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Mix of driver experience key to Garry Rogers Motorsport success
A mix of youth and experience has Marcos Ambrose excited for what the future holds at Garry Rogers Motorsport.
Since joining the Melbourne-based squad a year ago as Competition Director, Ambrose has initiated a number of changes behind the scenes as GRM enters the closing stages of its campaign in the SpeedSeries.
“It’s been a great transition for me to step back into racing, GRM is a fantastic company,” said Ambrose.
“The boys of GRM are fantastic, there’s just so much knowledge and skillset inside the workshop. We’re running a lot of cars, so obviously there’s a different mindset more customer focused until I’ve gotten there and I’ve tried to refocus performance to try to get the team back to its winning ways.
“We’ve had a great year, we’re in contention in TCR, we’re leading the Trans Am Series and the S5000s wasn’t our year, with Joey Mawson being too good, but we’ve had a lot of speed.”
However, Ambrose emphasised there is still work to do this season and believes its drivers will be right in the fight in both classes.
“We’ve done really well this year, but the story is not over and we’ve got a lot of work still to do,” Ambrose highlighted.
“We just want to be in contention in these categories and give it a good fight to the very end of this year.
“We are a team that is so capable about where we want to go as a team, what we want to focus on and we are very happy with all our programs.”
Ambrose also lauded the drivers in both Turtle Wax Trans Am and Supercheap Auto TCR Australia as he pointed out the mix of youth in addition to experience is the perfect formula.
“As a company, we’ve moulded together a great mix experience and youth,” Ambrose explained.
“In Trans Am there’s the experience of Owen Kelly, who is a race winner in addition to being a great reference point together with a real hot shoe in Nathan Herne and Lochie Dalton in his first year of circuit racing learning the craft.
“On the TCR side we’ve got some real A-grade, Pro drivers in our group, which have all contended for pole positions, race wins and fastest laps.
“We’ve had a great year with the Peugeots, we have missed the mark a little bit with the Renaults, but we’ve re-focused on those and we’re confident that we’re going to get those going by the end of the year.”
GRM will be back in action at Sandown Raceway, the penultimate round of the SpeedSeries as Supercheap Auto TCR Australia and the concluding event for the Turtle Wax Trans Am Series takes place on September 16-18.