TeamVodafone's Craig Lowndes reunites with Mark Skaife at this year's enduros, beginning with this weekend's L&H 500.
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4:33 PM Thu 9 September, 2010
Source: BigPond Sport
TeamVodafone’s Craig Lowndes has declared his endurance co-driver Mark Skaife retired too early and that the most decorated V8 Supercar driver in history is the joker of the field at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island this weekend.
After a decade since they last drove together with the Holden Racing Team as arguably the fiercest team combination in the sport, Lowndes reckons Skaife has plenty left in him yet, starting this weekend.
“Skaifey should not have retired when he did, but I’m glad we got him out of retirement to partner me,” Lowndes said of his old buddy in the lead-up to the L&H 500.
“Very few people can read and understand a car as well as Skaifey and he’s still got plenty of speed in him. He’s a huge threat and a massive plus for us.”
Lowndes, winner of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 for three years running from 2006 to 2008 with teammate Jamie Whincup, went to the unexpected lengths to suggest Skaife might even start at Mount Panorama should he qualify the car better.
Skaife paired with Greg Murphy last year and were well in the hunt for victory late in the race before finishing fourth. Skaife won the L&H 500 in the previous year with Garth Tander, beating Lowndes and Whincup on the last lap.
“We don’t yet have a team strategy for who will start, who will finish and who will qualify at Phillip Island and Bathurst, but there could be some surprises. We’ll see who’s the fastest on the day,” Lowndes said recently in his newspaper column.
“We both have to qualify at Phillip Island, but I’m more than happy to hand over the duties to Skaifey at Bathurst if he's quickest. And I don’t care whether I start or finish.
“It’s been 10 years since we drove together. While it’s great to be sharing a car again, there were a few minor issues with pit stop driver changes; I get out head-first and he gets out tail-first. It also takes him a little longer because he’s got to get his walking cane.
“Jokes aside, we’ve got about 30-odd seconds for a pit stop with fuel and we can do the driver change in 20, so it’s not going to be a real problem.
“We're also about the same height and weight, so there’s been little compromise on seating position, although we did move the steering wheel 15mm closer to accommodate Skaifey’s unusual driving style.
“He has longer legs and a shorter torso so he has the wheel closer to his body. It was our only dispute when we were racing together in HRT.”
