After a six-week break, Kiwi driver William Bamber returned to action last weekend for Round 4 of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Championship at Road America in Wisconsin.
Bamber and teammate Elias De La Torre headed into the weekend full of confidence after a dominant double victory at Watkins Glen.
The pair scored pole position and race wins in both Pro class races, vaulting them into the championship lead and becoming just the third pairing this season to sweep a weekend.
The fight for championship supremacy continued to heat up as Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America made its return to Road America, the longest track on the calendar at 4.048 miles. With fans filling the venue, all 35 entries across the Pro, Pro-Am, Am, and LB Cup categories delivered an exciting weekend of racing.
In Qualifying, Kiwi Will Bamber and co-driver Elias De La Torre qualified second on the grid for Race 1 and third on the grid for Race 2.
Race 1:
Bamber started the first race on the front row of the grid in 2nd position. Pole sitter Danny Formal got the jump off the start line, while Bamber slotted in behind him and the two built a gap ahead of their competitors who were behind them.
Formal soon started building a gap of over 1 second ahead of Bamber, who built his lead over pro-am racer Hindman.
Multiple drivers ran off the track, especially around turn 6, but they were all able to quickly recover and rejoin the race.
Twenty minutes in, Formal increased his lead over Bamber to an astonishing 6.2 seconds.
Just over halfway through the race, Bamber and Formal both went into the pits to switch to their co-drivers. When Elias De La Torre came out for Bamber, he was 8 seconds behind the number 1 car.
Once all of the drivers had pitted, the number 29 car still sat in second position, and De La Torre started bringing down the gap to first.
While De La Torre wasn’t able to get the gap down far enough, he successfully defended his position, securing second on the podium for himself and Bamber.
Race 2:
Starting in third, De La Torre ran beside Pershing at the start but wasn’t able to get ahead and sat just behind the Wayne Taylor Racing car.
Going into turn 3, Siderman spun out and hit Vasan, sending them both off the track. Vasan got slowed by the grass and just hit the wall on the side, while Siderman smashed the front of his Lamborghini, sending parts flying. Vasan moved further down the track before parking sideways in the gravel.
Chaos continued as car Hirshberg hit the wall before coming back across the track and t-boning Rocky Bolduc, sending them both across the grass and into the other wall. Bolduc was able to get himself into the pit, but no. Hirshberg had to have his car recovered by the crew.
A safety car was instantly called to get the multiple stuck vehicles off the track.
After 20 minutes, the race restarted. Eriksson was sitting in car no. 1 at the front, but had a jump start and got given a 10-second post penalty.
As soon as the pit opened, De La Torre came in, and Bamber took the driver’s seat of the Lamborghini.
When Pershing came out of the pits, he was in fourth and behind the Kiwi, who was now in second and just under six seconds behind Formal, who came back out in the lead.
Unfortunately for Bamber, the gap increased, and he finished just over 10 seconds behind Formal, officially finishing both races in 2nd place.
Header Image: TR3 Racing
