“We joke at AASA that we are here to put the ‘Race’ back in racing or the ‘Sport’ back in motorsport. But really, it’s not a joke at all. That’s our mission,” said Marcos Ambrose. The 49-year-old has worn nearly every hat motorsport has to offer: champion driver, team boss, mentor, and now one of the key forces shaping the future of Australian racing. After decades navigating both the ruthless world of supercars and the highest stakes battleground of NASCAR in America, the veteran has seen exactly where motorsport thrives and where it bleeds money.

So when the Australian Autosport Alliance sought to revamp its national-level landscape, the two-time Supercars champion became the obvious choice. Not only does Ambrose bring the credibility of a global racing career, but he also carries a clear vision: racing should be more accessible and more authentic for everyone involved

Marcos Ambrose isn’t here to play around!

Speaking to Apex Hunters United, he said, “And the third thing, which is the biggest thing, is we’ve got to get the cost under control. Motorsports is way too expensive. No one’s really, you know, serious about curbing the costs…so, you know, my goal is to try to eliminate those costs as much as possible…Like, there’s a lot of cost to get to the racetrack. There’s no point doing a 12-minute session. You may as well have a decent race, right? So I’m trying to give AASA competitors more racing laps, more green flag laps, more track time all the time. And rolling starts help that a lot.” 

Ambrose’s claim that switching from standing to rolling starts can save approximately 6 1/2 minutes per race is realistic and meaningful at the event scale. AASA has already moved to formalize rolling starts across its categories and is explicitly working with Ambrose to make starts quicker and safer, reduce organization site first incidence, and faster race turnarounds as direct outcomes of revised rolling start procedures.

Now, if you put the 6.5-minute saving into context, the 49-year-old driver uses a real example, a weekend with 10 races one day, and 14 the next, which is 24 races in total. By multiplying the minutes and the races, this cutdown saves 156 minutes. That’s two hours and 36 minutes of extra usable track time.

For competitors who pay travel, accommodation, tires, fuel, and crew costs that easily run into the low thousands per weekend at grassroots/semipro levels, those extra 2 1/2 hours translate directly into more green lap flags and fewer expensive short sessions that provide little on-track value.

Looking to make other changes, he added, “It needs to have value to you. It needs to be worthwhile to do and actually have meaning to do it. So, that’s what I’m all about. I’m about better racing as well. Like, I want to have more racing on the racetrack. Give me a good race. I’ll watch a great race with HQs or Formula V’s, you know? I just love watching a good race, and I want people to enjoy motorsport for what it is, which is racing. It’s actually a sport out there”.

How this contrasts with the NASCAR model matters for the economics. NASCAR events are scheduled around broadcast windows, stage breaks, and ceremonies, all of which are supported by a revenue ecosystem that insulates teams from tight per-weekend cost pressure. By contrast, AASA positions itself as a “racers-for-racers” body focused on delivering value to entrants, so shaving a few minutes off each race start multiplies into meaningful on-track time across an event and removes needless grid/assembly delay that burns tires, clutches, and crew hours.

And you can bank on Ambrose to get the job done. The 49-year-old has been entrenched in motorsport for decades, first as a successful driver in both national and supercar competitions and also internationally, working his way to the pinnacle of NASCAR competition in America. Since moving back to Australia, Ambrose has moved into team management by first joining Gary Rogers Motorsports as the squad’s competition director.

In more recent times, Ambrose has launched his successful Marcos Ambrose Motorsport operation, running entries in Formula Ford, TA2, and Trans Am. Right from navigating ovals and road courses, the veteran has seen it all. And now, as he uses his NASCAR expertise in Australia, the Aussie recently dropped the real reason behind why he left Supercars in the first place.

The real reason why Marcos joined NASCAR

In the months leading up to the 2005 Supercar season, Marcos Ambrose was already preparing for a major career pivot. Behind the scenes, he held strategy conversations with Ford’s motorsport leadership, explored opportunities in the United States, and began setting up a pathway into the NASCAR development system.

For the 49-year-old, the idea of leaving Australia wasn’t just a professional move but a complete lifestyle shift, one driven by ambition, restlessness, and a desire to take control of his own trajectory. Reflecting on the period of someone long removed from full-time racing, the Australian is open about how the decision began.

According to Ambrose, the spark didn’t come from a rival or a race weekend; it came from a grocery store shelf. He described how a serial box ended up becoming the final position he needed, saying, “So we turn up one day and I buy some Kellogg’s, you know, and my face is on the back of the sanitarium box and I go, ‘Well, how does this happen?’ … so I got upset with that..and yeah, and they said, ‘Well, if you don’t like it, go somewhere else.’ … So I went somewhere else. That’s kind of part of the reason why.”

That bizarre moment forced him to rethink the control he had over his image and career, eventually setting in motion the meetings that led forward to back his leap into NASCAR in 2006. In the NASCAR Cup Series alone, he made 227 starts, recorded 18 top fives and 46 top tens, and twice finished as high as 18th in points. His Watkins Glen victories in 2011 and 2012 cemented him as a road course specialist feared across the garage.

After nearly 10 years in America, the 49-year-old chose to return home following the 2014 season, admitting he felt he had “flattened off my learning curve” and needed to reset. However, he stepped back from full-time racing in 2015 as burnout and the challenge of readjusting to Supercars became too heavy to ignore.

He shifted toward endurance racing and family life, but health dealt the final blow, and the process recently shared that the battle with cancer ultimately closed the door on any possibility of a full competitive run. However, the Australian is completely hands-on to revolutionize the sport he loves so dearly.