MOTORSPORT: Lowndes urges Skaife comeback

Although there was a perception that the pair were not the best of friends when Lowndes left Holden Racing Team a decade ago to join Ford, they won the Bathurst 1000 together last year for Holden and will team up again this year at Holden-supported Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone for the endurance season.

"With all these swimmers making a comeback, I'd like to see Mark Skaife make a comeback to V8 Supercar racing," Lowndes writes today in his column in News Corp papers."I've always said he retired way too early. He still has the ability, the speed, attention to detail and is great with car set-up."

Lowndes' comments about Skaife bowing out of full-time racing prematurely echo the sentiments expressed by this correspondent at the time.

However, it is a little odd that Lowndes wants even more competition than he already has in V8 Supercar racing, and just where he would see Skaife -- a former owner of HRT -- fitting in. And such a comeback would require major rearranging of Skaife's interests, priorities and schedule.

As we pointed out here last week, he already is wearing many -- perhaps trying to wear too many? -- hats.

Apart from his V8 Supercar TV commentary role, he is in charge of the time-consuming Car of the Future project which is behind schedule, is a director of V8 Supercars Australia, and has taken on greater responsibility at the Australian Motor Sport Foundation, as well as having a keen interest in road safety issues.

Walkinshaw and Holden created Holden Special Vehicles in 1987 after the split between the manufacturer and Peter Brock over the Polariser.

Walkinshaw then created the factory Holden race team, which made its debut at the first round of the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship at the now-defunct Amaroo Park Raceway in Sydney.

Walkinshaw lieutenant, team manager-driver Win Percy, finished an inglorious 14th that day.

Popular "Pom" Percy scored HRT's first podium at the fifth round of that championship, finishing third at Lakeside in Brisbane and he and Allan Grice then delivered HRT's first race victory -- a surprise victory in the Bathurst 1000 in October, with the V8 Commodore toppling a host of turbocharged Ford Sierras.

HRT became the country's most successful motor racing team and now boasts six drivers' championship titles (1996, '98, '99, 2000, '01 and '02), six Bathurst 1000 wins (1990, '96, 2001, '02, '05 and '09), and the 2009 V8 Supercar Teams Championship.

HRT has scored a record 196 race wins (166 championship, 30 non-championship) -- the most recent being James Courtney's race two victory at the first round of this year's V8 Supercar Championship in Abu Dhabi two weekends ago.

HRT is the only team to have won races in every Australian state and territory in Australia, as well as New Zealand, China, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.

It's the Targa's 20th anniversary in April, but it is 11 years since Johnson last took part in it.

The Corvette that the 65-year-old five-time Australian touring car champion will drive this time has a 7-litre engine and is owned by Neill Ford, of Yellow Cabs, a sponsor of Dick Johnson Racing -- which won last year's V8 Supercar Championship with James Courtney driving.

"I've done Targa three times and it is just a great event to participate in," Johnson said. "Other than finishing, I'm really not going there with any pre-conceived aspirations other than to have a lot of fun.

"The last couple of times we've had problems, so my plan this time is to exercise caution."

Targa Tasmania starts on Tuesday, April 5. After a 5.1km prologue at George Town in the state's north to decide the field's running order, competitors will face 38 stages over five days, ending in Hobart on April 10.

That figures included the 36-year-old son of the legendary Dale "The Intimidator" Earnhardt's from Hendrick Motorsports, a half share of his $4.9 million prizemoney, merchandise sales and personal endorsements.

Hendrick drivers filled the top three spots on the Forbes table, with four-time Cup champion and 82-time race winner Jeff Gordon at US$25 million and Jimmie Johnson, champion the past five seasons, on US$24 million -- including US$13.4 million prizemoney.

Tony Stewart, a regular -- and colorful - visitor to Australia for the Christmas-New Year dirt-track speedway season in Sydney and Brisbane, was No. 4 on the Forbes list at US$18 million.

Forbes valued Chevrolet outfit Hendrick Motorsports as the top Cup team at US$350 million, with Roush Fenway Racing at US$224 million, Richard Childress Racing US$158 million, Joe Gibbs Racing US$152 million and Penske Racing US$100 million.

$20 million stoush between former Petty partners
One of NASCAR "King" Richard Petty's former partners, Ray Evernham, is suing another former Petty team co-owner, George Gillett, for almost US$20 million.

Evernham has filed a lawsuit against companies operated by Gillett over unpaid shares of the former Richard Petty Motorsports, which has been restructured in recent months and now has Australian Marcos Ambrose driving for it.

Evernham, who won three Cup titles as crew chief to Jeff Gordon, started his own team in 2001 and sold the majority of it to Gillett in 2007 and the operation was merged with Petty's.

Gillett ran into massive financial problems last year and had to sell out of the Liverpool soccer club in Britain as well as RPM.

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