Bamber: EBM Aims to Maximize “Home Advantage” at Sepang

Earl Bamber is hoping his eponymous EBM team can maximize its “home advantage” in this weekend’s Sepang SUPER GT round after a competitive showing for its wildcard Porsche 911 GT3 R in practice at the Malaysian venue.

EBM has two GT300 cars entered for Saturday’s third round of the season, the No. 611 Porsche driven by Dorian Boccolacci and Adrian D’Silva, and an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, the No. 333 car that has Jazeman Jaafar and Kerong Li as drivers.

The Michelin-shod Porsche in particular has proven competitive in the hands of Boccolacci, who topped first practice on Thursday and then went second-fastest in Friday morning’s session behind the Team UpGarage Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Cadillac WEC/IMSA star Bamber, present at Sepang in his capacity as team owner, said that Boccolacci’s speed came as no surprise to him, but admitted that running a Pro-Am lineup means EBM cannot be too lofty in its ambitions.

D’Silva’s best time across the first two practice sessions was around five seconds slower than that of Boccolacci, who is registered to drive in Q1 in Friday’s qualifying.

“I think we’ll need a safety car to be right in the mix, just because we have a Bronze in the car with Adrian,” Bamber told Sportscar365. “But if we get through his drive time and there’s a timely safety car, we could be in the hunt.

“Dorian drove our car in the Sepang 12 Hours, and it’s great to have him in the car. It’s always good when you have a quick, young guy in the car.

“It’s great also to be partnering with Michelin, and this being our home track, we have quite a good handle on the car around here. Some of the other GT300 teams have never driven here, so we have this home advantage, let’s say.”

Speaking after first practice, Boccolacci played down the speed of the No. 611 car and said he was treating the event primarily as a learning opportunity in his role as Porsche Motorsport Asia-Pacific’s selected driver.

But Bamber says he is keen to enjoy a strong showing on home turf against the regular cast of GT300 regulars with both of the team’s cars.

“We’re not here just to participate,” he said. “It would be nice to show a decent qualifying performance, and at least get both cars in the top ten. That would be a realistic goal.”

While the No. 611 car has been a fixture at the head of the GT300 field in practice, the No. 333 Aston Martin has struggled, going 17th-fastest in first practice on Thursday and then 15th-fastest in second practice on Friday morning.

“The Aston Martin doesn’t seem to be suited well to this track,” said Bamber. “We saw that in Asian Le Mans as well; in the heat it tends to suffer a bit.

“We’re at the same sort of speed as D’station, but we don’t have enough to be up front.”

Bamber added that he considers it an honor to be able to participate in SUPER GT as a wildcard entrant as the Japanese series ventures abroad for the first time since 2019, and visits Sepang for the first time since the 2013 season.

“I grew up watching these cars in Malaysia when they used to race here, so it’s really cool to see it here and be part of it as a team owner,” said Bamber.

“It’s not often that a foreign team, a team based outside of Japan, gets to race in SUPER GT, so to get a wildcard here is something special.”