(Motorsport-Total.com) – Despite the controversial collision with Rene Rast and Marco Wittmann at the Sachsenring race on Sunday, Grasser’s replacement Jordan Pepper has got a taste for racing and wants to return to the DTM. “The goal is pretty clear,” announced the 28-year-old South African, who replaced the convalescent Christian Engelhart, on Instagram. an.
Strong weekend, inglorious end: Pepper impressed at the Sachsenring Zoom
“I would love to return full-time in the future,” he says. “Even more so because we still have a score to settle,” the unfortunate end to the weekend has only fueled his ambition. “I’m hungry for more. Hopefully I can compete in the DTM again and make amends.”
Pepper, who knew the Sachsenring from the ADAC GT Masters, actually offered a strong performance, even if there was no happy ending.
Pepper proud: “Was in the top 10 in every session”
In both qualifying sessions he was the second-best Lamborghini driver, finishing eighth. In Saturday’s race he finished tenth and drove the fastest Lamborghini lap in the field.
Even though Sunday’s race “didn’t end the way we had hoped, I won’t let that spoil this incredible weekend – from start to finish,” the ex-boyfriend of former DTM driver Esmee Hawkey draws a positive conclusion. “I was in the top 10 in every session. I can be proud of that on my debut.”
Why Grasser “takes his hat off” to Pepper
He had already known before the weekend “that it is not easy to enter a championship like the DTM so late and without any tests, but we did it.” In addition to the strong field of drivers, this also has to do with the Pirelli tires, which are not allowed to be heated in the DTM, which drives even experienced drivers to despair, especially in qualifying.
That was not the case with Pepper, confirms team boss Gottfried Grasser. “What you have to take your hat off to him is that the last time he rode with the cold Pirelli wheel was in 2016,” he points out in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com on the ADAC GT Masters races in the Abt Bentley. “And that was a completely different tire than now.”
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Grasser’s conclusion: “Jordan did really well on both days. He didn’t have a test to prepare and was immediately competitive.”
Further DTM appearances in 2024 excluded
But when will we see the friend of the Van der Linde brothers, who lived with them in a shared apartment in Kempten and was nicknamed “Jürgen Pfeffer” by Kelvin, in the DTM again?
Even if Engelhart should also miss Spielberg after his knee operation, Pepper, who has been a Lamborghini factory driver since last year, will not be available. “There is no chance this year because he has overlaps with the GT Open series at the next two DTM events,” says Grasser.
Jordan Pepper can be satisfied with his DTM debut Zoom
In the GT series, Pepper shares the Oregon Lamborghini with ex-DTM driver Alessio Deledda, who is fighting for the title there. “That’s his main task, but we knew that,” says the Austrian.
Therefore, Pepper’s focus as far as a DTM commitment is concerned is already on the year 2025. “Let’s see what the future brings,” says Pepper, who is also starting for Grasser in the GT World Challenge Europe this year and was driving the Abt Lamborghini on the Nordschleife.
