Bamber sixth in trying debut

NEW TYPE OF ACTION: Earl Bamber (car No 19) and his teammates clawed back from last to sixth in their first outing in round two of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Belgium at the weekend.

WANGANUI'S Earl Bamber and his Porsche teammates recovered from a series of incidents to finish sixth in an action-packed six-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium at the weekend.

Bamber was one of two Kiwis in teams driving three Porsche 919 Hybrids in the endurance event.

The other Kiwi, Brendon Hartley, with Mark Webber (Australia) and Timo Bernhard (Germany) had started from pole position, but dropped back due to a penalty and a technical failure. They fought their way back to finish third.

The trio of Romain Dumas (France), Neel Jani (Switzerland) and Marc Lieb (Germany) came second at round two of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

This was a repeat of the season's opening race at Silverstone.

Bamber, Formula One driver Nico Hlkenberg (Germany) and Nick Tandy (Great Britain), who were entered for the first time, started second but lost ground because of an accident which was followed by a stop for repairs. They recovered after dropping to the back of the field, to finish sixth.

Tandy started second and was third after lap one. On lap seven, a misunderstanding led to an accident with one of the works Porsche 911 RSRs, and required a stop for repairs. After 32 laps, Hlkenberg took over the car in ninth position for a double stint. After 80 laps, Bamber got behind the wheel for the first time. He refuelled after 104 laps and handed over after 128 laps to Tandy, who picked up fresh tyres for the left-hand side at his last stop for fuel after 152 laps.

"We tried to fight back after we dropped down the order, and we ended up in sixth, 24-year-old Bamber said.

"For us it is most important to get ready for Le Mans next month and the experience in traffic is part of it. I'm used to traffic from the US racing, but the new element is the speed and having to overtake all the time. The car was handling very well and I enjoyed it a lot."

A one-hour highlights package of the six-hour race will screen free-to-air in New Zealand on TV3's CRC Motorsport programme on Sunday.