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Ambrose savours double on Ford podium |
by Andy Stobart
Marcos Ambrose was once again dominant at Eastern Creek and stood on the top step of an all-Ford podium from a battling Paul Radisich and Craig Lowndes for the penultimate race of the Australian V8 Supercar Series.
The thirty-nine laps of Sunday's races, as opposed to Saturday's twenty-six lap sprint, saw a very well behaved field get away at the start with even the HRT cars making it through the first corner.
From the front row, Craig Lowndes had plenty to smile about after making another great start to lead from pole-sitter Marcos Ambrose after the first corner. Ambrose wasn't quite as quick away as he'd been on Saturday and Dave Besnard gave WPS boss Craig Gore plenty to smile about as he looked to find his way past the newly crowned champ.
Gore wouldn't have been quite as happy come the conclusion to the first lap as Besnard had not made it past Ambrose, but young charger Rick Kelly had found his way past the silver and black car. Gore would have more to be upset about yet.
It wasn't going to be Bessie's day, as next Paul Radisich was past, and then Jason Bright too. Bright was using a relatively late pitstop strategy once more, whilst Ambrose, with Lowndes not far in front, opted to come in with the early stoppers.
The weekend had seen plenty for Ford fans to cheer about and the sight of the FPR car of Lowndes out front and the Triple Eight car of Radisich right behind him gave the Blue Oval boys some good fever. When the two did pit, with Radisich right behind the man taking his place at the Brisbane-based team, Roland Dane's pit crew had the better of Melbourne-based FPR and the Rat was out in front of Lowndes.
The Kiwi has been on good form this weekend and led Lowndes to the earlier stopping Rick Kelly and gave the young Kmart gun plenty to think about, finally finding a way past on lap sixteen, considerately making the young Kelly have to slow in the corner to allow Lowndes the chance to follow as soon as possible.
Lap seventeen saw Bright pit whilst almost at the same time Lowndes was past young Kelly. Craig had been very robust in his approaches to get past and he was not to be denied. Just like Radisich had done, Lowndes made Kelly's corner long when he passed, unlike Radisich Lowndes slightly outbraked himself and Kelly on the outside had no choice but to go straight on and into a gravel retirement.
Bright meanwhile had returned to the circuit in tenth place, and Jason Richards inherited the lead from Ambrose, Radisich and the chasing Lowndes. Ambrose would hold another massive advantage – about twelve seconds – on Radisich, with Lowndes a couple of seconds behind.
