Mark Skaife looks certain to be lured into the occasional cameo appearance at Bathurst despite waving the chequered flag on one of Australian motor sport's greatest careers.
An emotional Skaife came close to breaking down several times as he announced he would retire from fulltime V8 Supercar driving at the end of the season.
Skaife, who has won more Australian touring car rounds than any other driver, claimed five Bathurst 1000s and five championships in a career which started in a Nissan Gazelle in 1987.
With fellow V8 champions including Craig Lowndes and Garth Tander looking on, Skaife admitted his enjoyment and commitment to driving had wavered recently, and he eventually made a final decision to quit last week.
"I've got to say I'm not enjoying it as much as I once was," Skaife admitted.
"Driving, although it's such a great team sport, it's also such a personal one. There's so much about being in the car by yourself and driving it ... you do it with incredible passion and incredible commitment.
"I can honestly say my commitment's not where it has been."
Skaife has endured a difficult season despite sitting in the top half of the championship, and will end his fulltime career at Sydney's Oran Park in December.
But the 41-year-old wouldn't rule out an occasional return to compete at Bathurst in the future - just like two of his mentors Peter Brock and Jim Richards had done following their fulltime driving retirements.
And he also left the door open to try his hand at other categories of racing.
"This is just a step back from fulltime driving," Skaife said.
"It will be a little bit of how I miss driving the car next year and whether I have a desire to jump back in the car.
"There will be times next year when I have itchy feet and want to jump back aboard.
"But in terms of endurance driving, at this point, I haven't made any decision about it."
Skaife has spent more than a decade as Holden's highest-profile driver as part of the Holden Racing Team, and ranks alongside the late, great Brock as one of the finest Australian touring car drivers ever.
After winning a championship with Nissan in 1992, he moved to Holden in 1993 once the category became V8 Supercars and won the championship in 1994 with Gibson Motorsport.
His name became synonymous with Holden once he joined HRT in 1997 and went on to dominate V8 racing in the early part of this decade.
Skaife's career peak came during a remarkable 2002 season, in which he won the first five rounds of the year and seven of the 13 - including the Bathurst 1000 - on route to a third successive title.
He was also a central figure in two of the most infamous moments in Australian motorsport.
When Skaife and Richards teamed to win Bathurst in 1992 in controversial circumstances in a Nissan Skyline, they were roundly booed by Holden and Ford fans, prompting Richards to label the mob "a pack of arseholes".
Skaife was also involved in the "race rage" incident at Eastern Creek in 2003, in which he angrily waved his fist trackside at rival Russell Ingall after he had been forced off the road, prompting Ingall to swerve his car towards his Holden rival.
Skaife, who will concentrate on his off-track role with HRT in the near future as well as spend more time with wife Toni and children Mitch, Mia and Tilly, admits he has only one nagging regret in his glittering career.
"I have to be honest and say I am disappointed I never made it into Formula One," said Skaife, who had driven open-wheelers with much success early in his driving career.
"On the other hand I know once I recognised we couldn't do that, what I tried to was make the most of what we did in this country.
"In terms of regrets from a domestic standpoint, I haven't got any."
Reply With Quote