For Holden legend Mark Skaife, it was the Bathurst 1000 that got away.
What loomed as a triumphant return from retirement vanished with a stroke of bad luck inside the last hour of the race - Skaife and teammate Greg Murphy admitting to being shattered following their fourth place atMt Panorama.
Skaife and Murphy were on track to produce an amazing win with 20 laps to go.
They sat second behind surprise leaders Greg Ritter and David Besnard, but with a pit stop strategy set to give them the lead in a fast car.
Then Ford driver Dean Canto crashed, bringing out the safety car and bringing Skaife's hopes of a sixth Bathurst win and Murphy's of a fifth unstuck through no fault of their own.
It meant they had to pit under the safety car with a compacted field, sending the Sprint Gas Racing car back into the pack as Garth Tander and Will Davison leapfrogged them and hung on to win.
"It's a cruel game this one. This was a race within our grasp, and it hurts," Skaife said.
"(The safety car period) fixed us up big-time. We were on track for a short pitstop which would have put us eight seconds in front of Tander.
"Days like that haunt you, because it's days like this you win this race."
Just to put an exclamation point on how much car they had under them, Murphy uncorked 20 rocket-like laps after he emerged from the pit to climb to fourth place.
He just missed getting past Holden driver Lee Holdsworth in the last lap - a move which would have put the veterans on the podium.
"Murph's was a massive drive at the end, but it should have been a drive for a win and not for fourth," Skaife said.
But Skaife, who retired from fulltime V8 competition at the end of last year, said driving at Bathurst again had whetted his appetite to compete in the endurance races again next year.
When asked if he would race at Bathurst again next year, Skaife said: "Why wouldn't I?"
