Mark Skaife to Retire
October 29th 2008 02:30
This will see the end of a 20 year plus career for the Holden favourite, which is due to come to an finish at the completion of the 2008 series, and includes 5 Bathurst wins and five touring car championships.
This year’s series hasn’t really gone to plan for the 41 year old veteran with a number of rounds plagued by mechanical faults and driving errors. The highlight of Skaife’s championship this season would definitely be his amazing win, along with team mate Garth Tander, at the Phillip Island 500 just a couple of rounds ago, but this success was closely followed by a crash at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama a couple of weeks later which Skaife later admitted was driver error.
In a tussle on the top of the Mountain with Triple Eight’s Jamie Whincup on lap 102, Skaife locked a brake just before Forrest’s Elbow.
“I just blew it,” Skaife said afterwards, “it was a mistake. I locked a wheel at the righthand kink before the Elbow.
“The right front locked then the left front and I just couldn’t pull it up before it got into the wall at the Elbow.
“It wasn’t a big hit, but it was enough to do same damage.”
Skaifey
“Hopefully in the next couple of weeks something can be sorted,” he announced in an interview last week but refused to rule out staying with Ford for the upcoming championship series.
“There’s lots going on and either way it’s going to be very exciting for me next year,” he stated, describing next year’s offers as “awesome”.
“And it’s something I’ve worked hard at to get in that position.”
“A Holden deal is on the table, I have made that clear, but I am working through all of the possibilities.
“Soon all the pieces of the puzzle will become a fair bit clearer.”
Thankfully this is unlikely to be the last we see of Mark Skaife in Australian motor sport as he is expected to have a number of options available to him following the end of the 2008 V8 Supercar series, including the possibility of joining fellow ex-driver Neil Crompton as an expert commentator for the television coverage.
All we can say for sure is that if you are a driver in any aspect of Australian motorsport, watch out if you are up against a rookie called Mark Skaife next season and get used to looking at the back of his car!
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