Full Throttle

When Australian Marcos Ambrose broke into the V8 Supercar Series the then young upstart, who calls himself the Devil Racer, stunned the world by placing his Pirtek Racing Ford Falcon on the Bathurst pole in his first V8 event. He went on to finish eighth in the championship, winning the Rookie of the Year award.

A distinguished career followed including two consecutive series championships (2003-04). But he became the man Aussie’s luv to hate for his no-holds-barred racing style. That style was in full evidence in his last start on The Mountain in 2005 (video here). Ambrose was well on his way to a third championship until the Bathurst 1000 when he was involved in a controversial crash with Greg Murphy approaching The Cutting late in the race. The two drivers, infuriated with one another, shared some heated words after the crash.

Greg’s probably going to blame me, because he tends to blame everyone but himself for these kinds of incidents. I knew that I was already 99% past him, I gave him a car-length and a half to go two-wide up into The Cutting, and I just got clean wiped out.

That’s straight out of some NASCAR drivers playbook, and note what’s called “bump drafting” or “spin to win” in NASCAR is called “giving a big hurry-up” by Aussie announcers, but I digress (but funny none-the-less).

The incident in a race called the greatest ever by some V8 Series fans cemented the Ambrose reputation.

The reputation has softened somewhat after his successful move to NASCAR. Softened to the point he has been named “Mayor for the Day