MOTORSPORT: Ambrose glory – now for oval win

Dual V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose has won for the second time in America's NASCAR Sprint Cup, while Red Bull is set to be WRC's new promoter, and Aussie interest in the failed A1 GP's assets.

Monday motorsport report
August 13, 2012

Aussie does it again at Glen for ‘The King’ and Ford

Australia’s Marcos Ambrose has confirmed himself as the finest road racer in America’s NASCAR, winning the Sprint Cup round at New York’s famous Watkins Glen for the second year.

Driving a Ford Fusion for Richard ‘The King’ Petty, Ambrose again won a last-lap slugfest at the Glen with the Dodge of Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski.

The Tasmanian, V8 Supercar champion in 2003 and ’04, has finished on the podium in all five of his Sprint Cup races at the former home of the United States Grand Prix.

He also won three times there in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.

Today’s race was the 141st Cup start for Ambrose, who will turn 36 on September 1, and again emphasised the enormity of his achievement in American stock car racing, especially in comparison with other road racing specialists Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve – both Formula One race winners, and in the latter case a world champion.

Colombian Montoya had pole position at the Glen but only went two-thirds of the race distance in his Toyota, while Canadian Villeneuve is only a part-time Nationwide driver, unable to secure a Sprint Cup slot, and is dabbling in Australia’s V8 Supercars now hoping to get a full-time drive next year.

Ambrose’s success also has left in the shade the NASCAR careers of IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 champions Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Junior and the darling of American racing, Danica Patrick.

However, Ambrose still needs to win a Cup race on an oval track to achieve full recognition in NASCAR circles.

Today he went from third to first on the last lap of the Finger Lakes 355 on the oily 3.92km Watkins Glen circuit, making his decisive grab for victory at the final corner.

“It was just absolutely crazy at the end,” Ambrose said. “I shot back up on the inside of Brad (Keselowski, a three-time race winner this season) in turn seven (the last corner) and put him on the oil – and snapped through for the win,” Ambrose said.

Keselowski had taken the lead at turn two on the last lap after bumping Kyle Busch’s Toyota into a spin as both slid on invisible oil.

Ambrose then caught Keselowski and they battled side-by-side, including across grass.

As Keselowski got wide on the oil in the last corner Ambrose snuck his Ford by to take the chequered flag 0.571 seconds clear of the Dodge, with Jimmie Johnson third in a Chevrolet.

“We had the three fastest cars duking it out for the win – the way it should be,” Ambrose said.

And Keselowski, fifth in the championship with a big chance of delivering Dodge a title before its exits NASCAR as Penske switches to Fords next year, said: “It just came down to who was going to slip up last – and I did.

“He (Ambrose) got by me and won the race, but a good show … good beating and banging … the way racing's supposed to be.

“Just real proud of that race, proud that there is a class-act guy like Marcos that can race that way without losing his cool and intentionally wrecking somebody. That's really cool.”

Ambrose’s victory is his first top-five finish of the year and he became the 14th winner in 22 Cup rounds so far this season.

It was the third Ford victory in the Cup this year, after a 14-race losing streak.

Ambrose led seven laps earlier in the race before his scintillating last-lap thrust to victory, which hoisted him a place to 17th in the championship.

Five-time series champion Johnson has taken the points lead for the first time this season ¬– one point ahead of Ford driver Greg Biffle, who was sixth today.

Clint Bowyer was fourth in a Toyota and Hornish fifth in the second Penske Dodge he has taken over from AJ Allmendinger, who was ousted recently after a positive drug test.

Kyle Busch recovered to be seventh, while Matt Kenseth – who is leaving Ford, seemingly headed for Joe Gibbs’ Toyota team next season – was eighth and is just two points behind Johnson in the championship.

Reigning series champion Tony Stewart overcame a rear-of-field penalty for dragging a fuel can on a pitstop to get as high as second but spun late in the race and wound up 19th.

A late spin also dropped recent series leader Dale Earnhardt Junior to 28th at the Glen and he is now fourth in the standings – 17 points behind Johnson.

Red Bull to be World Rally Championship promoter

Already the sponsor of Formula One’s world champion team and set to replace Vodafone on Australia’s top V8 Supercars of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, Red Bull is now poised to become the promoter of the World Rally Championship next year.

Autosport.com has reported that motorsport’s world governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), has decided on an entity called Red Bull Media House ahead of a South African bidder and Eurosport as its new promoter.

The WRC has been without a promoter this season after Britain’s North One Sport was dumped once its Russian-owned parent company CSI went into administration. The WRC’s dominant manufacturer team Citroen already is sponsored by Red Bull.

“I think [Red Bull] Media House promoting the championship would be a good thing, but it would be different from Red Bull, which is our team sponsor,” Citroen team boss Yves Matton said.

“When they [Red Bull] do something they do it properly and they don’t just want to make a good name with the promotion.

“If they choose to invest in the WRC then it’s because they want to make a proper job, otherwise they would not even attempt to do it.”

Aussie interest in failed A1 GP’s asset

Two bids, one of them reportedly with Australian involvement, have been made for the assets of the infamous A1GP World Cup of Motorsport which collapsed when it could not show up on the Gold Coast in 2009.

Griffins Insolvency Partners in Britain confirmed the two bids for the fleet of open-wheelers – presumably without the engines owned by Ferrari – to Autosport.com.

That site reported that both bidders “are known to be looking to use the cars to revive a series that went bust in the wake of its fourth season”.

It said one of the bidders “is a group working to relaunch the championship under the A10 World Series banner”, adding curiously: “Autosport understands that this bid has now received backing from Australia.”

“The second bidder, believed to be based in the Netherlands, wants to revive the A1 GP idea as the A1 World Cup,” it said.

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MOTORSPORT: Ambrose glory – now for oval win

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