Home » Sports » V8 Supercar Racing » How The West Was Won

How The West Was Won

© Philip Northeast

Ford's Marcos Ambrose confirmed he is on a winning streak by winning his third round in a row at Western Australia's Barbagallo raceway, the first Ford driver to win three-straight since Glenn Seton in 1993.

The VB 300 is the first of four sprint rounds scheduled throughout the year, and the race format is three 100-kilometre races with mandatory tyre stops featuring in each race.

Ambrose laid the foundation for his win with good minor placings in the first two heats before winning the final heat on Sunday afternoon. This gave have enough points to win the round overall on what had been a bogey track for Ambrose.

Before the races Ambrose was apprehensive about his chances, "It is one of the only tracks in the world that I seem to struggle on constantly," Ambrose said.

"I have been there four times, twice in a Formula Ford and twice in a V8 Supercar and I am yet to get on the podium.

Following his victory on Sunday Ambrose said the car was awesome and that having great grip on a track where traditionally we could not find traction is testimony to where we are with the car.

"We are in the championship chase full on now and Ford fans have every right to feel that we can give it a serious shake," Ambrose said.

Greg Murphy brought his Holden home in third place overall after a good start on Saturday. He was fastest in the top 10 shootout to earn pole for the first heat held on Saturday afternoon.

Murphy made a good start and won the opening heat but he slowed towards the end of the race as the car's tyres started to go off. This was ominous sign for the rest of the weekend and on Sunday he could only manage a fourth and a third places.

"We weren't able to make out care a good race car unfortunately," Murphy said. "It was a bit of guess work really, but we just didn't have the pace of Marcos and Mark (Skaife), and we just didn't look after our tyres well enough.

"We came here this weekend to get some points and move forwards in the Championship, and we've certainly done that."

Consistent performances by Steven Richards and his Castrol Perkins Commodore were rerwareded with third spot despite a scare in the opening laps of the final race. Richards said he just ran a little deep into Turn 1 and got onto the dirty part of the track losing six spots.

The copyright of the article How The West Was Won in V8 Supercar Racing is owned by Philip Northeast. Permission to republish How The West Was Won in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.