I had some time to kill on the airplane today, so I caught up on a bunch of car magazines. One was the March issue of Rodent Rack (Road & Track). On page 88, Marcos Ambrose discusses his experiences moving from Australian Supercars multiple champion to NASCAR's top rung. For those condescending elitists here regularly deride & sneer at NASCAR and its drivers, you would do well to STFU and read Marcos' article. I dare say he knows a helluva lot more about racing & driving skills than nearly anyone here.







Professional Racing and Driving Coach

 

*waits for the excuses and general bull**** to follow.

 

How is any one able to challenge the tallent? just watch a race at Sears Point, or Watkins Glen to see how good those guys are. Even with Boris, and many others, stepping into well prepared rides, somehow, they never pull off the fastest laps or win the race. Hmmm, maybe those guys are more than just "roundy round guys". PLUS, what does it take to toss around those beasts. I can only imagine. 2nd of all, Ambrose was near the best in the aussie series. those cars are like nascar on handling steroids, and they run like ALMS sports cars on some of the toughest tracks around, but with 40 cars, not 7 fighting it out. I was so happy to hear that he was going nascar, because he is a known road race entity. maybe he has issues with driving on the right side of the car.

k

 

I read that article when it came out and I came away with the impression of "What else was he supposed to say". The 'necks would have him strung up if he doesn't tow the company line, remember, he's a foreigner too, just like Montoya. He knows where his bread is buttered and NASCAR Inc. doesn't like their own drivers talking smack.

The cars are hard to drive in NASCAR, but this argument is moot until a NASCAR name goes over to F1 and tries his hand.

It's hard to fly a C-130. It's even harder to fly an F-16. That's my comparision of these two different type of cars and series.

 

a c130 and a F16? com'mon, thats a little harsh!

more like an F14 and an F16.

 

As I have said many times I'm not a big Nascar fan, but most of you way underestimate what it takes to be a top driver in Nascar. And what it takes to have a front running car in the series.

 

knowing whether it's hard or easy doesn't make it any less boring to watch...

 

As opposed to F1 where we have exciting, wheel-to-wheel battles in every race.

 

LOL, Did VR and Kibort just agree on something?

Ambrose is a talent, and good guy to boot. At last years WGI race I ran into him out of uniform after qualifying. Noone else seem to know who he was, he took about 5 minutes to talk to my brother and I before excusing himself. Seemed like a pretty humble dude.

The racing is hard to watch on TV because there are so freakin many commercials, and good ole boy chit-chat, but at the track its a good show. I just don't get the F1 attitudes. They got about a gazillian of there own threads. It seems like apples vs oranges to me.

 

Did ya blink.
It was wheel to wheelish all the way to the 2nd corner . . .

 

agreed!

 

I'd say its even easier to watch. The TV coverage is packed full of graphics, scrollers, and whatnot, so you can follow along even without the sound. It's harder that way, but doable. However, the good old boy chit chat is in full effect because of all the graphics. Even FOX knows they yak too much, when the run the "bathroom break for the commentators" Crank it Up - just cars running and sound pumped a little with no commentary.

I listened to a NASCAR race in the car (a Porsche no less!) on Sunday, damn if that wasn't hard to follow. PRN/MRN (and/or a scanner) is great for following along live.

 

Anyone see Sam Hornish's comments about running NASCAR and how Danica will do? I think it was in Racer magazine. What he said was that if you typically run 5th or 6th in Indycar (which Danica often did) you run in 30th in NASCAR - that's how good the talent is. Hornish won I think 3 Indy titles and races for Penske in cup and is not doing well. NASCAR drivers are the real deal.

 

A couple of comments

1. Racer Magazine wants $50 bucks for the subscription, are they smoking some good crack, bye be Racer!

2. I had a chance to do Richard Pettys driving experience, it was a lot of fun and really open my eyes to how good some of these drivers must be. Besides wheeling the car around the track, sitting in it with all the fumes, no A/C, bumping, etc.. i think you would have to call these drivers athletes and give them credit even though they drive in circles.

 

And she's a b!tch and she's ugly too. Oops. Flashback.


The on-screen stuff in NASCAR is really effective. Probably too expensive for other racing.

The "crawl" at the top of a typical ALMS / Grand Am race could be SO much better. They should be parsing data to find real stories deep in the field. For example, once the Corvette guys stopped running into each other, were they fast? Could they have been a winner or podium in GT? Is the Ford GT off the pace or just broken?

Marcos Ambrose is cool. I like the intros he does for Aussie V8 races.