Latest / Rusty's Garage / Aaron Slight (Part 2)

Transcript

Aaron Slight (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set to shift into gear on part two of my podcast with former World's Superbike star Aaron Sleight.
• 0:27
  Just before we do, big thanks to all of you who've subscribed to the podcast and for telling your mates to jump on board too.
• 0:34
  We really appreciate the feedback on the Podcast One website and via social media.
• 0:39
  I may not be able to get to all of you when it comes to replies.
• 0:43
  I try, but we read every one.
• 0:45
  And thanks to you, we've amassed quite a list of future guests that you'd like to hear from.
• 0:51
  Aaron Sleight was one of those suggestions.
• 0:54
  This second instalment sees the Kiwi break onto the world stage.
• 0:58
  Monaco would become a home away from home, and later, what he thought was chronic fatigue turned out to be something way more serious.
• 1:06
  We begin this part on the cusp of that full-time European move and reflections of his success with Kawasaki and his memories of a cool bike, the ZXR 750R, which he rode to an Aussie title.
• 1:22
  Yeah, no, it was awesome, that new bike.
• 1:24
  I don't know why it was so much better than the other bike, but maybe it was just a little bit more speed or maybe, I have no idea, but I remember riding that first in Japan, a circuit called Mine, and that was the Pan Pacific Championship they started.
• 1:39
  So I won the first round on this bike.
• 1:42
  I finished the race the last five laps with the front brake pads on steel.
• 1:47
  I had that big a gap that I could get to the end.
• 1:50
  Yeah, so that was the first race on it.
• 1:52
  And I ended up winning, I think, six out of six for the Pan Pacific Series on that bike and winning in Australia a lot to win the Superbike Championship.
• 2:00
  And Robbie doing really well on the bike in Europe as well.
• 2:04
  So that was all setting up for when they bring the World Superbike Championship back to Orang Park or wherever it's going to be.
• 2:11
  And I get to do the race in Sugo as well.
• 2:14
  So yeah, that bike brought me a lot of success and we didn't do much to it at all really, it was just a cool bike.
• 2:21
  It was a great period and people will fondly remember that period for Kawasaki as well.
• 2:26
  That kind of is how you would move into the World Championship really with a Kawasaki to begin with, wouldn't you?
• 2:33
  Yeah, and that's once again, so you're saying how do you plan to get to Europe?
• 2:38
  There is no plan.
• 2:39
  If there was no Kawasaki Australia, there's no plan to go to Europe.
• 2:43
  If you're riding for Action Suzuki, they weren't going to Europe.
• 2:48
  This is like phone call to phone call, opportunity to opportunity that comes out of, and I'm sure you hustled in a bit of that, but also others that came left of field maybe.
• 2:55
  Yeah, exactly.
• 2:57
  And why does Australia have the factory bikes?
• 3:02
  They have the factory bikes because of Greg Hansford and all these other contacts.
• 3:06
  And why does Yamaha have it because they're trying to beat Greg Hansford in Australia or whatever?
• 3:13
  the choice of machinery in Australia was quite amazing and you couldn't even get that in Europe.
• 3:17
  And so why, when there's a brand new series starting, why are they looking at Australia to be, you know, to take bikes there?
• 3:23
  So we were very, very lucky.
• 3:24
  You know, Robbie was lucky to be there.
• 3:26
  I was lucky to be there.
• 3:27
  You know, Mal Campbell was sort of on the end of it and didn't quite get there with Honda.
• 3:32
  But you know, this is this new championship starting and if it wasn't starting, we probably wouldn't have got to Europe.
• 3:36
  Amazing.
• 3:38
  So your record,
• 3:42
  you know, in world superbike terms, I think is, it may, a world championship may have alluded to, but there's some amazing success along the way that you had.
• 3:52
  Once your eyes are opened to it and, you know, you clearly have an affinity or a synergy with the, you know, with these bigger bikes, was it just one track mind that, you know,
• 4:06
  you wanted to be world champion, or was it still in the manner you just described about paycheck to paycheck?
• 4:12
  Still paycheck to paycheck.
• 4:14
  I'm still a Kiwi.
• 4:15
  I'm still a kid from Masterton with a one-year contract, and the first one-year contract wasn't big money, so it's not like I'm going to retire on it.
• 4:24
  So I'm still coming back to be a motorcycle mechanic next year.
• 4:26
  Crazy.
• 4:28
  And that's how it was.
• 4:29
  And so that's 1992, I went to the World Championship.
• 4:35
  But to start the year was a rough start.
• 4:37
  Like 1991, I had a great year.
• 4:40
  And actually, we were in Western Australia.
• 4:43
  We had a race in Adelaide.
• 4:45
  And the week between, I flew to Milan to meet with Peter Clifford and Agostini.
• 4:53
  So this is a good story that I'm glad you've brought up.
• 4:56
  We're talking about Giacomo Agassini, a legend of the game.
• 4:59
  And at the time, I think he was trying to secure Kevin Schwantz, wasn't he?
• 5:02
  And you were going to be teammate to Kevin.
• 5:04
  There was a bit of gamesmanship in all this, wasn't there?
• 5:06
  Yeah, and my link there was Peter Clifford, who'd come out to New Zealand every year for the Whanganui Street Series.
• 5:13
  So he said, you need to come over and meet him.
• 5:15
  So I jump on a plane.
• 5:18
  I'm on this plane.
• 5:19
  The meeting was cancelled.
• 5:21
  So I'm flying to Germany.
• 5:22
  I'm spending all my money that I've made all year, and I'm getting a business class trip to there because I want to go and be a 500 rider.
• 5:29
  So he's trying to secure the Melbourne money, and he can only secure the Melbourne money if Schwan's signs.
• 5:36
  So this is just a punt.
• 5:38
  So I've got five days or four days, the Sunday to Thursday, to get to Europe and back without telling Kawasaki I'm doing this.
• 5:46
  Peter Doyle found out, mate, too, didn't he?
• 5:48
  Yeah, yeah.
• 5:49
  So I fly there.
• 5:51
  I get to Germany.
• 5:52
  I ring Peter and he says, oh, the meeting's canceled.
• 5:55
  He said, carry on with your trip.
• 5:57
  I'll get on a flight, and we'll meet Aggo in Milan anyway.
• 6:01
  So he did, but by then, I think it had gone sour.
• 6:04
  They didn't tell me exactly what happened.
• 6:05
  But Kevin wasn't signing, and Kenny was keeping the Melbourne money.
• 6:09
  So cool.
• 6:09
  You get to meet Aggo, but it leads nowhere.
• 6:11
  And it's six grand that I haven't got anymore back then.
• 6:14
  So I arrived back in Adelaide and, yeah, I've got a cold from hell because I've been up all night and flying to Europe.
• 6:23
  It's hard, mate, a week backwards and forwards to Europe.
• 6:26
  Yeah, and I raced each week on either side.
• 6:28
  I just won the F1 and the super bike races in Wanaru, and I get back to Adelaide, and it's a really cool picture of me and Goddard having come together in the last corner, and that was about winning that race as well.
• 6:42
  It's a great photo, mate.
• 6:43
  It's in your book.
• 6:44
  Yeah.
• 6:44
  And you're literally diving down the inside of him.
• 6:47
  If memory serves, it's at the hairpin, or not the hairpin, it's on the right hander going to the back straight, isn't it?
• 6:52
  Yeah.
• 6:53
  Well, I'd led the whole race, and he passed me into the hairpin on the last lap, and I thought, well, there's no way he's going to have this.
• 6:59
  But, yeah, so that was the very next weekend, and, yeah, that deal didn't happen.
• 7:04
  But because I was starting to look for other things, my contract for 1992 was to do the full championship.
• 7:14
  And then Gary Taylor rings me as well.
• 7:18
  He wants me to ride the 500, which now Schwantz is riding.
• 7:22
  I'm trying to play two games here and I'm pissing Kawasaki off.
• 7:27
  And I don't know if it's personal or not, but the 92 year I didn't do the two Italian races.
• 7:35
  I came home to New Zealand while my bike and mechanics were at the track because I was supposed to be doing some testing.
• 7:46
  how it sort of played out.
• 7:48
  But in that year, I got to ride, yeah, I'm still in favor with the Japanese, and I got to ride their new 250 V-twin at Daytona in a team run by Cork Bellington.
• 8:03
  so it's my very first race for 1992 is Daytona I'm over there the bike is seizing every time I ride it and throwing me on my head and I'm losing confidence and corks up me going you know I thought you were better than this and once again you know the ride is not everything
• 8:19
  And we managed to finish the race.
• 8:21
  I'm the only guy on Michelins, everybody else on Dunlops, ties were wrong for the track.
• 8:26
  Didn't have a very good result.
• 8:28
  And I get on a plane, I fly to Europe.
• 8:30
  And this is my first race in Europe, going to be almost a full world championship with the two races missed out that I've pissed everybody off.
• 8:38
  get to Alba Setti and win the first race.
• 8:41
  So I won my first race in Europe in the World Superbikes.
• 8:45
  And it's just awesome.
• 8:47
  Then the next race, I crash out.
• 8:49
  So I'm leading the World Championship one minute, and then I'm brought back to Earth the next year.
• 8:53
  So that was that year how it started.
• 8:55
  And I was there, but I was never going to be in the championship because I was going to miss two races.
• 9:01
  How much, though, did that
• 9:05
  I mean, the paddock already knew you, but did it make them sort of sit up and take even more note what you were doing?
• 9:11
  And the satisfaction in that to win that race under those kind of circumstances, first one on the board, that must have been quite special.
• 9:19
  Yeah, it was.
• 9:20
  And I think they'd seen me in Australia, but they didn't think...
• 9:23
  It was a bit like, you know, if you look at McDoan's career, you know, going and winning those races on the Yamaha at Oran Park, you know, the local boy winning races.
• 9:32
  But I'd fly him to Europe and I'd won it in their place.
• 9:35
  So, you know, that was pretty cool.
• 9:37
  And I had a bad weekend with Cork and I just thought, well, you stick that Cork, you know.
• 9:41
  The bike wasn't that good like I was telling you, you know.
• 9:44
  And, yeah, so that was the way it started.
• 9:47
  Yeah.
• 9:47
  But I did sign that contract with two races missing, but I did sign another two-year contract.
• 9:56
  So I was on for 93 as well because I don't know if that was because I was mucking them around, they wanted to get me for two years or – but that was the way that panned out, which –
• 10:06
  in the end, was great for me because Muzzy took over the team the next year.
• 10:11
  Yeah.
• 10:12
  So once again, I would have been without a job.
• 10:14
  Okay.
• 10:14
  Because he brought on Scott Russell and he had to have me because I had a two-year contract.
• 10:19
  Okay.
• 10:20
  But yeah, 92 was, you know, before that was a great year.
• 10:23
  We had a lot of success over there and a lot of fun with Rob and Carroll and their kids and, you know, but we were still –
• 10:31
  We were living in hotels and didn't have any money to buy a rent-a-car or whatever.
• 10:37
  When we were in Friedrichsdorf where the team was based, Megan actually came over then.
• 10:42
  And if we didn't get up at 7.30 and go to the workshop, we'd be stuck in the countryside for the rest of the day doing nothing.
• 10:51
  So it was still hard, really hard.
• 10:53
  And I think I got paid then.
• 10:57
  30 or 50,000 Aussie for a full season.
• 11:00
  So there was no extra money, but I had a two year contract.
• 11:05
  What were the circuits like?
• 11:07
  Because you're all of a sudden exposed to some great tracks on the European or international scene like that.
• 11:12
  And are you doing things like learning a different language or just experiencing that culture?
• 11:18
  Because you've got to get a bit embedded in that so that you get that bond with the mechanics and with the engineers and so on, don't you?
• 11:26
  Yeah, but very, very lucky once again I had a Kiwi chief mechanic.
• 11:30
  He was actually in England and he was hired for the team to come to work in Germany.
• 11:34
  So Kiwi mechanic.
• 11:36
  And the whole that I've never been good with languages, because the whole thing with languages is that you are in an English based team usually.
• 11:46
  with Japanese who have to speak English because no one's going to learn Japanese and then you do an Italian championship so you go to well an Italian championship it's all run by Italians and you might be in a different country so they're speaking Italian but you might be in Germany so there's just too many languages going on and you know to a Japanese a swing arm is a swing arm yeah
• 12:07
  You know, there's no Japanese name for it.
• 12:09
  So you can get away with talking to them about the bike because that's what it is.
• 12:13
  And so probably not much of the language, but that's what I have loved all about, you know, when we did race in Europe and having motorhomes and things was you actually live it.
• 12:22
  you're not in a hotel, you're not getting a render car and driving to the circuit and back.
• 12:27
  When you're in your motorhome, you're going down and shopping for groceries and you're doing what the locals do.
• 12:32
  And that was awesome.
• 12:33
  But that didn't sort of happen until the next year because we're still now doing race by race, doing a lot in Japan still, flying back for eight-hour tests and back and forward, yeah.
• 12:44
  So...
• 12:46
  People know you, you know, that follow motorcycle racing will know about that history with Kawasaki in this phase.
• 12:52
  But a lot of people will perhaps remember you for red, green and white colours for Honda.
• 12:59
  How did that opportunity kind of come about?
• 13:04
  And as a chapter, mate, it's a very special one for you, isn't it?
• 13:08
  Yeah, well, and it probably is special and the Honda days were great for me, but I still have one more year left at Kawasaki and that's with the Muzzy Kawasaki.
• 13:17
  So that probably sets me up for that because I'm quite a loyal person and I wanted to stay with Kawasaki.
• 13:21
  So I had this two-year contract and I was getting paid to be with Muzzy for the next year.
• 13:29
  We're a great team, we should point out too at this phase, weren't we?
• 13:31
  Yeah, but we had full factory bikes in 92 and then we had Muzzy walk in going, well I can do it with bits from America that would be a bit cheaper and I can put it in my back pocket.
• 13:43
  Okay.
• 13:43
  So suddenly we're on Dunlop Tides which Kawasaki's never used.
• 13:47
  which is fine.
• 13:49
  But suddenly we're using PVM wheels, not marquisinis.
• 13:51
  Suddenly we're using PVM brakes, not the Brembo brakes.
• 13:55
  Suddenly we're using a muzzy pipe because he's a pipe manufacturer, but he comes from a drag racing background, so all his pipes are top end, no bottom end.
• 14:05
  There's all these differences.
• 14:06
  That's a significant shift in dynamic, mate, isn't it?
• 14:08
  Yeah.
• 14:09
  Suddenly we're using valves that have come from, not from the factory, they've come from America because they can make them cheaper there.
• 14:17
  So in a long weekend, by the end of the race, the valve clearance is starting to close up and you're losing horsepower.
• 14:24
  So yeah, this is all you're saying.
• 14:27
  You don't want to bag anywhere, but this is the truth.
• 14:29
  You've got a factory motorbike, and the next year you haven't really got a factory motorbike.
• 14:34
  But you've got Scott Russell, great guy, awesome rider, and he's been riding these bikes, and he knows how they work, and he's got the same mechanics, and he uses qualifiers like lollipops.
• 14:46
  One suck and they're gone.
• 14:48
  And I'm testing the bikes, the bikes...
• 14:54
  all the time and I'm doing the tire testing because that's my background and so in the end I'm doing the tire testing for him while he's chucking on qualifiers and doing the fast laps.
• 15:03
  So that was a new experience too so I struggled for probably half a year and then at the end of the year I was on the same pace and I was beating Scott and getting told to slow down.
• 15:15
  So at Monza, at the middle of the year, Monza it rained
• 15:21
  Scott was leading, I passed him and pulled away and won the race and got told never going to happen again.
• 15:26
  Wow.
• 15:28
  And from that we went to Donington and Scott was in front, I caught him, passed him for both and then did wheelies round for two laps so everyone knew that I was backing off and got paid the bonus money for first.
• 15:43
  Because I said, if I'm going to do it again, you're going to pay me for where I'm going to finish.
• 15:46
  So I got bonus money, two first place bonuses for Donington.
• 15:50
  So at the end of the year, I'd got the hang of their bike.
• 15:55
  But we'd also had Sugo three quarters of the way through the year.
• 15:59
  And I'd taken a Kawasaki exhaust pipe and put a muzzy emblem on it.
• 16:05
  because I couldn't ride the thing.
• 16:07
  It just didn't have enough low-down grunt for me.
• 16:10
  And the factory said, try this.
• 16:12
  So I did and never took it off.
• 16:14
  And I've actually still got it hanging in my shed.
• 16:16
  Do you?
• 16:17
  The last race was Mexico, and Mexico was cancelled.
• 16:20
  And so I went to the shed and unbolted the exhaust because it was mine.
• 16:24
  and it's still hanging there.
• 16:25
  That's fantastic.
• 16:26
  And it made all the difference.
• 16:28
  You wouldn't think it could.
• 16:29
  But yeah, Scott had been riding those bikes like that and was used to it.
• 16:34
  But at the same Sugo race, they gave him a pipe and an engine and he won the second race, not the first.
• 16:42
  I beat him in the first race.
• 16:43
  He won the second race and I finished still back in eighth.
• 16:46
  It made all the difference.
• 16:46
  And Kawasaki...
• 16:48
  It wasn't a factory team.
• 16:49
  You know, Kawasaki were paying Muzzy to run a team, and it was about what was left over is what he made.
• 16:55
  So if he could shortcut it, he did.
• 16:58
  Yeah, it was a business thing.
• 16:59
  I'm not taking away, but it's a business thing.
• 17:02
  But they were full factory bikes always with Kawasaki.
• 17:05
  But when we moved into that, it was different.
• 17:07
  So that was the end of Kawasaki for me.
• 17:09
  And I actually got the offer from Neil Tuxworth to ride a Honda, and I was torn.
• 17:16
  So I run- Out of loyalty?
• 17:17
  Out of law.
• 17:18
  So I actually rung Neville Doyle, Peter's dad, and said, you know... What should I do?
• 17:22
  What should I do?
• 17:23
  Wow.
• 17:24
  Yeah.
• 17:24
  What did he say?
• 17:25
  And he said, you've just got to do what's best for you.
• 17:27
  And I just didn't see the muzzy thing heading anywhere good.
• 17:31
  And I...
• 17:33
  I believed that Honda could do a good thing, but didn't know.
• 17:36
  The RC45, RC30 was a great bike, so I was hopeful.
• 17:41
  So signed with them being an English-based team, but a factory team.
• 17:46
  And that was, yeah, the best thing ever, really.
• 17:48
  Amazing.
• 17:49
  Let's talk about some of the bikes in that Honda era.
• 17:52
  I know we probably should paint a picture a little bit too for people that don't know about superbikes in this phase.
• 17:59
  The rules...
• 18:02
  which probably wind you up a little bit at times, was sort of... Had time.
• 18:06
  Yeah, had time, a lot.
• 18:09
  You know, V-twins versus fours, and you give us your thoughts on that first, Nick.
• 18:15
  Yeah, well, the championship was great.
• 18:17
  Like, you know, when it was an 851 and a V-twin and we were 750 four cylinders, we had more top end, faster than they were, but we were actually heavy at that stage as well, so they'd outbreak us.
• 18:27
  And the racing was great.
• 18:29
  And there's some tracks that they would just clean up and there's some tracks that Robbie Onnes Kawasaki would pull away and clean up.
• 18:36
  But the formula was always, it was allowed to be 1,000.
• 18:39
  So when you get close, what do they do?
• 18:41
  They bore it out.
• 18:42
  So it became an 888, an 888.
• 18:43
  Yeah.
• 18:45
  Then it became a 901, then it became a 916, then it became a 925, then it became a 955.
• 18:50
  And then it just got- We're talking about Ducatis here by the way.
• 18:54
  We should point out.
• 18:55
  Yeah.
• 18:55
  So then it just got, the bikes got bigger and bigger.
• 18:57
  And then, and you know, it was just, the formula did suit them, you know.
• 19:02
  And as I wrote my book in 2000, at that time, 75% of the races were won by Ducati and six manufacturers shared the other 25%.
• 19:12
  You know, and it's just obvious, but why?
• 19:16
  I don't blame them, that's what the rules were.
• 19:19
  But how do you, I've never seen another series that has different displacements.
• 19:24
  The rotaries have been a nightmare forever for what class they should run in.
• 19:28
  There is no way to do a formula with displacement.
• 19:32
  So, you know, it was pretty hard.
• 19:34
  And, you know, our Honda was an amazing bike.
• 19:38
  A V4 should be better than maybe an inline four for torque.
• 19:41
  So we have maybe a little advantage, but the V twin being bigger and, you know, so much torque and just so much easier on the tires.
• 19:50
  And, you know, when we got it right, it was awesome.
• 19:53
  You could win a race.
• 19:54
  And then what usually happened is they would find out what tire you had on.
• 19:57
  And then next race, you don't win.
• 20:01
  And things like the Honda would have six ratios for every gear in the gearbox and three primary drives.
• 20:10
  So in one corner, you can have it doing a speed of a K different than the other.
• 20:16
  You can be doing 125K at full RPM or 122 or 127.
• 20:18
  You can gear it for whatever.
• 20:25
  Ducati just changed the final drive.
• 20:27
  They don't change the gearbox, they don't need to.
• 20:30
  And somewhere like Mizano, they use three gears.
• 20:33
  We used all six and a hundred times over to try and be perfect.
• 20:36
  Our bike was just so, we just worked so hard for so many years and changing gearboxes and you go there with the perfect combination and a different gear from last year because you get it made.
• 20:49
  Well they didn't have to worry about that stuff.
• 20:51
  They weren't pushed to the edge like they should have been.
• 20:54
  because I think the formula was wrong.
• 20:57
  The sport, you know, in the period you came through and even right through to now, the explosion of technology has been massive.
• 21:05
  And the, you know, I think back then, did you, am I right in saying that you used to keep a little diary of your lap times and then you could always go back and look at things?
• 21:14
  Did you enjoy that technical side?
• 21:16
  Yeah, always.
• 21:17
  And it got me, now that I was sort of, there's still only one year contracts, but I knew that I'd have something going next year.
• 21:23
  I used to take some information for myself that if I was going somewhere else, so I could use that.
• 21:28
  And, you know, I'd always have a track map and this is the gears I was using and this is my break points.
• 21:33
  And, you know, I'd always have that for next year because suddenly I was coming back to those tracks.
• 21:38
  And, you know, so that made a big difference.
• 21:41
  And it made a big difference when I was staying as well.
• 21:43
  We had a lot of info.
• 21:45
  and that's what used to piss you off when they just turn up and go, oh, what sort of gearing should we put on today?
• 21:50
  You know, we'd been working so hard for five years of the bike and getting it right and all those sort of things.
• 21:56
  But, you know, I did a lot of homework like that, and we were starting to bring in telemetry, like reading the telemetry then by, you know, RPM and throttle opening and fork movement and wheel spin.
• 22:07
  started to read that then so I was sort of enjoying that but only it was only for a backup it wasn't it wasn't to steer me in a direction it was only to confirm so I could confirm to my chief mechanic this is what's happening because I've told you and now you can see it yeah
• 22:23
  Big operation too, mate.
• 22:25
  I mean, what are we talking here?
• 22:26
  I mean, Neil Tuxworth's operation was very well regarded.
• 22:29
  We're probably talking about 30 people.
• 22:31
  I can recall, I think, Chris Herring running the public relations and things back then.
• 22:35
  It's a big deal.
• 22:36
  Yeah, yeah.
• 22:37
  So we were up to 30 people by then.
• 22:39
  We did run, sometimes run the 600 as well.
• 22:42
  but you know every like I had chief mechanic like I said before chassis guy but you'd have probably five guys working on the bike on one of one of the two bikes plus all the you know we have Japanese technicians as well some telemetry people you know
• 23:00
  I couldn't count them per bike because some shared roles.
• 23:04
  There was a suspension guy as well.
• 23:05
  There was guys from Showa because we were factory Showa at that time, so there was Japanese from Showa.
• 23:10
  There was Nissan people.
• 23:11
  There was Mitchell and people.
• 23:14
  So those people went full-time with us.
• 23:16
  There were other people as well, but heaps and heaps.
• 23:20
  Here at your house, we should point out to you, your dog gave me a lovely greeting when I arrived today, and the cat has just decided to jump in your lap.
• 23:25
  Who have we got here?
• 23:27
  Well, this is our Louis, because we did have another cat called Monty, so we had Monte Carlo.
• 23:32
  Hang on.
• 23:34
  And now we've got Louis.
• 23:35
  And I'm not an animal person.
• 23:37
  Are you kidding me?
• 23:39
  It's only been in the last few years that these animals are around, aren't they, mate?
• 23:45
  That's great.
• 23:47
  Yeah.
• 23:47
  I clearly know that, too.
• 23:48
  They're trying to win you over.
• 23:49
  Yeah, but this one, actually, yeah.
• 23:51
  And if you don't pay me any attention here, it'll swipe your nose.
• 23:54
  I'm like...
• 23:55
  I love it.
• 23:56
  Let's press on a little bit if we can about the bikes and the championship.
• 24:01
  Firstly, I want to touch on a little something.
• 24:02
  In mainstream media, probably in this part of the world, it doesn't get enough of the kudos that it should deserve.
• 24:07
  And that is the eight hour, the Suzuka eight hour.
• 24:09
  Motorcycle fans will know it.
• 24:12
  And even car racing people know the importance of the race.
• 24:16
  To win it...
• 24:17
  Three in a row, mate, is a huge, huge achievement.
• 24:21
  Is there one that stands out and why?
• 24:23
  And is there a bike from those trio that you have this sort of fond memory of?
• 24:27
  And I'm sticking with that record too, because that was two rider teams.
• 24:31
  Yeah, it's been broken, I think, four in a row, but that was in the three rider team.
• 24:36
  So we're still the only one to do it in the two rider team.
• 24:39
  And the fourth time, Taddy qualified on pole, and we were leading the race when I threw it away.
• 24:45
  So I have only myself to blame for that.
• 24:47
  But yeah, so three years in a row, and three different teammates.
• 24:51
  The first year was the last year of F1.
• 24:55
  So it's the last time Kawasaki can ever win it at an F1.
• 25:00
  And we win it on a bike that's, yeah, the race was a bit weird.
• 25:05
  They stopped it at one stage because there's a fire on one of the Degna curves.
• 25:10
  And they restarted it.
• 25:12
  But, yes, Scott and I won that.
• 25:15
  So the laps, I think it's only 163 laps.
• 25:17
  It's not 210 because it was stopped for a little while.
• 25:21
  But, yeah, that was the first one.
• 25:23
  And it was the last time that Kawasaki could win it.
• 25:25
  So that was pretty cool on an F1 bike and it was a big thing.
• 25:30
  It just seemed big for them their last time.
• 25:35
  So then I changed to Honda of course and so it's Superbike rules next year.
• 25:38
  New teammate, new teammates Doug Polin.
• 25:42
  Doug Polin's world champion off a Ducati but he just can't find his ass on the Honda.
• 25:47
  Wow.
• 25:48
  You went for him before he was a fan?
• 25:51
  I don't know if it's Doug was an amazing rider I'd met him in Japan earlier on when he rode GSX-Rs and he won the F3 and he won the F1 on the Suzuki he's an awesome rider and then he got on the Ducati and just won everything but coming back to the 4-cylinder he just could not ride it So did you make up the deficit there?
• 26:12
  How did you deal with that?
• 26:13
  Yeah, well that's what happened.
• 26:14
  So, you know, Doug struggled a bit, and like he should have, he was the number one rider for Castro Honda, but I was always faster.
• 26:25
  And at the 8-hour, you know, I was faster again.
• 26:27
  And it was...
• 26:29
  It was me and him, and it was Terry Reimer and Scott Russell who the race was between.
• 26:35
  And Terry was a little bit slower than Scott, so the teams were pretty even.
• 26:40
  But what we did was we put Doug on the bike to start, and then I was going to finish.
• 26:47
  And we'd stretched this fuel out like an hour and five, so the last ones were going to be a bit smaller, a bit shorter.
• 26:54
  So when we put Doug out for the last time, he only did a 45-minute stint.
• 26:58
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:59
  So we had an extra 15 minutes that I could be on the bike.
• 27:02
  And Kawasaki didn't realise this for about four laps.
• 27:06
  But then they tweaked onto it that I got on the bike early.
• 27:08
  And they put Scott on the bike for the last hour as well, or an hour to go, and we'd done an hour and ten.
• 27:14
  Epic.
• 27:15
  And I can remember going down the front straight and turning into turn one, and he was pulling out of pit lane.
• 27:22
  And I just gave him the bird.
• 27:23
  Yeah.
• 27:24
  as he pulled out, because I thought, well, you know, my tires are hot, I'm on the pace, and he's coming to the pit lane, and I'll have a gap, and I'd won it with him the year before, so we were great mates.
• 27:34
  And f*** me, if he wasn't on me, going into the S's, he was on me for the last hour.
• 27:40
  And we just battled for the whole last hour, and he only led me once, and it was off the back straight.
• 27:46
  And I think the Honda might have been a little bit better because we were fuel injected, so it might have altered for the air temperature at night.
• 27:53
  But he got past me and then it looked like he didn't know where the breaking markers were because it was dark.
• 27:58
  So I'd led for an hour and I knew where I was going.
• 28:00
  And he got in front once and it was dark and he broke early and I passed him again.
• 28:03
  He never passed me.
• 28:04
  Wow.
• 28:05
  And we won it by that year by 0.003 of a second.
• 28:09
  after eight hours.
• 28:10
  So yeah, so that was awesome because the Honda was, you know, the 94 bike.
• 28:16
  I'd already lost points from a fuel discrepancy.
• 28:20
  The bike wasn't that fast.
• 28:22
  And so we'd managed to win it.
• 28:23
  And I beat my teammate from the last year.
• 28:25
  Fantastic.
• 28:26
  So that was awesome.
• 28:27
  And then the next year I get teamed up with Taddy.
• 28:30
  Taddy Okada, so Japanese rider, first time I met Taddy, and Japanese are different people, but he was just so, he was just a Caucasian Japanese, he was so cool, and I got there, and I was particularly about things, and handlebar position and all this sort of stuff, and I can remember saying always, you know, I want to adjust this, and Taddy, every time he says, any okay, any okay, I want a new rear shock, any okay, no.
• 28:56
  Happy to work with you on what you wanted.
• 28:57
  Yeah, any okay.
• 28:58
  And that's all he said, any okay.
• 29:00
  I'm going to change a rear spring.
• 29:02
  Yep, any okay.
• 29:03
  And he just ride it.
• 29:04
  And I think it's hard to ride Suzuka for a European because the track is just so tough.
• 29:12
  But they've done so many laps.
• 29:14
  And it was great that he would do that because he'd give me the confidence to...
• 29:18
  to get it set for me, but he could ride anything.
• 29:20
  And he'd ridden so many laps and it was any okay?
• 29:22
  Amazing.
• 29:23
  Yeah, too easy.
• 29:25
  Awesome memories there, mate.
• 29:26
  Walk people down, if you can, your memories of your first win for the Honda team, where you were, how the race went down.
• 29:35
  Yeah, well, it was probably even started, you know, back in 94, you know, the 916 came out, and so Carl was on that.
• 29:43
  Carl Fogarty.
• 29:43
  Carl Fogarty.
• 29:44
  And so, you know, Ducati have to make 200 bikes.
• 29:47
  We have to make 1,000 bikes.
• 29:49
  There's five bikes in existence, and they're all on the racetrack, I think.
• 29:54
  And, you know, so Carl's got one of those, and we've got our bike, and we, you know, we go to our first race, actually going even back further than that, we go to the first test,
• 30:04
  at Phillip Island.
• 30:05
  I've signed, we've talked about it before, I've signed for Honda and they're gonna make an awesome motorbike and we're gonna be in the championship.
• 30:11
  And we go to our first test at Phillip Island and I've got Doug Pollan, the X-World Champion, is my teammate.
• 30:17
  And we go to Phillip Island and I'm the lap record holder and I'm two seconds a lap off the pace.
• 30:23
  And Doug is three and a half seconds and this is gonna be our bike for the year.
• 30:27
  So at this point are you going, have they, yeah, what have I done?
• 30:31
  But also have they not done their homework or what?
• 30:34
  You know, like since they left the championship, they haven't done their homework, they haven't seen how much the Ducati's improved, and now I'm even two seconds slower than I was on the Kawasaki.
• 30:45
  But it gave me some hope as a motorcycle mechanic.
• 30:48
  When we did see them take the heads off the bike and the shape of the pistons was horrible, it was just, it was basic.
• 30:54
  You know, they'd made a street bike and given a kit and thought they were gonna do it.
• 30:59
  So that was very disappointing.
• 31:01
  But then I went to the very first race at Donington, and we'd worked on the bike, worked on the bike, and I got two second places.
• 31:08
  Amazing.
• 31:09
  And it was really cool, but that was my type of track, you know, hard braking.
• 31:13
  And then two weeks' time or three weeks' time to get those results taken away from me because of a fuel discrepancy just ruined the whole – I mean, I had – that year, I had nine second places.
• 31:25
  Never won a – the bike wasn't capable of winning a race, you know.
• 31:30
  Pure tenacity, mate.
• 31:31
  Yeah, and like Doug had already had a two-year contract and he'd already told me he wasn't going to ride the next year because the bike's no good.
• 31:38
  He was beaten already in that sense, kind of.
• 31:40
  Yeah, so I had nine single places.
• 31:42
  They took me points away and why they took my points away was we were using Elf Fuel and our Elf Fuel was the same as what they used on the 500s.
• 31:52
  and it wasn't World Superbike spec, but half the paddock was using it, and they checked me and Andy Miquel.
• 32:00
  We both failed because we were all using it, but the other thing that really pissed me off is they never checked my bike for the second race.
• 32:06
  We were obviously using it, but they never checked it, but they took both sets of points.
• 32:10
  They can't tell if I was, you know, so... What you were doing then.
• 32:12
  Yeah, so we were obviously using it, but they didn't follow the process.
• 32:18
  So I was leading the championship my first year with Honda.
• 32:21
  I wasn't leading it, I was leading it, I was going to tribunal.
• 32:25
  So then I ended up losing all those points, so 40 points from Donington.
• 32:30
  So that was that year, the bike, like I say, wasn't capable of winning.
• 32:36
  But the more, the biggest, the win on the Honda for me, it wasn't sort of the one win, it was a double victory at Misano in 1998.
• 32:45
  So we're talking another four years.
• 32:47
  So it's, yeah, we won some other races.
• 32:51
  In 1996, I beat Kelly at Hockenheim and knocked him off.
• 32:55
  Well, it was an incident with us and we'd won there.
• 32:58
  That was pretty cool.
• 32:59
  And there's some really cool ones, but,
• 33:02
  To win at Mazzano, we're talking Italy on the Adriatic.
• 33:05
  Yeah.
• 33:06
  That's pretty big.
• 33:07
  But also we're talking 94, we had to use Dunlots because that's what Doug wanted to do.
• 33:12
  95, I went to Michelin.
• 33:14
  95, I was outside the top 15.
• 33:16
  Didn't score a point at Mazzano.
• 33:17
  And then 98, I have a double victory.
• 33:20
  so that was you know in my first double you know like I say every time we win a race the next race the Ducati would come out stronger but I actually won two for the first time and that was that was big and I can remember in the very first race getting away and I'm following Troy Corsa following Cora and I'm just I've got it sussed I'm just sitting here this is not too bad I'm saving my tyres I can race with these guys at the end
• 33:43
  And then Carl had made a bad start.
• 33:46
  He sort of fifth away.
• 33:48
  But I can remember to this day thinking, when he gets it within a second, I'm going.
• 33:53
  And I came past the pit that had 0.9 on there.
• 33:57
  I passed.
• 33:57
  Call on the pit.
• 33:59
  Yeah, and I passed Troy into the next, the left that goes on the back straight, goes the other way, passed him there and went for it and gapped him.
• 34:06
  And I'm sure Troy was just saying, that's right, he'll come back to us because it always happens.
• 34:10
  We wear our tyres out.
• 34:11
  And I pulled like, you know, a couple of seconds and I just never came back.
• 34:15
  And I think Carl actually got past Troy and got to second but couldn't close the gap.
• 34:22
  So that was really cool, but I go back to my home thinking, well, they know what I've done now.
• 34:26
  But we managed to do it in the next race as well, so that was, yeah, the best weekend.
• 34:32
  And then that year I did it again at A1 Ring.
• 34:36
  And the worst thing about our commentary is from England.
• 34:41
  English commentary is from England.
• 34:42
  So every time you watch, you want to see what you did in the race.
• 34:45
  And all you can hear is these poms going on about...
• 34:48
  how fast the honger is and how great Carl will be if he wins the race.
• 34:53
  Well, he didn't win the race.
• 34:55
  And that was one of my biggest things in my whole career was me and Carl, that rivalry was so amped up by the media.
• 35:05
  And I can remember Carl saying to me, well, this is my media, this is English commentary.
• 35:09
  I said, yeah, but it's for the rest of the world.
• 35:11
  They don't have to be that biased.
• 35:14
  But yeah, it was just that way.
• 35:15
  And I can remember even at that race at Osterite Ring, the Honda was so fast.
• 35:20
  But they always forget that the top speed, where they measure your top speed is for cars.
• 35:27
  And cars brake 100 metres later.
• 35:29
  So just all it proved was I was later on the brakes than he was.
• 35:32
  Because you were into the braking medium.
• 35:34
  That's all it proved.
• 35:36
  And our bikes were never top speed over them.
• 35:40
  It's the whinge and the moaning.
• 35:42
  Yeah.
• 35:43
  It just used to do my head in.
• 35:45
  And I actually saw a sports psychologist halfway through my Honda career.
• 35:49
  Did you?
• 35:49
  Yeah, going on about what I can do.
• 35:52
  And he said, you need to ride that bike or get on with it.
• 35:58
  Stop thinking.
• 35:59
  Stop thinking.
• 35:59
  If you think it's so good, why don't you ride it?
• 36:03
  So about halfway through my Honda career, I was talking to Virginia Ferrari about joining Ducati.
• 36:10
  And I talked and talked and was going to be there.
• 36:14
  And it was just in the end dealing with the Italians and not having a contract.
• 36:18
  When was the contract coming?
• 36:19
  When were we going to send it?
• 36:20
  You know, it was better the devil you knew.
• 36:22
  And we started talking money and he indicated that the car wasn't getting paid that.
• 36:27
  And I was like, well,
• 36:29
  I'm not doing it for any less.
• 36:31
  And so I ended up sticking.
• 36:33
  And that was, from that point on, I started calling them red bikes, not Ducati's.
• 36:38
  Just started to make it different, you know.
• 36:40
  I can't keep complaining.
• 36:42
  I've complained a lot since.
• 36:43
  But you either join them or you fucking get on with it.
• 36:46
  So that's what we ended up doing, really.
• 36:48
  And that's when, you know, 98 was a...
• 36:50
  I won more races than Carl did, but I lost my four and a half points, but had five races where I think every race I can go through there was, you know, something went wrong.
• 37:01
  Yeah, so that was, that was, I was, that was when I felt unbeatable that year.
• 37:05
  You know, I'm on, I thought the bike wasn't as good as theirs, but I can win on it and I can win everywhere.
• 37:11
  And it was just awesome.
• 37:12
  And then 99 started, we had a bike that,
• 37:17
  And during that 98 season, I was already starting to test the V-twin.
• 37:21
  So I'm doing double duties, riding the V-twin, riding the V4, doing the 8-hour, doing all these things.
• 37:26
  And are we going to ride a V-twin?
• 37:28
  Then 99, we're still on the RC45.
• 37:31
  And this is where I'm starting to feel really bad.
• 37:34
  So I'm having these microbleeds, which I don't know this.
• 37:39
  How far into the year are we talking about?
• 37:41
  first test.
• 37:43
  I think there was a photo on social media a little while ago.
• 37:45
  It was me asleep in a wheel crate.
• 37:48
  During the test, I'm out the back having a sleep between guys changing front forks.
• 37:53
  I don't know what's going on.
• 37:54
  I've been seeing people and they're suggesting all sorts of things.
• 37:57
  You spoke to Barry Sheen too, didn't you?
• 37:58
  Yeah.
• 37:59
  You talked about, because he had chronic fatigue.
• 38:01
  Yeah, and I thought it was chronic fatigue, but what is chronic fatigue?
• 38:04
  No one still knows what it is.
• 38:06
  Having ice baths and all sorts of things.
• 38:08
  Yeah, yeah.
• 38:09
  That's what he said.
• 38:10
  This is like, every morning I get up and I have a cold bath and it gets me going.
• 38:14
  trying all those sorts of things.
• 38:15
  And I thought I was losing my marbles.
• 38:19
  But it was just really hard work.
• 38:20
  And in the first race we had at Donington, I made contact with Colin Edwards, got knocked off by him and broke my finger.
• 38:27
  And it was just a shit of a year.
• 38:30
  And then we finally got to the end of the year and I had a bleed.
• 38:35
  The bleed kind of, I mean, it's in the book.
• 38:38
  It's quite a story, mate.
• 38:40
  And the story perhaps in some ways...
• 38:44
  begins to reach an important point when you go boogie boarding with your teammates at Phillip Island while you're testing there and you felt something wasn't right after one particular wave.
• 38:55
  You'd only been in the water a short period of time, hadn't you?
• 38:57
  Yeah, it was just the sun, just the glare off the, the headache was just so intense.
• 39:03
  Off the water.
• 39:03
  Off the water, the glare was just so intense that I couldn't even open my eyes.
• 39:06
  I had to get out and sit on the bank.
• 39:08
  And I think that was the final having a bleed, you know.
• 39:13
  But that next day I had to get to Sydney for a test at Eastern Creek.
• 39:17
  So I get there and I get to the hotel and I wake up the next morning and I wake up and I have no sight.
• 39:23
  I have no sight at all and I'm pulling curtains going, I can't see.
• 39:28
  And so my vision comes back, but it's that badly double vision that I can't operate unless I close one of my eyes.
• 39:36
  The double vision is immense.
• 39:37
  And what is happening is the bleed is putting pressure on the eye nerves in the base of my back in my brainstem.
• 39:47
  And that's putting the pressure on and I'm going,
• 39:50
  But still, surely I only come right.
• 39:53
  I go out to the track, swing my leg over the bike and ride for 10 laps, and I'm five, 10 seconds off the pace.
• 40:01
  Which is a lot.
• 40:02
  In bike racing terms, it's a lifetime.
• 40:03
  You guys are measured in hundreds.
• 40:04
  You go out there and you tested the bike last week, you'll be within a second, within three laps.
• 40:10
  And I'm going into turn three at Eastern Creek, and it's always bumpy in there.
• 40:15
  And my brain can't slow the process to bump.
• 40:19
  It just can't keep up.
• 40:21
  It's like a bad damper.
• 40:22
  I've got no damping.
• 40:23
  And I just got off the bike and said, I don't know what I'm doing, but I've got to go and see somebody.
• 40:27
  So I ran the doctor that I've been seeing a lot over here.
• 40:30
  And she said, I know this lady at the Royal North Shore.
• 40:35
  Go and see her, and I'll send her your medical records.
• 40:37
  And she sent us medical records, which she'd been doing all these things.
• 40:41
  And she had on the bottom, the first page, she had it in her handwriting.
• 40:46
  The only thing I haven't done is imagery of his head.
• 40:49
  MRI.
• 40:49
  So straight in an MRI, and I've got a two and a half centimetre bleed on the brain.
• 41:03
  I heard that rodeo riders have the most injuries from their sport.
• 41:07
  I don't think they have anything on bike races.
• 41:10
  These people are bulletproof.
• 41:12
  You had to tell the team, obviously.
• 41:14
  I mean, tough conversation, I would imagine, with Neil Tuxworth.
• 41:18
  How did all that stuff go?
• 41:20
  Yeah, well, I actually had the MRI and started driving to Robbie Phillips' place.
• 41:25
  He lives in Sydney.
• 41:27
  So I'm on the way driving.
• 41:28
  He's picked me up from the hospital because I can't drive.
• 41:31
  I get halfway there and the hospital is running and said, we don't think you should be there tonight.
• 41:34
  Come back.
• 41:36
  We need to operate.
• 41:37
  So I go back there and now I'm not worried about the team.
• 41:41
  I'm just, you know, I need to be on the road to recovery.
• 41:43
  Megan's about to get on a flight, which...
• 41:47
  is the next day and we're going to meet in Sydney Airport and then fly on to Europe for the season.
• 41:51
  I think you told her don't connect, didn't you?
• 41:53
  Yeah, just get off in Sydney because there's some drama.
• 41:57
  So that's what happened.
• 42:00
  Yeah, luckily, then start ringing the team, telling them this is what's going on.
• 42:05
  Not really seeing the team because they're too busy doing their test and they get on a plane to Europe and I have an operation.
• 42:13
  But what good is a motorcycle race who's had a brain operation?
• 42:17
  I mean, you've had brain surgery, that's the end of your career.
• 42:21
  So that's what I thought and everybody thought.
• 42:25
  And usually the weird thing about, I'm still searching, I'm actually seeing a neurologist tomorrow in Wellington.
• 42:30
  Because I'm still not great.
• 42:33
  I have no symptoms at all, but I suffer from fatigue still to today.
• 42:39
  Effectively, it was a bleed on the brain, about two centimeters or thereabouts, is that right?
• 42:44
  And is it effectively like a little bit of a stroke?
• 42:46
  What is it?
• 42:47
  Well, any bleed on the brain is called a stroke.
• 42:49
  But this, and usually you have a stroke and then you get rid of the stroke and you get rid of the pressure and you're away.
• 42:56
  And it's usually only once, you only have one set of pressure.
• 42:59
  But this, mine was, is a cavernous malformation, which is a, it's, you're born with it.
• 43:05
  So it's a deterioration of, say, some veins.
• 43:09
  and they do have the, this is why I couldn't get over what was happening the year before.
• 43:13
  And people, when I was seeing people that- It's gradually going.
• 43:17
  Yeah, so I'm having microbleeds and it's putting pressure on the brain and then I'm getting over it.
• 43:22
  And I'm having it again and getting over it.
• 43:24
  But they're only, when you're talking two and a half centimum, that's not very big anyway.
• 43:28
  But the microbleeds must be tiny.
• 43:31
  So that's why I struggle for inflammation now is that people think a bleed's a bleed and that's it.
• 43:37
  But when you have it for a whole year,
• 43:39
  affecting you for a whole year and you're getting over it.
• 43:41
  You impacted that.
• 43:42
  Yeah, which is, and I can remember saying to people, I said to Carol this night that I had a, Carol Phyllis, when I came out of the hospital and they were driving me back, I'm just so thankful someone's found something.
• 43:56
  I think so.
• 43:59
  And she always just, I used to talk to her a lot, she'd say, yeah, it's just in your head.
• 44:03
  I said, it's f***ing in my head, all right?
• 44:05
  Right.
• 44:05
  yeah there it is there's the bleed you know and that was that was a great thing for me just to you weren't going mad yeah I weren't going mad and you know why was did I get to 34 years of age and suddenly become a slow motorcyclist you know what was going on and I struggled so much and but you know getting over that I don't know what you do as a normal person but all I knew was motorcycling so all it was was I was going to get back and ride the bike and
• 44:33
  That's wild.
• 44:33
  So there's a photo in the book of quite a big scar at the back of your head.
• 44:38
  Am I correct?
• 44:39
  Was it 12 weeks later or maybe not even that much, you're back on the bike and at it again?
• 44:44
  Well, they said, you know, when you open your head up, you lose your driver's licence for 12 months straight away.
• 44:50
  That's what they do.
• 44:50
  Did they tell you game over in terms of racing?
• 44:52
  What did they say?
• 44:53
  No, he gave me every encouragement.
• 44:54
  And, yep, he actually put plates in my head because he didn't just glue it because he knew I was going to get back there.
• 45:01
  Okay.
• 45:01
  And he said, you know, because, you know, they cement the skull back in and then it calcifies over, but he actually put plates in there because he knew I was going to get back on the bike.
• 45:11
  And he gave me every encouragement and said, you know, that what you do sooner is, you know, you're going to be stuck with that for life.
• 45:17
  If you don't do anything, you'll be stuck with, you know, not being able to do things, you know.
• 45:22
  We don't know where it is in the brain.
• 45:24
  I mean, we don't know what it affects.
• 45:25
  It's mainly your sight and it's mainly your balance, which is not good, and it's your depth perception and all that sort of stuff.
• 45:32
  So get onto that stuff early.
• 45:34
  But he said, yeah, I'll give you three months off, three months medical, and then you can get back to racing.
• 45:40
  And about a month into I went, if you make it 12 weeks, I could be roasting at Donington.
• 45:46
  Because three months is actually three times 31, it makes a few more days.
• 45:51
  That's actually Monday at Donington where I could start on Thursday.
• 45:54
  So I got him to rewrite it as 12 weeks.
• 45:57
  And then with all this, I'm back and forward to the FIM.
• 46:01
  And then I have to see Professor Sid Watkins, he was the F1 doctor.
• 46:06
  So when the guys had, there were some big crashes in F1 at that stage too, and was it, what's his name, the F1 driver, he had a head injury as well.
• 46:18
  And also I think, Hakanen, no, someone else had bad- It could have meant there was crashes back then for Mika Hakanen in Adelaide and things like that.
• 46:28
  Yeah, and so he was seeing Mika then.
• 46:30
  And that was about that.
• 46:31
  And so I had to not only fly back to Europe, but had to do all these tests with him as well.
• 46:35
  And then he had to come watch me on the Thursday of the race at Donington to see if I was okay and all that sort of stuff.
• 46:41
  So that was, you know, I had a focus and that's all I wanted to do, but it was get back to riding.
• 46:46
  But the thing with the head, you break your arm, you put it in a sling, you rest it.
• 46:51
  You can never rest your head.
• 46:53
  It's either operating for you or you're asleep.
• 46:56
  You know, you can't just turn off.
• 46:57
  So the fatigue and the tiredness was immense.
• 47:01
  I can remember getting out of hospital in Australia and I stayed in a B&B just around the corner from the hospital and we walked up to the Hume Highway, I think it was, to a coffee shop.
• 47:10
  You're in Sydney here.
• 47:10
  This is Royal North Shore.
• 47:11
  I'll take it.
• 47:12
  Yeah, yeah.
• 47:13
  And we walk up to this coffee shop and I get there and I said to Megan, I can't even be here.
• 47:18
  The noise is immense.
• 47:19
  It's just wearing me out.
• 47:21
  Wow.
• 47:21
  I need to get somewhere quiet.
• 47:22
  Mm-hmm.
• 47:23
  And I'm not a great reader, but I remember I was reading this book one day, and I read it all day, like for 10 hours, and the day was gone.
• 47:32
  And I started questioning myself, how did I lose the day?
• 47:35
  But then I sort of said to Megan, well, at least I'm asking that question.
• 47:39
  Because you're connecting.
• 47:40
  Yeah, so you really just don't know, and it's so bad.
• 47:44
  The fatigue and the rest you need is incredible.
• 47:48
  So that, yeah, for a good six weeks I was sleeping all the time and –
• 47:53
  I had to be in a dark room and all that sort of stuff, but the focus was to get back to racing.
• 47:58
  How did it feel when you got on the bike for the first time?
• 48:00
  Tell us about that.
• 48:02
  Well, there was two emotions there.
• 48:03
  It was the V-Twin.
• 48:05
  So this is the bike I've been working on for 18 months to beat these f***ing Ducatis.
• 48:11
  And I got on the bike and went, shit, this is easy to ride.
• 48:14
  Yeah, amongst the traffic and all that sort of stuff.
• 48:17
  And Simon Craver had been riding in the races I couldn't ride.
• 48:22
  And immediately at Donington, my placings were better than his in the last three rounds.
• 48:27
  So I was feeling pretty happy with myself.
• 48:30
  But as the season went on and I started looking at the videos, I can see that I'm probably leaving a bike length too much gap.
• 48:36
  You're here to be full.
• 48:38
  Yeah.
• 48:38
  My reaction timing is probably not there.
• 48:40
  And I'm probably operating in the safe zone.
• 48:44
  But I'm getting better and better and better.
• 48:45
  But it was too early.
• 48:49
  But you can see it now looking back, but that's all I wanted to do.
• 48:52
  And my results were better than Simon's, so I must be okay.
• 48:56
  But Colin was out front winning.
• 48:59
  So that was hard to take.
• 49:00
  You're talking about Colin Edwards, Texas Tornado, team mate obviously.
• 49:07
  then unfolds with the team.
• 49:09
  Because, Matt, it's super hard in motor racing.
• 49:12
  When you're at the pinnacle like you are here and you're an important cog in the machine, the moment a team feels like anything in their mind is not 100%, they cut it, mate, don't they?
• 49:25
  And that's the brutal reality of it.
• 49:29
  And also the other underlying factor is that Honda's going four-stroke GP racing.
• 49:34
  Mm-hmm.
• 49:34
  So their finances are coming out of Superbike and going to concentrate on the Gronk Mono GP.
• 49:41
  So even the very last race I had on the RC45 was at Sugo, and we had new pistons, new cams, and I'm going, why?
• 49:51
  That was development for their V5.
• 49:53
  So if you take an RC45 750 and you add another cylinder, you get the 980 V5.
• 49:59
  That's the basis of it.
• 50:02
  So they were already thinking that way.
• 50:04
  And I was led to believe my results were getting better and, you know, so we're going to sign again next year.
• 50:09
  And I was let down by the team.
• 50:12
  And I mean, how do you do it?
• 50:13
  I don't know.
• 50:14
  I'm very bitter to this day, but not.
• 50:19
  How do you tell someone they're not going to have a job?
• 50:22
  When you're the team manager like Neil was and the Japanese have the purse strings and he's thinking it's all going along and in the end they go, he hasn't got a job.
• 50:33
  But I was told at the very last race, which I thought was not the way to do it because I couldn't hunt for another job.
• 50:39
  I wasn't over yet, I didn't think.
• 50:41
  But every good ride was gone.
• 50:44
  So I was told at Brands Hatch on the Saturday night before the last two races.
• 50:49
  Yeah.
• 50:50
  So it was really disappointing.
• 50:53
  I thought I'd done well by Honda and I thought it was a great story about the comeback and all that.
• 51:00
  Even then, Honda is not great with advertising and all that marketing.
• 51:06
  There is no social media story to that.
• 51:09
  Back then, there is now.
• 51:11
  It's not a brand thing back then.
• 51:13
  It's about the result and that's it.
• 51:15
  By the end of the year, I was eighth in the championship and I wasn't winning.
• 51:20
  So that was a very easy decision and they put my old mate Taddy on instead of me.
• 51:25
  But they could put him on without really paying him, and they could pay Colin to keep going.
• 51:29
  And so they didn't want two number ones.
• 51:32
  They wanted Teddy getting a bit older, was out of Grand Prix, hadn't been riding for a while.
• 51:37
  They could put him on as a number two and support Colin, and that was all they wanted to do.
• 51:42
  There are some very symbolic photos of you basically taking your gear off, you're down to your underwear, you're taking your leathers and all the gear off, you're with the crowd.
• 51:52
  And it's sending quite a message at that moment, mate, isn't it?
• 51:58
  A sense of proof, a sense of relief, a sense of all sorts of things, isn't it?
• 52:02
  Yeah, I mean, my result in the first race wasn't so bad, but the second race, all I was doing was riding around thinking about my last race.
• 52:08
  And that was it.
• 52:09
  It was done.
• 52:10
  And how I'd been put out of business by people I thought knew me and were looking after me, and I just couldn't ride, really.
• 52:19
  And so I got, yeah, didn't, I don't know, eighth in the race or whatever, but I did my own warm down victory lap.
• 52:26
  Yeah, everybody else pulled in the pits and I was riding around waving to people.
• 52:29
  And then I pulled over and I thought, well, f*** this, I'm getting rid of all this shit.
• 52:32
  I just don't need it.
• 52:33
  And yeah, and the leathers were brand new leathers that race and didn't have a reason for them next year.
• 52:41
  But I picked the kid out of the crowd and I thought, you know, I'm going to throw him to this kid.
• 52:46
  Somebody else grabbed him and they eventually ended up with this kid.
• 52:49
  I got a card about four weeks later and the kid's name was Aaron.
• 52:54
  Super.
• 52:54
  Yeah, so it was pretty cool.
• 52:56
  But yeah, that was the end of it.
• 52:58
  How do you end a career?
• 52:59
  I don't know.
• 53:00
  It's just too hard.
• 53:02
  And I was retired off.
• 53:03
  And I went looking in America after that and rode a Ducati over there for one race at Daytona and just thought, nah, if you haven't got the right stuff, it's not worth competing in.
• 53:14
  Is the hard part in trying to compartmentalise it like that a little bit about loyalty, mate, because you're a loyal guy.
• 53:21
  You've been that way throughout your whole career and clearly you're imagining it would be reciprocated the same way back.
• 53:28
  And it's just communication.
• 53:30
  If you know it's not going to happen, tell me and I'll go looking somewhere else.
• 53:34
  But the last race on the Saturday night…
• 53:37
  And they had a, I didn't even know about it, we had a big dinner that night.
• 53:42
  And it was all about me retiring.
• 53:44
  And no one had told me.
• 53:46
  I'm going to this meeting and they give me all these accolades for my time at Castro Honda.
• 53:52
  And I'm like, yeah.
• 53:54
  And my, so what's happened with the contract negotiations?
• 53:56
  Well, we're done.
• 53:58
  So yeah, it wasn't done well.
• 54:01
  But how do you do it?
• 54:02
  Like you look at Rossi and you look at, how do you retire when you love it so much?
• 54:07
  I mean, Colin and I were really, really close.
• 54:10
  Colin Edwards and I were really, really close.
• 54:13
  And then I had this coming together, broke my finger and I was having these microbleeds at the time, so we become pretty, it wasn't a nice team there in 99.
• 54:24
  It was pretty hard.
• 54:25
  And then I watched him and his career, and I'm just thinking, just stay home.
• 54:29
  You know, I get it because you love it so much.
• 54:33
  But if you're not at the pointy end, you know, don't do it.
• 54:36
  And you're risking everything.
• 54:38
  You know, it's not to be bad.
• 54:43
  It's not a bad thing.
• 54:44
  I'm not trying to put them down for it because I can see how you do it.
• 54:47
  How do you retire?
• 54:49
  And I saw it with Frankie as well.
• 54:51
  Do you just run out of rides?
• 54:54
  Because us as racers, next weekend's going to be better.
• 54:59
  It's always a great weekend and next week's better.
• 55:01
  And if you have a bad weekend, you know you've had good ones and you can repeat it soon.
• 55:05
  But when you get that old, I don't think you can.
• 55:08
  And it's a real hard one.
• 55:10
  How do you retire?
• 55:11
  How much of a struggle was it for you?
• 55:13
  How long did it take you to get to a place of, to a point piece on it?
• 55:18
  Yeah, well, that's where I just came back to New Zealand, like I said, and I wanted to get away from it.
• 55:22
  I mean, I can't watch other people having fun and people like, you know, I'd written against Troy Corsa and all these people, and they were still riding, they're still at the front.
• 55:31
  Troy won another championship in 2005 or was on a Suzuki.
• 55:35
  I mean, he wasn't beating me in my last year.
• 55:37
  You sort of type things what you're thinking.
• 55:39
  He probably was, but you know what I mean?
• 55:40
  You're still thinking, I can beat this guy, and so you just can't even watch it because you could be there doing it.
• 55:46
  Yeah.
• 55:47
  A couple of things that we'll power to the end on here.
• 55:49
  Firstly, although the focal point of our discussion is World Superbikes and a wonderful chapter in many ways, albeit brought to a premature end, there was some flirtation, if you will, with 500cc.
• 56:04
  You got to test mixed bike, didn't you?
• 56:06
  Yeah, yeah, and like all those things I'd made earlier, you know, about going to Agostini and going to Lucky Strike, and it actually, you know, it cost me money and cost me things.
• 56:16
  You know, I'd had a burning desire, yeah.
• 56:19
  And that's probably, when you say that, it's probably the only time I did, you know, all through my career was about weekend after weekend.
• 56:24
  And I didn't have a plan, but I had a plan to go Grand Prix riding if I could.
• 56:28
  So in 94, when I'd done so well in the Honda, for a Honda that wasn't so great, I said, I want to test the 500.
• 56:34
  Awesome.
• 56:34
  What was that like?
• 56:37
  Well, that's just another motorbike, you know?
• 56:39
  And that's the thing, everybody goes, oh, it's amazing, it's a 500 and it does this.
• 56:42
  And I said, well, it's a race bike.
• 56:44
  It's supposed to do that, you know?
• 56:46
  It's true.
• 56:47
  And it's not like our bike that's a production bike and we've tuned it into a race bike.
• 56:50
  It's supposed to do that.
• 56:52
  But I made a pact with myself that at the Hairpin at Phillip Island and at MG Corner,
• 57:00
  I was going to be easy on it.
• 57:02
  I didn't want to end up high-siding in my head like a lot of people do.
• 57:06
  So, yeah, I had a great test.
• 57:08
  We were there for five days, and I had the last half day.
• 57:11
  Doug Poland had the last half morning on the bike.
• 57:15
  And as a time, I think I was 1.9 seconds slower than Mick.
• 57:20
  Mick had been there for five days.
• 57:22
  but I was as fast as Ito and Caporossi in half a day.
• 57:26
  And I was like, so where do I sign?
• 57:29
  And at the time, like I say, the money was sort of super bike.
• 57:33
  They said, Mick gets paid, Caporossi brings money, and Ito's Japanese.
• 57:38
  So there's no room for it.
• 57:42
  So that was the end of it, really.
• 57:43
  And that's where the end of my dream, and I'm going to do this.
• 57:47
  And that's where the Honda, I did it, four strokes, and that was it.
• 57:52
  You've rattled off some great names in this chat that have been either rivals or teammates, even McDoan, who you mentioned there a moment ago, from Carl Fogarty to Troy Corsa, Loris Caporossi there a second ago too.
• 58:06
  You were teammates to John Kaczynski, who is...
• 58:10
  a unique individual.
• 58:12
  That was tricky, that wasn't it?
• 58:13
  When I think you got to a point where you even asked them basically not to park their motorhome next door to you in the end, didn't you?
• 58:19
  Yeah, thanks for it, Rusty.
• 58:20
  I was trying to forget about that.
• 58:21
  Forget about him.
• 58:23
  John, I actually don't know what he has over others.
• 58:28
  He went on to ride a 500 the next year after riding
• 58:31
  the superbike, I mean, what did he have over the Japanese?
• 58:34
  I don't know, it was bizarre.
• 58:36
  And like you say, I can remember his motorhome driver, a nice guy, he parked next to us, and one weekend I just spent all the time looking out in the window at what John was up to.
• 58:45
  I said, you just can't park next to me anymore, it's just too, I just can't stop by look.
• 58:51
  You know, one day he was cleaning his motorhome, but he would go and rinse the rag out over at the public toilets.
• 58:58
  He'd drive there in his car and back and it was just, he was bizarre.
• 59:01
  And I mean, he had a disorder, he was OCD.
• 59:07
  And you know, but that's what it takes.
• 59:09
  It takes a whole lot of different people.
• 59:10
  And also the whole thing, yeah, the rivalry amongst everybody.
• 59:14
  And you know, in the early days, Superbikes was about having a barbecue and having fun.
• 59:17
  It was really cool.
• 59:18
  And then the money came and it became a bit different.
• 59:21
  But it just does take different characters and not to be, I've mentioned those names and maybe what I've said about them, but it's not, I don't want to be cruel.
• 59:29
  They're just different people, you know, just, and you know, we are different people and you come about doing it in different ways.
• 59:37
  But yeah, just John and I just had nothing.
• 59:41
  We couldn't even be in the same room together talk because he just didn't want to give anything away.
• 59:46
  And it was really weird.
• 59:48
  Like all my career is you've worked with your teammates.
• 59:52
  The racing's different, but the setup of the motorbike, you share information because it's for the common good.
• 59:58
  And whoever comes out on top comes out on top.
• 1:00:00
  John joined the team, there's no team meetings anymore.
• 1:00:04
  I'm like, well, has been with the last world champions I've been with.
• 1:00:08
  He always did.
• 1:00:09
  It was difficult.
• 1:00:10
  And why did he seem to have something over everybody?
• 1:00:13
  And why was the manager of the team going to the airport and picking him up?
• 1:00:18
  Why was he not making his own way like everybody else?
• 1:00:22
  Just why was all these special expenses for him?
• 1:00:25
  It was bizarre and I don't know what he had over them.
• 1:00:28
  And that year, the year before he rode the Ducati, and I beat him on the Honda and he was on the Ducati, and then he came on the Honda and he won the World Championship.
• 1:00:37
  It was so gutting.
• 1:00:41
  But that year, not as an excuse, but it rained a lot.
• 1:00:44
  He was good in the wet.
• 1:00:46
  And he won in the wet.
• 1:00:47
  And I don't know how he won in the wet on the Honda and didn't win on the Ducati, because the Ducati was a twin, it was easy to ride.
• 1:00:52
  But that year I fell off in the first race at Phillip Island, it was raining.
• 1:00:58
  I was actually closing him down in the wet because I was a good rider as well and I lost it going into MG. And I was at 20 points behind really the whole year.
• 1:01:06
  And that had done it for me.
• 1:01:08
  And then the final race of the year was at Indonesia where we had a big, big bust up Indonesia.
• 1:01:16
  he'd won the championship.
• 1:01:17
  So there was a point where Honda could be one and two in the championship.
• 1:01:22
  That was the request of him, I think, wasn't it, that he helped make that happen?
• 1:01:25
  Yeah, a silent request.
• 1:01:26
  We were at lunch and it was indicated that, you know, if we could help each other out for Honda to be one and two, we would.
• 1:01:33
  So the first race got underway and I'd qualified pole and I'm going around and I'm following John going, man, he's going really, really fast.
• 1:01:41
  considering he's just won the world championship there's nothing at stake and i'm going to win the race anyway because that's the orders and with the last lap i slipped past him and sort of back off the pace thinking well i've done it now i've actually raced him and beaten him and i'll just get to get the flag he'll let me get the flag and with two corners to go he puts me out in the dirt
• 1:02:01
  And I didn't actually go to the podium.
• 1:02:02
  I was so livid and I went to Neil and said, what the?
• 1:02:08
  And they had nothing to say.
• 1:02:10
  And I'm going, well, did I interpret our lunch differently than everybody else in the room or what?
• 1:02:16
  So that cost Honda one, two in that championship.
• 1:02:19
  And I had a bad result the next, I think I got a third or fourth.
• 1:02:22
  Instead of fighting for the win in the next race, I was just so perturbed what actually happened.
• 1:02:28
  Yeah, I ended up third again.
• 1:02:31
  You did a bit of four-wheel racing, but before we get to that, just quickly, you had some amazing haircuts over your time.
• 1:02:36
  You're a quiet guy.
• 1:02:37
  I love chatting with you here now.
• 1:02:38
  It's terrific.
• 1:02:39
  But, I mean, there was mohawks and all sorts of things going on back then, wasn't there?
• 1:02:43
  Yeah, and but why?
• 1:02:46
  I still don't know.
• 1:02:47
  Did Megan okay these?
• 1:02:48
  No.
• 1:02:49
  Yeah, well it started in Australia actually, we had a hairdresser friend come and stay with us and we shaved a bit out of hair and a bit of hair back then and then I started doing it and then it became an expectation.
• 1:02:59
  Once I started with colours it was like well what's next weekend and I actually felt it from the fans, you know, what are you going to do, it's got to be different, you've got to change and for a whole year there it was and it was, I hadn't, there was no commercial
• 1:03:14
  sense behind it at all, but it did work for me.
• 1:03:16
  People noticed I was one of the different, and I wasn't just a Honda part of the team, I was my own person, which it actually worked really well.
• 1:03:25
  But I didn't know at the time, I was just doing it for a laugh.
• 1:03:28
  I can remember Robbie Phyllis coming to Bruno, and so he got the clippers out and we carved a checkered flag in the side of it.
• 1:03:36
  It was just something to do.
• 1:03:39
  On your CV, there is a bit of time in the British Touring Car Championship, even in recent weeks before you and I have spoken.
• 1:03:45
  You've been in an Aston Martin sports car doing a bit of four-wheel racing, which is terrific.
• 1:03:50
  Yeah.
• 1:03:51
  That's been a good thing, I think, mate, hasn't it, for you to go off and do that.
• 1:03:55
  Most two-wheel racers do struggle with it because it's not the same buzz.
• 1:04:00
  It just doesn't give you the same kick, does it?
• 1:04:02
  No, and the touring cars, when I did that in England, was amazing.
• 1:04:06
  But it actually started my career in the car racing.
• 1:04:09
  I loved it and sort of ended it as well because...
• 1:04:11
  people taking you out all the time.
• 1:04:13
  It's not like a motorbike.
• 1:04:14
  They are very different.
• 1:04:16
  When you try too hard in a car and you end up in the gravel, you put it in reverse and back out.
• 1:04:20
  On a bike, you've got meat missing.
• 1:04:22
  You've got skin off.
• 1:04:23
  And people tagging you just for tagging your sake and taking you out and causing you a lot of damage.
• 1:04:29
  So the buzz is there, but once you start getting that sort of, you know, people taking you out of the races, then you lose the glow.
• 1:04:35
  But it's a cool thing.
• 1:04:37
  I've always loved cars.
• 1:04:40
  And anybody can drive one, but it's hard to drive fast.
• 1:04:43
  You know, anyone can drive one to the second and a half drive
• 1:04:47
  of the car's limit, but to get that last second and a half is really tricky.
• 1:04:50
  And even I'm learning that today when I drove with Daniel Gorton in the Aston Martin, you know, still learning different things.
• 1:04:58
  And it is a cool thing, but it's just it is different.
• 1:05:02
  You know, it's not motorcycling in a car.
• 1:05:05
  you're say 70 kgs strapped into one spot and the next driver is 70 kgs strapped in one spot.
• 1:05:11
  So to do that lap time, you brake at the same spot, you get on the throttle at the same spot, you do everything the same.
• 1:05:16
  But on a motorbike, you never do anything 100%.
• 1:05:19
  So it's always because I'm a bit of a late breaker, I do it this way.
• 1:05:23
  He brakes early and carries more corner speed.
• 1:05:25
  So your setup's completely different and there's still something left for the individual.
• 1:05:30
  Yes.
• 1:05:30
  Where a car is a car.
• 1:05:31
  Which clearly enjoyed.
• 1:05:32
  Yeah, yeah, where a car, you can't manipulate a car at all.
• 1:05:36
  It stops where it stops and it goes where it goes.
• 1:05:38
  Yeah.
• 1:05:38
  You're a friend of Greg Murphy's and, you know, there's lots of good Kiwi supercars races as you and I talk.
• 1:05:44
  One thing I don't know from the research for the Chad, did you test a supercar?
• 1:05:51
  And, you know, if you did share some details on that.
• 1:05:54
  I did actually, and it was through Greg.
• 1:05:56
  Yeah.
• 1:05:57
  It was at Calder Raceway.
• 1:05:59
  I don't even know what year it was.
• 1:06:00
  I think it was a Kmart car, and somehow we were talking, and there could have been a chance of an endurance race or something like that.
• 1:06:08
  How many laps did you get?
• 1:06:10
  Probably 10 or 12 at Calder.
• 1:06:13
  Lodge pattern gearbox it would have been back then.
• 1:06:14
  Yeah, all that sort of stuff.
• 1:06:15
  And the worst thing, I should have made sure that the seat fit in me.
• 1:06:18
  It didn't fit me.
• 1:06:20
  And it wasn't a great test because Greg is bigger than me and taller than me.
• 1:06:25
  So I had fun, but I don't think it showed my full potential and we couldn't move on from there.
• 1:06:31
  You know, I wish I...
• 1:06:32
  But there was a bit of loose talk about maybe a sand down in Mathis kind of thing.
• 1:06:35
  Is that what you're saying?
• 1:06:36
  Yeah, loose talk.
• 1:06:36
  And Greg and I go way, way back, as in when he won his scholarship to the Shill.
• 1:06:42
  Yeah, the Formula Ford scholarship.
• 1:06:45
  I was at the same thing and I had a few drives as well, but I was still a racer.
• 1:06:49
  Okay.
• 1:06:50
  So I wasn't going to be able to win the scholarship.
• 1:06:53
  The next year I wanted to race as well.
• 1:06:56
  And so I rented a car off the same team he won the scholarship.
• 1:07:01
  Okay.
• 1:07:02
  And Greg actually was my mechanic for a couple of races.
• 1:07:04
  Is that right?
• 1:07:05
  Craig Murphy on the tools, what's he like?
• 1:07:07
  Or a mechanic mentor, you know, telling me how to drive.
• 1:07:10
  So, yeah, we've known each other for a long, long time.
• 1:07:14
  And that's why I was trying to push that thing, you know, and get into car racing.
• 1:07:18
  And I thought at the end of my career that it could be like that, you know, that swap over two supercars.
• 1:07:24
  But as we know, the championship in Australia is so good, but there's a lot of money and you've got to have a lot behind you to get into it, and it just wasn't going to happen.
• 1:07:34
  And as you know, mate, it's an ultra competitive game too.
• 1:07:37
  I want to finish if we can with love of motorcycles, how it all kind of started in some respects for you.
• 1:07:44
  Have you kept a bike for now?
• 1:07:45
  Do you throw your leg over it every once in a while?
• 1:07:47
  What is there in terms of just either maybe something you've kept in an historical sense or maybe just a nice bike that you've got for a ride on occasion?
• 1:07:56
  Yeah, well, I stepped away a lot and didn't ride anything.
• 1:08:00
  How long for?
• 1:08:02
  I think I bought my first bike in 2010, so 10 years before I bought my first motocross bike to go trail riding on.
• 1:08:11
  So, yeah, it was a 2010 CRF250.
• 1:08:14
  And, you know, so I do a bit of trail riding and I've always loved that.
• 1:08:18
  And I haven't really ridden on the road and never rode on the road my whole life.
• 1:08:23
  But I've bought an adventure bike, so I've got an Africa Twin.
• 1:08:26
  It's a plumber.
• 1:08:27
  Yeah, and I love it.
• 1:08:28
  It's, you know, because you can go down to the shop on it, it's got steering lock to get around with your milk carton on the front, or you know, or you can end up on a gravel road or whatever, and in this day and age with our roads like they are, and it's great to get out in the backcountry
• 1:08:43
  I do prefer the tighter tar seals and the gravel, but that's what I ride.
• 1:08:47
  And I've got a few other things.
• 1:08:49
  I've got a fat boy from years ago.
• 1:08:51
  I bought one of them when the terminal had come out because I sort of had to have one.
• 1:08:58
  And I've got a 2016 Fireblade.
• 1:09:02
  I only bought it because it's the last bike with no traction control, no ABS, just because I rubbish it so much that I had to have one.
• 1:09:10
  Okay.
• 1:09:10
  So I bought one of them because it's the end of that.
• 1:09:13
  Yeah, and I've got some 400 replicas of the eight-hour bikes
• 1:09:18
  Nice.
• 1:09:19
  So when you win the 8-hour, to sell on Monday, they make a replica of the bike in like an L-Plater's bike, so 400.
• 1:09:26
  So they make it the same colour scheme.
• 1:09:27
  So I've got a couple of those.
• 1:09:28
  Excellent.
• 1:09:30
  And I bought the last RC45 in a crate.
• 1:09:34
  So I've still got it in the crate.
• 1:09:35
  Yeah.
• 1:09:36
  Well done, mate.
• 1:09:36
  It's been fabulous to walk back.
• 1:09:38
  We spent some time here looking at your career.
• 1:09:40
  I know it didn't come with a world championship, but I love the tenacity.
• 1:09:46
  I love...
• 1:09:47
  the gritty comebacks that you've had from things along the way, mate.
• 1:09:51
  It's been an amazing story.
• 1:09:52
  No, awesome, Greg, yeah.
• 1:09:53
  And, like, you know, I wouldn't change it for the world either.
• 1:09:56
  You know, once again, a kid from Masterton got to do all that sort of stuff.
• 1:10:00
  It does feel like another life, but, you know, it was so cool.
• 1:10:03
  And why would you have any regrets?
• 1:10:04
  Why would you want to change it?
• 1:10:06
  I mean, it was life, and we've done that part, and we've moved on.
• 1:10:10
  From Masterton to Monaco and back again.
• 1:10:12
  We're sitting here now.
• 1:10:13
  Well done.
• 1:10:13
  Cheers.
• 1:10:20
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 1:10:24
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 1:10:27
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 1:10:30
  I'm Greg Rust.
• 1:10:31
  Enjoy the drive, but drive safely.
• 1:10:37
  Listener.