Five-time Australian Touring Car Champion and Bathurst 1000 winner Mark Skaife will drive in his 100th race start for the Holden Racing Team since joining the flagship team in 1998.
Coupled with the Seton/Bargwanna/Skaife milestones this weekend, Owen Kelly has been assigned to drive the Autobarn Racing Commodore in place of Alex Davison this weekend. Davison has been relatively unimpressive this year, whilst Kelly (of no relation to Rick and Todd) finished a career-high sixth at the Super Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The other new driver this weekend will be David Brabham – replacing Greg Ritter in the Ford Credit/FPV Falcon.
The Ferodo Triple Challenge marks the beginning of the end – and is likely to make or break the title hopes for championship aspirants. Three of the final six V8 races for 2005 will be held at Symmons Plains – each covering one hundred kilometres (or 42 laps). In preparation for the three sprints, teams will benefit from Friday’s two hour practice session in the lead up to Saturday qualifying.
Of the five likely championship contenders – the top three are Fords – whilst the other two belong to the Holden Racing Team. Russell Ingall and Marcos Ambrose from the Stone Brothers Racing stable head the points tally – each boasting a significant claim to victory this weekend.
Ingall currently leads the title fight his sixty-six point lead to teammate Marcos Ambrose, providing a reasonable buffer in the approach to this weekend’s racing – however a DNF will severely dent his hopes of securing an elusive V8 Supercar Championship. The British-born driver is however, aware that the competition will be ever close this weekend.
"Because of the simplicity of the track and the fact that we will be well under one minute per lap, the whole field could be split by a single second," says Ingall.
