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HomeNewsClassic CarsAMBROSE FALCON RESTORATION NEARLY COMPLETE

AMBROSE FALCON RESTORATION NEARLY COMPLETE

THE Ford Falcon BA that guided Marcos Ambrose to victory in the 2003 and 2004 V8 Supercar Championships is nearing full restoration by Ross and Jimmy Stone.

The ex-Ambrose car was one of only two Pirtek Falcons raced by Ambrose for Stone Brothers Racing during his five years with the team from 2001 to 2005.

He drove the same AU Falcon across the 2001 and 2002 seasons and ran his BA – chassis BA02 – across the 2003, 2004 and 2005 championships.

The car, along with the 2005 title-winning Falcon of Russell Ingall, was retained by the Stones after the sale of SBR to Betty Klimenko and its re-branding to Erebus Motorsport.

“We started working on it and had the panels repainted three or four years ago, but then we stopped,” Stone told Speedcafe.com.

“We started seriously again a couple of years ago and re-did all the panels and took it back to bare metal.

“We got into it again in February and now it’s about 90 percent complete and hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have it all done.”

Marcos Ambrose, Eastern Creek, 2003. Photo: an1images.com / Dirk Klynsmith.

Ambrose’s achievements in the car indeed are remarkable.

V8 Sleuth’s industry-leading AN1 Data statistics archive shows that Ambrose drove the car in 39 championship rounds over 2003-2005, claiming 13 round wins and 22 podium finishes.

Podium finishes are often incorrectly calculated given the championship’s move, from 2009 onwards, to award podium results to drivers for each individual race in the Supercars Championship.

Marcos Ambrose prepares to race aboard SBR BA02 at Eastern Creek in 2004. Photo: an1images.com / Justin Deeley.

Prior to the end of 2008, podium results were achieved by a driver for their overall round result, rather than individual race results.

Ambrose started 78 championship races in BA02 and won 25 – a success rate of 32%.

Ambrose took 10 of his 18 career championship poles in BA02, scoring five in 2003, three in 2004 and two in 2005.

The car is included in our limited edition hardcover book, ‘Ford at Bathurst, The Cars 1963-2018’, a 360 page hardcover release limited to 2000 copies with free postage now available here in the V8 Sleuth Bookshop.

More on the history of BA02 can be found in our magazine ‘The Falcon Files’ documenting the history of all V8 Supercar Falcons built from 1992 to 2017 – get it here, it’s now just $15 plus postage, a bargain!

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