Tasmin Pepper, Iain Pepper, Jordan Pepper - Racing Drivers

Iain Pepper

Iain Pepper’s grit and determination have made him a household name in South African motorsport.

Having started off in motorcross when a typical day at Syringa Spa or Corobrik drew over 500 competitors he quickly moved up to the brutal 500cc class. “I suppose you could say those were the heydays of motocross,” he says.

After finishing 3rd in the regional 500cc championship his career was put on hold when he agonizingly broke his back in an accident while practicing for the national at Corobrick in 1983. He was back the following year but soon decided a four wheel career would be better so he turned to Formula Vee.

Armed with a self-prepared car he made his debut at the unique Durban Street Races & qualified 3rd eventually finishing 4th & receiving the overall driver of the day award.

Having won two regional titles and finishing the 1990 season as runner-up he moved up to Formula GT1 where he took on the might of the DAW and Van Der Linde teams, scoring his first double win in 1992 at Midvaal. He took over the chairmanship of F/GTI & together with Andre vd Watt of VW racing turned the class around to have grids of 30 cars as well as the coveted SA Drivers title.

In 1995 he also drove a Reynard 94F in the once off Formula 3000 race at Kyalami. After qualifying 11th sadly a mechanical problem on the warm-up put paid to any hopes of a good result although he’d done enough to be offered a favourable deal to do a season in Europe.

The Engen Volkswagen Polo series was launched in 1997 and Pepper was one of the first drivers to commit to the exciting concept of one make racing.

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With all cars being equal it was driver against driver and team against team but again he was a loner fighting huge budget teams. In 10 years in the class he finished runner up 3 times & was never out the top 5.

2007 marked his first serious attempt in Production Car racing. Armed with a PG Glass backed Golf GTI he tackled class T. The first few races were a bit frustrating as the car was still being developed, but then a winning streak saw him leading the championship, ahead of all the factory teams in class A.

Thanks to a point scoring system that favours class A machinery, he wasn’t a contender for the overall title by the time of the final race at Kyalami.

A typical Highveld thunderstorm saw the opening race held in treacherous conditions, but Pepper drove with confident maturity to take a win and a second place to win the class T title by three points.

Making him one of South Africa’s busiest competitors is the fact that his son, Jordan and daughter Tasmin race karts with Tasmin also having done two seasons of Formula Ford and about to contest the Asian Formula BMW championship.

He also takes pride in helping nurture youngsters to make the step from karting to main track . Some of his pupils that have excelled are Mathew Hodges, Genaro Bonefede & for this year he has Nic Clark & Devin Robertson under his wing.