by

July 16^th, 2003
Rd 7 preview

Marcos' Qld homecoming parade?

IN the case of Ford, when it rains it pours.

At Queensland Raceway last year, the Stone Brothers Racing duo of David Besnard and Simon Wills broke a season-long drought for the Blue Oval with victory in the Queensland 500.

Returning to their northern headquarters this weekend, the Ford army is revelling in five straight wins, with their self-imposed leader, Marcos Ambrose, staring down the barrel of motorsport history. How times have changed.

Rain, hail or shine, there’s no doubting who the man is to beat this weekend, in round seven of the V8 Supercar championship.

The last four of those Ford victories belong to Ambrose and, on Stone Brothers Racing home turf, a fifth win seems almost certain.

Typically, the unassuming Tasmanian doesn’t see it that way.

"The result is far from a done deal,” Ambrose said this week.  “This is motor racing and nothing is ever a certainty.

"We will have a strong package, there's no doubt about that, but staying on top is very hard work and when you're the focus of everyone's attention you feel it.”

Still third in the championship, 54 points behind winless leader Jason Bright, equalling Allan Moffat’s consecutive wins record for a Ford driver is only a sidebar to Ambrose’s campaign.

"I don't feel pressure on trying to equal Allan's record, I'm motivated by the championship chase as well as winning as many races as I can,” he said.

"As the first few months of the year featured interstate races we had not tested in quite a while.  We tested last Friday and we will be very well prepared for the race.

"I feel that the biggest competition will come from...Mark Skaife, as well as the many other Ford teams that are Queensland based and who all test at Willowbank.”

Skaife, the man himself insists, is just warming up.  Fifth in the series, the defending champion is coming to Queensland to spoil Ambrose’s homecoming parade.

"We've been saying for some time that we would be in a better position to attack in the later part of the year and I still feel that is the case,” he said.

Skaife isn’t taking any chances this weekend, sticking with his old car while teammate Todd Kelly takes the Holden Racing Team’s all-new VY Commodore for its first competitive hit-out.

There will be shiny new machinery everywhere you look this weekend.

Local Paul Morris is set to debut the new Holden Motorsport engine in his VY ("it's about three-tenths of a second quicker,” he said this week) and Perkins Motorsport’s Steven Richards (second in the series behind Bright) says his one-round-old VY Commodore is a race winner after recent testing.

But perhaps the proudest driver will be David Besnard, who returns to the scene of his greatest triumph with the latest BA Falcon off the Ford Performance Racing production line.

Joining teammates Craig Lowndes and Glenn Seton in the ‘Barra’ racer, Besnard says the car should be on the pace even without a test under its belt.

Making the finish line will again be the challenge, as the 300km endurance format returns, at a 3.1km-long circuit much harder than it looks.

Much of the home-track advantage for the seven local teams will be lost with an hour and a half of open practice on Friday.  Qualifying takes place on Saturday, with the Top Ten Shootout for pole on Sunday morning.

A grid of 33 cars will start the weekend, with the 00 Motorsport Falcons of Greg Ritter and Rodney Forbes late withdrawals.

And what are they all playing for?  A carton of pineapples, thanks to an enterprising promoter.  But in a tightly fought championship, it’s the rough end of the tropical fruit the contenders will be desperate to avoid.