leader Maro Engel (Mercedes) suffered a spin. Engel still finished second in between van der Line and another BMW, the #11 Schaeffler BMW M4 GT3 piloted by Marco Wittman.
Making History and Looking into the Future
It’s probably a nice way to cap the weekend off for the van der Linde clan, considering that Sheldon’s brother Kelvin won on Saturday. “This is a very special weekend that makes the whole family proud,” Sheldon said after the race. “For me, this is one of my best victories in the DTM.” In 2022, Kelvin and Sheldon celebrated the first – and so far, only – time brothers finished 1-2 in a DTM race. That historic win also happened at the Ring.
Parting thoughts? “My last DTM victory was about a year ago, so this moment feels all the more beautiful. The duel with Maro Engel was at the limit, but it was really fun,” van der Linde says. “I am very happy and relieved to have won a DTM race again after such a long time.” DTM has three more races to complete the season, concluding at Hockenheimring on the weekend of October 19th. Schubert Racing heads into the sixth race leading the DTM standings with 242 points, 19 points ahead of ABT Sportsline.
