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The Motorsport Brief - Lisa Crampton · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  Today we meet an administrator with some pretty rounded international cred with a big job back home.
• 0:13
  Hi everyone, Rusty here with a special edition of the Shortcast.
• 0:16
  For this ep, we thought we'd get to know a relatively new face of the Motorsport Australia team with an important role there.
• 0:23
  Lisa Crampton is the new Sporting and Technical Director for the governing body that oversees most of the four-wheel motorsport in Australia.
• 0:31
  As you'll hear, there were family motorsport influences, but it wasn't initially the career pathway Lisa thought she'd pursue.
• 0:38
  An overseas opportunity changed all of that, and she worked abroad for nearly two decades in a raft of positions, from circuit operations to category management, with manufacturers, big roles there too, and time in race control.
• 0:52
  Those experiences took her everywhere, from the middle of the desert for Dakar, all the way to Le Mans,
• 0:58
  and beyond.
• 0:59
  Now I caught up with Lisa at Rally Tasmania recently.
• 1:02
  You'll even hear cars in Service Park in the background of our convo as they headed out for the final stages of the season of the Australian Rally Championship.
• 1:11
  Hope you enjoy the conversation.
• 1:15
  Lisa, welcome.
• 1:16
  How are you finding it all?
• 1:18
  Tell us about the new role first and foremost and it is, by the sounds of it, a massive undertaking, isn't it?
• 1:24
  It is, it does encompass quite a bit.
• 1:26
  So I'm the new sporting and technical director at Motorsport Australia.
• 1:30
  It holds all sorts of things, obviously the main one, sporting technical regulations, but also officials, events, track licensing, risk and safety, and some parts of what's now going to become the trophy tour for next year.
• 1:46
  So it's been an interesting first few months, but it's great to be back and it's great to see that motorsport's healthy in Australia.
• 1:52
  You have been away for 18 years.
• 1:54
  Can we just rewind the clock a little bit?
• 1:55
  First and foremost, you didn't initially set out on a motorsport pathway.
• 2:00
  Was it a paediatrician or something?
• 2:01
  Is that what you were going to initially do?
• 2:03
  It was.
• 2:03
  I was at Monash University doing the path up to medicine.
• 2:07
  And after my first year there, kind of decided, oh, that's probably about a 12 to 14 year
• 2:12
  lineup of studies and internships and residencies before I actually get to be a pediatrician.
• 2:19
  I had a long sports history.
• 2:21
  My father raced as an amateur and I just decided, I think I might quit university now and go and get a real job and just start off from scratch, which my parents didn't like so much.
• 2:34
  But yeah, I just started from the bottom, now I'm here kind of thing.
• 2:37
  Absolutely.
• 2:37
  Just for people that are close to the sport, we have quite a passionate motorsport following with the podcast.
• 2:43
  Your dad raced around Formula Ford and most would probably remember him from Formula Holden, wouldn't they?
• 2:48
  Yes, he had a longstanding relationship with Formula Holden.
• 2:51
  That was my first aspect into motor racing for me live was Formula Ford.
• 2:57
  I got to take his Ford around Calder Park on a test day in 97.
• 3:02
  That was my first real taste.
• 3:03
  I wanted to race.
• 3:04
  I wasn't allowed.
• 3:05
  And then Dad did Formula Holden, I think, all the way through to about 2008.
• 3:08
  Won the Silver Star in 99.
• 3:10
  That's his claim to fame.
• 3:12
  Loves telling everyone he raced with Mark Webber and co.
• 3:15
  But that was really a golden era of single-seaters in Australia.
• 3:18
  That was before the conical lights started.
• 3:21
  That was really the stepping stone up to supercars and for some of them over to Indian America.
• 3:27
  So it was really a really amazing time to be around motorsport as a young kid.
• 3:32
  I have very fond memories of that class.
• 3:35
  I can recall it vividly.
• 3:36
  So 18 years for you, effectively.
• 3:38
  So did you decide to quit uni?
• 3:41
  And I'm going to do this sort of overseas, you know, as often young people do.
• 3:48
  And you end up, I think, initially in the Middle East.
• 3:50
  Is that right?
• 3:51
  A Dubai autodrome?
• 3:52
  Just tell us how the reconnection, if you like.
• 3:55
  Obviously, your dad had had an involvement.
• 3:56
  You'd been a fan in the stands, if you will.
• 3:58
  But then to start actually working in the game, how that opportunity perhaps came about.
• 4:03
  So after I quit uni, I spent the first few years kind of working in office management for first in real estate, then at Jones Lang La Salle, so bigger real estate, and then moved to News Corp because I was still doing motorsport stuff on weekends with dad.
• 4:17
  And I said, okay, well, let's go into custom publishing and do sports stuff.
• 4:21
  And then dad came back from Dubai and said, oh, do you know, there's a new racetrack out there.
• 4:25
  Why don't you go and work in motorsport?
• 4:27
  And I sent them an email and they said, actually, we're looking for an events coordinator, but you need to be here.
• 4:32
  So I very quickly decided to sell my car, pack a suitcase and say, I'll probably be back in 12 months.
• 4:40
  I went over there and I had an interview...
• 4:44
  got the job and the rest is history.
• 4:46
  I think that was where I first really started.
• 4:49
  It didn't feel like a job, you know.
• 4:50
  I was organising events and, you know, world launches of Pirelli tyres and Aston Martins going round everywhere and the BMW days with Credit Suisse before they were going to Bahrain Grand Prix and all these kind of things and seeing Dubai at the same time build up and people kind of trying to get them involved in motorsport, firstly with karting, arrive and drive,
• 5:11
  And then the call came from Abu Dhabi to move to Abu Dhabi to do the first Grand Prix there to see that racetrack built from scratch.
• 5:19
  So I was in a construction building where you had to, every time you went outside, had to wear high-vis and steel cap boots and a hard hat, like whenever you went outside.
• 5:28
  So that was incredible to see that built from nothing.
• 5:31
  I was there for the very first F1 race, and I can vividly recall being just wowed by Yas Marina and what had been created.
• 5:38
  So between the two Middle Eastern venues and working on GP2 in Asia and so on, I mean, when you look at your CV, there are aspects from working at venue slash event.
• 5:49
  There are...
• 5:50
  roles with manufacturers.
• 5:53
  You've kind of brought this broad mix of things to the table.
• 5:57
  So can we start with that?
• 5:58
  What were perhaps the learnings on that side from the Middle Eastern chapter?
• 6:03
  What things did you take out of that on the circuit side, if you will?
• 6:06
  From the circuit side, it's definitely what makes a venue commercially viable, what people are looking for when they do events and that range.
• 6:16
  So we did corporate events, we did product launches and we did major racing circuits for the 24 hours and back then the FIA GT3 came.
• 6:24
  So understanding what a venue needs in terms of being viable financially and also how you can bring more people into the sport and what those bigger...
• 6:35
  bigger categories needed to deliver a race.
• 6:39
  And that was a really big learning curve there and all the different aspects, even then holding concerts at the venue, all the different kinds of things.
• 6:45
  And taking that understanding now, when I moved to Europe after that, where I was working as a promoter for SRO and running championships is dealing with circuits, knowing exactly what they mean when they say bump in is only from this time, because they have sold up to that minute and they need to get other people out and you've got to be out by this time and,
• 7:04
  this and this and this is included, this is not.
• 7:07
  Understanding all that already before we get there and that helped on that aspect.
• 7:11
  And then obviously then running a championship, being a promoter, then you learn even more.
• 7:15
  How do you run a series?
• 7:17
  How do you make that financially viable?
• 7:20
  Who's our client?
• 7:21
  So Formula 3, it was very different.
• 7:22
  You're very team orientated, what the teams sell on to their drivers, who's normally paid by the parents or an investor.
• 7:30
  This is British GT, which was pro-am.
• 7:33
  So you're really looking at what does the am driver want?
• 7:37
  That's his hobby.
• 7:38
  You know, that's his weekends away for the year.
• 7:41
  So what do they want?
• 7:42
  And it's sometimes very different trying to balance that out.
• 7:45
  So that was a really another big learning curve.
• 7:50
  And from there, then it was moving over to Europe and,
• 7:53
  being involved in the World Endurance Championship, Asian Le Mans Series and European Le Mans Series.
• 7:59
  And then it was race officiating, race control.
• 8:02
  So then it's like, okay.
• 8:04
  And at the same time, I was doing some work with some teams in DTM with Audi.
• 8:09
  And so understanding...
• 8:11
  what everyone's opinion is, I guess, like how you speak from race control to the teams and competitors and vice versa, what they expect from race control and having that in the back of your mind every time you get in, you know, people asking or looking at telemetry or what they need for incidents.
• 8:28
  speaking to the drivers about safety.
• 8:30
  Le Mans was a big one, 24 hours of Le Mans every year.
• 8:32
  How we took that from its infancy in terms of technology available in race control to what it is now and the team they have now was incredible, all that process, bringing in slow zones, bringing in...
• 8:45
  The first full course yellow was at Le Mans, which was a big thing.
• 8:49
  The first full course yellow was in the World Endurance Championship and how we developed that.
• 8:55
  Eduardo was an amazing race director, so I learned a lot there.
• 8:58
  And then landing at a manufacturer.
• 9:01
  So probably taking in all that and then saying, what does a manufacturer want when they go racing?
• 9:05
  How do they interact with promoters and governing bodies and...
• 9:10
  circuits all the way through and what do they want in terms of, okay, the money comes from marketing and development.
• 9:15
  So what does marketing want with this product?
• 9:17
  And what's important when we go to regulations discussions and sporting working groups and technical working groups and
• 9:25
  It was just a full 360 in the end coming back now and saying, okay, well, we've got Speed Series.
• 9:30
  That's going to become a joint venture with a known entity like SRO, ARC as well with a joint venture with Innate.
• 9:37
  We're now redeveloping off-road.
• 9:38
  So I did, on top of my circuit stuff, 10 years at the Dakar and off-road, which I loved, but hard yakka, that one.
• 9:46
  That was another, that's another animal.
• 9:50
  But seeing that off-road here really...
• 9:52
  can develop a lot, bringing in an off-road manager to say, look, we need a specialist there in that corner.
• 9:58
  And seeing where we can increase growth off-road and Rally in particular has a really big capability of having diversity, males, females racing, more I guess than circuit racing.
• 10:10
  You see it a lot more in Rally, not particularly broadcast or communicated a lot.
• 10:14
  I think it should be more.
• 10:17
  it's also great entry-level racing side-by-side racing seeing here some of the cars here is just incredible in Tasmania it's just been great watching it and seeing all the fans enjoying it as well getting up close like that was it's been really inspiring to see that a new venue here can bring that out so it's um yeah it's really great to be home and hopefully bring all some of that uh learning with me here.
• 10:38
  Well done.
• 10:39
  You've encapsulated a number of things there.
• 10:40
  Can I drill down on a couple of them, if you don't mind?
• 10:42
  Firstly, on the Dakar side, you get to, you know, enjoy that at its zenith, if you will, from a winning perspective, working with the likes of Audi.
• 10:55
  You get to work with great human beings like Carlos Sainz.
• 10:57
  What was that like?
• 11:00
  It was very tough.
• 11:02
  So we did win.
• 11:04
  I won three Dakars in 10 years.
• 11:06
  However, for every win, there is three and a half losses in those years.
• 11:10
  And some of those losses were really, really painful.
• 11:15
  Difficult conditions, technical and mechanical issues on cars, lots of late nights, and
• 11:20
  lots of struggles with it becoming an FIA World Championship.
• 11:23
  So we had to do a lot of work with regulations.
• 11:25
  We had one Dakar West starting orders changed four times and having massive arguments with people trying to...
• 11:32
  trying to explain to them what the philosophy is about this change or that change or how it works or why starting 42nd is going to be okay or why starting 42nd is really unsafe.
• 11:43
  But we had a team in the last few Dakars of almost 150 people.
• 11:47
  So you start planning already in July.
• 11:51
  for the race in January.
• 11:52
  And it's a huge process.
• 11:54
  You've got to pick exactly who should be sitting in which service vehicle, which service vehicles should be in a train together, especially with such a complex car like the Audi, which was, you know, electric drivetrain car, but had a range extender, DTM engine built into it.
• 12:09
  running on 84% sustainable fuel with the most experienced drivers in the world in that stage, you know, Carlos St-Stefan, Peter Hansel, Matthias Ekstrom, like it was an incredible team.
• 12:22
  And they did so much work in that final year of the project just to make sure that that car was as best as possible.
• 12:30
  And in the end, we won it.
• 12:31
  But that was amazing.
• 12:33
  countless nights of no sleep, especially from the engineering department.
• 12:37
  The mechanics are incredible.
• 12:41
  Hats off to them all.
• 12:42
  And, you know, you're sleeping on the roof of trucks.
• 12:44
  You're showering with 3000 other people and some units there.
• 12:49
  Often there's no hot water, but you do it.
• 12:53
  You do it.
• 12:53
  Halfway through the Dakar, you're probably hatred every year, but then you always get to sort of June and they would launch
• 12:59
  they launch where it's going to go next year and then you're like, oh, okay, you know, I'm interested again, you know, I've forgotten all the hard parts and all the early before sunrise starts, but it's incredible, the Dakar really is.
• 13:11
  And the first time we went to Saudi, I was...
• 13:15
  shocked at an amazing amazing scenery that country has i was not expecting it like it's just incredible like if anyone can travel there and go through and do some off-roading and traveling especially in the the center and the north west side of the country it's just stunning and obviously down in the empty quarter which goes into abu dubby but yeah it's just awesome a quick break on this edition of the motorsport brief more with lisa crampton on the other side of this
• 13:42
  You're listening to the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 13:44
  For this edition, I'm chatting with Motorsport Australia's Sporting and Technical Director, Lisa Crampton, in Service Park at the final round of the 2024 Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship at Burnie in Tasmania.
• 13:57
  Let's get back to the convo now.
• 13:59
  people it's a people game this is a people game here you've learned a lot from some great people um internationally what other kind of i mean whether it's the likes of carlos science whether it's those very you know germanic germanic management circles of bmw where you i think you were you were sporting director or manager there for a while i think weren't you and then you've got audi as well what what were the takeaways from that sort of stuff on the people side coming into this
• 14:21
  I'll have to use a quote that Carlos Sainz said at our thank you evening this year, which was, I know I can be a pain in the arse, but I'm also a pain in the arse to myself.
• 14:35
  And I think...
• 14:37
  When I first worked with Carlos and with the teams I did, so with BMW and with X-Raid as a rally team, they were the top standard.
• 14:45
  They were winning championships.
• 14:46
  They were winning Dakar rallies and world championship level.
• 14:49
  And it makes you up your game.
• 14:52
  It makes you realise, I want to end this rally or I want to end this month or this day at work knowing I've given my all because everyone else expects that.
• 15:02
  And you really lift your game in your output, your efficiency, and...
• 15:05
  And when you work with someone like Carlos Sainz, you have to deliver.
• 15:09
  You can't turn up without knowing the regulations back and front or pre-empting questions they're going to have or not putting an overview together that's really suitable for what they need or they'll rip you apart because they will just be like, this is your job.
• 15:26
  My job is to drive the car and I'm going to do that to 100 and...
• 15:30
  75% of my ability and they expect that from the team and it really lifts the team to deliver.
• 15:35
  It really motivates you to just go top line and...
• 15:41
  That kind of all-encompassing, well, got to think left field, like what could go wrong, worst-case scenario, drill down a bit more into a regulation.
• 15:49
  So next-level preparation.
• 15:50
  It's next-level preparation.
• 15:51
  And another boss of mine who's now the boss at Aston Martin, Mike Crack, he was my boss at BMW, and he said, and we said, you know, luck is preparation meets opportunity.
• 16:03
  So if you're prepared and the opportunity arises, you'll probably get lucky.
• 16:06
  It's not just that you're lucky.
• 16:08
  You have to be prepared to be like, ooh, I know that.
• 16:11
  Let's go in for it.
• 16:13
  In chatting with a colleague and longtime friend, Nadine Armstrong, in relation to this and even the release around your appointment, right, it talks about a new approach to event management from generalist to specialist.
• 16:24
  Can you just share a bit about what that sort of means, basically?
• 16:28
  Well, I think it shows with the joint ventures we've got and with bringing in a full-time off-road manager that we have experts in these fields.
• 16:37
  I can't be the one and only and know everything about every discipline that Motorsport Australia has.
• 16:41
  So it's bringing in a specialist for off-road that is dedicated to that all the way down through the panels in each state to grassroots and all the way up to the Australian Championship.
• 16:51
  Having Inate and Adrian and the guys there for ARC and rally and having some specialist rally managers
• 16:58
  And then having our circuit team that we have, which is the Dave Stewart, the Dave Morris of the world, and where that also goes into the joint venture, which has started with SRO to say, okay, you guys are worldwide promoters of GT racing and of great motorsport events.
• 17:13
  So it makes sense that the governing body steps away from being a promoter and promote motorsport as a whole, put our resources into going all the way through and saying, okay, how can we support our other categories that maybe need to hear our voice more than us concentrating on a speed series?
• 17:28
  and facilitating motorsport.
• 17:29
  So that's where the Trophy Tour project came in.
• 17:32
  It was like we would like to help facilitate motorsport.
• 17:34
  We would like to give and empower circuits and clubs to deal directly with these categories and take that financial income directly to them rather than us being a promoter and trying to make that happen and make that work.
• 17:49
  Cool.
• 17:49
  So from the other aspect of this is focusing on officials.
• 17:53
  You made a really strong point about this, haven't you?
• 17:57
  Programs around that, some of the great trainers that we've had across time.
• 18:02
  We've worked with other nations and prepared them for their first Grand Prix and so on, haven't we?
• 18:07
  So even other aspects of our sports, so eSports, so one of our top officials, Dave Murray, he's over in Singapore at the moment doing the regional training for the FIA for eSports to show them how much our eSports has developed in Australia with Chilbao Colleague and all the way through.
• 18:25
  So it's bringing our expertise back into the Asia Pacific region or worldwide if we can, but then also also bringing
• 18:32
  redeveloping programs like the Senior Officials Development Program again, launching it, the mentor program, and also fighting for that bit of budget to do that, to deliver that.
• 18:41
  Because we've seen that, for example, we need to get some more technical delegates.
• 18:45
  We need to get some more scrutinies.
• 18:47
  But we need some funding to...
• 18:49
  have those people come and be mentored and those mentors to go to those events where they can help out, looking at the licensing structure for that, looking at the future race directors, looking at license training observers, all the way through to say, okay, how can we make...
• 19:06
  more people involved in motorsport, not just racing, but officiating, volunteering, marshalling, looking at some live days where we have scenarios together towards the end of next year, possibly in places like Norwell with Paul Morris.
• 19:19
  So doing live training for everybody on site, but also doing more seminars, updating the online content, making the resources easier to find on the website, just small things like that.
• 19:29
  So there's a really big push.
• 19:30
  We've got aid in our events, officials manager,
• 19:34
  And he's got his coordinator, Keely, helping him.
• 19:36
  So we've got a dedicated team now to just push that through and build that back up and make our officials consistent, fair, strong line.
• 19:45
  They're the ones who are delivering our events around Australia.
• 19:47
  That's the Motorsport Australia USP.
• 19:50
  You come to an event, Motorsport Australia are officiating.
• 19:53
  You have this level of safety, people they're checking.
• 19:56
  You have this level of...
• 19:58
  a clerk of the course making sure that runs smoothly you have this level of stewards making sure it's run fair you have technical people making sure it's all all aspects are covered and if we don't train those people there might be inconsistency there might be just the lack of expertise and then it happens to the competitor for our customer in the end if they don't get delivered the level and standard that they should
• 20:20
  From a balance standpoint and all of that, I mean, you've got this great wealth of experience.
• 20:25
  I would imagine there's a level of putting an arm around that.
• 20:27
  But at the same time, I sense in you, you're wanting to create opportunities.
• 20:31
  That's a balance, isn't it?
• 20:31
  To give those new people or younger people an opportunity and at the same time, look after those that have been very dedicated to...
• 20:38
  Exactly.
• 20:38
  We've got some incredible officials that I've come to learn in my first few months here.
• 20:43
  And we really have to protect all their knowledge and really support them and show them our gratitude for all the hard work.
• 20:50
  I mean, being an official, it's hard yakka.
• 20:52
  You're there from early morning to late at night.
• 20:55
  You're making sure that everyone is following all the rules.
• 20:58
  It's really showing that we appreciate that work and giving them the ability and the motivation to want to give that back, to teach the next generation through and opening that up to people to say, hey, do you know you could do this?
• 21:10
  Like timekeeping or scrutineering or stewarding or all these kinds of things that perhaps people don't quite know yet.
• 21:18
  All the people who were here yesterday in Tasmania, I would have loved to have been able to go out and canvas some of them and say, hey, do you want to do this?
• 21:23
  Do you want to do that?
• 21:24
  But we'll get there and we'll spread that message hopefully.
• 21:28
  You said at the top of this chat about how big this has been this year, big period of change for the organisation.
• 21:33
  Motorsport, as you have come to appreciate in about 20 years of work, is a change business.
• 21:38
  If we're not changing in every, even on the television side that I work in, well, you're not evolving, really, are you?
• 21:44
  So it's gone through some changes in organisation this year.
• 21:47
  No doubt that's made constituents in some areas, you know, a little nervous.
• 21:50
  What's the kind of messages in that regard from the 20 years of what you've had here for them as we go forward into the next chapter, if you will?
• 21:57
  I think embrace it.
• 22:00
  There's not been too many knee-jerk change ideas or reactions come out.
• 22:06
  There's been a lot of thought process.
• 22:07
  We have a board.
• 22:08
  A lot of things go through the board and we have some amazing people there with some really good insight, not just in motorsport, but sports as general and feedback.
• 22:17
  And we've had, for the trophy tour project, for example, we had a working group which included some of our directors.
• 22:24
  So, yeah,
• 22:25
  finding out information.
• 22:26
  And I had meetings with every single circuit, every single club, finding out what do they want?
• 22:31
  What do they need?
• 22:32
  How can they rely on us to help them to facilitate that?
• 22:35
  Speaking to all the categories, surveying them, just saying, what do you need?
• 22:40
  And I think change, if you don't change, you die normally.
• 22:45
  That's what they say in business, in the corporate world.
• 22:48
  So, and
• 22:49
  Normally you say like the cycle is around every seven years.
• 22:52
  If you look at how many transformations championships have made, look at Formula One seven years ago, look at Formula E seven years ago, look at the World Endurance Championship seven years ago, there was only Toyota racing, you know, Porsche left, Audi left, and everyone's like, oh, the championship's dying.
• 23:07
  Now it's like got an incredible number of manufacturers.
• 23:09
  So they have to, you have to go in, you have to research, you have to see what the world's doing, what manufacturers are doing, what customers are doing.
• 23:17
  and what's going on in the world and say, okay, how do we need to move with that?
• 23:23
  And not everybody likes change because change is unknown.
• 23:26
  You don't know and everyone's comfortable in that, well, this is how it's always been.
• 23:29
  It's just like, well...
• 23:32
  We're all together.
• 23:33
  We're all together.
• 23:34
  Motorsport is a big family and we'll just change together and then for sure we'll take all the feedback.
• 23:40
  There might be some people who say, no, this is wrong and I'm very open to feedback and the organisation is as well.
• 23:47
  So it's probably...
• 23:49
  Constructive criticism.
• 23:50
  I am open to constructive criticism.
• 23:52
  I'm open to people giving us ideas.
• 23:55
  There are 25,000, 30,000 people in Australia who physically have a licence.
• 24:00
  All of them have a voice and we'd be welcome to hear people's ideas.
• 24:06
  And we're willing to change if all of a sudden that voice gets stronger in one way or another.
• 24:10
  And I think it's good that there is an organisation and people involved in it that are willing to change.
• 24:17
  So I know there's been a lot.
• 24:19
  But, yeah, every change then has a balance and a sustained period after it.
• 24:25
  So that's coming soon.
• 24:27
  To finish, 2025, you and I are talking, it's almost Christmas time.
• 24:31
  What would be the wish list for you for 2025?
• 24:34
  Will you get to spend a little bit of time in a race control or are you going to be too busy in the role that you have now?
• 24:40
  And mentors.
• 24:42
  You mentioned the likes of Mike Crack internationally there before, even a little bit of advice from the likes of Carlos Sainz and so on.
• 24:47
  What about domestically here now that you're back in Australia?
• 24:49
  Have there been people locally here that have helped in that sort of mentoring process in this move for you?
• 24:55
  For me, it's probably my entire team.
• 24:58
  I've got some great people in my team and every single one of them has been instrumental in me learning about the motorsport landscape in Australia since I came back, all of them.
• 25:09
  Especially our officials, especially our track department, our admin department, all the way, all the administrative side, learning about all the commissions, committees, working groups and how they function and what they own and who has to go where and what.
• 25:25
  It's been that team.
• 25:26
  It's been really that team.
• 25:27
  And then going, I've been to a Speed Series event.
• 25:29
  I went to a couple of supercars events.
• 25:31
  I came here to the ARC and it's just being on the ground and watching how it functions here.
• 25:36
  And it's all different, you know.
• 25:38
  Motorsport in Australia is very different to motorsport in Europe.
• 25:42
  But just seeing how it runs and having to go there with my own two eyes and 25, the wish list, probably won't spend too much time in race control.
• 25:51
  I think we've got some...
• 25:52
  pretty good officials who can do that job and I don't like to be somewhere where I'm not doing something.
• 25:56
  I'm just taking space for the hell of it.
• 25:59
  But I'd really like to see the Trophy Series events merge into some of those state events.
• 26:06
  I think having some
• 26:09
  big national categories be the highlighted guests at those events.
• 26:13
  It can also motivate some of the state racers to step up maybe and say, oh, I wouldn't mind one day in the future to go racing nationally and this category is really cool and also give those nationals sort of that headline of an event and then also seeing the major trophy series events that are on those five circuits that have joined us.
• 26:34
  and to try to facilitate a bit more those logistical hurdles such as getting across the Nullarbor and over the Bass Strait, that's probably the one thing which has hit home very hard coming back is Australia is huge.
• 26:50
  You know, I could drive to Le Mans in 10 hours.
• 26:52
  You drive 10 hours here and you've just reached Sydney from Melbourne.
• 26:55
  So when people say, oh, it's a bit far to go up to this event over here or to go over to Barbagallo, it's like...
• 27:03
  yeah, you're right, but how can we help that?
• 27:05
  So, we've just brought on a grants and funding manager.
• 27:08
  So, we've got someone dedicated to try and to find every dollar available anywhere we can.
• 27:13
  And our idea is to try and say, okay, how can we help venues?
• 27:18
  How can we help categories with any dollar we can to try and get them as national as possible?
• 27:24
  And I've been speaking to the manager over at the Bend.
• 27:27
  They've got a really interesting concept for logistics, which hopefully we can
• 27:33
  It's just growing that and seeing, being the facilitator, being the facilitator of motorsport, that's where I'd really like to angle more of 25 and 26.
• 27:40
  It's been great to spend a bit of time with you.
• 27:42
  You are busy, so thank you for that little window of opportunity.
• 27:44
  Merry Christmas to you and all the very best for 2025.
• 27:47
  Thank you very much.
• 27:48
  Thank you.
• 27:50
  That is it for this edition.
• 27:51
  We'll have some more industry figures on from time to time as a part of our short cast offering.
• 27:56
  I'd love your input there if you have an idea.
• 27:58
  Get in touch with me on social media and let me know.
• 28:01
  Got one coming up with Vaughan Cartwright soon, the Kiwi who worked at Wayne Gardner Racing in supercars before heading overseas.
• 28:08
  And he is doing some groundbreaking work around...
• 28:12
  seating for race cars for drivers but he's also looked after Hollywood stars Olympic champions and much more keep an eye out for that and don't forget our most recent feature F2 lots of feedback on that one with Mark Winterbottom that is one of the best chats over all the years of broadcasting that I've done that I've ever had with Frosty from his excitement about heading back to Ford and Tickford in 2025 to what it was like working and being a part of
• 28:40
  Cars 2, the movie, he had a small cameo role there, and all kinds of cool stuff in between.
• 28:46
  Make sure you check that out.
• 28:48
  Bye for now.