Mark Skaife: Why Holden’s closure is like a death in the family

Holden’s shock Australian exit is like someone has ripped out a huge piece of our country’s DNA, writes racing legend Mark Skaife. It is a tragedy the iconic brand lost its way.

Yesterday’s news about Holden was a bit like a death in the family for me. We’ve seen the writing on the wall for a long time but it doesn’t make you any less sad when the end comes. To me, Holden versus Ford was like Liberal-Labor or Collingwood-Carlton. It was this great heartland rivalry that was a huge part of our social fabric. My grandad bought Holdens for his business, my father’s first race car was a Torana and my first set of wheels was a WB Holden ute.

I’ve had such a great relationship with the people there and the brand, so it’s terrible to think there won’t be another chapter of the Holden story. Over the years, thousands of Australians have been part of the Holden family, from engineers and designers to dealership mechanics and factory workers.

It’s just unbelievable that Holden will no longer be part of the Australian landscape. The news has blown me away. I’ve had so many great Holden memories over the years.

It’s just unbelievable that Holden will no longer be part of the Australian landscape. Picture: Mark Horsburgh

I can still remember the enormous sense of pride I felt when I won Holden’s first touring car championship for 14 years in 1994 — the first since Peter Brock in 1980.

I was blessed to succeed Peter at the Holden Racing Team and be an ambassador for the brand at a time when the Holden Commodore was in the midst of a 15-year reign as Australia’s favourite car.

The brand felt invincible and it was run by guys with an enormous passion for cars. People like Peter Hanenberger, Denny Mooney and later Mark Reuss were fantastic to work with because they were real believers in the product.

I think that’s why I initially felt pretty angry when I heard the news today. I think the company eventually lost its way.

It’s such a travesty what has unfolded with the brand over the past 10 or 15 years. Because if you think about us at our height in the early 2000s when we sold nearly 100,000 Commodores in a single year — and the market dominance of the brand over the course of history — it’s like someone’s grabbed a big piece of our DNA and just torn it out.

All those great names, from the Kingswood and Torana to the Commodore, are part of our country’s history.

The Holden brand felt invincible and it was run by guys with an enormous passion for cars. Picture: Supplied

I’m angry about the mistakes that were made, particularly around the closure of the plant. I think they communicated that badly — I had so many people coming up to me asking if Holden was pulling out of Australia.

It also makes me sad to think about a Bathurst without Holden. It’s been part of our motor racing landscape for such a long time it’s hard to imagine a future without that wonderful tribal aspect of the sport. They will be there this year, but what unfolds after that is still up in the air.

As a sport, we’ve been thinking about what our next generation cars might look like and we’ve worked with General Motors overseas about what that plan may need to be, but nothing’s been resolved at this point.

I don’t think people realise just what we lost when we closed the Holden plant.

If that last Commodore wasn’t the best rear-wheel drive car — value for money — in the world then I’m a bad judge.

How did it all go so wrong?

Mark Skaife won the Australian Touring Car Championship five times, four of those with Holden.

Originally published as Mark Skaife: Why Holden’s closure is like a death in the family