Teams accuse Team Vodafone of additional testing

V8 Supercars rivals have claimed Mark Skaife’s laps for TV coverage are unfair and in violation of the spirit of testing restrictions.

Mark Skaife will be racing for Team Vodafone at the endurance events at Philip Island and Bathurst later this season.

The issue stems from Mark Skaife’s additional role as TV expert for the series broadcast. As in many championships, Mark gets the opportunity to run the car around the tracks for the pre-show that shows viewers the layout of the track.

Mark Larkham & Neil Crompton are also scheduled to do laps later this year, both are also former drivers but neither will be competing at the endurance events.

Speaking to Speedcafe, a number of team manager’s have commented that Skaife’s TV laps are against the rules.

Most vocal was Fujitsu Racing manager, Garry Rogers:
“The rules are the rules, and they say your drivers can’t have laps other than what is stipulated in the regulations. It’s pretty simple – very open and shut, I understand the necessity of the promotion for television, but they’ve got Mark Larkham and Neil Crompton as commentators who are both very capable drivers”.

Team Vodafone manager Roland Dane, rubbished the comments by Garry Rogers and other team managers:
“If by Mark doing three laps on utterly knackered tyres in our car around Bahrain is advantage for the enduros, then those guys need to go away and try to understand what it takes to win in motor racing.”

“V8 Supercars Television asked us if we would agree to Mark doing some laps. He did the same in Kelly’s car in Abu Dhabi, and he did it in our car here at Bahrain.”

The V8 Supercars championship is one of the strictest on the number of allowable test days, with only six per year.