Motor racing champion Mark Skaife to retire

[HOLDEN 1]

Sad news for all, but hopefully we may see a Skaife and Seton combo at Bathurst next year. http://www.hrt.com.au/racing/2008/news/news.asp?ID=904

[VK BROCK SS]

Davison firms as Skaife's successor
By Guy Hand 20:05 AEST Wed Oct 29 2008


Ford's rising star Will Davison is set to replace retiring V8 champion Mark Skaife at the Holden Racing Team next year.

Skaife and Holden refused to confirm Davison's signing, though Skaife admitted a deal had been done to secure his 2009 replacement.

That successor is almost certain to be 26-year-old Davison, who would team with reigning V8 champion Garth Tander at HRT next year following Skaife's announcement he would retire from fulltime driving at the end of this season.

Out-of-contract Davison is the hottest commodity on the driver market after a career-best V8 year with Jim Beam Racing in which he sits in the championship top five.

Davison had been linked with moves to several teams, and interestingly moved to distance himself from speculation of a shift the day before news leaked out Skaife was likely to retire.

"We will make that announcement in the next couple of weeks, but we've certainly done it (signed a new driver)," said Skaife, who will remain involved with the ownership of HRT despite his retirement.

Like Skaife, Davison has a successful background in open-wheeler racing and fits with HRT's tried and tested formula of recruiting proven V8 drivers in their mid-20s to early 30s.

Any Davison move is likely to kick-start the 2009 V8 driver-go-round, with James Courtney set to move from Ford's Stone Brothers Racing to Jim Beam Racing to slot into Davison's seat.

There is also speculation Todd and Rick Kelly will unite under the umbrella of a Holden team run by their parents John and Margaret Kelly.

Rick Kelly currently drives with the HSV Dealer Team alongside Paul Dumbrell.

[lowgto]

I like the sound of a Tander/Davison combination for the enduros.

[Rick Kelly is awesome!!!]

I'd love to see Rick and Todd race with eachother again. Although i think Todd still has 1 more year on his contract with JD.
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W110 (http://www.mercedes-wiki.com/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_W110)

[senator_sig]

There was a story going on here that walkinshaw picked up a young driver here from Adelaide named nick percat as the future replacement for skaife... he is currently driving formula ford under a walkinshaw banner and works at hsv. I highly doubt that he would be taking skaife's seat now as he is yet to be seen even in a fujitsu car, so my money would be on davison to take the seat as rumored.

Todd better not leave as we are just starting to see results at team perkins, and its been a long drought. If we go back to price and perkins we will stay as the cellar dwellers for a while yet.