R4 RACE – Ambrose dizzy over back-to-back wins
25/5/2003 18:40 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Fourth in the championship chase belies Marcos Ambrose’s complete command of the 2003 V8 Supercar series.
Ford’s brightest star took his second consecutive round victory, the first of his career, at Winton Raceway this afternoon, a “dizzying” performance over 300 taxing kilometres to repeat his win at Eastern Creek Raceway.
The pole-sitter left a trail of controversy in his wake to declare his championship favouritism, sharing the podium with ever-consistent Holden drivers Jason Bright and Steven Richards.
Bright retains his series lead from Richards, with Ambrose lurking 120 points behind.
"I guess you could say we did it the hard way, but we did it," Ambrose said, fighting back after the pit stop shuffle left him back in the pack.
After passing Craig Lowndes and Bright to regain the lead, Ambrose’s only drama was getting past the lapped Max Wilson on lap 50, which had the Brazilian in a spin.
"I felt pretty comfortable that I had not done anything illegal,” he said of the Wilson move.
"Our strategy was not the best, but we just knuckled down and got on with the job.
"The Pirtek Falcon was faultless, just brilliant. That was really a championship effort today – it has put us back in the race and given us a real sniff."
It was Greg Murphy again left fuming at the whim of race stewards, as his race was ruined by a drive-through penalty former racer and television commentator Neil Crompton described as the worst decision he’d ever seen.
Murphy appeared to shove the Falcon of Lowndes off the circuit at turn one, but replays showed it was Lowndes forced into braking early, leaving his former co-driver with nowhere to go.
Both Lowndes, who went on to finish tenth, and his Ford Performance Racing crew were making no excuses for Murphy (14th), leaving driving standards’ observer Colin Bond to hand down the costly penalty.
Crompton deplored Bond and his fellow stewards to “hang their heads in shame” in an incident sure to open old wounds between now and the next round at Barbagallo Raceway.
Garth Tander was left similarly heartbroken, but he only had his team to blame. The Garry Rogers Motorsport ace was running fourth when his fuel tank dried up with just a few laps remaining.
Bright used two safety car periods to time his compulsory pit stops with precision, but didn’t have the pace to match Ambrose in the final sprint.
“I didn’t bother trying to hold Marcos out and lose time, because he was obviously quicker than me,” Bright said. “We struggled with tyres through the middle part of the race so it was simply a matter of looking after the car.”
Bright’s teammate, Paul Weel was again impressive in finishing fifth, behind the Stone Brothers sister car of Russell Ingall. The result moves Ingall to third in the series standings, ahead of Ambrose.
Reigning champion Mark Skaife had another unproductive day, spinning out of contention to finish sixth.
And while he’s on the same points as Ambrose, there’s no doubt who the hottest property in V8 Supercar racing has become.
Race results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?25/05/2003.WIN.R10
V8 Supercar Championship Series standings:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?25/05/2003.WIN.V8S.S
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