Toll Holden Racing Team driver Mark Skaife may be just two rounds from drawing the curtain on his illustrious racing career, but the V8 star is still setting new records.
This weekend at the Falken Tasmania Challenge at Symmons Plains Raceway in Launceston, Skaife will make his 213th Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar Championship start, passing Holden legend Peter Brock to move into second position on the all-time list behind John Bowe (225).
The 41-year-old five-time winner of the V8 Supercar series said passing Brock was not a milestone he had focused on, but it took on additional significance with the death in 2006 of his former team-mate and good friend.
"It's certainly humbling any time you can surpass a record of Peter's but, like when we beat his record for the most wins last year, it will be disappointing that we can't share the moment with Peter - that's one of the things that will make this event a little more emotional," Skaife said.
"I'm certainly proud to have been able to have contested so many events, but the amount has never been a priority. That's always been how many we could win and I'm humbled by how that's worked out for me, it's been fantastic."
Meanwhile, Skaife's team-mate Garth Tander said he was no longer focused on winning the championship after a horror round in Bahrain severely dented his chances of defending the title he won last year.
Tander trails championship leader Jamie Whincup by 292 points and with a maximum of 300 points on offer in each of the last two rounds, a miracle will be needed for Tander to win the title again this year.
Despite this, the two-time winner of the Tasmanian round (2005-06) vowed to leave nothing behind when he hits the track this weekend.
"As far as the championship goes we're just focusing on each race as they come," he said.
"We're basically a round behind with two rounds to go, so rather than go there thinking about the championship, we'll just try to finish the year off strong. If we do a good job we potentially claw back some points, but Jamie's got it all to lose and we've got it all to gain."
"I'm really looking forward to it. With the championship pressure off, we'll just go off and do the best job we can and finish the year off with some momentum so we're ready for next year."
Practice for this weekend's round begins on Friday with qualifying and the first race on Saturday before the round wraps up with two races on Sunday.