Latest / Rusty's Garage / Matt Mingay (Part 1)

Transcript

Matt Mingay (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:15
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:31
  I'm in South Australia for this episode at the Adelaide 500, but my guest isn't a supercars driver.
• 0:38
  Matt Mingay is a record-breaking stunt writer who puts on a heck of a show.
• 0:43
  He came to the attention of movie makers and has worked on some major Hollywood and Bollywood productions, playing doubles for big-name actors.
• 0:52
  As you'll hear, his speech is a little impaired.
• 0:55
  That's the result of a massive race crash in Detroit in 2016 that almost killed him.
• 1:01
  This weekend, after passing rigorous medical tests, he's back competing in a stadium super truck.
• 1:07
  This is a remarkable story of someone who was obsessed with bikes and unconventional riding from a very young age and never gave up.
• 1:18
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:19
  I got my first mini bike when I was seven years old.
• 1:22
  What was it?
• 1:22
  A little Dixon for a little while, for like two weeks.
• 1:26
  Then I got an XR75 and I got a good progressive new R80, R125, why is it 80?
• 1:33
  It just goes on and on and on.
• 1:36
  And my real interest in motorcycle was I got my learner's permit and got a little CB100 kit.
• 1:45
  And I used to have wheels selling absolutely everywhere.
• 1:49
  And when I was 18, I got nine kilometers wheel standing when I was 18.
• 1:55
  You did a wheel stand for nine Ks?
• 1:57
  Yeah, when I was 18, and I got reason why I put the wheel down because I was pulled over by the cops.
• 2:05
  So I was going down the highway and people going past me, beeping the horn, yelling out, yeah, what was that?
• 2:12
  And a guy pulled up beside me, ignored him, and they put their lights on and sirens on.
• 2:18
  After all the scoffers, they pulled me over and they booked me.
• 2:21
  Crazy.
• 2:21
  Did you keep any of those, because you've got a little bit of a collection of things now, did you keep any of those bikes from the early years at all?
• 2:28
  I wish I did.
• 2:28
  I wish I kept that one especially because that was what I learned how to do wheel stands on.
• 2:33
  And I won my first wheel stand competition on that bike.
• 2:37
  when I was 20 years old, everyone was wheeling down Lakeside Straight and I wheeled down Lakeside Straight around the corners.
• 2:43
  That's amazing.
• 2:45
  Did that sense of balance and the technique required to do that, did that come easy to you?
• 2:51
  How many falls were there in learning that sort of stuff?
• 2:53
  Not at all.
• 2:54
  People will say to me, I'm too natural, and I'll put it down to practice.
• 2:59
  Honestly, people don't practice enough.
• 3:00
  They'll never get any better if they don't practice.
• 3:02
  And the amount of times I just practice was just day in, day out, just constantly practice.
• 3:08
  And when I started sunriding, there was no one else to watch because I've been doing it for 23 years.
• 3:13
  It wasn't DVDs, it was VHS, and there was no one in Australia at all doing sunriding, so I learned a hell of a lot by trial and error.
• 3:22
  Usually way too much error.
• 3:25
  And that's where I break a hell of a lot of bones doing what I do, so yeah.
• 3:28
  Amazing.
• 3:29
  So the whole notion of stunt riding and things like that, it clearly was what you wanted to do.
• 3:38
  I mean, were you at school?
• 3:40
  Were you sort of parking the schoolwork and focusing on this kind of thing?
• 3:42
  What were you like?
• 3:43
  Absolutely, I like Evel Knievel as my biggest hero That's why I got a tattoo of Evel Knievel with autograph on my arm My little boy's name is Max Evel after Evel Knievel I loved Evel Knievel I wanted to be a stuntman since I was a kid And I got the opportunity to be a stunt rider And I took a grader with both horns Just took it as far as I could
• 4:02
  Amazing.
• 4:03
  So from that incident on the highway to progressing to becoming professional, what was that path?
• 4:12
  What sort of jobs did you do in between time?
• 4:14
  Because I would imagine you still had to keep the practice up, but were you making ends meet in other ways?
• 4:21
  How were you doing it?
• 4:22
  Yes, I was a motorbike mechanic, a bike mechanic, and I got hired.
• 4:27
  I won the Wilsang competition, I beat Robert Boulder, and Wilsang competition at the time was a European champion.
• 4:33
  And I got quite a few, picked up quite a few shows up, and my boss wouldn't even have time off work.
• 4:39
  So I threw a towel in.
• 4:40
  And that was 23 years ago, I've never had a job ever since.
• 4:44
  And so the first few years were pretty rough, only show here and there, here and there,
• 4:49
  But my biggest break was about three years in the end.
• 4:52
  I got a job as Tom Cruise's stunt double in Mission Impossible 2.
• 4:56
  And that was the biggest break I've ever had.
• 4:58
  I worked for nine weeks, seven weeks, three weeks beside Tom Cruise himself.
• 5:04
  And, yeah, it was a big move, big break.
• 5:07
  And after that, every single person wanted to have Tom Cruise's stunt double at their event.
• 5:12
  I reckon that's the first time you and I came across each other.
• 5:15
  I think they filmed that in Sydney largely, didn't they?
• 5:17
  What were the bikes that you were on then?
• 5:18
  Were they Envy Augustus?
• 5:19
  What were you riding?
• 5:20
  No, they were trials.
• 5:21
  So I got a job.
• 5:23
  Apparently nine people applied for the job.
• 5:25
  I was at Eastern Quick Raceway.
• 5:27
  So they flew me down for it and I was late to it because I had to fly in.
• 5:31
  And they were all practising on the front straight, doing...
• 5:34
  horrible little wheel stands and and so i hopped on this triumph and did massive wheel stands stoppies donuts and i skied behind the bike and tom was there and he said oh he got a job so i got a job straight away and over a quite a few annoyed people i got a job so it was pretty good
• 5:53
  Very good.
• 5:53
  When you do that stuff, how much of it is seat of the pants, Matt Mingay experience, and how much of it is science and engineering, understanding the bike, understanding the stunt location and what you have to do within a certain area or space, for example?
• 6:07
  Yeah, no, I'll just wing it.
• 6:11
  Experience.
• 6:12
  Yeah, like I said before, a lot of it's practising and winging it.
• 6:17
  I've had some mighty big crashes my last accident in Detroit.
• 6:22
  Marks 47 broken bones that I've had and do what I do.
• 6:26
  So, yeah, I've had a few.
• 6:27
  And like I said, when I first started, there was no one else to ask how to do it.
• 6:33
  Now there's books and magazines and DVDs and Facebook, for example.
• 6:37
  There wasn't only that when I started.
• 6:39
  So I just do it and hope for the best.
• 6:42
  Was that movie experience a bit surreal for a young bloke?
• 6:45
  A Tom Cruise, I mean, A-list celebrity, a franchise in Mission Impossible that's gone on to do some amazing things.
• 6:56
  for the great man.
• 6:57
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:58
  I mean, I remember at one stage, I was sitting and dressed exactly the same, had a fake wig on, makeup, all the, because all the biceps were shot without a helmet on.
• 7:07
  So I looked exactly like Tom was, sitting on two deck chairs side by side for about an hour, because there was a problem with the set.
• 7:14
  And I was thinking to myself,
• 7:16
  I'm doing pretty good.
• 7:17
  I'm sitting beside Tom Cruise.
• 7:19
  We're always chatting and yelling about bikes, and that was pretty good.
• 7:23
  It was pretty surreal.
• 7:24
  Very.
• 7:25
  What things did you... Obviously, you'd worked in the bike shop you knew and loved the mechanical aspect of it.
• 7:30
  So when you're in that scenario, do you go, OK, we need to trim this, make this, change this.
• 7:36
  What things would you like on the bike to personalise it so you can move it around and do those stunts, you know,
• 7:44
  Because when they roll film, mate, it's expensive, isn't it?
• 7:47
  You've got to try and execute, you know, in as limited amount of takes as possible.
• 7:51
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:52
  Absolutely.
• 7:52
  I had to change the bike quite a lot and do quite a few things to do it.
• 7:57
  And I was only allowed to change things on the bike that you couldn't pick it up.
• 8:02
  No one could see it.
• 8:04
  So in that case, it was very hard to do it.
• 8:06
  I couldn't change the gear too much, changed the gear a little tiny bit and tyre pressures and tyres and handlebars.
• 8:11
  So I was a bit stuck on a few areas, but I still managed to do it.
• 8:16
  Do they come to you and say, okay, shoot location is this, we'd roughly like you to do these moves, whatever it might be.
• 8:24
  But then like a comedian, are there moments where you freewheel or go off script or try other things that you think might work or look even more spectacular?
• 8:34
  Funny you mention that because since Mission Impossible, I've done something like 10 out of 12 films and commercials and stuff.
• 8:40
  And the funniest one I've ever worked on is Indian films.
• 8:44
  Bollywood?
• 8:44
  Bollywood.
• 8:46
  I've done about four Bollywood films.
• 8:48
  The biggest one, the funniest one, my very first one, I went over to India to do it.
• 8:52
  And the director said, what we want you to do next is get on the G6R 600, get on your stunt bike, because it wasn't a stunt bike, it was a bulk stock bike, and jump over the helicopter.
• 9:07
  And when you're jumping over the helicopter, we're going to put your jacket off and throw it in the blades.
• 9:11
  Yes.
• 9:12
  I'm like, come again?
• 9:14
  I didn't quite get one.
• 9:16
  Are you serious?
• 9:17
  What, you can do it?
• 9:18
  You're a stuntman?
• 9:18
  No.
• 9:19
  I was like, I thought I was joking.
• 9:22
  I was looking around thinking, is he taking the piss or what?
• 9:25
  So did you draw the line there or did you execute?
• 9:27
  Oh, of course I did.
• 9:29
  I've never jumped a bike in my life.
• 9:31
  I was alone taking my jacket off and throwing it in the blades or spinning.
• 9:34
  I've got a spin chocker.
• 9:35
  Yeah.
• 9:36
  I couldn't believe it.
• 9:38
  He was kind of taken aback by that.
• 9:39
  He turned around and spoke in his language.
• 9:41
  God knows what he said to the other person.
• 9:44
  But, yeah, it was kind of an eye-opener for me.
• 9:47
  Bollywood is still a big deal, mate, isn't it?
• 9:49
  Bollywood's huge.
• 9:51
  People don't understand.
• 9:51
  Bollywood's biggest film industry in the world is Bollywood and overtakes Hollywood by a mile, by a long shot.
• 9:59
  It's huge.
• 10:00
  So how much did the Mission Impossible experience help you from a career standpoint?
• 10:05
  I mean, it's, I would imagine there's probably an element of privacy.
• 10:08
  You probably couldn't talk about everything in relation to Tom or whatever.
• 10:11
  But still to have that on the CV and walk into different things and say, okay, I was stunt double for Tom Cruise, that's in stunt terms.
• 10:19
  That's a big ticket, isn't it?
• 10:20
  Yeah, it was, it was.
• 10:21
  The biggest thing was trying to convince people that I was telling the truth.
• 10:25
  I swear to God, the funny thing was, I was Tom Cruise's stunt double, I was about a month or two, and I was single.
• 10:31
  I remember going to a nightclub and saying to a girl, I'm Tom Cruise's stunt double.
• 10:36
  And they were, whatever, buddy.
• 10:37
  I thought to myself, that is the stupidest thing to say ever.
• 10:41
  And quite a lot of promoters, big promoters, take it on board.
• 10:47
  And it certainly advanced my career big time.
• 10:50
  Every single event in Australia, while I wanted Tom Cruise and Stun Double at their event.
• 10:54
  So it certainly broadened my event list somewhat, that's for sure.
• 10:59
  Clearly, it's adrenaline-fuelled for you in that sense.
• 11:03
  We'll get to some of the crashes soon.
• 11:05
  But when you can pull off some of those moves, how rewarding is that?
• 11:12
  How many moments have there been where you get the heart flutter because you know it was pretty close to going to custard?
• 11:17
  Oh, mate, absolutely.
• 11:19
  I mean, the hardest thing in the whole world is, because I've practiced so much, most of the time I was practicing by myself, and so quite often I'd break an ankle, I'd break a leg, I'd break an arm, and I'd have to quickly, as fast as I could, get myself here, chuck it in the van or the ute and get out of there, because pain sets in a bit of an hour later, it sets in the hardest.
• 11:36
  So the sooner I get to the hospital, the faster.
• 11:38
  Yeah.
• 11:39
  And so I remember breaking an ankle and I was by myself in the middle of, I was just practicing at Old Brisbane Airport.
• 11:46
  And I was by myself, no one around to be seen.
• 11:48
  I just broke an ankle.
• 11:50
  And as quick as I could, rode the bike in the back of the van and tied the bike down and jumped in.
• 11:55
  It was a manual, it was my left ankle.
• 11:57
  I used to try and lose the clutch.
• 12:00
  So that was pretty hard.
• 12:01
  That was a very hard moment.
• 12:03
  You've alluded to a little bit of life there.
• 12:07
  So what was the van?
• 12:08
  Where were you living?
• 12:11
  Was it tough making ends meet in some of those early days?
• 12:13
  Absolutely.
• 12:14
  I was on the bones of my arse.
• 12:15
  I was a Dodge Yola High Ace van.
• 12:18
  And as a G6R, I lived 192 model.
• 12:22
  Standard High Ace van.
• 12:23
  What was it?
• 12:23
  Yeah, Bogstock 5 on the tree.
• 12:26
  It was a little gem.
• 12:29
  And I borrowed money off mum, support me with fuel to get to an event, and quite often sleep in the back of the van.
• 12:37
  Crazy.
• 12:38
  And, yeah, things were had to do.
• 12:41
  People don't think of it these days, but it's what you've got to do.
• 12:44
  Lots of bike guys end up with those high aces or vans, because they're quite handy for that sort of stuff.
• 12:49
  What were the conversations like with Mum?
• 12:51
  Was she okay about you doing this?
• 12:53
  Never.
• 12:54
  Never?
• 12:54
  Never.
• 12:55
  No, Mum and Dad hated...
• 12:56
  I was... Back in the 600 days, I was wagging in school one day in grade 12, wagging in school, and I went through a roundabout, and I got run by a spin truck.
• 13:08
  And I had a massive big compound fracture in my left leg.
• 13:11
  I broke the helmet shape, broke the rib, fractured my skull and I thought I was dead.
• 13:16
  And I put a blanket over me because I was knocked out.
• 13:18
  And it wasn't until the petrol was melting my leg because the petrol burst.
• 13:22
  It wasn't on fire, it was just melting my leg.
• 13:24
  And I came to and my left toe was virtually going up my butthole because my bone was hanging out my leg.
• 13:32
  And that was grade 12, so I was three weeks in the hospital for that.
• 13:36
  And kind of, from that moment on, my mum and dad said, right, that's it, never ever let him have done a motorbike ever again.
• 13:43
  And it wasn't until about three years later, I said, I'm going to be a snowman.
• 13:48
  And you can imagine how that went down.
• 13:52
  My father didn't talk to me for about six months, didn't talk to me.
• 13:57
  And it wasn't until about a year later, two years later, I got a job as Tom Cruise's stunt double, Mission Impossible.
• 14:03
  And Mum was wrapped one day because he heard Dad bragging to some friends, his son's Tom Cruise's stunt double.
• 14:10
  So that was a very big moment for me, a very big moment.
• 14:14
  Fantastic.
• 14:15
  Is it about...
• 14:16
  the power of the motorcycle or is that not important?
• 14:19
  It's the way you use them.
• 14:21
  And there's some unbelievable bikes in the marketplace nowadays, and I'm sure there's all kinds you've ridden over time, but is it about what you do to the bike, how you modify it, and is power on tap not necessarily the key ingredient?
• 14:35
  Yeah, absolutely not.
• 14:36
  People, when I started Sunriding, it was all 1,100 cc's with the most horsepower you can get.
• 14:42
  Now it's all slowed right down, people are Sunriding 600 and 400 cc's.
• 14:46
  It's by no means of power.
• 14:48
  My Harley has been riding my Harley for 10 years and it's all 80 horsepower.
• 14:54
  People think it's a...
• 14:55
  oh my god it's a hard day and I realized I only got 80 horsepower which most bikes have got 100, 120, 140 horsepower so it makes a big difference but you know it's all about balance and how you ride it as simple as that.
• 15:20
  The Matrix Reloaded weaving in and out of traffic motorbike chase scene, is the most expensive stunt with a motorbike.
• 15:27
  A fake highway was built on an abandoned naval base.
• 15:30
  It took three months to shoot, crash 300 cars.
• 15:34
  The cost, $127 million.
• 15:39
  Since I first came across you not long after the Tom Cruise stuff, we've crossed paths on regular occasions with the Supercars Championship because Stunts Inc and some of the things that you've been doing in between the sessions, you do these shows for the fans, both two- and four-wheel, get to the cars soon.
• 15:56
  But the two-wheel shows, you kind of always change it up.
• 16:02
  And some of the moves you were talking about, skiing off the back of it or whatever it was, I mean, there's some amazing moves, mate.
• 16:09
  Yes, I always try and advance and come up with new tricks.
• 16:13
  The good thing about Europe and America, they're always advancing new tricks and you see some tricks and you go, wow, how did you do that?
• 16:19
  And so it's a matter of trying to figure out how to do that trick.
• 16:23
  But yes, always progressing.
• 16:25
  I've slowed down quite a bit lately because of my injury.
• 16:28
  I still sound right, but I tame it all back a little bit just because I want to stay one piece.
• 16:34
  Because between you and me, I'm sick of breaking bones.
• 16:38
  made the telly was before?
• 16:39
  47.
• 16:39
  47.
• 16:41
  And, you know, the big crash is at Belle Isle in Detroit, which we'll get to in 2016 because that's been a massive thing for you that you've come back from, mate.
• 16:52
  It's an incredible story.
• 16:53
  Most people...
• 16:55
  if they're into bikes, throw a leg over the seat, get on it, and they go and ride.
• 17:00
  You know, it might be a nice country ride somewhere or riding, commuting to work.
• 17:04
  But for you, you could end up sitting on the handlebars.
• 17:06
  You could end up standing on that seat.
• 17:08
  There's all sorts of things, isn't there?
• 17:10
  Yeah, I know.
• 17:11
  It's so funny because I try and behave myself and I go for a normal ride.
• 17:14
  But I've got a gang of people, they don't ask me so much anymore, but they used to ask me all the time, oh, come for a ride with me, Mingate, come for a ride with me.
• 17:22
  Because I know when we go for a ride, I'm a complete dickhead on a motorbike.
• 17:26
  Just doing wheelies everywhere, standing on wheelies, sitting on a handlebar doing wheelies, no-handed wheelies, scraping the tail on the ground.
• 17:33
  You know, I'm trying to impress, trying to show off, mainly to show off.
• 17:37
  When you were hanging off the back for the first time and you were kind of skiing behind it, how the hell do you prep for that?
• 17:44
  How do you, I mean, how do you train for that?
• 17:47
  Yeah, I know, it was a tough one.
• 17:48
  So I made some alloy shoes with big titanium plates on them to make sparks.
• 17:53
  And that was, I think, the first one I did behind a car, a van, a high van.
• 17:59
  So you call up a mate or something?
• 18:01
  Yeah, you got a mate to drive, but I don't see how much friction the skis have.
• 18:06
  And I realised I was quite super.
• 18:08
  So the next thing was just jumping off the back of the bike.
• 18:10
  So after about four runs, I bugger it and just jump straight off the back.
• 18:14
  And I managed to jump back on again, and there was a big fist pump in the air.
• 18:19
  And the fastest I did was 245km an hour jumping off the back skiing.
• 18:23
  Oh, say that again, 240km.
• 18:26
  245km an hour.
• 18:28
  And the record was held by Gary Rothwell, 265.
• 18:32
  So I always wanted to break it, but I never biked fast enough.
• 18:35
  Have you broken other records?
• 18:37
  What about other records in the back?
• 18:38
  Yeah, I've broken a few records.
• 18:40
  I've broken, I've passed the Stoppy world record, rolling on the front wheel at 217, so 212 commas an hour.
• 18:47
  And someone beat me at 215 commas an hour, but two years later, so I broke it again, 217 commas an hour.
• 18:54
  And people don't realize that 217 commas an hour, you have to jam the front brakes on, and so by the time the back wheel comes off the ground, you wash off about 10 or 15 k's.
• 19:04
  So your gendered opponent breaks at 230km an hour, so you get 217.
• 19:08
  That is wild.
• 19:10
  A stoppie at 200 plus kilometres an hour.
• 19:13
  It's not fun.
• 19:14
  People must say, mate, are you mad?
• 19:17
  No, I've had that a few times.
• 19:20
  But the other ones are fastest wheel sand.
• 19:24
  So I did a fastest wheel sand at 245km an hour for one kilometre.
• 19:28
  Where'd you do that?
• 19:29
  I did an old airstrip down past Sydney for Guinness World Records.
• 19:34
  Guinness World Records, the hottest for a TV show.
• 19:37
  Fantastic.
• 19:38
  So that was my only official Guinness World Record.
• 19:40
  Fastest wheel stand.
• 19:41
  Fastest wheel stand for one kilometre.
• 19:42
  Mega.
• 19:44
  And then I broke the world record for longest wheel stand on Harley Davidson at 54 kilometres.
• 19:50
  Yeah.
• 19:53
  Say that again.
• 19:54
  So I broke a world record for the longest we'll stand on a Harley Davidson.
• 19:58
  It was about 54 kilometres.
• 20:01
  Where did you do this and how long did it take?
• 20:03
  Now, the only reason it's not official, because you can't get it registered on Guinness World Records, is because they can't register a name of a motorcycle brand.
• 20:13
  Okay, okay.
• 20:14
  So the world record for doing longest wheel stand on a motorcycle is something like 200km.
• 20:20
  So I'm going to scoot around in a velodrome and go refuel while I was doing a wheel stand.
• 20:25
  I know, it's stupid.
• 20:27
  So it wasn't official, but I haven't had anyone say, proven they beat me for 54 k's.
• 20:36
  And the only reason I put it down is because I ran out of fuel.
• 20:38
  Amazing.
• 20:39
  Yeah, because the petrol pickup was halfway along the tank, so I wanted to buy his vertical, only half tank of fuel.
• 20:46
  Crazy, mate.
• 20:47
  So when you come to an event like Supercars and the many other shows that you do around the country for that matter, for your client and for you personally, you want to put on a good show.
• 20:57
  Absolutely.
• 20:58
  Has it ever gone to custard?
• 20:59
  Absolutely.
• 21:00
  Like, I get annoyed quite often because I turn up to an event and I say, I've only got two shows today.
• 21:06
  I try to get four and just...
• 21:08
  And they go, what are you whinging for?
• 21:11
  I don't want you to do two shows.
• 21:12
  But my main thing I'm trying to do is build my fan base.
• 21:16
  Yes.
• 21:16
  Always trying to keep my fans happy.
• 21:18
  Always trying to keep them impressed and want them to come back for more.
• 21:21
  So the more shows we have, the better.
• 21:23
  It's always the way.
• 21:25
  Yeah, and you have, over time, mate, built...
• 21:29
  quite an army, quite a social media following.
• 21:31
  What are the numbers now?
• 21:33
  Yeah, my Facebook's 1.2 million.
• 21:35
  My Instagram's not very big.
• 21:38
  It's only 35,000, 38,000 people.
• 21:40
  But, yeah, so for many years, I don't know if I'm still in Mo, but I was the most followed most by an athlete in Australia.
• 21:48
  Over Chad Reid and the likes of everyone, 4-1 drivers, everyone.
• 21:53
  When did the idea of adding four-wheel start to kick off?
• 21:57
  Was it to do with the injuries and you felt like, you know, I'm going to need to merge into something else here?
• 22:02
  Not at all.
• 22:04
  I was far out.
• 22:05
  I can't remember.
• 22:07
  It was like 2003, 2004.
• 22:09
  I was with Bolger, Rob Bolger, as you probably know too well.
• 22:12
  Yeah.
• 22:14
  He'd made a highest van there.
• 22:16
  Another thing, highest van for the Commodore V8 in it.
• 22:18
  LAUGHTER
• 22:21
  Big burnouts at Bathurst.
• 22:23
  What the hell?
• 22:24
  They would have shoehorned that in.
• 22:25
  Did you get an engineering sense?
• 22:26
  Yeah, it was pretty funny.
• 22:27
  So we did big burnouts and popped tires at Bathurst.
• 22:29
  The crowd thought it was great.
• 22:31
  So the very next weekend, Holden came to us and said, do you want two youths?
• 22:35
  I said, what?
• 22:36
  Come again.
• 22:36
  So do you want two youths to do your show in?
• 22:38
  Like SSU's or something?
• 22:40
  Yeah, SSU's.
• 22:41
  Yeah, SSU's.
• 22:42
  The VU, I think it was back then.
• 22:44
  And we thought we'd take the piss again.
• 22:46
  I thought, oh yeah, okay.
• 22:48
  And sure enough, about two weeks later, two brand new Utes turned up on a doorstep.
• 22:52
  And we thought, get the hell out of here, no way.
• 22:54
  So as you can imagine, we'll hit the streets for next week.
• 22:58
  Just wrecking these things.
• 23:00
  And they kind of blossomed from there.
• 23:02
  We were the first people in Australia to start drifting.
• 23:05
  And we've been drifting ever since.
• 23:07
  Mega.
• 23:07
  So what sort of things did you think you would need to, in the same way that a race team builds a roll cage or does things like that, what sort of things did you think you would need to add in an engineering sense to the cars for the shows you wanted to do?
• 23:21
  Oh, some things before, we were the first people in Australia doing it, so it was very much trial and error.
• 23:27
  We knew the basics, making it like diff and suspension and exhaust and make it more powerful, et cetera, et cetera.
• 23:34
  But things just progressed from there.
• 23:36
  Things started breaking, so we'd fix them and make it stronger, better and faster and more reliable.
• 23:43
  And it just progressed from there.
• 23:44
  And it's an old school, you know, paddock fun type stuff in the sense that you're on the handbrake.
• 23:51
  And you talked about drifting before.
• 23:54
  I guess it really is sort of that on steroids in some ways, isn't it?
• 23:57
  Absolutely.
• 24:00
  Our history comes from way back.
• 24:01
  Paddock bash, like you said.
• 24:03
  You've been a crazy man muck around in grass paddocks and it kind of blossomed from there.
• 24:09
  And yeah, we put hydraulic handbrakes in them, do handbrake turns and 360s and sliding in corners and...
• 24:17
  And the faster and more crazy stuff we do, the more the crowd love it.
• 24:21
  And sure enough, we've hit plenty of our walls and hit each other plenty of times.
• 24:26
  And we just take part in parcel.
• 24:27
  We know.
• 24:28
  We know it's going to happen.
• 24:29
  We know that's what the crowd want to see.
• 24:31
  So we keep doing it.
• 24:32
  Mad Mike told me in the podcast series about the speeds now that they can tip these things in backwards and slide them.
• 24:40
  I mean, what they're doing with tyre technology and car control is remarkable in drifting now, isn't it?
• 24:46
  Absolutely.
• 24:47
  Mad Mike's great at what he does.
• 24:49
  And progression is a crazy thing.
• 24:51
  Like I said, we started with a couple of VUtes.
• 24:56
  I put exhaust systems on a can with them.
• 24:59
  And something like 400 horsepower was one of the most powerful things in the world.
• 25:02
  My car, my drift car now is a Chevy Camaro with a NASCAR engine in it.
• 25:07
  And it runs the Albans TransAxel.
• 25:08
  So it's the only drift car in the world that runs a TransAxel.
• 25:11
  So it's got 850 horsepower.
• 25:15
  and it's a crazy bit of gear.
• 25:17
  It's absolutely off his head.
• 25:18
  So exactly what Mike said, the entry speed to a corner is about triple what it used to.
• 25:23
  Amazing.
• 25:24
  Like things like, I got clocked at Bathurst, sorry, I'm at Bathurst, Phillip Island, we're in turn two, and I was doing 240km down sideways.
• 25:33
  Oh!
• 25:36
  So it was pretty impressive.
• 25:38
  Amazing.
• 25:39
  NASCAR engine came from where?
• 25:41
  Obviously it's a shave.
• 25:42
  Yeah, my NASCAR engine came from the Kellys.
• 25:45
  Kellys?
• 25:46
  Yeah.
• 25:46
  I was desperately searching for one and Todd said, yeah, I've got one.
• 25:50
  So he was changing his NASCAR engines over to Nissan engines for his boats.
• 25:56
  Yeah, Tuna's going to Fassar.
• 25:58
  So he's been great.
• 26:00
  He's been such a good help.
• 26:02
  If anything ever sucks up, he's the first one to give a hand to help fix it.
• 26:05
  And it's really good.
• 26:07
  Matt's talking about Todd Kelly there and the Kelly Racing team.
• 26:10
  Rick Kelly obviously has been a Bathurst winner and a Supercast champion.
• 26:14
  And, you know, we're sharing the paddock with them as we record this here.
• 26:19
  Let's talk about...
• 26:22
  Bell-Ire, Detroit, 2016.
• 26:24
  I can't remember it.
• 26:25
  You can't remember it?
• 26:26
  I don't know what you're talking about.
• 26:27
  You can't?
• 26:28
  Nah.
• 26:29
  It was, as you said, it was definitely my worst accident to date by a long, long shot.
• 26:36
  I was over there for, I suppose, for a weekend.
• 26:39
  It's been three and a half weeks there.
• 26:42
  I remember touching down on Belle Isle and I remember coming home to the Gold Coast.
• 26:48
  I had a week in hospital in the Gold Coast, I remember.
• 26:52
  In between that, I was pretty much a vegetable because of my brain injury.
• 27:00
  and my list of injuries went on I broke my neck my butt came through through my chin um until I had my whole bottom jaw to have nine teeth of mine um I had all fluoro on my lungs had what do they call it tracheotomy tracheotomy through my neck so I could breathe yeah I was pretty bad I got footage my wife was there by my side the whole time and um my jaw was wide shut because I had no jaw um
• 27:30
  And them just trying to torture me, I was a zombie, I was a vegetable.
• 27:34
  So, in a bad way.
• 27:36
  In a bad way.
• 27:39
  How close did it come?
• 27:40
  In motor racing they use the term DNF, mate, you did not finish, you're gone, you know...
• 27:46
  How close did it come to you leaving this?
• 27:48
  It was pretty close.
• 27:50
  I heard yesterday, actually, through my good friends at SSE.
• 27:54
  The SST gang and drives are the best gang I've ever met.
• 27:59
  They're so good.
• 28:01
  But apparently...
• 28:02
  I can't remember anything, but I could tell this.
• 28:05
  The ambulance picked me up from the track.
• 28:07
  The whole race was cancelled.
• 28:09
  It stopped because the ambulance had to pick me up from the track.
• 28:13
  And the ambulance was going down the front straight.
• 28:15
  I had to pull up, and people didn't know why.
• 28:17
  I was pulling up on the front straight of Detroit.
• 28:20
  And I was pulled up for about five minutes and then left again.
• 28:23
  And apparently they pulled up because they had to resuscitate me and get back to life.
• 28:28
  Yeah, so it was a close one.
• 28:30
  So you were talking there a moment ago about SST, Stadium, Super Truck guys.
• 28:35
  That's what you were competing in there.
• 28:39
  They're an amazing machine for all sorts of different reasons.
• 28:42
  Have you been able to look back at it and comprehend what went wrong now?
• 28:47
  Absolutely.
• 28:48
  Or do you try not to?
• 28:49
  No, absolutely.
• 28:50
  It's something where I feel sorry for people like Robert Gordon because people think there's the trucks that will cause my injury and it was far, far, far from the trucks.
• 28:59
  It was the terrible, terrible way the truck was put together.
• 29:03
  Okay.
• 29:04
  Every concrete pillar around a street track, such as Adelaide, Gold Coast, every street track, has got big concrete blocks and held together with a massive big steel pin to make some join.
• 29:17
  There was no steel pins.
• 29:19
  So when I came around the corner and I rolled it on my roof, hit the concrete barrier, it moved the barrier.
• 29:25
  So I moved that barrier and the next barrier was the guillotine.
• 29:27
  So it sliced the whole roof of the truck and sliced my head off with it.
• 29:32
  So we went through a massive big inquiry, why, why, why, why, and got no answers, so we got nowhere with it.
• 29:41
  So at the time you end up in hospital in the States, how was that side to deal with?
• 29:48
  And is it true, I think, did you end up coming back on Roger Penske's private jet or something?
• 29:52
  How did you get back?
• 29:53
  Yeah, Roger Penske was great.
• 29:56
  I mean, I might have been a bit of a guilty, but he was a great help.
• 30:00
  He gave me a private jet from Detroit to L.A. And I flew myself and my wife and my brother and two doctors with me to make sure I could fly all right.
• 30:10
  And when I got to L.A., I had a private suite and they put me in first class and flew me home.
• 30:17
  They should not fly me home because when I arrived on the Gold Coast, um...
• 30:23
  I was in the hospital again for another six weeks, and they were going to let me out.
• 30:26
  Before they let me out, they thought, I'll give you an MRI scan on your brain.
• 30:30
  And they gave me a scan of my brain, and half my brain was blood.
• 30:35
  So they quickly raced me in for emergency brain surgery and I drained all the blood in my brain and I was in hospital for 13 weeks in total.
• 30:44
  So in flying back then with the brain like that, that was another massive risk, was it?
• 30:49
  Yeah, absolutely, I could have died on a plane because you had a brain injury, it shouldn't fly.
• 30:54
  At the time I didn't realise I had a brain injury because I didn't do an MRI in my head.
• 31:00
  But yeah, because of all the blood on my brain, I could have died instantly.
• 31:08
  That's the end of lap one of my chat with Matt Mingay.
• 31:11
  Make sure you check out part two as we get deeper into the crash that almost killed him.
• 31:16
  The incredible comeback and why he never lost the fear of going fast and pushing the boundaries.
• 31:24
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 31:28
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 31:31
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 31:39
  Listener.