Latest / Rusty's Garage / Jason and Ben Bargwanna - Part 2

Transcript

Jason and Ben Bargwanna - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with Jason and Ben Barguana.
• 0:24
  If you've gone straight to second gear and not selected first, our part one, you are missing some good fun chat.
• 0:32
  There's more to the Barguana's family racing history than you may realise.
• 0:37
  Some of the early hard grafting that Jason did, juggling credit cards and all sorts to find a way in motorsport when the odds may have seemed stacked against him.
• 0:47
  The impact his career had on his son Ben and how that almost endless well of positive energy that came through in Jason's interviews and when we had the chance to commentate together is a bit of a lesson, not just for Ben, but for many young racers.
• 1:02
  Keep putting good stuff out there.
• 1:05
  Keep boxing.
• 1:06
  as they say when you're on the canvas get up and have another crack now we're releasing this in the lead up to the tcr world tour events in november 2023 under lights at sydney motorsport park and then we're off to bathys the following weekend we would love to see you there you can get your tickets at motorsporttickets.com.au or see it live on stan and channel 9 just check your guides as they say
• 1:29
  We begin part two of the pod by zeroing in on the turn of the century, at a time when Jason would enter the record books with a very special race win, one that would change his life, a feat that Ben would like to achieve in the years ahead.
• 1:49
  Can we talk 2000 Bathurst?
• 1:51
  For me...
• 1:53
  Only a couple of times in my life have I been able to do the main call of the race, and that is the first one that I did.
• 1:59
  It's a very special memory for me of you and Garth winning that day and so on.
• 2:04
  When you look back over 20 years ago now for both of us, what are the memories of that day at the mountain?
• 2:10
  Special to put your name on the Bathurst 1000 winners list.
• 2:13
  You did it with Gary Rogers.
• 2:15
  ultra competitive field at a time when supercars was going through a you know the the beginnings of its golden era if you will very very special mate oh yeah absolutely and like most of the probably people listening to this that um history of bathurst
• 2:32
  Growing up, watching it, being part of it, getting to my very first Bathurst as a kid, 1985, standing there watching the Jags pull up on the front row.
• 2:40
  I was in the back of the pits.
• 2:41
  I was sitting on a stack of tyres.
• 2:44
  I got kicked out of the pits twice trying to see the start.
• 2:47
  I was this kid just sneaking through the back there, watching that race, being part of it.
• 2:52
  Obviously, I watched it as a kid.
• 2:53
  And that really was one of the driving factors of my entire career, the fact that,
• 3:00
  that's all I wanted to do was win Bathurst.
• 3:02
  You know, that's what legends do, and that's what I want to do, and that's what it was all about.
• 3:06
  So to actually get there in 92 with Scott, and we won on the podium, that was a great taste.
• 3:13
  Third with Jimmy in 98.
• 3:16
  I reckon Garth and I were on for that win in 99.
• 3:19
  The car was just awesome that day, and unfortunately got tied up with an accident at...
• 3:26
  I think Thomas Mazira and someone else entered it at Forest Elbow in 99.
• 3:30
  And the car was, and looking at the way that race, I mean, everyone's got the story.
• 3:33
  But I think we're on for a good day there.
• 3:36
  And then 2000, it was kind of unique in the sense that, and this is the success that most teams, be it in supercars or whatever form of motorsport, when you've got a whole group of people pulling in the same direction with the same desire, the same will and want to achieve, not just the drivers, the team owner, the mechanics, the crew, the engineers,
• 3:56
  feeling and passion um and just it was like nothing was going to stop us that day it was just you could have put brick walls in front of us we would have found a way around it and that's actually what it was it was that that wet crazy day um i think we're one of the only cars that stayed on the black stuff all day uh and and at the end yeah we bounced out and ended up winning the race so it was it was pretty amazing
• 4:17
  What did it mean within the walls of Gary Rogers Motorsport?
• 4:21
  I mean, we're here at the track.
• 4:22
  The transporter is just in front of us here at the moment.
• 4:25
  That's a big, big thing for those boys then, wasn't it?
• 4:27
  Look, 100%.
• 4:28
  And it's not just – you know, when you saw the relief on Gary's face too.
• 4:31
  So you watch Gary from back in the late 70s, early –
• 4:36
  80s racing at that race trying to win that race being competitive as a touring car driver um Right through into the group a era when he was driving and then obviously as a team owner to then finally Get that traffic that that trophy that bathys win the relief on his face the release the relief on his shoulders I think it was um was quite high and it still resonates today through the team The the the bathys winning car still sits in the loft
• 5:02
  up there up there at grm it it hangs over the top of everyone everything that we do down there and um it certainly still has a presence 20 nearly 23 years later here we are it was yeah the car's still sitting there in pretty much the condition it finished the race on and um it's it's a pretty special thing and anyone that's won that race will tell you the the carries for a long time old mate gt
• 5:26
  Burned his butt that day, I think, didn't he?
• 5:28
  Didn't something happen?
• 5:29
  But you got away, Scott Free.
• 5:31
  There was nothing...
• 5:31
  There was nothing wrong with me because I had to sit on the insert in the seat.
• 5:34
  So for it to work, for him and I to share the seat, we had to pull all the cushions out for him.
• 5:39
  And then I had a big seat insert.
• 5:41
  So because there was no cushions in the bottom, he sat right in the bottom of the seat and the mufflers right there.
• 5:45
  He ended up with big blisters on his butt.
• 5:47
  But anyway, stop sooking, mate.
• 5:49
  You just won Bathurst.
• 5:50
  Bathurst, you know, like you get over it.
• 5:52
  The sport at that point...
• 5:55
  very memorable for all sorts of reasons.
• 5:57
  The competitiveness, the emergence and arrival of some young stars like yourself.
• 6:03
  The thing for me too was rivalries and character, right?
• 6:06
  So the Jason Barguana, rather, that I sit in front of now is the same guy I remember from that day.
• 6:11
  And it's the same person...
• 6:13
  on camera or on mic as off.
• 6:16
  So that, that stuff that we saw when you were, you know, at Winton, when you were winning and, and things like that, how good's this and so on.
• 6:22
  That was just, you know, we use the word authentic a lot lately, but it was authentically you.
• 6:27
  That's what you get.
• 6:28
  You get me.
• 6:29
  That's all I am.
• 6:30
  There's no pretend me.
• 6:31
  There's just me.
• 6:32
  So that's what I've been right throughout my career.
• 6:34
  And part of it, I think is just the passion.
• 6:36
  Um,
• 6:37
  and the love for what I do.
• 6:38
  And I love racing, and I love racing in Hyundai XL around Winton with my son, or racing at the top level of touring car racing and the biggest race in the country.
• 6:46
  So for me, I've always been driven by the competition and wanting to beat and race the best in the world and the best of the best, and that's what Supercars was.
• 6:55
  There was a golden era there in Supercars that was...
• 6:58
  Full of hungry, young, talented drivers.
• 7:01
  And we all had, I think there was a period there too, the personalities.
• 7:05
  We all had an understanding of the value of what we did.
• 7:08
  We all, a lot of us come through a hard road.
• 7:10
  I mean, you know, Russell Ingle's story and similar in terms of the sense that you're scraping together deals to get to where you got to.
• 7:17
  Mm-hmm.
• 7:17
  So we all understood the value of what we're doing.
• 7:20
  Everyone fought to the death, which was fantastic.
• 7:23
  And that created those personalities.
• 7:25
  And that's when, I suppose, supercars changed a little bit or the motor racing changed a little bit from...
• 7:31
  It was still the Ford-Holden rivalry, very much so.
• 7:34
  But there was also the emergence of some personalities as well.
• 7:38
  Not just your brand, but your driver as well.
• 7:50
  Rusty really needs to get Bug's old teammate, Garth Tander, back on the podcast for a part two as well.
• 7:57
  When he spoke to GT back in 2018, they chatted first cars and when Garth had, asked to bit much of his daily before trading it in.
• 8:06
  It had got the death knock up massively on the way in, so I stopped at the servo, poured some thickest oil in it that I could find and idled into the dealership, grabbed my car, my new car drove out and that was it.
• 8:16
  I think the Commodore went to the great car yard in the sky after that.
• 8:20
  I seem to recall Rusty frying the engine in his Gemini during his teenage years.
• 8:25
  Kept that quiet didn't you Gregory?
• 8:28
  Now, back to the Bhagwanas battling over the mic,
• 8:32
  Does time heal wounds in a rivalry sense?
• 8:35
  I think, you know, Murph and Marcus, for example, it's a bit easier when they've caught up with each other at a race meeting or in a broadcast or whatever it might be.
• 8:42
  When did it kind of simmer between you and Murph?
• 8:44
  Or did it simmer?
• 8:45
  I mean, we're actually pretty good mates.
• 8:48
  And then we ended up spending a bit of time together during the HRT period and early in those first few years we were racing.
• 8:54
  Then we had a bit of an altercation at Phillip Island.
• 8:58
  I ended up doing a three and a half pike with a twist down the front straight.
• 9:01
  Major, major.
• 9:02
  Huge accident.
• 9:05
  And, you know, I remember, so the ambulance place grabbed me and they've chucked me in the back of the ambulance and they're heading back up the track and they're talking about taking me to the medical centre.
• 9:14
  And as it pulled up at the gate, I'm like, nah, I've had no more, right?
• 9:18
  I've had enough of this.
• 9:19
  So I kick the ambulance open in the back of the door.
• 9:21
  They go, what are you doing, mate?
• 9:21
  And I'm like, they just follow me.
• 9:23
  So I'm walking up pit lane, jumping the fence.
• 9:25
  I've got ambulance blokes chasing me.
• 9:27
  And I'm trying to find Murph.
• 9:28
  And I'm like, mate, you are going to, I'm telling you how this works, right?
• 9:32
  And when I got there, he had all these mechanics around with helmets on.
• 9:34
  I didn't get very far.
• 9:35
  But anyway, I can be a bit fiery when I want to be.
• 9:38
  When you want to be, yeah.
• 9:39
  Yeah.
• 9:41
  And I don't reckon we spoke for probably six years after that.
• 9:44
  Wow.
• 9:45
  And then in 2009, we became teammates.
• 9:47
  And it was like, ah, well, move on.
• 9:48
  Move on.
• 9:49
  And so we ended up spending a year together working together.
• 9:51
  And Paul Mullen, TV producer, kind of reminded me too.
• 9:54
  Were you not more or less both racing the jet sprints at the same time?
• 9:58
  We were.
• 9:59
  So it was a bit earlier than that.
• 10:00
  That was around 97, 98, around that period that him and I were racing.
• 10:03
  We travel in America and so forth racing together in jet sprint boats.
• 10:06
  What was that like?
• 10:08
  Mullen loves it.
• 10:08
  He raves about it.
• 10:09
  Yeah.
• 10:10
  I mean, I think the...
• 10:11
  The engine I had was something like 2,000 horsepower in this little 15-foot boat that had... Far out.
• 10:16
  There's no wheel spin, right?
• 10:18
  So when you put your foot down with that sort of power, it pumps water out the back and it goes.
• 10:21
  It's the fastest thing you've ever experienced in life.
• 10:23
  And the tracks are quite shallow too, aren't they?
• 10:25
  Shallow, tight, twisty.
• 10:26
  You get...
• 10:27
  There was one track in...
• 10:28
  I think it was in Perth, where you'd go around this island and you'd come back around the same channel that you just drove through.
• 10:34
  So you'd go down, do a hard right, a hard right, and back down the same channel again.
• 10:39
  But the channel would be half as wide because the water was still being, from the lap before, you'd pumped all the water out of it.
• 10:45
  So you got back to it the second time and you're like, you're doing 160 k's an hour, and now you've got half the track to navigate.
• 10:52
  And when you get to a corner, being a jet sprint boat, of course, if anyone's driven a jet ski or whatever, they'll understand they don't turn unless you're on the throttle.
• 10:59
  So you'd arrive at a corner at 160km an hour and keep your foot buried into the throttle, which is reverse of what we do in a race car.
• 11:06
  We get in a race car, we brake, we turn, we accelerate through the corner.
• 11:09
  This thing you...
• 11:10
  fire up to the corner, you back off a little bit, and then you just flatten it to turn it.
• 11:14
  It's like, get your head around that.
• 11:15
  It's a bit of a challenge.
• 11:16
  But they were a great experience.
• 11:18
  How did that come about?
• 11:19
  And clearly you enjoyed it based on the recollection you've just given us.
• 11:22
  Great experience.
• 11:23
  I mean, it was actually Paul Mullen, the old TV producer, Black Magic Media.
• 11:26
  He'd been around for a long time, was involved in that, and rang and said, hey, come and have a go at this thing.
• 11:31
  I had one go in Perth, and it was just amazing.
• 11:33
  And then it led to doing the World Championship the year after.
• 11:36
  Amazing.
• 11:36
  Yeah, it was good.
• 11:37
  He's done some cool things retracing Sir Edmund Hillary's, not steps, not the climbing per se, but some of the jet boating that Sir Ed did in the Himalaya.
• 11:48
  That's another story, and people can find those videos.
• 11:52
  Is there a desire to do supercars at some stage, to do a Bathurst 1000?
• 11:57
  And in the realm of, you know, mapping things out, clearly TCR and trying to take on the world is the focus right now.
• 12:04
  But at some point, is there, you know, is that on the radar?
• 12:06
  And maybe sooner than we think.
• 12:08
  I thought you were going to say, is there a desire to do jet boats?
• 12:10
  And I'll be like, no way.
• 12:14
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:15
  I mean, of course I want to do 1,000.
• 12:18
  I mean, any young kid in Australia wants to race supercars.
• 12:21
  But I think, obviously, watching Dad win it, and even going to the event, you're like, I want to be in that.
• 12:30
  I want to win that.
• 12:32
  But, yeah, look, I think...
• 12:34
  At the moment, I have a real love for TCR.
• 12:39
  And I love the plan that we're going along and things like that.
• 12:43
  But yeah, I think 1000 is always going to light a bit of a fire inside me.
• 12:49
  But at the same time, I really love just as much this TCR thing.
• 12:54
  So yeah, however it goes, it goes.
• 12:58
  This is the immediate focus, what we're doing here this weekend, which is good.
• 13:02
  The Australian Series, too, has unearthed a few people in the likes of Aaron Cameron.
• 13:07
  We've seen the emergence of Jordan Cox, who was very good in front-wheel drive machinery.
• 13:11
  It's brought a few different people to the table, hasn't it?
• 13:14
  Absolutely.
• 13:15
  I mean, we've seen Dad, Michael Caruso, Moffat.
• 13:19
  It's really cool.
• 13:20
  Chas Mostert, who was the champion.
• 13:23
  Brownie?
• 13:24
  Yeah, well brown, I think it's an awesome category.
• 13:28
  I think once it really finds its legs in Australia, it's going to be...
• 13:31
  I think the World Tour is going to do a lot for it here in Australia.
• 13:35
  But when you see the level of it overseas and on a world scale, this TCR format has the right ingredients to be something pretty awesome.
• 13:43
  So, yeah, hopefully in Australia it takes off and turns into something really cool.
• 13:47
  And it's very competitive at the front.
• 13:50
  Look, there's some very good talent in TCR.
• 13:54
  Yes, the numbers aren't great in 2023.
• 13:56
  We're going to have 25-plus cars at the two World Tour events, and that's going to be very exciting.
• 14:01
  In fact, I think I heard that we're looking at nearly 30 cars for the World Tour events in terms of what's coming out of sheds and people are turning up.
• 14:08
  Unreal.
• 14:09
  If we can generate that interest, and I look at some of the talent.
• 14:11
  I mean, obviously, Aaron, you mentioned Jordan Cox.
• 14:14
  Young Zach Suda did a great job in former Ford.
• 14:16
  Mikey Clemente.
• 14:17
  And then you've got some of the older goers.
• 14:19
  TD's still in there.
• 14:20
  He's proven to be a champion.
• 14:21
  Will Brown.
• 14:22
  When you're racing these guys, you look at the quality of the talent.
• 14:26
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:26
  It's a bit of a messy marketplace, and that's probably in terms of where the Australian young guys fit in the Australian marketplace at the moment and how they get through the categories and that sort of thing, which is probably a completely another podcast that we could do at some stage.
• 14:42
  But, yeah, I think that when we look at the level of competition, the talent that's in TCR, it's very strong at the moment, and it's only going to get better.
• 14:49
  Tell me about the deal that you've put together here for the back end of the year, not just in terms of the sponsors and partners.
• 14:54
  I mean, you've been with...
• 14:56
  um burson for some time they're coming along for the journey you brought someone new to the table as well which is which is great and in working um with the french as you've as you've done and embracing them and that's that's a big um a big tick a big asset in this in this plan as well isn't it
• 15:13
  Yeah, I mean, this is probably more my part in terms of how we put some of this together.
• 15:17
  We've got a very good relationship with Burstyn Auto Parts, and they've been a fantastic partner over the last couple of years with us.
• 15:23
  Started out, obviously, with me driving, and then we've worked to Ben.
• 15:26
  And due to COVID, we managed to find a way to stretch out the two cars, and we made the most of the opportunity we could and worked with them.
• 15:33
  and then that led to this year them being on the journey with us to go and do some world tour stuff.
• 15:39
  So we put that together with a bit of the TV package, and we've ended up doing our own blogs and things, so TV stuff.
• 15:45
  It was better than a blog.
• 15:46
  It was a doco.
• 15:47
  It was the two-part doco series.
• 15:50
  So that meant that we could actually sell it back to Australia.
• 15:53
  It wasn't just about racing in Portugal or Spa.
• 15:56
  There was a definite connection here, and our fans here could follow it, and certainly the sponsors could get their value out of it.
• 16:02
  And it gave us the opportunity to go over there and do that.
• 16:04
  We met with Teddy and...
• 16:07
  the obvious... Tédiclare.
• 16:08
  Tédiclare and the entire family.
• 16:11
  We met them at Bathurst last year.
• 16:13
  We then decided, look, they've got some experience, we understand them, we know them, and quite quickly we fit together in terms of the way our philosophy, their philosophy...
• 16:22
  We went to Portugal and Spa, and we knew we were in the Peugeot, which is, at the world level, is an older model car.
• 16:29
  It's certainly not the latest Hyundai or it's the latest Lincoln car and the newest Honda.
• 16:35
  But we knew that what we were trying to achieve is to get a foot in,
• 16:40
  understand how that works over there, get a bit of an understanding of the way the Europe works, give Ben some experience, get a good result.
• 16:47
  And then when they turn up here, we're on the front foot a little bit with those guys.
• 16:52
  And I know they're going to get a shock when they start doing laps at Bathurst and go, wee, what's this all about?
• 16:58
  And bear in mind, we knew that too.
• 16:59
  But Ben had the same problem.
• 17:00
  We went to Spa and he'd never been there before and only got two 20-minute practice sessions before qualifying.
• 17:06
  So every session, Ben was getting quicker and quicker and quicker.
• 17:09
  And that's why the result at Portugal was fantastic.
• 17:12
  The result at Spa was great.
• 17:13
  But working with the Clarées...
• 17:15
  We sat there at Spa.
• 17:16
  We had some communication around a new opportunity with Hangchar in sponsorship.
• 17:22
  And we sort of sat there at Spa and said, what if?
• 17:25
  And we started piecing this together over the course of the weekend at Spa and said, Roddo, how about you two come and drive the Hangchar car at Sydney and Bathurst during the world tour?
• 17:35
  And then the same car Ben raced in...
• 17:39
  Portugal and Spa is it's well as we speak it's currently being loaded into a container and being shipped to Macau So Ben's gonna also now go and do Macau Again never been there you don't get much track time We know that we're probably not going to go there and get on the podium, but it's about gaining that experience So if we can put together the next phase of this program Which is doing more of the world tour having that experience being to Spa being to Portugal being to those circuits racing with a team overseas understanding how they work is
• 18:08
  is how we can be more competitive in that environment.
• 18:10
  How's your French?
• 18:11
  Very bad.
• 18:12
  What about you?
• 18:14
  I learnt one word.
• 18:15
  Give me a word.
• 18:16
  Come on.
• 18:17
  Shepa.
• 18:17
  What does that mean?
• 18:22
  Dunno.
• 18:23
  And even sitting in the debrief, we'd sort of start talking, and I got involved a little bit because trying to translate.
• 18:29
  We had them on the radio to Ben, but in the end I had to take over because no one could understand anyone.
• 18:34
  So I was on the radio.
• 18:36
  I could communicate with Teddy.
• 18:38
  Jean-Marie, very experienced.
• 18:40
  Jimmy and Teddy's father.
• 18:41
  Father, yep.
• 18:42
  He sort of runs the show.
• 18:43
  He's coming too.
• 18:43
  Is that right?
• 18:44
  So the way we put this together, and it all sort of worked.
• 18:47
  We're very close as a family.
• 18:48
  It all sort of – we could trust them sitting there talking in French.
• 18:52
  I understood the conversation, but not the words.
• 18:54
  Yeah, but you weren't being stitched is what you were thinking, or you weren't – We really felt comfortable with them.
• 18:59
  We knew where we stood, and this works for us.
• 19:02
  So Jean-Marie's coming out, and he's actually going to be working on the car with Teddy and Jimmy because he wanted to experience it as well.
• 19:08
  So they're a family operation, a bit like Ben and I and the Rogers.
• 19:11
  Yeah.
• 19:12
  So it all worked together.
• 19:13
  So he's going to be actually hands-on.
• 19:14
  Jimmy's going to be the engineer when Teddy's driving, and Teddy's going to be the engineer in terms of on the radio so they can all talk French together.
• 19:22
  We're going to give him some Vegemite toast for breakfast.
• 19:24
  We have got to have fun with Aussie slang, or we've got to teach him some Aussie slang.
• 19:29
  That's going to be gold.
• 19:29
  We stitched up Jean-Brie a number of times.
• 19:31
  Go, go.
• 19:31
  He's like, oh, mate, what do you say?
• 19:33
  What do you say?
• 19:33
  I don't know what it's saying.
• 19:34
  I don't know what it's saying.
• 19:36
  And then when it comes to, yeah, Macau, we're all going to leave here together on the Monday and we're all going to go and do it together with the car that we already raced.
• 19:44
  So it's a pretty exciting experience.
• 19:46
  He's got a grin.
• 19:47
  I'm seriously jealous.
• 19:48
  I was going to say, so am I. I mean, he's got a grin from here to here because not only is he going to the mountain, I mean, come back a little step.
• 19:55
  Firstly, what was Spa like this year?
• 19:58
  I mean, any driver in this paddock and beyond here in Australia would give their right arm to go and race that place.
• 20:04
  What was that like?
• 20:05
  And no words I can give here will do it justice.
• 20:09
  From even driving into the place, like it's in the most picturesque forest ever.
• 20:15
  The facilities are incredible.
• 20:18
  And it's just like, we couldn't believe it, even walking around the whole paddock.
• 20:22
  We did five laps of the place and we're still like, this is real.
• 20:25
  What do you take Eurugin and how fast?
• 20:27
  Well, I think the TCR was about 240.
• 20:31
  Top?
• 20:31
  Top gear 240.
• 20:32
  Yeah.
• 20:33
  Um, yes, fifth gear.
• 20:36
  Unbelievable.
• 20:37
  I'm going to be pretty honest here with my first lap through A Rouge.
• 20:41
  I didn't, I had no idea what to expect.
• 20:42
  Obviously, it was a track walk, very steep, but we see steep hills at Bathurst and things like that.
• 20:47
  But when you, what you don't realize is the run down to it's quite steep.
• 20:51
  Steep, yeah.
• 20:52
  And the point at the bottom is, it's quite a dip.
• 20:55
  Yeah.
• 20:56
  When you're at 240, the G-force that pulls down is massive.
• 21:01
  So the first lap I did through it, I almost threw up.
• 21:04
  Because I genuinely almost threw up and I couldn't keep my eyes open.
• 21:08
  That's how much G-force it was pulling down.
• 21:11
  And it just shocked me because I wasn't ready for it.
• 21:13
  What's the car do when you're bottom like that before you start firing up the hill again?
• 21:16
  Well, it's the weirdest feeling because you've got to... And in the TCR, you've got to aim for the outside fence.
• 21:23
  And because the G-force, it sucks it into this rail.
• 21:25
  So you do what your brain says not to.
• 21:29
  And you aim for the outside fence.
• 21:31
  And then all of a sudden, it just sucks into this groove.
• 21:33
  Holy!
• 21:34
  Counterintuitive.
• 21:35
  Totally counterintuitive.
• 21:36
  It's the weirdest feeling ever.
• 21:37
  But it was like, this is awesome.
• 21:40
  It was just...
• 21:41
  The first practice session, every lap, I was just like, whoa!
• 21:45
  Like, literally just screaming out loud.
• 21:47
  This is awesome.
• 21:49
  So, you get to do that.
• 21:51
  You've been to Portugal as well.
• 21:52
  We've got Sydney and Bathurst, which are in your own backyard.
• 21:55
  Macau, mate.
• 21:56
  Macau is legendary.
• 21:57
  I've spoken to bike races about it and so on.
• 22:00
  What are you going to do to prep for that?
• 22:02
  I don't think I could ever prep enough for that.
• 22:04
  Lots of YouTube.
• 22:05
  Lots of YouTube.
• 22:06
  Lots of simulator.
• 22:08
  Lots of everything.
• 22:10
  Yeah, I think that's going to be pretty...
• 22:12
  but I mean again mate another iconic thing to have on the CV to say that you're going to get the chance to go and do that I mean what a year like Portugal Spa Bathurst Macau it's pretty epic I'm very lucky and can we add to that something we haven't really talked about in this conversation S5000 have you enjoyed that what's that been like
• 22:31
  Absolutely.
• 22:34
  When I race TCR and that, they're polar opposite race cars.
• 22:38
  So getting my head around that open wheeler thing can take a bit.
• 22:44
  But those cars are just wild.
• 22:48
  They are really cool.
• 22:51
  Like, they're so fast and there's so much grip and so much aero.
• 22:55
  I mean, obviously, like, Dad's driven a lot of wings and slick things, so he would understand it a bit.
• 23:01
  But for me, like, even the first time I drove it, I was just like, I feel so out of depth here.
• 23:07
  Like, this car's on top of me.
• 23:08
  But...
• 23:10
  Yeah, as I've got to drive it more and more, I mean, we've got podium at Gold Coast and driving around Gold Coast was wild.
• 23:17
  And the Grand Prix and things like that.
• 23:19
  The S5000 is a really cool car.
• 23:21
  It would be good if we had full grids every weekend, but I just think they're really awesome race cars.
• 23:28
  Cool.
• 23:28
  A couple to finish here because, A, we've had family knocking on the door of the motorhome while we've been sitting here.
• 23:33
  You've got to get to a drive.
• 23:34
  Who was knocking on the door?
• 23:35
  It was Harry.
• 23:36
  Harry.
• 23:36
  I saw our fort pass before as well, so they're all here still.
• 23:39
  I feel bad now because we've kept them out in the cold.
• 23:41
  You've got a driver's briefing to go to.
• 23:43
  A couple to finish here.
• 23:45
  We won't get into WPS because I don't think we need to create any issues for you there.
• 23:52
  But when you left there and you said you went and did the mini thing and so on, did you kind of contemplate stopping?
• 24:00
  How difficult was that whole sort of back end of all that?
• 24:03
  Not really.
• 24:03
  I mean, look, and I give this advice to a lot of young race car drivers.
• 24:06
  I mean, at the end of the day...
• 24:08
  We had to pivot pretty quick.
• 24:11
  I think it was, what, two or a week and a half before Adelaide, which we thought we were going to.
• 24:15
  Come back a step here.
• 24:16
  Sorry, I'm diving in, mate.
• 24:17
  But you and Deb, it had been on multiple occasions around almost Christmas time that you were getting phone calls of, like, that that's off or that's not going ahead, et cetera.
• 24:28
  Well, by the end of it, I think we'd had six Christmases in a row with no job, right?
• 24:33
  We'd sort of built a house and the contract – we'd committed to the whole building the house thing 2007 to 2008.
• 24:44
  And then, of course, about a month into that, WPS closed doors.
• 24:50
  So we sort of just built a house and it was all happening.
• 24:52
  It was like, oh, here we go.
• 24:54
  Welcome to the real world.
• 24:55
  And it was over that, and then it was the Sprintcast closed down.
• 24:58
  We had sponsors not paying.
• 25:00
  We'd had periods where we went from Kelly's, obviously, to the Joneses, and that was all through Christmas.
• 25:06
  So I think it was about five or six Christmas in a row with no job, no deal, no sponsor, no, you know.
• 25:10
  When you all thought it was and contracts in place and then things change.
• 25:13
  But Larco's was another one.
• 25:15
  We'd sort of had a deal there.
• 25:17
  And I think we've already spoken about that a couple of times.
• 25:19
  But, you know, we thought we were going to FPR or Tickford at that stage.
• 25:23
  And then it ended up being Ford kept me at Larco's.
• 25:27
  And that contract was all good.
• 25:29
  And then...
• 25:30
  End of January, Larko rang up and said, oh, we're closing the doors.
• 25:35
  So a week before Adelaide, I managed to put a deal together with Craig Gore.
• 25:38
  We ended up in WPS for a couple of seasons.
• 25:41
  Again, a week before Adelaide, we all thought we're going to Adelaide, and then we're not.
• 25:46
  So, yeah, and then Mini came to me and asked me to drive the Mini Challenge car at the Sandown here as the Uber driver or whoever it was.
• 25:54
  They said, look, come do the guest drive thing.
• 25:57
  And somehow in the manager of that weekend, I turned that into – actually, no, it was at Eastern Creek.
• 26:01
  That's right.
• 26:03
  Or Sydney, Malesport Park.
• 26:05
  We managed to have a few conversations and turned that into a two-car team.
• 26:08
  Scott and I raced Minis for the year.
• 26:09
  Unreal.
• 26:09
  Unreal.
• 26:10
  We ran our family business, got together.
• 26:12
  He had one, I had one.
• 26:13
  We raced together and we put a bit of a budget together and we actually had a lot of fun.
• 26:16
  And I actually really enjoyed running our own team for a year.
• 26:19
  It led to the opportunity then to do with Delbertos and Rod Nash.
• 26:25
  And I drove with Tony at Bathurst.
• 26:29
  And at Bathurst, yeah, we were very competitive.
• 26:31
  I think I was, just before qualifying, I was third quickest or something.
• 26:35
  And then during the course of the day, I think I had a really good battle with Jace Richards.
• 26:40
  I think we were battling for fourth or fifth or something, and he couldn't get past.
• 26:45
  Monday morning, Tim Miles rang and said, hey, how about you come and talk to us?
• 26:49
  So that led to go to Sprint Gas the next year, which that lasted a year, and closed the doors.
• 26:54
  And then we went to Kelly's, and that changed, and the sponsor left, and all that sort of stuff.
• 27:01
  And then we went to Brad Jones'.
• 27:02
  So, yeah, it was a bit of a...
• 27:03
  a crazy period for about five or six years there.
• 27:05
  And I think we had three teams in a row that closed the doors at Christmas when we thought we had contracts.
• 27:10
  But it never – well, I mean, certainly based on the person sitting in front of me now here for this interview, it doesn't – it didn't stall you.
• 27:16
  It didn't dampen your passion, your enthusiasm for it, et cetera.
• 27:20
  I'm sure it was tough at times, but, I mean, you're still here.
• 27:23
  You're still – It certainly waned Deb's passion for motorsports.
• 27:26
  I'll bet.
• 27:27
  I'll bet.
• 27:29
  Her passion for the sport disappeared very quickly.
• 27:31
  Yeah.
• 27:32
  Yeah, look, at the end of the day, you've just got to do what you've got to do, don't you?
• 27:35
  It's like any business.
• 27:37
  We focus on it.
• 27:37
  We've had some bad periods.
• 27:38
  We just get up, we dust ourselves off, we go again.
• 27:41
  And that resilience is probably what got me through my career.
• 27:44
  And it led to different opportunities.
• 27:46
  And then I went and raced New Zealand for seven or eight seasons or something.
• 27:49
  We ended up winning two New Zealand Touring Car Championships and doing lots of bits and pieces and then got the invite to come back and do the DSO role at Supercars.
• 27:57
  They were cool cars made in NZ, weren't they?
• 27:59
  V8 Camry.
• 28:00
  It was just amazing to win in that and then a Commodore as well.
• 28:03
  And yeah, so it was really good.
• 28:05
  The DSO thing, just how do you frame that now with the benefit of time?
• 28:08
  Because as one of the early people coming into that role, I often say to people it is a...
• 28:14
  a thankless very difficult role we're very fortunate to have people that have current race experience that have come along to to do it at times but um probably exacerbated more now by social media than than anything else maybe it wasn't so bad uh or as bad you know you didn't do i don't think you did socials back then anyway so you probably wouldn't yeah yeah i don't do i don't do social media stuff i just don't get drank into it he is an influencer mate isn't he i'm a major influencer yeah
• 28:42
  I mean, look, I understand the benefit of it, socials, and why people do it and all that sort of thing.
• 28:46
  I just don't get involved in it because I can see two sides of that.
• 28:50
  Yes.
• 28:51
  And during that period, Deb said to me, just don't look at any of the social media stuff because if you did… Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:59
  And at the end of the day, it didn't bother me because, look, I know what I was there for.
• 29:02
  I understood from day one what the agenda was.
• 29:06
  I understood what I liked and didn't like when I was driving.
• 29:09
  So I made sure that I was true and honest about what we did from race one of the season to the last race of the season.
• 29:17
  And we were consistent.
• 29:18
  And whilst...
• 29:20
  the people at home and the keyboard warriors have a different view on everything.
• 29:24
  I respect that.
• 29:26
  They've got their own opinions.
• 29:27
  They're watching it.
• 29:27
  But they don't understand the consistency in the process.
• 29:30
  So the process is how we applied it.
• 29:33
  Yes, it's a thankless job because you're either having an argument with Roland Dane fighting on one side or a different – Tim Edwards walks in and wants to kill you as well because you're arguing about the two sides of the argument.
• 29:47
  I'm sitting in the middle.
• 29:50
  Someone's got to be unhappy There's always an unhappy party You know But I tried to stay true to what we did And I did it for three years, really enjoyed it I think I probably had got to my time And moved on I mean I was in a slightly different role to what Bardo was now He's just DSO, I was DSO and IPO So I was doing everything From not just driving but
• 30:12
  If a team had made a mistake with a rule or any of that sort of stuff, I was involved in all that too.
• 30:17
  So that was quite challenging.
• 30:18
  But, yeah, it was good for three years.
• 30:19
  But business was just taking off and I had too much going on and it was just too hard to keep travelling all the time.
• 30:25
  Cool.
• 30:25
  Was there learnings from your time in motor racing that crossed over to business and then maybe even vice versa?
• 30:30
  Oh, 100%.
• 30:31
  That resilience, I mean, look, I take a lot of my business advice, I guess, or look at what people like Gary Rogers do and go, right, what would he do in this situation?
• 30:41
  But certainly that resilience, that understanding, that priority and how you apply yourself in business, motorsport's very similar.
• 30:49
  In fact, the competitiveness environment of motorsport is so tough
• 30:53
  that business is very similar in that way.
• 30:56
  So, yeah, definitely those learnings have applied and hopefully we get business right as well.
• 31:00
  So it means we can move on to the next level.
• 31:01
  Beautiful.
• 31:02
  To finish, the car for you in your career.
• 31:05
  And is there a little resto project that I maybe don't know about that you're either doing or would like to do?
• 31:11
  Well, we did have a resto project.
• 31:14
  Why are you smiling?
• 31:15
  Did he start something and not finish it or something?
• 31:16
  What did he do?
• 31:17
  He bought an old Formula 2 car.
• 31:20
  How good?
• 31:21
  So much passion, excitement, everything.
• 31:23
  I reckon he took the body off it, sat in the shed for 18 months.
• 31:27
  And now it's out of the shed.
• 31:30
  What's the car?
• 31:31
  What's the car?
• 31:32
  Well, I recently sold it because we, I just, I don't have the time.
• 31:37
  It was the old Rowan Onslow Gold Star.
• 31:40
  Oh, fantastic.
• 31:41
  Championship winning Rolta RT30.
• 31:43
  So it was a former two car, golf engine.
• 31:46
  I found it under a bloke's house, got it out, cleaned it all up.
• 31:49
  We started pulling apart.
• 31:50
  I started looking at the parts and I'm like, oh, I just don't have time for this.
• 31:54
  So the intention was good.
• 31:55
  The intention was great.
• 31:57
  And every time I walk in the shed, there'll be something else going on.
• 32:00
  And then we ended up with a couple of Excels going as well during COVID.
• 32:04
  We had four race cars in the shed at one stage.
• 32:06
  It's like, what's going on here?
• 32:07
  Stacked on top.
• 32:08
  We had them stuffed in the back corner, and it's like, no, righto.
• 32:11
  I've got to clean this out.
• 32:12
  So that project is getting done.
• 32:16
  Not by me.
• 32:17
  But you'll keep it or someone else has got that?
• 32:20
  No, I've actually done a deal where the thing's getting done, but I'm going to drive it when it gets restored.
• 32:25
  Fantastic.
• 32:25
  So then, yeah, eventually it might take another couple of years.
• 32:28
  But, yeah, there was a lot of work in that.
• 32:31
  I just didn't have the time.
• 32:33
  Is it the 2000 Bathurst winner that you kind of sleep and dream of?
• 32:36
  What's the one?
• 32:37
  I don't know.
• 32:38
  Or are you not attached to them?
• 32:39
  Sometimes people... No, I don't really get...
• 32:41
  I mean, the problem is every time you drive a race car, the first Formula V that I drove was fantastic.
• 32:47
  The second one was better.
• 32:49
  The third one, you know, and then you get to a Formula Ford and then the Formula Holden and the supercar and every supercar got better than the last one.
• 32:56
  So to become attached with a car, I've seen some of my cars and now I'm obviously classic age.
• 33:01
  Some of my cars are getting restored and people bring them out.
• 33:04
  Oh, come and have a look at this.
• 33:05
  But I mean, as a kid,
• 33:07
  There was a Twin Cam Escort in our shed at home.
• 33:10
  I remember that it worked on.
• 33:12
  Mark 2, Mark 1, what are we talking about?
• 33:13
  Mark 1, Mark 1 Twin Cam Escort.
• 33:15
  There was XU1 Terranas and those sorts of things in our shed at home.
• 33:19
  I've always got to be a soft spot for those things.
• 33:21
  And one day, if I could find the time, I might see if we can do something there.
• 33:25
  And that's where you might see me pull a bit of a helmet on, but it might be at an historic meeting somewhere and have a bit of fun.
• 33:29
  I love the fact that you've never said on stopping that you still want to do that from time to time when the situation is right.
• 33:34
  So I'm glad that you're doing that.
• 33:37
  You've got to go to a driver's briefing.
• 33:38
  So we'll wrap this up.
• 33:40
  Thank you very much for chatting with us.
• 33:42
  There's lots more I know that we could cover.
• 33:44
  Go well with the pursuit of the international thing.
• 33:48
  I think you're to be absolutely admired for having a crack at that because it becomes difficult for a lot of young racers and sometimes doors don't open or people...
• 33:59
  perhaps run out of the steam, if you will, to chase that.
• 34:02
  Chase it hard, mate.
• 34:03
  Go and give it your best and we hope you enjoy the back end of the year.
• 34:06
  And thank you for a little walk down memory lane too, Jase.
• 34:09
  There's some great fun that we've had along the way there and cool things we've got to experience.
• 34:13
  Long walk, isn't it?
• 34:15
  Never ends.
• 34:16
  But no, you are right and I think right now I have a massive fire inside me for this TCR thing so I'm going to chase it as hard as I can and see what comes out of it.
• 34:24
  Good stuff.
• 34:25
  Great to chat with you boys.
• 34:26
  Thank you very, very much.
• 34:26
  Thanks, mate.
• 34:33
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 34:37
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 34:40
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 34:43
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 34:47
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.