Fastest woman on high heels
BLUE VALLEY - Midrand's fast lady, Tasmin Pepper scored her biggest victory to date when she won a thrilling second heat in round two of the Engen Volkswagen Cup in Cape Town.
Driving the instantly recognisable PG Glass/Pepper Racing VW Polo Vivo in what is regarded as the most competitive motorsport series in the country, the petit 24-year-old from Blue Valley methodically worked through handling problems on day one of the series. In qualifying the next day, Pepper qualified fourth fastest, less than three-quarters of a second slower than pole position.
The draw for the top six starting places saw her line up fourth for the opening race. After being boxed in at turn one, the race turned into a chaotic affair that saw a number of spectacular accidents. Pepper drove sensibly to come home for a hard-earned sixth place, but with an undamaged car. “For more than half the race there were yellow flags out for a car that was upside down just before the back straight and another wreck after turn three which spoilt the race a bit,” she said.
With the advantage of starting from the front for race two, she drove a blinder of a race to win by a less than half a second from Sheldon van der Linde.
From the start she managed to hold onto the lead, but it was close. She was able to make the most of a lucky break when there was a bit of bumping and barging behind her.
“I could see he [Sheldon] was closing a bit near the end, but I wasn’t worried,” said the confident 24-year-old afterwards. “I wasn’t sure exactly how many laps were left but I just knew that he wasn’t going to get past. The car was good and I have to say thank-you to my dad and the whole team for all the hard work sorting out the handling,” she added.
