Champion Holden driver Mark Skaife celebrates 20 years as a professional race car driver as he returns to Winton next week for the V8 Supercar Championship. 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.
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