Trading Post Racing’s Jason Bright believes five-time Bathurst winner Mark Skaife retired from fulltime racing too early.

Skaife, who is also a five-time touring car/V8 Supercar Championship, left Toll Holden Racing Team (HRT) at the end of 2008 and last year raced in the enduros only, finishing fourth at Bathurst with Greg Murphy.

He has signed up to drive with TeamVodafone’s Craig Lowndes at this year’s enduros and besides commentating for Channel 7 the 43-year-old has also been working on the Car of the Future project.

Bright, who turned 37 in March, brushed aside concerns he was hitting his used-by date and referred to Skaife, who was his HRT teammate in 2001 and 2002.

“I still believe Skaifey retired way too early and for the wrong reasons,” Bright said.

“As he proved at Bathurst last year, he can still be competitive.

“Michael Schumacher is older than me and he’s back in Formula One and Russell Ingall won a (V8) Championship closer to 50 than anyone.”

Bright, who switched from driving a Falcon to a Commodore after notching up a podium and a pole position late last year, said he still had a “fair few years” of driving left in him.

“I can understand why people would think that but I know myself, and I’m pretty sure the people around me are pretty confident there are some wins just around the corner,” he said.

“The last four years haven’t been the easiest but I’m 100 per cent confident I can still get a few more wins under my belt and I’d say over the next 18 months we will prove that for sure.”

Brad Jones Racing (BJR) tested at Winton Motor Raceway on Monday which has boosted his confidence heading into the Skycity Triple Crown at Hidden Valley later this month.

While his teammate Jason Richards is driving the first car to be built in-house at BJR, Bright drives an older Walkinshaw Racing one. The Trading Post Racing driver has flagged the possibility of getting a brand new BJR Commodore for this year’s enduros.

By Briar Gunther
4:37 PM Fri 4 June, 2010
Source: BigPond Sport
www.v8supercars.com.au/skaife-left-too-s...d/10130/default.aspx

I totally agree with Brighty on this one, And have said so from the start that Skaifey has still got alot of great driving left in him

I agree with Brighty there. I believe all the crap with Walkinshaw and HRT really affected his driving. I think perhaps he might have been better off going to another Holden team without all the off-track stuff, Kelly Racing probably would've been best (I don't think GRM would've got rid of Holdsworth or Caruso). In saying that though, it was probably best he retired with the team he was most famous with, and not go to a team that didn't have as high a chance of winning.

I miss Skaifey driving full time Would of supported him even if he went to a Ford team.
Fair comments from Brighty, hopefully, fingerscross, Lowndes and Skaife win Bathurst!!!

Agree with Jason on this one. I've said this so many times before, but, the way he was catching Garth Tander, the pole sitter, at Bathurst last year in the mid-race was just amazing. Easily the qualities of a full-time driver.

I think he retired at the right time as a team manager and driver.

However as a driver, he retired too early. I would have liked to see him in the V8 Supercars championship as a driver and nothing else. We have seen it with Brighty...being a driver and team owner is a tough gig.

The Kellys are in the same boat but are doing well at the moment, interesting to see if they can progress up the field consistently for the rest of this year and beyond.

domme wrote:


I agree too domme that I miss Skaifey full time driving But it is very hard to say that I would have supported him if he had gone to the dark side
But Skaifey and Lowndesy at Bathurst are going to be a strong force

Agreed - Retired as a driver too soon and for the wrong reasons completley agree there.

I think too much pressure in other areas was the main concern. I never understood when he bought the team why he just did that and that only - BUY THE TEAM.

Appointed people in the right jobs would have taken pressure off him as a driver and allowed him to fully concentrate on what he was being paid to do.

Too many hats on alll at the wrong time of his career

skaifie wrote:


I think he felt that he needed to buy the team back then due to some upcoming rules that would've spelt the end of HRT if he didn't buy it. That's what I've heard, someone should verify it, because I am not completely sure.

tasmanlvr wrote:


I think when TWR went bust in 2003, Holden wanted to buy all the TWR owned teams (HRT, K-mart and PWR) but the rules said manufactuers aren't allowed to own teams. So I think it was the Kellys that bought K-Mart (?), Skaife bought HRT under the name Skaife Sports, and someone else bought PWR.

I'm pretty sure that if the three teams hadn't been bought by other people then one or all of them may not have competed in 2003. I think it's similar to what happened with HRT and HSVDT at the start of 2007...

Ok guy's back to the topic as all the stuff about TW and Skaifey buying HRT has been covered before
But I think we can all agree that Brighty has told it like it is and that Skaifey retired too soon
It would be a dream come true for me if Skaifey did come back full time driving
And I will be tipping Skaifey and Lowndesy for the enduros