Latest / Rusty's Garage / Drivers Only: Episode 5 with Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes, Dave Reynolds and Wil Davison

Transcript

Drivers Only: Episode 5 with Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes, Dave Reynolds and Wil Davison · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:06
  G'day everyone, Rusty here, about to hand over the reins for the latest ebb of drivers only, which proudly lives here in the garage at Listener and on the Supercars YouTube channel.
• 0:16
  So much for the panel to cover in this ebb, fresh off the back of the Sandown 500 and in the build-up to the big one, the Bathurst 1000, which is only a few weeks away now.
• 0:27
  Plus, since the last edition, news broke about Toyota joining the championship in 2026, which is huge with the Supra.
• 0:35
  and a consortium of supercars executive attended the Singapore F1 night race.
• 0:40
  Could they be on the bill there one day?
• 0:43
  Bit to cover, and fittingly we have a couple of co-drivers on the panel who are handy with a microphone.
• 0:49
  Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes joining Will Davison and the bloke who loves to go off script.
• 0:55
  And we love him for it.
• 0:56
  David Reynolds.
• 0:57
  Fire it up, lads.
• 0:58
  Have some fun.
• 1:13
  We're back.
• 1:15
  Drivers Only episode.
• 1:16
  Episode five.
• 1:17
  Reynolds, you've been on a few of these.
• 1:18
  Dave Reynolds joins us in the Melbourne studio.
• 1:21
  In the Brisbane studio, we've gone interstate.
• 1:24
  Interstate.
• 1:24
  First time ever.
• 1:25
  We've got Craig Lowndes, the modern goat of Bathurst.
• 1:28
  The modern goat.
• 1:30
  And Will Davison from Shelby Power Racing.
• 1:32
  Welcome, boys.
• 1:33
  Hello.
• 1:34
  Hello, hello.
• 1:35
  Sweating up here.
• 1:36
  How are you down there?
• 1:37
  Yeah.
• 1:38
  We're still freezing in Melbourne.
• 1:39
  It's still cold, yeah.
• 1:39
  It's still freezing in Melbourne.
• 1:40
  It hasn't changed since you went home from Sandown.
• 1:43
  It was actually looking pretty good before Sandown, wasn't it?
• 1:45
  It was actually sort of getting into spring and it was like 22, 23, and then we'd get to Sandown, 13 degrees.
• 1:51
  You don't say good, it's just less bad.
• 1:52
  Yeah.
• 1:52
  True.
• 1:53
  It's not like Brisbane, the cold coast, where it's like 30 degrees already up there.
• 1:59
  Big time of year, boys.
• 2:00
  Lounsey, we only get two months of the year that we can call ourselves race car drivers.
• 2:04
  So we're in the middle of that.
• 2:05
  Obviously, Will and Dave full time.
• 2:07
  But let's debrief Sandown.
• 2:10
  Let's start with Craig Louns.
• 2:13
  Wild card with Cooper Murray.
• 2:14
  Great result for the team.
• 2:15
  Cooper was strong at the end.
• 2:17
  How was Craig Louns' weekend?
• 2:20
  My weekend was really relaxed.
• 2:23
  Pretty chill, to be honest.
• 2:24
  I think that, you know, watching little Cooper do both Super 2 and the main game, running back and forth was quite entertaining, to be honest.
• 2:31
  It was sort of, he'd run into the transporter like a Superman, rip all his gear off, put all our gear on, and then jump in the car.
• 2:38
  But the one question we didn't have, which we do now have, is if he did or did not have any endurance.
• 2:45
  And that was a big question because Super 2, as you know, only does five laps and there's a safety car.
• 2:49
  So it's like, bugger me, can we actually get this kid to do double stints at Bathurst?
• 2:54
  And I think we've ticked that box now.
• 2:57
  So I've got a question for you.
• 2:58
  How come he was like the main driver?
• 3:02
  No, no, he was the co-driver.
• 3:04
  I was the main driver.
• 3:05
  But did he qualify?
• 3:06
  No, the reason they made Lounsey the main driver is that then he could start and they could do the traditional strategy and...
• 3:13
  So they only did one driver change.
• 3:15
  So that was traditional stand-down strategy for the wild car car.
• 3:18
  Loophole.
• 3:18
  Loophole and a new rule.
• 3:20
  But we'll now get into that a little bit.
• 3:21
  Most of the cars make the rules, isn't it?
• 3:23
  We'll get into that a little bit later.
• 3:25
  Wilbur, you shared the car with a very young co-driver as well in Kai Allen.
• 3:29
  You guys were pitted next to us, and it looked like they were rebuilding the front of your thing pretty heavily halfway through the race.
• 3:34
  I didn't help that, actually.
• 3:36
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:37
  Well, Dave started off by giving the rear a little touch-up.
• 3:40
  A little one, yeah.
• 3:42
  Only 140 to go.
• 3:43
  I know.
• 3:43
  Just counting down.
• 3:45
  Was that those primary drivers out of control at the start of a race?
• 3:47
  Oh, here we all were thinking, listen, we need to run these co-drivers through these rules.
• 3:51
  They're a bit tricky.
• 3:52
  We've only had how many months to get used to it.
• 3:55
  First one, Enduros.
• 3:56
  And, yeah, there was Dave in my back.
• 3:59
  Yeah, sorry about that, man.
• 4:00
  Making all my fears come true of just let's make sure this sensitive little rear diffuser is nice and straight for the run home.
• 4:06
  I've just got to keep this car straight.
• 4:08
  Nah, nah.
• 4:09
  Thanks, mate.
• 4:09
  Parachute engaged.
• 4:10
  Cheers.
• 4:11
  Sorry, pal.
• 4:11
  I'm really sorry.
• 4:12
  I actually did apologize to you.
• 4:14
  I ran you after I left the track and said, dude, sorry, sorry.
• 4:16
  You did.
• 4:17
  Listen, as you hit me though, I then looked in the mirror and I saw it five wide and it was Slade ploughing you and I think I even saw Slade.
• 4:23
  We were coming with all four locked as well.
• 4:25
  So what happened there?
• 4:27
  Where was that?
• 4:27
  It was down the front straight into turn one because the safety board, the 80K.
• 4:32
  Oh, was that that one?
• 4:33
  What do they call it?
• 4:34
  F-C-Y, F-Y-C?
• 4:35
  Full course yellow.
• 4:36
  So what happens is these days is like the F-Y-C gets triggered and then you get 15 seconds, which is a really long time, to slow down to 80. Who's the bravest?
• 4:43
  I'll stay flat until at least 70.
• 4:45
  What's your number?
• 4:46
  What's your number?
• 4:47
  Well, it depends how fast you go until you are on the track.
• 4:49
  So where were these?
• 4:50
  This was the end of the front straight.
• 4:51
  Were you in the braking zone yet or you're still full noise?
• 4:53
  No, no, no, because Ryan Wood is in front of us and he sort of buttoned off to try and I don't know what he was doing, but maybe he was trying to get space.
• 5:00
  He was conservative.
• 5:01
  Yeah, he was trying to get space to stop double stacking, I think.
• 5:03
  I don't know, to Chaz.
• 5:04
  Is that what you reckon?
• 5:05
  Well, possibly.
• 5:06
  And then, so then he stopped.
• 5:09
  He started to slow down, but then accelerated again.
• 5:11
  So then Will's done the same thing and I've done the same thing.
• 5:13
  And usually from like four, after I get the countdown from five, I'm like,
• 5:17
  dash, that's when I start to really manage my speed to 80Ks.
• 5:21
  And obviously, Will's tried to slow down maybe a second slower than me.
• 5:25
  I think I got to 80 at about two seconds.
• 5:27
  Yeah, I try and get to it at zero seconds.
• 5:30
  Stupid professional I am.
• 5:32
  And then I looked up and I was like, oh shit, there's going to be a big one.
• 5:35
  And then- It is hard though, isn't it?
• 5:36
  Because you're looking at the clock, the speed, and then hopefully in front of you, Dave.
• 5:41
  So I went to the left of Ryan Wood if you would have noticed.
• 5:43
  Yeah, well.
• 5:44
  All of this while this is happening.
• 5:45
  There was only six car lengths either side of my car.
• 5:46
  Are you looking at my dash?
• 5:47
  Are you looking out the windscreen or are you looking at your dash?
• 5:49
  Well, I'm looking at my dash trying to maximize the distance to the car in front.
• 5:53
  In case we do go into the pit stops, I can maybe jump in possibly.
• 5:57
  Well, you were deep.
• 5:58
  Yeah.
• 5:58
  You did well.
• 5:59
  I did, yeah.
• 6:00
  I was deep into your car.
• 6:02
  That's how deep it was.
• 6:04
  And where were you looking, Wilbur?
• 6:05
  Are you looking at your dash, trying to maximise your 80Ks?
• 6:08
  Yeah, listen, I'm not going to lie.
• 6:10
  I was on the conservative side, only because Woody went super conservative.
• 6:15
  Yeah.
• 6:15
  And then I thought of Tassie.
• 6:16
  Which is unlike him.
• 6:17
  I had a bit of a – there was a bit of a close call at Tassie down the back straight.
• 6:20
  And I thought, well, then the safety car got scrambled anyway.
• 6:23
  And I'm like, I'm not going to risk a drive-through.
• 6:25
  To be a hero for no reason.
• 6:27
  So only 140 to go, Dave.
• 6:28
  I thought I'll just go a little conservative.
• 6:30
  Sorry, I was racing.
• 6:32
  We'll never learn.
• 6:33
  I'm terrible at that stuff.
• 6:37
  We've lobbed straight into full course yellow here.
• 6:38
  Well, it's a big talking point.
• 6:41
  Does it work?
• 6:42
  Well, it sort of does as a safety standpoint, but it's really boring to watch because, you know, the way the rule is happening, they do two laps under FYC before they put the safety car out, so they've got three laps minimum.
• 6:53
  I stacked anyway.
• 6:55
  Hey?
• 6:55
  Why did you guys stack?
• 6:57
  Why did you stack?
• 6:58
  I'm not sure.
• 6:59
  Okay.
• 6:59
  Yeah.
• 6:59
  You guys probably need to debrief that.
• 7:01
  Yeah, we have.
• 7:01
  We have.
• 7:02
  In depth.
• 7:03
  Okay.
• 7:04
  You just don't want to tell us, Will.
• 7:05
  It does work sometimes, but not all the time, I think.
• 7:08
  So, okay, let's use the last one.
• 7:10
  at Sandown when Brody Kostecki's engine failed up the back straight.
• 7:16
  Yeah.
• 7:16
  They'd done one lap under full course yellow, and then the car was in the lane, and then they did a further two laps under full course yellow.
• 7:24
  Is that like the Michael Massey rule section?
• 7:26
  No, if Massey was in control, mate, we were racing straight away.
• 7:29
  No, I know.
• 7:30
  That was...
• 7:33
  So, did that take the sting out of the tail of the race?
• 7:37
  Maybe.
• 7:38
  I don't know.
• 7:38
  But, like, Brodie was stuck on the side of the track and we still passed him at 260 k's an hour for a lap, I think, before the safety car came out.
• 7:45
  Or before the FIC came out.
• 7:47
  Brodie's car was out of danger.
• 7:49
  So, they recovered the car.
• 7:51
  under the first FCY lap.
• 7:53
  Yeah.
• 7:54
  And a few cars jumped in because they're going, well, this is going to be a short one.
• 7:57
  So they jumped in and took the gamble late in the race to put fresh tyres on.
• 8:01
  Yeah.
• 8:02
  And then there was a further two laps after that.
• 8:04
  And then anyone that missed the first lap went, oh,
• 8:07
  We'll just pit again.
• 8:07
  That's a good idea.
• 8:08
  Let's do that and cover them.
• 8:09
  And then the ones that finally went, oh, now we're in trouble.
• 8:13
  We've got to cover them off.
• 8:13
  So three laps for what I felt like was probably a one-lap full-course yellow.
• 8:17
  100%.
• 8:18
  So does it take – as it stands at the moment, does it take the strategy element out of it?
• 8:22
  Because one of the – Well, it does because you just wait –
• 8:24
  You just see who takes that first lap.
• 8:26
  And if you're racing that person, they take it.
• 8:28
  Well, then you go, oh, okay, maybe I should pop into pit lane and put some tires on.
• 8:32
  But it takes the element of risk out.
• 8:33
  So back in the old days when the safety car was deployed, the guys in the pit lane literally had like one or two seconds to make a choice whether they were pitting or not.
• 8:41
  And now they've got like six minutes to make a choice whether they want to take tires and fuel and whatnot.
• 8:45
  So it sort of takes that element of risk out and...
• 8:49
  you know, the possibility of losing and winning in a safety car situation.
• 8:53
  So I don't know what it was like to watch from, but in the...
• 8:57
  It takes a long time.
• 8:57
  Yeah, in the car, it took a long time to actually complete the whole cycle.
• 9:01
  Would we prefer to spend these races or fuel races?
• 9:05
  I mean, the double stacking might make it exciting for everyone watching, but I always... Yeah, double stacking is great.
• 9:11
  It puts it back on the drivers to out-crawl by your teammates.
• 9:14
  We've all gained from it and lost from it probably equally over the years.
• 9:17
  You go to the finish race for years in a few weeks, and your whole focus for 130 laps is to make sure you don't get ruined by that.
• 9:24
  We can't do FYC or FCY for two laps of Bathurst.
• 9:27
  It'll be 12, 15 minutes under FYC because –
• 9:30
  And we also never went back to green.
• 9:32
  We always went from full course to safety car.
• 9:34
  We did one.
• 9:35
  Why just have them?
• 9:37
  Yeah.
• 9:38
  We did one go green from FCY at Sandown, which we should have done with the Brodie Kostecki one.
• 9:44
  Yes.
• 9:44
  Yeah.
• 9:46
  So, I mean, we've got to circle back because this is all done so that we can get safety marshals or recovery marshals on the track more quickly because the cars are instantly down to 80k an hour.
• 9:56
  So we can get the recoveries done more quickly so we can get back to racing more quickly.
• 10:00
  But somehow we're tripling the time that it takes to do a very minor recovery.
• 10:04
  All right.
• 10:05
  I've got something on that, actually.
• 10:07
  Okay.
• 10:07
  Go, Reynolds.
• 10:07
  So why can't we just – we've all done indoor go-karting, right?
• 10:10
  Okay.
• 10:11
  Here we go.
• 10:11
  In indoor go-karts, when there's an accident, they press the button and all the go-karts go down to like one speed.
• 10:17
  Why can't supercars just implement that?
• 10:19
  Just press a button, we all go down to speed at the same time.
• 10:22
  Like indoor go-karts have it.
• 10:23
  Why can't we have it?
• 10:24
  It's a fuel car, Reynolds.
• 10:26
  It would too, yes.
• 10:27
  I wouldn't have my front of the car staffed and the rear of my car staffed.
• 10:30
  It'd be a sale all day.
• 10:32
  Because indoor go-karts are doing maybe 30k an hour.
• 10:35
  We're doing maybe 300k an hour.
• 10:36
  It's probably a bit more.
• 10:37
  It's just another zero.
• 10:39
  Big deal.
• 10:40
  Let's test that on your card, Dave.
• 10:42
  Let's close out Sandown.
• 10:44
  Craig Lowndes, I think we're going to know the answer to this one, but who impressed you the most at Sandown?
• 10:49
  Well, yeah, I'd say Cooper only because he put his elbows out.
• 10:51
  Oh, what a surprise.
• 10:52
  I actually spoke to Cam after the race, and I said to Cam, why in the hell did you hit us on the restart?
• 10:57
  He goes, well, I was always going to hit him.
• 10:59
  So he's putting pressure on the young kid, and he actually got his elbows out.
• 11:02
  I was really impressed.
• 11:04
  I thought your car would have been stuffed after that because he went through like the turn two whoops.
• 11:08
  Did he hit him?
• 11:09
  Where did they touch those two?
• 11:10
  In the turn two.
• 11:11
  Hit turn two.
• 11:12
  Mortis tried to pass him, and then they obviously.
• 11:13
  Go to the inside of turn two.
• 11:14
  Interesting new passing opportunities on the weekend.
• 11:17
  Yeah.
• 11:17
  Everyone was trying at two, four.
• 11:19
  Oh, my Jesus.
• 11:20
  This is new.
• 11:20
  Yeah, there was a lot going on at four.
• 11:22
  There was plenty of toughness.
• 11:23
  Everyone's got about like turn one.
• 11:24
  There's a new curb on the inside of four, so people were just four wheels across that.
• 11:28
  Bomb diving.
• 11:29
  Yeah, that's a bit rude.
• 11:30
  Bomb diving.
• 11:31
  That's a new one.
• 11:33
  Wilbur, who impressed you at Sandown?
• 11:36
  Hmm.
• 11:37
  Who impressed me at Sandown?
• 11:39
  Oh, see, I love it.
• 11:41
  CL, like top five, that's pretty awesome for a wild card.
• 11:44
  Drag me out.
• 11:45
  I was watching, hang on, no, I wasn't watching the start when I got out.
• 11:48
  And GT, you were all over those guys.
• 11:53
  I can't remember who it was.
• 11:54
  I think I was more, I was like, that car's working well on the last sector.
• 11:57
  But you were pretty close to those Red Bull guys.
• 11:59
  And I just love seeing older guys just absolutely nail it.
• 12:04
  Fernando Alonso Yeah Yeah It's an interesting race Because I think we saw A fair bit of silliness Like We all started the race Is that directed at me Will?
• 12:15
  No no Because you're normally Very sensible Dave Normally I have I think that was just A lack of eyes up I don't think you meant that
• 12:22
  But early on, and you know you can damage your car at Sandown, and I'm on the grid going, it's an enduro, Will.
• 12:28
  It's an enduro.
• 12:29
  Let's not go into sprint mode, mind.
• 12:31
  But then you look at the start, I think it was JC into wood, and he's half backwards at one.
• 12:36
  And then obviously Anton was then drilled at four.
• 12:39
  And I'm like, Christ, this is a straight car situation.
• 12:41
  It's going to be one of those days.
• 12:43
  So I'm like, I'm going to play it smart today.
• 12:44
  But clearly our car got...
• 12:47
  I got more hits than Elvis throughout the day.
• 12:50
  Reynolds, who impressed you?
• 12:51
  Who impressed me?
• 12:53
  Well, I'm impressed by watching the co-drivers go because it was all quite normal and professional when the main driver was out there.
• 13:02
  But when the co-drivers got in, it was like pandemonium.
• 13:04
  It was awesome to watch.
• 13:06
  And that's what impressed me.
• 13:07
  Okay.
• 13:07
  So question, does the rule of starting the primary drivers, does it work?
• 13:16
  I don't know.
• 13:16
  Take the strategy out of it.
• 13:18
  Well, it does take the strategy out, but everyone would have done the same strategy anyway.
• 13:21
  They would have done the Lowndes strategy.
• 13:22
  They would have done, yeah, the Lowndes strategy, which is the old strategy.
• 13:26
  Nothing's wrong with it.
• 13:27
  But does it work?
• 13:28
  Did it work?
• 13:28
  I mean, sample size is only one at the moment.
• 13:31
  Exactly.
• 13:31
  It's only one.
• 13:32
  Lowndes sounds very vocal on this.
• 13:34
  Go.
• 13:35
  Well, it does.
• 13:35
  It takes away a strategy, especially when we go to Bathurst.
• 13:38
  I understand what they're trying to do in the sense of I think it's a weather dependent.
• 13:42
  If it's a wet start, I can gather a bit of a common sense about that, having the main drivers start the race.
• 13:48
  But at the end of the day, co-drivers, we pick co-drivers because of their hopefully speed and their sensibility.
• 13:57
  So they should have the pressure of starting a race as much as we are.
• 14:01
  It's one thing the co-driver report doesn't show, does it?
• 14:03
  I was looking at that yesterday.
• 14:05
  I'm like, where's the sense in this?
• 14:07
  You see some of the best performing co-drivers, what I thought, were a long way down the performance of the co-driver report.
• 14:13
  I made that point before the race that –
• 14:16
  a lot of co-drivers are doing an amazing job anonymously and you won't know unless you're in team land and you, you go right into the numbers and you digest it in the analysis after the race.
• 14:27
  You go, Holy smokes, that guy did a mega job.
• 14:30
  I did not see one second of that.
• 14:31
  Yeah, that's right.
• 14:32
  Cause he wasn't locked up through the grass.
• 14:34
  No, no, exactly.
• 14:35
  Cause he did a good job.
• 14:36
  So elbows out.
• 14:37
  So it's a tricky one, isn't it?
• 14:38
  I think you appreciate the co-driver getting the elbows out in a way.
• 14:43
  until you get in the car and your steering wheel's, you know, halfway down and the bumper's hanging off it.
• 14:48
  And everyone's like, he did a good job and now I'm slow.
• 14:51
  That's not Kai.
• 14:52
  Actually, Kai got wiped out.
• 14:55
  But last time I gave it to my co-driver to start the race and he drove the wheels off it.
• 15:00
  Yeah, well, yeah, I did.
• 15:02
  The wheels fell off the thing.
• 15:04
  I wanted to do the debrief to make sure you didn't do the wheels up, Reynolds.
• 15:08
  Okay, that sand down, let's lock that away.
• 15:11
  Thanks for that because it took off the rear wing of the moth car.
• 15:14
  Of water's thing.
• 15:14
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:15
  Good shot, that.
• 15:16
  Try and do that twice.
• 15:17
  Bounce it off the backboard, use the guardrail and take someone's wing out.
• 15:21
  A little bit of news lately, post-sand down, pre-Bathurst.
• 15:26
  Toyota.
• 15:27
  That's big.
• 15:28
  It's massive news.
• 15:29
  Big for the sport.
• 15:30
  Absolutely massive.
• 15:31
  Did anyone see it coming?
• 15:33
  No, not at all.
• 15:34
  I'd never heard that in the whispers of the grapevine or anything like that, and I was ever so surprised.
• 15:40
  They've always been talking about a Kia or a Toyota coming in once we've gone to these generation cars, because that's why, in theory, we went to them.
• 15:49
  But it's interesting that Wilkinshaw is the first to jump.
• 15:52
  Probably not surprised if someone said six months ago, who's going to be the next homologation team.
• 15:57
  Who's the second team?
• 15:59
  Good question.
• 16:01
  Good question.
• 16:02
  I think we have answers on a T-shirt, I reckon, in our pod right now.
• 16:09
  David Reynolds has got Toyota on his T-shirt.
• 16:11
  Oh, sorry.
• 16:12
  You said who's going to be the second team.
• 16:13
  Second team.
• 16:14
  Yeah, yeah.
• 16:14
  I thought you were saying who could be another homologation team.
• 16:17
  No, I wouldn't.
• 16:18
  There's only ever one homologating team.
• 16:20
  Yeah, so Walkinshaw is the factory team, if you like, and they've said that they will pick a second team halfway through 25.
• 16:29
  Is that- 100% Dave's going to have a Land Cruiser company.
• 16:32
  I think so.
• 16:32
  I was thinking more like- You look like a Stinger man.
• 16:37
  I was thinking more like Toyota.
• 16:38
  Supra.
• 16:39
  Toyota Echo.
• 16:42
  86 for you, Dave.
• 16:43
  Yeah, yeah.
• 16:44
  I have been enjoying the Fast and the Furious memes with like Ryan Walkinshaw and the Toyota Supra.
• 16:49
  Yeah, right.
• 16:49
  It's really funny.
• 16:50
  I remember when you were young, you had that little RX-7, Dave.
• 16:53
  You picked me up one day and I didn't think I was going to make it home.
• 16:55
  You had the skeleton gear knob on it.
• 16:58
  Yeah.
• 16:59
  He was a Formula Ford kid.
• 17:00
  I'm like, he's like, let's go to dinner.
• 17:03
  We went to Frostbite, I remember.
• 17:04
  Did he take you to Hungry Jack's?
• 17:07
  Frostbite.
• 17:07
  Do you remember Frostbite?
• 17:08
  Yeah, I was shifting.
• 17:09
  I was looking at the gear stick and Dave was having one of his excited little moments.
• 17:15
  in the drizzle.
• 17:16
  Oh my, oh dear.
• 17:17
  Getting back to your question, GT.
• 17:20
  Yes, I think it's good for the sport because when we saw the other brands coming in, they actually like, it was interesting to see the reaction before they came in and no one wanted it.
• 17:29
  They just wanted the traditional Ford, then Holden GM.
• 17:33
  But when they did come in, everyone loved it.
• 17:34
  So I think Toyota coming into the sport.
• 17:36
  The other interesting thing is, is on the weekend with the Singapore race, we had some representatives up there.
• 17:41
  So we could even be up there as well.
• 17:43
  Really?
• 17:44
  Have you gotten used to brake, Lowns?
• 17:46
  No, no.
• 17:46
  I just know that some of our key supercars, people were up that way.
• 17:50
  So it's a good little area for Toyota.
• 17:53
  But if you could have picked any manufacturer like top of the pot, really.
• 17:57
  Toyota would be a global.
• 18:00
  That was the one for years everyone's mentioned.
• 18:02
  Oh, well, they've got like 25% of the market in Australia.
• 18:06
  The world's largest carmaker.
• 18:08
  The biggest sales in Australia.
• 18:09
  Like it's the big dog nowadays in Australian motoring.
• 18:12
  So...
• 18:13
  They've been flirting with supercars for 20 years.
• 18:16
  So I think it actually will open the floodgates because if other manufacturers that are maybe casually looking at supercars go, wow, Toyota, after 20 years of looking at supercars have decided now's the time to jump in, there must be something in that.
• 18:30
  So I would imagine that there'll be corporate offices in Australia for other manufacturers revisiting their strategic plan with supercars on the back of Toyota's decision.
• 18:40
  Whether that leads to another manufacturer, I don't know, but they'll be certainly looking at it for sure because Toyota moves the market.
• 18:47
  They dictate the market.
• 18:49
  They've got such a large percentage of it that they can dictate what they want.
• 18:53
  I'm really looking forward to it.
• 18:53
  I think it's a really good move.
• 18:54
  No, I think so.
• 18:55
  Are you, Dave, driving one of their products?
• 18:57
  Yeah, Dave's really looking for it.
• 18:59
  Well, no, I actually drive a Silverado at the minute.
• 19:02
  I actually don't know anything about it.
• 19:03
  I only found this out last week.
• 19:05
  I think it's surprising that a pretty high-profile driver has left one of the Ford factory teams to go to what was, at the time, seemed to be a very small two-car operation.
• 19:16
  And maybe that he had some intel that maybe there was a big deal in the wind that maybe, hey, if you come to our team, some good things are going to happen in the future.
• 19:28
  I had absolutely no idea about it.
• 19:30
  I wasn't talking about you, Reynolds.
• 19:31
  Oh, you weren't?
• 19:32
  Okay.
• 19:34
  Anyway, so that's big.
• 19:35
  Are you pointing at Anton there?
• 19:37
  Maybe.
• 19:37
  Apparently the engine's the same out of the NASCAR.
• 19:40
  It's going to be.
• 19:40
  Yeah, no, it's a quad-cam five-litre capacity engine.
• 19:44
  So very similar to the Ford engine.
• 19:46
  How are the Ford engines going, by the way?
• 19:48
  Well, maybe not the best at the moment.
• 19:51
  Are they going to make Bathurst?
• 19:53
  There will be Ford engines at Bathurst.
• 19:55
  Why are you asking this question, David Graham?
• 19:56
  Because I've had a few failures recently.
• 19:58
  Do you miss your Mustang from last year, though, Dave?
• 20:01
  Because it was going very well.
• 20:02
  It was my Mustang.
• 20:03
  It was going awesome at the end of last year.
• 20:05
  You won some races.
• 20:05
  I did.
• 20:06
  I was going awesome.
• 20:07
  Yeah.
• 20:08
  And, yeah, I enjoyed my time with Grove Racing and had a great time.
• 20:11
  And I'm driving a Chev now.
• 20:13
  It's all good.
• 20:13
  Okay.
• 20:13
  Okay.
• 20:14
  Who's going to go look at the Supra at Bathurst?
• 20:16
  They'll have a concept or a mock-up of their Gen 3 car there.
• 20:21
  Reynolds is going to have a look.
• 20:22
  I'll have a look.
• 20:22
  Who's driving?
• 20:23
  Is it going up in your truck?
• 20:24
  No, it's not in my truck.
• 20:26
  Is someone driving or it's just like a... No, it's just a mock-up.
• 20:29
  I think they're doing a full-size clay model of the car.
• 20:31
  Because the actual car is quite small, so they have to stretch it, don't they, mate, to...
• 20:37
  A little bit to sort of make the...
• 20:39
  It's got Volvo S40 vibes about it.
• 20:41
  Does it really?
• 20:42
  Well, they're talking about stretching cars over the... Driving that thing at 70% throttle for a few test days.
• 20:49
  Remember that?
• 20:50
  What's that?
• 20:51
  That's right.
• 20:52
  When you have one team with a new manufacturer, it's dangerous.
• 20:54
  Well, no, you'd have to argue that the testing is a lot more rigid now, obviously with tunnels and AVL dyno.
• 21:02
  I'm just laughing at that opening day at SMP.
• 21:05
  I'm not sure if Scott would actually admit this publicly.
• 21:09
  Yeah, mate, I was driving around at 70%.
• 21:10
  It's not all day.
• 21:11
  I was catching people that much down the street.
• 21:14
  I've seen some data having driven for that team.
• 21:16
  Oh, yeah, you did too, yeah.
• 21:19
  Yeah, it was quite a lot of potential, that car.
• 21:21
  That car sounded awesome.
• 21:22
  When they started up for the first time, I was like, Jesus, that sounds amazing.
• 21:25
  Actually, look back on that.
• 21:26
  I think someone just touched on that where –
• 21:28
  Our sport's based on red versus blue.
• 21:31
  People come and crash the party.
• 21:32
  No one's happy until it's gone.
• 21:34
  And then it's like, oh, how good was the Volvo and the Merc?
• 21:37
  Yeah, that's right.
• 21:38
  Yeah, it was really cool.
• 21:39
  Well, even now, I mean, Will and Dave are probably too young, but people retrospectively think about the Group C touring car era of Australian motorsport, the early to mid-80s, and they go,
• 21:49
  oh, that was the golden era.
• 21:50
  And you look at the grid sizes and there was 13 cars and pole was three seconds faster than second and all the rest of it.
• 21:57
  The cars were cool, but it wasn't probably the best motorsport era of the time.
• 22:01
  Is that when minis were rolling around too?
• 22:03
  No, minis were 60s.
• 22:04
  60s.
• 22:04
  Yeah, a little bit earlier.
• 22:06
  Group C mini.
• 22:07
  Yeah.
• 22:09
  So we're in enduro mode at the moment.
• 22:12
  And when we don't currently have the enduro cup anymore, do we?
• 22:16
  So we have two enduro races, but there's not really an enduro cup.
• 22:20
  So we're 50, 50 here, two primary drivers, two co-drivers.
• 22:24
  Do we need to have another endurance race to, and as part of the expanding of the calendar, hopefully one day in the future, do we need to add another endurance race to add more of the enduro element into our sport?
• 22:36
  Yeah.
• 22:36
  Yes.
• 22:37
  Yeah.
• 22:38
  Straight up.
• 22:38
  Like a true car driver.
• 22:40
  Yes.
• 22:41
  Yeah.
• 22:42
  Well, I think when they used to have three, it was really good.
• 22:44
  I reckon they could even have four if they wanted to.
• 22:46
  Well, four's a lot.
• 22:47
  No, no, no.
• 22:48
  It's a lot of work.
• 22:49
  For us guys, for myself.
• 22:51
  Just a full enduro championship coming at this time in my career.
• 22:54
  That'd be beautiful.
• 22:55
  Yeah, I suppose, yeah.
• 22:56
  No, I don't think – there's two guys probably not far away from enduro roles.
• 23:01
  Yeah, four would be good because I can jack the contract price.
• 23:05
  No, I think we don't want to have three when we're 12 races as a championship because as a percentage of the championship, that's too much.
• 23:11
  But if we do expand to 14 races, for example, then why couldn't we go back to three co-driver races?
• 23:19
  Well, I think it will be three next year, won't it?
• 23:20
  Will it?
• 23:21
  I think so, as far as I'm concerned.
• 23:23
  No, I'm not so sure it will be.
• 23:24
  I'm not so sure about that either.
• 23:26
  But the question is because, don't forget, the Ben's back on the calendar next year and they've been, I don't know if it's officially promised on paper and signed off on, but from what I understand that an Enduro will be at the Bend.
• 23:37
  So we may not necessarily have the Sandown 500 next year as a two-driver race.
• 23:43
  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
• 23:45
  Actually, I think the band will be great as an endurance venue.
• 23:47
  Not going to Sandown for like an endurance?
• 23:49
  No, for the two drivers, the traditional precursor of our first race.
• 23:53
  Yeah.
• 23:54
  Was it last year or the year before we just went straight to the 1,000?
• 23:58
  That was 19.
• 23:59
  19?
• 24:00
  Was it really?
• 24:01
  Yeah.
• 24:01
  Jeez.
• 24:02
  Well, that time's passed a lot faster than I've ever had.
• 24:05
  I just realised what year it is.
• 24:06
  You now have two children, Dave.
• 24:08
  Yeah, that's right.
• 24:09
  Yeah, that's right.
• 24:11
  Where's my life gone?
• 24:12
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:13
  It's collapsing in front of me.
• 24:14
  Nappies and midnight changes.
• 24:15
  Yeah, it sucks, I know.
• 24:16
  I'm still in the full swing of that.
• 24:19
  Yeah, I do like having a precursor.
• 24:22
  Oh, we will.
• 24:23
  I would imagine that there will be a 500k race pre Bathurst, but it won't be the Sandown 500, which is the – may not be.
• 24:29
  I love Sandown as a track.
• 24:31
  I love, like, the historical –
• 24:33
  part of it.
• 24:34
  I love the track layout.
• 24:35
  I love the curbs.
• 24:36
  I love everything about it.
• 24:37
  Besides the weather, the weather sucks and everyone knows that.
• 24:40
  It's actually a really cool place to drive in.
• 24:42
  Isn't that cool though?
• 24:43
  The weather being... Well, it does add an element.
• 24:45
  I was hoping for chaos Friday night.
• 24:47
  I'm like, let's just pour down all weekend.
• 24:48
  My car was amazing.
• 24:49
  Good old famous historical Sandown 500s with absolute carnage in the mud and...
• 24:54
  I mean, I wasn't that quick in the drive.
• 24:55
  That's just the case.
• 24:56
  I was really hoping for one of those days.
• 24:58
  Actually, same.
• 24:59
  But I do love Sandown because it has a lot of deg.
• 25:03
  So you do have to drive it a certain way to look after the tyre.
• 25:06
  You can see people in the pack expend their energy on their tyre straight away and you know you're going to get them later.
• 25:11
  And there's that sort of element of finesse and experience that you need to drive a car.
• 25:19
  So I do love Sandown as an endurance race.
• 25:22
  And we've had a 500 at the Phillip Island MQR.
• 25:25
  And it doesn't really have the same.
• 25:27
  I actually drove a Will Davison at the Phillip Island 500.
• 25:29
  Did you?
• 25:29
  Yes.
• 25:30
  That didn't last long.
• 25:31
  How did that go?
• 25:32
  How did that go?
• 25:32
  That was a HRT.
• 25:33
  How did we go?
• 25:34
  There were three of us.
• 25:35
  Dave, I recall, I think you ripped the steering out early or someone here.
• 25:39
  Did you?
• 25:40
  I think it was Lukey Heights or MG. What year was that?
• 25:43
  What did you crash with?
• 25:45
  2010.
• 25:45
  2010.
• 25:45
  I can't remember.
• 25:46
  I don't think I crashed, did I?
• 25:48
  I think someone hit you.
• 25:49
  I think we DNF'd.
• 25:50
  Did you?
• 25:51
  I'm sure.
• 25:52
  What year was that?
• 25:53
  What year was that?
• 25:54
  2010.
• 25:55
  2010.
• 25:56
  So did I have.
• 25:56
  Cam McCon.
• 25:57
  I'd had a 100% win record with HRT till then.
• 26:00
  Garth and I, we took them both out in 09.
• 26:03
  Bring Reynolds in, the young guy that we'd groomed, and he crashed it.
• 26:06
  Stuffed it up.
• 26:07
  I don't remember crashing.
• 26:08
  To be honest, I was highly guilty for that.
• 26:09
  That's a worry.
• 26:10
  Sorry, Dave.
• 26:10
  I still regret that.
• 26:11
  Actually, yeah, you guys were one of all.
• 26:13
  Only because what he was going to do on the podium.
• 26:14
  Wilbur did a whole lot more damage at Bathurst.
• 26:16
  What was he going to do?
• 26:18
  I don't think he was going to have his race suit on.
• 26:20
  I think there was like, I don't know, 20 laps to go, and they said, oh, you're looking like you're going to come third.
• 26:25
  Are you going to celebrate in a certain way?
• 26:27
  I said, yeah, I'm going to stand naked on the podium.
• 26:30
  and then, yeah.
• 26:31
  They must have told Will because he must have told Will.
• 26:34
  CL and J-Dub were in front.
• 26:35
  We're just in a big fuel safe.
• 26:37
  Yeah.
• 26:37
  Actually, rumour has it, without the safety car I caused, you guys weren't going to make it home.
• 26:42
  I was very tight.
• 26:43
  His was very tight.
• 26:45
  I was good.
• 26:46
  Were you?
• 26:46
  Well, it was better.
• 26:47
  Because I'll never forget.
• 26:48
  I think it was lap 153.
• 26:49
  I mean, yeah, exactly that lap.
• 26:52
  That's what it was.
• 26:53
  And I remember that lap.
• 26:54
  It was just saving, saving.
• 26:56
  And I'm like, well, we're going to try and win this thing or not.
• 26:58
  Like, you guys were saving.
• 26:59
  And it was literally like, just go.
• 27:01
  Just go.
• 27:01
  We don't know if we're going to make it.
• 27:03
  We were good.
• 27:04
  And I went.
• 27:06
  Into the fence.
• 27:09
  That happened right in front of me.
• 27:11
  Right in front of me.
• 27:12
  Yeah, it really hurt.
• 27:14
  And I went flat down to the grate, the old cars, you know how we had it back in the day, guys.
• 27:21
  But I just stepped and I grabbed the marbles and, oh, ouch.
• 27:25
  Yeah.
• 27:25
  You broke your rib, didn't you?
• 27:26
  Yeah, I did.
• 27:27
  Or cracked a rib.
• 27:28
  Yeah.
• 27:28
  Same thing.
• 27:29
  Opened a tear duct.
• 27:31
  Yeah.
• 27:32
  Yeah, yeah, no.
• 27:34
  At least my pants got to stay on.
• 27:36
  Oh, I still regret that.
• 27:45
  Welcome back to our post-Sand Down, pre-Bathurst, drivers-only podcast.
• 27:50
  This is episode five.
• 27:51
  We have David Reynolds with me here in Melbourne, Craig Lowndes and Will Davison in the Brisbane studios.
• 27:58
  And in the run to Bathurst, guys, and we'll have some pretty wide and varied...
• 28:03
  versions of this.
• 28:04
  I want to know what your very first memory of Bathurst.
• 28:08
  So Will Davison, you're from a racing dynasty, not necessarily a Bathurst racing dynasty, but what's your first memory of Bathurst?
• 28:16
  As in my first trip to the mountain?
• 28:18
  No, I want to know the first thing when you think about the earliest thing that you can remember about Bathurst, what is it?
• 28:27
  I wish it was earlier.
• 28:28
  Like, as you said, I don't think Bathurst is, you know, it's not.
• 28:32
  My bread and butter was Sandown, Adelaide Formula One.
• 28:36
  Bathurst, I mean, it's probably a pack of arseholes by Jimmy.
• 28:39
  No, it's maybe a bit earlier than that.
• 28:42
  I love that one, too.
• 28:42
  I've got images of a Crompo talking his way around in the HRT car.
• 28:46
  Someone tell me.
• 28:47
  Was that 91?
• 28:48
  Percy?
• 28:48
  No, what?
• 28:49
  Grice and Percy.
• 28:50
  When did they win HRT?
• 28:52
  That was the early 90s, yeah.
• 28:55
  1990, that was a VL, yeah.
• 28:57
  What was the... No, no, okay.
• 28:58
  Cito, was it the 87 in the Nissan in the wet?
• 29:01
  Yeah, I've got images of that.
• 29:02
  That's hanging it out out of the cutting.
• 29:04
  But we see that vision everywhere, don't we?
• 29:07
  And just those Sierras.
• 29:09
  I mean...
• 29:10
  60 horsepower to 600 like a switch, you know, to this day until I've actually got the detail from DJ and Bowie.
• 29:17
  Like I've just, that's like my dream car.
• 29:19
  And then DJ's like, mate, it actually wasn't that much fun.
• 29:24
  But, yeah, the Sierra.
• 29:25
  I'm just going to go with the Sierras, the onboard shots of the Sierras, shootout laps.
• 29:31
  You should ask DJ about.
• 29:32
  That's what you're going with, Will.
• 29:35
  Yeah.
• 29:35
  I wish it was earlier, but, listen, that's about it.
• 29:37
  You should ask DJ about when he was commentating a lap and the rear wing collapsed on him down the end of the chase.
• 29:43
  Wasn't that the sprint when they did the sprint race there in 94?
• 29:46
  Mid-90s.
• 29:47
  No, it was 96.
• 29:48
  Mid-90s.
• 29:49
  Were you racing then, Lance?
• 29:50
  Were you racing there then?
• 29:52
  Not in the main game, no.
• 29:53
  No, no, no.
• 29:53
  So it must have been earlier than 96.
• 29:55
  Yeah, it must have been 93.
• 29:56
  Maybe early 94, but yeah.
• 29:59
  So DJs had flexi wings back in 94.
• 30:02
  Yeah.
• 30:03
  Is that what you're saying?
• 30:06
  Maybe not the technical version of a flexi wing.
• 30:08
  Lowns, you're the elder statesman of us, so what's your earliest memory of Bathurst?
• 30:14
  Post-war, please.
• 30:15
  Post-war.
• 30:15
  Post-war.
• 30:16
  Yeah, yeah.
• 30:17
  Colour vision.
• 30:19
  The FX Holden.
• 30:21
  No, I'm the...
• 30:23
  Probably the early eighties, I think is when it really, you could like dad used to go there all the time and, and scrutineer and help out and all that sort of stuff.
• 30:30
  Um, and it was actually interesting.
• 30:32
  Dad still got some old eight millimeter, um, you know, the old projector, you know, used to drag it out at home and had a white sheet and used to watch it.
• 30:39
  And there was nothing in pit lane.
• 30:41
  It was just literally a yellow line.
• 30:42
  That was the difference between a racetrack and a pit lane.
• 30:45
  There was no wall, no nothing.
• 30:47
  And, uh, but the early eighties, like the big bangers and all that, like George Fury, um,
• 30:51
  even Kevin Bartlett and the old Camaro.
• 30:54
  Like it was, but that era, again, like what GT was saying, like the racing you loved, but if you actually really analysed it now, it was probably not that good because there was a big difference between the car and the car.
• 31:05
  Well, Brock did win a close one in 79.
• 31:07
  He only won it by six laps.
• 31:09
  Yeah.
• 31:09
  And he broke the record, I think, in the last lap too.
• 31:11
  Yeah, last lap, broke the lap record.
• 31:13
  Can I just, something I love is, what's that vision of a few years ago we all drove,
• 31:17
  PB's cars.
• 31:18
  Yeah, yeah.
• 31:20
  Oh, no, what was it we said?
• 31:21
  When Lowndes and we crashed that Monaro.
• 31:23
  Oh, the Monaro.
• 31:23
  What if you really crashed down the hill and you're sliding across the bucket?
• 31:26
  I don't know what you're talking about.
• 31:27
  I've got it.
• 31:28
  Oh, you do know because there's vision of it, so don't bail out of that one.
• 31:31
  We had the full wobble into the dipper.
• 31:33
  And that was typical Lowndes luck when he gets away with that stuff.
• 31:37
  If it was any of us other three, we would have crashed the bloody thing and it would have been a massive drama.
• 31:41
  But Lowndes was smiling, look at me and look how good I am.
• 31:44
  He's completely out of control in this priceless race car.
• 31:47
  Were you in the 87 VL?
• 31:48
  Yeah, I was in the 87.
• 31:50
  And, man, I was so scared because it had just been restored.
• 31:55
  Like that was almost its first drive.
• 31:58
  And I'm like, and they're like, yeah, you'll be right.
• 31:59
  Get into it a bit.
• 32:00
  And I was like, no chance.
• 32:02
  No way.
• 32:04
  And then I hear about old mate that's having a moment coming down the S's over Skyline in the Monaro.
• 32:08
  Well, they told me after I got out of the Monaro that they were the original tyres.
• 32:12
  So I actually wanted to try and go for a, I think back then they were doing like three minute laps.
• 32:17
  Three minutes.
• 32:17
  Yeah, just over three.
• 32:18
  So I wanted to have a crack at a lap, but Scaife was in one car and Todd Kelly was in another.
• 32:23
  I had the Bill Patterson Tirana, actually, the 78 pole winner.
• 32:27
  Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 32:27
  That was great.
• 32:28
  And then Jamie Singh stopped up to the cutting.
• 32:31
  That's right.
• 32:31
  Ran out of fuel.
• 32:32
  Typical Jamie story, ran out of fuel.
• 32:36
  Jerry Ken.
• 32:37
  What's your list, Mel?
• 32:39
  Mine.
• 32:39
  Mine was watching on TV 1984, Hardy's Heroes, Dick Johnson crashing into the trees.
• 32:47
  Oh, yes.
• 32:47
  So, and then the story after that of them buying the car.
• 32:52
  So this is, I was in Perth, obviously, growing up.
• 32:54
  So on the seven news that night, oh, they're trying to do some deal.
• 32:58
  Then you turn up in the, turn the telecast on in Sunday morning and they'd done the big reshell of another car or taken another car and tried to rebuild Green's Tough into another car and that whole thing.
• 33:08
  Really as like, oh, that was 84.
• 33:10
  So I was seven.
• 33:11
  Yeah.
• 33:12
  I should have called it Trees Tough.
• 33:13
  Trees Tough.
• 33:14
  I had a guy last year, a guy come up last year, which is one of the cool things being with DJR on and off so many years.
• 33:19
  But, I mean, you'd think DJR, he's seen every bit of memorabilia and signed every body orifice in the world and did a car part.
• 33:27
  But there was a guy that that night said he went down to the tree, a bunch of green bark off the tree that he'd had framed up.
• 33:33
  No way.
• 33:34
  Wow.
• 33:34
  Yeah, yeah, and he brought it to the track, and I was like, DJ, you're going to want to see this.
• 33:37
  And I think even he was a bit wowed.
• 33:39
  I don't think he believed it at first, but I think it was 100% authentic.
• 33:42
  It was a shill salesman painted some bit of bark out the back green and said, oh, I've got yours, DJ.
• 33:47
  I believe him.
• 33:48
  That's something I'd do.
• 33:49
  Reynolds?
• 33:50
  My memory, it's actually –
• 33:53
  It's the 24-hour Bathurst in 1992.
• 33:56
  Is it James Hardy 24-hour?
• 33:57
  It was the 12-hour back then.
• 33:59
  The 12-hour, sorry.
• 33:59
  And there was a Mazda RX-7 that was winning, and my old man sat up and watched it.
• 34:03
  I remember waking up in the morning.
• 34:06
  Well, it does a little bit.
• 34:08
  So I remember waking up in the morning.
• 34:09
  It was like 8 o'clock in the morning, and I walked out, and my old man started watching the 12-hour, and there was a green...
• 34:16
  BP, I think it was.
• 34:17
  Yeah, BP.
• 34:18
  BP, RX-7.
• 34:18
  There was.
• 34:19
  Dick Johnson, Greg Hansford, Neil Crompton, Scaife was driving.
• 34:24
  There was a couple of cars.
• 34:25
  Yeah, okay.
• 34:27
  Some big dogs doing the guns.
• 34:29
  Careful how you say that.
• 34:33
  And then I ended up buying RX-7 when I was 15 years old, a Series 1, and I've still got it today.
• 34:38
  Oh, is that the one you were talking about, Will?
• 34:40
  Oh, yeah.
• 34:40
  No, I had two of them.
• 34:42
  Oh, did you?
• 34:43
  Did you need to get a second one because the first one?
• 34:46
  Well, the first one was mine.
• 34:48
  The second one was my brother's that became mine.
• 34:50
  It was like a hand-me-down RX-7.
• 34:52
  So you didn't.
• 34:52
  But that's the one that had the Skull Gear knob sideways onto the Eastern Freeway.
• 34:58
  So first, okay, so let's keep the Bathurst thing going.
• 35:01
  And first, Wilbur, first time you raced at Bathurst.
• 35:06
  Was it in a supercar or was it in something else?
• 35:08
  Yeah.
• 35:08
  It was in a Formula Ford.
• 35:10
  Yeah, Formula Ford.
• 35:10
  That would have been awesome.
• 35:12
  Yeah.
• 35:13
  Good year for you, GT.
• 35:14
  2000.
• 35:15
  Ah.
• 35:15
  2000.
• 35:16
  Is that you and Bugs?
• 35:17
  Yep.
• 35:17
  You and Bugs 2000.
• 35:18
  Because actually it is a good story.
• 35:21
  Was that my old car?
• 35:23
  No, no.
• 35:23
  So I'd already raced that all year, the 95 VD, which is Garth's 97 championship winning Formula Ford car.
• 35:31
  And that was my first Formula Ford in 2000.
• 35:33
  But then at the end of the season, we did the support race at Bathurst in the 98 Van Diemen, which was...
• 35:40
  my brother's car the year before and Stewie McColl, our teammate had raced it that year.
• 35:44
  So we thought, oh, we'll do, we'll do Bathurst in the, in the longer wheelbase, um, 98 VD.
• 35:50
  And it pierced down with rain all weekend.
• 35:52
  I'll never forget that because I mean, I've arrived there.
• 35:54
  I was in awe anyway, just the first lap of that place up the mountain.
• 35:58
  Couldn't actually see that the rain was so bad.
• 36:00
  My first session, um, at the mountain and the support pits where we were, uh,
• 36:06
  I remember getting the car to the grid and getting back after the session.
• 36:10
  I had to get a run-up.
• 36:11
  There was like four former fours bogged in the mud.
• 36:14
  And then I got a run-up and just like just gassed it and got through to where our pit was.
• 36:18
  Trucks were buried in.
• 36:19
  It was anyway a memorable weekend.
• 36:21
  But my first ever session, I was P1 by five and a half seconds.
• 36:25
  Um, but only because I was just telling everyone going flat out.
• 36:28
  Not bragging or anything.
• 36:29
  I remember old Mick Ritter just popped his head in.
• 36:32
  He goes, oh, not bad now.
• 36:33
  Cause I'm pole by five and a half seconds.
• 36:35
  I wasn't pole.
• 36:36
  It was P1.
• 36:37
  But, um, yeah.
• 36:38
  And won the race, had a cracker with Nick Agland for memory.
• 36:42
  Oh, so wet.
• 36:43
  And then crashed in the second one with him at the chase.
• 36:47
  But yeah, memorable.
• 36:48
  Imagine the first time you ever went there, pissing down rain.
• 36:51
  No, I did.
• 36:51
  The first time I went to Bathurst was, Lowndes, you remember these, the media days.
• 36:56
  Remember when the championship used to finish at Oran Park in about August, and then we'd go straight up to Bathurst and do the media day.
• 37:03
  And I'd never seen Bathurst before at all in 98, so obviously raced the balance of the championship in 98.
• 37:10
  uh, go up to, for the media day, which was on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
• 37:14
  And, uh, and it was, as we were driving through Lithgow, it was snowing and I'd from Perth, never seen snow before.
• 37:20
  I was like, holy smokes, what's this place all about?
• 37:22
  And then we got to Bathurst and, and it was, yeah, it was like nine, it was like 2000, that same, it was just torrential rain.
• 37:29
  And, uh,
• 37:29
  Those of us that are driven for Gary Rogers will know that he just goes, no, you're not driving in the rain.
• 37:34
  We're not going out there.
• 37:36
  Everyone's skidding around doing laps of Bathurst.
• 37:39
  I've never been there before and I didn't got to do, I think he let us go out and go over the top of the mountain once.
• 37:46
  And that was it.
• 37:47
  It was pouring with rain.
• 37:48
  So I got no prep, no prep, no laps at all prior to,
• 37:51
  to Bathurst in 98.
• 37:52
  So that was the first time I saw the place and it was underwater.
• 37:55
  What was it actually like, boys, being out of like fat arm, you know, when the seat was over.
• 38:00
  Oh, good.
• 38:01
  Rest the arm on the side.
• 38:02
  It's great.
• 38:03
  I think my first chassis I could reach it.
• 38:05
  I'm like I'm a V8 driver down the lane with the elbow up.
• 38:08
  It was great.
• 38:09
  But that would have been, you look at some of those shots of you in 94 CL.
• 38:12
  That was your debut, 94.
• 38:13
  Yeah, yeah.
• 38:14
  94.
• 38:14
  GT and the VS. No, what was the 98?
• 38:17
  Yeah, 98 was VS. VS and then with the VT. Then VT at the end, yeah.
• 38:21
  You look inside them even now.
• 38:23
  Some drivers still have long enough arms they can do it.
• 38:25
  Yeah, you can still fat arm it.
• 38:26
  Yeah, I can do that.
• 38:28
  You can tell those drivers because they drag their knuckles on the ground.
• 38:32
  I have got a cut on the back of my head.
• 38:35
  So Lowndes, what year, did you race at Bathurst Priya to V8?
• 38:40
  Did you do Formula Ford or anything?
• 38:41
  Yeah, 94.
• 38:42
  And it was actually interesting because Will was interesting about you because you drove the Formula Ford there.
• 38:46
  So it was 94.
• 38:49
  You raced Formula 4 there?
• 38:51
  No.
• 38:51
  See, 92, Dad gave me the opportunity to either race at Bathurst or go to the Adelaide Street.
• 38:56
  Oh, okay.
• 38:57
  So I raced over at Formula 1.
• 38:58
  And I unfortunately didn't race at Bathurst in the Formula 4.
• 39:01
  But my first race car at Bathurst was 94, but it was early in the year.
• 39:06
  It was the 12-hour.
• 39:07
  I drove a Nissan Pulsar, Triple S. I did.
• 39:10
  We're the Morris Brothers Classy Yeah, yeah It took me four laps to find a radio station Because it was a full production car That had just a roll cage and a race seat Everything else Beautiful Wasn't radio station code for cheating in production cars Where you got a different engine map or something like that You changed the dial or something No, we weren't that smart then
• 39:28
  And I remember we had, we were racing Murray Carter.
• 39:32
  He had a triple S pulsar as well, but he had the four door.
• 39:35
  We had basically the five door and we were coming down to the last stint and we come into the pits.
• 39:41
  We'd had the TAFE help.
• 39:43
  prepare and basically spanner the car the whole weekend.
• 39:46
  Got to the stop.
• 39:47
  We had to change brake pads and we couldn't get a brake pedal.
• 39:50
  Pedaled me straight to the floor.
• 39:51
  And Dad's just yelling at them basically, just open up the nipples, just bleed, pump it through, pump it through.
• 39:56
  So we spent a bit of time in the pit lane.
• 39:58
  I got a half a brake pedal and he says, all right, lock them up, send him.
• 40:01
  So I'm running around with a half a brake pedal trying to get this thing pumped up.
• 40:05
  And it was actually really cool because it was front-wheel drive and I'd never really raced a front-wheel drive car.
• 40:10
  It was flat across the top.
• 40:11
  It was just like...
• 40:12
  I think it was third gear.
• 40:13
  It was flat.
• 40:14
  Do you remember the lap time?
• 40:15
  And then we ended up winning our class.
• 40:17
  Do you remember what lap time you were doing?
• 40:18
  Probably like a 16 or an 18 or something.
• 40:20
  216?
• 40:21
  No way.
• 40:22
  I've not had a problem.
• 40:23
  16 minutes.
• 40:24
  Yeah, it was probably 16 minutes.
• 40:26
  In 01.
• 40:26
  I think I did a 236.
• 40:27
  I still had the flower.
• 40:29
  We still had the flower.
• 40:30
  I remember in 98, my qualifying time in the supercar was a 14, so there's no way a Pulsar was.
• 40:36
  Maybe it was a three-minute 16.
• 40:37
  Either that or you found a really fast radio station.
• 40:41
  No, I can't remember.
• 40:42
  But it was that first time.
• 40:44
  And the whole purpose of doing the race was hopefully at the end of 94 getting opportunity like we did.
• 40:49
  At least we knew the track and understood what it was.
• 40:51
  And I think you broke at turn two where you were in the Pulsar that day.
• 40:54
  Probably, yeah.
• 40:55
  Around the Bowie up.
• 40:55
  About the 25-minute mark.
• 40:57
  He's used to driving no brakes.
• 40:58
  He missed the brake pedal altogether.
• 40:59
  That's how he passed Bowie.
• 41:01
  I still reckon Bowie broke early that day.
• 41:04
  You missed the brake pedal.
• 41:06
  No, I broke late.
• 41:07
  There's no doubt about that.
• 41:08
  He broke early.
• 41:10
  Hey, guys, you can still scare yourself at Bathurst every year at the six hour in a production car.
• 41:14
  You're welcome to come and join me.
• 41:16
  I've done it the last two years.
• 41:17
  No, thanks.
• 41:17
  No, thanks.
• 41:18
  No, yeah, good call.
• 41:21
  Reynolds, what was the first thing you drove at Bathurst?
• 41:25
  Well, the first thing I drove at Bathurst was a 996 Cup car, I think like 05.
• 41:28
  But my first time in a supercar, I remember I was driving with McConville PWR car.
• 41:35
  It didn't make the start, did it?
• 41:36
  It didn't make the start.
• 41:37
  Blew up on the warm-up lap.
• 41:38
  The engine smith-mortened itself on the warm-up lap.
• 41:40
  It was.
• 41:40
  It was hilarious.
• 41:41
  Smith-mortened itself.
• 41:42
  Smith-mortened.
• 41:43
  It aborted itself, basically.
• 41:47
  But my memory was like, I remember going out.
• 41:49
  Don't say it.
• 41:50
  I remember going out for practice, and all week I've been watching Greg Murphy's shoot-out lap, like 206.8, whatever it is, 206.8.
• 41:58
  I'm like, okay, I reckon I could do that.
• 42:00
  What was your first fly-up?
• 42:01
  That's a mistake for young players doing that.
• 42:03
  My first fly-up was like a...
• 42:05
  14 something, high 14.
• 42:06
  I went, holy shit, I am.
• 42:08
  And you were sure you were doing exactly what Merv did, didn't you?
• 42:11
  Yeah, 100%.
• 42:12
  Like it was miles off the pace.
• 42:13
  I'm like, how am I going to go like eight seconds faster?
• 42:16
  But that happens every year at Bathurst.
• 42:17
  Every year.
• 42:17
  The first lap out.
• 42:18
  It used to be more.
• 42:19
  I'm sure it used to be scarier.
• 42:21
  I don't know.
• 42:21
  Well, remember the surface used to be really bad.
• 42:24
  It used to be like very heavy aggregate, like really deg.
• 42:28
  But now it's like that smooth billiard table surface.
• 42:30
  It gives you a lot of response.
• 42:31
  Obviously, our cars have changed quite a lot.
• 42:33
  But the old cars, the old Gen 1 cars were heaps harder to drive up.
• 42:35
  That's my personal opinion anyway.
• 42:37
  Well, it took me six years to pull fourth into the cutting because I was too scared to downshift a third through it.
• 42:45
  That would have been... Maybe not six years.
• 42:48
  When was that?
• 42:49
  When was that?
• 42:49
  Was that sequential by then?
• 42:51
  No, I did 04, 05, 06, 07.
• 42:53
  So still H-Patton.
• 42:54
  I did four years H-Patton, so I classed my old school.
• 42:57
  Fourth back to third was just straight up, Wilbur.
• 42:59
  You didn't have to go across the gate.
• 43:00
  Yeah, but not when you're hanging over to the length.
• 43:04
  That's what I'm talking about, like Murph, you know, turning flat third.
• 43:08
  Anyway.
• 43:09
  You know what I'm saying?
• 43:10
  Maybe I exaggerated that at the expense of myself, but you get what I'm saying.
• 43:16
  While we're on Bathurst, this year, form guide, who are the ones this year?
• 43:23
  Well, based off the 500, you know, you've got to say the Red Bull guys are very fast.
• 43:28
  The Mossy car will be very fast.
• 43:29
  I hate obvious form guides, yeah.
• 43:31
  Yeah.
• 43:31
  Okay, then let's park the form guides because we'll all say the obvious ones.
• 43:35
  Smokies.
• 43:36
  Smokies, maybe that Reynolds and Luffy.
• 43:38
  No, you can't say yourself.
• 43:39
  Oh, I can't say.
• 43:41
  Luffy.
• 43:42
  Luffy will go really well.
• 43:43
  No.
• 43:43
  That's not myself.
• 43:44
  You can't say your car, Reynolds.
• 43:46
  Seriously.
• 43:47
  Seriously.
• 43:49
  Okay, we'll give you some elevator music time to think about it.
• 43:53
  Lowndes, who's your Smokey?
• 43:55
  Ooh, Smokey.
• 43:56
  That's a good question.
• 43:58
  That's why we're not doing the obvious ones.
• 44:00
  Yeah, yeah.
• 44:01
  I reckon that Kai and Will.
• 44:03
  Oh, thanks, Seal.
• 44:05
  They'll be quick.
• 44:06
  See, what we're doing here is we're actually pissing people off.
• 44:08
  Yeah, yeah.
• 44:09
  We're pissing people off because anyone we say, we're not saying they're the obvious ones.
• 44:12
  True.
• 44:13
  True.
• 44:14
  Those four guys.
• 44:15
  Yeah, so Smoke, why, Craig, why?
• 44:18
  Well, I reckon Kai is a good young talent.
• 44:20
  I think that they'll come out of Sandown, like Will said, like they had a shit run and basically got something to prove.
• 44:27
  And I think that all cars have been quite good there.
• 44:31
  And I think that from memory, they were actually right at the start of the year.
• 44:34
  Anton was good last year.
• 44:35
  Well, Anton was third last year.
• 44:35
  But the soft tyre, obviously.
• 44:37
  Hard tyre at the start of this year.
• 44:39
  I'd like to think you're right.
• 44:41
  We are hit and miss, but we're capable of goodness and we're fired up after a shocker at Sandown.
• 44:46
  That was pretty embarrassing.
• 44:48
  Performance by us, so thanks.
• 44:51
  Who's your Smokey?
• 44:52
  Smokey.
• 44:55
  What have we got?
• 44:55
  What have we got?
• 44:58
  Hmm.
• 44:59
  I just hate starting.
• 45:00
  Play the thinking time.
• 45:00
  Do we need to elevate the music for you too, Will?
• 45:02
  Dave, you were pretty good there, weren't you?
• 45:04
  And Richie was quick there too.
• 45:05
  He's come out of the blocks like first race out of the game for years and set himself up for the year very well.
• 45:11
  So he's got nothing to lose.
• 45:15
  You can see a few times I've raced him at the moment.
• 45:16
  He's racing with a bit of a pointy prove, I think, a bit of an angry man, and he was quick at the start of the year.
• 45:21
  So we'll...
• 45:22
  So my actual real smoky will be Hazelwood and Kostecki.
• 45:26
  Oh.
• 45:27
  He's the reigning champion.
• 45:28
  Are they smoky?
• 45:28
  Reigning champion.
• 45:29
  They've got number one on the car.
• 45:31
  Probably haven't had the recent form to suggest that they're red hot.
• 45:36
  And Brady didn't do the first few races.
• 45:37
  Yeah, they were fast until they won.
• 45:40
  He was so fast last year.
• 45:42
  It was ridiculous.
• 45:43
  So that's who I'm...
• 45:45
  If it's not me, it's going to be them.
• 45:48
  How about you, Garth?
• 45:49
  Golding and Dave Russell.
• 45:50
  Oh, yeah.
• 45:51
  Okay.
• 45:51
  Well, Jimmy was on the front row at the sprint race at the start of the year.
• 45:54
  And we know Dave Russell is a very, very strong co-driver on the podium at Bathurst that probably a lot of people wouldn't have picked.
• 46:01
  So I think they can continue that form.
• 46:03
  Maybe BJR.
• 46:05
  They've just announced their alliance with T8 now.
• 46:07
  Does that kick in?
• 46:08
  Has it kicked in?
• 46:09
  Is it like with immediate effect?
• 46:10
  Craig Lowndes, you're our reporter from Triple Eight Race Engineering at the moment.
• 46:14
  How's it going?
• 46:15
  Jamie's got the money, yes.
• 46:16
  I just want to get access to that cable that's running between 10 cars of information.
• 46:22
  It's a pretty long cable to go from AAA garage down to BJR.
• 46:25
  It's called the data makes it.
• 46:26
  We've got so many cables, they have to make one of those worms, you know, those big worms for travelling information.
• 46:32
  That's a lot of info going back and forth.
• 46:34
  There'd be some propellers flying pretty hard on those.
• 46:36
  Oh, there is.
• 46:37
  JJ and those boys in there, they're always looking at stuff.
• 46:40
  There's always a positive with grouping of big cars.
• 46:42
  Do you guys get 10 cars of info and the others just get two?
• 46:47
  Well, I know we only get information from the two cars.
• 46:50
  So if those two cars get all the information out of the 10 cars.
• 46:53
  It sounds like they're getting paid to get 10 cars of info.
• 46:56
  It sounds like a good deal.
• 46:57
  I reckon that's probably a good deal for them.
• 46:58
  It's not a bad deal, is it?
• 47:00
  There is like a silver lining with everything.
• 47:02
  So there's obviously 10 cars that are grouped together.
• 47:04
  But when they have a bad session, there's 10 cars out there.
• 47:07
  There's 10 cars in the back.
• 47:08
  Do you know what I mean?
• 47:10
  yes Dave we can keep I'm not for it I'm against it I think Triple Eight have pretty much got the runs on the board yeah I know there's a reason why teams want to connect to them I like to think of the positive all the time yeah I know positive for you negative for them
• 47:23
  Actually, I want to give you a funny story before you can come on about Bathurst.
• 47:27
  And it's one that's always stuck in my brain.
• 47:31
  You've got to go all the way back to 97.
• 47:33
  So I've just come out of Europe, had a shit run over there.
• 47:37
  You were Murph that year, weren't you?
• 47:38
  Yeah, it was Murph.
• 47:39
  Was that on the top?
• 47:39
  Yeah, yeah.
• 47:40
  Murph was the lead driver.
• 47:41
  I was just the co-driver, trying to resurrect some sort of a decent year.
• 47:46
  chasing scape across the top of the mountain.
• 47:47
  I go around the outside of a car down into the grate, slam it up against the wall, have to then apologise to the crew, Murph and everyone else.
• 47:54
  And I get out of the car and I walk across to the crowd.
• 47:57
  And I don't know if you remember, there used to be an old police sort of compound at the top of the mountain.
• 48:03
  And I always wondered why there was barbed wire, but it was barbed wire to keep the people out, not to keep the people in.
• 48:08
  So I'm going across and this young kid comes up and he goes to me, he goes, oh, signature, signature.
• 48:14
  And I said, oh, look, yeah, okay.
• 48:16
  I've just had a really bad, bad race.
• 48:18
  I'm really annoyed with myself.
• 48:20
  And he goes, no, no, no, do you want mine?
• 48:22
  And then with that, he runs off through the crowd.
• 48:25
  I'm trying to look for him, the little bugger.
• 48:27
  He's just gone.
• 48:27
  That's like a Richie, Richie.
• 48:29
  How about an autograph?
• 48:30
  Who do I make it up to?
• 48:31
  The dear Richie?
• 48:32
  And then I walk into the police compound, and then they've got this big long trestle with food.
• 48:36
  And I'm thinking, God, these guys have got the life up here.
• 48:39
  So how long did you hang around?
• 48:41
  A little while.
• 48:42
  I had some elite, got rid of it, and then I finally got driven back down the bottom.
• 48:45
  But, yeah, I always remember this little kid being so cheeky.
• 48:47
  I'm like, I've just had a shit of a race, and he's just tipped it off.
• 48:51
  Listen, all the greats have crashed HRT cars there.
• 48:53
  Where did Peter do it?
• 48:55
  05?
• 48:55
  Yeah, he did it up there.
• 48:56
  Same spot.
• 48:56
  You just had to do it.
• 48:57
  I've crashed there.
• 48:58
  I passed Todd Kelly on the outback.
• 49:00
  I did the same in that livery.
• 49:01
  That was a retro livery that year.
• 49:02
  Must be that livery.
• 49:03
  It must be.
• 49:05
  Yeah.
• 49:05
  And then Garth somehow put it in that day and your door fell off in the pit stop in 2010.
• 49:09
  Yeah, 2010.
• 49:10
  So I had to dodge Will crushing the car in front of me.
• 49:13
  We hit a kangaroo.
• 49:15
  The door fell off in the pit stop when Cam McConville was using his triathlon arms and ripped the door off.
• 49:21
  Yeah.
• 49:22
  And early in the race, I was coming into the pit lane.
• 49:26
  And, you know, you go through the chicane before the 40K line at Bathurst and the medical centre's right at pit entry there.
• 49:31
  The medical car's come smoking out of the medical area and driven straight into the rear door of the race car when I'm coming into pit lane.
• 49:39
  So I was like on the radio, guys, this is a measure of how well our day is going.
• 49:43
  The medical cars just hit us.
• 49:45
  That's how well we're going.
• 49:46
  And somehow we still ended up on the podium.
• 49:48
  Actually, I remember before, I think Dave and Cam were in the car and I'm chatting to GTs, having the day from hell and my steering's bent, the things this, the things that.
• 49:57
  And then towards the end, I think I'm in third chasing the lead and Garth's behind me.
• 50:00
  I'm like, is Garth the lap behind?
• 50:02
  They're like...
• 50:02
  Oh, no, no, he's back in the race.
• 50:04
  He's coming.
• 50:04
  He's coming.
• 50:05
  Just tell me the thing's a lemon, the steering's bent.
• 50:08
  And I'm like, oh, jeez, right, oh, here we go.
• 50:11
  Maybe the medical car's just straightened up the steering for us.
• 50:13
  I think you said it gripped up at the end and your thing came to life.
• 50:16
  Yeah, it did go all right.
• 50:17
  It was pretty average before that.
• 50:19
  Thanks very much, Will Davison, Craig Lowndes, David Reynolds.
• 50:22
  That has been the Drivers Only Podcast.
• 50:25
  We're looking forward to Bathurst.
• 50:26
  Hope to see you all there.