MOTORSPORT: Ambrose's hour cometh in NASCAR

The 22nd round of America's biggest stock car series is at Watkins Glen, the road course in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The NASCARs race on a shortened version -- 3.92km, with only seven turns -- of the famous circuit which decades ago hosted the US Formula One Grand Prix. It's a track that Ambrose has done very well at in the past; one that he likes, and the circuit in the series to which he is best suited. Ambrose is now in his sixth season in America and his third full-time in the Sprint Cup.

In seven previous starts at Watkins Glen Ambrose has had three wins in the second tier Nationwide Series and three podiums in Cup races -- two thirds and a second. Some years he has driven in both Nationwide and Cup races there on the same weekend. Ambrose's recent results driving a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports this season have not been great and he languishes 23rd in the championship. Even if he wins this weekend he has little chance of making The Chase -- or what the Americans call "the playoffs" between the top dozen drivers over the final 10 rounds for the title.

Ambrose would probably need to win two of the next five races and be in the top 20 in points to have any chance of scoring one of the two wildcards for The Chase. But, first -- with 104 Cup starts under his belt now -- the Tasmanian-born dual Australian V8 Supercar champion needs that breakthrough win.

Watkins Glen is the most likely place for him to achieve it. "We need a win," Ambrose said this week... Watkins Glen suits my style. We've got a great chance this weekend ... and we've got to make the most of it."

Many NASCAR commentators have been anticipating Ambrose breaking his duck this season -- and it has always been most likely to happen on a road course. He infamously squandered a victory 14 months ago -- stalling while trying to conserve fuel in the Toyota he was then driving -- on the other road course in the series, Sonoma in California, and could not atone for that when NASCAR went back there several weeks ago.

Watkins Glen is a much quicker circuit than Infineon Raceway at Sonoma, with the average speed 48km/h faster, and Ambrose much prefers it to the Californian track.

The 21 Cup rounds so far this season have produced 14 different winners, including four first-time victors. Kenny Bruce, a correspondent for the publication SceneDaily that covers NASCAR avidly, wrote this week: "It's put up or shut up time for Ambrose." Bruce's colleague Kris Johnson wrote: "It's time for him to bag a win."

A story by the Associated Press wire service this week said: "It's been an erratic season for the No. 9 Ford (Ambrose's car), which has posted a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a third at Dover International Speedway but has been outside the top 20 in seven of the past nine races.

"The slump has dropped Ambrose from 17th to 23rd in points. Only drivers 11th to 20th in points after the September 10 race at Richmond International Raceway are eligible for The Chase's two wildcards. It's his (Ambrose's) oval struggles that likely will preclude him from making The Chase even if he were to break through Sunday with his first win in NASCAR's premier series."

That report also touched on Ambrose's inconsistency on the ovals on which NASCAR predominantly runs. "Why can't I be as consistent as I want on the ovals? That's a question I'm trying to answer," Ambrose told AP. "There are weekends that I feel like I'm on the right track. The next week it smacks you in the face like a stump mallet."

Nascar.com this week assessed Ambrose the road racer and his prospects for Watkins Glen. It said he "did not live up to the hype at Infineon (in late June) and never challenged for the win".

"But he has been as close to perfect at The Glen as a driver can be without winning," it said. "In his inaugural attempt on this track in 2008 he was forced to charge from the back after qualification was rained out and yet he finished third.

"Ambrose followed that up with a second in 2009 and a third last year, which makes him the only driver in the field with three consecutive top-fives (at Watkins Glen)... Combining Infineon, his worst finish in the past six road course races has been a sixth. That makes him a good value (selection) regardless of where he starts."

Of the two road courses, Ambrose said: "Sonoma is like a rock 'n' roll concert and Watkins Glen is like the opera. You've got to be really flowing and smooth at Watkins Glen and carry a lot of momentum and a lot of speed. Sonoma is just about pounding curves and abusing the car to get around the place, so I think Watkins Glen suits my style.

"I've got a good feel for the place, but the speed really sorts out the field. Anyone can bust off a lap, but can you do it for 10 laps in a row? That's what really spreads the field out there is the ability to look out for your tyres, yet carry the momentum."

Ambrose wished NASCAR would use the full 11-turn, 5.44km Watkins Glen circuit. "It's a famous road course (and) I'd love to run the full track, just because it's got more character and more corners -- and it's the old F1 track. But the course we run is a lot of fun. It rates up there as far as exhilaration, for sure."

While Ambrose is among the favourites this weekend -- along with Juan Pablo Montoya, last year's winner at The Glen, and Tony Stewart, a five-time victor there but without a win this season -- he quite rightly said, with the experience of almost six hard years in America behind him, that "there are no guarantees of success".

"We just have to apply ourselves," he said. "We need to get our momentum back and I think this weekend is going to turn our luck around. We've got what I think is a really good car. We've tested for the track and we feel good about it. There's not much we can do aside from putting our best foot forward. It's been good to me in the past. I know what I need to feel to run fast. I'm optimistic and confident."

The Ten Network's One HD and the Speed channel on Foxtel will televise the 90-lap, 350km race live at 2am Monday, Australian eastern time.
 

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