SUPERCARS figurehead Mark Skaife has moved to resolve the post-Newcastle saga involving himself and Shane van Gisbergen.
Skaife was publicly critical of van Gisbergen’s unwillingness to answer questions in the Sunday press conference following his sublime come-from-behind victory.
Van Gisbergen responded on Monday night, indicating he was making a point about essentially being pressured to only say positive things about Gen3, and described Skaife’s comments as “a real kick in the teeth”.
Skaife, a key powerbroker in the Supercars business and a driving force in the Gen3 project, has now explained his stance via a News Corp interview, albeit not touching on the censorship matter itself.
“I normally cop flak from everybody for how much support and how complimentary I am of Shane and his performances,” Skaife said.
“Normally when I compliment him on his performances in the car everyone smashes me, saying, ‘you’re a Triple Eight fan’ or ‘you’re a van Gisbergen fan’.
“I made sure that my comments the other day were not from being a board member or hierarchy in any way from Supercars.
“I was making a comment as a Fox Sports commentator regarding what the expectation is of a champion, of an ambassador for our sport. That was simply it.
“There was nothing spiteful (intended), I certainly didn’t want him to feel like I had kicked him in the teeth for instance. It wasn’t that.
“I was making a point that there was a responsibility and a duty under the normal conditions that we play in and that was all.”
Skaife admitted there had been many a press conference in his driving career that he would rather not have taken part in.
“I have been to lots of press conferences over the years (of) mine where I didn’t want to be there – and I put my hand up, totally, that sometimes I could be hard to deal with if it was a bad day, there is no doubt about that stuff,” the five-time Supercars champion conceded.
“But if you compare it to other sports and you think about the captain and coach of a rugby league team that might have lost or got a hiding, they still have to front and talk about it.”
Skaife has nevertheless reached out to Triple Eight to help put the drama to bed.
“I called Jamie (Whincup) and Jeromy (Moore) to say, how do you want me to move forward?” he revealed.
“I made the offer to fly up to Brisbane. I had a really good open discussion with Jeromy and Jamie, Jamie as the CEO of the business and Jeremy the technical director, to talk about the issue with Shane.
“It was a very open and honest discussion and where we finished was Jamie was going to talk to Shane and we would meet up going into the Grand Prix.
“That’s where I left it and I haven’t spoken to them again, we just have a couple of text exchanges.”
EXPLAINED: The Supercars appeals process
Round 2 of the Supercars season takes place at Albert Park across March 30 to April 2, before which an appeal hearing is due to unfold regarding the disqualification of both Triple Eight entries from the Saturday race in Newcastle.
