KEY POINTS:
Forty years ago, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon, New Zealand's celebrated Trio at the Top, blazed a Kiwi trail to Formula One via Great Britain.
Thirty years later Scott Dixon pioneered a new route, not to Formula One, but to the US equivalent, the Indycar series.
Now, 18-year-old Wanganui driver Earl Bamber is enjoying early progress on a third path to the top - through Asia.
Two years ago, when he and Shane van Gisbergen were the drivers to beat in the MTA New Zealand Formula Ford championship, Bamber and his father Paul took a punt and flew to Bahrain to try out a Formula BMW single-seater.
That punt produced an invitation from BMW to contest the 2006 Formula BMW Asia championship, which - after spending a year juggling commitments at school (Wanganui Collegiate) with monthly flights to and from Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Thailand - Bamber won.
It was an outstanding achievement for the then 15-year-old in his first season in a wings-and-slicks single-seater, and the talented young wheelman from Wanganui remains the only driver who has won the Asia series (now renamed Formula BMW Pacific) in his rookie year.
Since then the youngster has pretty much divided his time between the family home in Wanganui and a foldout sofa in Qi-Meritus team president and founder Peter Thompson's apartment in Malaysia.
Last year, between commitments to our own Toyota Racing Series, Bamber mentored the team's 2007 Formula BMW Pacific series drivers in exchange for a couple of drives in one of the team's Formula Asia V6 single-seaters.
This year he is back and - after a recent clean sweep at the latest round at Sentul in Indonesia - is leading the 2008 series.
The number of Formula One races now held in Asia (four out of 18, six if you include events in Australia and Bahrain) is one of the reasons Bamber believes the region is now the place to be if you want to move up the motor racing ladder.
"I think that because most of the news we get comes either from Europe or the United States, people here [in New Zealand] still can't quite grasp just how big [motor racing] is in Asia," says Bamber.
"Going up to Bahrain was a pretty big step for us when I was 15 but it certainly opened our eyes, and once I started winning in BMW, doors started to open as well."
Bamber says that motor racing is the fastest growing sport across Asia and that with live coverage this year his two race wins at Sentul were witnessed by an estimated TV audience of more than 200 million people.
Which, he says, is one of the reasons they were racing there rather than here or anywhere else. The support racing receives in Asia was incredible and would only get better.
This year Bamber is committed to winning the Formula V6 Asia for Qi-Meritus.
And next year?
"Obviously I'd still like to be involved with A1 Team NZ, but the next step up the ladder, if you like, for someone in my position is GP2."
Last season Bamber was the A1 team's nominated test driver at several rounds of the series.
"The European Series is the one everyone wants to be in, but there was a lot of interest in the first Asia GP2 series last season, so that's one I'm keeping a close eye on right now."
