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This is the complete transcript of Mark Skaife’s speech to the media announcing his retirement as a full-time race driver - 29 October 2008.
Thank you Neil, very kind words. I know that there’s been a lot of speculation today, a lot of people have gone to great trouble to be here, especially Crompo because as most of us know Crompo is an ex-frustrated race driver and now an aircraft pilot and he went for a little jaunt to Adelaide last week and stopped in Mildura and then couldn’t restart the bug-smasher so the bug-smasher’s somewhere between here and Mildura, it’s probably on the back of a Toll Truck hauled somewhere being transported back, and I’m sure he’s very about any of those little indiscretions that happened because Neil does his best to keep those things secret and as this speculation of my career and motorsport in general we all know you can’t keep a secret in this business. So Crompo, thank you for being with me today and thank you to so many people that have come out to join me.
The first thing that I’d like to say is that what I’m going to announce today has not come easily and it’s one that I’ve put a lot of thought into. In mid or early last year I briefed one of my best friends and certainly a business mentor in John Crennan to examine what would be life after racing for Mark Skaife and in typical M.Skaife and Crenno form we put together a special study which is about 75 pages of analysing my brand, analysing the alternatives for me in terms of what I did moving forward. Analysing fire research, what the opportunities might be moving forward, and what the possibilities would be in terms of retiring, contemplating an end of 2008 or 2009. So that was a massive project which examined hanging up my helmet and moving on with life. What I am going to announce today is that I am retiring at the end of this year which probably doesn’t come as a massive surprise to most of you here, but I can assure you that based on not only what John and I worked on and the thoughts that I’ve had over the last six months and especially the thoughts since Bathurst that this is one of the biggest decisions of my life.
For those who understand me and recognise my passion for driving cars and also the love of the competition they probably would understand how difficult this is for me. I’ve got to say that I’m not enjoying it as much as I was. I’m probably turned on more by walking into boardrooms and making sponsor presentations or putting a business case together for an HSV or a HRT in terms of how I operate in the modern world and from a really personal perspective driving, although it’s a great team sport, I’m very fortunate to have a fantastic team of people behind me and very loyal support, it’s such a personal thing. There’s so much about being in that car by yourself and driving a car at a level that I can’t describe. It’s one that you do with incredible passion but you do it with incredible commitment and I can honestly say that my commitment is not there to the level that it has been so as a consequence of that I’m making this decision.
I’ve always said that, and I’m in a difficult position because as a race driver and from a purist point of view it’s a personal decision about my driving career, but as an owner of Holden Racing Team I certainly would never do the wrong thing by the team nor would I do the wrong thing by our sponsors and our fans and our supporter group. So I said from day one that when this got to a threshold that I wasn’t enjoying it and wasn’t doing what I would believe is best for the team that I would make a big boy’s decision and step aside and essentially that’s where I’m at today.
The team’s in great shape, I’m very, very proud of the team. I’m proud of what the Toll HRT team stands for. We’re the factory team for Holden, we’re expected to win and I can assure you with the team that we have, the sponsorship that we have, the support that we have and the drivers that we have – a current Champion in Garth Tander, and Garth’s here today – we will be in good shape moving forward and that’s a determined and assured yes that HRT is in good shape.
Neil details some of my achievements when he introduced me and I’ve been very, very lucky in that I’ve driven for probably the two best teams in Australian motorsport over the last 20 years. I drove for Gibson Motorsport and it was certainly the best team of the 90’s and a lot of the guys are here today including Fred and Christine Gibson, thank you for that, and I was fortunate enough to join, at the end of Peter Brock’s career, to join HRT and to drive for the best team of the 2000’s so and again John Crinnen is here today who was instrumental and was the architect of me coming there and working very closely over a long period of time together. So in a bit over 20 years I’ve only driven for two teams and for me that’s a very important part of the foundation of Mark Skaife’s character and loyalty to the team that I’m with at the time.
I’ve created some lifelong friendships out of all that. I’ve been fortunate enough to have driven against some of the best drivers that Australia’s ever produced and I can say that with Jim Richards here, for instance, Glenn Seton, Craig Lowndes, Garth Tander, so many of the drivers that are here today, I was fortunate enough to come in at the back of the Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Colin Bond, Alan Grice, Larry Perkins, Alan Jones, that whole era of superstar drivers and then be teamed with Jim Richards and be teamed with Lowndes, teamed with Jason Bright, teamed with Garth Tander, teamed with Todd Kelly, teamed with drivers through a phase of my career where you had to compete to go well and that’s been part of what I’ve really enjoyed the most. And through the era of changing of those times where Glenn Seton comes along and we had great Ford versus Holden battles in the 90’s. Craig Lowndes come along, he was my teammate, we were fierce rivals but great mates, and then Craig joined Ford and obviously we had a modern 2000 battle from a red versus blue side and you know whenever we could beat the dark side we were a very happy team and that’s certainly the case as we speak.
I just spoke about the loyalty over those two teams over that period and for me that’s part of what has been a great aspect of my driving, and a great aspect of the friendships that have been born within those teams and for me moving forward the friendships that I’ve created with our sponsors and at the highest level especially from a Holden perspective I’ve enjoyed an incredible relationship and look forward to working with them moving forward.
I will certainly miss driving cars. Clearly I’ve got great memories: whether it’s coming from the back of the field at Clipsal and winning that race; whether it’s winning Bathurst with Jim Richards ten years after we won it the first time or second time together; whether it’s coming from last to first at Oran Park and beating Craig Lowndes in 2006; whether it’s Todd Kelly and I winning Bathurst on Todd’s birthday. I’ve got incredible memories of some of the things that we’ve been able to achieve, and I’ve spent my life developing race cars and cars, and whether that test driving or whether that’s race driving or whether that’s road cars I’ve enjoyed driving the cars so much that I’m sure that so many of you here would recognise that that’s been a big and important part of my life for well over 20 years.
It’s going to be important for me to finish off well. I can’t wait for Oran Park in terms of that competition there, and I’ve tried to reflect a little bit on what that will really mean, and the best thing that I can try to explain it via is leaving the pit area at Indy Car last weekend, a gentleman come up in an HRT shirt and he had his son with him, and there was obviously a lot of speculation over the weekend, and he said, “I don’t know if it’s true but if it’s true thanks very much for the enjoyment that you’ve given me and my family over the years of watching you race cars,” and I can’t explain any better how I feel about the sport and leaving the sport.
I want to thank my family and Tony and Mitch and my wider family and friends for all their support over such a long time. Everybody knows how much they’ve been a part of that, an integral part of what I do and what we’ve been able to achieve. Especially my parents and family for all the assistance and help getting into this game. My dad was obviously very supportive, Barry Seton, Glenn’s father, was also very supportive at the start and a couple of other guys, Don McLean, Harry Galloway, a lot of, Rod Smith, Anthony Tratt, lots of guys that are mates of mine that have really you know gone past and beyond where we are in terms of today’s record. But mostly driving, as I said, is such an individual pursuit but the team and the ability to have good people behind you is just like any business. Any race team is all about the people that are there and what I’ve had, and fortunately been able to achieve over a long period of time, is a great relationship from the people that have done the hard work in the background, and the people that have made me look good for many, many years, and so many of those guys are here today. Richard Holway, Robbie Star, Dave Spenson, Ross Holder, Andy Barclay, Jeff Greg, Pete Schaeffer, there’s so many and all of our current team that are here in red shirts today are guys that have put in for me in an incredible way. I know they’ve made my car safe enough to be out there, they’ve made my car fast enough to win the races and they’ve been loyal to the point of working all night to make sure I was on the grid to go and win races and that level of trust is something that I cannot explain any better than saying that this is like going to war with somebody, you have people alongside you that are so loyal and they know how much effort you’re putting in and you know how much effort they have commensurately put in and it’s an incredible relationship that you form with those people and I thank them very, very much.
From the document that I said at the start with John, there’s been a lot of planning. There’s some great plans for the future and it’s certainly a new phase of my career. I want to celebrate where we’ve got to but there’s a line in the sand from today on and like anything that I’ve done so far the future will be 110% of M.Skaife effort into what we do next.
Behind me there’s a little reference to Skaife next and there’s four arrows that signify the involvement in the industry, the involvement in racing, the involvement in media and lots of other opportunities, whether it’s driver training, road safety I’m going to go onto the Australian Motorsport Foundation Board which looks after young guys funding going into Formula One, there’s national retail automotive opportunities that I’ve been approached about and lots of other opportunities with things like Craig Kelly’s into me about doing a book at the moment which we’ve got a working title of ‘My Life in Red’ which Ned, as most of you who would know him Mr 20%, he knows one fifth of every number and we’ll work away at that Ned and me in the next year or so and have a warts and all look at a biography.
So in closing, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much and we’ll have some questions soon but I really wanted to make this announcement with so many of my friends and family and associates with me. I thank you very much for being here. I can honestly say that making this decision, a very wise man said to me once, when you make seven out of ten good decisions and things will work out pretty well for you and that’s what I’ve gone with. I feel much better that I’ve made one. I feel like it’s right to retire. I respect and admire some of the people that have done this well, Nathan Buckley, Steve Waugh, yesterday Grant Hackett. People that have done it at the top of their game and I certainly hope that’s how you perceive it also.
Thank you.
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