Motorsport: Kiwis set pace here and afar

Earl Bamber celebrates his win in the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup.

Podiums for Munro, Stanaway, Bamber but Dixon out of luck

As well as the second round of the New Zealand Rally Championship happening at the Otago Rally at the weekend, a bundle of New Zealanders were racing overseas.

Starting on home soil, Richard Mason and his co-driver and wife, Sara, have extended their lead in the national championship by winning in Otago. Ben Hunt and his co-driver Tony Rawstorn took out day two of the rally.

Mason led from start to finish on Saturday, 90 seconds ahead of Chris West and Chris Cobham. Local driver Emma Gilmour was third.

Mason's consistency over the weekend gave him the round victory by four minutes over David Holder, with Matt Jansen third.

Bamber wins on debut
The best of the Kiwis over the weekend was rising Porsche GT driver Earl Bamber, who won the opening round of the Porsche Super Cup, a support category at the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix.

Bamber has made impressive progress racing Porsche GT3 cup cars. In the space of six weeks the reigning Porsche Carrera Cup Asia champion has been on the podium in the German national series and won the opening round of the 2014 PCCA series.

"This is totally unbelievable," Bamber said. "How fantastic is it to kick off my first season in this series with a win. I'm quite happy if it continues like this."

On Sunday, the 23-year-old Kiwi beat Philipp Eng and Ben Barker to the flag after starting from second on the grid. Eng pipped Bamber to the pole by just 18-thousandths of a second, but was pounced on when the lights went out in the fight to be leading at the first turn. The Kiwi was never headed from there, increasing his lead until the chequered flag.

Munro excels in China series
Another New Zealander to taste victory over the weekend was 17-year-old James Munro, who won his first race in the single-seater Formula Masters China Series on Saturday morning and he backed that up with another impressive win in the afternoon.

Racing was cancelled on Sunday because of torrential rain so the Kiwi now leads the championship.

"A big thanks to the team for a great car in both the dry and the wet," Munro said.

Stanaway in fine form
Aston Martin works endurance driver Richie Stanaway still knows how to handle a single-seater. After two years out of open-wheelers after a crash at Spa, the Kiwi was quickly on the pace at the opening of the GP3 series in Spain.

Stanaway qualified strongly in third and made the most of his starting position, finishing third in race one. He backed that up the next day with a solid fourth and is now second in the championship behind Britain's Alex Lynn.

Bad luck for Dixon, Evans
Things didn't quite work out too well for the other two Kiwis in action at the weekend. IndyCar driver and defending champion Scott Dixon slipped to fourth in the series after having to settle for 15th. Dixon had been quickest on the re-vamped Indianapolis circuit and was battling with Will Power when the two came together, in effect ending Dixon's race.

GP2 pilot Mitch Evans made a small mistake in qualifying to start sixth for the feature race in Spain. As he was vying for the lead heading into turn one, the Kiwi had a tangle with Jolyon Palmer and Stefano Colletti. Evans had to pit for a new nose cone. Starting from P16 for race two was a big ask and Evans used up his tyres early on and was forced to retire with the front left tyre down to the canvas.