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SYDNEY - Driver Mark Skaife enjoyed one of the more special moments of an incredible 20-year career today when he surpassed the late Peter Brock's record for most V8 Supercar/Australian Touring Car round wins.
The 40-year-old won races one and two and finished third in race three at Sydney's Eastern Creek on Monday to take out the round with 65 points from his Holden Racing Team colleague Todd Kelly (52) and Toll HSV Dealer team driver Rick Kelly (50).
The win took Skaife to 38 career-round wins for the most in history - one clear of Brock, who died when he crashed into a tree in Western Australia last September while competing in the Targa West Rally. He was 61.
"Peter's record was a great record and when we equalled it last year in New Zealand (in April) he was the first one on the phone to call me," Skaife said today.
"It's obviously quite sad in one way because that won't happen again but obviously we worked quite hard to achieve what we've achieved.
"It's a very proud, very special moment for me."
Only last month Skaife put in the self-confessed worst performance of his career at Winton, where he failed to pick up a point in any of the three races and spun off an incredible nine times.
But the five-time series champion looked almost unstoppable this weekend only to miss the start in the final race and drop a few places by turn one.
Kelly won race three from Ford's Craig Lowndes after the pair survived a number of positional changes during the compulsory pit stop. Ford's leading driver this year, Jamie Whincup, finished fourth in the third race, but he was stripped of the result after Stewards penalised him for using incorrect brake rotors. It cost Whincup 15 points, demoting him from third to fifth in the round standings.
The best performance in the final race came from Garth Tander who fought from 15th to sixth, having already recovered from 30th to 15th in the day's earlier race.
The West Australian fried his clutch on the starting line during race two and dropped from fifth on the grid to last.
Tander went into the Eastern Creek round only one point away from his Toll HSV Dealer team-mate Rick Kelly at the top of the championship standings, but Kelly has now opened up a 24-point gap on 274 points.
Whincup, because of his penalty, is now tied for third overall with Todd Kelly (205), with Skaife (169) moving up to fifth.
Skaife said he didn't know if his record would ever be beaten but admitted he had little to no chance of breaking arguably Brock's most famous records - nine Bathursts. Skaife has five.
"Brock's record at Bathurst will never be beaten," Skaife said.
"It's an absolutely incredible achievement."
Another Australian V8 legend, Jim Richards was quick to congratulate Skaife today.
New Zealander Richards holds the record for most Bathurst starts (35) and shared three of Skaife's Bathurst 1000 victories.
"When I first saw him drive I realised straight away that he was going to be a champion and basically do anything he wanted in the sport," Richards said.
"I knew he was going to be something special."
- AAP
