Home » Sports » V8 Supercar Racing » NASCAR next step for Ambrose

NASCAR next step for Ambrose

© Philip Northeast

Marcos Ambrose surprised Australian motor sport fans with the announcement at the Melbourne Grand Prix meeting that next year he is to try his luck in NASCAR .

Ambrose plans to test with a tier one Ford NASCAR Busch team soon with more test as the 2005 V8 Supercar allows, according to John Szymanski, Director, Sponsor Development, Ford Racing Technology. His aim is to be first Aussie since Geoff Brabham in 1994 to drive a in the top level Cup series.

This is a big gamble for Ambrose to leave V8 Supercars as a top driver and virtually start from the bottom again in another country in a very different form of motor racing. He will be up against drivers who specialists in this peculiarly American form of motor sport and who have honed their limited sets of skills to a very fine edge.

One of Ambrose's main rivals in the Supercar circus, Mark Skaife, suggests that, "On the road courses in NASCAR Marcos will absolutely 'hose' them and I have no doubt he has the ability to do well on the Ovals."

A review of Ambrose's career should shed some light on his abilities to cope with this new challenge. He started sprint karting at the age of nine and ended up Australian senior Clubman Heavy Champion. This meant many years of close hard racing and all the starts are double file rolling starts, just like NASCAR.

Ambrose then progressed to Formula Ford and in only his second year of circuit racing was just beaten by current V8 supercar star Garth Tander for the national championship. Ambrose then attempted to break into the tough school of European road racing. He found he could take on and beat the other up and coming stars such as current Formula One aces Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen but lacked the financial support for top notch equipment. Ambrose's main sponsor was his father Ross and his Tasmanian Leisure Inns business, hardly comparable to another contemporary and now Formula One driver Takuman Sato who had the backing of Honda in the junior categories in England.

As well as honing his driving skills Ambrose learnt how to race against hard chargers who were not worried about the cost of repairing their cars. He has had to temper his the aggressive style he developed in Europe on his return to Australia after a lot of early visits with race officials. But reputations and hard driving do not bother him and he will need this in the intense close racing of NASCAR, particularly in the short track ovals such as Bristol where contact and panel rubbing is normal.

The copyright of the article NASCAR next step for Ambrose in V8 Supercar Racing is owned by Philip Northeast. Permission to republish NASCAR next step for Ambrose in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.