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Tasmin Pepper’s racing pedigree is as long as it is illustrious. At just 28-years-old she boasts a string of national championship race wins, rookie victories, and most recently she secured her place in the next round of W Series; the new European-based single-seater racing series for female drivers.
Pepper started her love affair with cars at the tender age of five, racing 50cc karts. She progressed through the ranks to win the Gauteng regional championships and later finished as runner-up in multiple national championships.
READ: SA's most successful motorsport series ready for Round 1 at Dezzi Raceway
By the age of just 15-years-old, she had moved from karting into main circuit racing, where she competed in the National Formula Ford championship, where she won the Rookie Championship and finished in the Top 5. There she competed for four years before moving to Formula VW category.
In 2007, Pepper went on become the first woman to win a national championship race in South Africa, in the Formula VW category. She spent another four years competing in this series, finishing second in her final year. It was also during this time that Pepper competed in the Formula BMW Asian Series, being a support race for three of the Formula 1 races!
In 2013 she moved to saloon car racing, to the competitive Polo Cup national category. In her first year she won the Rookie championship and finished in the Top 5. Following that she won multiple races. Just last year, 2018, Pepper finished second in the overall Polo Cup championship and won the masters.
We catch up with Pepper, ahead of the first round of the 2019 Falken Polo Cup, taking place at Dezzi Raceway as part of the Extreme Festival presented by Dunlop and Falken Tyres on March 1-2.