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The big one is coming next week.Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly have been installed as favourites.
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,16805059-23770,00.html
Skaife the Bathurst bookies' tip
By Ray Kershler
October 4, 2005
BOOKMAKERS have installed Holden drivers Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly as the favourites for next weekend's Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama.
The Holden Racing Team pairing was the $4.50 pick yesterday ahead of the top Ford combination of Craig Lowndes and his French co-driver Yvan Muller at $5.
The bookies' market reverses the finishing positions at Sandown last month when Lowndes and Muller overhauled Skaife and Kelly to take the win in the race regarded as the Bathurst warm-up.
While Skaife has had a mixed season, there has never been any doubt about his car speed. Basic mistakes and bad luck have knocked him down the championship table.
Kelly, who recently re-signed with HRT for the next two seasons after protracted negotiations, emerged from his own slump to win consecutive V8 races in Shanghai and Darwin.
Skaife and Kelly are also one of only a handful of combinations retaining senior drivers for the endurance races.
Most other teams, including the championship-winning Stone Brothers Racing who have Marcos Ambrose and his teammate Russell Ingall in different cars, have split their drivers for a combination of reasons.
Skaife, as the boss of the Holden Racing Team, is adamant Bathurst requires a team to use its most experienced drivers. In the current commercial climate, though, that is not always possible.
Ambrose and Ingall have been split because of clashing sponsorship interests as well as the fact both Ford drivers are neck and neck in the championship chase.
Team bosses Ross and Jimmy Stone have decided the inherent risks at Bathurst would mean one crash could wreck not only a Bathurst campaign but both drivers' championship chances as well.
The bookies have taken Skaife's view, with SportsTAB dropping Ambrose, who is chasing a third straight championship, to the fourth line of favouritism at $6.50 while Ingall is out to $13.
Both Ambrose and Ingall have part-time but experienced V8 drivers, Warren Luff and Luke Youlden, in the co-drivers' seats. The third favourite for Bathurst this year is another Holden combination of Rick Kelly and Garth Tander, with the HSV Dealer Team car the only one carrying dual Bathurst V8 winners.
The Daily Telegraph
http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,16805059-23770,00.html