PODCAST: Ambrose: Let them race!
Dual champion calls on officials to continue the trend of letting drivers sort out their differences on the race track.
Known during his competition days as a hard but fair racer, Marcos Ambrose said he loves the new freedoms Supercars drivers have been given this year.
“I’ve had a lot of enjoyment watching the start of this season,” the dual champion told Mark Fogarty on the Race for the Championship podcast.
He believes the seemingly new attitude from Driving Standards Officer, Craig Baird, is a breath of fresh air.
“The action has been intense on the race track and the fans are calling out for more of it and seem to be enjoying it and I certainly am. I just love the idea of the drivers dukeing it out on the track and not in the stewards’ room and the action has been really good,” the 2003 and 2004 champion said.
The Ford ace believes the racing is getting back to the days when he raced in Supercars and in NASCAR, where the officials only got involved when things started getting out of hand.
“Us guys used to sort it out on the race track. If it went too far then a NASCAR or Supercars official would come down and you would have a conversation. But the action was on the track and it was entertaining and we would work it all out, not in the stewards’ room but on the race track and I really hope we do get back to that,” he said.
However, he thinks the officials’ new attitude almost came about via circumstance rather than design.
“I’m not sure that if that incident at Sydney was on lap 10 that there wouldn’t have been penalties handed out, but it was just so late in the race that there wasn’t time to react and what a great finish it was,” he said of the battle between Cam Waters, Broc Feeney and Will Brown.
“Maybe this is the turning point where they say ‘we open it up a little and let the drivers race like we used to’. I’m a fan of that and I hope we get back to that.”
He also believes the new ‘softer’ Dunlop control tyre being used at most rounds in 2025 has a lot to do with the improved racing.
“Clearly the tyre for this year is helping the racing and I just hope that trend continues. It looks to me that they have the grip to run side-by-side for longer and to push and pass each other,” he said.
Ambrose also talks with Foges about his new racing venture with daughter Tabitha, and he gives his opinion on the performance of Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen, who has followed Ambrose’s path from Supercars champion into NASCAR.
