Skaife gets edge in Island shakedown
16/3/2001 23:54 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Mark Skaife was declared a psychological winner after a final pre-season shakedown at Phillip Island Raceway today.
Skaife and the Holden Racing Team won the battle of Melbourne, as a number of Victorian-based Supercar outfits put their cars and stars through their paces over two gruelling test sessions (morning after afternoon).
TWR Australia had their full contingent of drivers on show, including Skaife, Jason Bright, Greg Murphy, Todd Kelly and new Young Lion Paul Romano. Castrol chargers Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall were in attendance, as were John Faulkner, Anthony Tratt, Tony Longhurst and Dugal McDougall.
While the day-long time trial was more about preparation than speed, Skaife grabbed the top spot on the time sheets late in the day with an impressive 1:33.4min flier, eight one-hundredths quicker than anyone else.
Skaife was buoyed by the VX Commodore’s pace, but also by its endurance performance ahead of Sunday week’s two 45-minute mini enduros.
"We tried a huge amount of things on the car, some of which worked and some that didn't but at the end of the day, we made ground,” Skaife said.
“Race consistency will be the key next week and we did two runs at different times of the day and the consistency of the VX Commodore was excellent. We'll come down next week fairly well prepared,” he said.
Bright, who finished as the fourth fastest, echoed his team-mate’s thoughts.
"Because of the new format, we were working on race distances too and what I felt about the consistency of the HRT cars after the Grand Prix was confirmed today. I'm very pleased and can't wait for next weekend,” Bright said.
Paul Romano was almost three seconds off the pace, but completed only half the number of laps as Skaife.
Newly-housed K-Mart Racing’s Greg Murphy, in his first V8 drive since Bathurst, held the fastest time for the better part of the day, but was pipped by Skaife late in the afternoon session. His stable-mate, Todd Kelly, was sixth.
The Castrol Commodores were also on-song, with Ingall setting the second quickest time overall.
Most team’s completed between 60 and 70 laps of the picturesque Island circuit – venue for the opening round next week – without major incident.
**PRACTICE TIMES - TOP TEN**
1st MARK SKAIFE (Mobil-Holden Racing) - VX Commodore [1:33.4091min]
2nd GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:33.4886]
3rd RUSSELL INGALL (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:33.8119]
4th JASON BRIGHT (Mobil-Holden Racing) - VX Commodore [1:33.9689]
5th LARRY PERKINS (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:33.9999]
6th TODD KELLY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:34.4037]
7th JOHN FAULKNER (John Faulkner Racing) - VT Commodore [1:35.3578]
8th DUGAL McDOUGALL (Pepsi Racing) - VT Commodore [1:35.4917]
9th ANTHONY TRATT (Toll Racing) - AU Falcon [1:36.1720]
10th PAUL ROMANO (Holden Young Lions) - VS Commodore [1:36.3617]
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