Motor racing: Bamber chase has them talking

Earl Bamber finished third at the Silverstone circuit in England. PHOTO/FILE

Wanganui expat racer Earl Bamber remains in contention to win the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in his debut season after a third placing in Round 4 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire at the weekend.

The 23-year-old, who earned a scholarship to race the 12-round series around Europe with the Fach Auto Tech team, had caused a sensation when he won the opening round in his rookie drive at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on May 11. He then came ninth at Circuit de Monaco on May 25 and sixth at Austria's Red Bull Ring on June 22.

For the England round on Sunday, Bamber qualified down the field in eighth out of the 25-car lineup, with Austrian Clemens Schmid sitting on pole with the quickest 5.891km lap.

Watching back home online was long-time supporter Lyndsay Tait, who said Bamber came through the pack in the 13-lap race to rapidly move up to fifth.

"It took him about three laps to get through to fourth and then another few laps to catch the leading bunch of three," Tait said. "He was all over the third-place car and eventually got past it.

"By this stage first [Schmid] and second [Poland's Kuba Giermaziak] had got away and it took another three-four laps for Earl to catch them.

"Fortunately they were in a real tussle, which slowed them down just enough for Earl to catch them."

Tait said at this point, Giermaziak let Schmid go and focused on defending his second place spot from the New Zealander.

"He successfully did this for about five laps. Earl tried very hard and a number of times got alongside but couldn't make it past.

"Some very exciting racing - the international TV coverage spent a huge amount of time focused on Earl, as this was where the action was.

"A lot of the race coverage was from Earl's in-car camera."

Bamber's third placing at Silverstone has him on 53 points, sitting second behind Giermaziak in the overall standings.

"That was a great race and I'm very happy with the overall outcome," he said.

Next round of the Supercup is at Germany's Hockenheimring Baden-Wrttemberg, July 18-20.