Racing under the PG Glass/Volkswagen Racing banner, South Africa’s ‘Fast Lady’ Tasmin Pepper (18) is fighting for a top slot in the Formula Volkswagen championship which is the SA Drivers Championship.

In June she made history by becoming the first woman to ever win a round of the South African Drivers Championship, something she’d been threatening to do since the start of the season.

Qualifying was extremely close and although she was only fifth fastest, her lap time was only just more than half a second off the fastest lap and she was looking forward to a close race.

After a frenetic start where she adopted the cautious approach, she avoided an accident ahead of her on lap three and was in third place by the end of the lap. She then put in some consistently fast laps and moved into second place on lap seven when Paulo da Cunha wilted under pressure from the young lady who finished a solid second.

It was raining by the time cars lined up for race two and the Clerk of the Course decided the race would start behind the safety car. Almost as soon as the safety car pulled off and real racing started, there was chaos. Quick thinking saw Pepper avoid the pack of spinning cars.

It was a difficult race in tricky conditions and she drove a steady race to take third place and take her second podium finish for the day.

Driving the PG Glass backed 20-valve Polo in the popular one make Engen Volkswagen Cup is Boksburg’s 22-year old Mathew Hodges. Having missed out on the title last year by the narrowest of margins, he put in a brilliant drive to win the second race of the day and keep the championship lead.

Shortly after the start of race one a multi-car accident brought out the red flags while Hodges was holding a comfortable third. He held third after the restart but was then hit by Engen Xtreme driver Kosie Weyers which left him without fourth gear. Predictably it meant he dropped down the order rapidly but rather than pit, he stayed on the track to collect valuable points for 11th place.

It was raining when cars took to the track for the second race and the Pepper Racing Team took the brave decision to start on slick tyres whilst everyone else was on treaded wet tyres.

The gamble paid off as cars around him slithered off the track while Hodges waited patiently. By half distance there was a drier line and Hodges started moving up the leader board and went on to take a convincing victory.

The final round of the season for the Pepper Racing/PG Glass team is the final Wesbank Super Series event taking place at Kyalami on 17 October.