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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: Marcos Ambrose eyes Daytona glory
NASCAR is warming up for its 36-round Sprint Cup season, with Aussie Marcos Ambrose chasing oval-track glory, while NZ's version of the Car of the Future is making its racing debut.Friday Motorsport report
It’s go for NZ’s new V8 SuperTourers?The motorsport year goes up a gear this weekend, with the start of the NASCAR season - although not the Sprint Cup just yet – and New Zealand’s new V8 SuperTourer series kicking off.
Australia’s Marcos Ambrose is upbeat as he begins his second season with Richard Petty Motorsports in NASCAR – and the Daytona 500, the Great American Race, is his number one priority.
In Australia next week there will be the Bathurst 12-Hour and then the opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Adelaide on the first weekend of March.
While there’s plenty to look forward to, there also are a couple of negatives on the landscape. Network Ten has confirmed that its RPM show won’t be returning to its ONE digital channel this year, while the future of a V8 Supercar round in NZ beyond this year is looking dimmer.
NZ’s Newstalk ZB says it is increasingly likely that April’s Hamilton 400 will be the last across the Tasman, quoting V8 Supercar chairman Tony Cochrane saying that no other venue has stepped forward to replace the street event in the regional city. It quoted Cochrane saying that any replacement circuit would have to be confirmed by June.
Meanwhile, the shakey isles' new V8 SuperTourer championship gets underway this weekend at Hampton Downs, with 16 cars. They're similar to the Car of the Future to be introduced in Australia next year but with 400kW, 7.0-litre, small-block, all-aluminium control-spec engines from Performance Build Centre in the US.
Series drivers including Greg Murphy, Craig Baird and Cameron McConville.
The progress of these V8 SuperTourers will be closely watched and may have a major impact on the future of V8 Supercars in NZ. However, it’s hard to envisage the Australian-based series dropping out of the market and Cochrane and Co may yet have a card up the sleeve.
SPEEDWEEKS – PLURAL!
?Daytona’s Speedweeks get underway tonight, and Marcos Ambrose will be a starter in the weekend’s Shootout courtesy of his 19th place finish in last year’s Sprint Cup.
“Winning the Daytona 500 [on February 26] is the No.1 priority,” said Ambrose, who is eyeing his first oval-track victory in the big league of American stock car racing this year. I want to get up there and get after it," Ambrose said this week.
“There’s no reason why we [Richard Petty Motorsports, RPM] can’t win races [this year] and contend for The Chase [the competition for the title between the year’s top 12 drivers over the final 10 races].
“We want to get some more reliability and get our average finish up a little bit and, if we can do that, we’ll be right up there with the super teams," he stated.
Ambrose said notching his first Sprint Cup victory last year (at the Watkins Glen road course in upstate New York) had made a big impact on his career.
“I got paid more. I got more respect out there on the racetrack,” he said.
“It’s been great. I can’t for one second believe it could make such a difference, but it does. To win on the main stage is important, but I didn’t realise how important it really was.”
Checkout a transcript of Ambrose interview at Ford's NASCAR media day yesterday and watch nascar.com for more Daytona news over the next few days including the two midweek sprint races ahead of the 500.
Ambrose is one of only three drivers who will be having their first shootout start this weekend – the others are last year’s surprise young Daytona 500 victor, Trevor Bayne, and Penske Racing’s Brad Keselowski.
A good omen is that five drivers have won the Shootout at their first start – Buddy Baker, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Denny Hamlin.
What elite company that would be for Ambrose to join!
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Written byCarsales Staff
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