Past masters
IT’S A GREY Friday morning at Melbourne’s Sandown International Raceway. Already, at 7.30am, the mowers are out trimming the lawns ahead of a coming horse race meeting. But we’re here to talk about a different kind of horsepower with Mark Skaife and Craig Lowndes, two true greats of Australia’s touring car and Supercars wars.
Sitting here in the famous main straight grandstand they do what motor racing people tend to do when they get together. They remember.
“One of my most vivid memories of this place is when Fangio did the exhibition that time,” Skaife says. “I was standing in the pit area and he came out of turn one sideways fully gassed up. It was brilliant!”
Skaife cracks that crooked smile, then laughs in that distinctive giggling way of his. He has such a serious, intense persona that it comes as a shock when you hear it. Lowndes, well he’s smiling and laughing too. No surprise there. The most popular driver in Supercars is renowned for his cheer, even though it camouflages a deeply competitive instinct.
Skaife, 52, made his touring car debut here in 1987 in a 2.0-litre Nissan Gazelle and won his class. Lowndes, 45, debuted here in 1994 in a Holden Racing Team Commodore, which he shared with Brad Jones to finish fifth outright.
“I knew my way around here really well because I was doing a lot of driving instructor work
