– the complete illustrated autobiography of one of Australia’s most successful Touring Car drivers
Like him or loath him, motorsport fans would have to agree that what Mark Skaife did behind the wheel in the Australia Touring Cars Series (Supercars) is nothing but exceptional. There is not much he hasn’t won in Australia and has often done it more than once.
The six-time Bathurst winner then turned his hand to broadcasting and is currently a regular commentator for FoxSports covering the Australia Supercars Championship.
Now he has written his autobiography which is a good read and/or will make a great present for this coming Christmas.
Reading his autobiography was easy because it was like you were listening to him telling a good yarn, remembering the good and bad times, covering his introduction to motorsport, eventually becoming a full-time driver, his team mates and co-drivers and some of those very special moments in his motorsport career. He fills in a lot of gaps in the career that we have watched endlessly on TV.
Between the chapters are his ‘mates’ telling us how they met him and why he’s such a good bloke, team mate, boss and so on.
Jim Richards – “Mark, to me, was a really good kid, a great lover of cars, generous to a fault and we got on really, really well. We don’t see each other too much these days as I am flat out doing nothing and he is flat out doing everything, but he’s still a great mate and there is such a strong bond there.“
What the book lacks is some real ‘tell-all-tales’. Skaife refers to several ‘episodes’, but doesn’t go into any detail, such as Tom Walkinshaw’s legal and solvency issues at the end of 2002 and its impact on the Holden Racing Team. He raises our interest then shuts it down. Hey, its an autobiography so why not fill us in on some detail.
Other than that he does fill us in on those early years at Gibson Motorsport, his first Bathurst win with Jim Richards in 1991, ‘that Bathurst win’ in 1992, again with Richards in a Nissan GT-R, the HRT years and what brought his on-track motorsport career to a close.
If you are a motorsport fan, particularly of Supercars, then you need to read this. If you are a Holden fan, then this needs to be on your book shelf with all your other Holden memorabilia. If you are a Ford fan, find a way to read this book and know why Skaife was such a competitive opposition.
Published by Affirm Press and available in all good book stores.
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