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All eyes will be on Marcos Ambrose this weekend as the dual championship winner makes a return to V8 Supercars around the streets of Homebush. Join The Roar as we cover race 36 and 37 in the championship at the Sydney 500. Coverage starts from 11am (AEDT).
After announcing his return to the sport in September, with Team Penske for the 2015 season, Ambrose will race this weekend in a wildcard entry after racing in NASCAR for eight seasons.
He couldn’t have asked for a tougher return.
Not only is Homebush a circuit he hasn’t raced at, it is a circuit which has been unforgiving over the last five years.
When you combine that with Ambrose learning a new car – because of the Car of the Future regulations – it becomes a hard task for the Tasmanian to be competitive.
In practice one and two he was 23rd and 22nd respectively. In the final session he was 24th and almost a second and a half behind the leaders.
Ambrose’s best chance for success this weekend is to rely on others to make mistakes. If he stays out of trouble, he can gain results, and take plenty of experience into 2015.
All three practice sessions were taken out by different drivers.
Jamie Whincup took practice one with Lee Holdsworth – in his final races for Erebus – taking out practice two. In practice three James Courtney set the fastest time of the day to take out the session.
It would be a Walkinshaw Racing top three as Garth Tander and Tim Slade joined Courtney at the top.
While the championship may be over, after Whincup won the championship at the last round in Phillip Island, there are still big battles for the minor places in the season standings.
In the race for second in the championship, there are three contenders separated by 134 points.
Mark Winterbottom currently holds second, but Craig Lowndes and Shane Van Gisbergen will be chasing the Ford driver to finish as the best of the rest behind Whincup.
Each contender has had form at the Sydney 500 with each driver recoding a win in the history of the event. Lowndes – who has won twice – is the only driver to win at the circuit multiple times.
The battle for fifth position is also set to go down to the wire. Four drivers are in contention for the spot with Scott McLaughlin in fifth after his win in Race 35 at Phillip Island. Between him and James Courtney in eighth, there is just 30 points between the four drivers.
Fabian Coulthard (6th) and Chaz Mostert (7th) are also in contention for a spot in the top five after solid years by each driver.
Finally, up to five drivers are in contention for a top ten spot in the championship.
Michael Caruso currently holds the spot in his Nissan with 1875 points. Will Davison, Nick Percat, Jason Bright and Rick Kelly are all within 145 points of Caruso, making for an exciting battle for the final spot in the top ten.
Today sees two races in the championship in an identical format to the Adelaide and Townsville rounds earlier this year. Both races are 125 kilometres in length and worth 75 points each in the championship. The weekend will also see the use of hard tyres. Each team has six sets of tyres to use during the weekend.
Picking a winner at the Sydney 500 has become a lottery in the last few years. Teams and drivers have struggled with the concrete jungle of Homebush, highlighted by the face there have been at least three safety cars in each race. In 10 races at Homebush, 9 have been won by different drivers.
With so much doubt in the race it will make for some exciting racing this afternoon.
Join The Roar as we cover the final three races of the season at the Sydney 500.
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