The first selection event for the 2015 FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, which featured 17 drivers aged between 16 and 25 from 12 nations across Sub-Saharan Africa, has been won by 18-year-old Johannesburg circuit racing driver Jordan Pepper.
This year’s Academy selection, which took place over three days (last Sunday through to today) at the Gerotek vehicle testing and conference facility near Broederstroom west of Pretoria, involves a series of six qualifying events in regions across the world to give as many drivers as possible the opportunity to participate.
FIA National Sporting Authorities (ASNs) in the region were asked to put forward their nominations, which were then assessed by the FIA Institute. To encourage development of drivers, ASNs in this region were allowed two nominations each. Minimum criteria were set that drivers had to meet, including the requirement to have demonstrated strong performance in national competition so far.
For the selection event, the competitors underwent rigorous exercises to evaluate fitness, driving performance, media expertise, teamwork and psychology. Six finalists were chosen this morning based on their evaluation and test results so far and participated in a driving shoot-out on Gerotek’s dynamic vehicle handling track that resulted in the winner being chosen.
Both South Africans made it to the shoot-out as well as both representatives of Namibia, Thilo Himmel (23) and Wilro Dippenaar (21), who both compete in the South African National Rally Championship.
Pepper, who has already won the 2014 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup in Europe with one round of this international series remaining, will now go forward to participate with other winners – five other regional winners and selected wild cards in the 2015 Young Driver Excellence Academy. They will receive a fully-funded training programme, which aims to help drivers develop their motor sport careers, while increasing safety skills and actively promoting the principles of safety, fairness and responsibility on and off the track. One will be declared “Driver of the Year” at the end of the programme.
George Avvakoumides, chairman of Motorsport South Africa, which hosted the event on behalf of the FIA Institute, added: “It was an honour for Motorsport South Africa to host this event for the second year in succession and obviously we are all very proud that the judges chose our own Jordan Pepperas the winner. Jordan follows in the footsteps of last year’s winner Kelvin van der Linde of Johannesburg, who went on to win the 2014 FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy’s “Driver of the Year” award.
“It shows that we have a deep pool of sporting talent in South Africa. Many motorsportsmen and women are able to start their careers at a very early age here because of the strong structure of local motorsport and the variety of motorsport disciplines on offer. Our young drivers are very fortunate that these opportunities are there and that they can turn their dreams into reality with the help of this wonderful FIA Institute initiative to unearth and develop latent young talent.
“It is also clear that all the drivers who participated in the Africa regional selection event over the past three days are winners and they all benefitted from the experience. Just to have been selected by their individual National Sporting Authoritiesis an achievement of which they can be proud.”