Kelvin van der Linde teams up with Valentino Rossi for Le Mans

SA’s Kelvin van der Linde will team up with motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi in BMW’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign in 2025.

They will share a Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo bearing Rossi’s iconic number 46 in the LMGT3 category of the eight-round WEC championship, which includes the flagship Le Mans 24 Hour race in June. The season starts in Qatar on February 28 and ends with the 8 Hours of Bahrain in November.

Van der Linde is new to the BMW team and joins the Bavarian outfit after finishing second in last year’s German Touring Car Masters (DTM) championship with Audi.

Italy’s Rossi enters his second season with Team WRT BMW in the LMGT3 category after retiring from the MotoGP championship in 2021 and swapping two wheels for four.

Rossi and Van der Linde will share the cockpit of their M4 with Omani driver Ahmad Al Harthy who was Rossi’s teammate in 2024.

Van der Linde will also drive an M4 in selected rounds of the North America-based IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, making his debut as a BMW M works driver at the 24 Hours of Daytona on January 23.

In 2011, Van der Linde became the youngest driver to compete in a national SA circuit event at age 14 and also SA’s youngest national champion at the age of 16 in 2012. His international racing career began in 2013 and he was promoted to an Audi factory driver two years later.

His international career highlights include winning the Nürburgring 24 Hours twice and becoming ADAC GT Masters champion, twice as well. In 2024 he competed in his first full WEC season driving a Lexus RC and finished seventh in class in the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Rossi, nicknamed The Doctor, is one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time. Of his nine Grand Prix world championships, seven were in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class. He holds a record 89 premier class victories and 199 podiums, and rode with the number 46 for his entire career.