Skaife defends De Pasquale, questions results amid GM slump
Mark Skaife declares Anton De Pasquale as one of Supercars' 'A-grade drivers'
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan declared Chevrolet didn't have any stars in Christchurch
Skaife questions form of Team 18, who replaced Triple Eight as homologation team
Supercars Hall of Famer Mark Skaife has responded to claims that General Motors don't have any star power in their driving ranks, instead stating that homologation team Team 18 need to find form.
GM's driver ranks, which features rookies Zach Bates, Jayden Ojeda, and Jobe Stewart, was brought into question by Erebus CEO Barry Ryan ahead of the ITM Christchurch Super 440, where Chevrolet was granted a upgrade to their aero package.
However, Ryan disagreed with the upgrade, claiming that GM "didn't deserve" the upgrade on account of their inexperienced drivers not yet having runs on the board in the series.
"At the end of the day, I'll be totally honest, we haven't got any A-grade drivers. Some of the drivers won’t like hearing that, but they're not A-grade drivers. We haven't got multiple winners in our GM camp," Ryan declared on MotorRacing 360 in Christchurch.
"GM teams need to realise that they probably haven't got the best drivers, and none of the teams have got the runs on the board probably apart from us, and we're the ones that know our drivers aren't ready yet."
Speaking on the same program, Skaife declared that Team 18's Anton De Pasquale does belong in the top tier of Supercars drivers, on the strength of his impressive victory at the season opener in Sydney.
Instead, he believes the onus is on Team 18, who outside of the second race of the season have largely struggled for performance, with De Pasquale seventh, and teammate David Reynolds in 16th.
It pales in comparison to Triple Eight's dominant form last year, claiming 16 wins and 20 pole positions in their final season with GM. Between 2010 and 2025, Triple Eight claimed 73% of GM's wins.
"I would put Anton in the A-grade bundle, I think he absolutely is one of those. And he's driving the car really well, I'm not disputing where he is," said Skaife on MotorRacing 360.
"I'm worried about where they're finishing, because if I posed the question to the panel and said if Triple Eight were still racing Chevrolets, would they still be winning? My answer would be yes.
"When you apply that, you can't have 19 poles and 14 wins last year, it's not that long ago.
"When you've got a dominant team, with a couple of guys trying to beat each other week in week out, they showed last year that the Chevrolet could win and win regularly.
"Now why aren't they winning regularly right now? There's got to be a reason, and it comes from driver, team, parity, lots of things."
De Pasquale, who began his Supercars career at Erebus between 2018 and 2020, also responded to Ryan's comments through the week, and declared he wasn't letting it distract him.
The driver of the #18 DEWALT Camaro also stated that his win in Sydney was proof that Team 18 can be threats to the established title contenders, even if they have been yet to rediscover that same spark elsewhere.
“I got told about it,” De Pasquale said to News Corp.
“We were all having a bit of a joke about that afterwards. I don’t think you can get offended by what Barry says too much.
“I have spent a lot of time with Barry, you can’t take offence to what he says.
“We think we are a contender and I think most of our competitors would agree.
“We have been within that fight and we have won a race and a pole already, so we are definitely a contender no matter what anyone says or thinks.”
Speculation is also growing on Reynolds' future at Team 18, with GM in hot pursuit of Penrite Racing star and reigning Bathurst champion Matt Payne, as they seek to fill what they deem to be a void in their driver stocks.
The 2026 Repco Supercars Championship continues at the Tyrepower Tasmania Super 440 from May 22-24. Tickets are on sale now.
