Russell Ingall Passes Rival Mark Skaife for All-Time V8 Supercars Event Starts

Supercheap AutoRacing’s Russell Ingall will eclipse one of his fiercest opponents when helines up on the grid for the Tasmania Microsoft Office 365 this weekend.

By achieving themilestone of 221 event starts, Ingall will overtake Mark Skaife to move intosecond place behind John Bowe on the Australian Touring Car Championship/V8Supercars Championship all-time most starts list.

Ingall will passBowe at July’s Sucrogen Townsville 400 to become the most capped driver in thesport’s history.

The ferociousrivalry between Ingall and Skaife lasted many years and Ingall acknowledged theachievements of his adversary. 

“Mark is one of thegreats of the sport, so there’s no downside to having started more events thana highly regarded multiple champion,” Ingall said.

“It’s an honour tobe considered in the same company as Mark, but ultimately 221 starts is just anumber and I’m more interested in race wins and championships.” 

Ingall, a formerround winner at Symmons Plains, says the simple nature of the track makes itdifficult to gain an advantage, especially in qualifying.

“Symmons Plains isone of the least technical circuits, which makes it harder to produce a laptime,” Ingall said.

“It’s a horsepowercircuit and the times in qualifying tend to be very close.

“If we can keep theSupercheap Auto Racing Holden VF Commodore out of trouble and maintain ourcurrent fourth place in the championship, we’ll be looking good because mystronger circuits are coming up later in the year.”

This weekend seesthe introduction of the new 60/60 Super Sprint format for Saturday’s race,featuring two 60km halves separated by a short break. Two 100km races will be heldon Sunday.

Ingall is reluctantto judge the format until after the weekend.

“Everyone wants to be an expert, but we won’tknow until we’ve tried it out,” Ingall said.

“The double-filerolling start for the second part of the race could actually be safer than astanding start, because it eliminates the chances of a car stalling on thegrid.”

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