Skaife selected as best Australian race driver
Six-times Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Skaife
Leading motoring and motorsports writer Paul Gover has selected Mark Skaife as his best Australian touring car driver of all time.
Gover has published Skaife as ‘the best’ in his first book – V8 Legends, Australia’s all-time top 40 race drivers.
Amongst the top 40, Gover selected his personal top 10, with six-times Bathurst winner Skaife heading the field ahead of John Bowe, Ian Geoghegan, Marcos Ambrose, Jim Richards, Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Craig Lowndes, Allan Grice and Frank Gardner.
The selection of Skaife as the best in the eyes of Australia’s leading automotive writer comes at a crucial time in Skaife’s driving career. After retiring from full-time competition in 2008, Skaife won the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races last year with Craig Lowndes, but his acceptance of the role as Chief Commissioner on V8 Supercars newly-formed commission has thrown his driving future up in the air.
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Skaife will drive with Lowndes in the endurance races again this year – and it could be his last.
Gover says that Skaife overcoming Craig Lowndes during the 2000 V8 Supercars Championship was a key reason behind his top selection.
“One of the reasons why I put Skaife in as number one was that when he turned up at the Holden Racing Team, Lowndes was king there and he managed to pull his pants down,” Gover explained to Speedcafe.com.
“If you look at history, not too much after that, Lowndes jumped the fence and went to Ford.”
V8 Legends is published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia and will be available at ABC Shops or the Pitstop Bookshop from July 27.
Gover is regarded as Australia’s leading automotive journalist with his work published in News Limited publications Australia-wide. He is currently the public face of the Carsguide brand at News Limited.
CLICK HERE for more with Gover and the thoughts behind his book.