Keeping up appearances: Ambrose busy in offseason

The season may be over, but Marcos Ambrose hardly has slowed down.

A television crew from the Outdoor Channel program "Gold Fever" joined Ambrose for a week of filming in Tasmania last week for a show to be aired early next year.

More recently, Ambrose was honored with the prestigious Sir Jack Brabham Award by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, the governing body of motorsport in Australia.

Come Jan. 14-16, Ambrose will compete in the Dubai 24 Hour sports car race at the Dubai Autodrome. He will drive the No. 148 Ferrari F430 GT2 of the AF Corse team, partnered by Rob Kaufman, Michael Waltrip, Rui Aguas and Niki Cadei.

AF Corse team owner Kaufman is also a co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, with which Ambrose's team, JTG Daugherty Racing, has a close technical alliance.

"It is a bit out of left field," Ambrose said. "Rob Kaufman has his own race team in Europe that he 'plays with' and because JTG Daugherty Racing has an association with MWR I thought it would be great fun to go across and help Rob out.

"It will help me out too because it gets me back behind the wheel of a race car again before the season starts. I've never been to Dubai and I've never raced a 24-hour race over in the Middle East, so it's a racing first for me.

Ambrose has previous experience in GT and sports car racing, entering the Grand-Am Rolex Sportscar Series event at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal earlier this year with fellow Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards.

The Australian driver competed in the GT class at the 2005 Daytona 24 Hour in a Porsche GT3 Cup car with fellow Australians Paul Morris, Craig Baird and John Teulen.

"A 24 Hour race is a different mind-set. It's not about running the car at ten-tenths. It's about running the car at seven-tenths all day and looking after the gearbox, the brakes and the engine. I'm looking forward to it and it should be fun," Ambrose said. (Continued)