Latest / Rusty's Garage / Marty Craggill - Part 2

Transcript

Marty Craggill - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with former bike racer turned successful builder Marty Kragle.
• 0:28
  And when I say building, I mean some seriously impressive projects and construction work for some big names.
• 0:35
  More on that soon.
• 0:36
  Now, if you've come into Pit Lane and jumped straight onto the spare bike for part two without riding the other machine, part one, head back to the library and check it out.
• 0:46
  From the early days and turning down the family's wish for him to try cycling to backing himself by taking out a decent loan to go motorcycle racing.
• 0:56
  Climbing the ladder after encouragement from a few legendary mentors and coping with setbacks, especially a major crash that very nearly ended his career.
• 1:07
  We pick up part two by delving into the mental impact of that crash with wildlife at Phillip Island and how difficult it was to get back to racing.
• 1:20
  I don't want to dwell on the dark stuff because that's not a great thing.
• 1:24
  Yeah, I know.
• 1:25
  But I like it to be a positive spin, right?
• 1:29
  So were there people that helped get you back on track?
• 1:33
  Was it just this sort of dogged mindset from you that I'm going to go racing once again?
• 1:38
  How did you pull through that mentally?
• 1:42
  We didn't have anybody like now where you have anybody to go to.
• 1:49
  Luckily enough, after 18 months, it started to, it came good and I started riding again.
• 1:55
  But I was riding around with this contraption on my hand, which was lacquer bands, to open my hand so I could ride a motorbike.
• 2:02
  It was absolutely crazy in hindsight.
• 2:04
  So what did you have, like a string of elastic bands?
• 2:06
  Yeah, it's had these hands, there was like a claw that lifted my fingers up because it...
• 2:11
  It came back like the feeling and the...
• 2:14
  So it could send a message.
• 2:15
  Yeah, but it travels down your arm.
• 2:18
  So over a period of time, your fingers are the last thing and your wrists are the last thing that come back to life.
• 2:24
  You're having therapy and steroids to try and keep the thing alive, but it's coming back to life because most of the nerves are working.
• 2:34
  So then I started writing with these...
• 2:39
  The claw.
• 2:39
  The claw.
• 2:43
  And I started to ride well again.
• 2:45
  And then, yeah.
• 2:47
  Two things here, if I can.
• 2:49
  Firstly, did you kind of go back to, I mean, you only got one arm.
• 2:55
  Did you, were you going to go back to ship building or boiler?
• 2:58
  What were you going to do?
• 2:58
  I couldn't do anything.
• 2:59
  I had a paralyzed arm.
• 3:01
  So I was not working.
• 3:05
  Are you on the couch?
• 3:06
  Yeah, on the couch, just trying to.
• 3:08
  um, rehabilitate, go on, go on a physio, go into the doctors.
• 3:14
  We didn't have anybody to talk to.
• 3:17
  And I think when you go through something like that, when the party, when you're paralyzed, this is just my theory.
• 3:26
  It's your theory.
• 3:27
  Yeah.
• 3:28
  It's, it scars you.
• 3:29
  It let you, it etches something in your mind.
• 3:31
  And I think once you go through that, you can go through anything.
• 3:34
  I like it.
• 3:35
  Yeah.
• 3:35
  I like it.
• 3:36
  The silver lining is it taught you something kind of thing.
• 3:40
  Yeah.
• 3:40
  So no matter what happens now, I just go back to being that person, how I felt like those months and I can deal with it.
• 3:49
  Amazing.
• 3:50
  Yeah.
• 3:51
  Where were you when you rode a bike for the first time?
• 3:53
  Describe the feeling.
• 3:54
  I rode a bike with the claw at Winton.
• 3:57
  Did they tell you you're not allowed to do this and you went and did it?
• 4:00
  Yeah.
• 4:00
  Of course.
• 4:00
  Yeah.
• 4:02
  go.
• 4:02
  So Winton, what's the bike?
• 4:04
  Yeah, it's a super bike and I've got the claw on and there was, there was a guy there, um, who was, you know, pretty, pretty good rider.
• 4:11
  And I'm riding around with his claw and he goes, geez, you're going all right.
• 4:15
  And I said,
• 4:17
  Sugar.
• 4:17
  That's a good bit of sugar, mate, after the months that you've had.
• 4:20
  Yeah, this is over a year later.
• 4:21
  And I said, are you playing with me?
• 4:24
  He goes, no.
• 4:26
  And I started looking at lap times and he goes, they're not going to let you race, Marty, with that on your hand.
• 4:31
  I said, yeah, but I think it's going to come good.
• 4:32
  He goes, oh, you sure you want to do that?
• 4:35
  And I said, yeah.
• 4:36
  Anyway, so a couple of months later, the nerve is growing down my arm at that time and I'm coming back.
• 4:43
  Coming back, yeah, back.
• 4:45
  Yeah, back at work and back trying to get money again.
• 4:48
  Just let's go again.
• 4:49
  Here we go again.
• 4:50
  Awesome.
• 4:52
  What was the point where you committed to coming back and how did you stitch all that together after this period?
• 4:58
  So, Bob, this time we're into 94, so Peter was fantastic.
• 5:04
  I said to him, look, and I...
• 5:06
  Can you give me an old bike?
• 5:08
  I don't want to give up.
• 5:09
  And he's like, yeah, we'll give you a T. He had an old bike.
• 5:12
  Jesus, he's good.
• 5:13
  He's awesome.
• 5:14
  He, yeah, I don't know.
• 5:19
  So it was a Kawasaki, obviously.
• 5:20
  Yeah, Kawasaki.
• 5:21
  What'd you get?
• 5:23
  One of their old race bikes that was something that they...
• 5:28
  They had spare kind of thing?
• 5:29
  They had spare.
• 5:29
  Yep.
• 5:30
  He said, yeah, we'll give you an old bike, try again.
• 5:33
  And yeah, it didn't start off the season that well, but obviously trying to get back into it, got my arm working better, started training again, started cycling as a, because my knee was still very, it was a point that was, I was always looking, that was always the thing that was slowing me down because I couldn't run.
• 5:56
  So I had to cycle once, but then I started cycling, then I could run and then I started, my fitness improved dramatically.
• 6:02
  Did you drop a heap of weight in this process too?
• 6:03
  Dropped a heap of weight, yep.
• 6:06
  And then it started to go pretty well again and Peter started to give me a little bit more support and then Malala 2 plus 4.
• 6:15
  Yep.
• 6:16
  So when you say that to people listening, we're talking supercars basically now.
• 6:20
  You're on the program with the Australian Touring Car Championship.
• 6:22
  That was the great offering for fans.
• 6:24
  You were both there.
• 6:25
  So you're there, Malala.
• 6:26
  Huge day.
• 6:26
  I'm pretty sure you would have been there.
• 6:28
  Probably.
• 6:28
  Yeah.
• 6:29
  Peter Brock was retiring, I think, in 1994.
• 6:32
  Massive day.
• 6:32
  Yeah.
• 6:34
  Me and Dad in a van again, all the Peter Jackson Yamaha and Winfield Honda and
• 6:40
  Factory Ducatis and I won both races.
• 6:43
  Unreal, mate.
• 6:44
  Me and dad in a van.
• 6:46
  So Peter's like, bloody hell.
• 6:48
  And that night the phone starts ringing from Europe.
• 6:52
  Do you want to have a ride on our bike?
• 6:55
  And I didn't actually, I went to Japan a few times and tested other brands.
• 7:02
  But I didn't really want to do the wrong thing by Peter because he'd done the right thing by me.
• 7:08
  So I stayed with Peter for 95.
• 7:11
  Uh, and had a, yeah, had a, had a really bad year in 95.
• 7:15
  Uh, for various reasons, basically had the wrong tires.
• 7:20
  Everyone, I, Peter hedged his bets with the team.
• 7:23
  He had Mladen and myself.
• 7:26
  Mladen was on Dunlops and he put me on Michelins.
• 7:28
  Okay.
• 7:29
  And everyone was on Dunlops except he, but Michelin had a better tire, but they just didn't bring him to Australia.
• 7:35
  So I, I.
• 7:36
  Won a couple of races when it was really warm, but if it was cold, I was out the back.
• 7:40
  Okay.
• 7:42
  He stuck by me for 96.
• 7:44
  And you stuck by him too.
• 7:45
  Yeah.
• 7:45
  That green loyalty served you well.
• 7:47
  What I want to kind of fast track a little bit to here, because you've talked about the adversity, mate, and how you've come through that, you go on to win the Australian Superbike Championship.
• 8:00
  Yep.
• 8:00
  What did that mean to you, given everything you'd been through?
• 8:04
  Yeah, it was huge.
• 8:07
  You win it more than once, I should point out too.
• 8:08
  Yeah, I won it twice.
• 8:10
  Yeah.
• 8:11
  Battling with Bayliss for the whole of 97, last race of the...
• 8:17
  Of the series last round.
• 8:19
  It was he wins or I win, we win the title.
• 8:22
  So it was a big race.
• 8:23
  And obviously with everything that we'd been through, it was a big deal.
• 8:28
  And then I won it and I thought back then it was actually everyone who had won the Australian Championship previous to that.
• 8:36
  Basically it was a ticket to the World Superbike Championship.
• 8:39
  So I was the first guy that that didn't happen to.
• 8:41
  So I was gutted because I thought,
• 8:45
  I'm away here.
• 8:45
  I'm away here.
• 8:46
  Cause I, that was the goal.
• 8:48
  And then I ended up racing in Australia in 98 and I won again, but because I'd lost Troy had gone to England, Matt had gone, Gaber had gone, Corsa had gone.
• 9:02
  Everyone had gone.
• 9:03
  So I'd lost all my sparring partners.
• 9:07
  I'd lost interest.
• 9:08
  The guys that I was racing with in 98, I knew I had them.
• 9:11
  Okay.
• 9:12
  So I'd lost, I sort of lost interest a little bit.
• 9:14
  I'd sort of, I knew I, I went back to work.
• 9:17
  Yeah.
• 9:18
  I wasn't training like I was.
• 9:19
  I put on five kilos, which is not a big deal, but you're already a little bit heavy.
• 9:22
  You're tall.
• 9:24
  I won, but I sort of thought, I can't do this again.
• 9:28
  So did you, are you saying you sort of shelved the idea at this point of going overseas or what did you think?
• 9:34
  I mean, if you'd.
• 9:35
  I was a little bit disgruntled.
• 9:37
  Yeah?
• 9:38
  I just didn't... And we were racing a production bike as well, which was a 900cc sports touring bike against R1s in another series, which I nearly won.
• 9:50
  So I just... Yeah, I was riding really well and I'd already...
• 9:55
  I established myself, but I just wanted to go overseas and I didn't get that gig.
• 9:59
  So I was gutted.
• 10:00
  I was gutted.
• 10:02
  I still won the next year because I knew I had a handle on those blokes.
• 10:05
  I could have a couple of bad races, get my act together and then win.
• 10:09
  But, you know, did you ponder, are you pondering a different approach at this stage?
• 10:14
  Because where we're getting to is a chapter in America.
• 10:16
  You get to go to America and race there.
• 10:18
  When did that happen?
• 10:20
  the genesis of that come about?
• 10:21
  When did you start thinking, maybe I could do that?
• 10:23
  Or how did that, how did that direction?
• 10:25
  Well, the end of 98, Barry Sheen, who was another mentor, he was a bloody ripper bloke who helped a lot of guys.
• 10:33
  He, he spoke to his colleagues
• 10:37
  contacts at Suzuki in England and I went to British Superbike in 99 and, uh, didn't have them for very good season, had a massive crash in the first, the first round and basically wrote myself off.
• 10:50
  What track were you at there?
• 10:51
  At, uh, Brands Hatch, last corner, come onto the straight 130 mile an hour.
• 10:57
  And I, I knew I was in the, I knew I was going to be up the front cause I'd come in and I was about fifth or sixth and I'd.
• 11:05
  put in another one of these tyres, which I don't use anymore, the last one lap, and I looked at the screen, and Troy was second or third, and I thought, oh, I know I can now.
• 11:17
  run with him.
• 11:18
  So I went out and had one more tyre and the first three splits and then coming onto the straight, I just whacked the throttle open because I was used to these tyres.
• 11:26
  You could just do that.
• 11:28
  And it just, yeah.
• 11:30
  Through you.
• 11:31
  Launched me off and I ended up going into the fence 130 mile an hour.
• 11:34
  On the left there.
• 11:35
  Yeah.
• 11:37
  Yeah.
• 11:37
  Yeah.
• 11:37
  So I was doing 133 mile an hour when my hand left the throttle.
• 11:41
  Went into the fence and just, yeah, broke up.
• 11:44
  The same one that you'd had the injury with?
• 11:47
  Yeah, I'd injured my arm, but I'd injured my knee again, and I'd broken my leg and broken my foot, and it wasn't a good result.
• 11:55
  But then that whole season, because everyone says to you when you're trying to go overseas, we can't give you a ride because you don't know the tracks.
• 12:02
  So I rode after a couple of races, injured, finishing 10th and 15th on a factory Suzuki.
• 12:09
  Suzuki, yeah.
• 12:09
  Everyone's going, oh, this guy's no good.
• 12:11
  But I was, I shouldn't have been riding.
• 12:13
  I should have just come home and started again.
• 12:16
  Called it quits.
• 12:16
  Yeah.
• 12:17
  Towards the end of the season, you know, started to do really well again, but it was too late.
• 12:22
  Mm-hmm.
• 12:23
  The Sheeney phone call or was that him coming to, I mean, he was here obviously with Channel 9 in a bike sense and later with Channel 10 and so on.
• 12:30
  Did he sort of stop in and see you?
• 12:33
  Yeah.
• 12:34
  Yeah.
• 12:34
  He was a great guy.
• 12:34
  He everyone loved Baz.
• 12:37
  But he was a mentor for so many guys though.
• 12:39
  What sort of stuff did he talk to you about?
• 12:41
  Bike set up.
• 12:42
  Yeah.
• 12:44
  Life out of, after, you know, away from racing.
• 12:48
  Yeah, Marty, you got to do blah, blah, blah.
• 12:51
  But, you know, he would talk to me about how I was riding, how I was braking.
• 12:54
  He was talking about bike setup.
• 12:56
  He would notice things, mate.
• 12:57
  Mindset.
• 12:58
  Yeah.
• 12:58
  Yeah.
• 12:58
  Yeah.
• 12:59
  He was awesome.
• 13:00
  What sort of mindset stuff do you reckon?
• 13:02
  Just concentrating and being around.
• 13:04
  He was very good about being around the right people.
• 13:07
  He was very, you know.
• 13:09
  In business and in life kind of thing, huh?
• 13:10
  Yes, yeah.
• 13:11
  So that year is effectively a ride-off for you.
• 13:16
  Did you curtail any further European plans at this point and decide to either go back to Oz or go to America?
• 13:22
  What transpires next?
• 13:23
  I didn't get a ride the next year.
• 13:25
  Rode a couple of races back here on a Honda.
• 13:28
  Yeah, did really well at the end.
• 13:32
  with that.
• 13:32
  And then I got a call up to go back to England for the sort of half season on a Kawasaki that Peter Goddard had, he'd been flicked off.
• 13:40
  Okay.
• 13:41
  Uh, didn't do very well on that either.
• 13:44
  Did okay.
• 13:47
  Um, and then the following, the next year I went to world super bike, which was unusual because Troy Bayless recommended me to Ducati.
• 13:54
  Troy had already done really well.
• 13:56
  Fantastic.
• 13:56
  Troy said to Paolo Chibati, he's now still running Ducati race, racing department.
• 14:03
  Try this guy.
• 14:04
  Try this guy.
• 14:04
  He can ride a bike.
• 14:06
  And I rode world super bike and I, the bike was every race of, so that every race of the year, my bike was slower than the top 15 races.
• 14:18
  600s.
• 14:20
  So, through the speed trap, I was slower than sometimes the top 2600s.
• 14:25
  What's going on there?
• 14:27
  Yeah, it was.
• 14:27
  And I'd come back in and my boots were full of petrol.
• 14:30
  And I'm like, this ain't right.
• 14:33
  And anyway, really, a couple of wet races, I did really well.
• 14:39
  Nearly finished on the box, but.
• 14:40
  Okay.
• 14:41
  Yeah, then.
• 14:43
  The last round, Troy had won the championship, and Troy said to Ducati, I'll give Marty one of my engines and a tech for the day.
• 14:48
  We're at Imola.
• 14:49
  That was cool of him.
• 14:50
  Yeah.
• 14:52
  So I got one of his old engines and a tech.
• 14:56
  And I finished eighth.
• 14:59
  Boom.
• 15:00
  Boom.
• 15:00
  I can ride a bike anyway.
• 15:02
  So I've had enough and I thought I'm going to- This is brutal though, mate, because you're finally where you want to be in some respects.
• 15:09
  Yeah, it's up and down.
• 15:12
  These are great.
• 15:13
  They're tough, but they're great life and business lessons, mate, aren't they?
• 15:16
  Yeah.
• 15:17
  What you need to negotiate for or have.
• 15:21
  Got to be fairly resilient.
• 15:23
  Yeah, resilient.
• 15:23
  That's a great, yeah, so true.
• 15:25
  Yeah.
• 15:26
  So I basically retired.
• 15:28
  Really?
• 15:28
  Yeah, end of 2001.
• 15:29
  You called it?
• 15:29
  You physically called it?
• 15:31
  Yeah, physically called it.
• 15:33
  Just had Max, he was born, so he was with my partner at the time.
• 15:39
  I thought, oh, we'll just buy a motorbike shop and we just called it.
• 15:42
  Total change.
• 15:43
  Total change.
• 15:44
  This is enough.
• 15:44
  I don't want to do this anymore.
• 15:46
  It's too hard.
• 15:46
  I can't get a proper ride.
• 15:48
  And I was always a bit older and older.
• 15:51
  You're worried you missed the window, mate, kind of thing.
• 15:53
  Yeah, and I didn't want to, you know, I'd just had my first child.
• 15:58
  So we're into 2002.
• 16:00
  Then May of 2002, Matt Mladden calls me.
• 16:05
  He says, oh, how are you going?
• 16:06
  Because we were teammates for a couple of years.
• 16:09
  He said, oh, this guy's fallen off a bike.
• 16:11
  There's a really good bike here.
• 16:12
  Do you want to have a ride?
• 16:13
  I said, no, I'm over it.
• 16:15
  I'm done.
• 16:15
  I'm not riding any.
• 16:16
  I hadn't been on a bike since September, October.
• 16:20
  We're now in April, May.
• 16:21
  So over six months.
• 16:22
  Yeah.
• 16:23
  Yeah.
• 16:24
  He said, oh, yeah, okay.
• 16:25
  Anyway, so I have a chat, brings me back a couple.
• 16:28
  He goes, you sure you don't want to have a go on this bike?
• 16:32
  I said, no, no, no, no.
• 16:35
  Anyway, so I spoke to my ex.
• 16:38
  I said, I'll just go for the weekend.
• 16:42
  I'll see how I go.
• 16:43
  So I've always wanted to race in America because that was my dream.
• 16:46
  Yeah.
• 16:46
  Which track?
• 16:47
  So I went to see his pint.
• 16:48
  Okay.
• 16:49
  I got on the box.
• 16:53
  And he ended up staying there for seven years.
• 16:56
  Crazy, mate.
• 16:57
  Yeah, Matt was a great help.
• 16:59
  Yeah, it was a second-tier Suzuki, but yeah.
• 17:02
  Peter Doyle was there, I think, at the time too, wasn't he?
• 17:03
  Yeah, Peter was there.
• 17:04
  He was with Yosh.
• 17:05
  I was on Valvoline bike.
• 17:08
  Ended up staying there, helping Matt.
• 17:11
  Yeah.
• 17:11
  Some great names in that championship too, and it was held in very high regard, mate, wasn't it?
• 17:15
  Absolutely, yeah.
• 17:17
  Yeah, Nicky Hayden won one year, Matt won most of them.
• 17:19
  Yeah.
• 17:20
  Ben Spees.
• 17:21
  So tell people listening a couple of things.
• 17:23
  I mean, what's Laguna Seca like on a bike and stuff like that?
• 17:27
  Laguna Seca's awesome.
• 17:29
  I actually got hit by a guy at the top of the corkscrew
• 17:33
  Someone trying to outbrake themselves.
• 17:35
  Yeah, tried to outbrake me and hit me from behind.
• 17:37
  And I, at the very top as you go over, I went over the bars and the track just disappeared because it's like falling out of an elevator.
• 17:45
  It's like a rollercoaster drop, isn't it?
• 17:48
  Broke both wrists.
• 17:52
  Yeah, it's so steep.
• 17:53
  You don't get it on the...
• 17:55
  So where did you live and where did you place yourself and what did you do?
• 17:58
  Lived in California, in Southern California, which was awesome for, yeah, seven, six years at Colorado for one.
• 18:06
  Excellent.
• 18:06
  Basically, at that point I was a bit older and I sort of –
• 18:11
  Knew that I wasn't going to be able to get back on a, on a tier one bike.
• 18:16
  I was always on a second tier bike.
• 18:18
  You couldn't get the right tires.
• 18:20
  You'd be great tires, but I was always, I could finish top five.
• 18:23
  You made it work.
• 18:24
  I could make, I could keep.
• 18:25
  I, I, I.
• 18:28
  It's a tough way to make a living and you've got to be at the front to be able to keep on getting a ride.
• 18:32
  I was good enough to do that, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to run at the front on what I had.
• 18:37
  So I wasn't, I was, for a few years I was concentrating more on trying to help Matt, trying to keep him on the straight and narrow and keep him motivated and getting fit.
• 18:47
  I was helping him with his training and.
• 18:50
  Nice.
• 18:50
  A couple of Aussies and.
• 18:52
  Yeah.
• 18:52
  We were, there was a lot of motocrossers living in the same area and a lot of road racers were all lived in.
• 18:58
  around the Ontario airport so we could fly out of there.
• 19:00
  Yeah.
• 19:02
  But a lot of barbecues on the, you know.
• 19:03
  Excellent.
• 19:04
  Are you motorhoming it most of the time?
• 19:05
  Yeah, motorhomes, a lot of motorhomes.
• 19:07
  Yeah.
• 19:08
  Yeah.
• 19:08
  A lot of motocrossing, a lot of cycling.
• 19:11
  And Matt just dominated.
• 19:13
  He did.
• 19:13
  Yeah.
• 19:13
  He really did.
• 19:15
  Let's tell people a couple of highlights, mate, from that American chapter.
• 19:18
  Is there a race, a place?
• 19:20
  Is there something that really stands out in your mind?
• 19:23
  What's the one from the American chapter that you sort of treasure?
• 19:26
  No, I won a race at Brainerd.
• 19:27
  It was pretty good in Formula Extreme, which was a pretty good story.
• 19:30
  The bike was 1,340cc.
• 19:32
  Oh, wow.
• 19:37
  Um, that's good for a six foot two bloke.
• 19:39
  Yeah.
• 19:41
  So yeah.
• 19:42
  That's wild.
• 19:42
  Turn one at brain, it's sort of the same as Phillip Island, but flat, got no camber.
• 19:47
  This thing had that much power.
• 19:49
  You go, go from six to fourth or six to fifth.
• 19:51
  It didn't make any difference really what gear you're in.
• 19:54
  It would just slide and wheelie on the way out.
• 19:56
  Unreal.
• 19:57
  Um, so you had a win.
• 20:00
  That was probably the highlight.
• 20:01
  Yeah.
• 20:01
  Yeah.
• 20:02
  Staying seven years is pretty significant, mate.
• 20:05
  The arm was a problem the whole way through.
• 20:10
  I couldn't manage the pain with my arm.
• 20:11
  So I'd start off Friday, my arm would be pretty good, and then Saturday I would stress it.
• 20:18
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:19
  So this is what you were talking about before about ice packs and things.
• 20:21
  How are you managing it?
• 20:23
  What did you do to manage it?
• 20:24
  Nerve pain is really hard because there's sort of holes where stuff aren't
• 20:33
  Connected.
• 20:33
  Connected and growing and getting nutrients.
• 20:35
  So, yeah, it's dead.
• 20:38
  And are you trying to hide this from competitors and rivals and stuff?
• 20:41
  What are you doing?
• 20:42
  Nobody knew.
• 20:43
  Really?
• 20:43
  Yeah, Matt didn't even know.
• 20:44
  Wow.
• 20:45
  Yeah.
• 20:46
  So I've got a knee that doesn't bend on my left, and I've got an arm that doesn't want to work on the right.
• 20:50
  So I knew that I'd come to the end of my career, but I was just trying to help.
• 20:56
  Yeah.
• 20:56
  That's what I loved.
• 21:06
  Marty loves dirt bike riding to this day.
• 21:09
  And while he ended up pursuing circuit racing, there's some guests in the Rusty's garage library who stayed on the supercross or motocross path.
• 21:16
  Like, the legendary Chad Reed.
• 21:19
  The big thing is that it comes down to, you know, not only, you don't have to be, it's not just that you need to be an endurance athlete or an explosive athlete or, you know, it's like you have to be the fittest out there.
• 21:33
  You have to be the fastest out there.
• 21:34
  You have to be the most consistent out there.
• 21:39
  You can find that two-part chat with Chad Reed in the garage library.
• 21:42
  Now back to Marty with Rusty, one of the few people to ride a supercross track on a posty bike.
• 21:49
  Nice one, safety Sam.
• 21:52
  When did you kind of call time at the end?
• 21:56
  Yeah.
• 21:56
  And what did you, what was the point where you went, okay, I really need to make a significant shift, which we're about to discuss here.
• 22:02
  Yeah.
• 22:05
  I had a really good year with Boulder Ducati in 2007.
• 22:09
  Won a couple of races in Formula Extreme.
• 22:14
  And then I'd signed a three-year contract with Giacchetti, Italy, to go back to America on a superbike.
• 22:21
  So I went to Italy, signed the contract.
• 22:25
  At the end of 2007, the GFC happens.
• 22:29
  So it makes it for you a little bit, this decision.
• 22:32
  Yeah, so racing's over.
• 22:35
  So I got the call in February of 2008.
• 22:39
  I sort of started...
• 22:42
  thinking about what am I going to do life after racing, but basically got the call, you know, Chiquetti's not going to race in America.
• 22:50
  Ended up no one's going to race in America.
• 22:53
  So basically I decided to pull the pin and I thought, well, I'm going to retire.
• 22:58
  I'm going to start a business and I'm going to get divorced all in the one day.
• 23:03
  Pretty heavy, serious decisions you're making there.
• 23:05
  Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but ripped a Band-Aid off and let's go again.
• 23:09
  So you come, you decide I'm going to come home?
• 23:11
  Yeah, come home.
• 23:13
  Did you know, I mean, you now have this company called Maz Group, which I think is tremendous.
• 23:18
  You're doing work at Melbourne Airport, significant works at Melbourne Airport, for example.
• 23:24
  We'll get to the training that you did to get to this point.
• 23:27
  But did you have this idea before that even started or you didn't quite know what you're going to do in business terms?
• 23:33
  What were you thinking?
• 23:34
  I didn't think it would end up.
• 23:37
  as big as what it has.
• 23:38
  I wanted to get it to a decent business, but I always was driven to be able to, I always wanted to have a business.
• 23:44
  Yep.
• 23:46
  Construction?
• 23:46
  Construction.
• 23:47
  Construction, yeah.
• 23:47
  As a shipbuilder, as a kid.
• 23:51
  I just wanted to be able to, you know, be master of my own destiny.
• 23:56
  Yeah.
• 23:57
  So what transpires?
• 23:58
  You've had this experience
• 24:00
  Epiphany moment where you've made massive change, and I'm in massive change in your private life and your decision to stop racing because of the GFC and so on.
• 24:10
  Do you come back and go, right, I need a few tickets.
• 24:12
  I've got to go and get a diploma in this, or what were you doing to get armed and equipped?
• 24:18
  Yeah, so as a boiler maker, I just started working by myself at the airport as a contractor, and then at the...
• 24:24
  A little while later, well, I've got to go back to night school, get my diploma, I've got to get my builder's license.
• 24:30
  A couple of years later, I've got my builder's license.
• 24:33
  Amazing.
• 24:33
  And you are now a spokesperson around this stuff, aren't you?
• 24:37
  Yeah, ambassador for TOV, for Trade Institute Victoria.
• 24:42
  We use their students regularly.
• 24:46
  Do you?
• 24:46
  Yeah.
• 24:47
  We've got a lot of people that are from Tier 1 builders.
• 24:55
  Very well equipped to basically do anything.
• 24:57
  Working at the airport, you can do anything.
• 24:59
  If you can work at the airport, you can build anything anywhere.
• 25:02
  Working in a live environment is very difficult.
• 25:05
  I've been there.
• 25:06
  It's been a couple of years since I've actually seen it, so I'm sure it's grown significantly in that timeframe.
• 25:12
  Just a little rewind.
• 25:15
  When you started there, was it you and what work were you doing there?
• 25:18
  It was just me as a boilermaker on my own.
• 25:21
  And you're repairing, what things are you doing?
• 25:24
  Just contracting welding pipe brackets and cleats and stuff.
• 25:29
  And then I gather, mate, people are like, oh, can you fix this?
• 25:33
  We need one of those.
• 25:36
  Well, one of the guys who was a facility manager was...
• 25:41
  whinging about one of the other contractors and I'm welding away and he's, he's said, oh, this door's security door.
• 25:49
  So it's got to be fixed.
• 25:49
  He said, oh, this bloke hasn't turned up.
• 25:51
  And I said, oh, I'll fix it.
• 25:52
  And he goes, oh, can you do that?
• 25:54
  And I said, yeah, give me a go.
• 25:55
  And it comes back a couple of hours later and it's fixed.
• 25:58
  And he goes, oh, okay, thanks for doing that.
• 25:59
  So this happened a couple of times, a couple of days later.
• 26:03
  He goes, oh, we can't,
• 26:05
  keep doing this through the guy I was working through.
• 26:07
  He goes, we'll put you on the books.
• 26:09
  Fantastic.
• 26:09
  So he puts us on the books and then a couple of months later we're fixing everything and building some, doing some small projects.
• 26:17
  And then he says, well, these are, these other companies not really performing.
• 26:22
  We'll give you the contract.
• 26:24
  Yeah.
• 26:24
  And I'm like, I don't think I can do that.
• 26:26
  I'm not ready for that.
• 26:28
  He goes, I'll give you a hand and I'll, you know.
• 26:31
  Give you all the, all the contacts and all the trades and see how you go.
• 26:35
  What have you got to lose?
• 26:37
  So you, you're studying at nighttime and what are you studying in here?
• 26:40
  What are you doing?
• 26:41
  Uh, building and construction.
• 26:42
  Yep.
• 26:43
  So yeah, going to night school after work.
• 26:46
  What tickets did you get yourself?
• 26:48
  What, what, what things have you?
• 26:49
  Yeah.
• 26:49
  Got my diploma in building and construction.
• 26:52
  Yeah.
• 26:52
  Got my third four, started off with that.
• 26:55
  Yeah, three years of night school.
• 26:57
  And you, one of the things that is probably the great lesson for all of us, whether you're chasing the racing dream, if you're an aspiring racer, or someone who's listening that perhaps has their own business, you are big on working.
• 27:11
  And if I am I right in saying that you might have even brought the motorhome back from America and for a while you had it sort of at the office and it was like a temporary thing for you because you would fix stuff at all hours of the night.
• 27:22
  You, you, you made yourself on call basically.
• 27:25
  I live close to the airport, but we were, I was working 80, 100 hours a week.
• 27:30
  It was brutal.
• 27:31
  Yeah.
• 27:33
  How many staff now?
• 27:34
  What are you up to now, do you reckon, roughly?
• 27:35
  80.
• 27:36
  Yeah.
• 27:36
  And you have, maybe you're not still there, I don't know, but the office was down towards the jet base entry there and you're basically doing all kinds of projects at the airport to begin with.
• 27:47
  You've expanded beyond that since then, but there's construction and all sorts happening there, isn't there?
• 27:51
  Yeah, small civil construction.
• 27:53
  Amazing.
• 27:53
  We've got our own workshops, offices.
• 27:55
  Yeah.
• 27:56
  there's a lot of people are saying what we're doing at the airport, which is really cool that understand if you can, people that are in very high positions, if you can work there in a live environment, 24 hour, we're a 24 hour a day business.
• 28:07
  You can work anywhere.
• 28:08
  You can build anything.
• 28:09
  So your goal with it has been what, what did you want it to become and has it exceeded even what you thought it might become?
• 28:15
  It's exceeded my expectations.
• 28:18
  That's for sure.
• 28:18
  It's,
• 28:21
  The goal has always been to run it like a race team, I suppose, is the best and have that crew around you that you can rely on.
• 28:31
  A dedicated crew.
• 28:32
  A dedicated team.
• 28:33
  We run it like a race team where we look after each other.
• 28:35
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:37
  where we sort of got that core group that look after the team.
• 28:41
  You're big on that synergy, mate, between racing and this business, aren't you?
• 28:45
  It is.
• 28:46
  It is actually... Yeah, there's a lot of synergy.
• 28:48
  Yeah, there is.
• 28:50
  Tell us a little bit more about that.
• 28:51
  Oh, well, when you...
• 28:53
  If you...
• 28:54
  you're racing nationally or internationally, you're, you're looking after each other.
• 28:58
  If somebody misses a flight and somebody's fatigued, well then, and somebody will pick up the slack.
• 29:05
  You're always looking after each other.
• 29:07
  So we're trying to, we're trying to bring our team up like that as well, where it's, it's,
• 29:13
  It's a culture where we look after each other.
• 29:15
  So somebody's doing the brake bolts on a super bike and they notice that the wire, the tie wire, the safety wire is not done.
• 29:22
  Well, everyone's there looking at making sure the key components of the job are done.
• 29:27
  Well, we've got a team that's built around that culture where we all look after each other.
• 29:32
  And both, mate, are, I'm on the outside looking in here, but both are solutions businesses that require high-end quality.
• 29:41
  They require attention to detail.
• 29:43
  They're both like that, aren't they?
• 29:45
  Yeah, and there's a lot of safety involved.
• 29:46
  Yes.
• 29:47
  Yes, and timelines.
• 29:50
  Yeah, and obviously quality.
• 29:52
  When you're looking at it.
• 29:54
  a MotoGP bike or a 500 or a Formula One car, their attention to detail is incredible.
• 29:58
  Yeah.
• 29:59
  So our quality is always second to none because I'm –
• 30:03
  I don't like that.
• 30:03
  Yeah.
• 30:06
  Our finishes are, you know, we're very, very fussy about what our quality of our work.
• 30:11
  And because we're used to working to schedules, we're very good with our timelines.
• 30:17
  We've, you know, we've always got good equipment because of the racing background.
• 30:21
  You've got to have the right equipment.
• 30:22
  You've got the right tools.
• 30:23
  Yeah.
• 30:24
  We're very process-driven, which all comes from racing.
• 30:28
  The synergies are...
• 30:29
  I love the parallels, mate.
• 30:30
  It's incredible.
• 30:31
  And it's worked really well.
• 30:33
  It's basically a race team that does construction.
• 30:35
  So don't necessarily talk clients because I wouldn't expect you to breach confidentialities like that.
• 30:41
  Just in a more broad sense, talk about what you're doing in sectors maybe beyond the airport because you've expanded from there now, haven't you?
• 30:48
  Yeah, we're working...
• 30:49
  Well, in aviation, doing a bit with shopping centers, doing a little bit with the government.
• 30:54
  Excellent.
• 30:55
  And some really high-end clients.
• 30:57
  Cool.
• 30:58
  Where's it going to go for Marty Kregel?
• 31:00
  Have you got a 10-year plan, 15-year plan?
• 31:02
  What are you thinking?
• 31:03
  We're just trying to grow it, but we're saying no more than we're saying yes.
• 31:08
  In order to keep the quality and deliver, basically.
• 31:12
  Basically, yeah.
• 31:13
  We don't want to...
• 31:16
  we got to just keep things under control where we don't want to let people down.
• 31:21
  So there's a lot of people that travel through the airport and see what we're doing and go see the sea, see us and then go, well, I'll do it.
• 31:29
  come back a couple of months later and look at it and go, geez, these guys have done a good job.
• 31:33
  You won't miss the sign, black, white and yellow Maz Group.
• 31:35
  Anyway, have a look at that next time you're at Melbourne Airport.
• 31:38
  Before we finish here, mate, the ties to motorcycle racing remain for you, don't they?
• 31:43
  I mean, you keep great ties with Peter.
• 31:45
  Do you sort of keep a little eye on, you know, either young talent or perhaps even giving back to Motorcycling Australia in some ways?
• 31:52
  What do you do there?
• 31:54
  I've been talking to Peter a lot about life after sport.
• 31:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 31:57
  I think we need to work on some sort of program for the kids so they can actually think about if they don't make it to be a Casey Stone or a McDowen and sort of be a Marty Kragle.
• 32:10
  That's a great thing.
• 32:11
  I mean, it's not...
• 32:14
  Often when we talk about elite athletes, we don't like the notion of talking plan Bs, right?
• 32:20
  Because you've got to be that ultra committed boy or girl in terms of your goal, right?
• 32:26
  So if you talk plan B, a lot of people think, well, you're automatically on the path to failure because you've got that safety net, right?
• 32:31
  You've got to dispense with that safety net.
• 32:34
  But I think there is absolutely a need, whether it be the sport or...
• 32:39
  whether it be people managing athletes, where we have a commitment to helping to set them up for what happens next, whether that's advice from business people about things you might need to get into or mentally, hey, be prepared because when the drug gets turned off, it's pretty significant.
• 32:59
  That's a huge change in your life.
• 33:02
  Are you ready for that?
• 33:03
  Absolutely.
• 33:03
  Absolutely.
• 33:04
  I think there has to be something done.
• 33:06
  They're doing it in all sports but not in motor.
• 33:08
  I don't know if they're doing it with car racing but they're not doing it with motor.
• 33:12
  It's still early days.
• 33:13
  Hopefully they do.
• 33:16
  I'd love to be part of it.
• 33:18
  I don't know what they...
• 33:22
  but on the business side, basically to say, look, you can do other things.
• 33:25
  You can apply what you've learned here.
• 33:26
  It's not a waste of time.
• 33:27
  In your spare time, you should be working towards something, some sort of education, some sort of diploma or some sort of small business, get it going.
• 33:38
  Yeah.
• 33:39
  I'm,
• 33:41
  If you're not a Casey Stoner or a McDowen, you're not making millions of dollars.
• 33:44
  Well, at some point, the drug gets turned off or you've got to do something.
• 33:50
  And I got to the point when I finished racing where I couldn't even really concentrate properly because...
• 33:56
  You were lost, mate, or something?
• 33:58
  You were lost, but I was trying to ride a dirt bike, and I was saying to my mates, I can't ride, because I actually had brain fog, and I'm going, sort of the doctors are saying I can't concentrate, because you're trying to... What do you get that down to?
• 34:12
  I'm not sure what happened, but doctors are saying, you might be depressed, and I'm like, well, I'm not depressed, but I just can't, I've got brain fog.
• 34:21
  And you just work through it.
• 34:22
  But I would have thought if I had somebody to go to to talk to about it, I probably would have got through it a lot quicker.
• 34:31
  Can we finish with a few things here?
• 34:32
  Firstly, I work within the listener group here on some automotive podcasts with CarSaaS.
• 34:40
  So I deal with Mike Sinclair a bit, who you might remember.
• 34:42
  Yeah.
• 34:44
  Sinkers says for me to ask you about Mad Eyes.
• 34:48
  What is Mad Eyes?
• 34:49
  Where did that nickname come from?
• 34:52
  Basically, it's just the way I ended up with No Fear, if anyone remembers No Fear.
• 34:58
  That was basically my symbol that were on the top of my helmet.
• 35:02
  Because I was so tall and my head tilted up, I was looking...
• 35:07
  You could always see your eyes.
• 35:08
  I could always see the whites of my eyes, and I always looked a long way ahead.
• 35:11
  So I was looking like I was mad because my eyes were rolled up.
• 35:15
  So one of the journalists, Ken Wooden, gave me the name Mad Eyes, and then I became a no-fear athlete, and they came up with these sort of crazy eyes, and that was me, and then that became really popular, and then one thing led to another, and that's what I'm known as, Mad Eyes.
• 35:30
  I haven't heard that for a while.
• 35:32
  The late Ken Wooden too, who was just integral in...
• 35:36
  in covering motorcycle racing as a, as a, as a journalist, the bike at Eastern Creek that we talked about at the beginning of this conversation, the shell machine, how that all came about.
• 35:48
  Um, I'm very proud of that photo because it's very, very early days in my, in my career.
• 35:53
  What was that thing like to ride?
• 35:55
  You talked about the massive crowd on the day and all that sort of stuff, massive, massive opportunity to pull that off.
• 36:01
  The bike actually wasn't that good.
• 36:05
  That was pretty much a...
• 36:07
  But it was the early days in that foray for them, I think, wasn't it?
• 36:10
  Yeah, it was.
• 36:12
  So Wayne had put this deal together with Shell.
• 36:14
  I ended up riding it and the bike was, it wasn't up to par.
• 36:19
  It turned up and we had to do a lot of work on it.
• 36:21
  That was 95.
• 36:24
  Then 96, I rode another bike at the...
• 36:29
  500 GP at Easton Creek, which was a Swiss auto, it was called.
• 36:35
  It had basically a 500cc sidecar engine in it.
• 36:39
  I forgot the guy's name that I replaced.
• 36:42
  I...
• 36:44
  that thing was a rocket ship.
• 36:46
  The, the, the, the one from 95, the shell bike was a rock 500, which was with a Yamaha engine.
• 36:52
  It just wasn't, it was an old, it wasn't, it wasn't a great bike.
• 36:58
  And you know, Wayne had, that sort of said, look, we let you down here because
• 37:04
  It didn't have all, it was just worn out basically.
• 37:07
  But then the next year they gave me another opportunity on another bike and I did really well.
• 37:11
  And I got into the top 10, same thing coming down the straight on the first couple of laps and the crowd, just the Mexican way.
• 37:20
  Yeah.
• 37:20
  Sinker says those wild cards, although those style of rides, he remembers very fondly because of some of this stuff, I think, that you're talking about.
• 37:28
  Yeah, and that bike was really good.
• 37:30
  And I remember getting in front of a few factory bikes and same thing, the bike, three quarters of the race, the bike stopped, electrical problem.
• 37:40
  But David and Goliath stuff, though, compared to the factory machines.
• 37:45
  The bike.
• 37:46
  Is there one from all your time?
• 37:48
  Because you've kept one.
• 37:48
  Yes.
• 37:49
  I reckon when I've been to the office, you've kept one, haven't you?
• 37:51
  I've kept my ZXR 750 that I won my championship on, which is a pretty cool bike.
• 37:55
  Yeah.
• 37:56
  I'm going to hopefully ride it soon.
• 37:58
  Are you?
• 37:58
  Yeah.
• 37:59
  Have you been sort of doing more in a restoration sense?
• 38:02
  Yes.
• 38:02
  Got that pretty much restored.
• 38:04
  Fantastic.
• 38:04
  Fantastic.
• 38:05
  Funnily enough, I've actually been riding motocross on the weekend with my son.
• 38:09
  I have not ridden at all for 15 years.
• 38:11
  How old is he?
• 38:12
  He's 22.
• 38:12
  He's just started riding.
• 38:14
  He's enjoying it.
• 38:15
  He's loving it.
• 38:17
  Excellent.
• 38:17
  Kept him off bikes as a kid.
• 38:19
  Did you?
• 38:19
  So he's an adult.
• 38:21
  Didn't buy him a cycling bike for Christmas, did you?
• 38:25
  No, I didn't.
• 38:26
  No, we kept him off bikes and now he's into bikes, so...
• 38:30
  That's nice for father and son, mate.
• 38:31
  It is.
• 38:32
  And it's been really good for me mentally because I think having that, doing that exercise and using...
• 38:39
  all those skills and riding motocross.
• 38:43
  Um, you know, I read a thing a couple of months ago, when you, when you get to 50, you should be brushing your teeth with your opposite hand.
• 38:50
  And I think, Christ, I'm riding motocross, but it, you know, you see how people are, you know, with not using their brain as they get older and not staying stimulated.
• 39:03
  And I think riding dirt bikes.
• 39:07
  has helped a lot with, you know, trying to stay focused at work and having something to look forward to.
• 39:13
  And an outlet.
• 39:14
  Yes, absolutely.
• 39:15
  Final one.
• 39:16
  What do you reckon the best piece of advice is that you've had along the way in this whole journey from some of the guns you rattled off in the pit lane there before that have been in your corner or offered little bits of advice along the way, even those that have perhaps extended into business, mate?
• 39:29
  What do you reckon the key takeaway for Marty Kregler is to, you know, where you are today and what you're doing?
• 39:35
  Um,
• 39:37
  Work hard and it's the people you mix with.
• 39:40
  Yeah?
• 39:40
  Yep.
• 39:41
  That's what I've learned.
• 39:42
  I've got some really good mentors.
• 39:45
  Guys in, we wouldn't be where we are in business other than the people that are mentoring me.
• 39:50
  We've got guys that are doing multi-billion dollar deals that are advising me.
• 39:58
  One guy's done a trillion dollar deal, which is incredible.
• 40:03
  You sit up and take notice of some of those little nuggets.
• 40:07
  Yes.
• 40:07
  Yeah.
• 40:08
  It's who you hang around with.
• 40:11
  And work hard.
• 40:11
  And work hard.
• 40:12
  Yeah.
• 40:13
  Amazing.
• 40:13
  You've proven that by working hard, you can do it, mate.
• 40:16
  I reckon that's a great lesson for young racers there, that never give up thing with your injuries.
• 40:21
  Do you hobble around a little bit now?
• 40:23
  Are you a bit sore each day between the arm and the leg, or are you in ironically better shape?
• 40:27
  I'm actually pretty good, actually.
• 40:28
  Yeah.
• 40:28
  So, yeah, look.
• 40:30
  looking after myself as much as I can.
• 40:32
  But you know how it is.
• 40:33
  You've got to keep moving and don't stay still.
• 40:37
  That is you, Tua T. That's a nice way to wrap this up.
• 40:40
  Congratulations not just on winning the Australian titles, on the American chapter that you had, the great...
• 40:47
  the great tenacity that you show mate but and in particular the way you have transitioned into business life and and taken the racing principles and made a great success of it we wish you continued success thanks for coming in today to the studio thanks greg
• 41:07
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 41:11
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 41:15
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 41:17
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 41:22
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.