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Champion
Toll Holden Racing Team driver Mark Skaife, today concluded that 40
years is a very long time in motorsport ! This was after inspecting a
replica of the first Holden to win at Bathurst in 1968, parked alongside
his 2008-spec VE Commodore racer in Mount Panorama ’s pit lane.
The
original 1968 Holden Monaro GTS327 was driven to a historic victory by
Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland, who led home a trifecta of Monaros to
post the first of Holden’s 25 victories in the 40 races since at the
legendary Western NSW circuit.
Skaife’s
father, Russell was a mechanic and worked with McPhee on his race cars
– the Skaife family hailing from Wyong on the NSW central coast as did
McPhee.
Now
a five-time Bathurst 1000 winner and five-time V8 Supercar champion,
Skaife – who was just 18 months old at the time of the ‘68 victory
– said the road car-based racers of 40 years ago were a very different
beast to today’s purpose-built racing cars.
“The
cars were very lightly modified and the engines had to be run in
properly. The cars were more like a showroom car of today,” he said.
“I
suppose it (the 1968 win) shows the difference in the way racing was
conducted in those days, because a local dealer, like a Wyong Motors,
could assist in building a car that could win Bathurst .”
Russell
Skaife, who remains friends with McPhee, said the win 40 years ago by
the locally-backed Monaro was a big deal. “The whole of the Central
Coast was just ecstatic at Bruce winning it,” he says “He was a
fantastic competitor at Bathurst .
“I
helped Bruce for several years with his cars, right back from when I was
an apprentice. My Holden utes were full of oxy bottles and all the gear
for Bathurst .”
Mark
Skaife and co-driver, reigning V8 Supercar Champion Garth Tander will
drive the #1 Toll Holden Racing Team VE Commodore in the 2008 Supercheap
Auto Bathurst 1000, to be raced this Sunday, and are among the favorites
to win.
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