Supercars 2023: Supercars great Mark Skaife make his predictions for the run home
It’s the halfway point of the season so who’s going to win the race for the race to the finish line? We asked Supercars legend Mark Skaife for his predictions for the run home.
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V8 great Mark Skaife is tipping a new Supercars champion at the end of the season, nominating Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown as the driver to beat in the title fight.
At the halfway point of the Supercars season, Skaife declared the series-leading Erebus squad as the biggest winners from the start of the sport’s new Gen3 era.
Casting his eye over the performances in the opening six rounds of the championship and looking ahead to the run towards the chequered flag, Skaife backed Erebus to hold on in its fierce title battle with Triple Eight.
Six rounds into the season, just 72 points separates the top four drivers – all in Chevrolet Camaros – in the Supercars championship standings.
Brown is the series leader, just seven points clear of his Erebus teammate Brodie Kostecki with Triple Eight pair Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen lurking behind them in third and fourth.
Skaife believed Brown could usurp Kiwi ace van Gisbergen as Supercars champion, saying his consistent pace across a range of circuits had made him the man to beat.
“I really hope they (Erebus) do (hang on),” Skaife said.
“Will Brown looks like he is probably favourite at the moment because he has had good pace pretty much everywhere.
“I thought his demonstration at Townsville even when they had those steering issues and he made it into the top-10 (was impressive) the way that he applied himself.
“The battle between the two of them (Brown and Kostecki) is really healthy and it’s really good for both of them.
“I haven’t really got a genuine favourite between either of the guys … but Will will take some beating again – and so will Brodie.”
Brown sits level with Feeney for the most wins this season with four victories, while Kostecki has four poles – the most of any driver – so far this year.
Triple series champion turned NASCAR sensation van Gisbergen has not had a race win in 10 starts since Perth as he battles steering gremlins in his Camaro, which frustrated him in Darwin and Townsville.
But Skaife was backing him to overcome his car issues to be a contender in the title battle.
“If you think about over the course of the season what happened after the disqualification from the first race in Newcastle and for him now to be only 72 points behind Will Brown in the championship and there are so many big races coming up,” Skaife said.
“We close out the year with places that we know he is going to be so strong. We know that on the streets of the Gold Coast and the streets of Adelaide he will be very, very strong.
“Clearly there has been something with the steering that has been very strange for Shane, we know he has got a very tactile, innate feel for the car … he has got a really magnificent feel for what the car does and what it drives like.
“So when he has been complaining about it, obviously there is an issue there. But with a team like that … I’m sure they will get to the bottom of it.”
BIG WINNERS
Skaife said Erebus, which also leads the team’s championship over Triple Eight, were the clear winners from the start of the Gen3 era.
“I did a complete podium analysis from season ‘22 to ‘23 and one of the massive variables was the uplift in Erebus performance,” Skaife said.
“You have to obviously give them real credit for coming into ‘23 with all new cars and all new stuff and doing a really good solid job with two blokes who are 25 years of age and grabbing the thing by the scruff of the neck and driving it really well, both of them.
“So that stands out to me as the biggest ascendancy.
“My biggest surprise has been just how strong they (Erebus) have been. We have seen them at the pointy end lots of times over the journey, but for this season to have come out and had the number of wins, Will Brown with four wins, four poles for Kostecki and Brown three poles … they just look solid.”
SLIDERS
In contrast, Skaife said it had been a tough campaign for Dick Johnson Racing – until it claimed its first win of the year when Anton De Pasquale triumphed on Sunday in Townsville.
De Pasquale’s breakthrough was one of just two podiums for the season for the top Ford squad.
“When you do the numbers, probably the DJR performance has demonstrated a very tough start for them,” Skaife said.
“There are obviously lots of issues attached to all of that, but I think the workload of being the (Ford) homologation team and the toll that that takes on everybody probably has been demonstrated with a pretty tough start for them.
“They have been a bit unlucky, there have been a couple of weekends where the cars have been quite good and there has been a pretty big gap between how they have qualified and (what) they have raced like. Their race pace looks to have been pretty solid at lots of places, but the qualifying performances hurt them.”
BIG IMPROVER
Skaife said the “other great story of the year” had been the performances of 20-year-old second-year Triple Eight young gun Feeney.
Feeney, who had a run of six consecutive podiums before his fourth place in the second leg in Townsville, has scored the most points of any driver in the past two rounds.
“I know we have been calling him Mr Sunday, but his Sunday performances at so many of the race meetings have been so strong,” Skaife said.
“When I look at him from the win that he had at the end of last year in Adelaide, you can see week in, week out, his approach and his professionalism and his improvement.
“The goal obviously to be competitive against your teammate with the best operator in the field in the garage next door is always going to be hard, but you can just see that level of improvement is there and it’s clear.”
LUCKLESS
One driver Skaife felt should be fighting higher up in the championship battle was Tickford Racing star Cam Waters, who sits seventh in the driver standings.
“If you think about the guy that has probably had the toughest run, and should be further up the order is Cam Waters,” Skaife said.
“His crash at Newcastle in the second race, the pace wasn’t good enough in Perth, but from then on, Tasmania was really good, should have been on pole for the two races, or at least one of the races on the Sunday. Darwin was leading and then obviously had that fire.
“So I think there has been enough (good signs), plus his pace in qualifying has been really good.
“If you go through and see a few of those sorts of guys, has the season from a total roll out of 2023, has it balanced itself up yet? It’s hard to know.
“I reckon there is some really strong combinations for Sandown and Bathurst and (James) Moffat joining him is a really good combo.”
TOP ROOKIE
Skaife has been impressed with the performances of Grove Racing rookie Matt Payne, who secured a maiden top-10 shootout berth in Townsville.
“I think Payne has done an especially good job,” Skaife said.
“There are lots of times where he has been as fast, if not faster than (teammate) Dave Reynolds. And making it into a top-10 shootout for instance is always a great thing for a young bloke coming into the game.
“I have been impressed by him and he stands out to me as a young guy with a very bright future.”
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Originally published as Supercars 2023: Supercars great Mark Skaife make his predictions for the run home
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