Bamber joins Richards at JMR for V8SuperTourer enduro in Taupo
Already a champion and still only 18 years of age, Bamber is understandably excited about the opportunity to race with John McIntyre Racing (JMR) which won the inaugural V8SuperTourer sprint championship with team owner and driver John McIntyre in June. "The V8SuperTourers is the perfect class for someone like me trying to make it up through the ranks," says Bamber who is originally from Whanganui and now based in Auckland. "With every car being identical under the skin, it comes down to the driver and how you engineer the car. It's also fantastic to have a car so similar to the V8Supercars, it finally gives us young Kiwis a proving ground to then head across the ditch." McIntyre says winning championships will always be JMR's key goal, but fostering talent in the sport is also important. "We also want to help provide opportunities in New Zealand's most competitive touring car series to talented young Kiwis like Will Bamber. "Will has proven ability – he's a Suzuki Swift Cup series champion, he's had the benefit of attending the Motorsport NZ Elite Academy and he was the youngest-ever driver in the New Zealand V8 touring car championship. He's raced and won against Australia's best karters, then went on to race in the top five at the Rotax Max world karting finals in Dubai, so even though he's only 18, Will has some excellent racing miles under his belt." Bamber says that the 1 to 2 September running of the all-new endurance race format for the V8SuperTourers will be his first experience of endurance style racing, but with the experience of two-time Bathurst winner Steve Richards as the car's lead driver, he'll be learning from an expert. "To have someone like Steve to guide me along the way is so valuable for a rookie like me; you can't beat that level of experience. I will be a sponge over the entire weekend, trying to soak up all the knowledge I can! "I'm not exactly diving in the deep end though because the Father's Day 400 has a unique format. V8SuperTourer officials have split the event into two 200 km races rather than a single 400 km race, so that creates a perfect introduction to endurance racing and will act as great preparation for the longer races planned for the rest of the championship." Having finished in the inaugural V8SuperTourer sprint championship in a solid tenth place, Richards is delighted by the news that Bamber will join him for the first endurance event. "Will is one of New Zealand's real motor racing talents," notes Richards, an expat Kiwi based in Melbourne, Australia. "He has been working on the #556 Falcon since Manfeild, managing our tyres and getting used to the way that the JMR team operates. He's a great guy and naturally I believe he'll be an excellent partner to have for the Taupo enduro. Will lives and breathes motorsport and has maturity beyond his teenage years; I think we will make a great combo." Bamber had the opportunity to drive the #556 Falcon at the Taupo Motorsport Park earlier in June, when McIntyre also provided his endurance co-driver Jono Lester with more track time. Bamber is enthusiastic about the test session. "My first impression of the V8SuperTourer on track was just awesome. The overall package is very impressive but in particular the brakes and the grip of the Hankook tire is just on another level. The test has only fuelled my excitement even further for the opening round of the championship. The teenager concludes: "I'm so grateful for the opportunity to race in the V8SuperTourers with JMR and I can't wait to head out of pit lane for the first time at the Father's Day 400. The JMR team have been so welcoming and I really feel at home with the team so I couldn't be happier." McIntyre narrowly takes inaugural V8SuperTourer sprint championship title!
In a nail-biting final 35-lap race, the Nelson-based V8 driver said the championship title came down to being able to beat Paul Manuell by just two-tenths of a second which gave McIntyre just enough advantage over Jonny Reid who headed the V8SuperTourers' points-table going into this fourth and final round at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park near Meremere south of Auckland. "We're absolutely delighted!" said a tired, but happy McIntyre. "The racing has been phenomenal all weekend, so to finish this morning's first race in third and move into the lead of the sprint championship again was fantastic." The 25-lap Sunday morning race was interrupted by the safety car five times as drivers tangled and, most significantly for McIntyre, Reid was sidelined with gearbox issues. "Having started fifth, it was great to have a better handling, faster car than yesterday," said McIntyre. "There was some great racing with Greg Murphy and Andre Heimgartner and I was certainly happy to be able to finish third, despite the stop-start process with so many safety car interventions. "So we went into the final race on Sunday afternoon with a 60 point advantage over Reid. During the break we'd tried to make the car a bit quicker again, but think we went in the wrong direction. Then by around the tenth lap, #47's gearbox started playing up – it was mis-shifting. You'd change gear, but it would go back to the previous gear. Others just kept going past me – in between the three further safety car breaks – and there was nothing I could do. "I also had a problem with the radio – it was all static so I pulled the plug, leaving me unable to talk with the team. I was down in ninth and saw Reid had got in front of Heimgartner, so knew I had to do more. I only just managed to get past Paul Manuell and only just managed to keep him behind me as the gearbox was mis-shifting really badly on the final lap. "It came down to just two-tenths of a second at the end to hold eighth place and take the title. I just managed to get what I needed out of the car, but man... it was close!" After 12 races in four rounds, McIntyre accrued 2021 points compared to Reid's 2019. Murphy was a relatively distant third with 1742 points. "It's hugely satisfying – and the result of an incredible amount of hard work by the whole team – to do enough to win the first-ever V8SuperTourers' title. "My John McIntyre Racing team-mate Steve Richards had a tough second race with a cut tyre that meant he had to come in and change that which left him at the back of the pack. You know, Richo never gives up and he put in another solid top ten performance in the #556 CRC Ford in the third race to wrap up the sprint championship tenth overall." With the sprint championship his, no matter how small the winning margin, McIntyre is already thinking about the upcoming V8SuperTourer endurance series, having just confirmed young Kiwi driver Jono Lester as his co-driver. "As a team, we have plenty to work on going into September's first endurance race weekend. We have quite a bit more testing planned at our home circuit in Taupo – where the first enduro will run – so with Jono in the #47 car with me, we'll be hard at work over the winter months." Top five finish for McIntyre; Richards improves to tenth
McIntyre and fellow V8SuperTourer competitors are in action at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, midway between Auckland and Hamilton, for the 1 to 3 June final and have two further races to run on Sunday to wrap up the four-round sprint series. McIntyre, from Nelson, still holds second place on the leader-board, just over 100 points from current leader Jonny Reid. Meanwhile John McIntyre Racing team-mate Steve Richards, the expat Kiwi race driver from Melbourne, holds steady in eighth. Saturday's action saw McIntyre and the #47 Amcor Ford, and Richards and the #556 CRC Ford on track for an hour long practice session where the #556 car, in particular, was showing good pace. "But we made one minute change too many and the pace wasn't there for qualifying," says Richards, who was 15th despite setting a qualifying time less a second slower than fastest-qualifier Scott McLaughlin. McIntyre had to admit to an unexpected first – he hit the Armco on his first lap of qualifying, necessitating an immediate return to the pits for the JMR crew to check #47 for significant damage. "The tyres are like ice when cold, so that's a lesson learned!" With the steering not quite right and time counting down in the 20-minute qualifying session, McIntyre had to do his best, achieving the ninth quickest time. "We did remarkably well, considering, to start from ninth, and then I got a great start to get inside Andre Heimgartner to snatch his seventh place," explains McIntyre. "Everyone piled into turn one, some were pushed wide and I managed to get through to gain another couple of places. Reid, who'd qualified second, was one who was pushed around and I got past him for fourth. As things settled down, Greg Murphy and I had a good battle, passing and re-passing each other, then Reid did the same with both of them ending up in front of me – we need to find some more speed in the car. I got past Andy Knight when he made an error, then he made it back in front but got in another mess, clipped me and I just tried to give him room so I could hold on for fifth." McIntyre is striving to find ways to improve the pace of the #47 car. "However when we qualify badly, we seem to race pretty well. And starting in fifth tomorrow is better than starting in ninth, so we'll just take it from there." Richards is taking a similar attitude that starting from tenth is an improvement on Saturday's 15th starting position. "The thing with starting down the field is you do get caught up in other dramas. After making the wrong setting change for qualifying, we changed it back and the pace was certainly back for the race. So we'll start tenth for race two on Sunday and go from there." After brilliant weather all day Saturday for a good crowd of race fans, Sunday's forecast looks cloudier. The day's action will comprise a 25-lap race commencing at 11:40 am with the reversed top five starting grid and a 35-lap race at 2:45 pm to wrap up the inaugural V8SuperTourer sprint championship.
|
Talented teenage racer William Bamber is set to join Steve Richards in the #556 Falcon for the first-ever V8SuperTourer endurance race event in Taupo in September.
A winning margin of just two points was enough to secure John McIntyre the inaugural V8SuperTourers sprint championship title.
A hard-fought fifth place for John McIntyre in the first race of the final round of the inaugural V8SuperTourers sprint championship keeps him in the hunt for the championship title.
