Marcos Ambrose on Shane van Gisbergen’s Nascar rise and racing mindset

The Nascar success of Shane van Gisbergen – pictured celebrating victory at the Charlotte Roval in North Carolina on October 6 – has drawn praise from fellow racer Marcos Ambrose. Photo / Getty Images

Last weekend’s Bathurst 1000 race at Mount Panorama was a fitting place to have a sit-down chat with former Supercars legend and Nascar veteran Marcos Ambrose. Although he didn’t manage to win the Great Race, he did race for Stone Brothers Racing and won two Supercars championships. After finishing third in 2005, he was hankering after a new challenge and headed off to Nascar.

“I got pretty big for my boots here and I’ll be the first one to admit that,” Ambrose told the Herald. “I was probably a punk.”

“I’d been over in Europe racing open-wheel cars, came back here, and really made my career in the Supercar programme. I just wanted to have another shot at overseas racing.

“I knew all about racing in America and just how big Nascar was and I had a dream to go there and see what it was like.”

His story is not unlike Kiwi driver Shane Van Gisbergen, who also raced for SBR, and after winning three Supercars titles (and three Bathurst 1000s) he too decided he needed a bigger challenge and headed to Nascar, where he is racing this weekend at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Ambrose is all too aware just how hard it is to get into the Cup Series, let alone fight to be a frontrunner, and winning a race, well that’s nigh on impossible for most. Not for these two racing transtasman cousins, however – Ambrose won two races and van Gisbergen already has six to his name.

“Americans will embrace anybody who’s great. They love a winner and respect winners. They respect winning.

“They hold people in high regard who can do things, so if you can survive in Nascar and thrive in Nascar, just like Shane [van Gisbergen] is doing right now, they have all the time for in the world for you. If you’re no good; they won’t even look at you twice,” said Ambrose.

Anyone who is fast and can consistently win racing a tin top on road courses will do pretty well in Nascar on road courses. However, it’s the ovals that cause problems for anyone who wasn’t brought up on them and raced on them from an early age.

Nascar is littered with drivers from overseas from many different categories, including Formula One, who just couldn’t get the hang of going left. Stock cars are heavier, meaner and more stubborn than anything in Supercars. They don’t rotate on a wish; they demand persuasion. The tracks – especially the ovals – reorder a driver’s senses. Every corner is the same until it isn’t.

The relentless rhythm of Nascar, the draft etiquette, the aerodynamics of dirty air, the chess of stage racing, the brutality of green-white-checkered finishes turn road-course brilliance into just one tool in a very messy toolbox. Nascar isn’t just another category or championship with different decals. It’s a different language.

“When I was in Nascar there were only two road races a year. There are a lot more these days and Shane’s been able to show his talent. I’ve been watching him on ovals and he’s doing amazing because I know how hard it is.

“The cars are going ridiculously fast; the banking of the corners is ridiculously steep and the loads going through the car are enormous. Not only that, but you’ve also got the car set up asymmetrically.

“When you go oval racing not one wheel is set up the same, so the car is basically four individual tyres, doing four individual things and you’re trying to work it all out as you drive around the racetrack.

“The hardest part of driving an oval is holding it straight because it doesn’t want to stay straight. It wants to spin out on the straightaways and people don’t realise that when you’re in the middle of an oval corner it turns itself in. It’s a very unique discipline. It’s very difficult to do and no two laps are the same because the tyres are wearing out so fast.

“Nascar drivers grew up doing it from 12 years of age racing midgets. Shane’s done it and doing that now, which is a fantastic idea to get better at this stuff [ovals],” he said.

Van Gisbergen is a racer’s racer and has had success in a wide range of categories. Ambrose reckons van Gisbergen’s desire to race anything at any time is what makes him so special. All he wants to do is go racing and it was the short Supercars calendar that spurred the New Zealander to look abroad for more seat time.

He couldn’t have picked a better championship than Nascar, with its 36 races, and if you want to do more, a driver can also have go at the Xfinity or even the Craftsman Truck series.

“I don’t think there’s a bigger SVG fan than me. I’ve watched his journey and seen what he’s done, not just in Supercars, but everything that he touches.

“He’s just a pure racer. In America everyone who’s running at the very elite levels are all natural born racers. They live for racing, nothing else really matters. They’d race for free.

“It’s not about the money, it’s not about the fame, it’s actually about the battle. Shane is one of those guys, he’s just always about the battle. He just wants to run that race car as fast as he can and beat anybody on that racetrack.

“It’s not about fame for him and he’d do it for free. He’s a pure racer so I’m a big SVG fan,” said Ambrose.

Van Gisbergen has already set many Nascar records, including the most Cup Series wins by a foreign-born driver; the longest streak of road and street course wins by an active driver; being the first New Zealander to win a Cup Series race; notching the most wins in a rookie season; being fastest driver to three wins; and achieving the most consecutive road wins from pole.

All this just in his first full season in the Cup Series. If van Gisbergen gets a decent handle on racing on an oval, he’s going to be one of the best, as he can balance aggression and calculation as well as anyone.

“SVG’s going to have a long career regardless of what happens from now on, he’s there. He’s cemented in, he’s respected, and he’s got American race fans. He’s in, he’s got sponsors and he’ll do it for as long as he wants to do it. There’s no doubt. He’s set,” said Ambrose.