Latest / Rusty's Garage / James Golding & Aaron Cameron | Part 1 - The Blanchard Racing Team pairing join us in studio

Transcript

James Golding & Aaron Cameron | Part 1 - The Blanchard Racing Team pairing join us in studio · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:14
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  Hi everybody and welcome to our latest feature ep of Rusty's Garage.
• 0:30
  For this one I've bent the rules or broken the mould a little as they say.
• 0:33
  I was originally going to interview Aaron Cameron from the Blanchard Racing Team one-on-one as we traditionally do.
• 0:40
  But then Mitch Britton, the team's commercial manager, called and said, Hey, what if we bring both drivers in and make it a longer convo on their careers and the recent success the team has enjoyed?
• 0:50
  and more.
• 0:51
  I didn't overthink it, which I'm probably a bit prone to doing, and I'm pleased that I just went with his recommendation.
• 0:56
  So Jimmy Golding is joining us too.
• 0:59
  We all sat round our Melbourne listener studios, the three of us.
• 1:02
  It's a great chat, as you'll hear, from their respective paths that they took in their motorsport journeys early on.
• 1:09
  The race cars in the Cameron family garage.
• 1:12
  Has he driven them?
• 1:13
  The roles both of them had, beyond the driving, at Gary Rogers Motorsport.
• 1:17
  Nicknames DJing skills.
• 1:19
  Does any of that even correlate to motorsport?
• 1:22
  Jimmy's Bathurst podium and how he feels about the 2025 race with some time to look back on it now.
• 1:28
  The turning point for Aaron at BRT and how much Golding is enjoying his new home.
• 1:34
  Plus, Aaron shares an inspiring story on his dad and his mum, for that matter, really.
• 1:39
  Keep an ear out for that or an eye out for it if you're watching us on YouTube.
• 1:44
  Hope you enjoy the conversation.
• 1:47
  Hello, you two.
• 1:49
  Where have you been before?
• 1:50
  Listen, look at the DJ here on the buttons already.
• 1:53
  What are you doing?
• 1:54
  Adjusting volume.
• 1:55
  Yeah, it's not going down.
• 1:57
  It's not going down?
• 1:57
  Do you want me to adjust the volume for you?
• 1:59
  Is it too loud?
• 2:01
  Go, give us a test.
• 2:02
  Yeah, high testing, one, two, three, four, five.
• 2:03
  This is for James Golding.
• 2:04
  You found it?
• 2:05
  He's fine.
• 2:06
  You're happy?
• 2:06
  I'll just stick to my expertise.
• 2:08
  I'll just have some water.
• 2:08
  There's a lot of good kit outside that you would probably like to...
• 2:13
  Tinker with?
• 2:14
  Yeah.
• 2:14
  Old DJ Jimmy?
• 2:15
  Few buttons.
• 2:16
  Few buttons.
• 2:18
  There's never enough buttons.
• 2:20
  Never enough buttons.
• 2:21
  When did you develop that kind of passion, that love for that?
• 2:24
  Nah, it was in COVID.
• 2:25
  Was it?
• 2:26
  Stuck at home, yeah.
• 2:27
  Just tinkering?
• 2:27
  Like just mucking around?
• 2:28
  Yeah.
• 2:29
  Well, I sort of just wanted to do it for fun.
• 2:31
  Which I still do it for fun.
• 2:33
  but a little bit more seriously.
• 2:36
  Same with racing, I suppose.
• 2:37
  Starts off as fun, doesn't it?
• 2:38
  Don't underplay that.
• 2:39
  It starts off as fun.
• 2:40
  It starts off as fun.
• 2:41
  And now it's not fun.
• 2:42
  Nah, just kidding.
• 2:43
  You guys are having a great run.
• 2:45
  Actually, on the DJ thing, I mean, you DJed an after party at Darwin last year and stuff like that.
• 2:50
  I know in these moments when we're doing podcasts that you prefer to talk racing, obviously, but you clearly do get a lot of enjoyment out of that, don't you?
• 2:57
  Yeah, it's good to have another outlet, something you can also focus and get better on.
• 3:02
  It's actually got a lot of similarities to racing, which people probably wouldn't think about.
• 3:05
  But the timing and decision-making and all that sort of stuff, obviously, when you mix in tracks, you've only got so long on plays for.
• 3:12
  You've got to pick the next track in time.
• 3:15
  That depends how you do it, but that's how I like to do it.
• 3:18
  I have a big playlist with heaps of tracks and just pick on the fly and you've got to pick the right track that everyone wants to hear.
• 3:24
  Now, in emceeing, when you're learning a bit of that stuff, they teach you about reading the room and stuff too.
• 3:28
  You have to do a bit of that, don't you?
• 3:30
  What music resonates?
• 3:31
  Yeah, definitely.
• 3:33
  I mean, places that I play at, it's kind of a bit more, you know, you sort of know the crowd.
• 3:38
  So it makes it easier.
• 3:39
  What's the go-to at the moment?
• 3:40
  Have you got go-to tunes at the moment or artists?
• 3:43
  Oh, not really.
• 3:44
  I've got a pretty big library.
• 3:46
  Do you?
• 3:47
  But yeah, we've been making a few tunes recently.
• 3:50
  So on the Don't Think Spotify, look that up.
• 3:53
  Don't Think.
• 3:54
  Don't Think, okay.
• 3:54
  Don't Think, just look it up.
• 3:56
  Have you got a hidden superpower like that?
• 3:58
  Do you get subjected to this in the car on the way to the track?
• 4:01
  Whatever.
• 4:01
  Yeah, it's been a big learning process.
• 4:03
  I'd say this year, me and JC used to just put on whatever music and this year Jimmy's constantly changing the song.
• 4:10
  He can't seem to, he's got to find the right vibe of the song, of what he wants.
• 4:13
  So no, it's a big change and it's something I don't.
• 4:17
  care about, offense Jimmy, but yeah, that's his domain and he can be the car.
• 4:22
  So what's your outlet then?
• 4:23
  What's your thing?
• 4:24
  Do you have one?
• 4:26
  Do you have time for one?
• 4:28
  I don't probably say I do really.
• 4:29
  I mean, I've got the little go-kart team that I do.
• 4:32
  There's nothing else you do that's not motorsport.
• 4:34
  I go mountain bike riding, love that.
• 4:36
  Oh, there you go.
• 4:37
  Yeah, so I do a fair bit of that all the time.
• 4:39
  I think me and Matty Payne ride the same track in Listerfield.
• 4:43
  But not together.
• 4:44
  Not together.
• 4:45
  I sort of brought it up and he flatly declined to go riding with me.
• 4:49
  Is that awkward?
• 4:49
  You're okay.
• 4:50
  No, I'm fully okay with that because I reckon he'd be a beast on the bike.
• 4:54
  I just like to just slowly, gently go down and try not die each time.
• 4:57
  For people that don't know, tell them more about the karting side of things.
• 5:00
  Obviously, you have a background in that.
• 5:01
  Now you're playing in that space a little bit.
• 5:03
  Yeah, the karting stuff just sort of happened before I got the supercar main game driver.
• 5:09
  Just one kart shop sort of closed down and then there was a few customers that all sort of wanted to have someone run a team and yeah, just do another Guy Cooper and it's fully Victorian state-based stuff and I just have so much fun just going to kart tracks, trying to teach kids the basics and...
• 5:24
  really focused on not spending heaps of money at karting level because it's so early in your motorsport career.
• 5:32
  And easy.
• 5:32
  It's easy to spend so much money now when trying to get them to understand that you need it all for a lot later.
• 5:39
  It only gets more expensive.
• 5:41
  Now I'm just trying to help a few of those kids, trying to get them on a path to supercars or wherever they want to go without...
• 5:48
  I'm spending millions of dollars.
• 5:49
  That's, that's my priority.
• 5:51
  How much of that is you with advice around gearing, whatever, and how much of it is kind of driver coaching?
• 5:59
  I'd say we vary across all of that.
• 6:02
  But probably not heaps of the setup gearing sort of stuff.
• 6:05
  I try and focus on mindset of racing of like when you should and shouldn't make a pass and what to do at starts, when to block, when not to block and,
• 6:15
  It's probably like, we'll probably get to at some point, my incident with Brodie at Sydney where my mindset's so much about thinking and trying to think ahead and prevent things from happening.
• 6:24
  And obviously I learn a lot from that incident in Sydney, but trying to help these kids understand what's going on in the races.
• 6:30
  Yeah, you don't always have to be the fastest car on the track.
• 6:33
  Is that a learned thing, the mindset stuff?
• 6:34
  And that's open to you as well.
• 6:36
  Do you subscribe to a bit of that?
• 6:37
  Yeah, I'm subscribed to Aaron's tips there.
• 6:43
  Obviously, I should probably take note after you bet me off the line at Sydney.
• 6:48
  Yeah, I think it's something you're constantly learning and adapting.
• 6:52
  It's always going to be...
• 6:54
  different as well like you can't go oh i just got to do that every time because you're always in new situations where actually it's a bit of a different scenario with how the track went or it was a similar corner as a couple of rounds ago same thing side by side but this one it's you can't stay around the outside because it's too slippery so yeah you constantly learn and get better at that i think that's probably the biggest thing that changes in in racing i reckon that and also learning the
• 7:19
  like set up stuff with the car and getting better at that with feedback.
• 7:22
  You're still immensely young at heart, mate, but you turned 30, I think if I'm right in January.
• 7:26
  Don't say it too loud.
• 7:28
  No, I'm not.
• 7:29
  To me, it's just a number.
• 7:30
  How different is James Golding now to when James Golding kind of –
• 7:34
  first started out as a racer and in that mindset stuff that you're talking about yeah a lot different i wish um as a lot of people would say i wish i knew what i know now back then but um yeah i'd say that's probably the biggest difference um i think a lot of us obviously to get to the top level i've got the skill to do it but it's all those other bits and pieces the in-betweens working with the team um all that mindset stuff aaron's talking about is what makes a difference
• 8:00
  The early days, can I come to a little bit of that for both of you and feel free to dive in here.
• 8:05
  For you, I think the family have got a bit of history.
• 8:08
  Your mum raced some cool stuff.
• 8:10
  Was it Taranas and things?
• 8:11
  What was she driving?
• 8:12
  I'm trying to remember.
• 8:12
  Yeah, she was in the historic Group CNA stuff.
• 8:15
  She raced the L34 Tarana and another family friend raced our NNX Tarana.
• 8:20
  So yeah, big involvement back then and that.
• 8:22
  That's how I got my start in learning about motorsport.
• 8:26
  Can you remember that?
• 8:26
  Can you look at where you... Yeah, I remember some early parts and then actually she had quite a big crash in an XU1 back then, which was quite a scary time when she broke her wrist.
• 8:35
  And I realized motorsport does actually have some risks to it, which probably intrigued me a bit more.
• 8:41
  Yeah, no, that was the first parts of getting involved and seeing what it's all about.
• 8:45
  And yeah, living the dream now.
• 8:49
  I think you two have got a cheeky way about you with that.
• 8:51
  There's always a bit of a bit of underlying wit in that.
• 8:53
  What about, I actually don't know with you, my old boss, David White, shared for that, um, that you were both involved in.
• 9:00
  In fact, that lovely Gary Rogers tribute pod that I did last year.
• 9:03
  He reminded me about a great story of, of you and being on a train, I think as a teenager and making your way into Gary Rogers motorsport and kind of doing the hard yards.
• 9:12
  How did it all kick off for you?
• 9:13
  Yeah, well, going back into karting, I think it really started when my cousins, they were racing just at like club level.
• 9:22
  We went to watch them, dad and I, and then he asked if I wanted to give it a go and then got a couple of karts, got into it.
• 9:29
  Then my sister started as well, not too long after.
• 9:31
  And then my mom even raced as well.
• 9:33
  So all four of us were racing.
• 9:36
  one of the years of the club championships.
• 9:37
  They made up like a ladies' class for their wives and girlfriends, so mum went in that.
• 9:41
  Poor stress for dad on the hip pocket.
• 9:43
  Shared the same cart.
• 9:44
  They were both in lead on and off, so they had different weights for each class anyway.
• 9:48
  And then that year, we were all literally lined up to win the club championship, dad in over 40s, my sister in junior national anyway.
• 9:56
  And before the last round,
• 9:59
  my mum actually fractured her rib in the go-kart and she couldn't race the last round.
• 10:04
  So she DNF'd everything, or DNS'd everything.
• 10:07
  No points.
• 10:08
  Still finished second and all the rest of us won the championship.
• 10:11
  So we all would have won it.
• 10:12
  But yeah, I don't let her live it down now.
• 10:15
  I say surely you could have just dealt with the pain.
• 10:18
  And what transitioned from there for you in terms of ultimately, I mean, there's a bit of Formula Ford in there and what have you, but leading into Gary's mate, how did the introduction to GRM come about and all that sort of stuff?
• 10:30
  Yeah, there was a bit of sort of coming in from both directions to get in there.
• 10:36
  I actually knew Scotty McLaughlin, already mates with him, free go-karting.
• 10:42
  And then also happened to be my next-door neighbour
• 10:47
  his dad or his grandfather was like best mates with Gary, just like coincidentally that we'd grown up next to.
• 10:55
  You leveraged that.
• 10:56
  Yeah.
• 10:56
  So I actually started an apprenticeship working for Borlands in the Formula Ford team, just wanted to learn more about the cars and stuff to help with my driving.
• 11:04
  And then only a few months into that, basically I got the gig at GRM and continued my apprenticeship there and
• 11:11
  Yeah, I didn't have a license back then because I was only 17 and just rode my bike to the train station, trained from Warragal down to Daenong South, back on the bike.
• 11:20
  Rain, hail, I shine.
• 11:21
  I was getting drenched by trucks in the middle of winter and everything.
• 11:25
  You name it.
• 11:26
  What were you doing?
• 11:27
  I can't remember what you're doing because he always gave everybody a job in the workshop.
• 11:30
  Was it fabrication?
• 11:31
  Where were you?
• 11:31
  I was in sub-assembly.
• 11:32
  Sub-assembly, sorry.
• 11:33
  Yeah.
• 11:34
  So all the drive-line parts, uprights.
• 11:36
  Are you still handy?
• 11:37
  Like if someone said to you today, can you give us a hand at BRT?
• 11:39
  Yeah.
• 11:40
  Yeah.
• 11:40
  No, I don't want to interrupt any of the boys.
• 11:44
  They've all got their jobs and I'll leave them to it.
• 11:46
  But yeah, if anyone's stuck, I'd definitely give a hand.
• 11:49
  Coming back to the karting stuff, I think you were about age 11, Oakley.
• 11:53
  Did Dad take you out and you were more or less hooked from there?
• 11:56
  What happened?
• 11:56
  Yeah, we went and watched the Junior Top Guns, a big juniors-only event at the start of the year.
• 12:01
  What year was that?
• 12:03
  2011.
• 12:03
  Were you racing?
• 12:04
  Yeah, that's the year I won the national.
• 12:06
  Oh, so I was- I'll listen to you too.
• 12:08
  So I would have been watching Jimmy Golding and then I was like, I was just hooked from there.
• 12:12
  I was like, oh, I love it.
• 12:13
  That was my last year in kart.
• 12:15
  Was it?
• 12:16
  Yeah, and then I went to Formula Ford the year after.
• 12:18
  It led to, though, like literally a week later, I think, there was a cart in the driveway or something.
• 12:22
  Is that right?
• 12:22
  Yeah, I can't remember the exact timeline, but pretty soon we got a cart after that, and then next minute we were hooked just at the track every weekend and just cutting laps and trying to really get home to craft and catch up because a lot of kids started at seven or eight, and I'm already three, four years behind.
• 12:37
  So, yeah, we had a lot of work to do early on there.
• 12:40
  Did it come naturally, as they say?
• 12:43
  Was there a phase of...
• 12:45
  Oh, there would have been a phase at the start where I was just absolutely useless.
• 12:48
  I can guarantee that.
• 12:49
  But it must have come pretty naturally because I remember after the second year in, we were already winning the club championship stuff at Todd Road.
• 13:00
  So yeah, just...
• 13:01
  Yeah, had an absolute.
• 13:02
  That was the most fun times.
• 13:03
  That's what I tell the kids in the cart team now.
• 13:05
  Enjoy this now.
• 13:05
  Carting is the most fun you'll ever have.
• 13:07
  After that, it just gets a whole lot more expensive and a whole lot more pressure.
• 13:11
  So enjoy it whilst it lasts.
• 13:12
  Something happens here around like year 11 and you have a serious conversation with mum and dad like...
• 13:18
  I'm done.
• 13:18
  I want to go racing.
• 13:19
  I don't forget school kind of thing.
• 13:21
  Was it along those lines?
• 13:23
  Yeah, I wasn't very that good at school.
• 13:24
  I wasn't very interested.
• 13:25
  So at the end of year 11, I pretty much just said to him that I have no interest in going to university or doing any further education.
• 13:33
  Racing's what I want to do.
• 13:35
  So there's no point doing year 12.
• 13:38
  I'm just going to go there and if you want me to pass, I'll pass, but I'm not getting an ATAR.
• 13:41
  I'm not going to uni.
• 13:42
  You got further than me.
• 13:43
  I only did year 10.
• 13:45
  I look good here.
• 13:46
  But don't you reckon that's a great, I mean, for all the kids that are listening, don't you reckon that's a great thing?
• 13:49
  Like I'm self-taught when it comes to broadcasting.
• 13:52
  I'm last bastion in that sense.
• 13:53
  I didn't go to uni or whatever.
• 13:54
  It's not to say that you wouldn't recommend in some careers that people should go to uni for what they're doing.
• 13:59
  I think if you know where you want to go,
• 14:02
  and you can do it by just getting into it, then just do it.
• 14:05
  Exactly.
• 14:05
  But if you're still unsure, you may as well just keep going and learn.
• 14:08
  But the secret to both of you then is clearly application, tenacity, don't die wondering, like get in and give it your absolute all.
• 14:16
  Yeah, that's right.
• 14:17
  I mean, the things you learn firsthand practically with racing, especially karting and all that, like...
• 14:23
  you know, you come up through the ranks and drive with different teams and that.
• 14:27
  You work with different people and a lot of the people that have raced themselves or have done go-karting speedway, they're all just so much more dialed into what you're talking about when you're talking about the car or even just working on the car.
• 14:39
  They just get it.
• 14:41
  And they may have been like me, dropped out of year 10 and they've just been working on it ever since.
• 14:47
  Yeah, no reason you can't succeed.
• 14:49
  I don't believe it holds you back.
• 14:52
  I'm happy to cut this out if you don't want to talk about it because it might be quite a personal thing.
• 14:57
  But I gather, mate, your dad is vision impaired.
• 15:00
  He's quite an inspirational man from what I can gather with marathon running around the world this year and stuff like that.
• 15:06
  Can you share a little bit?
• 15:07
  Does your mum more or less talk him through some of the races and things?
• 15:11
  Is that what happens?
• 15:12
  uh yeah yeah i actually well obviously i'm racing these days so i don't exactly know what happens but the general idea is yeah she's got to talk him through what's happening on the race whether it's beautiful whether it's good or bad so um you learn to become quite a good commentator for the old man whether it's for me watching f1 or whatever watching so um yeah no he's he's been an inspiration for me for ages lost his
• 15:33
  Had sight and then lost it.
• 15:34
  Funny enough, once I was born, he decided he didn't want to see anymore.
• 15:37
  So it slowly got worse from there.
• 15:38
  So it just got worse and worse.
• 15:41
  And then he's just gone from strength to strength, I think, in that persistence in finding what he loves.
• 15:46
  And he was big into his bike riding, riding bike nationals and all this stuff.
• 15:49
  And now he's right into his marathon running, trying to do the – is it the seven or eight marathons you do around the world?
• 15:54
  And you get a special medal.
• 15:55
  He's like New York and stuff like that.
• 15:56
  He wants to do all that stuff.
• 15:57
  I think he's done New York.
• 15:58
  He's got a couple more to do now.
• 15:59
  And I think he's got to do Sydney.
• 16:00
  So, yeah, look, and –
• 16:03
  With a guy like that as your dad, it's like, yeah.
• 16:06
  Nothing's unachievable.
• 16:07
  Yeah, exactly.
• 16:08
  I don't have excuses to not go out and try and do my best in everything that I can.
• 16:12
  So, yeah, it's a real inspiration for me.
• 16:15
  And I think everyone around him just makes us all very accountable.
• 16:18
  And he was, you just ran your own Formula Fords and stuff too, didn't you?
• 16:21
  Yeah, he worked on my Formula Ford.
• 16:24
  And my go-karts.
• 16:25
  He ran them.
• 16:26
  We had people help us to get there, but he was mechanically working on them all.
• 16:29
  We changed the gear ratios in the Formula Ford.
• 16:32
  We had one time where he forgot to put a washer in, in the gearbox, and we learned pretty quickly, put that washer in because there was gears everywhere.
• 16:40
  After that, we were checking it and yeah, he's an incredible, incredible guy.
• 16:44
  I love that.
• 16:45
  I love that.
• 16:45
  Thank you for sharing it.
• 16:46
  People along the way in your journey are, whether it's parents or whatever, are important.
• 16:50
  You've talked about Gary already.
• 16:52
  What was the first kind of introduction for both of you?
• 16:54
  Like you talked about the connection and maybe, you know, friends or family and whatever helping you to get there.
• 17:01
  Can you recall the first kind of meetings there?
• 17:03
  Um, yeah, it would have been at GRM, um, the interview kind of thing.
• 17:07
  Are you, were you on the forward foot picking up the phone?
• 17:10
  Can I meet you?
• 17:11
  What, how did you do that?
• 17:12
  Um, I don't quite remember that part.
• 17:15
  I think I just sort of got the interview and then he was there.
• 17:18
  And, you know, he's like, he's a pretty forward, full-on guy.
• 17:21
  It was pretty scary when I was 17.
• 17:23
  The meetings were short often, weren't they?
• 17:24
  Yeah, it doesn't last long.
• 17:26
  It's just, that's all it is and off you go kind of thing.
• 17:29
  So, yeah, but he set a good precedent for the whole team and for myself.
• 17:35
  And, yeah, the things that I learned there, I've definitely carried on.
• 17:37
  for the rest of my career.
• 17:38
  Nicknames were for everybody.
• 17:40
  Did he give you Bieber or where did that come from?
• 17:42
  He gave it to me.
• 17:43
  So, yeah, at the time when I started, my haircut was similar to Justin Bieber.
• 17:47
  It was that hair flick he had going on.
• 17:49
  And then, like, a year after, he had the bleach blonde shaved head, but it just stuck.
• 17:54
  And I'm like, well, I don't even look like him now.
• 17:57
  But it sticks.
• 17:58
  It always stuck.
• 17:59
  He'd always send me articles of stuff that he was in the news for, like, oh, what have you done here?
• 18:04
  And I started off.
• 18:06
  So good.
• 18:06
  Much missed your sense of humour.
• 18:08
  Can you remember your early interactions there?
• 18:10
  You picked up the phone quite early on, didn't you?
• 18:13
  Yeah, I think it was before the first year of TCR.
• 18:16
  2018 or something or 2019.
• 18:17
  Yeah, started 2019.
• 18:19
  Ryan McLeod called him first for me and then I spoke to Gary on the phone and it was...
• 18:24
  The conversation wouldn't have gone 30 seconds.
• 18:26
  Right.
• 18:26
  Yeah.
• 18:27
  We'd come in for a meeting and it was just so fast.
• 18:30
  I didn't know if that was good or bad at the time and went and had the meeting.
• 18:32
  And again, that probably lasted all of three minutes.
• 18:35
  And he didn't have a drive for me anyway that first year.
• 18:37
  And he planted a seed though, mate, didn't he?
• 18:39
  Yeah.
• 18:39
  And he already knew before that meeting that he didn't have a drive for me, which was fine.
• 18:42
  But he just wanted to meet me and see what I was about.
• 18:45
  And then I come back the next year and pleaded my case and I'd had a pretty good year and ...
• 18:50
  Then probably had four or five of the best years of my life, I reckon, at GRM.
• 18:53
  It was just such a fun team and good vibes.
• 19:04
  If Aaron and Jimmy's recollections of working with the late Gary Rogers have struck a chord, you might enjoy the tribute episode Rusty put together on the Hall of Famer.
• 19:13
  A series of fresh interviews with people that knew him best, including Bathurst winner Lee Holdsworth, who they called Lethaler GRM.
• 19:21
  I think I was the only one that walked in and said, he said, righto, what's your nickname?
• 19:25
  And I said, Lethal.
• 19:26
  And he goes, righto, that's your nickname.
• 19:28
  Caruso walks in, he says, what's your nickname?
• 19:31
  He says, uh, Carus.
• 19:32
  And he goes,
• 19:34
  Robbo, as in Robinson Caruso.
• 19:36
  That's you.
• 19:37
  You're Robbo from now on.
• 19:38
  And once again, Caruso hated it.
• 19:42
  The Gary Rogers tribute episode has nearly two hours of memories, some emotional and lots of laughs too, just as Gaz would have wanted.
• 19:50
  Back to a couple of GRM protégés now, Aaron Cameron and James Golding.
• 19:57
  I've missed in the timeline a couple of little things in your careers.
• 19:59
  I don't know that that necessarily matters.
• 20:00
  Can I come to the TCR thing?
• 20:01
  Because it's MPC, I think, at first for you, isn't it, with the V-dub?
• 20:06
  Did you enjoy that?
• 20:07
  Well, I mean, that whole series, for whatever reason, even globally, has gone through some tough stuff, maybe COVID or timing or whatever.
• 20:14
  I don't know.
• 20:14
  But they were a good, fun little jigger.
• 20:16
  Oh, they were awesome.
• 20:17
  At the time, we had so much fun.
• 20:19
  I hadn't really done any front-wheel drive stuff, I don't think, especially not on slick.
• 20:22
  So then trying to understand getting the rear tires hard and, yeah, you see the development that everyone in the category had from the first round to the end of the year, it was
• 20:32
  Yeah, just so much fun, and I love those cars.
• 20:35
  We had some great – the BOP, the variation in the cars just made the racing really, really cool.
• 20:41
  I feel like you clicked with it pretty –
• 20:44
  Yeah, oh.
• 20:44
  You know, fast too.
• 20:45
  Exactly, yeah.
• 20:45
  Especially, and then obviously we had some great drivers that would come through.
• 20:49
  Like in MBC we had Russell Ingle, Garth Tander, Leanne Tander.
• 20:53
  There's a list.
• 20:54
  And then we had that European guy come out for a round.
• 20:57
  It was just the learning that I had in that year with MBC was incredible, just with some looking at...
• 21:04
  really accomplished people, their data.
• 21:07
  That just helped me progress so quick.
• 21:08
  And then I was able to go to GRM and, um, So you followed, you followed him up basically, did you?
• 21:13
  Yeah, that next year.
• 21:14
  Cause I had nothing else.
• 21:15
  Like it was, it was the one and done with MPC, had some great support from the category.
• 21:19
  And then my parents put in a lot to, to make that happen.
• 21:21
  It was like, yeah, as I said, one and done.
• 21:24
  And then I had to follow up with Gary and hope that,
• 21:26
  He'd give me a crack that next year and thankfully did because, yeah, I still don't see myself here today in supercars without the support of Gary.
• 21:35
  Gary and especially Barry back then as well for me was really good.
• 21:38
  It became a great playground for both of you with all the different things that they had there.
• 21:41
  I mean, even, you know, for you ultimately getting a Guernsey, you know, Volvo at Sandown and, you know, Trans Am and all sorts of stuff from S5000.
• 21:50
  Yeah, that's right.
• 21:51
  I mean, even obviously I got in full time into supercars with GRM, but yeah, getting the opportunity really to make that step towards it from Formula Ford.
• 22:03
  Gary gave me the offer to go into Super 2 and run with them and that's been a huge, well, probably the main pivotal part in my career because...
• 22:13
  I wasn't really sure what was going to happen that year.
• 22:16
  I was tossing up to try and go and do IndyCar and try and go down that path.
• 22:21
  How close did you get there?
• 22:23
  Well, we didn't bother because it was like, I would go over and live in America and try and, um, you know, win the scholarship thing to get the budget to go to the next, next level.
• 22:33
  Um, starting off with USF 2000, I think it was back then.
• 22:36
  Did he talk you out of that or what did he have?
• 22:38
  Nah, he left it.
• 22:39
  I said it, I said that that was what I was thinking about doing and he said for me to do what I want to do.
• 22:44
  Um, yeah.
• 22:46
  But then it was like, you know, you obviously got to live over there.
• 22:49
  Your whole lifestyle changes.
• 22:51
  And I was like, oh, you know, this is a pretty good opportunity and I can stay at home in Australia.
• 22:56
  So that's what I chose to do.
• 22:58
  And then, yeah, even obviously getting into full-time supercars, but...
• 23:04
  When they even pulled out, it was like I didn't lose my drive.
• 23:07
  It was like, oh, we'll put you in an S5000 now kind of thing.
• 23:11
  And that kept me sharp and gave me the next opportunity to get back into supercars because without that, I would have been kind of off the market a bit and sort of in the background.
• 23:20
  People forget about you pretty quick, but that kept me exposed and sharp.
• 23:24
  What were those things like, S5000?
• 23:27
  Lethal.
• 23:27
  Lethal.
• 23:28
  That's probably the best way to describe it.
• 23:30
  Just a big go-kart, but big heavy thing.
• 23:33
  Like it was...
• 23:34
  Not nimble at all.
• 23:35
  You had to manhandle it.
• 23:36
  And there was like, I'd say most of the time, most people would say it was driving you, you weren't driving it.
• 23:42
  Oh, right.
• 23:43
  They were awesome though.
• 23:43
  Especially in the early days.
• 23:45
  Yeah, early days, the amount of people that were crashing them and doing stuff in them.
• 23:48
  But the tires, I loved the tires back then.
• 23:50
  Everyone hated them because they didn't come up to temp quick enough.
• 23:52
  But you kept like building and building in a qualifying session.
• 23:55
  I just found that so much fun just to keep trying to find those limits in the car because it's not a car you go out on track and just –
• 24:02
  bang it for a lap like we do in a supercar now, just do one and done and you can find a limit.
• 24:06
  That thing you need laps and laps and laps to find that.
• 24:09
  A lot of time qualifying, it was just different cars popping up.
• 24:11
  They pop up, they pop up and it was like, who's going to get it?
• 24:14
  Yeah.
• 24:14
  Especially like Bathurst that year that we went to Bathurst.
• 24:17
  Mega that you got to drive them there.
• 24:19
  Oh, so cool.
• 24:20
  Like, yeah.
• 24:21
  That was scary over the top.
• 24:23
  Yeah, it was unreal.
• 24:24
  But yeah, it's sketchy.
• 24:26
  Yeah.
• 24:27
  Trans Am chapter for you.
• 24:28
  Can we talk a bit about that?
• 24:29
  I mean, it's gone through immense growth in this country and-
• 24:32
  maybe it was just a fun element that gave you just more miles generally which is pretty good did you enjoy yeah definitely it's um it's been really good for me just to keep more laps under my belt between supercars and it's something that you've got to manage a lot of things in supercars you you're managing a lot of things with the tire and um brakes and all that sort of stuff but
• 24:55
  A Trans Am is obviously a little bit rough around the edges.
• 24:58
  It's not quite as expensive to build one of those cars.
• 25:00
  So they're a little bit sensitive, I guess you could say.
• 25:04
  So you've really got to look after it and think about what you're going to do when in terms of the braking.
• 25:09
  Like the brakes are really probably too small for the car.
• 25:12
  So they get hot quick.
• 25:14
  And if you don't get your brake marker right and your brake's hot, it doesn't matter how hard you press, the thing just slows down at the same rate.
• 25:21
  So if you miss that point, you're coming in and there's no stopping sort of thing.
• 25:26
  So it teaches you a lot of forward thinking and also just hard racing.
• 25:30
  Like you can rub doors and... Good caliber of competition.
• 25:33
  That's right.
• 25:34
  And everything, you know.
• 25:35
  Yeah, exactly.
• 25:35
  There was people from all different backgrounds I sort of felt doing.
• 25:38
  It was a real...
• 25:39
  um good in between category but just hard racing a lot of a lot of the guys um just really there for for the fun side of racing and not too serious but um it's also kept you sharp and kept you exposed ready for the next opportunity you both brought up super two there before i know that's a very expensive outlay for for people and so on but when you when you think about where you are now and and i guess what message maybe it sends to the
• 26:05
  to the main game how important is it for people to play in in that championship and what did it do for you respectively yeah i think it's definitely important obviously i think the whole grid now has come through super two hasn't it at least they were saying this year so um yeah it's you know it's as as close as you can get as the cars were driving and in a couple of years they'll be the same cars so
• 26:28
  For a lot of the guys, you know, around that 17, 16-year-olds even jumping in to basically the same car as what we're driving, it's a huge thing.
• 26:37
  And it's such a big step from, say, like Formula Ford or something like that.
• 26:42
  It's so much to get used to.
• 26:43
  So to be able to drive basically the same cars and really get a feel for it before trying to get in full-time is massive.
• 26:51
  You know, a lot of guys have got experience in lots of other categories, but yeah.
• 26:55
  until you really get in a supercar, you don't really know how you're going to go.
• 26:59
  And that's why it's hard for a lot of team owners and stuff to put someone in that hasn't had experience unless they've been around for years and years and raced in lots of endurance racing or whatever.
• 27:10
  For a young kid coming through, it's pretty pivotal to be able to race Super 2, I think.
• 27:16
  But also I believe that
• 27:19
  to have the experience of different cars, like Formula Ford, Trans Am, all that sort of stuff, it teaches you a lot more about the mechanical side and how things work to get to that point.
• 27:31
  Just an alternate thinking kind of thing.
• 27:32
  Yeah, and I think that's really important.
• 27:34
  I think that's something that's really helped me.
• 27:37
  For you, it's been pivotal to where you are now with BRT, hasn't it?
• 27:40
  It was kind of a significant commitment to do that.
• 27:43
  Yeah, yeah.
• 27:44
  Like, really, I don't – yeah.
• 27:45
  With the way the super license points, I don't know if – I think they've all changed now again.
• 27:49
  But back when I was doing it, we had to do the –
• 27:51
  The six rounds, I believe, in Super 2 to get into Enduros.
• 27:54
  And with the Blanchards, that's what we agreed to do prior to that, was if I could do them, that'd give me the Enduro seat.
• 28:00
  And thankfully, they still stood by their word and did that for me.
• 28:04
  So, yeah, and I just think I've done a lot of categories, and they're all valuable.
• 28:09
  But I think just doing that fighter just jump straight from TCR or whatever I was racing, S5000 at the time, straight to Supercars, that the step is...
• 28:18
  huge even when i did that started last year the step it just blew me away i thought there was a few guys that i was just going to knock off and be smoke them straight away but it's yeah the step's a lot bigger than a lot of people think and i think super two still yes that's very different with the aero to our current cars but it just gives you that basics of um like the sequential shifter and right hand drive just everything is still pretty much the same so i still believe it's going to be quite a it's a necessary step for a lot of kids
• 28:45
  Does that sort of underscore what a lot of – remember the internationals used to come to the Gold Coast and so on.
• 28:49
  They were always really impressed with the level in supercars, the quality of – in the 20-plus drivers that are in it, the quality of the talent in the field.
• 28:57
  Is that where you sort of – Yeah, 100%.
• 28:59
  It's – yeah, I've probably been a bit naive just to how good some of these guys are.
• 29:04
  And I have so much more respect for the whole grid now about the level that we're all at to –
• 29:09
  to perform, and especially in these Gen 3 cars, when we've all effectively got the same equipment, it's becoming more important.
• 29:15
  Like, our qualifying laps are all just got to be perfect.
• 29:18
  You can't afford to make any little mistakes setup-wise.
• 29:21
  Like, it's just the preparation for the tyre for the lap is...
• 29:24
  Just a lot of emphasis on everything we do now where back a few years ago, S5000, pretty simple.
• 29:29
  We just rolled out.
• 29:30
  Yeah, it's like, yeah, tie pressures, right?
• 29:33
  And drive good lap and you got that sort of thing.
• 29:35
  It was pretty tight still in that.
• 29:37
  I had some pretty good battles with Joey Morrison there for pole positions and stuff.
• 29:41
  But yeah, like Aaron's saying, the level that Supercars is at is just crazy.
• 29:47
  It's so tight.
• 29:48
  I think...
• 29:49
  everyone out there is good enough to have a great result at any point.
• 29:55
  It's just getting it right every weekend or every day.
• 29:58
  It's always a moving target.
• 30:00
  Everyone's finding little intricacies here and there, and you can't just keep doing the same thing and think that it's going to work.
• 30:09
  You've got to keep looking and finding the next thing to make a difference.
• 30:12
  Keep going on the BRT stuff for you if you don't mind.
• 30:15
  I feel like you're a more...
• 30:16
  relaxed racer maybe a little bit this year what does that sort of where's that come from and and you know i mean adelaide was a kind of breakout moment for you last year and so on yeah yeah there was yeah getting thrust into a main game seat last year uh this this week time this time last year fagp was pretty wild so just had so much i'd say calming down to do in that first half of the year come back one step where were you when you got the call can you remember that
• 30:42
  I think I was, we had the Victorian State Champs on that weekend for the go-kart team and I'd just crushed my toe in the back of a truck door and broken it.
• 30:51
  You didn't tell them that clearly?
• 30:52
  No, no, no, I didn't tell Tim that.
• 30:53
  When he said, I've got it, I was like, yeah, I'm good, I'm good.
• 30:57
  Yeah, and then word quickly got around.
• 30:59
  Everyone told me they weren't going to tell Tim, but he knew already anyway.
• 31:02
  Okay, okay.
• 31:04
  Yeah, that was...
• 31:04
  Which toe was it?
• 31:06
  The big toe on my right foot.
• 31:07
  So did you break with that foot still?
• 31:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:09
  Still, it wasn't too bad.
• 31:10
  Was it pulling your boot on and things like that?
• 31:11
  Yeah, yeah, it was... And that injury carried on.
• 31:14
  Yes, the toe healed, but then it was Darwin still that...
• 31:18
  a bit gruesome here, but there was some other stuff still going on at Darwin with the foot and with how hot it was, it was all, it wasn't very nice down there.
• 31:24
  Trees growing down there.
• 31:25
  Yeah, it was, yeah, it was a bit grim.
• 31:27
  So I had to trim him back before quality.
• 31:29
  Yeah.
• 31:30
  You kept that pretty low key.
• 31:32
  Yeah.
• 31:32
  Yeah.
• 31:33
  I'm not here to complain about some, a little toe injury that's affecting my performance type thing.
• 31:37
  So it's, yeah, I'm still going to perform and,
• 31:39
  Yeah, it just took me a while to calm down, especially after Darwin.
• 31:42
  We had some real good chats with Tim and putting some more things into place for the later part of the year.
• 31:48
  And the results got a whole lot better.
• 31:51
  And then especially at Adelaide, yeah, there was just, I thought we had a pretty good car in practice, but we were still like 18th.
• 32:00
  And I was saying the car's perfect and the team's like, well, if it's perfect, why aren't you first or at least better than 18th?
• 32:05
  And then, yeah, we did the wet race on the Friday night and...
• 32:09
  beforehand we sort of agreed that we weren't going to push and then during the race some of the communication was I needed to push more.
• 32:15
  I was like just, there was a bit of a...
• 32:17
  miscommunication we'll call it.
• 32:19
  And then we had some really good chats on Friday night about what I needed to go better for the rest of the weekend.
• 32:26
  And they just gave me, the team granted me the freedom to go out and not crash the car, but really go and try and find those last tents.
• 32:34
  Because when you look at these guys who are really good in shootouts like Feeney and Ryan Wood and probably Chas Moss at Waters, like they are just out there hanging it out and going for it.
• 32:43
  And yeah, the team gave me that.
• 32:46
  freedom to go and do that and and i wasn't worried about crashing the car and bang we were on the on the front row on the saturday there so it was just and then for me that's carried into this year just having the team properly around me just go out there and do whatever i need to do and and sometimes we're going to crash that just is what it is in their defense too i mean they'd made a big commitment uh two cars solid change you know probably there's there's a you know a build in that for them as an organization they were
• 33:13
  You know, I think to begin with, as someone described it to me, you know, a race team in a workshop adjacent to Cool Driver was changing, wasn't it?
• 33:20
  Yeah, there's so much going on with the team, like everything in the background, obviously me replacing someone after the first round's a bit awkward and just...
• 33:29
  Yeah, we didn't have heaps of sponsors to keep the whole thing rolling, and everyone was just trying to keep the whole thing afloat.
• 33:35
  And I'm very aware of that.
• 33:36
  I'm not out there just to go and crash the car every race just for the heck of it.
• 33:40
  Great faith both ways, though.
• 33:41
  Yeah, exactly.
• 33:42
  To back you, and then, yeah.
• 33:43
  Yeah, so then, but yeah, and then just going forward, we just, yeah, it was just so good to have that open, honest communication about what both sides needed to perform.
• 33:53
  I think it's paid off and we've got Jimmy this year or another James coming in and we can both just go out there and have a crack.
• 33:59
  And it's clearly working for both of us so far.
• 34:01
  When did the kind of opportunity perhaps open to come and play here for you and how you felt about that, given that you'd shown some good form at Premier and things like that?
• 34:12
  Yeah, I can't really remember exactly, but...
• 34:15
  It was probably around the mid-year.
• 34:18
  There was discussions starting and obviously I'd put a lot of time and effort into Premier, moving up to Queensland and all that sort of stuff and ideally –
• 34:30
  You know, I'd rather commit to a team early and stay there for a longer term and really work towards something.
• 34:36
  But it obviously wasn't really working out there.
• 34:38
  We struggled a lot last year and this opportunity come up.
• 34:42
  Could you tell that it was growing, changing on the improve, so to speak?
• 34:45
  Yeah, definitely.
• 34:47
  There was a clear plan of what they wanted to achieve, things they were doing, what they were putting in place to get there as well.
• 34:54
  And just what I've seen from Tim and how they were going about it.
• 34:59
  the people that I had in the team, the people that were getting on board, there was a lot of positives and I really found it hard to find a negative.
• 35:05
  So I thought it was a great opportunity and yeah, really just,
• 35:11
  Took it with both hands and believed in it.
• 35:13
  I had a few people in my corner to help me out and, yeah, really grateful to them and also just everyone else that's got me to this point along the way, you know, through karting, and you have all different people help you out and Formula 4, without any one of those people along the way, you wouldn't be here, and I really feel like I've found my home now that I'm going to be here for a long time.
• 35:33
  Nice, nice.
• 35:34
  You almost came...
• 35:36
  With your name etched on a Bathurst 1000 trophy, didn't you?
• 35:39
  How do you feel about that now with the benefit of time and stuff?
• 35:42
  Still a podium.
• 35:43
  Would have been nice.
• 35:44
  The salary would have gone up a bit if you were 1000 winner.
• 35:49
  Yeah.
• 35:50
  It was just, honestly, it was great to be a part of it, to be honest.
• 35:55
  To race for the lead in that race is something I dreamed of doing as a kid.
• 35:59
  In tricky conditions too, mate, and all sorts.
• 36:01
  Yeah, it's something I dreamed of doing from the first time that I ever went to Bathurst.
• 36:07
  That was with Gary Rogers as well.
• 36:08
  I just remember him saying to me that as we were driving around the track on the bus, he said, see that concrete wall there?
• 36:13
  That used to be a barbed wire fence.
• 36:15
  I'll never forget that, that he was racing around there.
• 36:18
  That's what it was.
• 36:19
  So it was just unbelievable regardless of the actual result.
• 36:23
  I was just stoked to be a part of it and to have a crack at the lead.
• 36:27
  I think anyone would accept the DNF to attempt to win that race.
• 36:30
  So to be able to still stand on the podium was awesome.
• 36:33
  Do you feel like Richie's going to come and play too this year, Richie Stanaway too?
• 36:36
  Is that going to be a nice fit for him, do you think?
• 36:39
  Yeah, really good.
• 36:40
  So it's been awesome having Richie on board already at the test earlier this year and being part of round one with us.
• 36:47
  It's been a good help and I think we're really going to be in a good position heading into the Enduros this year.
• 36:52
  Richie's...
• 36:54
  a weapon driver, we all know what he's capable of.
• 36:56
  And I think with the right environment, which we have, it's going to be fantastic.
• 37:08
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with the Blanchard Racing teams, James Golding and Aaron Cameron.
• 37:13
  There's a part two all set for you to enjoy.
• 37:15
  We published it at the same time as part one, so no delays or waiting a week or two for it to drop.
• 37:21
  Jump back to the garage library, fire it up whenever you're ready.
• 37:24
  There'll be moments where the intensity of the supercars competition this year makes for a tough round or a tough weekend.
• 37:30
  Equally, that second half of the pod will give you a sense of this crew's commitment to ensuring that what happened at round one at Sydney Motorsport Park isn't just a oncer.
• 37:41
  And that the ingredients are in place to help them be in the fight on a regular basis.
• 37:47
  It's all ahead here on Rusty's Garage.