ParcFerme.Com

The Holden Racing Team’s Mark Skaife has switched camps for the day and tested for Larry Perkins’ Jack Daniel’s Racing V8 Supercar team.

Skaife completed 10 laps of the Winton Motor Raceway circuit in the black #7 JDR VE Commodore in a test organised by Holden Motorsport Manager, Simon McNamara.

The five-time V8 Supercar Champion recorded a best lap time of 1min 25.1secs for the 3km circuit, which was comparable with other teams testing for next month’s Sandown 500 enduro.

“Holden asked me to evaluate the Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodores for a couple of young blokes in Price and Perkins, who are going well but still learning the ropes,” Skaife said.

“There are a few tricks in V8s and although the cars are certainly up to scratch it’s probably a couple of setup things in brakes and suspension that we would do at HRT.

“[Team Principal] Larry Perkins has always had a great engineering base, but you can’t replace driver experience and that only comes with more testing, more practice and more racing.

“I’ve had 20 years of it and I certainly don’t mind helping out in the best interests of Holden Motorsport.”

Jack Perkins said Skaife’s input and advice would be beneficial to Price and himself.

“It was great for us to get an overview from such an experienced operator like Skaifey – he’s the best in the business,” Perkins said.  “The disadvantage for Shane and me is that we are both learning from each other and neither of us has been around V8s that long. This sort of advice will certainly help.”