Skaife Pressure

Holden Racing Team boss and driver, Mark Skaife, has lashed out at certain areas of the media who have claimed he is under pressure to perform following some less than pleasing results in the opening three rounds of this year's V8 Supercar Championship.

“There are 20 blokes in the field who have never won anything and there is no pressure on them as to whether they are continuing, or people questioning what their career plan is,” Skaife said while preparing for the fourth round of the Championship at Perth's Barbagallo Raceway.

Skaife is currently 11th in the Championship standings, while his teammate, reigning V8 Supercar Champion Garth Tander, is second. However, Skaife believes his results so far this season don't truly reflect his form and that better times are just around the corner.

“For people to be criticising where we are, they are not understanding the true situation,” he said.

“To put it into perspective, we had a mechanical failure at Adelaide; we qualified on the front row of the grid at Eastern Creek and had a clutch drama in the first race, which hurt me for the rest of the weekend.

“We were fastest at Eastern Creek on Friday and for a long period of qualifying. At the Grand Prix we were strong; we were on provisional pole.

“At Hamilton the car was very good. Before the dramas with the pitstop, Garth and I were in first and second and you could clearly see that my car speed was good.”

Skaife says he is not sure why certain areas of the media seem to constantly place what he calls undue pressure on him.

“I don't know if it is because I am boss of HRT or if it is because I have been successful and they expect the same success all of the time. I don't know what the reasons are, but I am critical of people not analysing it properly and not putting those things into perspective,” he said.

Skaife is confident that his detractors will be eating humble pie before season's end.

“We haven't had a great run yet but all the signs are that it is only going to get better,” he said.

“I just want to get on and do the best that I can and I know that in the next few rounds; given the results that we have had at those tracks over the years, I know we are going to do a really good professional job and then we'll see where we are before the enduros.

“I'm looking forward to the next part of the championship,” he said.

Skaife indicated that the team will reassess its situation after the sprint rounds before deciding on its final endurance race plan.

“After the completion of the sprint series, before the endures, we'll have a look at where we are and we'll analyse what our endurance plan - whether Garth and I race together or whether we split up for one or two of the events,” he said.