Van der Linde: Phoenix Has “Good Chance” With Late Entry

Kelvin van der Linde says Scherer Sport PHX’s one-off entry for the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa has a “good chance” at a strong result despite the team’s ‘last minute’ call to compete at the event.

Van der Linde will share an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Nicki Thiim and Audi factory driver Luca Engstler in an effort that was announced just two weeks before the Belgian endurance classic.

The South African is headed into his first 24H Spa since leaving Audi’s factory driver roster, having contested the previous three editions of the event with Team WRT.

Van der Linde told Sportscar365 that the program, which was not on the original entry list released by SRO Motorsports Group in March, came together in ‘a matter of weeks.’

“Nürburgring 24 is where the ball got rolling,” he said. “Really late. I’m looking forward to it. I think we have a good chance.

“It’s an exciting program for the next few weeks, three back-to-back races, [Zandvoort], Spa and the Norisring, so it should be good.

“I drove for the team at Nürburgring last year, where we won the race, so we always had that connection, networking, and then yeah, last minute decision to run a car there.

“Nicki also had that connection with the team, so they called us up and I was more than happy to join.

“Spa is a race I always love to race, and I think with the combination I think it could be something really good.

“So there’s always that connection, and when I got the call, for sure I have enough races this year, enough programs, but Spa is always one that you make an exception for if you have a good lineup to go and approach it.”

Van der Linde is jumping into the Spa weekend in the midst of an intense DTM schedule, coming off a weekend at Zandvoort followed by the traditional mid-summer Norisring event immediately after the 24-hour race.

He anticipated that it would not take him much time switching between DTM’s sprint format and the twice-around-the-clock enduro in Belgium.

“It’s the same car,” Van der Linde said.  “Nowadays, a 24-hour race is pretty much a sprint race anyway, so there’s no big [difference].

“It’s the same tire, just apart from it in 24-hour racing being heated tire, but it’s all a big change. If anything, the heated tires are easier to manage than the cold tires.

“So honestly, not a big switch around. The biggest one is probably the team. Just going between different teams, the structure, who you speak to. That’s probably the biggest change, the biggest difference.”

As the No. 17 Audi is not a full-season Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup entry, it presents the crew with ‘some advantages’ when it comes to strategy according to Van der Linde.

“We obviously don’t need to score points at the six-hour and 12-hour mark, so we can strategize differently,” he said.

“Where other teams would probably sacrifice strategy a little bit to get the points at six and 12 hours, we can play the long game in terms of strategy. We don’t need to necessarily bag the points every time, so you have some advantages.

“That’s pretty much it. Apart from that, we have to wait and see. We didn’t do the test there, so we’re going in a little bit cold, but it should be fine.

“I’ve also done it six or seven times now, so the experience always helps. The problem is nowadays everyone is driving it like a sprint race, so experience only brings you so far.

“You need to be quick, that’s pretty much the underlying factor to be honest, that you just have to be quick.

“For sure, stay out of trouble, that’s where experience maybe comes in a bit, but it can vary depending on having a quick car and being able to run at a good pace.

“So that’ll be important as always, and then having a good strategy depending on how the full course yellows work out and so on.”