Earl Bamber Motorsport, the GT racing team co-owned by, and named for, two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Earl Bamber, has announced its intention to contest the 2020 GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS series with a pair of Porsche 911 GT3 Rs.
EBM has spent two years competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series alongside selected outings elsewhere. In 2019 the team took a memorable victory at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Matt Cambell, Dennis Olsen and Dirk Werner finishing ahead of R-Motorsport’s #62 Aston Martin and Mercedes-AMG Team MANN FILTER GruppeM racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Setiawan Santoso and Brenton Grove will the form the driving partnership in the first of the entries while Piti Bhirombhakdi and team owner Will Bamber will pilot the second Porsche GT3 R.
50-year-old Indonesian pilot Setiawan Santoso made his racing debut in 2019, finishing third in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia GT4 category, driving the #111 Team iRace.Win Mercedes-AMG GT4, alongside teammate Ringo Chong. 2020 driving partner, 22-year-old Brenton Grove from Melbourne began racing in 2017. Grove’s 2020 season has got off to a flying start when, alongside teammates Stephen Grove and Ben Barker, the Melbourne driver won the Pro-Am category at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
Thai Piti Bhirombhakdi, now in his twelfth racing season, finished eighth in the 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia GT3 Pro-Am class. Bhirombhakdi has extensive sportscar experience, having first competed in GT3 machinery in 2014.
Brenton Grove is looking forward to the season ahead.
“It’s really exciting to be joining Setiawan and EBM for this year’s GTWCA season,” said Grove. “EBM have proven their credentials in international GT racing, so to join them in a Porsche 911 GT3 R will be a great experience. Hopefully I am able to pass on some of ,y experience with the 911 GT3 R, share some insights to help him with his progression and try and claim some strong results for the team.
Team owner Will Bamber is excited about the challenges ahead for EBM.
“It has been a massive off-season for the entire EBM organisation and I am extremely proud of this announcement for everyone involved – I cannot wait to roll out our cars for Round One,” said Bamber. “We did some early testing last year in November and Piti and I gelled immediately. He was straight on tbhe pace with the Porsche 911 GT3 R.
“The working relationship is already fantastic and we will be pushing to achieve the maximum every weekend together.”
The 2020 GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS season gets underway at Sepang on March 28 – 29.
