For Marcos Ambrose, Watkins Glen Performance Equals Justification

[DebWilliams-GFN]

By Deb Williams

If Australian Marcos Ambrose ever needs justification for moving his family to the United States from Tasmania, all he has to do is point to August 2008 at Watkins Glen International.

In two days at the picturesque road course located at the southern tip of New York's Finger Lakes, the congenial Ambrose won a NASCAR Nationwide Series race and finished third in a Sprint Cup Series event.

The victory in the Zippo 200 Nationwide race not only moved the 31-year-old Ambrose into 10th in the driver standings, it also provided a severely needed electrical charge for JTG/Daugherty Racing. Formerly known as ST Motorsports, it was the team's first trip to victory lane since Aug. 23, 1996 when then driver Jeff Fuller won the Food City 250 at Bristol [Tenn.] Motor Speedway.

Ambrose's victory, however, didn't conclude his weekend of stellar performances. In the Centurion Boats at The Glen the following day, he started last in the 43-car Sprint Cup field and in 90 laps fought his way to a third-place finish. When the checkered flag finally waved after a 43-minute 5-second red flag for a nine-car crash, the series rookie had provided the legendary Wood Brothers team with its first top-five finish since August 2005 at Bristol. For the second straight day, Ambrose had provided a shining star to a team that desperately needed it.

However, for Ambrose, the two-day, top-five jaunt meant even more. The two-time Australian V8 Supercar champion was accustomed to winning -- first in karts, then in British Formula Fords and finally in the V8 Supercar Series, the equivalent to the United States Trans-Am Series. In fact, in the latter series, the father of two won 27 races. But when he decided to chase a NASCAR dream, Ambrose had to “eat a little humble pie” and “learn the craft.”

“It's a very different discipline, NASCAR racing, even on a road course,” Ambrose admitted. “The cars are very difficult to drive and set up. You have to be very aggressive the whole day. You've got to forget about getting a car to handle well; you've just got to race the heck out of it, and I did that.”

Unfortunately, most of Ambrose's family and friends didn't get to see his Nationwide victory because the race was televised on ABC and the folks in Tasmania didn't receive the telecast. His father was in the capital city where it was telecast, so he did witness his son's victory, but Ambrose said he would still have to “explain the race for the 25,000 people down there.”

“Every time I go home, or catch up on e-mails or whatever, they'll ask me why can't I win,” Ambrose said. “So, at least now I can say, 'I have won and just shut up.' I've come from a winning deal down home; big fish in a pretty small pond, to be honest with you, and I've come across and taken on the best in the business here in NASCAR. We've got the best open-wheel drivers competing here, we've got the best sports-car guys competing, and the best Cup guys [there were 20 Cup drivers in the Nationwide race].”

Yet, the good-natured Ambrose has never expected to be given anything.

“There's no miracle for me, there never has been,” Ambrose says. “No one's ever picked up the phone and given me the magical ride. I've had to do it the hard way.”

He hounded Nationwide team owners Tad and Jodi Geschickter until they gave him a ride, and at Watkins Glen he repaid them by becoming the first Australian to win a race in any of NASCAR's top three series.

“I've dragged my family a long way, away from immediate friends and family down home, and it's just a lot of commitments,” Ambrose says. “When you have a weekend like this, it just validates the choices that I've made to come across here and have a go at it.

“It's a big, bad world out here in NASCAR world, and I'm just pleased that I'm able to have a weekend like this to remember. When it's all said and done, I'll be able to go home, back to Tasmania, and tell them how good I was at Watkins Glen one year.”

A year that may signal only the beginning of NASCAR success for the smiling Aussie.

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