Latest / Rusty's Garage / Brooke Tatnell | Part 1 - Passing Steve Kinser & garaged rarities.

Transcript

Brooke Tatnell | Part 1 - Passing Steve Kinser & garaged rarities. · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:13
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  For this episode, I'm in the studio, but my guest is 14,500 k's away.
• 0:33
  You wouldn't know it from the interaction we enjoy.
• 0:35
  I've wanted to do this one for a while, and to be honest, I should have got off my butt and organised it much sooner.
• 0:43
  Brooke Tatton and I would catch up at what used to be Parramatta City Raceway each summer.
• 0:48
  I didn't want to get in the way of his race program, but he was always really good with his time.
• 0:53
  And then separately, he dabbled in a bit of circuit racing for a time, which we'll talk about and we would catch up there too.
• 1:00
  I can remember his dad racing when I was younger.
• 1:04
  George was bloody good in sprint cars and speed cars, for that matter.
• 1:08
  We'll talk about growing up in that environment and also dealing with loss, his dad's passing, how Brooke got started, carving his own path, and memories of some great career moments, plus a story that will really hook you in, where he should have been racing in America only to hit a snag at the border.
• 1:30
  was maybe fate, perhaps call it meant to be.
• 1:34
  Just on his time in the US, we should be incredibly proud of this bloke and the kind of small band of Aussies like James McFadden, who you can find in our library, and Kerry Madsen, who I must get on, for what they've done over there, what they've achieved.
• 1:49
  It's a dream for so many in the Speedway community to go there to places like Knoxville, Eldora, and many of those iconic venues.
• 1:58
  We won't get
• 1:59
  to every race of brooks career or every title but here's a little snapshot for you and hopefully i have the numbers right nine world series titles and he is top of the all-time stats there with 77 wins at last count
• 2:15
  It was a struggle to get the first Aussie title, but he's now chalked up five, along with wins in the prestigious Grand Annual Classic, plus more than a dozen World of Outlaw wins and over 60 feature wins stateside.
• 2:30
  Remarkable when you sit back and consider all of that.
• 2:32
  And maybe those numbers might change.
• 2:35
  We'll find out if he's still got the eye of the tiger.
• 2:38
  Before we kick off, a big thanks to my broadcast buddies, Benny Bishop, Dean Neal.
• 2:43
  A little shout-out to Stu McCarthy, too, who did a pod with Brooke about seven years ago.
• 2:48
  Plus to Amy Tattnall and Brooke's family.
• 2:51
  We recorded this when they probably should have been eating dinner.
• 2:55
  Let's get into the convo now with the true great of Australian sprint car racing.
• 3:02
  Brooke, welcome.
• 3:03
  I should have done this a long time ago, and I'm indebted to you because I learnt before we hit record, you are a very dedicated listener to the pod.
• 3:13
  Yeah.
• 3:14
  What, going back 2018, whatever, just I've listened to them all.
• 3:18
  I just drive them down the road, and I really enjoy the stories and the history behind people and how then this...
• 3:26
  Every story is similar and unique, but completely different in comparisons.
• 3:31
  And I just enjoy it.
• 3:32
  I enjoy what you do.
• 3:33
  That's really cool.
• 3:34
  We'll come to your son, who I think has listened to a few of them as well as we go in the podcast here in his own career and aspirations.
• 3:41
  Firstly, you're chatting to us from Minnesota, I think, which is home now.
• 3:44
  You grew up in Sydney South, quite close to Botany Bay there.
• 3:48
  Your late dad was a legend.
• 3:51
  And I'd love to open the batting, if I can, with you with kind of like an early life memory or some recollections about you and being around him and being around Speedway at a very young age.
• 4:04
  Oh, look, you know, the luxuries that I got doors open because of who he was and places I got to go to with him.
• 4:13
  Look, to me, it was just dad.
• 4:16
  But he was my Superman.
• 4:17
  He was my hero.
• 4:18
  He was my best friend.
• 4:20
  But, yeah, look, it probably wasn't until way late in life that I ever realized my dad was a superstar.
• 4:26
  And it was walking through the pits of Bathurst.
• 4:29
  And we're walking through and there's a crowd over there.
• 4:33
  And I'm like, hey, Dad, look, there's Peter Brock.
• 4:35
  And Brockie just yelled out, hey, George, what are you doing?
• 4:39
  And it's probably at that point that I realized, hey, he's not just my dad.
• 4:42
  He's actually someone that's probably done a little bit in life.
• 4:47
  But no, look, he was very, very easy to get along with.
• 4:55
  Hard task master.
• 4:57
  because he wanted the best out of you, but the most supportive person you'll ever meet in your life.
• 5:02
  I love it.
• 5:02
  Some great venues you got to go to then as well, Brooke.
• 5:06
  I mean, the showground when you were probably quite young, Liverpool, Parramatta, which you spent a lot of time at and so on.
• 5:12
  I mean, there are probably from all of those places, some vivid speedway memories for you, but I guess especially Parramatta.
• 5:21
  Oh, definitely.
• 5:22
  But Parramatta was such a big part of my racing career.
• 5:26
  But growing up as a kid, it was Liverpool.
• 5:30
  Hated the show ground because I was never allowed in the pits.
• 5:33
  Liverpool, I could sneak under the fence near the pit gate where Dad used to have the wedge park.
• 5:39
  There was always a little crevice there that you could sneak under the fence there.
• 5:43
  And as long as I didn't go too far down, the white coat, Liverpool Speedway didn't get you and throw you out.
• 5:50
  But...
• 5:52
  Like in Parramatta, like we went there and, you know, that was more about my racing career and I could get into the pits at Parramatta, um, because I had the whole Winfield gear on.
• 6:02
  Like who was going to kick a 12 year old kick at kid out of the pits back then?
• 6:06
  Cause he had red Winfield pants on red Winfield shoes.
• 6:10
  Like you weren't going to put him back out in the stands cause the crowd would have ate him alive for wearing red pants.
• 6:16
  It was a golden period that, which we'll come to shortly.
• 6:19
  Can we just touch on your dad a little bit more?
• 6:22
  You talked about the impact there and realising the sort of person he was or the success that he was enjoying and had created.
• 6:32
  He had a great sense of showmanship, George, didn't he?
• 6:35
  And I gather there was a side to him too, Brooke, where he perhaps –
• 6:40
  park that, particularly around charitable initiatives and so on.
• 6:44
  He wanted to do that stuff a bit more on the quiet side.
• 6:48
  Yeah, look, there was a lot of people that he's helped out over the years and
• 6:52
  He didn't do it for any credit, didn't want any credit, didn't want any notoriety.
• 6:56
  That was just what he was about, like helping people.
• 7:00
  He wanted to see people be successful.
• 7:03
  And a lot of those times, whether he could help them financially, whether he could help them in guidance, he was just a very, very passionate man.
• 7:13
  But everything with racing and work, there was that 6 a.m. in the morning till 6 p.m. at night.
• 7:22
  Once 6.01 came around, there was no racing.
• 7:26
  There was no business.
• 7:27
  There was no workshop.
• 7:28
  It was family.
• 7:29
  It was about him just being the George Tatner.
• 7:33
  Now, between 6 and 6, you had the showman.
• 7:36
  You had the shrewd businessman.
• 7:38
  You had the guy that was going to have control of every conversation, have you on the back foot and walk away and laugh and go, he just didn't know where to go with that conversation, did he?
• 7:49
  No, no.
• 7:49
  What was his famous line?
• 7:51
  If 50% of the crowd love you and 50% of the crowd hate you, but as long as you get 100% of their attention.
• 7:59
  And I mean, great line.
• 8:00
  Is that a sort of view in your own career that you've subscribed to as well?
• 8:05
  Yeah, it was 50% cheer, 50% boo.
• 8:09
  I've got 100% on the winningest man there is.
• 8:13
  Love it.
• 8:14
  And I grew up with that.
• 8:17
  that, uh, mentality type of deal.
• 8:19
  I was, most people wouldn't realize I was a very shy and quiet kid.
• 8:23
  I didn't speak that much.
• 8:25
  Um, I've made up for it in the time since I've got a bit of Roberto Marino in me that I can take three hours to answer one question.
• 8:35
  But he, with what he did, I tried to follow it a little bit.
• 8:39
  And I'm lucky I came through late eighties, nineties because I would have got eaten alive today.
• 8:47
  If I tried to be George Tattnell's son, copying George Tattnell because of social media back then we had print media.
• 8:55
  So the harshest critic I was ever going to get was Mike Raymond.
• 9:00
  And, uh, it just didn't work for me.
• 9:02
  I tried to be like my dad.
• 9:04
  It didn't work that trying to be that sort of showman.
• 9:08
  And, uh,
• 9:09
  I struggled trying to figure out who I was and try and be successful because he was, he always was trying to look at how he could promote himself, promote the sport, promote the business side of the sponsorship and, and marketing and every aspect he could.
• 9:26
  But the one thing that he had that,
• 9:29
  even very successful marketing people don't have, he could put himself in any crowd and he could find a way to start a conversation.
• 9:39
  And it may have been about nail polish.
• 9:41
  It could have been about anything.
• 9:44
  And he would fit into that conversation and he would know someone that he could pull into that conversation.
• 9:50
  And then by the end of it, he was telling you he was George John Tattnall and his kid drives a race car.
• 9:56
  Yeah, and he would endear that group of people who may have been outside the speedway sphere to him.
• 10:02
  I'm pleased that you bring that up, actually.
• 10:05
  Let's just channel that for a moment.
• 10:06
  I mean, authenticity is a word that we use so much nowadays in our vernacular, but for you to find that, to see your dad as the showman, to think as a young bloke, well, that's important on the success pathway, but then to realise at some point, well, hang on,
• 10:24
  I just need to be Brooke Tacknell too.
• 10:26
  That's, you know, I need to be proud of dad and what he's done and perhaps learn some of the things that helped him get there.
• 10:34
  But that's George and I'm Brooke.
• 10:36
  Does that make sense?
• 10:37
  It wasn't that simple of an education, trust me.
• 10:40
  I learnt because...
• 10:43
  Danny Smith was in Warrnambool and was on the front row.
• 10:46
  And the crowd completely booed him because the American was on the front row and he wasn't Gary Rush and he wasn't Max Dumsney.
• 10:54
  And it was, I think, my second or third classic and I went down there.
• 10:59
  And I'm starting on the front row with Gary Rush.
• 11:01
  I qualified second quick.
• 11:03
  So I was second highest points.
• 11:05
  Dad started fourth.
• 11:06
  Max Dumsny was third.
• 11:08
  So the crowds just erupted when they've mentioned Max Dumsny.
• 11:12
  They mentioned Brooke Tappner.
• 11:14
  And the crowd booed.
• 11:15
  Well, Danny Smith mooned them.
• 11:18
  And they all laughed.
• 11:20
  So I flipped them off.
• 11:22
  And by flipping them off going, that's what George Stattner would have done.
• 11:29
  I thought, and it just backfired miserably.
• 11:33
  To the point that Gary Rush walked over to me and put his arm around me whilst I was doing the intros.
• 11:40
  And then when they introduced Gary Rush, the crowd went wild again.
• 11:43
  Rush, he was standing there and he said, give this kid a break.
• 11:47
  Nice.
• 11:48
  So that was probably the point that I learned.
• 11:50
  But yeah, look, and there are so many things.
• 11:53
  We just, I'm so much like my dad in so many ways, but I'm, particularly then, was so, so different.
• 12:02
  I'm now starting to see I'm turning maybe more and more into him the way I'm mentoring Garrett and whatever.
• 12:09
  But like I said, just totally different.
• 12:12
  I was sort of...
• 12:14
  Not an introvert, but just more kept to myself.
• 12:17
  Whereas, you know, the dad would go to the, any function, the Rothmans, uh, was it the Dell Dell EM, uh, awards.
• 12:24
  Yeah.
• 12:25
  And he always used to turn around.
• 12:27
  It was a game to him though.
• 12:29
  His biggest game in life was how many people he could sneak in somewhere.
• 12:34
  And he used to tell us that he'd go to those awards nights with Rothmans and there'd be a bunch of.
• 12:42
  young girls, football crazy girls out chasing footballers that couldn't get in.
• 12:47
  He'd go, I can get you in, but once you get in there, you're on your own.
• 12:50
  So he'd try and see how many.
• 12:53
  I think he got seven girls in there one night, and that was a joke.
• 12:57
  I think we went to Wagga Speedway one night, and he snuck 13 people into the pits in the race rig.
• 13:04
  And it wasn't about defying the dollar.
• 13:07
  It was just all about a game and how he was going to do it.
• 13:11
  Oh, to be a fly on the wall for some of those fast-talking conversations.
• 13:14
  I would have loved that.
• 13:16
  I would have loved that.
• 13:17
  Just while you bring up, I'm turning left a little bit here from the line of questioning that I want to do, but you brought up Warrnambool, so let's go there.
• 13:22
  I mean, the classic, I think from memory, in a statistics sense, it'd have been a tough place for your dad.
• 13:29
  It's an iconic venue now.
• 13:30
  To succeed there from your own standpoint must be a special thing.
• 13:34
  Yeah, it's probably one of the only racetracks that he never, ever won at.
• 13:38
  I've seen him lead races and run out of fuel on the last lap, flat tires.
• 13:41
  And it's changed over the years.
• 13:45
  It got to a point where probably where we were so strong there for, I don't know, a 10, 12-year period.
• 13:54
  It was when it was getting sleek.
• 13:56
  They had the banking, and that's when the American experience would come into us.
• 13:59
  But they really...
• 14:02
  drove forward with David Mills at the helm there.
• 14:04
  And our sport owes David Mills a lot.
• 14:06
  Yes, he has to deal with a committee.
• 14:08
  Yes, there's a board that runs Warrnambool that he really put his neck out on the line and looked after the competitors and made that place what it is today.
• 14:18
  And our sport is so beneficial to have it.
• 14:21
  And if we ever lose...
• 14:24
  The spectacle and the fan friendly atmosphere.
• 14:28
  Like, all right, yeah, I'm here in America and people still that have gone to Australia, been to the classic, they still turn around and go, the fan appreciation day is something that needs to happen everywhere, but it'll never be matched.
• 14:44
  And I love the fact that for Speedway in this part of the world, it branches beyond your own community.
• 14:53
  So it's not uncommon to see supercars drivers who are on holidays go on there to catch the race and so on.
• 14:58
  It's got this really, really cool aura about it.
• 15:02
  Let's come to you.
• 15:03
  Am I right in saying that it may have been a little bit of a punishment that you mightn't have been allowed to go to the Speedway if you misbehaved at San Susie Primary?
• 15:13
  Is that true?
• 15:14
  Yes.
• 15:16
  I told you I'm getting more and more like my dad.
• 15:19
  If my kid doesn't have A and B grades...
• 15:22
  B's at worst.
• 15:23
  He doesn't race.
• 15:24
  You misbehave.
• 15:25
  You don't race.
• 15:26
  That was more mum than dad.
• 15:30
  Probably for me, I may be lucky that there wasn't a B limitation.
• 15:34
  There might have been some subjects there that I may not have...
• 15:39
  been that flash yet because I was nicking off on a Friday, on a Thursday night to jump in the truck with Michael Joe to draw a dad blade.
• 15:44
  And I may have missed a few days, but, uh, yeah, no, it is.
• 15:47
  It's a, and I think it's a valuable lesson that, you know, uh, you've got to have that education and grounding.
• 15:54
  I wasn't allowed to come to America until I had a, a trade behind me, a career or something to fall back on.
• 16:01
  Can we come to that trade then?
• 16:02
  Because you did an apprenticeship and it may have been through the family business.
• 16:05
  You'll join the dots here for me.
• 16:07
  But you actually had an interest, I think, too, in sign writing, did you?
• 16:10
  And is there not a, maybe a little connection of some kind to Alan Bond there somewhere too?
• 16:16
  Or what got that wrong?
• 16:17
  No, Alan Bonja was our signer that used to do all the speed cars and all the race cars at the Sydney Showground and all that.
• 16:26
  And went like, well, like I sit there and think about watching him come and sign right dad's race car back in 1977 after winning the title and all that sort of stuff.
• 16:36
  And yeah, I've always been a little bit artsy fartsy.
• 16:39
  Yeah.
• 16:41
  I enjoyed the sign writing thing, but I think it just went back to being that kid drawing race cars.
• 16:46
  And, you know, that was something that I truly enjoyed.
• 16:50
  I wanted to be a sign writer.
• 16:51
  I had my career laid out.
• 16:53
  I was going to be a garbage truckman because I worked from three in the morning till eight o'clock and nine o'clock in the morning.
• 17:00
  Then they were off for the rest of the day.
• 17:02
  I could go back and.
• 17:03
  turn around and go and go to the surf and surf for a little bit or hang out, do something, then go and do some sign riding and then work on the race car after that.
• 17:12
  So I had the whole career path worked out, but, um, it also got, I did work experience as a sign rider when I was at school.
• 17:20
  Um, I was offered a job to do it.
• 17:23
  And at the same point,
• 17:25
  That was when dad and Mike Raymond got the laws changed to allow us kids to start racing at 16 because they had to go to sport rec and get the law changed from 17 to 16 to allow us to start racing.
• 17:38
  And dad said, hey, you want to drive a race car?
• 17:42
  You need to be in the business.
• 17:44
  And that's where it went.
• 17:46
  But I enjoyed working on the race cars and I enjoyed working on mechanical stuff, cars and trucks.
• 17:51
  And yeah, so that's where I did my apprenticeship.
• 17:54
  Let's come to that in a second.
• 17:55
  But I mean, firstly, something you've alluded to here, which I reckon is really important for just for listeners generally and for young racers, that work ethic that you have, and it is still a feature of your, I think, your career to this day.
• 18:10
  Did that start maybe with your granddad and holidays and working as a five or six year old?
• 18:16
  And like from a very young age, you came to appreciate the importance of that.
• 18:23
  Again, my best friend was my dad.
• 18:25
  I wanted to spend every minute with him, but like when we had family vacation and mom and dad had a unit up on in Corumban, uh, mom and my sisters would go up to Corumban and I'd go and stay at my grandfather's place.
• 18:38
  Uh.
• 18:39
  Because he'd get me up at 4.30 in the morning.
• 18:42
  We'd have coffee at 5.00.
• 18:44
  We'd leave it just after 5.00 to go to the workshop, whether it be Sydenham or St. Peter's at the time, our workshop gas stations, to open up by 6.00.
• 18:55
  And I'd work with him and then I'd turn around and my grandfather would go home at six o'clock and dad and them and uncle Joe and the crew guys would start working on the midget and the sprint car.
• 19:05
  I'd work with them.
• 19:06
  Dad would drop me back off on my grandfather's place.
• 19:09
  I mean, look, I had a very, my dad was a very, very smart operator, a very, very hard worker.
• 19:18
  Like dad used to, dad was from jewelry and he moved to Parramatta to live with a
• 19:25
  uncle and aunt to go to school up here.
• 19:29
  And he used to hitchhike back to droidry on weekends to go play football.
• 19:34
  And so all those old stories that I have heard, um, that was just stories.
• 19:40
  And it was just like someone sitting there with a famous celebrity and you're just like, listen to the stories.
• 19:46
  And that's how I was with my dad.
• 19:49
  And, um, I always wanted to impress him and emulate him with the way I did things and trying to, um, um,
• 19:58
  Figure problems.
• 19:59
  He was a great problem solver.
• 20:01
  Solver.
• 20:03
  I remember in the trade, I was, well, I finished school on the Friday and I started work on Monday.
• 20:11
  But realistically, I'd never ever had school holidays.
• 20:14
  That unit, the mother and dad had a Corumban.
• 20:17
  I didn't even have a bed.
• 20:19
  But mum and dad had a room.
• 20:21
  My sisters had a room with beds and we went up there and I've got no bed.
• 20:25
  And I'll never forget it.
• 20:28
  Dad gave us all 20 bucks each, two sisters and I.
• 20:33
  So we were walking around the flea market and my dad said, you got $20, that's all you got.
• 20:39
  That's what you got for the weekend, no matter where we go.
• 20:42
  And we were wandering around.
• 20:43
  My sisters are getting something or other.
• 20:45
  And I came back and I looked at my mom.
• 20:48
  I went back to my dad and I said, hey, dad, there's a bed over there, a fold-up mattress bed.
• 20:53
  But they want $30 or $25 for it.
• 20:55
  He said, you got $20, you go and barter with them and you get it back down for that $20.
• 21:00
  He said, you're not paying a dollar more.
• 21:02
  You've got to win these negotiations.
• 21:06
  So...
• 21:07
  Brooke turned around.
• 21:07
  I thought, how are we going to do this?
• 21:09
  So I walked and I was so smart.
• 21:12
  I came back with that bed and my dad was like, see, son, I told you, you never accept the first offer.
• 21:19
  You always got to negotiate.
• 21:20
  And look what you got.
• 21:21
  You got a bet for 20 bucks.
• 21:23
  I laughed so hard because I got back in the car and my mom turned around and said, you didn't tell your father you borrowed $10 off me, did you?
• 21:30
  That's it.
• 21:30
  No.
• 21:32
  To this day, he still never knew that I'd borrowed money off mum to get that bed.
• 21:37
  That's cool.
• 21:38
  I love the fact that there's sort of an early install there around a bit of the business side in some respects, just putting some fundamentals down around negotiation and so on.
• 21:50
  And when you look at it,
• 21:52
  He was there in an incredible period for the sport.
• 21:56
  You mentioned the tobacco money before.
• 21:58
  I mean, the prize money.
• 21:59
  Back then, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases.
• 22:04
  So those learnings along the way must have been invaluable.
• 22:08
  I think my dad was 20 years old when he started the first gas station.
• 22:14
  20 or 21, he borrowed money and they'd gone through.
• 22:20
  My grandfather had been ill and my grandfather had built highways back in the old days.
• 22:27
  And yeah, so they'd had a gas station and dad used to have to, I remember telling the story, it was back for wire transfers for money.
• 22:37
  He had another uncle that he would borrow money off.
• 22:40
  to put into the bank, to cash the check, to pay for the fuel.
• 22:45
  But by the time he sent that next check back to pay his uncle off, he had to sell enough fuel to cover that.
• 22:53
  So there was never enough money in the bank.
• 22:57
  I mean, so he worked – yeah, there was those stories.
• 23:00
  He was just very smart and had a way of just figuring out how to make things.
• 23:06
  There was never a –
• 23:08
  A situation I grew up With Stress Is an excuse For laziness That was Always his analogy And If you want it Bad enough
• 23:22
  you'll get it.
• 23:23
  You've just got to see how, you just got to know how willing you are and what sacrifices you are going to make to get there.
• 23:30
  And that's probably the biggest thing I've taken in my career is don't ever take no for an answer.
• 23:36
  You talk about the sponsorships with the Winfield and other lessons really in life.
• 23:41
  He approached Coca-Cola for sponsorship.
• 23:44
  And I think at the time he'd gone in, so this is late 70s, he'd asked for $1,000.
• 23:53
  And he's the president came back and said, George, we love your proposal.
• 23:58
  It's awesome.
• 23:58
  It's this, it's that.
• 24:00
  Everything's wonderful on this thing.
• 24:02
  We're a multimillion dollar company and you're asking for a thousand dollars.
• 24:06
  He said, you didn't ask for enough money.
• 24:09
  So naturally, the next week he sent in a proposal for $5,000.
• 24:12
  But, you know, that was the lessons he said.
• 24:18
  You know, another thing, just don't ever sell yourself short.
• 24:20
  You can always come down, but you can't go back up.
• 24:24
  Like some great...
• 24:26
  Very succinct one-line takeaways there for people, mate.
• 24:29
  Thank you.
• 24:30
  Can we come to a couple just to finish up on your dad before we sort of move into your own career a bit more in detail and Speedway generally?
• 24:38
  I seem to recall listening to, it might have been an episode of Dinner With Racers, I can't remember.
• 24:44
  Were there the odd special car that ended up maybe from America or whatever in your workshop or family garage over the years when you were younger?
• 24:52
  Can you recall some things like that?
• 24:54
  Yeah, oh, look, I mean, I've been blessed over in life with the Americans that came over.
• 25:02
  Like, we've got photos of Pancho Cardo, Johnny Rutherford, Larry Rise, AJ Foyt, all at our house.
• 25:12
  And, you know, Dad had a contact with Qantas.
• 25:17
  probably wasn't in it would have been quantus at the time and i was when foy was coming to australia and i'll um they the container had come out early uh with the cars they've got it there daddy go in there they just rummage through what foy had and go through their tires and see what it is and
• 25:37
  The next minute they got their buddy from Qantas that's on a plane.
• 25:41
  He's flying over here.
• 25:42
  He comes over and goes, oh, we need these tires.
• 25:46
  And they didn't know what they were buying, but Foyt had them, so they had to be good.
• 25:50
  So then they'd be on the plane coming back, and Foyt would be looking like, how has this guy got these same tires as I got?
• 25:58
  These are meant to be nearly experimental.
• 26:01
  But, yeah, like we had Dad had bought the Edmunds Roadster.
• 26:06
  Yeah.
• 26:06
  Yeah.
• 26:07
  And that car there was leaps and bounds ahead of his time.
• 26:12
  He tried to buy it years prior.
• 26:17
  And Fisher from Adelaide, they had it.
• 26:22
  And he wouldn't sell it to my dad.
• 26:24
  He said, look, George, my buddy has driven this car.
• 26:27
  Weasel had driven it and couldn't make it work.
• 26:29
  And there was more to the story why it wouldn't work.
• 26:33
  You know, Don Medman said that they just stripped everything down, didn't get it right, and he said, George, I can't see you this car.
• 26:38
  If you get this car and make it win, you're going to make my best friend look bad.
• 26:42
  And I think it sat dormant for four years.
• 26:45
  They rang dad up, said, do you want it?
• 26:48
  Dad bought it.
• 26:48
  My Uncle Joe jumped in his XF Falcon, drove straight through to Adelaide.
• 26:52
  This is back prior to mobile phones.
• 26:55
  And he bought the car, was on its way back, pulled up a phone box and remmed dad and said, hey, I can make it back so we can go to Newcastle tomorrow night.
• 27:04
  And dad said...
• 27:05
  Don't worry about it.
• 27:05
  The Speed Car Control Council found out we bought it and they'd just banned that car.
• 27:09
  So we never actually got to race it.
• 27:11
  It sat there dormant.
• 27:13
  And, uh, it actually, after dad passed away, it's, uh, we sold it back to Don Edmonds who has now passed on.
• 27:20
  Um, but yeah, like in the wedge race car, um.
• 27:24
  that was built by Chris and Phil McGee.
• 27:28
  And that was based on a phone conversation, airport conversation that was drawn out on a napkin in Sydney airport after Foyda beat Dad at Liverpool for the Marlborough race.
• 27:42
  Love it, mate.
• 27:43
  Yeah, there's been a lot of different cars.
• 27:46
  And to think that there was a bit of normalisation for you around someone like an AJ Ford, I think is absolutely huge.
• 27:53
  I wasn't normal.
• 27:55
  No, no, but I mean, people listening to the pod would dream of those moments, mate, and those kind of private conversations away from the racetrack.
• 28:05
  I can recall, Brooke, going to your dad's funeral, the massive turnout that day.
• 28:11
  I actually didn't feel right about going inside.
• 28:16
  I stayed outside the doors and listened to the service and the...
• 28:20
  you know, the kind of wonderful stories of his life, of, of racing, of family, especially, and so on.
• 28:25
  How, how did his passing affect you and how did you kind of deal with that at that stage?
• 28:31
  I still haven't dealt with it.
• 28:33
  Um, my wife will tell you that I still haven't really dealt with it.
• 28:36
  I still struggle with it.
• 28:38
  Um, when he had the stroke, uh, I had,
• 28:43
  I was going to come home and he said, no, no, you got to stay there.
• 28:46
  You got to stay there.
• 28:47
  Then when he got pancreatic, when he was then diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he's like, he could barely, he was having trouble speaking because of the stroke.
• 28:57
  He's like, no, no, you stay, you stay, you stay.
• 29:00
  And my car owners at the time turned around and said, you either get on a plane and go and be with your dad or we fire you.
• 29:08
  If you go and be with your dad, you can come back and it's your right.
• 29:12
  But you are going home to see your dad.
• 29:15
  And I got back on the plane, flew back over there.
• 29:18
  I was there for four or five weeks and he was livid at me for being there because someone else was driving my big opportunity of a race car.
• 29:27
  But it was...
• 29:29
  He then turned around and he walked in that day.
• 29:31
  And one day he just walked in, put an airline ticket in my hand.
• 29:36
  You go.
• 29:37
  And Amy and I jumped back on a plane.
• 29:39
  And we were going through some terrible times at that point.
• 29:42
  I had the greatest career opportunities ever.
• 29:45
  But I think that year we did nine flights back and forth to Australia.
• 29:51
  One for dad's cancer, then came back here.
• 29:53
  We had to put Amy's mom into hospice and into a nursing home and hospice and flew back there.
• 30:00
  And, you know, basically I had to make that decision to put dad into hospice.
• 30:05
  And my family, my sisters and mom had done everything and they were so wore out and
• 30:11
  it was time for me to step up to the plate, but yeah, I still struggle with that day and I said, Hey dad, uh, is it, I think it's time that we go back to the hospital and get you in, in care here.
• 30:24
  Um, cause he was in such bad shape and the night of his passing, he was, he would go and then he, then would, you know,
• 30:36
  grunt, snort and come back alive.
• 30:39
  And this happened five times and I lent down to him and I said, I'll take care of mum and the girls.
• 30:46
  The next second he was gone.
• 30:48
  so I really do struggle with it.
• 30:50
  Yeah, I probably haven't dealt with it.
• 30:52
  Someday I'll deal with it.
• 30:53
  I'll deal with that after I have my midlife crisis and buy all the toys, but no, it's a struggle.
• 31:00
  It really is a struggle to even this day.
• 31:02
  I still sit here and I speak to the McGee's occasionally.
• 31:09
  I mean, I love still hearing stories of my dad.
• 31:11
  I get stories from different people, and it was only recently I found out that the –
• 31:16
  the McGee's were actually going to take my dad to the Indy 500.
• 31:20
  And they came across, it was probably six months ago, maybe a little bit longer, they went through a container and they found the business plan, the blueprints.
• 31:28
  They were in the process of building a car to take him to the Indy 500, but it was just after, and at that time during the process of him building the car, that's when...
• 31:38
  Uh, it switched from USAC to, uh, whatever the situation went to, to CARD or whatever.
• 31:44
  But yeah, no, look, I, the, the funeral, I, I was actually blown away by how many people were there.
• 31:50
  Um, but it was typical George Tapnell style.
• 31:53
  Um, yeah.
• 31:55
  I had to, we, mum organised the coffin through one of our old customers at the gas station, Bolins and Sons.
• 32:05
  And my mum said, it's got to be Winfield Red.
• 32:09
  I had to go to a body shop and say, hey, mate, I got a weird question for you.
• 32:16
  Can you paint a coffin?
• 32:17
  Yeah.
• 32:18
  And they looked at me weird and I said, look, and, uh, I turned around and said, look, my dad was a race car driver.
• 32:24
  He was sponsored by Winfield.
• 32:26
  Everything was Winfield.
• 32:28
  And, uh, the guy turned around and said, his name wasn't Tattnall, was it?
• 32:32
  And I said, yep.
• 32:33
  The guy painted the coffin Winfield red for us for the funeral.
• 32:37
  That I'll never forget.
• 32:38
  Like the weirdest thing walking in, asking someone, can you paint a coffin?
• 32:41
  Yeah.
• 32:43
  There's a lot in that story that you shared there, and I'm sure some of it is a little on the tougher side at times, but thank you for sharing some amazing things.
• 32:51
  I mean, even the stuff around the Indy 500 is incredible.
• 32:54
  We've talked about him as a showman.
• 32:56
  Aussie fans love the influx of American drivers.
• 33:01
  I mean, in that period, you know, I can vividly recall the Kinses coming.
• 33:06
  I think there were one year there, there was four JPS cars and so on.
• 33:09
  I was this nervous kid asking for Steve's autograph and so on.
• 33:14
  Being around...
• 33:16
  you know, those sorts of legends.
• 33:18
  And seeing what Steve did, Brooke, on both sides of the pond, for that matter, you know, the consistency, the amount of races, the longevity of his career.
• 33:27
  I mean, it's an amazing story, isn't it?
• 33:31
  It is.
• 33:31
  I mean, I've said to people, it's not the 19 championships that Steve Kinzel won that impresses me.
• 33:39
  It's not the over 500 wins that impress me.
• 33:42
  It's the fact that how many years he raced
• 33:45
  from 1978 and won shows every year until the day he finished.
• 33:50
  And that was what was something that always drove me and inspired me that how long he could do it.
• 33:56
  And yeah, guys today, like I came on the glory train.
• 34:02
  I came in and got to do the Outlaws in a motorhome.
• 34:07
  I've done the Outlaws where I drove the truck everywhere with my crew guys and,
• 34:11
  I've come to America and lived in a car that was to make it all happen.
• 34:14
  But like Steve Kinzer was on the road back in the day, the dually and still doing a hundred races a year.
• 34:21
  Now you try and talk to probably 90% of the drivers today and said, you reckon you could do it?
• 34:28
  And we'd all say yes.
• 34:29
  And 99% of us would fail because it just was so tough.
• 34:33
  But I think Mike Raymond played such an instrumental part.
• 34:36
  in even making Steve Kinzer bigger worldwide than he ever was.
• 34:43
  When he brought him to Australia and, you know, the song, Steve Kinzer, King of the Outlaws, when that started playing.
• 34:50
  And, you know, the household names, people that had never been to Speedway ended up going because maybe their grandparents or their parents had been
• 35:00
  But when Steve Kins came to Australia, he really upped the equipment level, him and Danny Smith.
• 35:07
  But yeah, no, he's just a phenomenal beast of a race car driver.
• 35:21
  Among Rusty's other Speedway guests in the garage is Robbie Farr, who may have tweaked his ID to get a racing license a little earlier than most.
• 35:30
  I was trompeting the bit to get in and coming from the old Clubman S 100cc straight into a spring car was quite unique.
• 35:38
  But it was the end of a season and I'm a July baby and the old paper burst if it gets back then.
• 35:45
  A bit easier to fudge what we're on with now.
• 35:49
  Robbie was a proud 2025 addition to the pod.
• 35:53
  If you search back through the library, you'll also find the legend Gary Rush who Brooke talks about in this edition.
• 35:59
  Let's get back to his chat with Rusty now.
• 36:03
  How did it start for you?
• 36:04
  Was it that almost rite of passage wheelpacking at a place like Parramatta?
• 36:08
  Was it karts somewhere?
• 36:09
  How did it all start for you?
• 36:11
  I drove a wheelpacked a sprint car before I'd ever drove a go-kart.
• 36:15
  Really?
• 36:15
  I didn't start racing.
• 36:16
  Yeah, I didn't start racing go-karts until I was 14, late 13, just about 14.
• 36:22
  So I only really raced karts for a couple of years, but it was right when we all got into it at the same time.
• 36:27
  Colin and Robert Farr, myself, Troy Jenkins, Darren came along later.
• 36:33
  Uh, like Brad Leach was actually racing go-karts back then, but, uh.
• 36:37
  Lithgow, are we talking that?
• 36:38
  Lithgow, Orem Park.
• 36:40
  Yeah.
• 36:40
  I mean, there was nothing greater.
• 36:42
  I take it when I took Amy and them to Australia and we're driving and I'm like, we're going for a drive.
• 36:46
  And they're like, where are we going?
• 36:47
  I said, we're going to Lithgow.
• 36:49
  And I, we jumped in the car and drove up to Lithgow and, um.
• 36:54
  It's where the explorers went with the tree stump.
• 36:58
  Yeah, yeah.
• 36:59
  And I've commentated there, man.
• 37:00
  It can get cold sometimes too there, can't it?
• 37:03
  It was some of the best times of our life going through the go-kart scenario.
• 37:08
  But, yeah, no, I will pack the – and I've done engine starts.
• 37:12
  I mean –
• 37:12
  there's a photo of my mom's place that takes pride that used to take pride in my bedroom.
• 37:16
  And it's, uh, me in dad's old Beretta.
• 37:20
  So we're probably talking 1986, 87.
• 37:25
  And I'm out passing Steve Kinzer.
• 37:28
  Um, um,
• 37:29
  It was a media day and I'm thinking I'm pretty hot diggity-doo.
• 37:33
  Until you look at the picture and Steve Kinzer's got his visor up, his arm on the dash, and there's a cigarette in his fingers.
• 37:38
  But I was still the only guy to pass Steve Kinzer that year.
• 37:42
  It may have been him.
• 37:43
  Just we'll pack him for the media.
• 37:45
  Pack him.
• 37:46
  That was where I really got the first experience of driving a sprint car was media days.
• 37:51
  Love it.
• 37:51
  Not to the point that I – like my first – the first time I raced a sprint car was a mechanics race.
• 37:57
  Mm-hmm.
• 37:59
  I was 14 years old and I jumped in.
• 38:04
  I had to sit on a pillow and a phone book to see over the dash.
• 38:08
  Dad had just crashed in the feature race and I've got Dennis Farr, John Barrett, John Barrett.
• 38:15
  Phil Johnson, there was everyone thrashing to get the car back together.
• 38:18
  Bobby Blackhall, just to get me out so I could go and do this.
• 38:22
  And, I mean, I thought I was going so, so quick.
• 38:28
  And I looked over and his dad running on the infield.
• 38:31
  Gas is on the right.
• 38:32
  So we may have improved a little bit since then.
• 38:35
  But, yeah, no, it was the path was more...
• 38:39
  I never thought I was ever going to race a sprint car.
• 38:41
  That was not the goal.
• 38:42
  That was never the dream.
• 38:43
  The dream was to be a midget racer, to win an Australian midget title, just like my dad.
• 38:49
  That was the dream, the goal, the whole time I grew up as a kid.
• 38:53
  There was no other diversion.
• 38:55
  There really wasn't anywhere.
• 38:57
  I wasn't thinking...
• 38:58
  growing up as a kid, touring cars or any like, because realistic at the time, that was, you had to be an old man to race touring cars.
• 39:07
  They weren't accepting 16 year old kids when I first got into it.
• 39:10
  And, you know, so it was always straight,
• 39:15
  I wanted to be a midget racer and dad looked at me at the time and said, there's no career in midgets, mate.
• 39:21
  Uh, if you want to be a race car driver, you need to run sprint cars.
• 39:25
  And dad was running sprint cars more and more.
• 39:27
  That was what the workshop was.
• 39:29
  Well, the race team was stabled after was sprint cars.
• 39:32
  And that's the direction we followed.
• 39:35
  And, and,
• 39:35
  Yeah, look, I was fortunate to get to do Toyota star searches and test drive Group A touring cars and do a test session with Greg Murphy's team in the Porsche, all that sort of stuff.
• 39:49
  And, you know, probably I'm probably super lucky that it didn't happen.
• 39:54
  But I was actually at 16 years old, I was meant to get a Formula One test in a Formula One powerboat.
• 40:01
  Formula One powerboat.
• 40:05
  Greg Flaherty was a spread car driver and his car, Frank Lindsay, that owned Cleveland Freight Lines, had a Formula One powerboat team.
• 40:17
  And he said, George, I want to put your boy in it.
• 40:19
  I want to put your boy in it.
• 40:20
  And probably luckily for me, it was too rough that day and I never got to do it because I probably would hurt myself.
• 40:26
  I'd love to talk more about the potential touring car thing a little later because you and I cross paths obviously with super touring and so on.
• 40:36
  Just on the midget thing, am I right in saying that maybe with the benefit of time and your career and experience and so on, you've come to respect what midget driving teaches the good races?
• 40:51
  Is that correct?
• 40:52
  It was drawn into me as a kid.
• 40:55
  If you can drive a midget and drive a midget well, you can drive anything.
• 41:01
  And I, I know Gary Russia said the same thing, but that was what dad always just say.
• 41:05
  I will take a good midget driver and put him in any race car there is.
• 41:09
  I can't take a good sprint car driver and put him in anything.
• 41:13
  Um, and it was just a thing, but yeah, no, look.
• 41:18
  I was fortunate.
• 41:19
  I really didn't grow up in the days of knowing that people got killed in midgets.
• 41:26
  Midgets, yeah.
• 41:26
  Like in Dad's era, the way it was.
• 41:30
  Unfortunately, I was...
• 41:33
  in the races where Joe Ferruja got killed and stuff like that.
• 41:37
  But yeah, no, I was always taught very early the respect factor of, and, you know, to jump in a midget.
• 41:46
  They aren't the easiest things to drive.
• 41:48
  I'll tell you now, to drive a midget faster Parramatta, it's easier to drive a sprint car faster Parramatta.
• 41:55
  Wow.
• 41:56
  Wow.
• 41:56
  Come then for me, if you can, to maybe a little reflection on you as an early racer, as you're embarking on this sprint car path as someone in their mid-teens, I guess, effectively.
• 42:10
  Were you a bit of a...
• 42:12
  a wild bull?
• 42:14
  What were you like as a racer at this stage as you're learning, honing, you know, getting the craft right and so on?
• 42:22
  Too intense.
• 42:24
  Way too intense.
• 42:25
  Yeah, way too intense.
• 42:26
  It was probably...
• 42:28
  I mean, maybe 2005 where I dropped the intensity, maybe I got to figure a few things out.
• 42:34
  I was a slow learner, but look, I tore up early in my part.
• 42:40
  Not when I first started so much.
• 42:43
  I was like go-kart, right?
• 42:45
  When we're racing go-karts, I don't think any of us speedway kids finished a race for probably six weeks.
• 42:51
  Yeah.
• 42:51
  We'd all crash out on a corner and we'd all be sitting there on the go-cars talking to each other, thinking this is normal.
• 42:56
  I mean, I don't think any of us finished for six weeks.
• 43:00
  But no, when I started, it was trying to figure out, and because there was so much hype, look, when they changed the law for N1,
• 43:11
  it was changed for everyone, but basically essentially my dad pushed in Mike Raymond to get a change for me to start.
• 43:18
  Um, so there was always drew it into my head.
• 43:22
  Everyone's waiting for you to fail.
• 43:24
  Everyone's waiting for you to screw up.
• 43:26
  So don't be dumb.
• 43:27
  Um, so,
• 43:29
  So cautious, but I think it was maybe my sixth race, seventh race or something that I actually won the feature race.
• 43:39
  But it was also a different era.
• 43:42
  Like we were lucky.
• 43:44
  When we started running a sprint car, you had 650 horsepower.
• 43:47
  I probably had 600 back then.
• 43:50
  Steel block engines.
• 43:52
  Not like what these kids are having to learn to drive today.
• 43:55
  We actually got to learn to drive and race.
• 43:58
  Would I have crashed a lot more if it was today's equipment, today's power?
• 44:04
  with me starting, yeah, I would have crashed a lot more.
• 44:06
  But, you know, that first year, as I said, we won our first feature race.
• 44:10
  And most people don't remember I won that first feature race that quick.
• 44:14
  They remembered the week after I flipped over.
• 44:17
  So that's when it came back to everyone's waiting for a young kid to fail.
• 44:22
  But, no, I was pretty calculated.
• 44:28
  Like it goes back to, though, I wanted to have a race car that had –
• 44:34
  tatnall on it and my dad refused to put tatnall on my race car all my early race cars only ever had brook on it he said you got to earn your own name you haven't earned the name earned the right in speedway to carry the name tatnall you've got to earn it on your own credit um
• 44:51
  Didn't understand at the time.
• 44:53
  Certainly did.
• 44:54
  Certainly found out about earning that respect and trust and earning that credibility.
• 45:03
  And I am very similar today with Garrett, but I also turned around and went, I'm smart enough after I'd maybe earned a little bit of respect out there to jump on my dad's coattails and ride it for a hell of a long time.
• 45:18
  What point does it click for you?
• 45:20
  So a feature race win is a pretty important milestone in the steps along the way.
• 45:25
  But at what point do you think, right, now this is all starting to gel and my ambition to pursue this perhaps on a full-time basis is warranted or justified?
• 45:40
  I don't think it's ever justified still to this day.
• 45:44
  No, I don't because racing owes it no on anything.
• 45:48
  Yeah, we won in that first season because I only raced half of the season, won a first feature race.
• 45:52
  The next year I came out, I won six feature races that year.
• 45:57
  I think it was the second or third year I won the track championship at Parramatta.
• 46:04
  Success came along, but I also had my dad putting the thumb down saying, hey.
• 46:10
  Don't let that ego get too big.
• 46:11
  Um, but I have to work for everything and I was surrounded by good people.
• 46:17
  Um, I had Alan Felsch, uh, the goddess sprint car gods, as far as I'm concerned, when it comes to crew chiefs, mentors, engine builders, he's like a second dad to me.
• 46:27
  And I owe him 99% of all my knowledge of what I know about race cars is due to Alan Felsch.
• 46:34
  Um, when I first came to America in 91, so that would have been basically third or fourth year I'd been racing.
• 46:42
  Um, got over here.
• 46:43
  Uh, I had the greatest marketing person in the world.
• 46:47
  I had George Tatnall.
• 46:48
  Um, I rolled into a team that was meant to have, uh,
• 46:54
  Three cars, two engines, all this.
• 46:57
  And when I got here, there was one car, two motors.
• 47:00
  We ran the very first night in America, and I'm leading the feature race, a USAC show at I-96.
• 47:08
  And I'm thinking, wow, how good is this?
• 47:11
  I'm going to make it in America.
• 47:13
  I can do this.
• 47:14
  And it was white flag lap.
• 47:17
  I blew the tire.
• 47:18
  I came back in the pits, dejected, and the crew chief was tearing me a butthole.
• 47:24
  It's rubber down, mate.
• 47:25
  Why are you smoking the tires?
• 47:28
  And I just had never heard of rubber down racing.
• 47:30
  I didn't know what it meant.
• 47:32
  And I just passed everyone because I was overdriving the race car, overdriving the tires.
• 47:38
  Days of the Thunder style.
• 47:39
  You do 20 laps your lane, 20 laps my way, and I'll guarantee I'll beat you.
• 47:45
  And sure enough, I blew the tire and I just had no idea.
• 47:55
  I got a ride in Phil Gersh's car at Knoxville.
• 47:58
  I'd actually didn't have anything else going on.
• 48:00
  We'd gone down.
• 48:01
  It was when Barry Graham was starting the Richard Petty Drive.
• 48:04
  Well, prior to Richard Petty Driving School, when Barry Graham, Rodney Coons, and George Elliott were starting their driving school over here.
• 48:11
  We were hanging out down there, got an offer to go to Knoxville to ride.
• 48:16
  Dad and I drove back here and never seen a half-mile racetrack.
• 48:21
  And you've got to remember, we didn't hot lap in Australia.
• 48:23
  You just went straight out to heat races.
• 48:25
  So I walk in, look at this mammoth place.
• 48:28
  And that night, I'm thinking, all right, I'm going to build up to it.
• 48:33
  Go back to Methodical Brook.
• 48:35
  We'll build up in speed.
• 48:36
  Well, you only got three hot laps.
• 48:38
  And I don't think the third lap I'd even got to full throttle.
• 48:41
  And there's like, what's wrong?
• 48:43
  What's wrong?
• 48:43
  I said, well, I thought we were going to get more laps.
• 48:45
  And they're like, nope.
• 48:47
  Sent me out to qualify.
• 48:48
  We were second quick time.
• 48:52
  Randy Smith set quick time.
• 48:53
  It was the year, 91, so it was the year that Max and Sid Moore had ND Motorsports, so you had Skip there, Max there.
• 49:03
  I think Melinda was racing at the time myself.
• 49:07
  Gary Brazy came along a couple of weeks later, and that night the steering broke.
• 49:13
  Back then you started tenting your heat race for quick time and so on.
• 49:17
  And you had to make top four or five.
• 49:19
  I was running second behind Max and the steering broke and it went hit on the fence and flit.
• 49:25
  I broke all the blood vessels in my eyes, so I was blind.
• 49:30
  And Dad was getting on a plane to come back to Australia the next day.
• 49:36
  And I'm sitting in the hotel.
• 49:37
  Actually, Stephen Graham was with us.
• 49:39
  And I'm sitting in that hotel room and dad's getting ready to head back to Australia on the Sunday.
• 49:44
  And I'm like, I think I'm coming home with you, dad.
• 49:46
  I'm not cut out for this.
• 49:48
  I'm not tough enough for this racing lifestyle.
• 49:51
  I'll just come back and work at Tatner Brothers and race in Australia.
• 49:54
  Maybe that's what I need to do.
• 49:56
  And cause I was black and blue, um, complete red eye.
• 50:01
  And dad spoke to mom and my uncle and dad stayed over here for, I think another six weeks.
• 50:08
  And that's the only thing that kept me going.
• 50:09
  Cause at that point I was ready to quit and go home.
• 50:13
  I just didn't think I could make it.
• 50:15
  So that's what I say.
• 50:16
  When I thought things were going good.
• 50:19
  And then just that one thing, I realized how tough America was compared to Australia at the time.
• 50:24
  I love the grit, mate.
• 50:27
  I love the sense of sacrifice and how that is still important to you even now.
• 50:32
  Let's look at the other side of the ledger and around this time, I guess, or maybe a fraction earlier, I should say, a special moment for you.
• 50:42
  And I'm talking about your first Aussie title tilt in 88.
• 50:46
  And I think George won that year.
• 50:48
  Maybe you might've been the youngest ever to qualify.
• 50:51
  You're in the blue gear and diff services car.
• 50:53
  How did that all come about?
• 50:55
  How did you piece that together?
• 50:57
  How special was that to be in a race meet with your dad like that, a major one?
• 51:02
  Yeah, look, I mean, it was incredible for me.
• 51:06
  I think, and you think about it, I'd only been racing for four weeks because I started on Boxing Day.
• 51:13
  And, you know, titles were end of January, start of February.
• 51:19
  And when Dad had got the first high bar, look, Dad and Gary Rush rolled out with the high bar gamblers the same night.
• 51:29
  And we'd just stripped Dad's old Nance 1984 Nance apart to rob parts to put his new car together and have some spares and whatever.
• 51:39
  And that race car was sitting there and Dad turned around and said...
• 51:42
  When you can put that car back, when that car's back together, after we built his, he said, all right, well, you may as well start racing.
• 51:50
  Put the old Nance together and you can race that.
• 51:53
  And we packed up, loaded dad's car on Christmas Eve at like five o'clock.
• 52:01
  Dad went home.
• 52:03
  I went to work on that, on that dance, uh, that night that I got a phone call Christmas morning, uh, seven o'clock in the morning.
• 52:13
  And dad says, where the hell are you?
• 52:15
  I said, I'm in the workshop.
• 52:16
  He said, get your ass home.
• 52:18
  You're having Christmas breakfast with your mother.
• 52:20
  Get back home.
• 52:22
  I built that car.
• 52:24
  christmas eve christmas day so i could start on boxing day so just those few races um to go the australian titles to be a part of something that meant so much and you know even for us to win the australian title the only reason i wanted to win the australian title
• 52:40
  in the beginning was because I wanted a picture to hang on my wall to go with all dad's pictures of the Australia one, sprint cars and midgets.
• 52:47
  So, yeah, it was incredible.
• 52:51
  Again, it was a different era than what we're racing in today.
• 52:57
  today but I mean family run team that's the other extension to this story so great people and connections around it all for you there too I mean you you rattled off to um you know legendary engine builder hall of famer Alan Felsch too I mean I mean that's great chapter for you very important formative chapter in many ways
• 53:15
  Oh, without a doubt.
• 53:16
  Like I said, my mechanical knowledge, even though I worked in Tapper Brothers and I was around Dad and Uncle Joe and all that, it's Alan Fosch.
• 53:23
  I mean, we paid Alan to build our motors.
• 53:26
  I remember dropping off a motor to him one day and we used to have to strip it down, clean it, take it up there.
• 53:32
  Uh, had I dropped it off and I left and I come back and I'm working.
• 53:36
  I rang Al up.
• 53:36
  It was probably, I don't know, maybe two weeks later.
• 53:38
  Hey Al, how are we going with that motor?
• 53:40
  Yep.
• 53:40
  It's ready.
• 53:41
  I said, all right, I'm on my way up.
• 53:42
  I jumped up, jumped up in the U took off, drove up to Alan's and I'm looking there.
• 53:46
  Here's a bare block sitting there.
• 53:48
  He said, I'm ready for you to start working on it.
• 53:51
  And stood there side by side with him.
• 53:54
  And he taught me how to build a, build a spring car engine.
• 53:57
  So like all those people, I mean, people don't realize that Gary Rush, like he's, he's an icon.
• 54:03
  I know he's a legend to you.
• 54:04
  Um, a legend to so many people.
• 54:08
  that the Gary rush took me aside several times, gave me encouragement.
• 54:15
  There's a night that he grabbed me by the collar and I was thought I was going to get my nose popped.
• 54:20
  Um, but at, at Avalon, um, but you know, so many people in that, uh, it's probably where I started to realize that people do notice hard work.
• 54:31
  And I think, you know, Gary gave me the knowledge and help, uh,
• 54:36
  because he saw the hard work and the hard yards I was willing to put in.
• 54:40
  What about, I mean, along the way, that hands-on stuff that you're talking about and building the engine, building the car and so on, that became a bit of a hallmark for you, particularly in the US chapter, which you've touched on a little bit already.
• 54:57
  Was it Sammy Swindell?
• 54:58
  Someone sort of instilled that in you, didn't they, about being hands-on, setting that tone and having a clear understanding of what's underneath you, basically?
• 55:10
  yeah it still again back to Alan Fulsh and my dad Alan Fulsh turned around and said Jack Coddenschild is probably the greatest race car driver that doesn't know how to set up a race car and I looked at that and not that there was anything against Jack at the time Jack was just a wheel man and I was fortunate enough through Roger Johnson and Kelly and Associates to be able to put my own race team together over here to run the outlaws sold off everything to do it but I
• 55:40
  With Roger's connection, he got me hooked up with Sammy, and Sammy mentored me on the road.
• 55:45
  And the one thing about Sammy, you can ask him a question, and he will answer the question, but you've got to figure it out.
• 55:56
  He won't just say, do this or do that.
• 56:00
  Sammy, like I showed him a spark plug one night.
• 56:02
  I said, hey, can you look at this?
• 56:04
  Where do you think I'm at my fuel?
• 56:06
  He looks at it, hands her back, looks at me, says, well, what do you think?
• 56:11
  I'm like, well, I don't know what to think because I'm asking you.
• 56:14
  And I said, well, I think I'm a little lean.
• 56:17
  I need to be rich in it up on the high speed a little bit.
• 56:20
  He said, well, why'd you come over here and ask me for?
• 56:23
  I didn't know if that was a, you're on the right track or you're not on the right track, but he meant to semi mental be along the way.
• 56:31
  And there was times I'd go to his race shop because it was just around the corner from where I was based.
• 56:37
  And, um, I talking to him and then I'd run outside and I'd come back in and he says, Hey, if you've got a girlfriend, you got to go and speak to.
• 56:47
  Talked to her another time.
• 56:48
  I said, what are you talking about?
• 56:49
  He said, why do you keep running outside?
• 56:51
  I said, I've got to write this shit down.
• 56:53
  I'm not smart enough to remember it all.
• 56:56
  And he said, what are you talking about?
• 56:57
  And I went out and got my day timer and I'd bring it in.
• 57:00
  I'd show it to him.
• 57:01
  And he's like, you really take notes?
• 57:03
  I said, I've got to.
• 57:04
  I said...
• 57:05
  You understand, and I still, I drive for a car owner over here to still to this day, that's an engineer.
• 57:12
  He says, why are we making this change?
• 57:14
  And my answer is because my ass tells me that's what it needs.
• 57:17
  I need to make that change because my butt's telling me the car's doing this or the butt's doing that, the car's doing that.
• 57:23
  He's like, well, yeah, but the theory of hydraulics and the theory of this, and I'm looking going, hey, I'm a dumb mechanic that's race, race cars my whole life.
• 57:32
  Um, you know, I can't give you the internal parts, but I'm, I just give you, but yeah, no, it's guys like that.
• 57:39
  And all the people I've been around, you have to understand the ins and outs as goes back to dad teaching me the marketing angles and how to turn around and you go to an awards bankrupt.
• 57:51
  People said, we used to say, why do you wear such bright colored suits?
• 57:54
  Like I went with a, I've been the first year I won the, uh.
• 57:59
  Wayne Gardner, gold medal of Parramatta.
• 58:02
  I walked in there and I've got a bright red suit on.
• 58:07
  People looked at me.
• 58:07
  I've gone another year.
• 58:08
  I got a black suit with Daffy Duck all over it.
• 58:11
  I've gone there with a pink suit that my brother-in-law had with his band Rock Lobsters.
• 58:18
  And I just turned around and your dad said, even if you don't win, make sure everyone knows that you're there.
• 58:25
  And just all those little angles and little different things that you'd learned and everyone had been around had been very similar.
• 58:33
  most of them had been self-made.
• 58:37
  And the aspect of having to learn all the car, it's been a hindrance in a lot of ways.
• 58:44
  It's beneficial to me as a driver.
• 58:46
  It's a hindrance to a career.
• 58:49
  And the reason being, I'd go to a lot of race teams that were running out of money, and they'd go, we can hire Brooke because we don't have to hire a crew chief.
• 58:56
  He'll do it all himself.
• 58:58
  And that's...
• 59:01
  where that's probably something that has hurt me along the line.
• 59:05
  And it's probably why when I went to Cricky Motorsports, they all had bets that they would fire me after the first year because I'd be too much of a control freak.
• 59:13
  I'd want to change everything.
• 59:15
  I'd want to make all the calls.
• 59:17
  And I walked in there and that whole year we raced.
• 59:21
  I don't even think I asked what bar.
• 59:23
  I think I rode for Crickys for 12 years and I don't think I ever asked what torsion bar was in it, what gear ratio was in it.
• 59:30
  I'd jump in and drive it, say, let's tighten her up, loosen her up and work.
• 59:34
  And it wasn't until that point that I realized trying to do everything on my own and do it my way.
• 59:41
  Like when I set up my own outlaw team and I went to Sammy,
• 59:45
  I was working with Deuce Terrell at the time, famous crew chief, Doug Wolfgang and everything else, and just put the outlaw deal together to go on the outlaws for my rookie year.
• 59:58
  Deuce said, I don't know, I think we're a month out, and he says, I don't think I'm going to do this season.
• 1:00:03
  I just don't want to be on the road.
• 1:00:06
  I went to Sammy and said, what do I do?
• 1:00:08
  Sammy said, it's going to hurt you.
• 1:00:12
  at the start, you're gonna miss a lot of races, but at the end of the day, it will make you a better race car driver.
• 1:00:18
  And I stuck to that package.
• 1:00:27
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with Brooke Tatton.
• 1:00:30
  I wish I had done this sooner, as I said at the top.
• 1:00:33
  I love that he's been a regular listener of our podcast and that he feels comfortable with sharing these yarns.
• 1:00:40
  My colleagues warn me that he loves a Chad
• 1:00:43
  And I think his family sometimes tell him, Dad, give us the short version.
• 1:00:47
  But for me, this is so enjoyable, and I hope you feel the same way.
• 1:00:51
  And on that note, we have another hour, all loaded up and ready.
• 1:00:56
  Just head back to the garage library when you're ready and check it out.
• 1:00:59
  The hard yards that he did to break into the American scene, that heartland where you need to be a racer's racer, where the schedule is nuts, and his hands-on approach, how that served him so well, why that asset...
• 1:01:13
  was also a bit of a drawback.
• 1:01:15
  Plus, the next-generation Tattnall racer who's already well on the way.