SBR claims third home track win
5/7/2004 1:47 (Press Release) -
Stone Brothers Racing claimed its third consecutive win on its home track when Marcos Ambrose won the Queensland 300 at Queensland Raceway today.
Ambrose produced a dominating performance in his Pirtek Falcon and survived a couple of race re-starts to record his second round win of the season and extend his lead in the V8 Supercar Championship Series.
Ambrose’s SBR teammate Russell Ingall was running second to Ambrose with 29 laps remaining, but got caught out on some oil and ran wide at turn three before recovering to finish fourth.
David Besnard started SBR’s winning streak at QR when he won the Queensland 500 in 2002 and Ingall continued the trend in the number nine Caltex Havoline Falcon last year.
Ambrose now leads the championship on 1064 points from Steve Richards (1006) and Jason Bright (951) – ironically all three of these drivers had their first V8 Supercar victory in an SBR car.
There were three safety car periods during the race and when the last one came Ambrose had a 4.5-second lead.
He survived the re-start two laps later and managed to hold out Richards and Garth Tander to the chequered flag..
The result was an extra reason to celebrate for Ambrose, who got engaged to his long-time girlfriend Sonja Crawford last weekend.
“This is a great reward for the team, our sponsors and Ford,” said Ambrose.
“This is the third win in a row here for SBR and I am just glad I could finally notch one for the team.
“We have had to fight all weekend, but I always thought we could win it and we proved that.
“It was like a war zone out there. There were bumpers, oil, bits of car and crap everywhere.
“I really had to dig deep on that last re-start. I was giving it everything I had before that, but I had to drive the car faster.
“I really worked on the set-up of the car for the re-starts and it paid off.”
Ingall’s result today has elevated him one place in the championship to sixth on 808 points – just three behind Greg Murphy, who failed to finish after a first turn accident, which also claimed fellow championship outsider John Bowe.
“We were reasonably quick most of the weekend, but never 100 per cent,” said Ingall.
“I got caught on some slippery stuff at turn three and that cost us a couple of spots.
“We did not have the car speed to catch the guys in front of us after the last re-start.
“It is good to get some solid points and to move up a place in the championship.
“We now have “Murph” in our sights and hopefully we can pick him off at the next round at Winton.
“The crew did a good job on the stops. It was amazing how much rubbish and debris was on the track as the race unfolded.”
Ingall is in for a busy week with his wife Julia expected to have their second child on the Gold Coast tomorrow.
* The next round of the championship will be at Winton Motor Raceway on July 23-25.
RESULTS
1: Marcos Ambrose (Ford) - 90 Laps
2: Steven Richards (Holden)
3: Garth Tander (Holden)
4: Russell Ingall (Ford)
5: Jason Bright (Holden)
6: Paul Radisich (Ford)
7: Paul Dumbrell (Holden)
8: Tony Longhurst (Holden)
9: Todd Kelly (Holden)
10: Cameron McConville (Holden)
11: Anthony Tratt (Holden)
12: Brad Jones (Ford)
13: Glenn Seton (Ford)
14: Max Wilson (Ford) – 89 laps
15: Warren Luff (Ford)
16: Rick Kelly (Holden)
17: Craig Baird (Holden)
18: Neil McFadyen (Holden)
19: David Besnard (Ford)
20: Mark Noske (Ford) – 88 laps
21: Mark Winterbottom (Ford) – 87 laps
22: Garth Walden (Ford) – 84 laps
23: Paul Morris (Holden) – 74 laps
24: Steven Johnson (Ford) – 70 laps
25: Jason Bargwanna (Ford) – 68 laps
DNF Simon Wills (Holden) – 65 laps
DNF Mark Skaife (Holden) =9! 6 46 laps
DNF Craig Lowndes (Ford) – 39 laps
DNF Jason Richards (Holden) – 38 laps
DNF Greg Murphy (Holden) – 31 laps
DNF Paul Weel (Holden) – 1 lap
DNF John Bowe (Ford)
DNF Dale Brede (Holden)
DNF Steve Ellery (Ford)
ROUND 6 POINTS
1: Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 192
2: Steve Richards (Holden) 186
3: Garth Tander (Holden) 180
4: Russell Ingall (Ford) 174
5: Jason Bright (Holden) 168
6: Paul Radisich (Ford) 162
7: Paul Dumbrell (Holden) 156
8: Tony Longhurst (Holden) 150
9: Todd Kelly (Holden) 144
10: Cameron McConville 138
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (After 6 of 13)
1: Marcos Ambrose (Ford) 1064
2: Steve Richards (Holden) 1006
3: Jason Bright (Holden) 951
4: Rick Kelly (Holden) 924
5: Greg Murphy (Holden) 811
6: Russell Ingall (Ford) 808
7: Garth Tander (Holden) 780
8: Todd Kelly (Holden) 741
9: John Bowe (Ford) 638
10: Steve Johnson (Ford) 597
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