Australian motorsport hero Marcos Ambrose will be back in Pirtek colours this weekend at the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour at Mt Panorama.
Ambrose will wear a one-off Pirtek race suit and specially-prepared retro helmet to kick off the 20th anniversary celebrations of his maiden 2003 Supercars championship which he won in the Pirtek-backed Ford Falcon prepared by Stone Brothers Racing.
Ambrose will partner George Miedecke and Tim Brook in Class A2 (Extreme Performance Naturally Aspirated) in a Mustang run by Andrew Miedecke Ford/Miedecke Motor Group and will also be a part of the event’s commentary team with Stan Sport.
Ambrose won back-to-back Supercar championships in 2003-2004 before heading to the US where he forged a successful NASCAR career over the next decade.
This year also marks the 25th anniversary of Pirtek/SBR’S 1998 Bathurst 1000 victory with Jason Bright and Steve Richards and that achievement will also be tied into celebration activities later in the year.
“The Pirtek brand and the Pirtek people have been such an integral part of my racing journey and it is great that we can do some cool things this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of our 2003 Supercars championship,” said Ambrose.
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“It had been a long drought for the Ford faithful before that 2003 championship (six years) and I know the fans have as many great memories of that season as I do.
“Pirtek has been an incredibly loyal supporter of myself and national and international motorsport for almost 30 years.
“It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since we won the first of our two supercar championships together, but it’s terrific that we will have a chance to relive some memories.
“It kicks off in the Mustang with George (Miedecke) this weekend and we are working on some fan-based activities later in the year.”
Ambrose’s retro helmet is a tribute to his helmets from his Supercar championship seasons and was designed and created by his original helmet painter Nathan Fellows from Freestyle FX Signs in Launceston.
It features Pirtek and Ford branding and also the original Tasmanian Devil which featured on most of Ambrose’s early helmets.
A 20th anniversary logo has also been created which is on the chest of his suit and on both sides of the helmet.
Pirtek’s CEO, Stephen Dutton, said the 2003 championship was a terrific achievement that he and his 100+ Australian franchise group looked forward to reliving this year.
“Marcos will always be a part of the Pirtek family and we are proud that he will be wearing our colours on track again this weekend,” said Dutton.
“We enjoyed some terrific success together in those SBR days and have always maintained our links and relationship after he took the big step to NASCAR.
“We think the retro helmet has come up a treat and we look forward to watching him back out on track this weekend and working with him on some unique activations later in the year.”
The Miedecke Mustang is the same car Ambrose was to drive in last year’s Mount Panorama production car enduro before electrical gremlins struck.
Ironically, George Miedeke actually drove late model stock cars for Marcos Ambrose Motorsport (MAM) in the US.
Stan Sport’s live, ad-free, and on-demand coverage of the event starts tomorrow at 12:00 local time/AEST, and resumes on Sunday at 09:00 local time/AEST.
Aside from the Bathurst 6 Hour itself, the weekend schedule also features Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS, GT4/Australian Production Cars, Excel Cup and Nissan Pulsars.
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