New Zealander Reid Harker has finished on the podium in the Sepang 12 Hours over the weekend with his Earl Bamber Motorsport Giga Racing entry finishing third.
Harker partnered local drivers Adrian D’Silva and Nazim Azman to share the drive of a Porsche GT3 R with the trio running right in the mix up front until the dying stages.
Despite the name, the race ran for 8 hours with 13 competitors in its first return since 2016 following its cancellation due to lack of competitors in the years since.
Whilst the grid was still slim it didn’t prevent some great racing from taking place.
Absolute Racing were the first to cross the line to take race honours in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with drivers Markus Winkelhock, Yu Kuai and Andrew Haryanto taking the spoils.
Christopher Haase, Peter Kox, and Henk Kiks piloted their sister car to second place for an Absolute Racing one-two.
That left Harker, D’Silva abd Azman in third, Haase hunting down the Kiwi in the final 10 minutes to take second off the team.
All was still to play for as the timer ticked down, only 30 seconds separating the front three teams with 30 minutes remaining. While Harker went about trying to fend off a charge from the #26 entry, the #18 pulled further clear to finish 16 seconds up the road from the second-place getters with Harker a further 6 seconds behind.
There was also a solid result for fellow Kiwi Andre Heimgartner who drove for Australian team AMAC Racing with Andrew Macpherson and William Porter, also in a Porsche 911 GT3 R .
They too were involved in a late race battle for second spot in their class, Heimgartner coming through to clinch the position right as time ran out. That saw them finish second in the GT Am class and seventh overall.
All-in-all, it was a successful return for the highly anticipated event which saw clean racing, great weather and no Safety Car interventions through the entire eight hours.
Two Kiwis on the podium in their respective classes is an added benefit and hopefully one which continues as the Sepang 12 Hours continues to return to its original glory in the years ahead.
Images: Sepang 12 Hours
