Earl Bamber Bio
Earl Anderson Bamber, born on 9 July 1990, is a New Zealand professional racing driver and racing team owner who currently competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship. He pilots a Cadillac V-Series.R for Cadillac Hertz Team Jota and Cadillac Whelen, serving as a factory driver for Corvette Racing after years in a factory role with Porsche. Bamber is best known as a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and a former FIA World Endurance Championship overall champion.
Beyond his endurance racing resume, Bamber built his reputation through Porsche’s one-make championship ladder in Asia and Europe, and later added major sportscar titles on both sides of the Atlantic. He remains one of the most successful Kiwi drivers in modern international motorsport.
Early Life and Background
Earl Bamber was born in Whanganui, New Zealand, to Paul Bamber and Maureen Bamber (née Johnson). He grew up on a farm in the small settlement of Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, where he learned to drive at a young age. Bamber attended Wanganui Collegiate School alongside his younger brother, William, and credits his rural upbringing with shaping his practical approach behind the wheel.
He began his motorsport journey in karting and won his first title at the age of 12 at the North Island Sprint Championships in the Junior 100cc Yamaha Restricted class. In 2004, he captured his first national title at the Sprint Kart Championship meeting in Auckland, then traveled to Portugal for the Rotax Max Grand Final, where he secured a podium result. These early karting successes laid the foundation for his move into single-seater racing.
Path to NASCAR
Although Bamber’s career has been built primarily in sportscar and endurance racing, his path also crossed into stock car competition through a NASCAR Xfinity Series appearance with Richard Childress Racing. The opportunity came in August 2020 at the Daytona road course, where he finished 33rd in the UNOH 188 after hitting a kerb on the backstretch chicane that sent his car airborne.
The connection to Richard Childress came through Bamber’s father, who had been a hunting partner with Childress in the 2000s. A planned three-race deal with RCR after oval testing with Ty Dillon never materialized. Bamber’s broader NASCAR story remains a brief chapter in an otherwise endurance-focused resume.
Earl Bamber Career
Early Career (2008–2012)
Bamber’s professional racing story began in single-seaters. He won the Asian Formula BMW title before picking up podiums, pole positions, and fastest laps in Formula Renault V6 and Australian Formula 3 on a tight budget. In 2008, he won two vice-championship trophies in Formula Renault V6 Asia and the Toyota Racing Series New Zealand, and was ranked sixth on driverdb.com’s list of future stars.
The following seasons brought more open-wheel experience, including A1 Grand Prix outings for New Zealand with three podium finishes in 2009 and a GP2 Asia podium at 19. He repeated as runner-up in the New Zealand Toyota Racing Series in 2010. These results opened the door to Porsche’s one-make ladder in Asia.
Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Breakthrough (2013–2014)
In 2013, Bamber made his debut in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia with Malaysian team Nexus Racing and won the drivers’ championship after a season-long battle with Martin Ragginger. He also won the Bathurst 12 Hour in Class B with Grove Racing, alongside Stephen Grove and Ben Barker, and closed the year with victory at the Macau Grand Prix Carrera Cup race, defeating nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb.
His Asia form earned him a Porsche Motorsport International Cup Scholarship shootout selection in Oschersleben, Germany, which he won, securing 200,000 Euros for his 2014 Porsche Supercup campaign. That year he raced with FACH Auto Tech in the Porsche Supercup, won the title with 155 points ahead of Kuba Giermaziak, and became both the first New Zealander and the first rookie to lift the Porsche Supercup crown. He also retained the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia title, winning eight of ten races.
Le Mans and WEC Era (2015–2017)
Prior to 2015, Bamber signed with Porsche Motorsport as a works driver. He opened the year with a seventh-place finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Jörg Bergmeister and Frédéric Makowiecki in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR. He then joined Formula One driver Nico Hülkenberg and teammate Nick Tandy in the No. 19 Porsche 919 Hybrid for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the trio won comfortably.
Bamber also claimed his first GTLM pole at Road America in his first qualifying attempt as a Porsche factory driver and made a guest appearance at the 6 Hours of Nürburgring. In 2017, he co-drove the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley, replacing the retired Mark Webber. The trio won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for a second time and captured the overall FIA World Endurance Championship crown. The Lady Wigram Trophy, awarded in 2008, recognized his earlier promise.
IMSA and Cadillac Era (2019–Present)
Bamber won the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the GTLM class in 2019 and added the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2023. For the 2023 World Endurance Championship season, he joined Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook in the Hypercar category with a Cadillac V-Series.R run by Chip Ganassi Racing. He now represents Cadillac Hertz Team Jota and Cadillac Whelen across IMSA and WEC, paired with Corvette Racing as his factory program.
Driving Style and Strengths
Bamber has shown rare versatility across prototypes and GT cars, racing LMP1, GTE-Pro, GTE-Am, and Hypercar machinery with success. He has produced strong qualifying pace, including a standout GTLM pole at Road America, and proven endurance race craft through double-stint stints at Le Mans. His comfort across multiple Porsche programs, and now Cadillac’s V-Series.R, highlights smooth adaptability and consistent race-long pace.
Notable Races and Milestones
Signature moments include his 2015 and 2017 Le Mans victories with Porsche, his 2019 IMSA GTLM title, and his 2023 Nürburgring 24 Hours win. His Macau Grand Prix Carrera Cup Asia victory over Sébastien Loeb stands out as an early-career milestone, along with his landmark Porsche Supercup title as both a Kiwi and a rookie.
Earl Bamber Career Wins
Earl Bamber has built a versatile, championship-winning record across endurance and one-make Porsche competition, highlighted by crowns at Le Mans, in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and in IMSA.
Endurance Racing Highlights
Bamber is a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 and 2017, both times driving Porsche 919 Hybrid prototypes with co-drivers who included Nick Tandy, Nico Hülkenberg, Timo Bernhard, and Brendon Hartley. He added the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship overall title with the same trio, the IMSA SportsCar Championship GTLM crown in 2019, and the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2023. He has also won the Bathurst 12 Hour in Class B.
Other Wins and Performances
Earlier in his career, Bamber won the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia title in 2013 and 2014 with Nexus Racing and a follow-on campaign, and the Porsche Supercup championship in 2014 with FACH Auto Tech. He was runner-up in the Toyota Racing Series New Zealand in 2008 and 2010, and finished on the podium three times in A1 Grand Prix for New Zealand.
Earl Bamber Family
Family Background and Racing Lineage
Bamber was raised by his father, Paul Bamber, and his mother, Maureen Bamber (née Johnson), on a farm in the small settlement of Jerusalem on the Whanganui River. His younger brother, William, attended Wanganui Collegiate School with him. His father’s relationship with Richard Childress later opened the door to Bamber’s NASCAR opportunity with Richard Childress Racing.
Personal Life
Bamber grew up around farming and outdoor life in Whanganui, an upbringing he has credited with teaching him practical, hands-on skills. His personal life beyond racing is not widely documented in public sources.
2025 Season Performance
The 2025 season keeps Bamber in the Hypercar category of the FIA World Endurance Championship with Cadillac Hertz Team Jota, while he continues his factory role with Corvette Racing in IMSA. He pairs Cadillac V-Series.R programs across both series, leveraging his experience across prototype and GT machinery to chase further championship contention.
Key targets include the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 12 Hours of Sebring, races at which Bamber has already enjoyed career-defining moments. The Cadillac factory effort remains in a growth phase, and Bamber’s feedback across stints is central to refining the V-Series.R’s pace across WEC and IMSA. Early results will be measured against expectations for a manufacturer pushing deeper into Hypercar competition.
With continuity at Cadillac and a settled seat at Corvette Racing, Bamber’s outlook for 2025 is built on long-run pace and championship consistency rather than one-off results. If Cadillac’s program continues its upward curve, Bamber will be positioned as one of the senior figures pushing the brand toward overall titles on both sides of the Atlantic.