Latest / Rusty's Garage / Russell Ingall (Part 3)

Transcript

Russell Ingall (Part 3) · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:19
Hi, everyone.
0:20
Rusty here.
0:20
This has been a bit like an endurance race, hasn't it?
0:23
Like Bathurst, and often they are the best events.
0:26
I really hope you've enjoyed parts one and two with Russell Ingle.
0:30
We'd love your feedback via the Podcast One website or on social media.
0:34
Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and tell your friends about it too.
0:38
The insights of someone who came from very humble beginnings and took on some great names in single-seater racing in Europe, who was nicknamed the Enforcer for an uncompromising style that would take him to Bathurst Winds and a supercar's crown.
0:53
I find that stuff fascinating.
0:55
There are some great things to take out of parts one and two, so make sure you have a listen.
0:59
If you haven't already, head back to the library.
1:01
They're there, good to go.
1:02
This is part three, something we don't often do, but Russell's really opened up on all sorts of aspects of his life in professional motor racing.
1:12
Stick around for his candid thoughts on Gen 3 supercars.
1:16
How much he missed getting behind a wheel when he moved into broadcasting.
1:20
The love of driving, which is as strong now as it was in his teens.
1:24
That awesome celebratory burnout when he won the title and a few of your questions too.
1:30
We'll kick off this final instalment by giving you an insight into the depth of his rivalry with another hero of the sport, Mark Scaife, after their so-called race rage incident at Eastern Creek in 2003.
1:42
It took a long time before they could even speak to each other again.
1:46
Probably not till the Fox deal happened.
1:50
Really?
1:51
To be honest.
1:53
Yeah, so that was a fair innings.
1:55
That's over 10 years nearly, Russell.
1:56
I would have thought over a decade.
1:58
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:59
Yeah, that was – it was – nothing was fabricated there.
2:03
You know, we definitely had a dislike for each other, probably on and off the track.
2:08
And I think that – and it probably –
2:16
There was, I've got to tell you, there was probably opportunities.
2:20
Funny enough, I was talking to Jeff Grek about this not that long ago.
2:23
You know, if there was ever opportunities to race for a
2:29
HRT of the home racing team because I believe they had the best equipment.
2:33
They had, yeah, this is even going back before, you know, the SBR days.
2:39
And they were a consideration because they had the best gear.
2:42
There's no doubt about that.
2:43
Bridgestone tyres when it was open tyre category, you know, they had good equipment.
2:49
Was there loose chat there between you guys?
2:51
Well, yeah.
2:55
I think it was very loose.
2:57
It was very loose, but I definitely go with the indications.
3:01
But one of the stumbling blocks, and I can't speak for them, but I'm sure it would have come up.
3:08
One of the stumbling blocks is one M Scaife because can you imagine a team with both of us in it?
3:18
realistically, how that would have ended.
3:20
Actually, I don't know how it would have ended, but it would have been very ugly.
3:25
And so it was probably that made the decision or the options to go with Stone Brothers.
3:35
Mind you, they were always top of the list anyway because their equipment was so good.
3:38
And that's what I was looking at.
3:39
I was looking at a consistent package that was going to win me a championship.
3:43
And I knew I was going to be...
3:48
well I was with James Courtney initially then Marcus Ambrose so I had some pretty heavy heavy hitter teammates there but I just I just felt I didn't pursue it because of that reason you know because I just couldn't see us as teammates couldn't see it at all you know and yeah
4:08
look, it might've, it might've been different, you know, it might've actually got along all right.
4:14
Um, I can't see it though.
4:16
I think she would have got ugly.
4:17
So, um, it was always a shame because, um, they were, that was a class team in the day.
4:24
Equipment was good.
4:25
You know, I probably would have, would have fitted in there pretty well.
4:29
I probably wasn't polished enough outside the car for them because I was still probably a bit raw, you know, and, uh, um,
4:38
They were always a bit Captain Corporate as a team, but they probably needed to be with being a factory holding team.
4:50
So I think that was a good thing about Stone Brothers.
4:52
It was a supported Ford team.
4:56
Yes.
4:56
But it was still a team on their own right.
4:58
I think when you're with a factory team, yeah, there you can't – you have to be the polished professional.
5:05
And I don't think I was probably polished enough outside.
5:08
But in terms of career decisions, you back the right horse in Stone Brothers Racing.
5:12
And Ross and Jim Stone, great chapter.
5:15
Marcus Ambrose on fire in 2003 and 2004 with –
5:19
with championship success, you would win the title in 05, which we'll get to in a second.
5:24
Firstly to Marcus, great teammates, the pair of you, great friends.
5:29
And he has come on the podcast before, and he said to me very early in the piece,
5:35
You took him out and tried to kind of like ply him with a few beers to get the info out of him to understand how the team worked, maybe what the secret of the success was.
5:46
And he actually really respected you for that, Russell.
5:49
He loved the fact that your craft wasn't just on the racetrack and trying to win.
5:55
It was beyond that.
5:56
Hey, don't worry.
5:57
Don't worry.
5:58
You did the same back.
5:59
Did he?
6:00
Yeah, because he tried exactly the same thing as far as doing deals because he knew I was like, because I had a bit of a reputation as being the Contra King, they used to call me, meaning I used to get a fair few sponsorship deals.
6:14
I mean, I had everything from Cadbury ice cream to fuel oil company, whoever, you know, so I had that many stickers on my helmet.
6:22
I needed to get almost a super large helmet to get them all on.
6:26
He always used to ask me about that and get information.
6:29
How do you get?
6:31
What sort of money do you get?
6:33
Okay.
6:33
So he was always on about how to do these deals and then he'd be off.
6:37
He'd go and do all these sponsorship deals because don't worry, he didn't mind a dollar, old Marcus.
6:43
He's still got his first one, I think, doesn't he?
6:45
Don't let him fool you about the whole country boy Tasmania.
6:49
He likes a buck, so don't worry about that.
6:52
So, yeah, so don't worry.
6:54
He worked both ways in different ways.
6:56
So I was trying to get info for him on track.
6:58
He was trying to get off track.
7:00
And that's probably why it worked is because, you know, and that was the thing about Marcus.
7:05
I mean, he went through at a later date.
7:08
the same sort of things that I did, you know, with going through the Formula Ford thing and trying to make his way.
7:14
And he hit the same glass ceiling as I did.
7:17
So that's why I probably think our dynamics were good and we got along so well is because we went through the same path in different periods, different eras, you know.
7:27
So –
7:30
And that helps.
7:31
And again, that thing I talk about, respect, you know, respect people.
7:36
And I had a lot of respect for him and I knew how good he was.
7:41
And he surprised me actually how, because he was good in an open wheeler, he was very good in a touring car.
7:50
And he really surprised me on how good he was because I struggled.
7:54
I was a better open wheeler driver than a touring car driver.
7:58
Uh, I, I found them a little bit hard to drive because they were so unresponsive and so lazy.
8:03
And I, I found them a little bit harder to get my head around.
8:08
Hence my qualifying was never good because I could never really know that where in a formula car, I was always at the front.
8:14
You know, I was, I knew, I knew what I wanted out of the car.
8:18
Um.
8:20
I found tin tops really hard where Marcus actually shows his ability and I think that translated into when he went to NASCAR.
8:29
It shows his ability to adapt to different cars and categories and he could adapt to different situations.
8:35
So you've got to give him marks for that one.
8:38
Not too many people can do that.
8:39
No.
8:40
That leads me, Russell, to, I mean, he obviously went off and did NASCAR, as you just said there.
8:44
Did the US ever beckon for you?
8:47
Did you ever want to go to America and did you explore that?
8:50
Ah, again, we'll put that in the Russell Engel book of making bad choices.
8:58
It's getting quite long at the moment.
9:01
I talked about the German thing.
9:03
After...
9:05
Formula Ford when I won the championship, second in the championship in 91, so 92.
9:15
Ralph said there was an opportunity, Ralph Furman said there was a Van Diemen, so we're on a ramp up their Formula Ford 2000 championship in America.
9:23
And he said, there's a drive there if you wanted it in America.
9:25
But again, I had this Europe thing in my head.
9:28
Got to get to Europe, got to get to Formula One.
9:30
And we were talking about it for quite a while, to a stage where he said, look, the seat's going to get filled.
9:37
It's there if you want it.
9:40
I think David Bernard ended up going over and racing, racing in the Van Diemen over there.
9:46
And he said, look, it's – I said, no, I want to stay with you.
9:50
I want to keep going to Europe.
9:52
And the Formula Ford 2000 at that stage was a great opportunity for IndyCar and later on down the road.
10:00
I –
10:03
I almost regret that one as much as not taking that German F3 drive I said earlier about making the wrong call.
10:10
Yeah, but that was one year.
10:11
I think if I went to America...
10:14
You could have done a Marcus.
10:15
You could have been a Scott Dixon, a Will Power.
10:19
You could have made a – it was one of those places, I think, once you get in the door, you're there for as long as you want and there's not too many places you can do that.
10:28
And at that stage too, there was plenty of money kicking around.
10:30
Drivers were earning good money.
10:33
So that was, again –
10:37
a bad call on my part of it.
10:39
But, yeah, the opportunity was there.
10:41
Would have loved to do it and, in hindsight, should have done it.
10:45
Should have done it because the IndyCar wasn't as prone to the age factor.
10:49
You didn't have to be 20 to get into Formula 1, you know.
10:53
And same it is now.
10:54
Look at the drivers who are in there now, you know, the...
10:56
There's a lot of drivers that have been in their later stages and still going well and still got a job.
11:03
Yeah, definitely.
11:04
It's a cool joint.
11:07
Among the many highs in your career is the 2005 title win.
11:13
What did it mean to finally do that Russell and where does it sort of rank even now all these years later?
11:18
Oh, massive.
11:19
Like I said, probably made a bit different from, meant more to me that one because of how close I got so many times and coming down to that last damn round at Ormond Park and that pesky Craig Lowndes got a couple of me on that one.
11:37
That was hard work.
11:42
And so that's what made 05.0.
11:45
you know, almost like the, finally, god damn, I'm never going to get this trophy.
11:51
And so that one was pretty big because it wasn't only the, remember the lead up, all the stuff we talked about, you know, not only the racing, you know, overseas here, but also the change of teams, change of states, you know, change of manufacturers, always leading for that one goal.
12:13
You know, I,
12:15
I positioned myself all to have that big swing at the championship, you know, and it worked.
12:22
You know, again, as many bad calls have I made through my career, that was the right one to do because that got me the Holy Grail, which was the championship.
12:30
So, and to do it, there was a big mindset change too because all my racing was win or busts.
12:41
You know, win or crash or crash into someone, one or the other, you know.
12:45
So that was the whole goal.
12:46
That was the first year I said, you know what, I'm going to have to stop doing this.
12:50
I'm actually going to have to, dare I say it, and I hate saying it, is I'm going to have to point gather a little bit here because –
13:00
I can't always go for the win, you know, because I'm not a podium getter.
13:04
I see so many drivers, past and present, and I call them podium gatherers.
13:10
Oh, that was great to get third.
13:13
Seriously.
13:15
To me, there's only one spot.
13:17
There's only the win, you know.
13:19
Yeah, it's all great.
13:20
If that's what floats your boat, all good.
13:23
That's just not me, dude.
13:24
Like, you know, I just, I'd rather crash going for the win than come in second or third, you know.
13:32
So, but that year I had to concede I'm not going to win if I don't use my head a little bit here because it's just not the way it works, you know.
13:41
It's just the way the point system was.
13:45
pull myself back a bit and, you know, I was always a top five contender and I knew I had to be that.
13:52
But if the win wasn't there, I'm going to have to settle for a second or third, you know, as much as it killed me.
13:57
But it got me the cup, you know.
14:00
So, yeah, it was a different mindset that year.
14:03
And then once I got it, I go, right, I can go back to win or bust.
14:09
And probably why I never won one since.
14:11
But anyway, that's the way it rolls.
14:14
But like I said, you've got to always put a balance too of enjoying your racing to just having shiny trophies on the mantelpiece too, you know.
14:25
And I'd won all the things I wanted to win.
14:29
Now I just want to go out and race, you know.
14:31
And I think that's sometimes that's lost a little bit, I think, with drivers.
14:36
you know, that you've got to enjoy the ride as well.
14:40
And predominantly, yeah, look, I'm not going to say.
14:46
Financially, I've done because, you know, I'm a wheeler and deer, I've done all right financially.
14:54
I've provided good, you know, good life for my family, which is always the number one priority.
15:02
You know, enjoying racing, I've never done it for the accolades and the fanfare and getting pat on the back and getting into halls of fame and all the rest of it.
15:11
I don't care about any of that, you know.
15:13
I just like racing.
15:14
I like jumping in a car, having a big crack at it, all the aspects and the mechanical side of it leading up to it, all of that.
15:24
I actually enjoy that, you know, more so than the shiny trinkets that come with it, you know.
15:30
Mm-hmm.
15:32
And I think that's an important factor of it because if you just take it as a job, you're in the wrong job.
15:38
Definitely.
15:39
We'll get to the television chapter and what you're doing now with the enforcer and the dude in a moment, which I think is just tremendous, by the way.
15:46
You wanted us to expand on a deal you did with Super Cheap Auto.
15:51
Did that come about in very simple terms with a handshake?
15:55
And I'm imagining this is during the Paul Morris chapter of your career when you're back in a Holden again.
16:00
Yeah, that's right.
16:01
I mean, I got introduced to the Super Cheap guys and great bunch of guys.
16:07
And it was just a chance meeting.
16:09
But again, we talk about, you know, a bit like the Ford deal, you know, just meeting up in a coffee shop.
16:14
It's exactly the same thing.
16:16
We met up at David Adjala and Dave Bauer, who David Adjala was the CEO of Super Cheap.
16:23
And
16:23
Met him a coffee shop in a supermarket in Logan, in Logan Hyperdome.
16:29
Amazing.
16:30
And all the years, and this was, you know, a million plus deals, you know, a million dollar deals.
16:36
So, you know, did it in...
16:40
just a coffee shop, handshake deal, off we go, year in, year out.
16:45
That was our meeting spot, you know, and that's how we did it.
16:48
And we had a great relationship and it was just cool doing deals like that, you know, and really nice people who get it.
16:56
They loved the attitude and we did some cool ads with them and,
17:01
I think they're still kicking around on the net somewhere.
17:02
Some of the enforcer ads we did for super cheap and it was just good people.
17:09
But again, just in a coffee shop, you know, and it was structured a lot differently.
17:13
Then they said, look, we want you to –
17:18
manage the money.
17:20
This is a running budget.
17:21
You take it to wherever you want to go racing.
17:23
And that's basically how it worked.
17:25
Because they said, we want an ambassador for our brand and not necessarily with the team but with you because you're selling our product, our brand, and then you just take it to wherever...
17:41
money permits is going to be the best opportunity.
17:44
So that's what we did.
17:45
So it was a great relationship.
17:48
Again, I've got this thing about just doing very casual deals and they seem to turn out all right.
17:53
They do, mate.
17:54
Thongs and shorts.
17:55
I love it.
17:55
I love it.
17:56
Yeah.
17:58
The chance to go and work as an expert in television comes up with Fox around 2014, 2015 for you.
18:05
How difficult was that in the sense of, you know, the big events where you were always there driving, not being in that position regularly?
18:16
What sort of impact did that have on you, Russell?
18:18
Hated it.
18:19
Hated it.
18:22
And I don't mean disrespect to, and as much as I didn't like the, I didn't appreciate the ending the way it happened with Fox.
18:34
they gave me the opportunity to do it.
18:36
And don't worry, there was always an angle and the scaife and myself sort of dynamic was always part of it.
18:45
And I always thought, I always liked, and because I played it up with the media in certain things, I always thought I'd like a role in the media at some sort, life after death, you know.
18:59
So I...
19:02
I didn't realise how hard it was going to be in rolling up to a circuit and not racing.
19:08
And I don't think I fully got over it because it was just really weird going there.
19:16
You went there at the same time as what you normally would if you're racing.
19:21
You know, you're there on the Wednesday night or Thursday morning, went through the practice sessions, but you're not –
19:29
You know, we're on air for whatever times, but the rest of the time you're just sort of cruising around getting information.
19:33
It was sort of weird going in asking teams and...
19:38
when really you're at the back end of that.
19:41
Yes.
19:42
And it's sort of, you know, and you've done it.
19:46
I mean, your career's that, Greg, but it sort of was a bit weird coming out in the environment and asking drivers questions about what's happening in their weekend or their day of drivers that you used to race against, you know.
20:05
And some of them you sort of went, no.
20:07
you know I don't know I shouldn't say that but I will you know a couple of the drivers you sort of go really you're turkey you know I couldn't let loose as much as I wanted to and I couldn't do a barisheen I really I really wish I could have done a barisheen but I sort of towards the end there was some part of it I enjoyed but I just didn't enjoy going to a racetrack and not getting in a car and just a down time and you know um
20:37
Yeah, parts of it were good, but I just struggled with it a bit, I think.
20:42
And I also probably struggled with being coming from somewhere where I had control of, you know, like...
20:51
Yes, I need input from my engineers and mechanics, but ultimately it was still up to me come the end of the day, you know.
20:57
And I probably had a hard time being probably told what to do, what to say, you know, and I don't like being muzzled.
21:07
But then again, I understand the dynamics that TV is a bit like that.
21:13
You know, you've still got rules you have to run to.
21:17
But I think I've...
21:19
Yeah, I just had a leash a little bit too tight and I didn't want it tight.
21:27
And I felt like I had probably...
21:32
more input on what goes on behind the scenes and, and what, what drivers and teams go through than I was probably allowed to, or could say.
21:41
So, yeah.
21:42
So in the end, you know, you know, I, I, I think it was, it wasn't the best of splits, but it probably was for the best, um, because I think my time was up with that.
21:52
And, um,
21:54
you know, move on to something else.
21:55
And, and, uh, um, but like I said, the way it was done wasn't fantastic.
21:59
And that's been well documented.
22:00
I've spoken to about it before, but, uh, but either, either way, you know what, um, um, I ended up doing a bit of racing with TCR after that and, and some other stuff.
22:12
And I actually really enjoyed getting back in the saddle again.
22:15
You know, it's, it's, it's a hard gig to give up.
22:18
I like, you know, it'd be like, yeah, you know, if someone said to you, Greg, uh,
22:23
No more talking about motor racing.
22:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
22:26
It's just you're going to be a surfer now.
22:30
I'll be useless at that, mate.
22:33
But you know what I mean?
22:34
It's just hard to go cold turkey on.
22:37
So I actually really enjoyed it when I was –
22:41
had the opportunity to do a bit of TCR racing and stadium trucks did a couple rounds of that.
22:48
And it was good, you know, all of a sudden I went, yeah, okay.
22:52
All right.
22:53
I can't, I can't imagine you not wanting to pull the helmet on, you know, even if it's a handful of times during the year, Russell.
23:00
And I'm told my every once in a while, you don't mind sneaking out to Norwell for a little cut, cut a few little laps.
23:05
That's, that's, it's good tonic, mate, isn't it?
23:07
It's good tonic.
23:08
Yeah, Paul has his little shootout sessions on Friday nights and I sort of wander out there and have a few laps in the Toyota 86s.
23:17
It doesn't matter what you're in.
23:18
You don't have to be in a supercar to get a car on the edge, take it to the limit.
23:24
and, you know, still all my – and compete with a stopwatch, you know.
23:28
It doesn't matter what you're in.
23:29
It's still a challenge, you know.
23:30
So, yeah, I cruise out there and have a bit of a run.
23:33
But, yeah, it's funny you should say all this because just lately I've been sort of – haven't been in a car for a while.
23:39
And, yeah, I realise, you know, you've got to be realistic too.
23:45
You know, the opportunities are there.
23:47
But I'd still love to jump back in something and, yeah,
23:52
and do something.
23:52
But, you know, the funny thing is, I think that was good about the TCR stuff is, is there was young kids there, medium and, you know, experienced guys, you know, but still going out and, and doing all right.
24:06
And, and the good thing about it is I think we,
24:09
we've got a bad habit here of putting a tag on that number, you know, the age factor, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's wrong.
24:18
You know, it's, I understand in some circumstances, you know, if you're playing football, but in motor sports a little bit different.
24:24
I think, I think experience counts and what's sitting on your hard drive on top of your shoulders, it makes up for a lot as well, you know, so, yeah,
24:31
Unfortunately, they put a tag on that.
24:33
It seems beyond, you know, you get beyond a certain date.
24:37
And they say, no, I still can't do it.
24:39
But, you know, a lot of it might be ego too, mate.
24:43
Like, you know, I've got his ego as big as any driver, you know.
24:46
We all still think we can do it.
24:47
But.
24:48
Well, mate, I can vividly recall handing a trophy over to you in 2019, I think at Queensland Raceway.
24:53
You know, it was great to see you driving that Audi again and to be stepping behind the wheel and knowing how good that is for you.
25:02
I think that's an important thing for lots of blokes who are listening to this podcast.
25:06
But this leads me to Enforcer and the Dude, because you've talked about going out to Norwell, and Norwell is the home of this...
25:15
runaway success, mate.
25:16
I mean, it's something that you are very hands-on in the production and construction with.
25:23
It's playing in a new generation space, which the audience loves.
25:27
And clearly the want to let that leash off that you talked about before so you could speak your mind is the genesis of it, mate, isn't it?
25:35
Yeah, absolutely.
25:36
And look, I was encouraged by, you know, things like what you're doing here, you know, since you've been doing this over the years.
25:44
I took what I've learnt in my time on the Fox side of things and like I said, look, it sort of all came about
25:57
I think it's that competitive side of me again you spoke about earlier.
26:02
Like I said, the parting wasn't handled the best.
26:06
And look, there was probably a little bit of up you too along the way, probably more than a little.
26:12
But I didn't know what it was going to do.
26:14
I didn't know.
26:15
But I knew, let's give something a go here.
26:19
And I went to Paul and said, oh, look, I've got this idea for a bit of an online show.
26:23
I don't know how it's going to go.
26:25
let's just do one.
26:26
All right.
26:27
And see how it goes.
26:28
All right.
26:28
And we'll just real random.
26:30
We'll have a bit of a scope of what we do.
26:32
We'll talk a bit of racing, talk a bit of car stuff and, and see what happens.
26:36
I said, you've got a bar out here, which is a perfect backdrop.
26:39
We've got a 2.2 K track, which is something like out of top gear.
26:43
And that's what I sort of based it on.
26:44
And let's give a go and see what happens.
26:46
So,
26:47
We did the first one.
26:48
I said, oh, geez, we're all looking at the results.
26:50
And I'm sitting back with a beer and dudes on their phone on the other end and go, oh, geez, I've got a few hits here.
26:55
How good's this?
26:56
And off it went.
26:57
And, you know, and from there it's just sort of been, it's very random when we do it.
27:03
And I don't know what the future is.
27:06
But, mate, it was just something to fill the gap, you know.
27:09
And funny enough is you experiment with it and, you know,
27:15
There's a lot of people interested.
27:17
I found it.
27:18
We did a bit on motorsport and then a bit on motoring.
27:23
But the one that gets the most traction is actually the history of both of them, history of motoring and history of motorsport.
27:29
As soon as you start going back in time,
27:32
all of a sudden the views go up and the views are engaged, you know that.
27:36
And funny enough, you talk about motorsport and, yeah, it's okay.
27:41
You talk about the history of motorsport, the history of motoring in general, and it goes through the roof.
27:46
So it shows you how many people are interested in sports,
27:49
where we've come from, not so much on where we're going.
27:53
And it's cool because there's a lot of cool stuff.
27:57
And out of that, it's given us opportunities to drive some old race cars and all sorts of stuff.
28:03
But it's also good that...
28:05
you know, between myself and Paul, we've got a lot of knowledge about the back end of it as well, mechanics and that sort of it, and explaining it and trying to explain to people a little bit more on how things work, why it works, why decisions have been made like that.
28:19
And I don't know.
28:20
So what the future is, I don't know.
28:22
We just play it by ear.
28:23
I ring Paul up one day and go, oh, you're up for doing a show?
28:26
Yeah, yeah, okay.
28:26
And we just do it randomly, you know.
28:28
It's...
28:29
It's nothing we're going to retire on.
28:31
But, you know, like I said, it was more to probably prove a point that there is a gap there and maybe the people that follow sport want to know a little bit more.
28:42
And you know this better than anyone.
28:44
You want to know a little bit more about what makes people tick and what makes teams tick and cars and all the rest of it.
28:51
So, you know, it's interesting.
29:04
British race car manufacturer Van Diemen, is most well known for its Formula Ford chassis, which have been at the forefront of that class of motorsport for over 20 years, and led it to becoming the largest manufacturer of bespoke racing cars in the world.
29:19
If you are cool with it, we will power through a few fan questions to finish here, mate.
29:26
One from Tim Blunden.
29:27
Ask him if he's ever considered part ownership of a team.
29:31
Would he do something like that?
29:32
Maybe even pair up with a like-minded person like Paul Morris.
29:35
Would you ever consider team ownership in the Supercast Paddock?
29:38
That's a good question.
29:39
Look, I always pictured...
29:42
myself doing that over what I ended up doing with Fox, to be quite honest.
29:48
But the biggest issue at the moment, and I don't think I'm on an island here, is just how the costs of running a team has escalated.
30:00
You know, it just does, it doesn't make, to me, I can't make the,
30:04
the numbers stack up.
30:06
And at the end of the day, I've fought too hard to get what I've got and I'm not going to give it away in a race team.
30:13
I would love to do it.
30:16
And believe it or not, one of the – I was going to say one of the few things, but probably one of the only things myself and Mark Scaife agreed on, right, behind the scenes, is that we both agree there's not enough racers owning race teams.
30:34
And what I mean by that is like the Gary Rodgers or the Larry Perkins.
30:38
Properly in their blood.
30:39
Proper race drivers or race teams or people that, yeah, own race teams at the moment.
30:46
And I think that's some of the issues.
30:48
you know, at the moment that they need more of that.
30:53
And but to do that, but I think on the flip side, anyone that's a real racer realises I'm not going to be doing that because we're going to be going through money like water.
31:04
So...
31:05
Who knows down the road if the series, you know, and it might not even be supercars.
31:13
I think something like TCR or, you know, I think that's a lot more affordable.
31:20
But I think supercar, if you're talking supercars in particular, and if he's talking supercars in particular, man, it'd have to become a lot cheaper and we're talking, I don't think from what I'm seeing at the moment is enough.
31:33
You know, I don't, I don't.
31:35
You know, 20 grand here, 30 grand there, not enough.
31:39
We're talking hundreds.
31:41
We're talking millions basically has to come back to run a team, you know, for 2 million, 2.5 million and that's what you're looking for.
31:51
You know, it's just ridiculous per car.
31:53
You know, I can't see how the teams now are doing it.
31:56
So if that came back...
31:59
to a reasonable amount and Paul said exactly the same thing.
32:02
He said if it came back to how it used to be, where you could run the team out of Norwell or run and be competitive, yes, but in current, in today's environment, there is no way you can do that until you bring it back.
32:16
I don't think myself or anyone else would get involved unless you've got
32:23
unless you've got a rich dad or a rich backer.
32:25
That's about the only two that, or you're wealthy yourself.
32:30
And if you want to get the true races back into it, you've got to make it more affordable.
32:34
So that points us in the direction of Gen 3 regulations, the future of supercars.
32:39
Few people asking, in essence, what you think of that.
32:42
Do you like the direction it's going to go?
32:45
Yeah.
32:47
Two parts to it.
32:48
No, I don't think it's enough.
32:51
But...
32:52
On the other side of it, they had no choice.
32:54
As far as the car shape goes, you can't do anything about that.
32:58
It's just the way it is.
33:00
You have to make the chassis more pliable to put different body shells on it, even only for appearance.
33:11
you know all the talk about manufacturers forget it like you just have to pick up any publication look online on where we where the motor industry is going in the next three to five years everything's going to be ev whether you like it or not electric vehicles are coming they're coming hard and you can't get away from that so
33:33
forget manufacturers wanting to be involved in a petrol-driven championship like it is that has no relevance to the marketplace.
33:43
So the way they've done it I think is right because if you can't have the manufacturers at least have the appearance so you can have different body shapes and because it is a visual sport, make it all nice and visual which is great.
33:56
And so the chassis-wise I think that's correct but it's still not cheap enough.
34:01
It's still a...
34:03
still a hybrid hot-rodded GT car.
34:06
And when you look at the price, they're saying now $350,000 for a car or whatever, it won't be.
34:13
That's what they said the last one.
34:15
You could build it for $400,000.
34:16
It was actually $500,000 plus.
34:19
So the $350,000 will blow it to $400,000.
34:22
And don't forget, you've got spares and everything else on top of that.
34:24
So you're back to your half a million pretty easily.
34:27
Not cheap enough.
34:28
When you can go buy...
34:30
a GT4 car, which they've got Mustangs, Camaros, BMW, M4s, all those sort of things for a lot cheaper than that, for like $250, you know, and really so you're thinking, well, maybe you should just race GT4 cars.
34:48
So I don't know where the fit's going to be because it's venturing over into GT land with the shape of the cars.
34:57
So yes, appearance will look good, but predominantly it's still too expensive, still too prohibited in cars.
35:05
Who can afford to own a team, as we just spoke about?
35:09
And so, no, I don't think they've done enough.
35:11
I don't think they've done near enough.
35:13
You know, having a controlled pedal box or a couple of little trinkets, not enough.
35:17
You know, it needs to be a serious axe, you know, controlled engines, you know, crate engines for sure.
35:27
I mean, I've spoken to that plenty of times about using crate engines.
35:31
That cuts hundreds of thousands off the bill, you know, so...
35:35
No, I don't think they've done enough, but not unless there's more in the wings, but I'm not liking what I see at the moment.
35:44
Okay.
35:45
Michael Burson says, do you believe motorsport has become too sanitised?
35:51
Has done for years, and I went through a period of that where I was one of the guys I was trying to sanitise but refused to do so.
35:59
But I think on the flip side as well,
36:02
the competitors have become sanitised on their own accord.
36:07
You know, there's, we talk about personalities and all the things we were talking about during this interview, Greg, about, you know, it is an entertainment sport, you know, the people you love to hate.
36:21
the people you love to love.
36:22
You know, you've got to have both.
36:24
It seems now it's just so monotone and the competitors have to realise that as well.
36:30
It's just not about jumping in the car and going fast.
36:34
You know, when I see a microphone go in front of some of the drivers, it's cringeworthy.
36:40
It's like, seriously?
36:42
Like, no good.
36:43
Like, just, you know, it's about your telling the viewer what
36:50
what you've just experienced or, you know, what happened in the race or whatever and tell them, you know, if I ever hear another word of, oh, yes, I think anyone who says, I think, you know, they're not going to win a race, right?
37:06
That's number one, right?
37:07
If you're going to think, oh, I think we've got the set up right, you're out, right?
37:10
You shouldn't say.
37:11
You go, you either have or you haven't.
37:13
You go, you know, there's no black and white.
37:15
There's...
37:17
You know, there's one or the other.
37:19
But the interviewers are coming in and, yeah, we're looking for a bit more speed and I think if we make an adjustment, you know, we should be on the pay.
37:29
You go, well, great, you've just told me absolutely nothing.
37:32
And I think because I'm sitting on the other side of the fence now totally watching this, I've sort of taken it more in and go, no, good.
37:38
And then you, again, go through the highlight reels of Dick Johnson or someone like that being interviewed, you know, or...
37:46
you know, um, uh, Alan Moffat, Alan Grice or all the, you know, all those.
37:50
And you see them getting interviewed and mate, it's just entertaining.
37:54
You know, they're giving you, they're not only giving you a story, you know, and it's just cool, you know, all those sort of.
38:00
And so I think, I think the, I think the competitors are a bit sanitized.
38:07
Uh, the sport is being sanitized because you're right.
38:10
They don't, um,
38:12
and I don't want to drink.
38:13
We're probably up to three hours already.
38:16
I'll give you a quick example, can I, of NASCAR?
38:18
And this is to answer your question to your listener.
38:23
Charlotte, Texas race.
38:25
First Texas race that we raced supercars at, right?
38:28
Went over there, stayed on afterwards, met up with Marcus Ambrose Charlotte, got us some tickets, VIP, treatment, the whole weekend, great.
38:37
He said, right, hang around with us and we're doing the Charlotte race.
38:41
Great, Marcus, excellent.
38:42
So we go in there.
38:43
He said, right, do you want to go to the driver's briefing?
38:45
Yeah.
38:46
Yep.
38:46
Yeah.
38:47
Oh, that'd be great.
38:47
No problems.
38:48
Okay.
38:48
So we all bundle in and he takes us on the golf baggie.
38:51
Rightio.
38:52
He said, right, I'll go in.
38:53
You just stand up the back of the room.
38:54
They've got a section for the viewers.
38:57
So, okay.
38:58
Right.
38:58
So we go in there.
38:59
Massive big room.
39:00
All the drivers in there.
39:01
Darlin Art Jr. You know, Danica Patel.
39:03
Oh, hi, I'm standing back.
39:05
Oh, yeah, this is cool.
39:06
Up the front, they've got the head of the US Air Force and Navy colonels and a couple of the celebrity, you know, reality TV celebrities.
39:17
Oh, up the front, yeah, they introduce them.
39:19
No problem.
39:21
So they're making a show, basically.
39:24
Invited sponsors stand at the back of the room.
39:28
So they're all part of it.
39:29
So anyone that's putting your money into the sport or the category, they're standing there.
39:32
So, okay, I thought this was a good idea.
39:34
Keep them engaged.
39:36
So they go through all the whole ceremony and what the celebrities have a chat and we'd like to acknowledge our armed forces and all the rest of it.
39:46
So this goes on for about an hour.
39:47
Really cool, okay?
39:49
And then they go, right, all the celebrities leave.
39:53
Right, we'll get down to the driver's briefing, right?
39:56
Driver's briefing lasted about two and a half minutes.
39:59
All the guy said was he brought up a TV screen.
40:02
Here's the yellow flag points, right?
40:04
Yellow's come on, you slow down, you stop, right?
40:06
Okay, that's it.
40:08
Right.
40:08
Then he jumped up and he said, right, guys.
40:09
Right.
40:11
There's 90,000 people sitting in the stands here.
40:14
Your job today is give them the best goddamn show they've ever seen in their lives, all right?
40:21
If you're about to kill each other, we'll pull you in.
40:23
Apart from that, you just go out there and put on a bloody good show.
40:27
How awesome.
40:27
And everyone gives the clue.
40:29
Seriously, the driver's briefing, and that was all it was.
40:31
It was all your job is to put on a show.
40:34
And I thought that was the coolest thing in the world because we go into a driver's briefing, right, as I remember, and all they used to do is tell you everything you can't do.
40:43
Don't do this.
40:44
Don't pass.
40:45
Don't touch the other car.
40:46
If you're scared, then you're going to get a drive through.
40:48
If you touch that, and it's like an hour of everything you can't do, right?
40:53
And that's the difference.
40:54
That's the difference when you look at a NASCAR race and it's just out of control entertainment and then you look at one of our races and it's a bit like going to the Royal Easter show and seeing the precision driving team.
41:07
That's the way I look at it, you know.
41:09
So, yep, we are too sanitised.
41:11
Okay.
41:12
Final one from a listener, Nathan Dawson.
41:14
Did you practise hanging out the door for your Phillip Island burnout when you won the title in 2005 or did you just wing it?
41:22
It's a heck of a celebration.
41:23
Great question, Nathan, and you can find that on YouTube.
41:26
Did you practise it or did it just happen?
41:28
Just happened, mate.
41:29
No way.
41:30
Really?
41:30
Dead sound.
41:31
I don't even know.
41:33
I don't even know what brought it on.
41:35
How did you balance everything?
41:36
How did you balance wheel and pedals?
41:38
Well, it was a little bit easier with that model because that was a project blueprint car and the side impact bars were a little bit lower than what they have now.
41:47
So it's like a crossbar.
41:48
Yeah.
41:50
it was a little bit easier to get in and out because the bar's now really high.
41:54
But it was just with everything that happened and the emotion of it and the relief.
41:59
And I thought, I'll just sit up on the side here because all the crowd were at the fence, you know, along at Phillip Island.
42:05
So I'll just sit up on the side and just wave to the crowd, you know.
42:11
And I sort of jumped up there and I had it in first gear and I was sort of going down a little bit.
42:15
And I thought,
42:16
I can still half reach the clutch pedal, I can get to the gas pedal and I thought, oh, bugger it.
42:22
So I've just given it a heap of gas and just that way, actually my foot slipped off the clutch pedal because I just could reach it but I could get back on the brake just to slow it up a bit.
42:34
So then she started lighting up and I thought, oh, actually I've got half a control here and just spun it around and the thing's going up.
42:42
I think I'm all right here.
42:43
So I just stayed out there and that was it.
42:45
Never practiced, never done it before.
42:47
Amazing.
42:48
Mate, it was just one of those things where it was just spare of the moment, let's have a go.
42:54
And a couple of times there, I looked over to Ross because I got close to the wall and he said,
42:59
I started to run out of lock a little bit and it was starting to jam me between the pit wall and the door and I'm going, oh, this is going to get ugly here.
43:07
And I seen Ross and he's just because there's tyre going everywhere.
43:11
And funny enough, I caught up with Ross not that long ago and the rear tyre, he's got mounted in a beautiful little...
43:19
pedestal with a picture of the burnout and seeing the factory still.
43:22
It's actually the actual tyre.
43:24
Amazing.
43:25
All cords hanging out of it all.
43:26
Yeah, but unpractised, unrehearsed, absolute spur of the minute.
43:30
Crazy, crazy.
43:31
Two questions to finish, Russell.
43:33
Firstly, a funny story for our listeners.
43:36
You, being the great deal-doer that you are, you do a deal for a motorhome to go to Bathurst one year.
43:42
I don't think you had the motorhome licence, but you convinced them that you could drive it, so you drove it to Bathurst.
43:48
But you're still learning your way around the motorhome and you were parked up from memory near the Kmart Racing Catering.
43:54
What happened on the morning of the race when you went to...
44:03
No, it was all bad.
44:04
What happened?
44:05
What happened?
44:05
Share.
44:06
Share.
44:06
Yeah, yeah, this was all bad, yeah, because it's, you know, Bathurst pits has got a fair gradient on it.
44:12
You know, after you get out of the pit garage, there's actually a big drain and then it actually steps up.
44:18
There's a gradient that goes all the way up to the back, right?
44:20
So it's all angling down towards this drain.
44:22
Yeah.
44:23
right in the middle of the pit area.
44:25
And they usually park all the motorhomes behind it and they have all the catering tents in front of that.
44:29
So, yeah, so we parked in front of the Kellys.
44:32
So we got this, it was a Swagman motorhome and they just started building these things and it goes, I didn't know how to operate this thing.
44:39
So you're right, I drove it up there, didn't have a licence, just parked around the back of the pits.
44:43
And...
44:45
It's got two tanks, grey and black water tank, you know, in the thing, right?
44:49
And I had a couple of gauges inside.
44:51
The grey water for the showers and that was getting too full.
44:55
And I wanted to get the shower, have a shower, obviously, you know, get all ready for the day.
45:00
So I just got a couple of levers outside, you know, red and blue.
45:05
And I thought, oh, well.
45:07
You know, I didn't know which one was what.
45:08
It was a couple of colours, but I think they were connected wrong.
45:12
Anyway, so I thought red must be the bad tank, green must be the good tank.
45:16
But anyway, so I've just pulled the lever and there's like a 100-mil pipe, right?
45:22
It's a massive pipe.
45:24
Anyway, I've pulled the pipe and out this stuff and trust me, this was like...
45:31
I don't know what the worst river you've ever seen in your life.
45:34
Probably worse than the Yarra.
45:35
But it just, so this was the Blackwater, right?
45:39
So everything stored up over the last couple of days has just gushed out this pipe and horrendous.
45:47
pace like so I'm trying to push it back in anyway.
45:50
So she's flowing down the hill and I've gone, damn.
45:52
So I'm trying to jam it back in, jam it back in and finally I get this thing shut off.
45:57
Anyway, I'm going, oh, this is all.
45:58
And the smell was.
45:59
Anyway, I look around and there's Kelly's catering tent.
46:04
What do you do?
46:05
Like, I'm not going to get a broom or anything.
46:08
So I've just locked up the van and just bolted.
46:12
So this stuff's just flowed through the tent, just chaos everywhere everyone's going.
46:17
You can just imagine everyone's about to hook into their brekkie.
46:21
And, yeah, there's a bit of mind flow.
46:24
Very funny.
46:25
Russell, we love to finish with the car you go to sleep and dream of.
46:30
For some races, they're a tool for the job.
46:33
For others, there's a great personal attachment and it doesn't necessarily have to be one that you won a Bathurst with or a championship, just the one in your mind that you had this affinity for and that you still think about even today.
46:48
Oh, God, that's a...
46:52
That's a tough one, that one.
46:55
I think race car-wise, look, I still, I think the 90 Van Diemen.
47:04
Wow.
47:05
90, 91 Van Diemen.
47:06
It was the same-shaped car.
47:08
It was a wedge nose.
47:09
It looked like a platypus bill on that nose of a platypus.
47:14
But I think going back to that, I think,
47:17
And I think there's a, the part of it about it was because I did the main development on that car for Van Diemen.
47:24
So you were attached to it.
47:26
And we, yeah, we used to go to Snedderton all the time.
47:28
Snedderton was, Snedderton race circuit was about 200 meters away from the Van Diemen factory.
47:33
You went across the A11, uh,
47:36
Most of the time we just drove the race cars out the back over the A11 and into Snederdinand.
47:40
And we would test there, I reckon, three days a week we were on track.
47:45
And so I did all their development testing for each of the models, but I did a lot on their 91 Van Diemen.
47:53
And I reckon that was probably just because of that reason because I had an input to it, literally thousands of laps.
48:02
Like I don't know how many laps.
48:04
That was when it had the mono shock.
48:06
So it had a single suspension shock on the front and had a real tricky roll bar system on it.
48:14
real innovative sort of stuff for Formula Ford, you know.
48:18
And in the end, I think that system ended up going over to Formula 3 and then Formula 1 cars started using that same system.
48:24
I'm not saying because of me.
48:25
I'm just saying, you know.
48:26
But it was a cool period of time of...
48:31
of especially being around that environment where there was just a manufacturer involved in it and whatever you wanted and whatever you needed to make that car go fast and then it got sold to everyone else.
48:42
It was pretty cool.
48:43
So yeah, 91 Van Diemen, believe it or not.
48:46
So it might be a bit left field.
48:47
Everyone thinks they're going to say a supercar of some sort, but that was especially the significance later on in my career too, where it led me as well.
48:57
That's definitely.
48:58
Russell, congratulations.
48:59
I'm really pleased that you still enjoy getting behind the wheel.
49:02
I think that's just terrific.
49:04
Bathurst wins Supercars Championship, drove for the great outfits.
49:09
When you look back at your career, there's so many that you have been with the key brands Ford and Holden, a great character of the sport.
49:17
And importantly, mate, we could probably do another podcast one day, but importantly, we've spent a good chunk of time talking about a wonderful international chapter.
49:25
It didn't
49:26
get you to Formula One, but there were some terrific things that you did along the way and that taught you so much for the tough racer that you were and were renowned for in Australia.
49:37
Congratulations, mate.
49:39
No, I really appreciate it.
49:40
And thanks, Greg, because there's not too many people I would do this with or have done because, like I said, I don't usually pump up my own tyres.
49:46
And it's, yeah, it's actually been nice for this, you know, looking back in the revision mirror.
49:53
I think you can never forget where you came from, you know.
49:56
I think it's pretty important in life.
49:57
Great words to end on.
49:58
Thank you, Russell.
49:59
Cheers.
49:59
Cheers.
50:05
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
50:09
Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
50:13
Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
50:15
I'm Greg Rust.
50:17
Enjoy the drive, but drive safely.