Marcos Ambrose was always destined to become a racing driver, coming from a motorsport family where his father Ross was a driver and engineer at the highest level in the 1960s and 1970s.

Marcos was born in 1976 and started racing karts 10 years later, meeting with a great deal of success, including four Tasmanian junior championships, before graduating to senior ranks, where his success continued, winning the Australian clubman heavy championship in 1995.

From there, Marcos stepped up into Formula Ford in 1996, and finished second in the 1997 Australian championship with six wins.

Just as it did with his father Ross, Europe beckoned to Marcos, where he raced in the British Formula Ford Championship, finishing fifth in 1998 in a Van Diemen RF 98, which bore the name of the factory co-established by his father.

The following year Marcos won the Formula Ford Euro Cup series and finished third in the British Formula Ford Championship.

The next step for Marcos was into the prestigious British and French Formula Three Series in 2000, racing half a season in each with mixed results in both.

The budget to compete at such a level was proving difficult, so in 2001 Marcos returned to Australia, and was signed by Stone Brothers Racing to drive a Ford Falcon in the Australian V8 Supercar Championship.

 Marcos made his presence felt almost immediately, finishing eighth in the 2001 championship, earning the V8 Supercars Rookie of the Year Award.

The following year Marcos scored two round wins and finished third in the championship after competing at the pointy end of the field for most of the year.

Armed with a new Ford BA Falcon in 2003, Marcos won the opening round of the championship and went on to win eight more rounds to convincingly take out the title.

In 2004, his season was even more impressive, with 11 race wins and 20 podiums, to go back to back as Australian V8 Supercar champion.

At the start of the 2005 season, Marcos announced his intention to pursue NASCAR racing in the US at the end of the season, but first he wanted to score a three-peat in the V8s.

He was on target to do so, until a controversial crash in the Bathurst 1000 with Greg Murphy, saw him lose the championship lead, eventually finishing third for the year.

In 2006, Marcos made his NASCAR debut in the Craftsman Truck Series, stepping up to the second-tier NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2007 and then the top level Sprint Cup Series a year later, and continued race in both for a number of years thereafter.

Over an eight-year career in NASCAR at all levels, Marcos scored seven wins, eight pole positions and 68 top 10 finishes, making him one of the most successful non-American drivers in the sport’s history.

With a young family now a big part of Marcos’ life, he announced his retirement from NASCAR racing at the end of the 2014 season because, in his own words he wanted his daughters to grow up as Australians.

Having returned home to Tasmania, at the time of induction, Marcos’ daughters were embarking on their own motorsport journey, starting out in karting, just as their father did.

 Written by Martin Agatyn.