Latest / Rusty's Garage / Nick Harris - Part 2

Transcript

Nick Harris - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set to click into gear for part two of my podcast with the voice of MotoGP Nick Harris.
• 0:26
  If you've arrived here without taking part in Quali, part one, you'll find that in the Rusty's Garage Library.
• 0:32
  Worth giving that a listen before you go green here.
• 0:36
  From filing results and copy by phone or telex in the early days, his hero, the great Mike Hailwood, going to the famed Dutch TT as a fan at first and then going back years later to work on it, forming his own agency and working with big brands in motorsport alongside stars like Eddie Lawson and Wayne Gardner too.
• 0:59
  There is a good backstory there about Eddie joining the Rothmans Honda team.
• 1:03
  We begin part two by switching briefly to four wheels when Nick joined for quite a ride there too.
• 1:10
  One that would see him in the background as world championships were won and also on one of the darkest days of the sport too when we lost one of the greats of all time.
• 1:24
  I don't know how you did it, but there was a period in time there where you were in Formula One and bikes were still involved as well.
• 1:32
  I mean, memorably, you were with Williams, obviously, from 94 onwards there with that connection with Rothmans too.
• 1:40
  But there was a period there where you were darting across both sports, weren't you?
• 1:45
  I was.
• 1:45
  I had got an amazing wife, Sheila, and an amazing daughter, Sophie, who had been born in 87 because I was never here.
• 1:56
  Rothmans, again, I can remember, I'd been with Darrell Beattie at Donington and he was doing a demonstration ride with, I think, a journalist from the Daily Mirror.
• 2:05
  And it had all gone well.
• 2:06
  I'd come back from Donington and the phone rang and it was a David Beck from Rothman said, we're putting out of a motorcycle racing.
• 2:12
  It was a big, big shock for, for everybody, for Honda, for the sport and everything.
• 2:18
  And, uh, well, okay.
• 2:20
  I thought, what am I going to do here?
• 2:22
  And I,
• 2:22
  I thought a lot about it.
• 2:23
  And then a couple of months later, David rang up and said, would you come with us to Formula One?
• 2:28
  I'll be honest with you.
• 2:29
  I thought about it for about five seconds.
• 2:31
  And I thought, this is an opportunity you really shouldn't miss for lots of reasons.
• 2:35
  Obviously, financial reasons, Formula One, but lots of other reasons to do it.
• 2:40
  And I went.
• 2:41
  an absolutely fantastic time for six years.
• 2:44
  Won two world titles with Damon Hill, who was a bike fanatic, and, of course, with Jacques Villeneuve.
• 2:52
  The death of Ayrton Senna, I was...
• 2:57
  heavily, heavily, absolutely at the head of all the immediate media stuff when it happened in Imola, which, again, taught me an awful lot about myself and about work because it's without a doubt the biggest thing I have ever been involved in in my life.
• 3:17
  What did it teach you, Nick?
• 3:20
  It taught me how you...
• 3:25
  You completely closed your mind to the tragedy and what had actually happened.
• 3:30
  You just get on with what you've got to do.
• 3:34
  Sadly, I had been involved before in motorcycle racing with these sort of incidents, but this was enormous.
• 3:41
  And you don't enjoy it, but you get a slight buzz that there's so much going on and you're so involved.
• 3:49
  And I remember, and I flew back from Imola on the...
• 3:53
  Monday morning, I went to my office, and all the newspapers were lying on the desk with the news.
• 3:58
  And suddenly, it struck me what had actually happened.
• 4:02
  And I felt not ashamed, but...
• 4:05
  I felt, you know, I was on such a buzz, so, so, so involved.
• 4:12
  And it was only then I realised just what a terrible, terrible tragedy had occurred.
• 4:20
  You used the word buzz there, but I think that, and correct me if I'm wrong here, that is more about the fact that you have this great example that you've given to other journalists, and that is in those difficult moments when tragedy does happen in our sport...
• 4:35
  It's very important that we get our job in their memory, et cetera.
• 4:40
  That's right.
• 4:41
  Right, right.
• 4:42
  Isn't it?
• 4:43
  It is.
• 4:44
  What drove you there?
• 4:45
  It did.
• 4:46
  I'd had a great friend of mine was a guy called Mick Patrick who lived in Oxford.
• 4:50
  He was a very good motorcycle racer.
• 4:53
  And I was doing the motocross then.
• 4:55
  He phoned up in the week and said, I'm racing at Cabell Park, going to the
• 5:00
  are you going to come along?
• 5:02
  And I said, sorry, Mick, look, I was so busy with motocross, I'm going to have a sendy off.
• 5:06
  And I was in the pub playing darts, phone rang, it was my friend from Radar, so Colin Fenton, who was like the archetype local journalist, knew everybody, every pub, knew everybody,
• 5:18
  everything that was going on.
• 5:20
  And he said, I got some terrible news and Mick had been killed at Cabal Park.
• 5:24
  And I was absolutely shaky, really, really upset.
• 5:28
  And he said, well, you're coming into the studio now to do some stuff for the early morning news.
• 5:33
  I said, I'm certainly not.
• 5:34
  He said, you are.
• 5:36
  If you're going to pay proper respect and memory to your great friend, this is how you do it.
• 5:41
  And Colin said,
• 5:44
  Colin really, really helped me.
• 5:46
  And I held that principle with Ayrton Senna, Marco Simicelli in the commentary he had to do from Malaysia.
• 5:56
  I've always kept that in my mind.
• 5:59
  when I've had to relay terrible news or delay relaying terrible news when you knew what the news was but you couldn't actually say at the time and just stalling all the time.
• 6:11
  And I've always thought of dear old Colin and what he said to me and, of course, he was 100% right.
• 6:16
  Right.
• 6:17
  I was at a friend's kind of man cave for a barbecue for the Bathurst 1000 here just last weekend and...
• 6:23
  And in there, he's quite a fan of motorcycle racing and he has this beautiful photo of Simicelli doing a mono in black and white.
• 6:31
  And I've been to Sepang there in Malaysia and what have you and the tribute and so on, Nick.
• 6:39
  He was an amazing rider that very sadly we didn't just get to see his full potential in MotoGP, did we?
• 6:46
  We were robbed of that sadly, weren't we?
• 6:48
  We were and I remember the race before Philip Island had finished on the podium, hadn't he?
• 6:52
  And I remember speaking to him and he said, I'm going to win my first Grand Prix before the end of the season and I'm pushing on towards the World Championship.
• 6:58
  And yeah, well, that wasn't to be in that first lap in Sepang.
• 7:03
  And then...
• 7:05
  what was it, an hour-long wait, 45 minutes wait, knowing what was happening, but having to keep broadcasting.
• 7:12
  But Dorner, the television side and everything, were absolutely unbelievable.
• 7:17
  Everybody held it together.
• 7:19
  It gave him the tribute that he deserved.
• 7:24
  Agreed.
• 7:25
  You can write, you can commentate, you can do the lot.
• 7:27
  You've done a number of books.
• 7:29
  Firstly, as we get towards Baz here, among the first sort of big ones that you did, Fast Freddy, with Peter Clifford on Freddy Spencer, didn't you?
• 7:39
  I did.
• 7:41
  Again, I met... That Daytona trip was, I think, 81, and I'd met Freddy there as well.
• 7:49
  Freddy was riding for Honda America then, so Freddy and I became great friends, and...
• 7:54
  Yeah, so Freddie asked me to write the book in 85 after he'd done the double.
• 7:59
  The only rider still to win 250 and 500cc World Championships in one season.
• 8:05
  And you could not imagine anybody talking about chalk and cheese, Wayne and Freddie.
• 8:11
  There was Freddie, T-Total, very rarely seen around the paddock, always flying back home to America at every opportunity.
• 8:21
  But what a good one.
• 8:22
  great motorcycle racer.
• 8:23
  What a... To win that 250 500cc championship in the same year was absolutely amazing.
• 8:33
  And I remember, I think we were in Italy.
• 8:36
  It might have been Imola.
• 8:37
  It might have been Monza.
• 8:38
  And he was standing on the podium with Eddie Lawson in the 500 race and they're warming up.
• 8:43
  Freddie's 250.
• 8:44
  The sweat's pouring off and we just either won or finished second in the 500 race.
• 8:49
  And Eddie just looked at him.
• 8:50
  He said,
• 8:51
  Never me.
• 8:52
  Never me, you're crazy.
• 8:55
  But he did it, yeah.
• 8:57
  Though, you know, you go back to the days before when the races were longer, but there weren't so many races.
• 9:02
  The likes of Hailwood and Jim Redman and people did it, and they run, I think Redman and Hailwood won three races in one afternoon at Aston in different occasions.
• 9:15
  So it was tough, very tough.
• 9:18
  But Freddie was somebody very, very special.
• 9:21
  Now, I've got a little something here.
• 9:22
  We're doing a podcast, so this is an audio medium, but I'm going to be able to, because I can see you, so I'm going to show you this.
• 9:28
  My mum and dad gave me a book as a young fella.
• 9:32
  I'm going to show it to you now.
• 9:34
  It's a profile book on Barry Sheen, and I think the bookmakers that did it back in the day did it on all sorts of sporting stars, Muhammad Ali and so on.
• 9:45
  It's got beautiful sort of reasonable size print so a younger kid could read it.
• 9:50
  It's got drawings of Baz and more in there.
• 9:53
  In later life, when I got to work with him at Channel 10, he signed it for me and he said, Dear Greg, you're a very handsome man and don't think I ever noticed.
• 10:04
  Sounds like Barry.
• 10:05
  Sounds like Barry.
• 10:07
  Yeah.
• 10:07
  Sounds like Barry.
• 10:08
  Now, it is written by one Nick Harris.
• 10:11
  Yeah, that was the first book.
• 10:13
  That was the first book, was it?
• 10:14
  Crazy.
• 10:16
  Yeah, the first one I did.
• 10:17
  I think it was before the Freddie Spencer one.
• 10:20
  Yes, it was.
• 10:21
  Definitely before the Freddie Spencer one.
• 10:23
  Yeah, yeah.
• 10:24
  So tell us some Baz stories.
• 10:25
  Come on.
• 10:26
  I mean, that's a book aimed at young kids, which tells the story of a lad who worked hard, didn't have a lot of money growing up, came from a family that loved motorcycles and made it to world champion on more than one occasion and became a true household name in so many parts of the world.
• 10:46
  What was he like?
• 10:48
  How did you first cross paths with him?
• 10:50
  Where did that happen?
• 10:51
  When you were a journalist or?
• 10:52
  Yeah, it was when I was a general.
• 10:54
  I will never forget.
• 10:55
  I was at Motorcycle News and the news editor, Norrie White, called me over.
• 10:59
  Lad, laddie used to call me.
• 11:01
  Laddie, you go to Cabell Park and I want you to do the British Superbike Report.
• 11:06
  I said, oh, yeah, Norrie, I thought that'd be right.
• 11:08
  And he said, oh, I don't forget the Barry Sheen column.
• 11:11
  I was like, oh, no.
• 11:15
  So off I went to Cabell Park and Barry's Motorhomers Park there.
• 11:20
  I walked past at least 10 times, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.
• 11:25
  Summoning up the courage.
• 11:27
  Yeah, I was summoning up the courage.
• 11:28
  I knocked the door and Iris' mum opened the door.
• 11:31
  Stephanie was there.
• 11:32
  I said, I'm the new man from Motorcycle News.
• 11:34
  Come on in.
• 11:35
  Have a cup of tea and a biscuit.
• 11:37
  And we sat there.
• 11:38
  Then Barry arrived and Stephanie said, this is the new man from Motorcycle News, Barry.
• 11:41
  You look after him.
• 11:42
  Don't be nasty to him, she did.
• 11:44
  And I said, ah, Nikolas, right.
• 11:47
  Yes, okay.
• 11:48
  That was it.
• 11:50
  And I'll never forget.
• 11:51
  He said, hey, Nikolas, afterwards, he said, come back.
• 11:55
  He said, we'll do the con.
• 11:56
  I'll just show you a few things.
• 11:57
  So I went back to the boat and he said, come with me.
• 12:00
  And we walked to the office of, I think it was Charlie Wilkinson was the boss of Cabal.
• 12:06
  and he was sat there, and everybody, the riders are treated so badly, they're all queued up to get their start money and prize money.
• 12:13
  Barry, Barry never queued up for anything in his life, ever.
• 12:17
  They're straight to the front, and he's got this big ledger, and he's sat there, and Barry sat there, and he said, ah, Barry, right, he reached down, got an envelope,
• 12:30
  looked at me and winked and off we went yeah amazing when i left an hour later barry was still sat in his leathers undone to his waist signing a queue of two three hundred yards of people yeah and that's he would put 10 000 people on a gate at a british meeting so they paid him a lot of money of course
• 12:51
  I loved working with him, Nick.
• 12:52
  He was an unbelievable human being in so many ways.
• 12:56
  What in that period of getting to know him because he was a great rider but great character too.
• 13:03
  And that was something that we yearned for in sport, particularly motorsport at that time.
• 13:08
  He helped change the face of motorcycle racing because of his character as much as he's riding.
• 13:14
  I mean, he was the Valentino Rossi of the 70s.
• 13:19
  He put the sport in this country in a completely different place.
• 13:24
  From back, not even back page, page 327 to the front page, normally because of his antics.
• 13:31
  And obviously what made Barry as well were his crashes.
• 13:35
  I mean, I don't think there's any doubt about that.
• 13:38
  He was an amazing guy.
• 13:40
  Barry knew how to play the field.
• 13:42
  He knew how to play me.
• 13:43
  And I accepted that because he gave me so much information and was such, such good fun.
• 13:52
  And to work, when I came to the first race at Philippi in 89, and that's my first time I worked with Channel 9.
• 14:05
  And I was working with Barry, Alan Jones and Daryl Eastlake.
• 14:08
  It was like going back to flipping school, it was.
• 14:11
  They were horrendous to work with.
• 14:14
  They would tell the parking bloke, hey, this British guy's coming in a minute.
• 14:19
  He hasn't got the right passes.
• 14:20
  Don't let him in.
• 14:20
  That would be the thing.
• 14:21
  So he couldn't get in the circuit.
• 14:24
  Then the boss of Channel 9 was there and it was a freak.
• 14:26
  Very important meeting was fixed up.
• 14:28
  We were all going to be told what was expected of us.
• 14:30
  They told me the wrong times.
• 14:31
  Ah, Nicholas, he's always late.
• 14:33
  Oh, all the time.
• 14:35
  All the time there was games going.
• 14:37
  It was such good fun working.
• 14:40
  Fun.
• 14:41
  And, yeah, it was great.
• 14:43
  And the first television broadcast I ever did was for the BBC in Silverstone.
• 14:48
  It was a British Championship meeting.
• 14:51
  And I was so nervous.
• 14:53
  I had reams and notes all laid out and everything.
• 14:57
  Barry was going to be the pundit.
• 14:59
  Barry said, well, it had just gone on air.
• 15:02
  No sign of Barry.
• 15:03
  Then he arrived, smoking away.
• 15:05
  Smoke everywhere.
• 15:07
  Papers all off the desk.
• 15:09
  Everything just fell apart, to be honest with you.
• 15:12
  I told Stephanie, he gave him such a tonning off.
• 15:15
  You'll work him in it.
• 15:16
  You keep the papers.
• 15:18
  You don't smoke in there.
• 15:19
  I never forget.
• 15:21
  It was chaos.
• 15:22
  But of course, he just charmed everybody, didn't he?
• 15:24
  It didn't matter what was happening in the race.
• 15:27
  It was buried.
• 15:28
  And he's, as a character, unbelievable.
• 15:31
  He's put the sport in Britain.
• 15:33
  I think in the world.
• 15:35
  I call them the Beckhams of the 70s.
• 15:36
  You know, David and Victoria Beckham.
• 15:38
  So that's what they wear.
• 15:40
  the sort of impact they had, certainly, in this country.
• 15:45
  Wayne and Donna, I think, a little bit probably towards the end of the 80s in Australia had that same sort of effect.
• 15:53
  But the crashes and Barry's bravery were quite staggering.
• 15:59
  And I think some people try to copy Barry in Britain.
• 16:04
  all the flash stuff, everything else.
• 16:05
  But what a lot of people forgot, Barry was an absolutely brilliant motorcycle racer as well.
• 16:12
  He could back all this up with the way he rode a motorcycle.
• 16:16
  And that's exactly what he did.
• 16:19
  And a media darling as well.
• 16:22
  Now, there is a great book that people should get, Barry.
• 16:25
  It's been a bestseller for you, I know.
• 16:27
  The story of motorcycling legend Barry Sheen with Steve Parrish, his good buddy, who we've all worked with over time.
• 16:36
  They were like cheeky blood brothers, weren't they?
• 16:39
  When I catch up with Stavros now, it is just like walking and talking with Baz again.
• 16:46
  And he's mad too, isn't he?
• 16:48
  Oh, yeah.
• 16:49
  They were... You never knew what was going to happen next when you were with them.
• 16:54
  You go on a plane with them was an absolute nightmare because all the tricks in the trade, they played.
• 17:02
  Yeah, they were... Yeah, and Stavros was...
• 17:07
  Totally devastated when Barry finally passed away.
• 17:13
  And I don't think he's ever quite recovered, actually.
• 17:16
  It was his very, very, very best friend.
• 17:19
  Friend.
• 17:20
  Yeah, but he's done well.
• 17:22
  He's carried on the tradition in true style as Stavros and still is.
• 17:27
  Still is, yeah.
• 17:28
  Yeah.
• 17:30
  Is there one Barry story you can share with us before we move on here in the conversation?
• 17:33
  Something else about him?
• 17:36
  Let's have a think.
• 17:37
  There's so many Barry.
• 17:38
  Yeah, a personal story.
• 17:42
  Please.
• 17:43
  The Silverstone crash was horrendous.
• 17:46
  I was there.
• 17:47
  One of the first people to arrive, it was honestly like an aircraft crash.
• 17:53
  It's a burning bike.
• 17:54
  Luckily, well, luckily, happily, Barry and Jack Middleburg had been...
• 17:59
  or already taken away.
• 18:01
  And I mean, the impact and everything that happened that night and carried on and buried through the weekend.
• 18:10
  So come Monday morning, I was absolutely shattered.
• 18:13
  So I remember going home to my little flat in Oxford and the phone ringing about 10 o'clock in the morning.
• 18:18
  It's the blimmin' news editor of Motorcycle Weekend.
• 18:20
  Where's the Barry Sheen column?
• 18:24
  There'd be no column.
• 18:26
  Bloomin' better be.
• 18:26
  There's a big story.
• 18:27
  You want the Barry Sheen column.
• 18:28
  You've got to...
• 18:29
  So off I went to Northampton General Hospital.
• 18:33
  And there, Fleet Street's finest were all camped out in the reception.
• 18:39
  Plastic cups with coffee, cigarettes, miserable as anything because they couldn't get there.
• 18:44
  So I went to reception and I said, I've come to see Barry Sheen.
• 18:47
  And they all sort of tittered.
• 18:48
  Oh, my God.
• 18:51
  they rang up Stephanie said yeah come up Nick come up so off I go and there's Barry and he's lying there with his legs in the air he had the operation then with all the pins and everything and he's lying there
• 19:04
  Hey, hello, Nicholas.
• 19:06
  Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.
• 19:07
  I said, well, what about the column?
• 19:08
  Oh, yeah.
• 19:09
  He said, I've sold pictures and various bits of some of the national newspapers, but I'm still doing the column for Muddersoak Week.
• 19:16
  I do it every week, don't I?
• 19:18
  And we did this column, which was amazing that he thought then that he remained loyal.
• 19:26
  And Barry was loyal like that.
• 19:28
  And we did the column and, uh, uh, uh, truly, truly, uh, yeah, it's staggering.
• 19:34
  Yeah.
• 19:34
  You did your own book, which I love.
• 19:36
  Never say never the inside story of the motorcycling world championship.
• 19:40
  You said that was a little bit cathartic, Nick.
• 19:41
  It was good to kind of look back over all sorts of different aspects of your, of your time.
• 19:45
  It was good for you, wasn't it?
• 19:46
  Yeah, it was good for me.
• 19:48
  Uh,
• 19:49
  the end of my traveling career to the Grand Prix came as a big shock.
• 19:56
  Not that it wasn't coming, but actually when it comes, suddenly you're not involved.
• 20:01
  Suddenly you're not on the WhatsApps that's telling you what flights you're on and where you're going and where you're staying and when the press conferences are.
• 20:10
  It's taken me probably six years to get completely over it now.
• 20:15
  In fact, I'm getting so involved now, she and my wife keep saying, you're not going back there.
• 20:19
  No, you've finished.
• 20:23
  But it must have been hard.
• 20:25
  It was.
• 20:26
  It did me a power good.
• 20:27
  And to get Penguin to publish it...
• 20:31
  It was extraordinary.
• 20:32
  I don't quite know how it all happened.
• 20:35
  They were fantastic.
• 20:36
  And Father told my dear old mum and dad that I was going to have a book published by Penguin about my life, well, when I left school with 1.0 level and was working as a solicitor's clerk.
• 20:48
  I mean, people would have never believed it in a million years.
• 20:52
  It did me an awful lot of good.
• 20:55
  I really enjoyed doing it.
• 20:56
  I had to do it in quite a rush.
• 20:58
  The deadlines are pretty tight, so I was...
• 21:00
  flat out doing it but uh yeah yeah my daughter proof read it for me which was which were you know that that all good stuff yeah yeah well done let's bounce through some names while we can um firstly you brought up darryl beattie before i had the pleasure of sitting beside him at a desk for many years at network 10 and commentating with him and so on what was what was db like in those early years because um it was clear he had immense talent i would imagine to you even at that stage
• 21:27
  Yeah, it was amazing, actually.
• 21:28
  It was 1993.
• 21:30
  Daryl came into the Rothmans on the team.
• 21:32
  I'd met him before.
• 21:34
  And we went to Bulgaria, was it?
• 21:39
  Yeah, Bulgaria to a pre-season thing, I remember, with Daryl.
• 21:43
  And then we came to Philadelphia for testing.
• 21:45
  So we spent a week when he was surfing, doing all the different pictures, playing golf, and we had a fantastic week.
• 21:52
  It was really good.
• 21:53
  It was fun.
• 21:53
  And for us to come to Phillip Island in January, you can imagine from the English winter was really, really great.
• 22:00
  I got great friends with Darrell and a very, very good rider, top class rider.
• 22:06
  And, you know, so, so close.
• 22:07
  I looked at his record the other, other week.
• 22:09
  Yeah.
• 22:10
  But he was so close to actually winning that world title.
• 22:12
  Great.
• 22:13
  Well, certainly for Suzuki and everything else.
• 22:17
  And, yeah, very, very talented bloke.
• 22:19
  And we came and still, I haven't seen Daryl for a bit now, very good friends.
• 22:24
  Yeah, good guy.
• 22:25
  We've mentioned JB.
• 22:27
  We've mentioned DB there in Darrell Beattie.
• 22:30
  Be remiss of us not to talk about one mighty Mick Doohan.
• 22:34
  Now, he's kind of mellowed in later life now, but he was a very committed, very determined athlete at the peak of things, wasn't he?
• 22:43
  He certainly was.
• 22:44
  I won't say we hit it off right at the start, me and Mick.
• 22:48
  He came into the Rothmans on the team.
• 22:51
  He thought I did far too much for Wayne and not enough for him, which could have well been the truth at the time.
• 22:58
  And he didn't like doing media stuff.
• 23:01
  I'm here to race motorbikes.
• 23:03
  I'm here to win world titles.
• 23:04
  That's what I'm doing.
• 23:06
  But he has mellowed enormous.
• 23:07
  And actually, Mick and I get on really, really well.
• 23:10
  Now, we never fell out, but it was always difficult asking him to do things because Mick just wanted to race bikes.
• 23:16
  But what a motorcycle racer to recover.
• 23:20
  The crash in 92, I was asked him when he crashed.
• 23:24
  And it really didn't seem he'd broken his leg.
• 23:27
  It's serious.
• 23:28
  But it really didn't seem that... And I remember he lay there on the stretcher and Jerry, and they were all there.
• 23:33
  So what are we going to do?
• 23:34
  We can get... You can go to America and have the operation and miss two or three couple of races.
• 23:39
  I think he had a lead of over 60 points in the World Championship.
• 23:42
  You can...
• 23:43
  We can go to England and have it and probably get it done pretty quick and probably miss one race.
• 23:48
  Or, you know, we can have it done here in Assen and probably not miss much, even if you miss one race.
• 23:53
  So they decided Assen and then obviously the rest is history.
• 23:57
  And I never realised it.
• 24:00
  Throughout the time that they smuggled him out of the hospital, and then he went to America for treatment.
• 24:06
  They joined his legs together to try and get the blood flowing together.
• 24:09
  I never realized how serious it was until he went to Sao Paulo and met Mick.
• 24:15
  He had his shorts and seeing his leg.
• 24:17
  seeing the way Mick was.
• 24:18
  Boy, did he fight to try and hold on to that lead in the world championship.
• 24:22
  First in Sao Paulo and then in Kailami in South Africa where he was pipped for the decline.
• 24:28
  I remember we burned all the press releases.
• 24:30
  We'd written all the press releases, all the photographs, all done as world champion.
• 24:34
  Had to do it and cut up all the T-shirts that said Mick doing world champion.
• 24:39
  Rothman's pulled out.
• 24:41
  Mick said, thank you very much, and went on and won five successive titles.
• 24:45
  And he absolutely dominated the sport.
• 24:49
  What a combination him and the Aussie team behind him.
• 24:52
  They were unbeatable.
• 24:55
  Quick comment on a couple of other Aussies while we're here.
• 24:57
  Firstly, Casey Stoner.
• 24:58
  You raised him before about winning titles with different manufacturers and so on.
• 25:02
  He, a bit like Mick, wasn't necessarily one that enjoyed the media in his career.
• 25:07
  He too has mellowed in post-race life, hasn't he?
• 25:11
  I always got on really well with Casey right from the way ago when he came and raced in the British Championship.
• 25:17
  He was good friends with Chas Davis, who I was doing a lot for to promote the sport in Britain.
• 25:23
  So I always got on really well with Casey.
• 25:26
  Yeah.
• 25:26
  Yeah.
• 25:27
  He'd had motorcycle racing drummed into him since he was a very young lad, and I think it probably took its toll a little bit in the end.
• 25:35
  He wanted a rest.
• 25:37
  He wanted to see something else in life, which he found with his family and farm and everything.
• 25:43
  I will never, ever forget the press conference in Le Mans when he announced his retirement.
• 25:48
  Just before the press conference, Rhys Edwards, the Repsol Honda press officer, Casey called me over and said,
• 25:57
  could we do an announcement before the press conference fully gets in the way?
• 26:03
  And I presumed it was them to say they're renewing their contract with Honda.
• 26:08
  So I said, yeah.
• 26:09
  And Casey and I said, Valentino was in the press conference a lot.
• 26:13
  There was utter silence, complete and utter silence.
• 26:17
  And Valentino just mouth open.
• 26:20
  People just couldn't believe it.
• 26:21
  He was retiring.
• 26:22
  Then everybody in the room stood and applauded.
• 26:24
  What a great rider.
• 26:27
  Yeah, on the Honda, fantastic.
• 26:28
  But on that Ducati.
• 26:30
  Oh, my golly.
• 26:31
  Yeah, and winning that world title, what?
• 26:33
  2007, Ducati's first world title.
• 26:37
  Seeing him at Phillip Island is...
• 26:41
  worth that long air journey going through immigration at melbourne which is never easy everything else about it just to see casey stoner philip island is worth every single penny fantastic agreed i love the passion in your voice there can we go to a bit of a character of the sport in the modern day who we hope ticks off more boxes in his career jack miller
• 27:05
  Yeah, Jack, again, a guy that I saw right from the word go, Jack, when he came in the 125 class and liked him straight away.
• 27:18
  He's an Aussie, isn't he?
• 27:19
  And that's what I liked about Jack.
• 27:20
  And we really hit it off.
• 27:23
  And saw him miss out Moto2, came straight to MotoGP.
• 27:29
  He was a larrikin in those days.
• 27:30
  I don't think there's any doubt about it.
• 27:32
  I think we all love that about him.
• 27:34
  We do.
• 27:36
  Obviously, winning on the Honda, winning on the Ducati.
• 27:41
  Now, KTM, just a little bit of a stumbling block at the moment.
• 27:46
  I'm sure he's just become a dad, hasn't he?
• 27:49
  And all the Mark Marcus stuff and those rumours he might go to KTM and everything else.
• 27:55
  I'm sure Jack will be back.
• 27:57
  Jack is a really, really good guy.
• 28:00
  I never forget,
• 28:01
  The night I left MotoGP and Jack came, he sought me out on his scooter and came up to me.
• 28:07
  I remember I said to him, Jack, who the hell is going to look after you now once I leave the paddock?
• 28:13
  And he just burst into fits a lot.
• 28:16
  And I came back.
• 28:16
  I went to a race this year.
• 28:18
  I went to Le Mans for the 1000th Grand Prix.
• 28:20
  And Jack had been fastest in practice.
• 28:24
  And we're doing a live broadcast.
• 28:26
  They wanted to talk to me, a live broadcast.
• 28:28
  Jack comes past on the scooter, sees it's me, stops, gets off, and gives me a kiss, I remember, live on the television.
• 28:36
  I like, yeah, yeah, you're special.
• 28:38
  You're very, very special.
• 28:39
  I hope it works out for Jack.
• 28:42
  Winning the world title might be one step beyond him, but he's definitely going to win some more Grand Prixs.
• 28:49
  Cool.
• 28:49
  For you to finish, Nick, if we can.
• 28:51
  Firstly, very difficult one to ask, I know, but you've covered so many of them in your career.
• 28:57
  What is the era for you?
• 29:00
  I mean, we're in a great... We've got to stop and actually go...
• 29:03
  It's a great period at the moment with all these young riders, how close the competition is and so on, but people look...
• 29:10
  very fondly at 500cc and schwanz and co, that whole period too?
• 29:15
  I mean, is there one for you that is close to your heart?
• 29:17
  It may not be the best perhaps, but is there one that's close to your heart?
• 29:21
  Yeah, I think there is through all the eras, the Haywards, the Barries, obviously the Swanson, the Rhin.
• 29:28
  I mean, the sport was very much in a mess then in a lot of ways, not with the races and not with the riders, but everything else, the safety, the way the riders were treated was awful.
• 29:41
  That's changed so much now.
• 29:43
  I think from 2000 on, really.
• 29:45
  It's when I returned and when I started doing live television every week and seeing Valentino Rossi arrive the way he did and absolutely turned the sport on its head worldwide.
• 29:58
  He turned the sport on its head worldwide.
• 30:01
  A little bit later on, I'd waited, golly, Kyle Crutchlow winning in Brune, the Czech Republic.
• 30:09
  I was there the last time a British rider won a Grand Prix.
• 30:13
  That was 1981.
• 30:14
  Barry won in Sweden.
• 30:16
  And I honestly believe, I always said I'm not going to finish until I see a British rider win a Premier Class Grand Prix.
• 30:21
  I thought they'd be taking me away in that wooden box.
• 30:24
  before that happened but Cal Crutchlow did it for me I can't thank him enough for that but the wooden box hasn't arrived yet
• 30:41
  Rossi, Duhan, Gardner, one of the constants during their incredibly successful careers was Aussie crew chief Jeremy Burgess.
• 30:49
  JB was there during the pinnacle of the 500cc era and as the new four-stroke MotoGP machines ushered in a new chapter.
• 30:57
  It was only at a test before the last race of the season in 2002 that we got fly-by-wire throttle with traction control and Valentino came in and said, don't tell anybody about this, it's almost cheating.
• 31:16
  LAUGHTER
• 31:20
  Rusty chatted with Jeremy not long after he retired from the sport.
• 31:23
  Enjoy 90 minutes of MotoGP insights from one of the most respected members of the paddock.
• 31:29
  You can find it in the garage library.
• 31:31
  Time for more with JB's mate Nick Harris.
• 31:34
  We've talked about the rider in Mike Halewood and we've talked about the losses very sadly that we've watched over time, sadly, like Marco Simicelli.
• 31:44
  You've talked about the difficulties around stopping commentary.
• 31:47
  But what I do love is that you're involved in all these other ways now and it means that you don't have to always travel so much.
• 31:53
  So there's blogs, there's all sorts of things that you're doing that kind of keep a connection for you.
• 31:58
  And that's been a nice way to maybe wean you off all the massive travel each year.
• 32:05
  Yeah, this season has absolutely been amazing with the MotoGP, Guru stuff, the blogs, which I really enjoy writing.
• 32:13
  Yeah, I won't lie.
• 32:16
  I can't think how old I am.
• 32:19
  76, 76.
• 32:20
  Yeah, you're young for 76, let me tell you.
• 32:23
  Keep going anyway.
• 32:24
  Yeah, and it becomes obvious, I think, that you can't, one,
• 32:31
  I don't think commentating every week from somebody of my age is really what modern day television companies and audiences even want to just look.
• 32:41
  I've been talking to some of the guys this before they're off on their travels recently.
• 32:47
  And some of them are away for 10 weeks.
• 32:50
  Crazy.
• 32:50
  Yeah.
• 32:52
  21 years old.
• 32:53
  Dear old Jack Abbiade works at Dorner.
• 32:54
  His dad was a very good racer.
• 32:57
  But here he is.
• 32:58
  He's telling me, well, I'm going to six Grand Prixs following the sport I absolutely adore.
• 33:05
  And the two weeks I've got off, I'm going to Bali and Thailand.
• 33:08
  He said, I don't think you could do a lot better than that.
• 33:10
  But for a 76-year-old, that's probably not worth it.
• 33:13
  No, I think, you know, you have to accept.
• 33:17
  It's accepting.
• 33:19
  that the everyday involvement is over is it's quite difficult for the brain to accept it.
• 33:26
  Just.
• 33:28
  Probably your self-esteem a little bit, though you don't want to say that at the time.
• 33:32
  But I am so, so lucky doing what I'm doing at the moment.
• 33:37
  I don't travel.
• 33:39
  I'm still very, very involved.
• 33:41
  Sometimes I feel I'm too involved.
• 33:42
  I feel, oh, God, can't I take the dog for a walk and things like that?
• 33:46
  Yeah.
• 33:47
  I absolutely love it.
• 33:49
  The sport is a massive part of my life, of course it is.
• 33:53
  And it's a massive part of my whole family's life, to be honest with you.
• 33:57
  A great reflection of you, I think, Nick, is the wonderful rapport that you have had with all of the riders.
• 34:03
  You still do have.
• 34:05
  And even...
• 34:06
  In that piece we talked about earlier, that beautiful farewell video Dawn made, they have, I think it's 5.8 million YouTube followers and over half a million, 500,000 have watched that, Nick.
• 34:20
  How many?
• 34:21
  Half a million when I looked at it in the lead up to this.
• 34:25
  And you only have to look at the eyes of the riders as they all kind of...
• 34:30
  wish you well and get you to join the press conference in that centre seat beside Valentino Rossi.
• 34:35
  I mean, that says so, so much about you.
• 34:39
  Pronto, pronto, pronto.
• 34:40
  Sorry, Nick.
• 34:40
  Before you start, we have a surprise for you because it's your last Grand Prix.
• 34:47
  So you have to come with us.
• 35:13
  Look at the This is what it's like Ready?
• 35:21
  Go Look here
• 35:26
  You look there.
• 35:28
  We're going to release this in the lead-up to the Phillip Island GP.
• 35:33
  You've been there for testing, counting, commentating rather countless races there.
• 35:38
  We love it fondly because of its uniqueness, where it is and so on.
• 35:43
  Is there an island memory that you've got?
• 35:47
  I've written a great list here.
• 35:51
  Go, go.
• 35:52
  Yeah, I'll just do a couple.
• 35:54
  1989, obviously, when a whole of Australia stopped, when Wayne won that first Australian Grand Prix.
• 36:01
  It was absolutely stunning.
• 36:02
  I thought the island was going to sink.
• 36:04
  There were so many people.
• 36:05
  They know we could get off.
• 36:06
  It was amazing.
• 36:07
  And a very, very personal experience.
• 36:12
  A very personal memory.
• 36:15
  2002.
• 36:15
  It's the last time I met Barry and spoke to Barry.
• 36:19
  He arrived on his helicopter on his own.
• 36:22
  I walked down there to meet him and we had a big hug.
• 36:26
  And we were both working there that weekend.
• 36:28
  And that was the last time I ever saw him.
• 36:31
  and spoke to Barry.
• 36:32
  He was gone five months later.
• 36:33
  And Valentino Rossi celebrated, didn't he, the year after with that massive number seven on the bed sheet from the hotel to celebrate his life.
• 36:41
  There's hundreds of memories I got of Phillip Island, but walking down to meet Barry and that very, very first Grand Prix, I think are the two that really stand out.
• 36:53
  Excellent, excellent.
• 36:54
  The race in all your time.
• 36:57
  I mean, there's some memorable ones for Valentino Rossi.
• 37:01
  Is there one race that kind of is special in your mind from anywhere, from any track, any GP?
• 37:07
  Yeah.
• 37:08
  Obviously, Barry winning his first 500 Grand Prix was special.
• 37:11
  Seeing Hale would win races.
• 37:13
  Seeing Bradley Smith, he was from Oxford, he was a great friend, win his first 125 Grand Prix.
• 37:18
  But...
• 37:19
  2015, I remember saying this, I think there's been more overtakes in this Premier Class Grand Prix at Phillip Island than there has been in one race than the whole of the Formula One season.
• 37:33
  Season.
• 37:35
  If it was true or not, I don't know.
• 37:36
  But unofficially, there was 52 overtaking manoeuvres and 13 lead changes in that race.
• 37:44
  I've never commentated on a race.
• 37:46
  I can see them, lucky heights, five, six abreast just racing down together.
• 37:51
  And of course, little do we know at the time, it was the race that set up the massive Marquez-Rossi race.
• 37:58
  spat is a polite word, I think, and led to everything that happened.
• 38:02
  It was that race.
• 38:03
  But I don't think I've ever seen a motorcycle race like that yet.
• 38:06
  52 overtaking manoeuvres, 13 lead changes.
• 38:10
  Yeah.
• 38:10
  Eat your heart out Formula One, I said at the time.
• 38:13
  Probably not.
• 38:13
  It's probably not true.
• 38:15
  It probably wasn't more overtakes than the whole season, but it felt like it at the time.
• 38:19
  It was spectacular.
• 38:21
  To finish, Nick, best piece of advice that someone gave you along the way and maybe one that you have shared after all your incredible time around the sport?
• 38:32
  Yeah, keep humble, respect people.
• 38:36
  I think that's very, very important.
• 38:39
  Try not to be the greatest friends of people, riders.
• 38:46
  That's very, very difficult.
• 38:47
  I think the best advice that came from my dear old friend, Colin Fenton, about paying respect to the memory of people when there's been a tragedy.
• 38:57
  And that has stayed with me all my life.
• 39:03
  It really has.
• 39:03
  It's been fabulous to talk to you.
• 39:05
  Thank you so much.
• 39:06
  Fans will enjoy this because you were the voice of MotoGP for so long.
• 39:10
  Even now, Nick, when you're talking here with us on the podcast, it evokes some great memories.
• 39:14
  Thank you for what you've done in all sorts of different capacities over your incredible career.
• 39:19
  And I love the fact, Nick, if I can have half your energy when I get to your age and still be immersed in the sport that I love, I will be a very happy man.
• 39:28
  Thank you so much for coming on and talking to us today.
• 39:31
  Thank you very much for asking me.
• 39:32
  It's brought back lots of memories to me as well, I can assure you.
• 39:37
  And memories are very, very special, but always look ahead as well.
• 39:44
  Well done.
• 39:44
  Thank you for sharing them today.
• 39:46
  Thank you.
• 39:54
  The Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 39:57
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 40:01
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 40:03
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 40:08
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.