MOTORSPORT: Skaife talks team ownership again

"Once I'm finished my racing (he remains an endurance race co-driver, this year with Craig Lowndes), maybe I'll look at owning or running another team," Skaife says in his new book, Skaifey -- Life in the Fast Lane.

"I've had numerous approaches but the timing isn't right at the moment. I'd love to have another red-hot crack at that without all the encumbrances of being captain and coach and all the external forces who were working against us (at HRT) for their own goals.

"I think the business of a racing team has evolved into such a big entity and the level of complexity means you can't drive and run the team.

"I reckon the way the business model looks now for a V8 Supercar team is pretty positive, especially when all the benefits of the Car of the Future (CotF) come into play in 2012."

Since the book was written by veteran motorsport journalist Andrew Clarke it has been decided to stagger the introduction of CotF over 2012-13.

"If you can run a two-car team for around $5-6 million and you're getting a large chunk of that from V8 Supercars (Australia), running a team is absolutely a viable business.

"With the cost savings from the CotF you'll be able to run two cars for the kind of money you needed in 2005 to run one, and that makes the business model financially achievable."

Since his retirement from full-time race driving and handing back full ownership of HRT to Scottish entrepreneur and Holden Special Vehicles owner Tom Walkinshaw at the end of the 2008 season, Skaife has been in charge of the CotF project for V8SA, of which he is a director, and become a Seven Network commentator. He has also been involved in track design, most notably Sydney's temporary Homebush circuit, and now road safety campaigning.

In Skaifey (published by Random House Australia and priced at $34.95) he dispels the reports of years ago that he paid only $1 for HRT when Walkinshaw's empire ran into major trouble with the collapse of its Arrows Formula One team. Skaife says the HRT purchase price in 2003 was $3.25 million, but that he was only ever half-owner.

"Let's not kid ourselves either -- no one really owns HRT because Holden owns HRT -- that's the fact," Skaife says. "While I was the 'owner' of the team with a large debt and management responsibilities, I was really only a caretaker, because the whole intellectual property rights and the use of the name is totally owned by Holden."

Later Skaife says: "In hindsight there are lots of things I should have done differently when I bought HRT. For instance, I should have immediately put on a great general manager or CEO; I couldn't do anything about the business structure because that was done as part of our original agreement with Holden, but I should have brought that to a head too.

"We were really a customer team for Holden Motorsport and then Walkinshaw Performance, which just drove me insane, especially given some of the people I had to work with at that operation."

While Skaife doesn't have a bad word for Walkinshaw in the book, he gives Walkinshaw's lieutenant in Australia, Craig Wilson, a spray.

"People like Craig Wilson, who was and still is running Walkinshaw Racing -- who I believe have very little understanding about the actual racing in motor racing and the very personal nature of driving a racing car at the highest level -- often tended to wind me up further," Skaife says.

"If, for instance, I had John Crennan (founding and long-time chief of HSV and HRT and now Skaife's close business associate) running the business side of the team it would be a totally different story today.

"Number one, I think I'd still be in there racing full-time.

"Number two, we would have won more races.

"Number three, I would have enjoyed the phase.

"Number four, he would have protected me from a lot of the drama.

"I really needed a bloke like John Crennan to make it work.

"I think we saw that when I had Craig Kelly (Skaife's personal manager) as acting CEO for a year -- we won Bathurst and things started to get back on track.

"I needed to be able to take a step back at times and his involvement allowed me to do that."

As reported here two weeks ago, Crennan has become chairman of the Kelly Brothers V8 Supercar operation.

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