Skaife Chalks Up 20 Years Of Touring Cars

Skaife, who recently turned 40, began his career at the wheel of a factory-backed Nissan Gazelle in the opening round of the 2 litre Australian Touring Car Championship at Winton Motor Raceway, finishing third behind Toyota drivers John Smith and Drew Price.

Since then, he has gone on to amass a record almost unsurpassed in Australian motorsport, including five Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar Championships and five Bathurst 1000s wins.

Skaife also currently shares the record for the most ever ATCC/V8 round wins with Peter Brock at 37.

“Looking back, the two litre series was a great experience; the Gazelle had just over 200hp, weighed a little less than 900kg and had a small tyre. It was a bloody good little car to drive,” Skaife said.

The first of Skaife’s championship wins came in 1992 at the wheel of the all wheel drive, turbocharged Nissan GTR dubbed ‘Godzilla’.

Skaife has since won four further championships driving Holden Commodores, the first in 1994 driving for Gibson Motorsport, the last three (2000-02) with the factory Holden Racing Team.

Skaife said there has been three days that standout from the others during the past 20 years.

“The first was in ’92 when I won my first Touring Car Championship in the Nissan and then being the youngest ever to do so,” Skaife said.

“That same day we also won the Australian Drivers Championship in a Formula Holden open wheeler, so it was a great day.

“The second was winning the V8 Championship in 1994 with a Fred Gibson Commodore as it was Holden’s first title for 14 years since Brock and HDT in 1980.

“The 2002 HRT Bathurst win with Jim Richards was also one of my favourite moments, as it sealed the championship at the same time and came 10 years after my first Bathurst victory.”

Skaife said the commercial growth of the sport has been the biggest change he has seen in since 1987.

“In those days the commercial side of motorsport was in its infancy. Peter Brock was selling a few t-shirts to the fans and that was about it,” Skaife said.

“Nowadays the V8 teams would sell well over $1 million worth of gear at Bathurst alone and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

“Holden Racing Team’s support base, better known as the ‘Red Army’ has kicked off the year in fine style with our team merchandise sales up 20 per cent and club memberships up 25 per cent on 2006.

“I’m told HRT has something like 100,000 supporters around the country and they would be the most loyal bunch you can find.

“The Red Army is always there in force at every circuit in the V8 series – you can actually notice the sea of red caps and shirts while lapping during a race.

“Despite the conjecture of team compliance issues, HRT has made a flying start to the season with our new day-glo VE Commodore up to speed, netting Todd Kelly and myself third and equal fourth so far in the championship – it all points to a really successful year.”