V8 Supercars: Skaife To Return At Mount Panorama

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Aug 11, 2009
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V8 SUPERCAR LEGEND Mark Skaife has confirmed he will make a return to the race track after announcing he will contest this season’s two endurance events.

Skaife will team up with four-time Bathurst winner Greg Murphy for Sprint Gas Racing to end his brief period of retirement and form one of the most experienced driver pairings to compete at Mount Panorama.

The deal to bring Skaife out of retirement with Sprint Gas Racing was long suspected within the V8 paddock after he completed a test for the team at Sandown last month, and at Winton in May.

A five-time winner at Bathurst, Skaife believes his new team is more than capable of challenging the established giants of the V8 paddock and securing victory at Bathurst.

 

“Sprint Gas Racing is a strong outfit with some good strategic operators like Jeff Grech and Mike Henry calling the shots," he said.

"Last year Sprint Gas went excellently at Bathurst to run a close second, I reckon this year the team has the potential to go one better.

“From my point of view pairing up with Murph is ideal because we both know exactly what is required on the day. No one gets around the mountain better than Murph when he’s dialled in - four wins and a long standing lap record are testament to that.”

 

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Murphy said Skaife’s understanding of the endurance environment will provide the team with an added boost in the lead up to the events.

 

“It’s exciting for the team and the sponsors to have Mark Skaife join us. Experience counts for heaps at Bathurst and Skaifey’s got more of that than anyone else out there,” he said.

“I guess he wasn’t really ready to hang up his helmet for good last year and was planning for an enduro return. Mark wouldn’t do it if he didn’t think he could do it - and do it well, that’s the kind of guy he is. If that blinker eyed focus is back - look out!”

 

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Comments

  • Phil C. [reply]
    7 months ago 0 points
    Tough combo to beat.

    You'd have to expect the winners to come from Skaife/Murphy, Tander/Davison, Kelly/Kelly, Caruso/Holdsworth on the GMHolden side.

    Or from Lowndes/Whincup, Frosty/Richards, Courtney/Johnson on the Blue Oval side of the ledger.

    This year, is probably the first where there is more contenders on the GMH side than Ford for several years.
  • jon [reply]
    7 months ago 0 points
    The ultimate TOOL is back, hurry up and die V8 supercars. It has to be the most boring form of racing around, all that talent wasted driving bogan cars.

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