Newcomer Bamber laps up the Bathurst experience
This may not be as big as Le Mans, but Kiwi Earl Bamber has been blown away by his first Bathurst 1000 experience.
The two-time winner of one of the biggest sporting events in the world is competing in the Great Race for the first time and teaming up with his old friend Shane van Gisbergen for an all-Kiwi challenge.
Having spent a couple of days driving around the Mount Panorama track in wet conditions, Bamber says he’s still loving his time at the event.
‘‘The weather has been a bit sad, but I’ve had a couple of good runs,’’ Bamber said.
‘‘It’s pretty special to be here for the first time in this race – to see all the fans supporting us is pretty crazy.’’
When comparing the Bathurst 1000 with Le Mans, Bamber says the former doesn’t have the scale of the French race, but he’s been taken aback by how passionate the spectators are.
‘‘Le Mans is one of the biggest sporting events in the world,’’ the 28-year-old from Whanganui said.
‘‘They get something like 300,000 people there over the weekend and the track is a bit bigger.
‘‘Here, you see more people and the fans are pretty crazy and passionate.
‘‘I’ve never seen so many people on a track walk before, apparently it gets really wild here on a Saturday and Sunday.
‘‘This is a special race for me to be at,’’ he added.
‘‘As a Kiwi growing up,it was always the dream race to come to.
‘‘So it’s incredible to be here and especially in a team with Shane. To make an all-Kiwi pairing and Red Bull Racing HRT is the dream team to be with.’’
Earl Bamber
Although this is Bamber’s first time at this race, he has driven in the Bathurst 12-hour race on three previous occasions, winning his class in in 2014 and 2016 in a Porsche 911.
Bamber is also competing as a co-driver in the Super2 development series this weekend, to get more laps around the circuit, but he says his time at the Bathurst 12-hour has been helpful, even if it was in a different type of car.
‘‘It’s all similar. It’s just finding the grip and getting used to the tyres,’’ he said.
‘‘But there’s nothing too odd about it.
‘‘It’s great to have done the 12-hour race a few times, because that helps a lot and now I’m firing into the weekend and getting used to driving a Supercar around here.’’
After racing at Sandown a few weeks ago in the first event of the Supercars Enduro series, Bamber said it was easier to get used to the circuit because there were a lot of left turns and he’s left-handed.
It may seem like an odd comment, but Bamber says there’s logic to it.
‘‘Look at [Marc] Marquez on the motorbike [four-time MotoGP champion], he’s won more times on anticlockwise tracks than clockwise ones,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s also interesting to get onto the other side of the car for me now, because swapping between the Porsche and this means I’m moving to driving on the other side of the car.
‘‘I don’t mind left-handed turns, I prefer them to going right if I could choose.’’
‘‘It’s pretty special to be here for the first time in this race.’’