R1 RACE 1 – Ambrose halfway to dream series start
22/3/2003 22:26 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Ford has drawn first blood in the 2003 V8 Supercar championship, as Marcos Ambrose extended his race-winning streak that began in December with victory on the streets of Adelaide today.
It was the encouraging early signs Ford fans wanted to see: their main man driving the fledgling BA Falcon to a convincing win over the testing 250km distance ahead of the Mark Skaife-led Holden brigade.
Skaife finished second in the Holden Racing Team’s new VY Commodore, ahead of pole-sitting Team Brock driver Jason Bright.
It is only the second time the Holden Racing Team has been beaten at the five-year-old event.
Most encouraging was the way in which Ambrose won. Slick work in pitlane by the Stone Brothers Racing crew during two compulsory stops for tyres and fuel put him in the lead, and Ambrose’s lap record-breaking pace on fading tyres towards the end of the 78-lap race saw him draw away from the Holden duo.
A jubilant Ambrose mounted the pit wall to salute the record crowd of more than 67,000 after the race.
"There is no doubt that it is a great day," said Ambrose, who took a clean sweep of three race wins at the final event of last year at Sandown Raceway.
"The car was fantastic considering it is so new and all credit goes to the SBR boys for putting together such a great car – not to mention the [pit] stops today.”
Already, Ambrose hailed the new BA as a better car than last year’s AU-model Ford.
Skaife fought fiercely with his former teammate throughout the race, but Bright’s chances ended with a costly spin mid-race.
Skaife was encouraged by the performance of his new car, too.
“There is no doubt it is a much better balanced car than we had at the Grand Prix,” he said, “but it is still not flowing well and we’ve got to work on that.”
Bright said he was trying to wave through a lapped Greg Murphy when his car slipped out from under him. “We were lucky it went in square and bounced back out,” he said.
Skaife’s teammate Todd Kelly brought his VY Commodore home in fifth, behind Perkins Motorsport’s Steven Richards.
Of the other factory Holdens, the younger of the Kelly gang, 20-year-old Rick finished ninth in the Kmart Racing VX, while his frustrated teammate Murphy salvaged some points in tenth despite no less than three drive-through penalties – the first for jumping the start and the following two for speeding in pitlane.
Dick Johnson Racing's Steven Johnson was the second Ford home in sixth, a solid result for a team on the comeback trail.
Russell Ingall muscled the Stone Brothers Racing sister BA home in seventh, fighting with heavy traffic and heavier steering.
“By the end of the race it felt like I had no power steering at all,” he said. “I was having a problem getting though a few corners.”
Ingall was involved in one of few altercations (the safety car was only called on once to remove Rodney Forbes’ beached Falcon), clashing with John Bowe at the final turn.
Ford Performance Racing’s humbling series debut continued, with Craig Lowndes’ BA expiring with an oil leak. Teammate David Besnard also failed to finish, while Glenn Seton was 18th in the third of the FPR Falcons.
Halfway to a dream championship start, Ambrose is looking forward to resuming the battle with HRT in tomorrow’s second 250km encounter.
“This is our first straight shootout with HRT as a team, driver and manufacturer and we came out on top,” he said. “So it gives us a bit of an edge, we know the car can match them now in the race.”
Race one results: click here.
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