Two-time V8 Supercar Champion Marcos Ambrose has taken the wheel of his Ford F-150 racing truck over the past week in testing ahead of his entry in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the USA.

Ambrose will continue testing ahead of his racing debut on April 1 at the half-mile Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway.

Ambrose enjoyed a solid day of testing in the Ford F-150 at Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina last week. To better familiarise himself with the Martinsville track he will this week run a racing school sedan at the Virginia track.

Ambrose will drive for one of Ford's most famous racing organisations, Wood Brothers JTG Racing. Wood Brothers have over 50 years of racing experience in NASCAR; all with Ford.

Due to strict rules governing driver eligibility, Ambrose has been forced to watch the opening rounds in Daytona (Florida), Fontana (California) and Atlanta (Georgia). These tracks were all classified as too fast for a driver who has never raced on the ultra-fast oval.

Ambrose teammate Bobby East made his debut last weekend in Atlanta finishing 23rd. East is the 2004 U.S. Auto Club national Midget Car Series champion.

With less than two weeks to Martinsville, pre-race testing has been critical to Ambrose starting his NASCAR career on the right note.

"It's all finally coming along," said Ambrose.

"My custom made seat was finished a couple of weeks back and now it's about making sure the rest of the truck fits just as well.

"I'm excited about the first race, but I'm also a little nervous about qualifying. There are only five free positions available and we expect over 15 trucks to be vying for those spots.

"I have to go into that first race switched-on, there's no time to ease my way into things.

"I'll also be under the scrutiny of NASCAR who will be making sure that I'm not only up to speed, but also doing the right things on the track. They are very strict on eligibility and as I have not come up through the regular US racing system they have told me that they will continue to evaluate my racing until totally satisfied to give me a full licence.

"In saying all that I along with my wife Sonja and daughter Tabitha are enjoying our time. We have a comfortable set-up in North Carolina and already a solid group of friends.

"I feel part of the community on and off the track, and it's now time to get on with what I came here to do."

In the meantime the Tasmanian's #20 F-Series has been campaigned by Jon Wood. Wood finished 16th at Dayton, ninth at Fontana and sixth at Atlanta to be placed ninth in the championship.

It's important that Ambrose's truck has been taking part in competition, not just from a team and development point of view, but also Wood Brothers JTG Racing earns valuable team points for the 2006 season.

The starting field for Martinsville has been set at 36 trucks, 56 entries have been received for qualifying.

what sort of money is he getting compared to his time here in Aust ?

He'd be doing well for himself - and if/when he comes back, the exchange rate certainly won't do any harm to his bank balance!!

i never liked ambrose much anyway, was good he won races tho, lol.
Go ingall!

Money in crafstmen wouldnt be like it is in busch series/nextel cup but im sure they'll be paying him well for his time. Reasonable price money up for grabs in american oval racing as well.

I think they also have personal sponsorships.

We need a petition for Fox to cover craftsmen as well as busch/nextel. Would be great racing to watch IMO. Martinsville is a great little track... dunno about the trucks but the sedans run 500 laps there IIRC...

Two quarter miles with corners at either end With seating for 91,000!!!

Martinsville eh .. not biased at all are you mate ?

Yeah martinsville is kind of like bristol. Both are tight little tracks.

f**k yer!

go ambrose!

Except that martinsville has the flatest banking of any nascar track and bristol has the steepest. Martinsville reminds me of when bob Janes aussie nascars used to race at AIR.

Lol, yeah 36 degrees of banking on bristol's turns. That is insane. And 15 degrees on the straight.

12 degrees of banking on martinsville's turns. Nasty on outside front tyre!!

Agreed!!

Good luck to him

Race results here

http://www.truckseries.com/cgi-script/N ... 006697.htm

Besides the DNF's, he came last.

http://www.truckseries.com/cgi-script/N ... 006701.htm

yeah he had to pit and missed 50 laps he got run off the road basically

Lol, good ol' welcome from the good ol' boys.

Next race on the 29th.... Gatway track in St Louis. Marcus has been granted a licence for up to 1.5mi speedways. St Louis is a 1.25mi speedway and NASCAR have cleared him to race under observation.

Permission to race at charlotte will be decided following gateway.

BTW the crash at martinsville trashed the radiator aand power steering... the cut the front of the truck off, fused another one on and sent him back out. Fair effort by the team Lol, $7k prize money for him so far.

Truckseries.com and marcusambrose.com good resources and closest thing you'll get to coverage of the series lol.