Skaife: Triple Eight feeling effects of Moore departure

Mark Skaife believes Triple Eight Race Engineering felt the effects of technical boss Jeromy Moore's impending departure from the team in its New Zealand results.

Will Brown and Broc Feeney both failed to score a podium across the three Taupō races, marking the first time since The Bend in August 2023 that the team left an event without a trophy.

Engineering mastermind Moore tendered his resignation from Triple Eight last month in the wake of his recruitment by General Motors.

Moore is regarded as one of the best minds in motorsport, and spent 15 years at Triple Eight across two stints, along with a stint steering Porsche's World Endurance Championship efforts.

Moore, who was absent from recent races following news of his GM deal, is still set to be part of the Triple Eight family for some time, amid a six-month notice period and a six-month non-compete.

However, Skaife believes the team is feeling the effects, saying in New Zealand: "I think they're already starting to miss Jeromy Moore a little bit.

"I think this weekend, when you start to talk about cars that weren't in the window, and you start to have divergent policies around the engineering and your methods of fixing the car,

"Jeromy was a very sound person who sat within that debrief and within the engineering group and provided real counsel, and a real sense of expertise.

In his expert analysis piece for Supercars.com, decorated engineer Scott Sinclair claimed Triple Eight battled with a mismatch between its car set-up philosophy and the specific characteristics of the Taupō track layout, surface, and the new 2025 Dunlop tyre specification.

Brown, meanwhile, said it was "definitely a tough weekend" and that the team "captured pretty much the most points we could with what we had."

Skaife and Garth Tander both have experience racing in a Moore-led Triple Eight, having completed stints as co-drivers with the team. Skaife won the 2010 Bathurst 1000 with Triple Eight, with Tander winning in 2020 and 2022.

"Race teams need someone that goes, 'Don't go too far down that path,' because you go down that path, and you don't know where it will lead you," Tander said.

"You need someone who's effectively the bumpers in a bowling alley, just to keep everything on the straight and narrow. Jeromy was very good at that.

"I remember when I was part of that race team, he made sure that no one went too far off script. They knew what they do when they do it well, and it works."

Brown and Feeney are first and fourth in points, and Triple Eight first, heading to the next round in Tasmania.