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The Motorsport Brief: James McFadden previews the Knoxville Nationals · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Wednesday, the 9th of August, 2023.
• 0:10
  F1 might be on a mid-season break, but there is some cool stuff to get excited about this weekend.
• 0:15
  From NASCAR at Indianapolis with Shane Van Gisbergen and Brodie Kostecki in action stateside there, it is a race fans' dream weekend at the Brickyard with IndyCar on the same bill.
• 0:27
  The Knoxville Nationals are about to get underway and we are set to launch into the second half of the Shannon Speed Series at Quentin.
• 0:35
  Queensland Raceway.
• 0:38
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:42
  We've had a little break since the milestone 100th feature EPP dropped in late July.
• 0:47
  Hope you enjoyed the walk down memory lane.
• 0:50
  A couple of impersonations in there, flashbacks, some highs and lows from a 20 plus year career of motorsport broadcasting that I've enjoyed so far.
• 0:59
  There's more chapters to write there too.
• 1:02
  For this edition of The Brief, we will turn left and focus on speedway,
• 1:08
  There's been some turmoil in recent days in Australia following the shock news that the World Series sprint cars will not happen.
• 1:15
  It's been parked for four seasons now.
• 1:18
  It was the pandemic to begin with, then a forecast tyre shortage last year combined with freight delays and concerns around diesel prices.
• 1:27
  But now, just when we thought it might be back this summer...
• 1:31
  The governing body has voted against a return, which has angered some constituents and upset some race fans, given the cachet that this series has.
• 1:41
  Now, we don't have a representative on from Speedway Australia.
• 1:45
  For the sake of balance, which you all know I'm very big on...
• 1:49
  They have said to other outlets that this was by majority vote by their board and they remain committed to the Australian Speedway titles that are still on offer across a raft of classes, beginning with the Junior Sedans crown in Grafton, New South Wales.
• 2:05
  That's January 18 to 20 next year.
• 2:08
  To discuss this and to talk about the Knoxville Nationals, a good friend of the pod is online from the States.
• 2:15
  The record books have his name as the last winner of World Series Sprint Cars.
• 2:20
  That was 2019-20.
• 2:21
  That title was his fifth in the series.
• 2:25
  James McFadden, welcome back to Rusty's Garage.
• 2:27
  Thanks for having me on.
• 2:28
  It's always a pleasure.
• 2:30
  I listen to your voice up and down the road, so to be on is good.
• 2:35
  It's great to have you, mate.
• 2:36
  What's your reaction to this before we sink our teeth into Knoxville and what a mega week that is there?
• 2:41
  How do you feel about it a few days on from the announcement about World Series?
• 2:46
  Huge disappointment for our sport in general.
• 2:50
  I think...
• 2:51
  Every racing form needs a National Series.
• 2:54
  And for the young kids growing up, to not be able to race for a championship, I think is terrible.
• 3:01
  You know, I grew up and all I wanted to do was race World Series sprint cars.
• 3:05
  That was before, you know, World of Outlaws and Knoxville Nationals and stuff.
• 3:08
  And, you know, to me, World Series was the pinnacle of our sport and it was something that I wanted to win, you know, over the Classic and the Australian titles.
• 3:16
  So...
• 3:18
  For the young kids not to have that opportunity right now is devastating, I think, for our sport.
• 3:23
  And I think our sport's in such a good spot with the young generation coming through and then some of us old blokes like myself that have been around for a while.
• 3:34
  Yeah, hugely disappointed in it.
• 3:36
  I think we need to have a good hard look and figure out how we can get it back and figure a way to help the sport, probably get some egos out of the way and help the sport and build it because the brand is there.
• 3:52
  As we've seen over the last couple of years with crowd numbers and stuff, we definitely have the brand.
• 3:57
  We have the product.
• 3:58
  We just need the people.
• 3:59
  I think I said on the last podcast I did with you, we need someone like a Tony Cochran in there to come and grab it and make some good stuff out of it.
• 4:09
  Couldn't agree with you more.
• 4:10
  You told a colleague in Toby Belbowen who's over there from Sprint Car Hub that you still plan to come back for a bit of racing at home over summer.
• 4:19
  What sort of program will you have now in the wake of this news?
• 4:23
  You know, I'm sort of dedicated to the America scene at the moment.
• 4:28
  You know, that's the way I make my living.
• 4:31
  Unfortunately, even if World Series did go forward, they were so far behind in their prize purse.
• 4:39
  You know, we actually did some sums the other day over here and,
• 4:42
  It was, I think a Speed Week round was $800 more than what it was in 2013.
• 4:49
  So that was when a motor cost $58,000, not $98,000.
• 4:54
  So I think for me, I'm just going to chase the bigger paying races.
• 4:59
  I'll do...
• 5:01
  do probably six to nine races or ten maybe and, you know, enjoy my sort of summer holiday.
• 5:07
  That's what home is for me right now.
• 5:10
  And unfortunately enough, I can still race a few races and...
• 5:15
  Yeah, but it's disappointing, mate.
• 5:19
  It truly is.
• 5:20
  I strived my whole career to race World Series sprint cars, and I think it forged my career to be able to come over here and race.
• 5:27
  So, yeah, for some of these young blokes to not have that opportunity is pretty rough.
• 5:32
  World Series, as you know, dates back to the 80s.
• 5:35
  There's some great history in it.
• 5:37
  Legends have won it from the late George Tattnell, his son Brooke, a friend of yours has chalked up nine wins, Max Dumsney, Robbie Farr, Skip Jackson and more.
• 5:47
  This is a special thing, J-Mac.
• 5:50
  Where do we go from here?
• 5:52
  Can it be resuscitated?
• 5:53
  What do you think?
• 5:53
  What do you think?
• 5:54
  Yeah, the history books are crazy.
• 5:57
  And then to have only one American win it too just goes to show that it is a tough series.
• 6:02
  Guys like Donnie Schotts and Jason Johnson and Shane Stewart and Kyle Hurst, guys that win outlaw races and run top five championships over here, struggled to win that series.
• 6:14
  It was something that if you want to, you did what you needed to do to become a professional spring car driver and pave your way to come to America.
• 6:24
  So moving forward, I'm hoping that Speedway Australia sells it and we can get rid of...
• 6:33
  the whole board scene and, you know, try and inject some new life into it.
• 6:39
  I think we need to keep the World Series brand.
• 6:41
  I think that people forget how important that brand is.
• 6:45
  It's like the world of Outlaws, you know, as a fan...
• 6:48
  you know World Series Spring Cars or you know World of Outlaws, you don't necessarily know the lesser series or the new series that have started up as much as what you know the history of World Series.
• 6:59
  Like, you know, a lot of people that are, you know, in their 50s and 60s went to World Series Spring Cars with their dad and it would be cool for them to take their grandkids to World Series Spring Cars and keep the history alive.
• 7:12
  I would like to see that, but who knows?
• 7:15
  I really still believe we need a national touring series, but it, one, needs to be done the right way and it needs to pay the right amount of money to do as well.
• 7:25
  Let's talk some positive stuff now, mate.
• 7:26
  Thank you for your comments on that.
• 7:28
  And as always, you have this great overarching view on the state of the sport, which I know our listeners will enjoy.
• 7:36
  Your lead-in to Knoxville, my friend, could not have been better.
• 7:39
  The win, a shooey at the Front Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway, that must have been great for your confidence heading into the days to come.
• 7:48
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:49
  It's generally a place that I've struggled at, to be honest with you.
• 7:52
  It scares the shit out of me.
• 7:54
  It's the fastest place we go, I feel.
• 7:59
  Yeah, I feel like it's sketchy, it's fast, but if you can make speed at a track like that leading into the Nationals, I feel is really big confidence.
• 8:11
  We were decent on our – we got rained out at a Capitani race on Sunday, which is at Knoxville.
• 8:18
  We got rained out there.
• 8:20
  We got 10 laps to test our car and engine that we were going to run for the nationals and where we really basically pulled our old chip box down from upstairs and ran the Oskaloosa race and ended up winning.
• 8:32
  So I was like, man, maybe we should run that thing.
• 8:35
  That's pretty nice.
• 8:36
  But yeah, this has been the best lead up for me as long as I've come racing over here, you know.
• 8:48
  Probably outside of winning the 360 Nationals, my lead up into this event has been really good.
• 8:56
  We've got a lot of half mile speed.
• 8:59
  We ran really good at the World of Outlaw Races here in Knoxville in July.
• 9:04
  So yeah, I'm pumped for tomorrow.
• 9:07
  Just hoping the thunderstorms stay away for a little bit and we can have a nice racetrack.
• 9:12
  Just take people there.
• 9:13
  You half touched on it a moment ago.
• 9:15
  I mean, Knoxville, as your friend and my colleague Tim Hodges reminded me, I mean, it is basically like the Bathurst 1000, the Indy 500, the Le Mans 24-hour or Monaco GP of sprint car racing, basically, isn't it?
• 9:30
  Yeah, it's our mecca, mate.
• 9:33
  It's not the highest-paying race we go to.
• 9:35
  We race for $1 million at Eldora.
• 9:37
  We race for $250,000 at Shusets, and I think Knoxville pays $175,000.
• 9:43
  But back to what we were talking about with World Series, the history, the prestige, being able to stand on the front straight there and hold that Knoxville Nationals trophy would be...
• 9:54
  would be amazing.
• 9:55
  So, you know, to be a part of it and then obviously now coming into it as someone that I feel that we have a shot of winning it or being in contention to win it is pretty special.
• 10:07
  I'm excited for it.
• 10:08
  It's a tough, tough week, mate.
• 10:09
  We've obviously...
• 10:11
  come off of Peveley where we race Friday, Saturday, then a six-hour drive to Knoxville for Sunday.
• 10:17
  We race Sunday.
• 10:18
  We race Oskaloosa Monday, then have a day off, and we race for the Knoxville Nationals on Wednesday.
• 10:24
  So it's been a busy, tiring week, but it's the best week of the year, and you don't need coffee or NOS or Red Bull or anything for this week.
• 10:36
  Every time I wake up, I'm excited to go to the races.
• 10:39
  And that's because of the vibe there in Knoxville, isn't it?
• 10:42
  I mean, cars are being prepped in the streets.
• 10:44
  There's four nights of racing, over 100 competitors.
• 10:47
  To draw an Aussie parallel, I mean, only the grand annual Sprint Car Classic in Warrnambool has more entrance, doesn't it?
• 10:54
  Yeah, I think unless you've been here, it's something that's pretty hard to...
• 10:59
  you know, to fathom the racetrack, well, if you, the racetrack is in the center of town, there's an O'Reilly's auto parts store right across the road.
• 11:07
  Like it gets dirty from the racetrack.
• 11:09
  Like that's how close it is.
• 11:11
  So, you know, the racetrack's right in the middle of town.
• 11:13
  Oh, and they, uh, they have a big shopping center literally across the road from the track where, where you can hire a spot to park your transporter.
• 11:21
  So there'd be, uh, 20 or 30 teams working on race cars there.
• 11:25
  And, yeah,
• 11:25
  Every street's full of campers or someone with flags up with their favourite drivers or, you know, T-shirt trailers and T-shirt alley and vendors.
• 11:34
  And it's just such a cool, cool event.
• 11:36
  I don't know the population in Oxford, but I'd say it's 2,000 to 3,000 people.
• 11:40
  And for this weekend, there's probably 40,000 people here.
• 11:43
  So there's...
• 11:44
  There's a lot of stuff going on.
• 11:47
  It's a cool event.
• 11:48
  It's busy, like I said.
• 11:49
  It's extremely busy and it's extremely stressful for us drivers and teams, but it's one that we look forward to and try to prepare as best we can for each year.
• 12:04
  scorecard for the year shows i think four outlaws wins that's the most in a year for you you sat on pole just last week you've been running consistently inside the top 10 more often than not in the top five but it is brutal to make this 24 car field to touch on what you said before do you dare to dream mate i mean your your form that you know the team the car that is this your best shot
• 12:30
  Yeah, I believe so.
• 12:32
  Out of the five wins we've had this year, they've all been on half miles.
• 12:35
  And like I said, we were really good at the Knoxville Outlaw race.
• 12:39
  You know, I think we were better than where we, you know, we had a few little motor issues towards the end of that race.
• 12:44
  And I think we were good for a second-place finish or a third-place finish at that race.
• 12:48
  Yeah.
• 12:49
  Yeah, I'm excited.
• 12:50
  I'm pumped.
• 12:51
  I feel like this is the best shot we've had.
• 12:54
  It's just a process.
• 12:55
  This whole weekend is a process.
• 12:57
  It's the format's unlike any other format.
• 12:59
  You know, if you QuickTime...
• 13:01
  It's a cumulative points deal.
• 13:03
  But if you quick time, you start eighth in the heat race and you've got to run top three to make the AMA.
• 13:08
  So it's a pretty big process to be able to get everything right and get every step right.
• 13:15
  And, you know, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter the format.
• 13:18
  The fastest guy generally wins.
• 13:19
  So hopefully we're the fastest guy.
• 13:21
  We lock in to the show Wednesday and get to chill out for a couple days and not have to race the Friday hard knocks night.
• 13:29
  But, yeah, definitely happy.
• 13:32
  confident feel good with my crew and my car and my engines and now it's just up to me to do the right job couple to finish here just tell us about the speeds at knoxville this weekend i mean unlike some aussie speedways this is wide open flat out racing what kind of numbers what kind of speeds
• 13:49
  I don't know the actual numbers, but I would say we would be, you know, top speeding around 140, 150 mile an hour.
• 13:58
  So, yeah, we're hauling ass, to be honest with you.
• 14:02
  And, you know, well, so like last night we were racing an Oscar Looser, I think is probably a little faster than what Knoxville is.
• 14:09
  And, yeah.
• 14:10
  there's vapor trails coming off the front wing and hit me straight in the helmet.
• 14:15
  So that's how fast we were going.
• 14:17
  Wow.
• 14:18
  Yeah, I think the speeds are crazy.
• 14:20
  But the thing with Knoxville, it's the most mentally challenging racetrack that I've ever raced.
• 14:26
  Wow.
• 14:26
  We do a lot of, you know, compared to probably Cirque Race, and I haven't done a lot of it, but we do a lot of footwork, you know, to run the bottom here, and it's...
• 14:37
  We don't have a clutch or whatever to change gears or any of that stuff.
• 14:41
  But you can nearly flat foot the bottom and modulate the throttle to keep your tire, but you've got to run the brake and trail brake a lot.
• 14:51
  But then you can't wear your brakes out too quick as well.
• 14:53
  So it's just mentally...
• 14:56
  Mentally, it just drains you.
• 14:58
  It really does.
• 14:59
  So, you know, 25 laps with a pit stop and another 25 laps to do that.
• 15:04
  So it's a 50-lap race for the Nationals, man.
• 15:06
  I'm mentally wore out by that.
• 15:08
  It doesn't sound like a lot.
• 15:09
  It's probably only 20 minutes of driving.
• 15:12
  But it's, yeah, like I said, you've got a curb on the bottom that's, you know, it would be three foot high.
• 15:21
  So if you get up on the curb, it unsettles your car and you're
• 15:24
  you know you'll lose you'll lose a second for that lap or if you hit the bottom perfect you'll pick up half a second on someone that's running the top but if you miss the bottom you'll lose a second and a half so yeah it's just such a technical place that you've got to be in tune as a driver and your car's got to be right everything's got to be right to even compete at this place and
• 15:47
  Yeah, the speed just adds to the enjoyment, the thrill, and the difficultness of it.
• 15:53
  Super cool, mate.
• 15:54
  Our audience will love those insights.
• 15:56
  Thank you.
• 15:56
  Who's the most famous person you've met at Knoxville?
• 15:59
  We know that Mark Webber has famously hung out there with you a few years back and you get your share of drivers from other categories coming.
• 16:07
  What about that?
• 16:08
  And how many Aussies are there this weekend?
• 16:10
  I'm pretty sure half the place is Australian.
• 16:14
  It's pretty crazy.
• 16:15
  LAUGHTER
• 16:17
  Uh, but yeah, you know, yeah, I get to hang out with a lot of, a lot of cool people.
• 16:21
  Um, Casey's in the bus next door to me, Casey Kane is, and, um, you know, he's a good mate of mine.
• 16:27
  And then obviously, yeah, Mark Webber and, um, Jeff Gordon and, and people like that I've met over the years, which is, which is pretty cool.
• 16:34
  But, you know, to me, I think, which is cooler is, is guys like Steve Kinzer, you know, Doug Wolfgang walking around the pits and.
• 16:42
  You know, you get to say g'day to guys like that, which is for me, you know, bigger than... Yeah, bigger than, you know, meeting a guy that, you know, races Formula 1.
• 16:50
  So, yeah, fortunate enough, we get to see some people and hang out with some cool people.
• 16:57
  But for this week, it's all eyes straightforward and eyes on the job.
• 17:03
  As much as I'd want to do what 90% of the people here do and drink and beer and cook and barbecues, I've got a job to do this weekend.
• 17:10
  So...
• 17:12
  yeah we'll get to get after it no formula one this weekend so fans are very much focused stateside on what you're doing but also on a huge weekend at indianapolis be it nascar or indycar with shane van gisberg and brodie kustecchi heading there and we know about scotty mclaughlin and others um in in indycar do you keep a little eye on that even though you're busy this week at knoxville
• 17:34
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 17:36
  I will.
• 17:36
  I talked to Brody a bit, actually.
• 17:38
  So it was cool to see him get that opportunity.
• 17:41
  Tell me what you said there.
• 17:42
  That's cool.
• 17:42
  We talk a little bit, you know, the sprint car stuff that he does at home.
• 17:46
  And I mentioned a couple of times I saw he was in America to come and hang out at the races.
• 17:50
  I know how much of a...
• 17:52
  Sprint car fan he is.
• 17:53
  So, yeah, if we ever cross paths, he'll come and hang out.
• 17:56
  But it's cool to see him do some sprint car stuff.
• 17:58
  And now, obviously, go and do the NASCAR stuff is pretty special.
• 18:02
  That's a huge deal for him.
• 18:03
  And obviously what Shane did in Chicago and then, you know, the opportunities he's got here is going to be interesting to watch.
• 18:10
  And then Scott Scott doing what Scott does and kicking ass.
• 18:13
  So it's cool to...
• 18:16
  Yeah, cool to watch it, have someone to cheer for and outside of the dirt, the Speedway guys that I always cheer for when it comes to NASCAR or anything like that.
• 18:25
  So yeah, definitely keep an eye on it.
• 18:27
  Like I said, hopefully we're locked in from Wednesday through to the Saturday and I can take some time off and watch it and then Sunday have a couple of beers at the local pub here and watch some NASCAR and IndyCar.
• 18:39
  We hope you are too, mate.
• 18:40
  We're taking away you from valuable time with Mav and family.
• 18:44
  Go and enjoy that.
• 18:46
  Have an awesome week in Knoxville and fingers crossed that some of the stuff we spoke about at the top of the podcast relating to World Series, the great history of it can be preserved and a new chapter written there.
• 18:59
  Thanks so much for talking to us today.
• 19:01
  Anytime, mate.
• 19:02
  I appreciate you sharing some light on what we do over here.
• 19:06
  It's cool that people are starting to realise how tough it is over here and we get to tell our story.
• 19:13
  It's cool.
• 19:15
  How good to get him back on the podcast.
• 19:17
  Let's hope that J-Mac is back with Hodgie, Tim Hodges, and the same team over summer again here in Australia.
• 19:24
  They made quite a splash at the Classic last year.
• 19:27
  Some other bits of news for you now.
• 19:29
  Brodie Kostecki has spent some time this week in the Shev Nazcar Simulator.
• 19:34
  That's ahead of his drive at Indianapolis.
• 19:36
  It went well by all accounts, with the exception of a freakishly timed tornado coming through the same area while Brody cut those sim laps pretty wild.
• 19:46
  Shane Van Gisbergen is on double duty contesting a truck series race this weekend, as well as his appearance for Trackhouse again, but this time on the road course at the Brickyard.
• 19:55
  He is expecting a tough initiation on the oval there in the truck.
• 20:01
  We hope that Brody and SVG have arrived
• 20:03
  A ripper weekend and surprise a few people too.
• 20:07
  Lots of chat about Will Brown maybe heading to Red Bull Amphol Racing for the supercars next season.
• 20:13
  Quite a shift or a big change there as Shane's replacement.
• 20:17
  No word from either side as we record here on that.
• 20:21
  Should actually be quite an interesting silly season for supercars now in terms of driver movement and who is headed where for 2024.
• 20:27
  Yeah.
• 20:28
  Incidentally, Will is entered in the Audi for this weekend's TCR round at Queensland Raceway as a part of the Shannon's Speed Series there.
• 20:36
  I'm heading that way for the StanSport Channel 9 coverage.
• 20:40
  Some other news, Michael Clemente's team have completed a mammoth rebuild after that big crash at the end of the last round at Winton.
• 20:47
  Well done.
• 20:47
  And Cupra Australia has come on board supporting their Carl Cox motorsport entry.
• 20:52
  Garth Tander joins the GT field there.
• 20:55
  See what I did?
• 20:56
  Sharing the Audi with Liam Talbot, while Jamie Winkup and Brock Feeney are on duty for Triple Eight in the Mercedes AMGs.
• 21:02
  And finally, well done to Nick Cassidy.
• 21:04
  He starred in the Formula E series this year on the way to second in the title race.
• 21:09
  It's been confirmed in recent days that the Cass will join Mitch Evans in an all-Kiwi lineup at Jaguar next year.
• 21:17
  Great stuff.
• 21:18
  That is it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 21:20
  Jack Miller is set to join us on the short cast in the weeks ahead.
• 21:24
  Legendary driver manager Greg Siddle, Michael Caruso, and Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt are all in the works for coming feature episodes of Rusty's Garage 2.
• 21:36
  Keep an eye and ear out for those.
• 21:38
  Whether it's sprint cars from Knoxville, IndyCar or NASCAR from the Brickyard, huge weekend there, and the Speed Series at Queensland Raceway.
• 21:46
  We hope you enjoy it.
• 21:47
  We'll catch you next week, everybody.
• 21:48
  Bye for now.