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Home / Sport

Motorsport: Bamber in hot seat for South Africa

By Eric Thompson
NZ Herald·
20 Feb, 2009 03:00 PM4 mins to read

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Earl Bamber says mechanical issues that plagued the Taupo round appear to have been resolved. Photo / Supplied

Earl Bamber says mechanical issues that plagued the Taupo round appear to have been resolved. Photo / Supplied

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KEY POINTS:

The musical chairs continue at A1 Team New Zealand this weekend, with Earl Bamber taking back the wheel of Black Beauty from Chris van der Drift in South Africa.

And it's no surprise that Bamber is back in the hot seat as the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport
resumes at the Kyalami circuit in Gauteng.

After his less than auspicious outing at the New Zealand round of the championship in Taupo, van der Drift might have expected to hand the reins back to Bamber for the fifth round. The 18-year-old has a proven track record in the Kiwi car, having finished in the top five in all four races he's contested so far.

"The decision to put Earl in the car was made between the engineering team and myself," says A1 Team New Zealand seat holder Colin Giltrap. "We're confident Earl can do the job for New Zealand in South Africa."

With the Kiwi team sliding down the table, it's time for some stability. And as Bamber has had three podiums and a fourth, it's odds-on he'll be able to pick up a few points in the republic.

"I can't wait to get back out there and be driving Black Beauty again," said Bamber. "I've been doing a lot of work over the past few weeks to get prepared, so hopefully it pans out."

Bamber's been doing some hard training in the UK working on his fitness in the hope of coping with the high altitude and heat of the Gauteng province. At more than 1700m above sea level, the physical workout in racing around the Kyalami circuit will reward the fit drivers on the A1GP grid.

"The training's been going good actually so we'll see how I feel in the car over the weekend," said Bamber.

He hasn't raced at Kyalami before but has spent a number of hours in the simulator getting to know which way around the circuit goes.

"I've done a day of simulation and I think it's good preparation but obviously it's not like driving around the track," continued Bamber. "Racing around Kyalami will be great, especially in the new car."

There has been some concern, in regards to the car's anti-stall device, which saw van der Drift stuck at the back of grid at the previous round in Taupo, and the odd brake issue. While the team remain tight-lipped on the exact cause of the problems, they appear satisfied it won't happen again.

"I'm confident the problems have been fixed and the car has been getting better round by round," said Bamber. "But so are all the other teams improving like Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal and Australia who all had a good race at Taupo. Which just means we have to up our game a bit more."

The South African race could be do-or-die for the Kiwi team as Ireland have bounced out to a 13-point lead over Switzerland, who are on 52 points with Portugal, 49 points, France, 41 points and the Netherlands, 38 points all ahead of New Zealand on 35 points. Thirty points in anyone's language is a big gap and if the Kiwi team allow it to get bigger, it could be game over for any chance of winning the title.

"Of course I want to continue to get into the top six and continue to score points. It's always going to be difficult with all the other strong contenders but we're not going to throw everything away just to win a race. It's motor sport, so if we get the chance to win a race we'll go for it," said Bamber.

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