Motorsport: V8 drivers target Ambrose

Ford's Marcos Ambrose starts his V8 Supercar title defence today as a man under siege from within his own team and outside.

Ambrose's teammate Russell Ingall and Holden's resurgent Mark Skaife have painted a giant target on the two-time champion going into the season opening Clipsal 500 through the streets of Adelaide.

Both say they are capable of wresting the championship from Ambrose and both are confident of stopping Ambrose's attempt at a three-peat.

Ingall, who has never won a championship, went into 2004 confident it would be the year he finally shook off the bridesmaid's tag.

Instead he chased home his Stone Brothers Racing teammate to be championship runner-up for the fourth time.

Now Ingall has had enough - saying if he can beat Ambrose, he will grab that elusive title.

"I probably target him more than anyone else because he is the pacesetter, so if I finish in front of him, I don't think there'll be too many others in front," Ingall said.

"He's raised the bar in V8 Supercars - I know I've raised myself to match him and it looks like other drivers are going along with him."

Skaife was the last man to win three championships in a row - he and his Holden Racing Team dominating the sport from 2000 to 2002.

But Skaife and HRT fell on hard times in 2004 - the 37-year-old not winning a championship round for the first time in nearly a decade.

This year there is renewed Holden optimism, with owner-driver Skaife and his team implementing a 100-point plan in the off-season to return the "big red cars" to the top of the sport.

And Skaife knows the pressure of trying to complete a three-peat -- saying he likes the idea of being the hunter rather than the hunted this year.

"I know I'm on the road back and you can't have bad luck for too long in this game -- there's a quid pro quo there somewhere," Skaife said.

"Marcos has done an extraordinary job. Their team have worked very well and they've been the dominant force.

"But to maintain that dominance is very hard. We know -- we won five championships in a row (with Craig Lowndes winning in 1998 and 1999).

"In any sport it's very hard to maintain that level of commitment from everybody."

This year will be Ambrose's last in V8 Supercar racing before he bids to break into Nascar racing in the United States in 2006.

Adding further pressure to Ambrose's campaign is the fact a championship victory would elevate him into the all-time great category.

Only Skaife and 1960s hero Ian "Pete" Geoghegan have won three successive Australian touring car titles - Geoghegan eventually winning four straight for Ford from 1966 to 1969.

Practice, qualifying and the top 10 shootout for the Clipsal 500 will be held today, before two 250-kilometre races tomorrow and Sunday.

- AAP