NASCAR Busch: Marcos Ambrose
Who is This Busch Series Rookie From Australia?
Ambrose may be new to NASCAR and oval tracks but he has wealth of racing experience in Australia and Europe and the dual V8 Supercar champion knows how to win.
Marcos Ambrose left Australia in 2006 as one of the stars of Australian V8 Supercar racing to try to make it in the tough world of NASCAR.
Ambrose does have one friend in the United States, the Ford Motor Company’s racing division. Ambrose earned their support by breaking the General Motors dominance of Australian V8 racing with two drivers’ titles in 2003 and 2004 driving a Ford Falcon.
Ambrose started racing in go-karts before moving to Australian Formula Ford and then to European Formula Ford racing. Marcos followed the footsteps of his father, Ross, who had made the pilgrimage to Europe as a driver and ended up starting Van Dieman cars, a major Formula Ford constructor based in England before selling up and returning to Australia.
Money and opportunity were problems for Ambrose in Europe, where he paid for his drive while the teams concentrated on other young hopefuls, such as Dan Wheldon, Anthony Davidson and Kimi Raikkonen. On track performances turned things around for Ambrose and he finally accepted the offer of a free drive for the Van Dieman team. Ambrose and Van Dieman dominated the 1999 European Formula Ford series.
However, the move to spearhead the French Mygale factory’s move into Formula 3 proved to be the wrong choice and Ambrose returned to Australia looking for a drive.
Stone Brothers Racing signed him to race their Pirtek Ford Falcon in the V8 Supercar series for 2001, without even a test drive or any serious sedan racing experience. Their faith was quickly rewarded when Ambrose qualified on pole position at the first event of the season at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix meeting. Ironically, one of his rivals from Formula Ford, Jenson Button, was also making his F1 debut.
Ambrose won his first V8 race meeting that year in Darwin. Ford in their search for a young hero driver signed General Motor’s star Craig Lowndes for 2001. Ambrose’s performances soon earned him a Ford contract. Lowndes and Ambrose formed a double act in Ford’s publicity campaign. Ambrose repaid Ford’s faith by winning the championship in 2003 and 2004 with the new BA model Falcon.
After reaching the top in Australia Ambrose then set his sights overseas again. Having failed to make it in the cutthroat world of European open wheel racing Ambrose turned to NASCAR. Ambrose’s experience with V8 Supercars is relevant as they have similar weight and power to the NASCAR machines. As Ambrose had never raced on an oval in his life, he knew it would not be easy.
This time Ambrose would not be the poor relation, shunted the far end of the garage. With support from a major player in NASCAR, Ford, Ambrose settled on medium size team JTG/Wood Brothers. Ambrose had learnt the hard way that team choice is important.
Ambrose began in 2006 in the Craftsman truck series, with the Nextel Cup as a long-term goal. Ambrose’s tactics for the year were to stay out of trouble and gain as much racing experience as possible. Ambrose ended the year as one of the top rookies, with highlights of a front row qualifying effort and a third place finish.
In 2007, Ambrose moved to NASCAR’s Busch series where he continues to learn about oval racing. He did provide a glimpse of his ability on the Busch road race in Mexico City where he comfortably ran inside the top ten all day.
Ambrose is scheduled to make his Nextel Cup debut on the road courses this year, do not be surprised if you see an Aussie rookie near the front at Watkins Glen, Infineon or Toronto.
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