The Bad Boys of Racing

[JohnBM01]

GTPlanet, this thread is all about the bad boys of racing. The inspiration for this topic (don't take this the wrong way) came from this past Saturday's Nextel All-Star Challenge. On the Speed Channel show "WindTunnel With Dave Despain," the guest on the show is a bad boy himself, 2002(?) champion Tony Stewart. Covered in the all-star race coverage, two NASCAR drivers were furious at Kevin Harvick for spinning out a few of the cars competing. The huge incident ended up being like one of Talladega's "Big Ones." That got me thinking, "who are the bad boys of racing?" You know, who are the ones always mixed up in controversy, causing wrecks, being furious against the media hounding on him, maybe make some harsh comments, that sort of thing.

I'll get things going with the first post.

As you all know, I'm not a real big NASCAR fan even though my favorite racer in the series is Jeff Gordon. When I normally hear about spins and crashes and finger pointing, all I normally hear is Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, and even Tony Stewart. Part of my issue is that normally anyone can make or break a race for someone. Some drivers just have a tendency of ruining races for others, much less digging their own graves. In the days of CART, I think Paul Tracy was a bigtime bad boy of (then) CART.

Just to note, this is topic is about the ones who are usually at the center of controversy, usually the ones who cause crashes, always get into trouble by officials, disgraceful comments and actions off track... who are/have been the bad boys of racing past and present. Carry on...

 

[Schrodes]

Here in V8 Supercarland Russell Ingall usually isn't too far away from the action/blame, hence his nickname 'The Enforcer'.
Latley it seems that Marcos Ambrose is trying to take Russell's crown. The brake testing at Surfers last year, running Lowndes off the road at Pukekohe and his first turn incident with Mark Skaife at Barbagallo which he issued TWO public apologies for.

THE STATEMENT FROM MARCOS AMBROSE

* V8 Supercar Championship is the most competitive touring car championship in the world.

* All of the cars are very close in performance and there is tremendous depth in driver talent. The pressure of competition is immense and it is this pressure which brings out the best and sometimes the worst in drivers.

* Last week at Barbagallo I was involved in an incident with Mark Skaife at the first corner in Race 2. Subsequently I was penalised for Reckless Driving.

* Following the incident and the imposition of the penalty, I made various comments about what I thought about both the incident and the penalties.

* These comments were made largely in the ?heat of battle? and without myself and the team being able to sit down and analyse the incident and what flowed from it.

* I have now had the opportunity to do that and as a result I would like to make the following points:

IN RELATION TO THE INCIDENT ITSELF:

In hind sight, I should have stayed out wider and allowed both lead cars to make the turn. Peripheral vision is limited in the cars. I made a judgment call that I was clear and that call proved to be an error.

IN RELATION TO MY SUBSEQUENT BEHAVIOUR AND COMMENTS:

I expressed anger at the incident and the penalty. My language at the time was inappropriate. This was wrong and I apologise for any offence caused.

If it was inferred that I called into question the fairness of the judicial system, I did not mean to do so and I apologise unreservedly. In consultation with the team, I chose not to use my opportunity to defend the charge of Reckless Driving by presenting a case before the Stewards and I accepted that a breach of the rules had occurred.

Following the race I stated that I did not plead guilty to the charge of reckless driving. For the record, I did formally admit the breach of the Reckless Driving rule and it was for that which I accepted the additional points penalty.

TEGA and AVESCO and CAMS have spent a lot of time in trying to create a better judicial system than we have had previously. What we now have is working much better than the previous system.

Despite the teams being briefed at the start of the year that pit lane penalties can and often will also involve further sanctions before the Stewards, I was unaware of this. My ignorance of the system is no excuse but it was as a result of this that I made inappropriate comments.

My comments that have been taken to mean the points penalty was imposed because no action was taken in New Zealand and also because I had driven too well in the race were in hindsight completely inappropriate and could only cause harm to our sport.

The judicial officials in the Championship ? the IPO, Peter Wollerman, The Stewards under Chief Steward Steven Chopping and the Driving Standards Observer Colin Bond have difficult but very important jobs to do. I recognise now that my comments were not at all helpful to any of them and that I should not have made such comments. I apologise unreservedly.

This Championship is one of the world?s great motor racing championships, Stone Brothers racing is a great team and Ford Motor Company is just the best manufacturer that I could have supporting me. They both have given me opportunities in my career that a few years ago I could never have dreamed of achieving. That my comments last weekend gave the impression of dissatisfaction with V8 Supercar racing could not be further from the truth. If I have given this impression, I would like to absolutely correct this as the reality could not be any further from the truth.

I now recognise that my comments have caused some grief to the Championship, to Stone Brothers, and to my personal sponsors and to sponsors of the team for this I am sorry.

Wayne 'Captain Chaos' Gardner should also get a mention here. It wasn't so much his aggression that kept getting him into trouble but his lack of ability.