MOTORSPORT: Ambrose wins – at last!

Special Tuesday motorsport report-
August 16, 2011

One Helluva victory at the famed Watkins Glen
Marcos Ambrose knew it was his time to win, and he made sure of it. The 22nd round of NASCAR's Sprint Cup at the famous Watkins Glen track in upstate New York had been delayed a day by rain.

As only America could, the race was called the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen, and it was the 105th Cup start for the Tasmanian-born V8 Supercar champion of 2003 and '04. And he wasn't accepting anything less than victory this time.

A brilliant victory it was too -- a helluva victory in the roughest and toughest racing on bitumen. Check out the video below for Ambrose in action (and a very big crash).

Ambrose became the fifth first-time winner this season in the Sprint Cup, which on some scores is the world's biggest motorsport series even though all its races are in America. Ambrose is the 15th different winner this year and the 77th driver to win a Cup race in a Ford.

It was Ford's sixth victory of the season, its third by a first-time winner – after 20-year Trevor Bayne in the Daytona 500 and David Ragan on the second visit to the famed Florida superspeedway - but it was the Blue Oval's first Cup win on a road course since 1996.

Fittingly, Ambrose is the son of a former racer, Ross, who was a founder of Van Diemen, the constructor for so long dominant in the world of Formula Ford racing around the world.

Kyle Busch, a superstar of the Sprint Cup, had led more than half of the race but got wide on a corner immediately after the final restart and, as he came back on line, Ambrose gave him no quarter.

In the meantime Brad Keselowski, winner the previous week at Pocono despite a swollen ankle and sore back and still suffering from those injuries, had snuck through into the lead but Ambrose soon muscled past him.

Keselowski knew the Aussie was the better man and had no hesitation admitting it post-race.

"I don't think racing gets any better than that on a road course. Two passes for the lead [after the final restart]... It was pretty awesome to watch and cool to be a part of," Keselowski said.

The race had to go two laps longer than the scheduled 90, but the outcome – at almost 3am, eastern Australian time – was worth the wait. However, for all the hoopla in NASCAR, the celebrations seemed a little flat. They came nowhere near the delight – especially by the driver - when Mark Webber notched his first Formula One win two years ago.

Perhaps it was just the American TV presentation, perhaps it was partly that it was a foreigner winning in the USA, but most of all it was probably that the man Ambrose now drives for, Richard Petty (the greatest of all NASCAR racers and known as "The King"), was not present.

Petty was at home in North Carolina with his sick wife, Linda.

Ambrose dedicated the victory to her, but the glory was Ambrose's and the enormity of his achievement cannot be under-estimated. To have succeeded in NASCAR, after giving up the security he had in V8 Supercar racing and making his American debut (in NASCAR's third-tier pick-up truck series on April Fool's Day 2006) is a Herculean accomplishment.

There had been Ambrose victories before in NASCAR's secondary Nationwide Series – three of them at Watkins Glen – and Cup podiums at this spiritual home of road racing in the US. But a Cup triumph had eluded him, most notoriously on the other road course in the series – Sonoma, or Infineon Raceway, in California – 14 months ago when he stalled trying to conserve fuel and squandered what was going to be the big breakthrough.

While he has always played down that miscue, Ambrose admitted today that the word "choke" had been in the back of his mind since.

But there was no need to dwell on the past; this was all about his conquest.

"I've sacrificed so much to get here and to finally win and be here in Victory Lane in the Cup Series is a dream come true," Ambrose said.

"I've traveled halfway around the world and dragged my wife [Sonja] and kids [daughters Tabitha and Adelaide] with me. I kept telling them I was pretty good, but until you can win [in the Sprint Cup] you can't really put that stamp on it.

"I flew the kids home yesterday [after the race was delayed a day] -- it was the little one's first day at school. I was desperate to be there for her [Adelaide] and this kind of makes up for it… I didn't get to take her to school. I might be able to pick her up with a big cheque!

"I've just got to thank the Richard Petty Motorsports team, [sponsors] Stanley and DeWalt, everybody involved. Mrs Petty is not doing so well at home. We wish her the best. This win is for her and the whole Petty family.

"Richard and everyone else who gave me the chance [after he opted out of his previous team, JTG Daugherty Racing], thank you very much. For me to drive for Richard Petty in the first place is an unbelievable opportunity… They plucked me out of obscurity almost.

"There were days, weeks when I was anxious [about the possible collapse of the Petty team last year]. There were times I was sitting around the boardroom table and there was nobody else there. But you've got to roll the dice sometimes."

Of the race itself, Ambrose said: "I was trying to pass the 18 [Toyota of Kyle Busch] before the caution came out and really used my stuff [tyres and fuel] up, so I was happy when the caution came out.

"I didn't want to [re]start on the outside, so I actually gave up the start trying to get to the inside, but when I realised that wasn't gonna work I just turned up into Turn One and tried to make something happen.

"I spoke to Brad Keselowski last night. We had a chat for about a half-hour just shooting the breeze and talking about how hard it is to get to Victory Lane and there I was racing him for the win. I'm pleased we did it clean, but I was gonna get to Victory Lane. I wasn't gonna let that 2 [Keselowski's Penske Racing Dodge] beat me to the chequered flag.

"We had a really good combination of balance… I was able to look after the rear tyres, but it's tough out there, it really is. It's a real fight to the death."

Indeed, it was a miracle there weren't serious injuries, even deaths, in today's race. Denny Hamlin ran straight on at Turn One after a mechanical failure and slammed head-on into a tyre barrier. On the last lap David Reutimann and David Ragan crashed violently too.

Boris Said, who only drives occasional Cup races but is supposedly a road course specialist and will partner Steve Owen in a Paul Morris Motorsport Holden Commodore at the Gold Coast 600 in October, triggered that mayhem. Said ended the day threatening to find the home of Ragan's teammate Greg Biffle and give him "a whupping".

It was clear, though, that Watkins Glen has safety issues – and the circuit was quick to offer to address them.

Ambrose, though, had "no complaints about this place".

"I think it's a safe racetrack. We're just driving these cars flat out, and it creates problems. I think the track is a classic road-racing circuit. You don't want to make it too sterile. You've got to have bumps and lumps and change of camber and roughness and all that kind of stuff that makes it what it is."

While he is now a winner in the Sprint Cup, the big challenge for Ambrose is to repeat his success on the ovals that are predominant in the series.

To have any chance of gaining one of the two wildcards for The Chase – the "play-offs" with the top 10 drivers for the Cup crown over the final 10 rounds – Ambrose will need at least another win in the next month. The history he made today only moved him up one place in the championship to 22nd, while Keselowski is better placed and Busch is now the joint series leader with Ford's No1 man, Carl Edwards.

Ambrose's crew chief, Todd Parrott, who has now been part of 29 Cup victories [six years after the 28th], has given the Aussie confidence that he can win on the ovals.

"We've been good on ovals this year," Parrott said.

"We've had some great runs this year and chances to win at a couple of other racetracks. But I think, as Marcos has said, getting this win and getting all the load off his shoulders is going to help him mentally now. And I think it will help us as a team, knowing that we can win."

I told Marcos [from the outset with Richard Petty Motorsports] just to be patient. That's the thing about this sport: if you're patient and you keep working hard, sooner or later you'll be able to celebrate the fruits [of victory].

"He's kept his head down and worked hard, just like our whole team has, and it's a pleasure to work with a guy like that. We can go out with all the great drivers that are in this sport and now we know we can win."