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Ambrose to face the music this weekend

27 Mar 2015
"Good, bad, ugly, whatever comes my way, I'm going to have to deal with them [the fans]."
3 mins by James Pavey
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Marcos Ambrose will face his fans this weekend at his home race of Tasmania, despite choosing not to contest the event in a V8 Supercar.

The Launceston born 38-year old elected to step down, to allow Scott Pye - a young gun with more experience in the new generation car - wrestle the Ford Falcon FG X and see if he can improve the race car.

While there has been much discussion of Ambrose's choice, the former NASCAR driver is happy to face both his fans and his critics at home this weekend.

"We'll work that out as we go this weekend," Ambrose said of his role at the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint.

"But my first goal of the weekend is to face the music to the fans.

"Talk to the fans and see them - good, bad, ugly, whatever comes my way, I'm going to have to deal with them."

After Ambrose's decision went public early last week, rumours emerged that we weren't hearing the full story - he was planning a NASCAR return, or had disappeared into the bush with his head in turmoil.

He emphatically denied both those ideas and stood by the original reasoning he'd given - the team was better off with someone else behind the wheel.

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"There's no NASCAR on the horizon, there was no trip to Alice Springs and visiting Uluru.

"You know, this has just been a difficult decision to make but I think in the best interests of the team, allow me to reset my clock, just to slow it down some.

"We'll jump in this car when the time's appropriate and time will tell when that should be, depending on how Scott goes in the car and how it's all going for the team.

"But certainly for me personally it just slows it down in 2015 and we can reassess as we go."

Ambrose emphasised the decision wasn't one he made lightly, taking into consideration his various commitments to sponsors and the like. But at the end of the day, if the team wants results quickly, developing the car is something he wants to hand to Pye for now.

"The team can't wait for a driver to get reacclimatised - you can't lose a year in this game," Ambrose said.

"We've got Roger Penske to come into our series, we want to do as well as we can for him, we want to get him up there as quick as we can ... It was fairly obvious to me from driving the car for DJR Team Penske that I've come down here to be the lead driver of a single car team and I can't deliver what's expected of me as a lead driver in the circumstances that are around me."

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