Latest / Rusty's Garage / Garry McCoy - Part 2

Transcript

Garry McCoy - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my feature-length podcast with former MotoGP race winner Gary McCoy.
• 0:27
  If you've entered the pit box without taking in practice one, part one, jump back to the library and hit the gas on the early years of his career.
• 0:37
  From dirt bikes and an initial want to pursue Speedway,
• 0:41
  to a meteoric rise in circuit racing that landed him in the World Championship way sooner than most.
• 0:49
  The help he received from the legendary Barry Sheen, and memorable calls that Baz did with the late Darrell Eastlake on some of Gary's early World Championship successes.
• 1:00
  His first bike, and a whole lot more.
• 1:03
  We begin part two with a nickname that stuck, and why none of us as fans were surprised.
• 1:12
  The Slide King.
• 1:14
  Who coined that?
• 1:15
  I know why it came about.
• 1:17
  It's obvious why it came about.
• 1:19
  When did that all kind of become a thing?
• 1:20
  Yeah.
• 1:22
  Oh, I'd have to – it was definitely when I got on the four-cylinder, two-stroke Yamaha 500.
• 1:29
  That thing was just amazing.
• 1:31
  It was like riding a speedway bike, as I said before.
• 1:34
  And you could really – like there was no wheelie control, traction control.
• 1:38
  We didn't have all that stuff back then.
• 1:40
  It was literally in your hands.
• 1:44
  And from riding a speedway bike, jumping on that –
• 1:48
  I just felt so comfortable, you know, I was just relaxed with it and it was just easy for me to light the thing up but it wasn't just lighting it up either.
• 1:58
  As I'm not sure if you realize but in Speedway, you know, the guys are going into the corner flat out but then they're rolling that throttle looking for drive.
• 2:08
  You can't just hold it flat.
• 2:10
  You just spin and go nowhere.
• 2:11
  So it's feel.
• 2:12
  Yeah, yeah.
• 2:13
  And it's the same on the 500, you know.
• 2:15
  It was no different.
• 2:17
  I'd whip the thing out sideways but then I'd roll the throttle and,
• 2:21
  and feel that traction kicking in and then just slowly ease it back on.
• 2:24
  So you're like a human traction control here in some respects.
• 2:26
  Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 2:27
  Yeah, yeah.
• 2:27
  Amazing.
• 2:28
  So Michelin had a different diameter tyre at this stage and you really gravitated to that or you had a good connection with it.
• 2:38
  Correct me if I don't have these facts straight here, Gary.
• 2:42
  But what you did so superbly, it was a joy to watch,
• 2:46
  Most people think, particularly in the current era, straight, precise, pinpoint, do all the right things is the way to go.
• 2:55
  But you made that thing, as you described in a speedway sense, work for you.
• 3:00
  You'll tell this story better than I can, but you could slide it to a point in the corner and position it and do things that on paper you would think would kill the tyre or not be competitive, but in fact it was a good way around, wasn't it?
• 3:13
  Yeah, well, that's right.
• 3:14
  I just felt, you know, I could get on the gas earlier in the corner, start to light the tyre up but also rear wheel steer it and back to when I said, you know,
• 3:28
  you're sort of hard on the gas to get it wheel spinning, but then you're also rolling off the gas to look for that traction.
• 3:33
  Amazing.
• 3:34
  And then bring it back on.
• 3:35
  So when I'm sort of back to – I've already steered the bike to where I want to come out onto the straight, whereas the other guys are still turning and still pushing that grip into the bitumen, whereas I'm sort of just lighting it up on top, just heating the surface of the tyre.
• 3:51
  Amazing.
• 3:52
  But they're putting a lot of flex and stress through the tyre, which actually chews it up –
• 3:57
  quicker than what it does sort of just spin on top.
• 4:00
  Amazing.
• 4:01
  Let's talk about that bike, right, because, you know, we need to cover some of your wins and success and so on in that period.
• 4:07
  So WCM was, I think Peter Clifford was tied up in that, wasn't it?
• 4:11
  That was part of his deal, the Red Bull colours on the bike and so on.
• 4:15
  Tell us about, you know, getting on that machine for the first time and then to win a 500 GP.
• 4:19
  Amazing.
• 4:22
  Yeah, well, the first time I was actually back home, I pretty much thought I'd retired from racing.
• 4:30
  Really?
• 4:31
  You've never called that?
• 4:31
  You've never said, I'm done, have you?
• 4:33
  You've never used the dot that I know of anyway.
• 4:35
  No, but I haven't.
• 4:38
  And always sort of thought about doing it, but I think it's beyond doing it now.
• 4:43
  Okay.
• 4:43
  It's kind of too far gone.
• 4:44
  Far gone.
• 4:45
  Okay.
• 4:45
  So you more or less thought it was game over?
• 4:48
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:48
  So that was in 99.
• 4:49
  Nine, yeah.
• 4:52
  So I only did the last half of the season.
• 4:54
  It was actually Simon Crayfar.
• 4:55
  They moved to Michelin in 99.
• 4:57
  Yep.
• 4:57
  Simon Crayfar lost confidence in the tyres and he just put his hands in the air and said, can't do it anymore.
• 5:04
  Okay.
• 5:05
  I was back at home here, still living in Sydney, fitting roller doors with my uncle.
• 5:13
  And, yeah, Petey Clifford rang up one night and –
• 5:17
  rang me parents and I sort of lived down the paddock a little bit on me own and me parents come down and said, Oh,
• 5:25
  Peter Clifford just rang up from Red Bull Yamaha.
• 5:28
  He wants to know if you can race in Assen this weekend.
• 5:31
  And I'm like, well, what day is it today?
• 5:33
  And they're like, it's Wednesday.
• 5:35
  And I said, well, when am I flying out?
• 5:36
  And they're like, tomorrow.
• 5:38
  I'm like, oh, don't know about that.
• 5:40
  Dust your passport off and off you go.
• 5:41
  Yeah.
• 5:43
  And I just thought, well, you know, what could I say?
• 5:46
  I have to.
• 5:47
  So packed my bags off.
• 5:49
  I went the next day and then straight to Assen.
• 5:52
  Jumped on the four-cylinder for the first time ever around Assen, which is a pretty tough track to ride one of them around.
• 5:59
  And the mechanics still laugh when I see them now.
• 6:01
  They said, you know, that first race in Assen coming out onto the front straight out of the last chicane, they said that thing was bucking and wheeling and just trying to throw you off.
• 6:11
  They said, but you just hung on and gave it to it, you know.
• 6:15
  And...
• 6:16
  Toward the end of the year there, or maybe even in the season-ending round in Valencia, there was a third, wasn't there?
• 6:21
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:22
  So that basically set you up for the following year, all that stuff, didn't it?
• 6:26
  Exactly, yeah, yeah.
• 6:27
  I think we got some fairly good results.
• 6:28
  I did have a couple of crashes.
• 6:30
  I remember at Donington, had a pretty big high side coming down Crane of Curves.
• 6:35
  And I thought, oh, they're not going to want me for next year.
• 6:38
  But, yeah, we had a couple of good results right towards the end, especially Valencia, you know, getting on the podium.
• 6:45
  I was actually one of the top three pretty much all weekend.
• 6:51
  And Regis, my teammate, Laconi, he was struggling all weekend.
• 6:57
  And then Saturday night, the chief mechanic come over and spoke to my chief mechanic and said,
• 7:04
  They were sort of talking and said, oh, Gary, we're looking, you know, can we put your settings in Regis' bike?
• 7:11
  I said, oh, yeah, I don't care.
• 7:12
  Like, you know, good luck with that.
• 7:14
  That's my setup, you know.
• 7:17
  He went out and won the race.
• 7:18
  So I was pretty dirty about that.
• 7:20
  Was that the last time you did that?
• 7:22
  Yeah, it was actually.
• 7:24
  So I finished third at that race.
• 7:26
  I was still happy.
• 7:28
  But then the following year, I went out and won it.
• 7:30
  Straight away.
• 7:30
  Welcome.
• 7:31
  Yeah.
• 7:32
  No, I won welcome.
• 7:33
  But then last race of the year in Valencia, I won that.
• 7:36
  So you got square on that.
• 7:37
  And the meeting before that, I won it at Estoril.
• 7:39
  Excellent.
• 7:40
  And they were both by five seconds lead to second.
• 7:44
  So that year, that turn of the century was really –
• 7:47
  good for you, very special for you, mate.
• 7:49
  Wasn't it?
• 7:49
  Where I was going, you opened the year in a manner in South Africa and everyone was like, okay, here we go.
• 7:56
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:57
  I mean, I look at that race, I've looked at it recently and the first half of the race, you don't even see me.
• 8:04
  I'm like...
• 8:06
  is this the right race?
• 8:07
  Am I watching the right race?
• 8:09
  I'm like, I'm not even there.
• 8:10
  I'm nowhere.
• 8:11
  You know, I'm way back in the field.
• 8:12
  I think me and Rossi were dicing.
• 8:14
  I do remember Rossi coming under me.
• 8:17
  I mean, look, we're in 13th, 14th place.
• 8:20
  Crazy.
• 8:21
  Rossi's come under me and given me a nudge and I'm out in the grass and I'm like, you, you know.
• 8:26
  I'm like, oh, I was furious.
• 8:29
  I was chasing him down.
• 8:31
  I'm getting you back.
• 8:33
  And he ended up crashing in front of me.
• 8:35
  I'm like, sucked in.
• 8:36
  Yeah.
• 8:38
  And then, yeah, I just kept going and then just I started passing everyone and then I got to the front and I'm like, what's going on here?
• 8:44
  What's everyone doing, you know?
• 8:45
  And obviously it was that 16.5 rear tyre and it had just come good at the end of the race.
• 8:51
  Amazing.
• 8:52
  So, I mean, to win Premier Class, hear that Australian anthem play, you are a winner at the pinnacle of motorcycle racing.
• 9:01
  Yeah, yeah, I know.
• 9:03
  One of the things I always remember is being on the plane the next day, whether I'm going home or to the next race or whatever, and, you know, back in those days you walk on the plane, you grab a newspaper.
• 9:15
  I don't know if they still do it now, but they had all the newspapers lined up.
• 9:19
  And I'm sitting in the chair and there's a guy in front of me across from the aisle and he's got the page open and he's a big picture of me on the newspaper.
• 9:26
  I was like, yeah, this is weird.
• 9:29
  Great.
• 9:30
  It would have been nice if he did the double take where he's looking at the picture and he looked across at you and realised what was going on.
• 9:35
  So special chapter there for you to enter the record books as one of the few Aussies to win.
• 9:43
  The sport goes through a bit of a transition, as you say, pretty significant one.
• 9:46
  We now enjoy the two-stroke era, the four-stroke era, I should say, which is ultra, ultra competitive.
• 9:52
  Yeah.
• 9:53
  And you did go through the beginnings of that too, didn't you?
• 9:55
  So, I mean, one of the things that I find...
• 9:59
  And staggering, the bike wasn't necessarily a great thing back then, but you sort of stagger that Kawasaki aren't a part of this, mate, with all the manufacturers that are represented in this paddock.
• 10:09
  Yeah, I know.
• 10:09
  I mean, they weren't there for a long time, and then they made a comeback, and I think it was a little bit unfortunate that I did sign with them.
• 10:16
  Mm-hmm.
• 10:18
  I mean, no doubt it was a great year for me and the guys were good and we all had a good crack at it.
• 10:24
  But it was just too new.
• 10:26
  They were too far out of the sport or too long out of the sport.
• 10:30
  And you're competing against Honda.
• 10:33
  They've just been there for years.
• 10:35
  They just know everything inside out, all the set-ups and...
• 10:38
  They go to each track and they just open the book and they're like, oh, yeah, okay, we've got to put this and that.
• 10:44
  That bike's ready to win basically.
• 10:47
  You had things, I think, with your experience, you'd come in for a debrief and you'd say, look, ideally we need to make one of these and you knew what you wanted but that wasn't something they could turn around straight away, could they?
• 11:00
  No, no.
• 11:02
  They were also that year they were a little bit out of budget.
• 11:05
  I think they spent so much just to get there.
• 11:09
  They were taking all the notes and then it wasn't until, you know, a couple of races later I'm like, oh, you know, how's that swing arm going, you know, the stiffer swing arm that I said we need.
• 11:19
  Needed, yeah.
• 11:20
  Oh, yeah, well, you know, sorry, but we'll probably get that by next year.
• 11:25
  Did they go –
• 11:27
  Maybe I don't have this aspect of the story right, but I think their tyre choice wasn't necessarily ideal for what you wanted either, is that right?
• 11:36
  Yeah, again, we're on the Dunlops for that year.
• 11:39
  Dunlop, you know, it's a great tyre, don't get me wrong, but competing against Michelin also with all, you know, the track experience, years of experience, all the tracks that we'll go on to.
• 11:50
  Just too hard to compete against.
• 11:52
  It has to be the right weather conditions, whether it's raining or cold or Donington, Simon Crafar's magic win on the Dunlop tyres at Donington where they do all their testing and stuff.
• 12:11
  It worked for them there.
• 12:12
  But every other track, it's either too hot or surface is different.
• 12:17
  It's just hard.
• 12:19
  When did it stop for you being a part of this paddock on a full-time basis?
• 12:23
  Because in continuing this combo, there is a World Superbike chapter for you, which we'll touch on a bit here.
• 12:29
  But when it stopped, how difficult was that?
• 12:32
  And were you ready to do something different or what?
• 12:38
  I felt I should have stayed in the paddock.
• 12:41
  There wasn't really any opportunities there.
• 12:44
  At that time when I did leave the MotoGP paddock, there was this new craze of, you know, out with the old wood and in with the new and they were looking for the young kids, you know, to come in and sort of take over us old guys.
• 13:02
  Yeah.
• 13:04
  So that was a little bit hard to deal with because I felt like I only just made my mark.
• 13:09
  I did have… Not old here either.
• 13:10
  You're only like early 30s, aren't you?
• 13:12
  Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 13:12
  Very early 30s.
• 13:13
  Yeah.
• 13:14
  But as you know now, I mean, in Moto3, they're kids.
• 13:19
  You know, the ages just keep getting younger and younger.
• 13:22
  You had Marc Marquez going to MotoGP when he was still a teenager, I think.
• 13:26
  Yeah.
• 13:27
  Yeah, youngest ever, I think, world champion or race winner in the air.
• 13:30
  Fred Spencer.
• 13:31
  Yeah, yeah, crazy.
• 13:32
  So do you, before we move to world superbikes, do you enjoy the tech that is in this paddock now, some of the things that the bikes have, or would you prefer it a little less like…
• 13:41
  Well, I'm definitely old school.
• 13:43
  I feel like I just gelled with that two-stroke 500.
• 13:48
  I rode one some years ago now in the GP Bike Legends with Wayne Gardner and Freddie Spencer.
• 13:58
  I was riding around with him, Frankie Keely, McWilliams.
• 14:03
  There was a whole heap of us there, Phil Reid on his old bike.
• 14:08
  What was that like jumping back on that thing?
• 14:10
  No, I didn't jump on his bike, but he rode it around.
• 14:12
  It was in Saxon Ring in Germany.
• 14:14
  But you did ride a bike though, you said.
• 14:16
  Yeah, yeah, I rode a two-stroke 500.
• 14:17
  Fantastic.
• 14:18
  That a Swiss guy just made up out of parts out of his shed.
• 14:21
  He took it for a test at Hockenheim and he said, oh, it's all good.
• 14:25
  Then we went to Saxon Ring and I jumped on it and...
• 14:28
  I just went out and from the word go, I was just like, yeah, this is a bike.
• 14:33
  Yeah, gotcha.
• 14:34
  I went out getting the thing sideways and everything.
• 14:37
  I actually got to the top of the hill where you've got all the left-handers coming back around the hill there.
• 14:42
  I've been there.
• 14:42
  I went around the outside of Freddy Spencer and just lit it up all the way down the hill.
• 14:48
  And then at the end of the session, we come in, he's taken his helmet off and he had this massive smile.
• 14:54
  He goes, man, I've heard about it but now I've seen it.
• 14:58
  I know who you are.
• 14:59
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:00
  Awesome.
• 15:01
  That's a great place when you plunge down that hill.
• 15:02
  Yeah.
• 15:03
  Amazing, amazing joint.
• 15:04
  So let's come to that transition point then.
• 15:06
  Opportunity's not there.
• 15:08
  They're trying – there's a push, if you like, for younger riders.
• 15:11
  Did you start exploring World Superbike?
• 15:14
  Did the call start coming through?
• 15:15
  What transitioned – what happened there?
• 15:17
  It was actually a team that was at Valencia Grand Prix in 2003 and they were looking for a rider and I think it was just fortunate for them, you know, they come and spoke to me and what are you doing next year and I'm like, well, I haven't really got anything yet and they said, well, you know, we're looking at doing this and world suit bike, lower bar, Ducati.
• 15:39
  Yeah.
• 15:40
  I'm like, yeah, okay, I'll put it on the table but I really want to do something here in the GP and nothing really, you know, come up at all.
• 15:48
  There was no offers and I thought, well, I've got to go World Superbike.
• 15:52
  Superbike, yeah.
• 15:53
  And I kind of wish I didn't.
• 15:55
  I probably should have just maybe taken the year off or just hung around to fill in for someone and maybe still try and prove a point there, try and get on a decent machine for a change.
• 16:08
  That said with hindsight though, at the time you make the best decision that you have, don't you?
• 16:11
  Yeah, that's right.
• 16:13
  And me being a racer, I wanted to go racing and there was just nothing there in the GP paddock.
• 16:19
  So I thought, well, I'm going wild super bike.
• 16:21
  Did you enjoy that?
• 16:23
  Yes, I did.
• 16:24
  It's a completely different paddock as I think a lot of people know.
• 16:28
  It's very more relaxed, especially to what GP is now.
• 16:34
  So that side of it was really good.
• 16:35
  The racing was still pretty hard because we're going to different tracks, tracks I hadn't ridden at.
• 16:41
  you know, like Monza, Silverstone, all those sort of places, which GP is starting to mix in with some of them now.
• 16:49
  But at the time, there was a lot of tracks I hadn't ridden at and all the other guys had ridden at.
• 16:55
  So, you know, it's kind of like starting all over again, you know, back in the 125 days, we go into this new track, new bike, you know, and you're racing guys that have been there for years and they've either –
• 17:08
  you know, Mr. Super Pole, Troy Corster, you know, he's had Super Pole at nearly every track and, um...
• 17:15
  winning races and stuff, you know.
• 17:17
  So it was a hard year, that's for sure.
• 17:19
  I did come down to Phillip Island and won the race.
• 17:22
  That was my next question because, you know, despite that, where we are recording here, we're in the commentary box at the top of the control tower.
• 17:30
  It would only be a couple hundred-meter walk for you and I to go to that podium, pretty special podium at the island, and you got to win one.
• 17:36
  Yeah, yeah, no, it was great.
• 17:38
  Had the big goatee at the time.
• 17:41
  Yeah, I think... That was a bit of a trademark for a while, wasn't it?
• 17:44
  Yeah, yeah.
• 17:45
  Well, it got shaven off.
• 17:46
  If I won the race, it was coming off, they said.
• 17:49
  Okay.
• 17:50
  Yeah, between Troy Corser and Christopher Mullen, they've hooked into it.
• 17:54
  And, yeah, so it was good to win down here.
• 17:57
  You know, again, in front of the home crowd.
• 18:00
  First year in World Soup Bike and, you know, mixing it with the best again.
• 18:04
  So Frankie Keely was on the podium, Christopher Mullen and me.
• 18:08
  Excellent.
• 18:09
  So it was good.
• 18:11
  Ducati to begin with there.
• 18:13
  I think it was the NCR machine.
• 18:15
  But when you look over time, you got to work on Carl Fogarty's Patronus experiment, didn't you?
• 18:23
  And what was that thing like?
• 18:24
  Yeah, very different.
• 18:26
  Again, I seem to be one of the guys.
• 18:29
  I think I got...
• 18:31
  I'd be one of the most experienced guys on all these different makes and machines that were out there, you know, like your twin-cylinder Honda 500 to a four-cylinder 500 Ducati superbike and then Foggy Patronus and then Triumph later on, the 675 Daytona.
• 18:51
  I've ridden all these different machines but the Foggy Patronus was –
• 18:55
  Probably one of the most challenging years in my whole career.
• 19:00
  Tell us more about that because you come in with experience.
• 19:03
  You've got an ability to sort the machine.
• 19:05
  Clearly there's a bit of want to tap into that to make it a competitive thing.
• 19:09
  Why was it not –
• 19:11
  Well, I really thought, you know, standing from outside, you look at the team and it was so professional.
• 19:18
  Professional, yeah.
• 19:19
  Well, you know, presented and just the bikes looked great, you know.
• 19:23
  The icon behind it and, yeah.
• 19:25
  Yeah, yeah.
• 19:26
  So I felt I wanted to go for it.
• 19:29
  Like Carl come up to me last race Sunday night partying, probably had a few too many and said, yeah, yeah, I'll do it.
• 19:39
  I don't know you did the deal at the end of the Ducati, more or less, or it started the deal.
• 19:42
  Yeah, that's what it started, yeah.
• 19:45
  I think he was sitting on the back of my scooter and we're inside a tent doing a big burnout.
• 19:52
  Seemed like a good idea at the time, Gary, didn't we?
• 19:55
  Yeah, that's right.
• 19:57
  But now, obviously, Troy Corsa rode it two or three years before that.
• 20:01
  Yep.
• 20:03
  I was talking to Troy and he goes, oh, I don't know.
• 20:06
  He sort of went through hell, you know, with a couple of years because it was a new bike, had a lot of teeth and problems, things that had to be fixed.
• 20:13
  And that's where I thought too, well, Troy's been on it.
• 20:16
  You know, he's...
• 20:18
  No slouch on a bike.
• 20:19
  Surely, you know, they've sorted out half their problems, got a bit of direction for the bike.
• 20:23
  By now, yeah.
• 20:24
  It didn't really seem to go too far forward.
• 20:26
  They just kept trying to get more power out of it.
• 20:30
  We blew up a lot of engines that year.
• 20:32
  My teammate was Steve Martin.
• 20:36
  Between me and him, I don't even know how many engines we blew up.
• 20:39
  I remember at Monza leaving exit pit, or didn't even exit pit lane, going out of the pit box down pit lane, I blew a motor up in first gear.
• 21:01
  If you like World Superbike as much as MotoGP, you may also enjoy Rusty's episode with the legendary Aaron Slyte.
• 21:08
  He recalls the highs and lows of his career and not just in WSBK.
• 21:13
  Some of Slyte's Suzuka 8 hour battles were unforgettable.
• 21:17
  And I can remember going down the front straight and turning into turn 1 and he was pulling out of pit lane and I just gave him the bird.
• 21:26
  as he pulled out, because I thought, well, you know, my tires are hot, I'm on the pace, and he's coming to the pit lane, and I'll have a gap, and I'd won it with him the year before, so we were great mates, and me, if he wasn't on me, going into the S's, he was on me for the last hour.
• 21:43
  Erin had some crazy hairstyles back in the day too, Rusty has tried unsuccessfully to emulate the Mohawk.
• 21:50
  Maybe we need to get Gregory a hair product sponsorship.
• 21:54
  While we work on that, let's get back to the Slide King, Gary McCoy.
• 21:59
  So this quest for power, had they not necessarily been so focused on that, what other things would they have done to make the bike better in your opinion?
• 22:07
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 22:08
  I'd rather lose a bit of power and have it more reliable.
• 22:12
  I did say, you know, like, what's going on here?
• 22:14
  And it turns out it was the valves, but they're machining the valves so light, they're just – Wouldn't last.
• 22:20
  Wouldn't last.
• 22:21
  Yeah, just heating up and dropping off, falling to bits and then just blow up the engine.
• 22:28
  I'm like, just put some standard ones in.
• 22:30
  I don't care how slow it is, you know, at least it'll finish a race.
• 22:35
  You talked about Triumph there a minute ago.
• 22:36
  We'd be fast tracking a little bit.
• 22:37
  What happens in between sort of Patronus and there and, you know, in career terms for you?
• 22:43
  Yeah, I sort of, again, I had nowhere, you know, sort of no avenue to go to.
• 22:49
  There wasn't much options around and then, you know, the 675 deal sort of come up and I thought, oh, well, okay, here's my last crack at, you know, going for a world title.
• 23:01
  But, yeah.
• 23:02
  But, again, lending your experience to a great brand, something that was, you know, that you could help shape, if you like, in development terms.
• 23:12
  Yeah, yeah.
• 23:12
  Definitely.
• 23:13
  No, I did see a lot of that and I felt I helped triumph a lot for that.
• 23:19
  Like I got them their first world championship podium in 40 years.
• 23:27
  Crazy, mate.
• 23:28
  So it was 40 years before I got on the podium that someone else, I can't remember who it was.
• 23:32
  Okay.
• 23:33
  But yeah, 40 years, 40, 40 years.
• 23:37
  So yeah, that was kind of – actually, I went to Triumph.
• 23:42
  They're not far from Donington.
• 23:43
  We were racing at Donington and I got the podium there.
• 23:46
  And I said, oh, you know –
• 23:48
  Let's say I get the podium here this weekend.
• 23:50
  It's your home track and everything.
• 23:53
  They had a Steve McQueen replica, what were they called, scrambler.
• 23:58
  Gotcha, yeah.
• 23:59
  I'm like, I really like one of these.
• 24:01
  You know what?
• 24:02
  If I get on the podium, what do you reckon?
• 24:03
  Will you?
• 24:05
  And they sort of hummed and hard and I thought, and then I got the podium and I said, how's that bike?
• 24:09
  Oh.
• 24:11
  I didn't get it.
• 24:12
  Did you?
• 24:12
  Bastards.
• 24:13
  That would have been a cool thing.
• 24:14
  I know.
• 24:15
  Very, very cool thing.
• 24:16
  I love that thing.
• 24:17
  You never called time.
• 24:18
  You never said I'm sort of stopping maybe the way the world goes and age and everything sort of makes a bit of that happen.
• 24:27
  Yeah.
• 24:27
  How did the realisation that, you know…
• 24:30
  I think it's taken a while and I think the whole reason I haven't retired yet is because I felt like I should have got a better opportunity.
• 24:41
  To finish it, to finish the chapter.
• 24:43
  Yeah, or not even to finish the chapter.
• 24:46
  I just felt there was a world championship there in my grasp but just got struck with a bit of bad luck and,
• 24:55
  along with some bad teams or bad equipment.
• 24:58
  Equipment.
• 25:00
  And it just didn't really fall into place for me.
• 25:02
  Like 2000 was a great year.
• 25:04
  It was my pinnacle.
• 25:07
  You know, won three races that year, a lot of podiums, seconds and thirds.
• 25:13
  sort of fighting for the championship at the start of the year, which it's the wrong end of the year to fight for a championship, but, you know, it all happens at the end.
• 25:22
  And I remember here at Phillip Island in 2000, I was ready to win that race.
• 25:30
  And at the start of the race, I was doing it with ease.
• 25:35
  And just following these guys around like, oh, I'm just going to pass them in a minute and take off, you know.
• 25:39
  But one of the bolts in me clutch wasn't done up right and it come off and I kept adjusting the lever because it kept slipping.
• 25:49
  So it was obviously clutch was sort of coming out.
• 25:51
  Gradually going, yeah.
• 25:51
  Yeah.
• 25:53
  And I kept adjusting the lever until all of a sudden the adjuster come out of the lever and then the whole cable come out and it's just whipping around under the screen.
• 26:01
  So I had no clutch and like coming into Honda, MG, I'm just banging through the gears and, you know, which you can't do.
• 26:10
  Yeah.
• 26:11
  And I thought, I think I did about eight laps and I thought this gearbox, it's just going to lock me up and it's going to,
• 26:18
  you know, it's going to be a mess.
• 26:20
  I'll be a mess.
• 26:21
  Yeah.
• 26:22
  So I ended up pulling the pits.
• 26:24
  I was heartbroken.
• 26:25
  And I think if I won that race, I would have finished top three in the championship.
• 26:30
  Could have had another crack at sort of going for top two.
• 26:33
  And, you know,
• 26:34
  It just would have been... You keep building on that stuff, mate, once you've got it, don't you, generally?
• 26:39
  I know it's harder to back up each year and so on, but it is a building block, isn't it?
• 26:42
  Yeah, definitely.
• 26:44
  So, yeah, it was really heartbreaking to actually come into the pits during that race.
• 26:49
  In that moment.
• 26:49
  And I was still running.
• 26:51
  I was slowly dropping back, but I was up in the...
• 26:54
  I think I was in fourth and then sitting in fifth for a while.
• 26:59
  But doing it with ease but without a clutch.
• 27:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:02
  And I just thought this ain't going to last forever.
• 27:03
  It's not going the race distance.
• 27:06
  I just didn't want to end up down the road with another broken leg or whatever.
• 27:09
  Or worse.
• 27:10
  Unfortunately I had to pull out of this race and I think it's one I could have won.
• 27:15
  Like I said, I was doing it with ease and I just felt like I could have just hit the front and taken off and did the five second lead like I did previously at Estoril and Valencia.
• 27:27
  But anyway, it wasn't a B and that was another thing where it was like, you know, I'm not finished yet.
• 27:34
  I've still got something to prove.
• 27:36
  And just year after year I kept sort of coming back and looking for a world title and it sort of never happened.
• 27:41
  But I was also, as we've been talking about, a lot of different machines.
• 27:46
  And as I've said at the start of this conversation, you've got to be on a machine for like a good year or two before you really gel and adapt with it.
• 27:58
  make your mark and do some business.
• 28:00
  Is it hard to, when you frame that now, like I, it's a joy for me to sit here and talk to you, mate, and for our audience to hear from you and to walk back over some of those successes that you've talked about.
• 28:12
  You went from being this kid in his late teens who may not necessarily have at that point dreamt of pursuing the world championship on two wheels.
• 28:23
  You win on 125s, you win on 500 cc's.
• 28:27
  To me, they're pretty important, pretty cool box, tipped, mate.
• 28:32
  But it's a drug for you guys.
• 28:35
  It's something you love and want more of.
• 28:38
  So what I'm asking is how difficult is it to frame that now because you didn't formally retire per se, you felt like you had...
• 28:47
  a world championship in you.
• 28:49
  Sadly that didn't happen but I still see the positives.
• 28:52
  How do you frame it now all these years later?
• 28:55
  And how did you deal with it?
• 28:58
  I'm probably still dealing with it really.
• 29:03
  Like I said it's just a little bit heartbreaking for me that I didn't get to do what I really wanted to do.
• 29:10
  Still didn't prove me point.
• 29:11
  I know you know the fans out there
• 29:14
  You know, good on them.
• 29:15
  They're right behind me, all for me.
• 29:19
  They still, you know, scream down the street me name or whatever.
• 29:23
  You know, it's great.
• 29:24
  It's a big thanks to the fans.
• 29:28
  You know, they've been all over the world, which is another thing.
• 29:32
  You know, I think about sometimes I'm not just an Aussie icon.
• 29:36
  It's like worldwide.
• 29:38
  You know, the people in Italy, they hear McCoy, you know, and like, oh, Sly King and...
• 29:43
  It's just amazing really.
• 29:45
  So there's a lot of backing out there.
• 29:47
  But, yeah, I still didn't just pursue my dream basically.
• 29:53
  So I'm kind of over it now but it did take a long time to say, okay, this is kind of finished.
• 30:01
  But I'm still on track.
• 30:02
  I'm still coaching.
• 30:04
  When I'm on track, people are just amazed at some of the things I do.
• 30:08
  Just before I come up here, I bumped into Loris Caporossi.
• 30:13
  And we're talking to him.
• 30:14
  He's like, you still riding?
• 30:15
  Yeah, I've got an R1, do coaching, blah, blah.
• 30:17
  He goes, are you still sideways?
• 30:19
  And I'm like, yeah, actually I am.
• 30:22
  Still doing it in your 50s.
• 30:25
  what's the bike that you go to bed and dream about?
• 30:28
  What's the one where you go, man, that thing was special?
• 30:31
  And what's the track where you felt just absolutely at one with it?
• 30:36
  Take our audience there, mate.
• 30:38
  Well, it was definitely the two-stroke 500.
• 30:40
  And it's funny how you just asked me that because I remember when I was racing the two-stroke 500, I used to have nightmares when I went to bed.
• 30:50
  Really?
• 30:51
  Like Friday and Saturday nights.
• 30:52
  Yeah, to be a high side.
• 30:54
  Because that's what them things were great for.
• 30:56
  So like a real vivid nightmare.
• 30:59
  But a real vivid nightmare.
• 31:00
  Yeah, I'd wake up, I'd jump up out of the bed and I'm like, oh, shit.
• 31:04
  Like, oh, it's okay.
• 31:06
  It was just a dream.
• 31:07
  Okay.
• 31:08
  But yeah, it was so real.
• 31:09
  It was one of the, till this day, it's still one of the realest dreams I ever used to have.
• 31:15
  And it used to happen a lot.
• 31:16
  Okay.
• 31:17
  And yet it's the bike that you immediately think of.
• 31:20
  That I love.
• 31:20
  Yeah, it's the best bike in the world.
• 31:22
  Amazing.
• 31:22
  Yeah.
• 31:23
  Take us to a track where you felt it won with it, mate, where it was.
• 31:27
  Valencia was a good place.
• 31:29
  I got two podiums, back-to-back years at Valencia.
• 31:35
  So when I finished third, that was the first year they ever went to Valencia.
• 31:39
  So it was a clean slate for everyone and I just gelled with the track.
• 31:44
  I loved it on the right bike and did the business.
• 31:48
  Regis Laconi might have won it that year but you came back the next year and won it, which is cool.
• 31:53
  Yeah, that's right.
• 31:53
  not sharing any information.
• 31:58
  Do you love the current game?
• 32:00
  Do you look up and down the lane and go, wow, you know, what Marquez has achieved is pretty special.
• 32:05
  Maybe you've got a thought on him finally leaving the Honda camp.
• 32:08
  I mean, that's pretty – I mean, part of me thinks good on him for trying something new and to see if he can win on another mark because not everyone has been able to do that.
• 32:21
  But when you've got a special chapter like he's achieved with Honda, hard to think of him leaving that family or that fold.
• 32:28
  And there's some unbelievable talent coming.
• 32:31
  It is so competitive down there right now, isn't it?
• 32:34
  You can't make it in the slightest blue.
• 32:36
  I think, you know, the way the bikes have gone, the technology, the electronics, all the aerodynamics, it's –
• 32:45
  It's way beyond me.
• 32:47
  It's definitely gone sort of down the Formula 1 path.
• 32:50
  Yeah.
• 32:51
  You'd like to see a bit of that tapered back or taken, taken back out of it?
• 32:54
  Oh, definitely.
• 32:54
  I mean, it's too late for that now.
• 32:56
  No.
• 32:56
  I wish the two-stroke 500s were still there.
• 32:59
  I'd love to get all these guys on the MotoGP bikes and get a whole handful of two-stroke 500s and say, come on, let's go.
• 33:05
  Let's see who's quickest now.
• 33:08
  Watch them all fly through the air.
• 33:11
  But, no, you know, it's...
• 33:14
  It needed to go in that direction.
• 33:16
  You know, wouldn't go forward otherwise.
• 33:18
  But I think it's beyond me is way too much electronics.
• 33:24
  You know, they've got anti-squat and just all this other stuff now.
• 33:27
  It's just crazy.
• 33:28
  It's phenomenal, you know, sort of where it's gone to.
• 33:33
  But no, good on them.
• 33:35
  I'm just old school.
• 33:38
  Just like, you know, feeling that throttle in me hand.
• 33:40
  You watch them now, they're getting in the corner and just smack straight to the stopper, you know.
• 33:45
  It's like, whoa, can't do that on a two-stroke pro-runnerage.
• 33:49
  Cut to the finish here.
• 33:52
  Not all that long ago, you were running a cafe.
• 33:54
  I don't think you're doing that now.
• 33:55
  But the great thing about that cafe, which is a lot of work for you, I know.
• 33:58
  I've had all this memorabilia of stuff from your career and you often run old races for people to enjoy while they're having a coffee and so on.
• 34:06
  You're quite hands-on with that whole place.
• 34:09
  But what was the memorabilia and stuff like?
• 34:11
  What kind of things did you keep from years gone by?
• 34:14
  Oh, yeah, no, it was great, you know.
• 34:16
  The people loved it.
• 34:18
  There was obviously, well, I only had like I think four or five, maybe six of my suits with the helmet from each suit on top of it.
• 34:29
  Excellent.
• 34:31
  But then Christopher Mullen gave me a couple of suits.
• 34:34
  Troy Bayless gave me a suit.
• 34:37
  Had an old pair of John Hopkins.
• 34:40
  who else is up there?
• 34:41
  Mike Jones.
• 34:41
  Excellent.
• 34:42
  Sort of tried to support some of the – I had Arthur Sisters.
• 34:45
  Oh, nice.
• 34:46
  He signed a poster for me.
• 34:48
  Chris, who else was there?
• 34:51
  Jason Crump.
• 34:51
  Crump, yeah.
• 34:52
  I had his suit and helmet in there as well.
• 34:55
  So, yeah, it was a lot of stuff and then a lot of pictures, a lot of leathers, a lot of helmets.
• 35:00
  People used to just come in and I'm like, hurry up and order something.
• 35:04
  Oh, no, we're just looking.
• 35:06
  But you tapped into something that was great, like that cafe bike riding culture where they come in and stop and enjoy that sort of stuff.
• 35:13
  It was great, isn't it?
• 35:14
  I brought thousands to that town.
• 35:16
  Love it.
• 35:16
  I did a motorcycle swap meet.
• 35:18
  So it was on a bit of property and had all the vendors out the back and there was nowhere to park in town.
• 35:26
  It was full even though because all the trucks, it's the path, it's on the New England Highway and all the cattle trucks come through.
• 35:33
  They normally stop and get a coffee or whatever or a toasty and they're all on the radio, what's going on in Kooja?
• 35:39
  Like there's nowhere to park, nowhere to pull up.
• 35:42
  And they're like, oh, Gary's doing something.
• 35:45
  It has to be him.
• 35:47
  Did you keep a bike of some kind or a restoration project?
• 35:50
  Have you got a little something now that is a labour of love for you?
• 35:53
  Oh, I've got a couple of Speedway bikes.
• 35:55
  I've got an old Tob Wush here.
• 35:56
  Fantastic.
• 35:57
  Speedway bike.
• 35:58
  What is it?
• 35:58
  Like a Jawa or whatever?
• 35:59
  It's a Jawa.
• 36:00
  Excellent.
• 36:01
  Excellent.
• 36:01
  Tob was on the Jowers.
• 36:02
  Yeah.
• 36:03
  And then I've just recently got one of Jack Holder's old bikes from when he raced back here.
• 36:10
  Excellent.
• 36:10
  Excellent.
• 36:11
  Because I used to race his father and we used to get along really well.
• 36:14
  Yeah.
• 36:15
  Well, still do.
• 36:16
  Yeah.
• 36:16
  And he's actually working now with Craig Boyce in the Speedway Experience.
• 36:20
  Terrific.
• 36:20
  Down in Sydney.
• 36:22
  Okay.
• 36:23
  And, yeah, so one of his bikes were up for sale.
• 36:26
  I'm like, oh, wow, yeah, I'll grab that.
• 36:29
  I don't really want to use the Todd Wilshire one anymore because, you know, if it does hit the deck, you can't get all them guards and stuff.
• 36:36
  Yeah, special.
• 36:36
  I just want to sort of hang it on the wall and leave it there.
• 36:39
  Excellent.
• 36:39
  Yeah.
• 36:40
  But, yeah, got the Jack Holder one.
• 36:42
  Now he's doing really good and I'm like, oh, I don't know if I'm going to write that either.
• 36:45
  I don't want to write that either.
• 36:46
  I'm just going to have to buy some old crappy thing, so get out there and have a go.
• 36:50
  Good on you.
• 36:51
  Hey, you've been excellent with your time here.
• 36:53
  That time is now to be devoted to the young kids who are racing here this weekend.
• 36:57
  Well done on sharing your insights with them.
• 37:00
  It may have been difficult, mate, to compartmentalise the notion of rolling off the throttle a little bit, but be proud.
• 37:06
  You did some amazing things during your career.
• 37:08
  Yeah.
• 37:10
  getting on a personal note, getting to see you succeed at Eastern Creek on that 125, I'll never, ever forget the sound of the crowd, mate, because you set the tone for the day.
• 37:19
  We had other support categories there.
• 37:21
  but you set the tone for the day before everything sort of started unfolding in 500 lands.
• 37:26
  So well done.
• 37:26
  Well done on winning at the very pointy end, mate, on some great bikes.
• 37:31
  And thank you for sharing some of those memories with us today.
• 37:33
  Yeah, no worries.
• 37:34
  Thanks, Rusty.
• 37:35
  And, yeah, thinking about the win at Eastern Creek in 96, you know, I remember the crowd.
• 37:40
  It was like the Mexican wave, you know.
• 37:42
  I was coming down the straight and people at the end just screaming in the air with their arms in the air.
• 37:47
  And, like, yeah, it was a pretty amazing moment.
• 37:52
  to be there.
• 37:52
  That was definitely one of the highlights of my life.
• 37:56
  Pretty good for a bloke who wasn't necessarily going to go down that path only a couple of years prior.
• 38:00
  It turned out I was the Australian of the day because Creville took out thick.
• 38:04
  And doing.
• 38:05
  Oh, it was massive.
• 38:06
  Absolutely massive.
• 38:07
  I was the only, you know, achiever that day for Australia.
• 38:11
  Great achievement.
• 38:12
  And I love the fact that even in your 50s, mate, you're still sliding, which is great.
• 38:16
  So keep that up.
• 38:16
  Good on you.
• 38:17
  No worries.
• 38:17
  Thanks, Rusty.
• 38:18
  Cheers.
• 38:25
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 38:29
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 38:32
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 38:34
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 38:39
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.