Mark Skaife

Mark Skaife OAM (born 3 April 1967) is an Australian former racing driver.

Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

Skaife began racing karts in the 1980s in his native New South Wales, before moving to Melbourne to complete his apprenticeship under Fred Gibson.

His first car race was at Amaroo Park in 1984, at the wheel of a Holden Torana XU-1 sports sedan, which was partly built by his father, Russell.

In 1985 Skaife joined the NSW Ford Laser Series, finishing second in the series.

Skaife again finished runner up in the 1986 NSW Laser Series and winning the Victorian Series of the same year.

Skaife was due to compete in his maiden race at Bathurst in 1986, however his co-driver and team owner, Peter Williamson, crashed the team's Toyota Celica Supra MA61 at close to 260 km/h during practice with Williamson suffering a broken jaw in the crash due to the cars onboard fire extinguisher breaking free of its mountings and hitting the veteran Sydney driver in the mouth (Williamson wore an open face helmet).

Subsequently, with Williamson confined to a hospital bed in Bathurst and the Supra in need of major repair, the entry was withdrawn.

In 1987 Skaife won the Australian 2.0 Litre Touring Car Championship in a Gibson Motorsport prepared Nissan Gazelle, before finishing 19th on Bathurst 1000 debut in same car (co-driven by Grant Jarret).

The Bathurst result was somewhat controversial due to some alleged cheating during final qualifying.

In 1987 Bathurst had become a round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship and under the FIA's rules, all drivers had to qualify within 110% of the fastest time in their class and within 130% of the fastest overall time.

Due to the different class structure of the WTCC compared to the ATCC, the Gazelle was in Class 2 against the BMW M3 and Alfa Romeo 75 (instead of against the 1.6 L Toyota Corolla's) and during Friday qualifying Jarret had been struggling to post the required time and it looked like the car would be a non-qualifier.

After struggling for speed, during the morning session Jarret suddenly found the pace required and managed to easily qualify for the race.

However, it was alleged that it had actually been Skaife, dressed in Jarret's race suit and wearing his helmet, who had actually set the time with some pointing to the fact that Skaife was nowhere to be seen in the pits when Jarret allegedly set his qualifying time (after returning to the pits the car was driven straight into the Nissan team garage in the pit paddock with the door immediately closed which only fuelled the speculation).

Nissan team boss Fred Gibson refuted these claims at the time but years later admitted that Skaife had indeed qualified the car as Jarret.

Ironically Jarret's fastest race lap in the Gazelle (2:38.71) was actually faster than the qualifying time Skaife had set posing as Jarret (2:38.94).

During 1988 Skaife appeared at selected touring car events in Gibson's factory Nissan squad driving the Group A Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R.

He failed to finish both the Sandown 500 (diff failure when Skaife was leading on lap 94 of 129) and Bathurst 1000 alongside George Fury (the Skyline, with Fury at the wheel, had lost its fan belt at full speed on Conrod Straight instantly cooking the turbocharged engine on just lap 17).

In 1989 Skaife made four ATCC starts as third driver in the Gibson Nissan team, starring in the wet at Winton on the way to fifth place.

He paired with Jim Richards for endurance races, winning Sandown 500 before taking his first Bathurst 1000 podium in the Group A Nissan Skyline HR31 with third place.

1990 – Graduates to full-time drive with Nissan team following retirement of Fury.

Between 1991 and 1993 Skaife won 3 consecutive Australian Drivers Championships (ADC), earning 3 CAMS Gold Stars.

In 1991& 1992 he was driving the Spa 003, switching to the Lola T91/50 for 1993 each run by Gibson Motorsport.

1991 – Wins three ATCC rounds, including his maiden victory at Round 3 at Wanneroo, WA.

Skaife scores more points than any other driver during the season, but loses title to Jim Richards under drop-worst-round rules.

Takes dominant Bathurst 1000 win (with Richards) in record total time, in the Nissan GT-R R32, which was the first Japanese car to win Bathurst.

Also records a Bathurst DNF after driving the team's second car late in the race under cross-entering rules.

1992 – Wins four ATCC rounds on his way to the championship.

Takes second Bathurst 1000 win with the GT-R R32 as the race was red flagged due to wet conditions.

In 2004, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, for services to motor racing and charity.

In 2006, Skaife set a Guinness World Record with the fastest speed of 277.16 km/h (172.21 mp/h) for a production ute, whilst driving a HSV Maloo in the Wimmera in Western Victoria.

On 29 October 2008, he announced his retirement from full-time touring car racing.

Since retiring from driving, Skaife has worked as a commentator and presenter for the series for both the Seven Network and Fox Sports Australia.

He is the director of motorsport for design and engineering consultancy - IEDM, which oversaw the reconfiguration of Albert Park Circuit - for which he has been working since he retired from racing.

Skaife was born in Gosford, New South Wales, the son of touring car racer, Russell Skaife.

Skaife is married to his second wife Toni and has three children: Mitch, Mia and Tilly – Mitch born from his first wife Belinda.

He attended Wyong High School and is a known supporter of National Rugby League club the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles.

Finishes 14th in ATCC having switched from HR31 to R32 GT-R model Skyline midseason.

Finishes 18th at Bathurst alongside Richards having suffered mechanical problems.

Sustains back injury after rolling GT-R in Australian Grand Prix support race.