A successful season of national championship circuit racing for the Ferodo Racing team came to an end at Zwartkops Raceway west of Pretoria this weekend.

After nine rounds of the WesBank Super Series hosted by six circuits in four provinces, Ferodo's three drivers walked off with the Masters category of the Engen Volkswagen Cup (Lee Thompson) and third place overall in both the Engen Volkswagen Cup (Kelvin van der Linde) and class T of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship (Gennaro Bonafede).

In addition, 15-year-old Van der Linde, competing in his first season of national championship senior circuit racing, won the Volkswagen Cup Rookie of the Year award while the Ferodo team won the coveted Volkswagen Motorsport Spirit Award.

Thompson, 32, who won the VW Cup in 2007, completed his domination of the Masters category (for drivers over 27) by winning both 10-lap races in his Ferodo VW Polo Vivo at the final round to bring his tally for the year to 14 victories in 18 races.

Van der Linde, who finished fourth and eighth in his category on Saturday in his Ferodo VW Polo after experiencing gearbox problems in qualifying, is the third successive Ferodo driver to win the VW Cup rookie of the year title following Bonafede in 2007 and Devin Robertson in 2008.

He was only 14 when he competed in his first race, at Kyalami in March where he finished fourth, and he went on to score four podiums and three seconds on his way to third place in the championship behind Robertson, 19, and Kosie Weyers, 20, and ahead of 20-year-old Kyle Barnes.

With the gearbox problems restricting him to a single timed lap in qualifying, he started race one from 10th on the grid, but only after a massive effort by his pit crew – who included grandfather Hennie, father Shaun and uncle Etienne – all former SA champions – who twice replaced the gearbox, the second time in just 20 minutes.

His efforts were even more heroic in race two when he started from 26th and last place on the grid. After one lap he had already passed eight cars and by the time the chequered flag came out he was ninth overall and eighth in his category.

Bonafede was forced to complete the season in a rival's VW Golf 5 GTi when his own Ferodo VW Golf 6 GTi developed engine problems in the first of the day's four 8-lap sprint races. Although he only completed six laps it was enough to be classified sixth in class T and score two valuable championship points.

He sat out race two before Nathan Motorsport generously offered him their second car, which enabled him to defend his third place in the class in the final two races. Two fighting third places in the unfamiliar car saw him take his final points tally for the season to 203 to edge out Shaun Duminy (Ford Focus) by just four points.

Duminy's team-mate Gary Formato won the class T championship from defending champion Graeme Nathan (VW Golf 6 GTi).

Ronnie Erasmus, motor sport manager of Federal-Mogul, manufacturers of Ferodo brake pads, was delighted with his team's performance during the season. "Our team has done us proud again. Lee not only proved to be the class of the entire field throughout the year, but he also provided inspiration and valuable advice to his two younger team-mates.

"We have always tried to encourage young talent in motor sport and Gennaro and Kelvin have both proved to be more than worthy of our support.

"We're very grateful to Volkswagen Motorsport, in particular Mike Rowe, Autoquip, Monster Energy and Brad Anassis of Portable Shade for their enthusiastic support throughout the season," he added.

Long time supporters of motor sport in South Africa and, in recent years, of exciting young talent, Federal-Mogul's Ferodo brake pad and Champion spark plug brands are world famous and used by top competitors in all branches of motor sport. They are official suppliers to both the Engen Volkswagen Cup series and the Formula Volkswagen single-seater championship. The factory Volkswagen Polo team, winners of the last six national rally championships, rely on Champion spark plugs.