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Bamber confirms faith with Brilliant Lady Wigram Trophy Victory

Confirming the faith placed in him by International Motorsport's TradeZone A1 Team.NZL Junior Development Team, Wanganui teenager Earl Bamber has won this year's Lady Wigram Trophy race at Christchurch's Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at Ruapuna Park.

The 17-year old, former Formula V6 Asia driver and 2006 Formula BMW Asia Champion did it in style too, claiming pole position in qualifying on Saturday then finally getting the better of arch-rival and long-time leader Ben Harford late in the 25 lap Lady Wigram Trophy feature race.

As he had done in the first Toyota Racing Series (TRS) race early on Sunday morning, Harford got the jump on pole sitter Bamber in the Lady Wigram Trophy feature. But Bamber tucked in behind and remained within striking distance until the 22nd of 25 laps when Harford made a small mistake on the final corner.

"I had noticed Ben getting a little bit ragged a couple of laps before," Bamber told journalists after the race, "so I stuck as close as I could to him in case he made a mistake and when he did - he slid a bit wide and couldn't get the power down in the last corner - I pounced."

Harford fought him for every millimetre of track position - Bamber not finally getting in front until the pair had run the length of the start-finish straight, into and through the first corner then through the high-speed single line kink in the back straight side by side - but when he did Bamber quickly pulled out a car length's advantage, crossing the finish line two laps later just over two hundredths of a second in front on Harford with another former Formula V6 Asia driver Matt Halliday third and young Auckland driver Michael Burdett fourth.

The prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy race win was not only Bamber's first major one in a single-seater racing car in New Zealand, it was also the first for sponsor TradeZone Industrial, and the second in a row for the top team in the TRS, the International Motorsport-run A1 Team.NZL Junior Development Team.

Earlier in the day Harford got the better startand led the first TRS race from start to finish with Bamber second and local hero Andy Knight third. Knight then won the second race from Harford and Halliday after Bamber was forced out with bent front suspension when he and Harford were fighting for second place.

Halliday was pleased with his VnC Cocktails sponsored car’s performance and is even more pleased to finish the weekend 2nd overall on points for the Toyota Racing Series International Trophy: "It was fairly cut-throat racing as I was starting each race down the grid and had to work my way past several cars. In the 25 lap main race I battled each car ahead of me to reach 3rd place but once I had a clear track the front two cars were well gone so there wasn’t much more I could do" he reflected at the conclusion of the final race.

The Lady Wigram Trophy is one of New Zealand's oldest and most prestigious having originally been minted for the annual motor racing meeting at Christchurch's Wigram Airforce Base.

Since then it has been won by a who's-who of the world's best drivers and Bamber's name now joins those of former winners like Jack Brabham (1960 and 1961), Jim Clark (1965, 1967 & 1968), Bruce McLaren (1963 & 1964) on it