Ambrose wins for Ford

V8 Supercar rookie Marcos Ambrose claimed his first round win at Darwin's Hidden Valley circuit yesterday, lifting Ford to the top of the podium for the first time since Sandown last year.

In just his fourth Shell Championship start, Ambrose showed he already understands the value of consistent race performances, scoring second, fourth and third placings in the weekend's three races.

"I thought it would take many months to start getting on top of this form of racing, so to get a round win after just four events is a great thrill," Ambrose said.

The 24-year-old Tasmanian is now the highest ranked Ford driver, sitting in fourth place in the drivers' championship.

It was only the fourth victory for any Ford driver in the 40 rounds contested since the beginning of 1998, with the Blue Oval brand scoring just one round win each season amidst the Holden domination.

Series leader Jason Bright kept the points score ticking over for the Holden Racing Team, combining some blinding starts with fast pit stops to finish second overall ten points behind Ambrose.

"The most difficult part of the weekend was qualifying twelfth, but we got a great start in race one to get to fifth, and some great work in the pits by the team helped me move my way forward through the weekend," Bright said.

Defending champion Mark Skaife finished third with results of 14th, 3rd and 1st in the three heats, after recovering from a stop-go penalty issued when he jumped the start in race one.

Greg Murphy salvaged a fourth place finish for the round after the joy of victory in race two was soured by mechanical problems in the final race. An intermittent sticking throttle cable in his K-Mart Commodore resurfaced while he was leading, forcing him to slip back through the field to 12th.

Ambrose's teammate at Stone Brothers Racing, David Besnard, finally ran into some form in the Caltex Falcon, grabbing two sevenths and a fifth to finish the day fifth overall.

Russell Ingall's outstanding record at Hidden Valley looked set to continue after winning the first race and leading from pole position in race two. However, it lost some of its shine when tail shaft problems in his Castrol Commodore saw his hopes of a second victory disappear just two laps from the chequered flag.

He managed to bring the car home in 22nd position and then fought back to ninth in the final race.

Bright remains at the top of the drivers' title after increasing his lead over teammate Skaife. Ingall moves into third place at the expense of Steven Johnson, who dropped to sixth following 21st, 26th and 16th place finishes in the three races due to fuel related engine problems.

Ambrose was the big mover on the leader board, jumping from eighth to fourth courtesy of his round win, while Murphy also climbed up the order to fifth.

Lowndes fell from seventh to tenth when he scored just 32 points for the event. His weekend finished in race two when he car was badly damaged in an incident with Cameron McLean.

RACE 1 RESULTS

1 Russell Ingall (Holden) 19:59.402 M Ambrose (Ford) +1.523 Mark Larkham (Ford) +5.054 G Murphy (Holden) +6.315 J Bright (Holden) +9.166 Paul Radisich (Ford) +10.467 D Besnard (Ford) +13.678 Steve Ellery (Ford) +14.029 Steven Richards (Ford) +14.4110 Paul Morris (Holden) +18.38RACE 2 RESULTS

1 Greg Murphy (Holden) 41:38.112 J Bright (Holden) +2.643 M Skaife (Holden) +3.034 M Ambrose (Ford) +3.565 D Besnard (Ford) +15.866 S Richards (Ford) +16.337 Jason Bargwanna (Holden) +30.938 Todd Kelly (Holden) +31.519 Larry Perkins (Holden) +32.7010 Glenn Seton (Ford) +33.01RACE 3 RESULTS

1 Mark Skaife (Holden) 41:32.69 2 J Bright (Holden) +4.893 M Ambrose (Ford) +7.654 S Richards (Ford) +12.345 G Seton (Ford) +20.986 L Perkins (Holden) +21.577 D Besnard (Ford) +25.908 Brad Jones (Ford) +28.169 R Ingall (Holden) +28.3910 Cameron McLean (Ford) +30.85DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP

1 Jason Bright (HRT Holden) 11322 Skaife (HRT Holden) 10783 Ingall (Castrol Holden) 8894 Ambrose (Pirtek Ford) 8405 Murphy (K-Mart Holden) 8356 Johnson (K-Mart Holden) 7887 Kelly (K-Mart Holden) 7398 Seton (Tickford Ford) 7289 Richards (Tickford Ford) 72410 Lowndes (Gibson Ford) 655Next round: GMC 400, Canberra, June 8-10.