80 WheelsMag.com.au
directly own race teams in the category,
Skaife found himself owner/driver of the
top team. It was the wrong decision for
both him and HRT. He never won another
championship and nor has HRT. By the
end of 2008 Walkinshaw had regained
ownership and Skaife had retired from
full-time racing.
Skaife couldn’t have seen that coming
when he arrived at Eastern Creek for the
series final in 2003. He had put in some
brilliant drives during the year to still be
in the fight with Ambrose for the title. The
tension was high, exacerbated by the feisty
Ingall, with whom Skaife seemed to have
an endless verbal duel.
“All that stuff you do is actually a sign
of respect,” Ingall says on reflection. “If I
thought he was a flog I would never bring
his name up in a press release. It’s all
about racing hard, and gamesmanship off
the track as well as on.”
It all came to a head on lap 42 of theSunday race. Storms were gathered and
lightning flashed, but it could not match
the fireworks erupting on track.
Ambrose had disappeared up the road
headed for the championship. Skaife, on
fresher tyres, caught Ingall, then arrowed
into the Falcon and pushed it wide
enough for him to inch ahead. But Ingall,
The Enforcer remember, wasn’t happy
about that and moved inboard. They made
contact and the Commodore pivoted across
the Ford’s nose and smacked the wall.
Skaife clambered out of the smashed
Commodore, beetroot-red from stress and
exertion. He waited for Ingall to come
around again. He shook his fist and yelled,
Ingall swerved, and the rest was headlines.
“I didn’t mean to trowel him into the
fence,” Ingall reflects. “But I thought, ‘If
you give me a bump I am going to give you
a fucking decent one back’. But it went a
bit further than what it was supposed to.”
And the swerve? He grimaces.
“Oh, there has been so much written
about that, that I was trying to run him
over and all this sort of thing, and I think
that is what caused the most controversy
of the whole lot. But to be honest what it
came down to was I saw him waving his fistand it was just me driving over and giving
him the bird. Not too many people know
that. I just wanted to go over there and
make sure he saw me doing it.”
Skaife says he never saw the extended
finger, but he certainly saw red.
“Lucky I didn’t. I would have jumped on
the bonnet. I wanted to smash him so hard.
I tried to get in the truck. The whole thing.
When I walked into the SBR garage I was
just off my brain, absolutely fucking off
my brain.”
Ingall: “I was gone... I didn’t leave, but I
made myself scarce.”
And then they both laugh. Incredible.
For what it’s worth, both were slammed
when they went up before the beak. Ingall
was penalised 70 championship points,
Skaife 30; Ingall was fined $15,000 for
swerving, Skaife $10,000 for staying on
track to remonstrate; both were banned
for three rounds, suspended for 12 months
“to be of good behaviour”. A bit late forthat. It was already world news.
It took them 10 years to talk and start
to settle their differences. Even then, it
happened by accident, when they bumped
into each other (again!) at an airport.
Ingall: “We had a glass of wine together
in a Virgin lounge. That’s absolutely true.”
Skaife: “We hardly ever spoke before
that. I even said to mates of mine, ‘I am
never going to talk to that fucking low-life
ever again.’”
Ingall: “You can print that!”
And they both laugh again.
Now they see each other regularly
because of their commentary duties and
as a result have got to know each other
better, and even like each other. They’re
talking about a get-together with their
wives Toni and Julia.
“It’s a weird world isn’t it?” ponders
Skaife. “We both spend a lot of time
together and the rapport is really good.
We actually really enjoy it. It’s cool.”
Watching them dissect the Falcon’s
questionable on-the-limit handling is to
be reminded racers might retire but they
never stop doing their job. By now they
have each driven the two cars; Ingall has
also sampled the XR6 Sprint, which he“I wanted to smash him so hard.
I was just absolutely
off my brain,” Skaife says