FORD XR8 SPRINT v HOLDEN SS-V REDLINE
76 WheelsMag.com.au
he came by... if Ingall hadn’t then swerved
his Ford Falcon at Skaife... then we
wouldn’t be here.
Oh yes, and if Ford and Holden hadn’t
decided to end Australian manufacturing
and kill off the V8 Falcon and Commodore
production cars that inspired the category
that made Skaife and Ingall household
names, then we wouldn’t be here paying
homage to them and what’s since become
known as ‘The Shriek at the Creek’.
But we are here. Ingall is torturing this
poor Falcon, I’m sitting in the passenger
seat, and Skaife is back in pitlane with the
Commodore SS-V Redline in which he’s
just set a time for his old foe to beat.
This is the final battle between two great
rivals who have waged a war for supremacy
over decades. And we’re talking about the
Commodore and the Falcon, folks, much
more so than Skaife and Ingall. They’ll be
racing wheelchairs when they’re in the old
drivers’ home. No, the sad truth is, when
Ford’s assembly line shudders to a halt in
October, that will be the end of Falcon.
Commodore has a stay of execution for
barely 12 months longer. So, one last time,
it’s a battle for bragging rights between the
two greatest cars ever built in Australia.
Picking a winner is going to be hard if
media reviews are anything to go by. They
have been strong for both cars.
But no journos have driven them like
this. And that’s precisely why Wheels has
wheedled, coaxed, nagged and cajoled
Skaife and Ingall to be here at 7am on a
cold winter morning for this shoot-out.
This is the place where their feud boiled
over 13 years ago, where hostility turned
to hatred. Now, thrown together by Fox
Sports to commentate on Supercars, their
relationship is better, but they are still
fierce rivals. So it’s time for them to fight it
out once more on the track.
Skaife, naturally, would set the Holden’s
time, Ingall the Ford’s. Both have six-speed
autos. Tyre pressures and fuel loads are set.
Each driver has four laps, electronically
timed. Our only concern is fresher
Bridgestone Potenzas on the Commodore
than the Falcon’s worn Pirellis.
Skaife is first to go in the SS-V. He hasn’tdriven a V8 Commodore for four years,
hasn’t even had a proper ‘speed’ at a race
track for ages. But you wouldn’t know it.
He hammers the Brembos to bring them up
to temp on the warm-up lap and asks me to
turn off the air-con. Every tenth counts.
For me, this is three-dimensional
Racecam. Skaife is a foot away. Inside
that familiar red, blue and yellow helmet
I see those piercing eyes and that sizeable
hooter. He muscles the wheel, elbows out,
all aggression and speed. The car slips
and slides but he sweeps it up and flows
forward. The beat of the LS3 V8 mingles
with the squeal of the tyres and the
disconcerting bbbbrrrraappp as we shortcut
across the jagged kerbs.
Skaife is unquestionably committed.
Despite ending up in hospital here in
1995 after a pre-season crash and the sour
memories of that 2003 fracas, Eastern
Creek’s high-speed flow has him hooked
like a junkie. “Other than Phillip Island
and Bathurst, I think it’s my favourite
track. It’s just superb how fast it is. It is a
really cool racetrack.”This is the place where their feud boiled over
13 years ago, where hostility turned to hatred