MOTORSPORT: American jolt for Ambrose

Little Aussie fish swimming against NASCAR tsunami
NASCAR has delivered a stark reality check. And not just to the Australian driver Marcos Ambrose trying to make it in the big league of American stock car racing (and arguably the biggest race series in the world) but perhaps more so to those of us following Ambrose's progress from a distance.

Ambrose went into his American adventure with his eyes wide open and has not been under any misapprehension about how tough NASCAR's Sprint Cup is. But he, and those observing him, got a reminder at the weekend of just how enormous the task ahead of him is to succeed at the top level on America's oval tracks.

It's the toughest road to take in motorsport.

After his belated but nonetheless stunning Sprint Cup debut a week earlier on the Infineon Raceway road course at Sonoma in California, where he qualified seventh and ran as high as second before a gearbox breakage put him out, Ambrose failed to qualify on the 1.6km oval at Loudon, New Hampshire. His Wood Brothers Ford Fusion was 45th of 45 cars trying to make the field of 43.

Not a happy or satisfactory outcome for Ambrose or anyone connected with or following him.

Ambrose is the first to admit he still has a lot to learn about stock car racing, but we reckon the DNQ (did not qualify) at Loudon had more to do with the standard of the car he was given to drive than his driving ability. That is not to make excuses for him, but we have had concerns for a long time -- often stated here -- about the Wood Brothers team.

Eight of the 12 Sprint Cup rounds on Ambrose's schedule this season are with Wood Brothers; the other four with JTG Racing -- for which he is driving full-time in the second tier Nationwide Series. His next Cup outing, and first at that level with JTG, will be trying to qualify for the Allstate 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27.

JTG is a younger outfit than Wood Brothers, has historically been associated with the Woods but recently has been keen to operate more independently, and hopefully it can provide a brighter NASCAR future for Ambrose than the Woods.

JTG is headed by Tad Geschickter -- it is co-owned by Jodi and Tad Geschickter, hence JTG -- and here is a link to its website.

Ambrose's problem at Loudon was that it was the first time he had driven a Wood Brothers Fusion on an oval and, with just one practice session before qualifying, making the field was never going to be easy.

"It's really disappointing ... I just feel bad for the Wood Brothers," Ambrose said after missing out.

"I've had limited experience in the (NASCAR) Car of Tomorrow and we just didn't roll off the truck that great and I haven't had enough experience to really give them direction to tune it. I tried as hard as I could, but it just wasn't to be. Unfortunately I've got a hero to zero story I can tell (after the contrasts of Sonoma and Loudon)."

The Loudon race, stopped by rain after 284 of the scheduled 301 laps, produced an unexpected victory for Penske Dodge driver Kurt Busch, older brother of this year's series leader Kyle Busch. It was Kurt first win of the season and but eighth in the career of the 2004 Cup champion.

Fuel strategy worked in favor of the older Busch and denied Toyota driver Tony Stewart, the fastest driver in the race, of victory. Stewart wound up 13th while Michael Waltrip, who started at the rear of the field after a post-qualifying engine change, took second.

There were fireworks between Kyle Busch and Juan Pablo Montoya, the pair spinning each other just as the rain arrived. Montoya was given a two-lap penalty for rough driving, leaving him 32nd on the race classifications. Busch was listed as 25th and his championship lead over Jeff Burton, who was 12th at Loudon, shrank from 103 to 64 points.

Dale Earnhardt Junior -- reportedly booked to drive a Holden Commodore in the V8 development series at Oran Park's final round of the V8 Supercar Championship in early December (let's believe it when we see it) -- finished 24th at Loudon and held on to third position in the Cup standings.

Stewart won the Nationwide support race in New Hampshire -- his fifth victory from seven starts in that series this year, and the 11th for Joe Gibbs Racing in Nationwide this season (four of them by Kyle Busch, who also has won five Cup races).

Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch made it a Toyota trifecta in the Nationwide race, while Ambrose finished 14th -- which he called "reasonable" -- after starting 19th.

NASCAR now heads back to where the season began -- Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

NASCAR Sprint Cup standings after 17 of 36 rounds -- Kyle Busch 2496, Jeff Burton 2432, Dale Earnhardt Junior 2352, Carl Edwards 2262, Jimmie Johnson 2220, Jeff Gordon 2171, Denny Hamlin 2150, Greg Biffle 2119, Tony Stewart 2042, Kasey Kahne 2031, Clint Bowyer 2021, Kevin Harvick 2016. (Kurt Busch is 18th on 1794 points, Juan Pablo Montoya 20th on 1705, Robby Gordon 32nd, Sam Hornish Junior 33rd, A J Allmendinger 40th and Dario Franchitti 41st).

NASCAR Nationwide Series standings after 18 of 35 rounds -- Clint Bowyer 2649 points, David Reutimann 2467, Carl Edwards 2461, Brad Keselowski 2452, David Ragan 2351, Mike Bliss 2334, Kyle Busch 2263, Mike Wallace 2171, David Stremme 2089, Jason Keller 2048. (Marcos Ambrose is 13th on 1945 points and has won US$545,459 in the series this season).
 

Extracts of the stories ran in some other News Ltd papers around the country but not the graphics that accompanied the articles, so we'll precis the verdicts.

Which brings us to a very odd comment from series leader Mark Winterbottom among what we otherwise found to be an enlightening read: "Formula 1 drivers now want to come to us," Winterbottom said. "It (V8s) is turning into one of the most popular sports in the world. People are trying to come here more than we are trying to leave."

Now there's no doubting the V8 Supercars are a very popular show in Australia, but beyond that we think the rarified air up on those podiums must be getting to young Mr Winterbottom.

Where is the evidence of F1 drivers wanting to come to our V8 series? And where is the evidence of our domestic show becoming one of the most popular sports in the world.

Perhaps "Frosty" needs to read the fine print and understand that the 850 million bandied about is the potential reach, and that the actual viewership beyond Australia is perhaps somewhere between 1 and 2 million. Cool it, boy!

Briscoe was struck on a restart on the 79th lap that eventually became a four-car pileup. His Team Penske crew worked quickly to Briscoe's car back on the track but he said "it was pretty crazy out there" with nine caution periods for more than a third of the race.

Power lost control of his car when passed by Briscoe's teammmate Helio Castroneves early in the race and slammed into the wall.

Tony Kanaan, the 2004 Indy Racing League champion, won at Richmond for Andretti Green Racing as only 10 cars went the distance without damage. It was Kanaan's first victory of the season and his 13th in American open-wheeler racing.

The consistent Castroneves took second place, and New Zealand's Indianapolis 500 winner -- and series leader -- Scott Dixon was third, ahead of his Ganasssi teammate Dan Wheldon who ran out of fuel at the finish. Marco Andretti led much of the race but had to pit late for fuel and ended up ninth.

The transition racers from Champ Car are still struggling on the oval tracks, although Oriol Servia -- Power's KV Racing teammate -- and Justin Wilson, driving for Newman Haas Lanigan -- were fifth and seventh at Richmond, sandwiching Danica Patrick.

The series continues this weekend at the Watkins Glen road course that will suit Briscoe and Power.

IndyCar series standings: Scott Dixon (Ganassi Racing) 351 points, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 308, Dan Wheldon (Ganassi Racing) 299, Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green) 269, Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) 220, Hideki Mutoh (Andretti Green) 216, Marco Andretti (Andretti Green) 211, Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 210, Oriol Servia (KV Racing) 194, Ed Carpenter (Vision Racing) 185. (Will Power is 11th on 179 points).

Young Kiwi rocketing to prominence
We mentioned a while back that New Zealand has more top international open-wheeler prospects emerging than Australia -- in particular teenager Brendon Hartley.

Well, Hartley has bobbed up with two more wins in the British Formula 3 Championship at the Thruxton circuit. That gives him three wins in the series for the season and he led a Carlin Motorsport clean sweep of the podium in the second Thruxton race, narrowly heading home teammates Oliver Turvey, of Britain, and Jaime Alguersuari, of Spain.

Mexican Sergio Perez finished fourth and has a one-point lead in the championship over Alguersuari, 112-111, with Turvey third on 103 and Hartley on 102.

In the earlier Thruxton race Hartley beat Swede Marcus Ericsson and Turvey, while Australia's Sam Abay had his best race of the season as the fourth Carlin driver to finish fourth, 8.2 seconds behind the Kiwi.

The other Aussie in the series, John Martin, driving for Raikkonen Robertson Racing after representing Australia in most of the recently-completed third season of A1 GP, went around the outside of Hartley to take third place as they crossed the line early in the opening race, but Hartley -- who already enjoys Red Bull sponsorship -- soon regained the place.

Martin and Alguersuari later came into contact that sent the Aussie spinning off the track and he ended up only 17th. Martin was 7th and Abay 9th in the later race. Abay is 12th in the championship on 26 points and Martin 14th on 19 points.