Latest / Rusty's Garage / Robbie Farr Part 1 - Speedway memories & fudging birth dates

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Robbie Farr Part 1 - Speedway memories & fudging birth dates · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:10
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:28
  For this episode, I'm on the Gold Coast.
• 0:30
  I've been tic-tacking with Robbie Farr over the past few months about coming on, but I wanted to do it to record it face-to-face.
• 0:38
  He knows my soft spot for Speedway.
• 0:39
  And while I was in town for an MC job at a conference for Hino Australia, he kindly drove down with his wife, Sonia, for lunch and for this chat.
• 0:48
  Robbie grew up around Speedway literally.
• 0:51
  He started going to the track when he was just weeks old.
• 0:54
  His dad and his brother, they raced too.
• 0:57
  I can vividly recall the O'Brien aluminium green machine and the blue Peter Jackson cars, among others, that Robbie raced.
• 1:05
  The old Sydney Speedway, Parramatta as we affectionately called it, was...
• 1:09
  a home track of his and his record there was something else with the help of my colleagues Benny Bishop and Matt Nolte I'll rattle off some stats in this chat thanks to Benny especially there the stats are seriously impressive I learned in the convo that he could potentially have gone circuit racing too he actually started in carts at a time when Mark Webber and Craig Lowndes were around and James Courtney was well on the path to international success but Speedway was Robbie's
• 1:39
  He's fast, fearless.
• 1:41
  By his own admission, he was pretty wild when he was younger, something that circumstance would help him to tame.
• 1:47
  You'll hear more about that as we talk.
• 1:49
  His CV is diversely impressive too, chalking up major wins in multiple categories or divisions, if you like, but never at the expense of sprint cars.
• 2:00
  That's where it was at for Robbie.
• 2:02
  Recently, with a little age on his side, and in the post-pandemic thing that most of us went through of sprinting,
• 2:08
  What else do I want to do in my life?
• 2:09
  Robbie rediscovered circuit racing with a TA2 machine or Trans-M if you follow that.
• 2:15
  Cars that have a bit of a late model or NASCAR DNA and he is loving it.
• 2:21
  This is one of those episodes where you never looked at your watch, the discussion just flowed.
• 2:27
  I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.
• 2:30
  Hello, mate.
• 2:31
  It is fantastic to finally get you on.
• 2:32
  There's been a bit of work to join some schedules and dots here, but it's great that you're on.
• 2:37
  Welcome.
• 2:38
  Yeah, thanks, mate.
• 2:39
  Yeah, it's been, as I just said, we're...
• 2:41
  We were flying in and flying out, we were flying in and flying out, so it's all about timing, isn't it?
• 2:46
  It is, it is.
• 2:46
  Can I begin with early life?
• 2:48
  I like to do that with these podcast chats.
• 2:50
  Your dad's motorsport influence, he raced in Supermodifieds from memory, and I gather you were kind of in the Bronco, in the F100 at a very, very young age and off to races, weren't you?
• 3:01
  Yeah, definitely.
• 3:01
  It was a crazy time back then.
• 3:04
  Well, it was normal for us, for me and my brother, but dad was a bit different.
• 3:09
  We would...
• 3:11
  We'd go race anywhere.
• 3:12
  The roads in Australia weren't like they are now.
• 3:15
  And we'd finish school and we'd race in Adelaide on a Saturday night.
• 3:20
  As soon as we get home from school, we jump in the back.
• 3:22
  It was actually a Bronco.
• 3:24
  That's a massive drive, mate.
• 3:25
  Like, how are you playing?
• 3:26
  Back in the day, it was, yeah.
• 3:28
  And then we'd still be back at school on Monday.
• 3:30
  Like, it was, you know, Gladstone and, you know, Toowoomba and all these places.
• 3:35
  You know, growing up in Sydney, we'd be in different states.
• 3:38
  We'd leave our mates at school on Friday afternoon and then see them again Monday.
• 3:43
  They're like, what do you do on the weekend?
• 3:45
  Oh, you know, just drove to Adelaide.
• 3:47
  And back.
• 3:47
  Yeah, back.
• 3:49
  You know, and they've just, yeah, played soccer or something.
• 3:51
  Were you mesmerised by it with the cars and, you know, the racing?
• 3:55
  And can you remember being, you know, very young and gripped by it?
• 3:59
  Look, you know, I think predominantly we were, my earliest memories were Sydney Showground.
• 4:04
  Yep.
• 4:05
  I actually don't remember any of the racing.
• 4:07
  I remember the smell of the bikes, the back of the grandstand, the, I think there's more park at the front of the Sydney Showground and they all used to pull out there, all the race teams and.
• 4:17
  put their eskies on the wheel arches of the trailers, and I remember those sort of things.
• 4:22
  So my earliest, yeah, earliest memories would definitely be that and Liverpool Speedway.
• 4:26
  Both legendary players.
• 4:28
  Sydney Showground especially.
• 4:29
  Yeah.
• 4:29
  But I have vivid memories of Liverpool too.
• 4:31
  Yeah, Liverpool with the lights.
• 4:32
  They just have the lights that ran over the track.
• 4:34
  And the gate, when they would open the gate and the cars would swing over and then down into the bowl.
• 4:37
  Yeah, it was a funny little, it was a funny place.
• 4:39
  And yeah, and then obviously Parramatta as a kid too.
• 4:42
  So, you know, I think I remember the back of the hills more than the speedways.
• 4:47
  Yeah, just sliding down the back of hills on cold Coke boxes and that with, you know, Brooke or, you know, or Bray's or one of them guys.
• 4:55
  So yeah, we all just sort of grew up.
• 4:57
  Yeah, that was our backyard.
• 4:58
  The speedways was our backyard just to, you know, grow up in and...
• 5:02
  you know, with our parents racing and stuff.
• 5:03
  So, yeah, look, and then your dad's a hero type thing and then you want to do, growing up around spring cars, you want to do that as soon as you hit that age.
• 5:11
  So we did that.
• 5:12
  So at age 12, Karting World Sydney, I mean, it could have gone tarmac at that early stage, couldn't it, based on what I've seen?
• 5:21
  Yeah, it was an option.
• 5:23
  The karts were really good.
• 5:24
  Actually, I love the karts.
• 5:25
  They were such good years as a kid.
• 5:27
  Yeah, I drove for a team called Karting World that –
• 5:32
  Brian and Diane Thornton owned and dad would be off racing spring cars and they didn't have any kids and stuff.
• 5:38
  So they would, I was their house driver type thing and we'd pack up and go race, you know, Lithgow and Newcastle and all these sort of places.
• 5:46
  And then got to the age where I was sort of 15 and dad said, well, I could probably do a lot of things.
• 5:52
  afford to do one year of Formula Ford.
• 5:53
  Yep.
• 5:54
  Um, or I know I could do two or three years in, in Speedway and spring car.
• 5:59
  So I took that path.
• 6:00
  Like I think the road racing past month, I, as I enjoyed it, I think, um,
• 6:06
  It was a very high risk.
• 6:08
  When you're a kid, you just want to race.
• 6:10
  Growing up with spring cars, it was an easy choice, but I would have loved to try that back then.
• 6:15
  It was just, yeah, you don't want to send your family broke doing it.
• 6:18
  No, but Rushy, when he came on the pod, talked about that.
• 6:21
  He actually had a foray into Formula Ford when he was younger, and it wasn't sort of widely known.
• 6:25
  It really piqued my interest when I was talking with him.
• 6:27
  I am intrigued about the move into...
• 6:30
  into speedway statute of limitations has probably passed with enough time now and you I don't reckon you're the lone ranger to have done this back in the day but is there a story around maybe fudging birth dates and things to go racing yeah definitely it was you know I was troubled at the bit to get in and you know coming from a
• 6:49
  The old Clubman S 100cc straight into a spring car was quite unique.
• 6:54
  But it was the end of a season.
• 6:57
  And I was a July baby and just flicked the old paper birth certificates back then.
• 7:04
  A bit easier to fudge what we're on with now.
• 7:07
  So, yeah, we chose to do that.
• 7:09
  Well, Dad chose to do that.
• 7:10
  Mum and got me a couple of races at the end of that season.
• 7:13
  I was 15 and...
• 7:17
  15 and probably nine months, somewhere around there, yeah.
• 7:19
  That's pretty wild.
• 7:20
  So you're coming home from school, you know, school's done for the day, thanks for that, strap into a 650-kilo, almost 900-horsepower beast for your weekend activity.
• 7:31
  Yeah, yeah, we'd already snuck in a couple of wheel packs back then before.
• 7:36
  So, yeah, it was quite a, I don't know, it was different times back then.
• 7:39
  It was just, you know, everyone was...
• 7:42
  A bit more carefree.
• 7:43
  It was not as locked down as things.
• 7:44
  Yeah.
• 7:45
  So, yeah, 15, nine months and, you know, like I crashed a lot in the first couple of years and that I was pretty.
• 7:52
  Were you hooked though?
• 7:53
  Were you sort of like this is, you know, you talked Formula Ford there before, but clearly you were eyes focused on Speedway.
• 7:59
  100% never, didn't, never, you know, the Formula Ford thing was just an option that was put on the table.
• 8:05
  by my parents at the time.
• 8:06
  But yeah, once I'd chosen that path, I never looked back on, you know, or regretted that decision.
• 8:12
  Yeah.
• 8:13
  So give me some of those early memories of driving on dirt.
• 8:15
  You talk about packing and things like that.
• 8:17
  And when did you, and I think by your own admission, you were pretty wild to begin with, weren't you?
• 8:22
  Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, Parramatta was such a, a different type of racetrack than what it ended up being.
• 8:29
  It was really heavy, wet clay.
• 8:33
  fastest off the back on a Friday night.
• 8:35
  So you finish school and, you know, you'd pretty much head straight to the track or, you know, try and get out of school a little bit early and then, you know, a couple of hours later you're wheelpacking at Parramatta and, you know, to get on the track with guys like Gary Rush and that as a kid.
• 8:50
  Different when you're an adult and you've been racing a few years, like you're not probably –
• 8:55
  you don't look at other drivers or what their names are.
• 8:57
  It doesn't really matter type thing.
• 8:59
  But when you're a kid and you're on the track, yeah, 100%.
• 9:03
  You've spent your whole life growing up watching them guys win, you know, 10 Australian titles and, you know, Max Dumsney and all them guys.
• 9:09
  So everyone you'd been sitting on Hill Watch, you're actually that moment where you're actually driving around the track with them.
• 9:15
  That's the kind of really surreal moment.
• 9:17
  I do remember that stuff.
• 9:20
  So that was cool.
• 9:21
  And then obviously, yeah, not be sliding down the back of the hill of Parramatta.
• 9:24
  You're actually on the racetrack in the thing.
• 9:26
  So, yeah, it was probably a little bit – I was too wild early, but I was a pretty wild kid anyway, so it wasn't probably surprising that you –
• 9:35
  and temperament was similar in the race car as it was out back then.
• 9:41
  And then, yeah, over the years you started to settle down and not tear up as much.
• 9:45
  Mellow, mellow.
• 9:46
  Mellow, yeah, get older.
• 9:47
  We'll get to that.
• 9:48
  I reckon life has, you know, helped that with you sort of generally.
• 9:52
  If you're comfortable to share it, the toll that it took on family, mate, I mean, your brother was racing, as you said.
• 9:59
  It was –
• 10:01
  all in in many respects.
• 10:03
  It was hard on the folks financially, wasn't it?
• 10:05
  Yeah, definitely.
• 10:08
  You know, my parents, they love racing and they put everything in.
• 10:13
  At one stage there was my brother, me, and my dad all racing sprint cars.
• 10:16
  We had a two-car garage with three cars in it.
• 10:19
  at Padstow.
• 10:21
  So we had to take all the wheels off the cars to get them in the shed.
• 10:24
  You couldn't fit all three cars in the shed at one time.
• 10:27
  So wings off, wheels off, and we'd slide them in on trolleys just so we'd get the doors shut at the end of the day.
• 10:33
  But that was getting out of hand, probably with my tear-ups, with my crashing and stuff.
• 10:41
  But we used to straighten everything.
• 10:42
  We used to fix everything ourselves.
• 10:43
  It was a shoestring budget.
• 10:46
  And then Dad sort of stopped racing so much.
• 10:51
  we started to get a lot more competitive and then my brother chose to step down.
• 10:55
  And that's sort of when we had that Peter Jackson sponsorship and stuff, you know, we'll land a Toyota for a lot of years.
• 11:03
  And then when my brother become a crew chief, that's when we really started to get fast when we could sort of have, instead of having a one car budget, but running three cars, we actually had a one car budget for one car and that seemed to work a lot better.
• 11:16
  So, but you know, we had to, you know, we had to, you know, my dad, my parents had to,
• 11:21
  give us both equal opportunity um and and choose our you know see how far we could take things so well you're naturally um good at at understanding what the car needed and how to sort of sort it out or was that a is that a process for you when we need to get to the point where you could you know it can only be time and miles i suppose but where you would you would step out of a car and go okay that stag is no good or that you know what that's a good question um
• 11:47
  You know, spring cars are so much different than any other form of motorsport, I think.
• 11:55
  So it doesn't – you can't – they don't feel like a go-kart.
• 11:58
  They don't feel like a road car.
• 11:59
  They don't feel like anything.
• 12:00
  You know, you've got – you know, back then you'd have 16, 17 inches of stagger and, you know, big heavy car.
• 12:06
  They're tall.
• 12:07
  The way you sit in them, the way you brake, the way the brake pedals go.
• 12:10
  Like they're just – so there's nothing else like it.
• 12:11
  So you've just got to go do it.
• 12:12
  And then obviously that process starts from then.
• 12:17
  you know, what you do and don't like until you refine it.
• 12:19
  But probably didn't understand that so much when I was really young.
• 12:23
  I think when I started doing a bit of speed cars and then I started driving for other people, I think then you get in other situations and then you've got something to compare to.
• 12:33
  A bank of things to draw from.
• 12:35
  Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 12:37
  And that's just time spent.
• 12:41
  I think spring cars is probably potentially one of the longest sprinterships you can do because there's no –
• 12:46
  There's no real feeding category to it.
• 12:49
  They're just 900 horsepower, light, tie brakes, 25-foot square wing on top.
• 12:58
  They're just different.
• 12:59
  They're just different.
• 13:00
  So you've got to – the only way to do that, you know, I know they've
• 13:04
  you know, simulators and that have come a long way in the last few years.
• 13:06
  And I believe there is some decent stuff for Speedway, but back in the day there wasn't.
• 13:10
  It was just go do the laps and get them wrong and get them right and work out what's best.
• 13:15
  Already you're making me smile here, and that's prompting heaps of things for me to ask you about.
• 13:19
  Firstly, we talked speed cars there a moment ago.
• 13:22
  I...
• 13:24
  I wish I could drive like blokes like you.
• 13:26
  I've had the chance along the way to sample a bit of stuff from Brett Morris' speed car, Troy Jenkins' speed car.
• 13:32
  What was it about Parramatta, mate, and your record when you look back there?
• 13:35
  What was it in the end?
• 13:36
  50-plus feature wins or something?
• 13:38
  I'm trying to remember what the number was.
• 13:40
  Yeah, I think it was...
• 13:42
  49 feature wins, um, which was really good to look at Gary Rush's record.
• 13:49
  There was, you know, I was ahead of the pack, but then there was Gary Rush.
• 13:53
  He was, um, yeah, yeah.
• 13:55
  I would have took me another 10 years to get, get to his record.
• 13:57
  So that was a cool place though, man.
• 14:00
  It's much missed too.
• 14:02
  It took a lot of wind down to my sails when that, you know, went, went, you know, you just don't, to me, it was by far the best racetrack in the country.
• 14:10
  Um,
• 14:11
  And, you know, just that track was so technical, uh, being with the clay, with the cushion, you know, trying to run the bottom, like it was so technical to any other race track.
• 14:21
  Um, you know, I think you took more chances cause the fence wasn't there, but that, um, your mindset was, there's no fence.
• 14:29
  Um, but I think that actually created bigger problems in the end.
• 14:32
  Um, if you did go past the point, but, um, yeah, just cool joint.
• 14:37
  Um.
• 14:38
  He had such good times there and such good races.
• 14:40
  Yeah, it's true.
• 14:41
  Had something about that place for sure.
• 14:43
  It really did.
• 14:43
  Let's come to speed cars then if we can.
• 14:48
  There is in telling your story here, you get picked up along the way by Bobby Woods.
• 14:53
  I think he was injured.
• 14:53
  You get to drive his speed car for a few seasons.
• 14:56
  And then you later learn in this process that there was a moment where I think he basically saved your mum's life or something.
• 15:03
  Is this right?
• 15:04
  What sort of transpired there?
• 15:06
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:08
  So I didn't know Bob Woods at the time.
• 15:10
  So when mum and dad had business troubles, we sort of lost the house, we lost the race team, everything went south.
• 15:17
  So my racing career stopped pretty abruptly at that time.
• 15:21
  And it was a time back then that, you know, there wasn't car owners in the Speedway.
• 15:27
  There wasn't people that really put, you know, the dads own the cars and the kids drove them or the business that owned the car and he drove it.
• 15:34
  So it was really...
• 15:36
  time where I thought, okay, this could be it.
• 15:38
  This is, this is, we just got out of the gates and we're, we're, um, come to, come to stand still.
• 15:43
  But how hard was that?
• 15:45
  Yeah, it was hard.
• 15:46
  Cause you know, that's all I wanted.
• 15:47
  That's all I lived for by then was racing.
• 15:49
  So to have that, um, and you know, the term, all your parents, you know, going through what they went through and you're acutely aware of that at that age.
• 15:55
  Yeah.
• 15:56
  Yeah.
• 15:56
  Mom and dad split up and.
• 15:58
  There was a fair bit going on around that time at a young age.
• 16:01
  And it was through, Bobby Woods got hurt at Wagga, I believe.
• 16:08
  And yeah, it really knocked him around, you know, had a lot of balance issues and head issues.
• 16:14
  So he couldn't race anymore.
• 16:15
  But he just loved, he loved the speed cars and the midgets and...
• 16:19
  had a really good car and he just bought Tony Stewart out to drive his car.
• 16:24
  Yeah.
• 16:25
  And that was Tony Stewart, you know, prior to NASCAR, prior to IndyCar, prior to he was just a Speedway guy back then, doing a lot of USAC stuff in America.
• 16:34
  So he'd come out for a short stint and gone home and then Bob enjoyed it so much that he wanted to put someone in the car because he couldn't race himself and,
• 16:44
  he was up in the box.
• 16:45
  He was good mates with Gary and go Russian and Max Dumsney.
• 16:48
  And he sort of poked around them guys who should I put in the car?
• 16:53
  Who do you think?
• 16:53
  And those two guys pretty much, I think really saved my career a little bit, um, just in a conversation.
• 17:02
  Um, and then Bobby approached me and, and, you know, we put it together and had an amazing couple of years in the speed car, which, you know, I was nervous about the speed car cause it's not, I was a sprint car guy.
• 17:12
  Um,
• 17:14
  they are a different thing without the wing on them and that, you know, and you can get hurt if you disrespect them.
• 17:20
  You know, as I said, my track record to them was pretty wild on tear-ups and spectacular crashes.
• 17:28
  So I did really, you know, the speed car was really good for me to respect it, to tame down, and I really think that changed my mindset and my driving style.
• 17:37
  Did it?
• 17:37
  Yeah, well...
• 17:39
  I knew if I wanted to race, I had to rely on car owners.
• 17:44
  If you're fast but you're tearing stuff up and tearing money up, you're gonna have a short career.
• 17:49
  So I really had to change with everything I went through with the family and then getting in the speed car, I really had to, if I wanted longevity in the sport, I had to find a different way of doing it than what I was doing it.
• 18:04
  So when I was driving for Bob Woods, it was at Parramatta,
• 18:09
  Woodsie had a corporate box up there and mum was up there.
• 18:12
  Mum didn't know Bob Woods at all.
• 18:14
  So they were getting to actually get to know each other and through the season and everything.
• 18:18
  And then up there one night talking and Bob said, I used to go skiing down the Hawkesbury river back in the day.
• 18:26
  Mum said, yeah, I actually, we used to do the same.
• 18:29
  And Bob said, I actually pulled a woman out of the water that was dying.
• 18:33
  And he was, he worked at a concrete company and it was their Christmas party.
• 18:38
  And he was telling this story how he dragged this lady out that got run over by a speedboat.
• 18:43
  As it turns out, he's telling this story to mum.
• 18:45
  Mum was the person that he pulled out of the water.
• 18:47
  Unbelievable.
• 18:48
  Yeah.
• 18:49
  And there was a drunk guy in a boat in Hawkesbury.
• 18:53
  Mum was skiing and fell off and come around the corner and the guys, you know, ran over the top of her with the prop and everything and really cut her up pretty bad in the legs and stuff like that.
• 19:03
  Yeah.
• 19:04
  It was right on the bend where Bob and all his co-workers were having their Christmas party and they jumped in the water and dragged her out and ambulance and all that.
• 19:16
  What's the odds that I'm driving his race car?
• 19:19
  they talk about a 30 year old story and it was the two people that were involved and I just think that's the oddest story that... Man, if you talk about sliding doors moments, that's a pretty... Crazy, yeah.
• 19:32
  But yeah, look, Bobby Woods is just a gentleman and it wasn't surprising that something that he would do save a life, he's that type of guy.
• 19:49
  One of Robbie's Australian Speedway contemporaries is the legend, Gary Rush.
• 19:54
  When I first started, when I went to West B as a stock rod driver with a hold and I kept on rolling over all the time, I thought, these blokes got something that I haven't got.
• 20:03
  I really didn't think I had the ability.
• 20:07
  You can find this episode in the garage library after you've finished listening to Robbie Farr.
• 20:12
  Rusty makes no apologies for sounding like a fan.
• 20:15
  Rushy was one of the first people he asked for an autograph as a youngster.
• 20:19
  And Rusty still got it.
• 20:21
  Back to Robbie now.
• 20:23
  Were you naturally good on the tools and things as well?
• 20:25
  I mean, perhaps by necessity, based on what you were talking about before, I mean, three cars in the family garage at home and all that sort of jazz, one car budget for three machines.
• 20:32
  You have to be, don't you?
• 20:34
  Yeah, well, there was no – I was a mechanic by trade back then.
• 20:38
  I was doing my apprenticeship and there was no paid help back then.
• 20:42
  That wasn't a thing.
• 20:43
  You know, it was mates and neighbours and stuff.
• 20:46
  So, yeah, you did it all yourself.
• 20:47
  So, you know.
• 20:49
  Sunday morning you're the one up washing the car, pulling the wheels off it, you know, getting it ready for next week before you go back to school or work on the Monday.
• 20:56
  So that's always been the case.
• 20:58
  We always grew up in the shed around the race cars.
• 21:01
  When did you start to get a bit of money in the pocket for this?
• 21:05
  And you have, in the wake of everything you've just talked about, you have an immense sense of pride because I think you are really the pioneer as far as being ultimately in your career, ultimately the first full-time paid sprint car driver in this country, aren't you?
• 21:18
  Yeah.
• 21:18
  Yeah, because of the, you know, with the, with my parents, you know, with the race team, the family race team getting dissolved and then, you know, doing that with Bobby Woods and then we won the Australian Speed Car title and went to New Zealand.
• 21:32
  We won some races there and had a really good run in that Speed Car.
• 21:37
  And then, then that got me noticed again back in the spring car and it was Brian Linegan approached me the Australian titles at Parramatta and, you know, come and do that and then I'd
• 21:48
  go race for Kendrick, Jeff Kendrick or something in Perth.
• 21:51
  And I was sort of just jumping around, you know, whoever, whoever the phone rang and you go, yeah.
• 21:58
  Hustling, you're hustling.
• 21:59
  I had to hustle.
• 22:00
  That was because I wanted to race as much as a human, possibly good, because I didn't, you know.
• 22:06
  Brooke and, you know, Kerry Mads and them guys took an early different path in the early nineties and they'd go live in America and actually come back here to race.
• 22:14
  So sort of, I didn't want to do that.
• 22:17
  I love, I love where we live and, and that I didn't always took the, the view of, I didn't mind that break in the off season because I get excited to go race again.
• 22:28
  You go to America and you watch some of these guys that did a full time.
• 22:32
  And they weren't enjoying it.
• 22:32
  It was just a job.
• 22:33
  Okay.
• 22:34
  Okay.
• 22:34
  So I was always really, um.
• 22:36
  Conscious of keeping the passion.
• 22:37
  Conscious of that.
• 22:37
  I didn't want to lose.
• 22:39
  That's the one thing I love is racing.
• 22:41
  I didn't want to lose that love for it.
• 22:43
  I didn't want to, um.
• 22:44
  Make it a chore.
• 22:45
  Yeah, make it a chore.
• 22:45
  So I did it a certain way.
• 22:48
  That worked for me.
• 22:49
  Um.
• 22:50
  And as that turned out, it ended up becoming a job later down the road.
• 22:56
  But always, yeah, I always had fun with it.
• 22:59
  I didn't overdo it.
• 22:59
  I didn't overrace too much, you know, with America and stuff.
• 23:03
  And really, you know, it turned into – I was the first guy to get paid – you know, back then we used to get paid a percentage.
• 23:09
  Percentage of prize money, that's how it used to work.
• 23:11
  And it still does a lot, really.
• 23:13
  And then when we got to the ECP years and that, it was –
• 23:20
  You know, I was doing drive schools and two-seated A's and racing, and then that's, you know, I was the first guy in Australia to race spring cars professionally in Australia.
• 23:29
  Yeah, there was Americans coming out and getting paid and going back home, but...
• 23:33
  Probably the first homegrown professional, yeah.
• 23:36
  I want to come to the two-seater thing a little bit later and the sharing of the knowledge thing, which I think has been an important part of your yarn.
• 23:45
  Can I come to the importance of people around you?
• 23:47
  You mentioned about your brother moving away from the driving to work around the car with you.
• 23:52
  It's probably very hard across all the different teams you've worked for.
• 23:55
  to single one person out.
• 23:56
  I mean, I think of Carl Troffer, for example.
• 23:59
  I mean, there's lots of crew chiefs and people that have been part of your journey along the way, haven't there?
• 24:04
  Yeah, there's so many, especially with a lot that before
• 24:10
  Probably going to, you know, EWT and Cricky Motorsports and them teams and staying there for a year or two.
• 24:16
  And, you know, before that I was really jumping around a lot.
• 24:19
  Like if there was a race in Adelaide, you'd just jump on the plane and you'd go do it next week.
• 24:24
  I'd be in Perth.
• 24:24
  But all with different teams.
• 24:26
  Like the teams.
• 24:27
  So this is like helmet bag and everything.
• 24:29
  Yeah, exactly.
• 24:30
  Have race seat, we'll travel.
• 24:31
  We'll travel.
• 24:33
  So they were really good years for me, I think, to –
• 24:37
  go back to what you said earlier on find what I liked and what I didn't like in a car because I was actually in a different car.
• 24:42
  All the time.
• 24:42
  So, you know, really chasing that feel.
• 24:45
  So I loved all them years where you would just get off a plane, you know, some picks you up, you're in their race shop and getting your seat fitted and then you go out and see what you can do.
• 24:54
  And Sunday you jump back on a plane and go home and they were good years.
• 24:57
  And then obviously…
• 24:58
  It evolved into the EWT, Peter Johnson team, which then turned into the cricket team, Titans, Titan Racing.
• 25:09
  Then drove for top modelers for a year.
• 25:12
  And then I think it was probably from there we started probably looking around the ECP racing years.
• 25:17
  Yep.
• 25:17
  There was a bit of time there, I think, too, with Ronnie O'Brien.
• 25:21
  O'Brien, Alibir, wasn't there.
• 25:23
  Yeah, of course.
• 25:24
  Ronnie's a great guy.
• 25:25
  We want to work with Carl Troffer a lot and...
• 25:28
  So, yeah, there's so many race teams over such a long period of time, you know, 30,
• 25:34
  what is it, probably 34 years or something in Speedway.
• 25:36
  It's a long time.
• 25:37
  A lot of crew chiefs.
• 25:38
  Can we, you bring up the crickies, which is awesome.
• 25:40
  I've just literally done a voiceover for the coverage for the Crickie Boys shootout, which I, you know, that's a labour of love when you get asked to do something like that.
• 25:48
  What is it, you know, about driving for them some special memories there?
• 25:52
  And there were moments where there were peaks and troughs too.
• 25:54
  Hey, like there were some real tough moments too.
• 25:57
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:58
  So Shane, me and Shane were really good mates, really good mates.
• 26:02
  And...
• 26:05
  When we met, you know, we'd get on really good and have a good laugh.
• 26:10
  And then as it got to a point, he just had, I think he just had Skip Jackson in the car for a couple of years.
• 26:17
  And then I can't remember why Skip, whether he was going back to America or whatever it may have been, but he approached me to drive their car.
• 26:27
  And like, to me, that was an honor because that team just presented me.
• 26:31
  And the professionalism was ahead of its time, even back then.
• 26:35
  So yeah, but with that come a lot of pressure.
• 26:38
  Shane's not a guy that likes losing.
• 26:42
  Very competitive, very, you know, why aren't we winning type thing.
• 26:48
  He was always that way.
• 26:50
  But geez, we had some fun.
• 26:52
  Yeah, we ended up winning Australian titles together.
• 26:53
  And it was a funny team we put together.
• 26:58
  We actually ran Avenger chassis, which no one really had at that point.
• 27:02
  And we had QA1 shocks on it.
• 27:03
  It was quite a lot of packages.
• 27:05
  Some other sponsors that I had that I bought to the crickies.
• 27:08
  And they took a gamble on me.
• 27:10
  And, you know, I was predominantly running East Coast back then.
• 27:15
  So we went on the road, Dunwell Series, and I think that first year Darren Pittman won in the Titan cart.
• 27:23
  He won five.
• 27:24
  There were 15 rounds.
• 27:24
  He won five.
• 27:25
  We won five, and I went down the wire.
• 27:26
  It was a cool – just one of those cool years of just a dogfight to the championship.
• 27:32
  And then the next year we put some new Avengers together and we could not hit our butt with either hand.
• 27:37
  We were shocking, terrible.
• 27:39
  That must have been hard though.
• 27:40
  Couldn't work it out.
• 27:41
  Because you clearly thought, right, this is all we need to take that little next step and we'll nail this.
• 27:45
  Yeah, 100%.
• 27:45
  So it was, you know, Peter Capell and great crew chief, he was not, I think he was 19 at the time and...
• 27:53
  It was the first time in Burner Crew Chief, you know, we got this Avenger where... You're tapping all these things on your finger here as you... Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:01
  And then, yeah, just the next season was a struggle, just a struggle all year.
• 28:04
  So the Australian title was actually in Bunbury that year and we dragged the car we ran out, ran the year before and it...
• 28:12
  All the welds have cracked on it.
• 28:13
  There's cast flexed a bit back then and tank straps and all this sort of stuff.
• 28:17
  So we thought, no, we're not going to win the Australian title doing what we're doing.
• 28:20
  So we went back to the old girl and busted her off and put it back together and went out and won the Australian title.
• 28:25
  So that kind of did salvage that year.
• 28:28
  So you can have bad years and...
• 28:31
  Bad stretches, but eventually you've just got to keep changing things so you work out what it is.
• 28:36
  What it is.
• 28:36
  You know, we salvaged somewhat of that season through that and finished the year off pretty good.
• 28:41
  Your eyes softened before.
• 28:43
  The Crickie family have had this year of heartbreak, mate.
• 28:45
  Yeah, it just gives me tingles even just talking.
• 28:47
  Sorry, I didn't mean to.
• 28:51
  Yeah, look, lovely family, all of them are...
• 28:53
  very close to the crickies and, yeah, the tragedy that families had over the years is you couldn't read about.
• 29:02
  So, but, you know, they don't –
• 29:06
  They get on with it.
• 29:08
  And we celebrate it too, don't we?
• 29:10
  Yeah, 100%.
• 29:11
  The Cricky Boys race has been very special over the years, and I think that's probably why the record is good with that race because it's not a trophy.
• 29:19
  It's not a check.
• 29:20
  It means something, 100%.
• 29:24
  What was the relief like with that World Series win that you talked about a minute ago?
• 29:28
  I mean, you'd run second five times to legends like Dumsney, Tattnall.
• 29:33
  You mentioned the American Darren Pittman there before to finally crack that.
• 29:37
  What did that one mean?
• 29:39
  Yeah, that was good.
• 29:39
  I actually remember that year was me and David Murcott, actually.
• 29:45
  That was another dogfight to the end.
• 29:46
  He had a problem in the B main, I think, or something, didn't he, from memory?
• 29:49
  Yeah, we...
• 29:51
  We went to Manjimup, I think it was like a Wednesday night show and then the finale was at Motorplex in Perth and he actually spun out in front of me and we had nowhere to go and we cleaned him up and both cars were not well.
• 30:08
  Okay.
• 30:10
  And that took us both out of that race.
• 30:12
  So then it really left it then on that last weekend.
• 30:17
  We put a new car together.
• 30:18
  they didn't.
• 30:20
  And they, we went off qualifying as a few cars there.
• 30:22
  I think it was in the forties or something.
• 30:24
  And they qualified bad.
• 30:26
  And I'm like, Ooh, Ooh, this could be interesting.
• 30:29
  We qualified pretty good and they qualified bad.
• 30:31
  And it's hard to dig yourself out of a hole with a really, you know, he, I don't know.
• 30:35
  I think say there's 40 cars, he timed my 38th, like completely out of character.
• 30:39
  Right on the bubble.
• 30:40
  Hadn't done that.
• 30:41
  Hadn't done that all year.
• 30:43
  Um, they worked it out later.
• 30:44
  Cause you're really good friends with Dave Sharman and Murky and that.
• 30:47
  So,
• 30:48
  They should have put a car together.
• 30:49
  They had a car that just didn't react to what it had been doing all year.
• 30:53
  And from that mistake at Manjimup that he made, that we were the ones that ran into him when he spun.
• 31:00
  So just a really odd.
• 31:01
  And that weekend, I remember in Perth Motorplex, there's a big grass pitch you've been in.
• 31:07
  It was beautiful.
• 31:08
  And had a big screen in the pits right in front of where a trailer was, like the big semi-trailer, big screen.
• 31:13
  And I watched Dave's heat and I think he didn't transfer out of his heat and I'm like, this is starting to happen.
• 31:22
  All those years that it didn't go in our favour right at the end, it was starting to turn, yeah.
• 31:27
  So it was a...
• 31:28
  good moment by myself watching that big screen and when we when we realized that we'd won it among i mean we're going to come to some of the stats here in a minute but among the many things you've you've done right given that tough stuff for family and the sacrifice and to like to come back from that and to achieve that goal through some good hustle through learning even on the on the i would imagine the commercial side you bring in some people and some partners to this to to get that over the line something so significant in the australian speedway landscape that's pretty special
• 31:57
  Yeah, it's been a long journey and could have stalled out a few times.
• 32:02
  But, yeah, those early years were touch and go.
• 32:05
  And then, you know, I just prided myself on never, you know, I don't think, I think I've only ever lost out of everyone I've driven for, I've only ever lost two rides like where people have chosen.
• 32:17
  I've never burnt bridges.
• 32:19
  I've never...
• 32:21
  you know, so many car riders I've driven for multiple times because you just don't, they're friends, they're not, you don't burn bridges, you don't walk out of the next.
• 32:29
  That's a good message for kids away from the stuff you teach around driving and whatever.
• 32:34
  That's a great off-track message, hey, about, you know.
• 32:36
  I think so.
• 32:37
  I think if that's how it allows you to do what you love, if you need to rely on people, don't,
• 32:44
  Don't do the wrong thing by them because you think you won't need them.
• 32:47
  Even if it doesn't work out, even if it goes south for whatever reason, figure it out, but don't burn it on the way out.
• 32:53
  And it's the same for sponsors.
• 32:54
  When sponsors choose to go in a different direction, don't crack it about it.
• 32:59
  Ring them and say, look, I appreciate everything you've done for me in the past.
• 33:02
  Might not be doing it in the future, but I appreciate what you've done.
• 33:04
  Keep the door open.
• 33:05
  Yeah.
• 33:05
  Keep the door open.
• 33:07
  And that's probably been some of the things that have kept things going because –
• 33:14
  If you walk, everyone's happy when it ends, there's more chance it could happen again.
• 33:26
  How good is he?
• 33:27
  That is the end of part one of my podcast with World Series Sprint Car star and classic winner Robbie Farr.
• 33:34
  The good news is we are only at the midpoint.
• 33:36
  The second half is all loaded up in the garage library, ready for you to fire up when you have time, including some moments that he really cherishes, what the future holds, and how he's kind of come full circle and has rediscovered racing on bitumen in a TA2 car ahead of a big meet in Tasmania next month.
• 33:56
  And he's off with that same car to tackle Bathurst too.