SA’s Pepper adds spice to life at the wheel of a Lamborghini in Euro racing

Anyone who had a sports car poster on their wall as a kid — Magnum PI’s Ferrari, the Porsche 911 or the Lamborghini Countach — can relate to Jordan Pepper. “I am living my own 10-year-old dream,” he says. 

That dream? Racing Lamborghinis around some of the most famous tracks in the world. Trying to drag from those awesome, futuristic motoring fantasies the very limits of its performance. Plainly put, to drive the damn thing as fast as possible. Which kid doesn’t want to do that?

“Growing up I always wanted to be a professional sportsman and racing is the one bug that bit way harder than everything else,” said the 27-year-old.

Pepper is one of three drivers in the Red Bull Lamborghini ABT Huracán GT3 EVO2 who races in the German Touring car series. From the Nurburgring, to Spa Francorchamps and Le Mans, Pepper is competing at some of the world’s most iconic sports venues. 

“You have to pinch yourself, no matter how tough the situation is, and just think, ‘this is really cool.’”

It’s the Nurburgring that Pepper and his team are targeting next for the 24-hour endurance event that brings together high-end vehicles like the one he’s in, to ‘ordinary’ roadsters, spread across a variety of classes. 

“There are extremely crazy situations with weather. It is built in this mountainous forest area, where the weather can change in a heartbeat. The track is so long, so half of it can be wet, half pure sunshine and you are out there in the elements, wet tyres in the dry.

“There is the class spread — the top level GT 3 cars which we drive in versus the amateur driver in his little Renault Clio — is astronomical. All those elements among an up-and-down, twisty, the most unforgiving racetrack in the world ... it is actually quite crazy what we do. When you think about it, who actually wants to sign up for this? Which is why it is nicknamed the ‘green hell’.

Pepper embraces the danger, adding that even away from his day job, pushing vehicles at top speed is unavoidable.

“Some of my hobbies include riding off-road bikes — then I’m really out of my comfort zone. I have huge respect for bikers. I think car racing is awesome, but what those guys do is ridiculous, they must have no brain cells to go that far above and beyond the limit. I’ve always been a crazy daredevil kid, which is what has made me thrive in racing.”

Pepper grew up around race cars — his father Iain raced touring cars locally and sister Tasmin got to the Women's Series in Europe before it went defunct. “I just wanted to replicate what my dad and older sister were doing,” Pepper said. 

“It helped having that experience and knowledge close to hand. First teaching me the baby steps like how to drive, but the major impact was when the time came to take it more seriously. Racing is not a cheap sport, so there were a lot of sacrifices from my family.” 

“I’ve never won a South African national championship and I never dominated go-karting. My dad always put me in classes with kids who were much older than me, because he believed I needed to be bullied, basically. Nobody wants to be beaten by a kid who is too young to be in that particular class. I was quick, but I had to learn and it did bring that fight out in me. I thank him for it now, but back then I wasn’t always a fan of it.”

Pepper raced against his current teammate Kelvin van der Linde as kids, as well as the Binder brothers, Brad and Darryn. “Myself, Brad and Darryn all started in go-karts together. Brad kicked our ass in karting and then he decided to switch to bikes. And the rest is history. We like to link up a couple of times a year in Europe.”

Endurance racers may not face the same physical demands as those of Formula 1 drivers, but that doesn’t mean it is not a taxing pastime.

“F1 drivers have to be physically fit, they have to be strong with their necks because of the high G-force load. But we put our bodies through a lot more in the sense that we are in the car for two hours at a time, then you get out, you have three to four hours to recover and then you are back putting in the same brutal abuse on the body where it is sometimes 70º inside the cockpit, the water system can fail ... every race has different elements.

“At the end of every 24 hour race I ask: ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ But the day after, you’re like ‘Ah man that was awesome, when’s the next one?’'

The Nurburgring 24 hours takes place on June 2. Pepper rates his team’s chance to achieve a podium finish.

“I’m yet to finish on the podium at the Nurburgring, but I can imagine the feeling and satisfaction you get from doing it.”