Latest / Rusty's Garage / Adrian Coppin | Part 1 - BYO bunting & old Corollas

Transcript

Adrian Coppin | Part 1 - BYO bunting & old Corollas · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:10
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:28
  For this episode, I'm in Queensland on the eve of round three of the Australian Rally Championship.
• 0:32
  Teams have finished recce and testing and they're gearing up for the stage action near Gympie, about 60km north-west of Noosa, inland from the Sunshine Coast.
• 0:42
  My guest is currently knee-deep in preparation for the event in his relatively new role as series promoter, but it's one that Adrian Coppin, as you'll hear, is well-credentialed for.
• 0:53
  So, if you're not sure of the name, or maybe you've heard of Adrian but you can't recall why,
• 0:58
  Hopefully this two-part convo tells a story that will appeal for lots of different reasons.
• 1:03
  It charts his early love for the sport, the people he was around who shaped that, and the inevitable move into the driver's seat.
• 1:11
  Some guidance from people like Neil Bates, who you can also find in the Rusty's Garage Library, and how Adrian had a crack at some international events too, not just the ARC.
• 1:21
  After piecing together a deal to run a driver who would become a driver,
• 1:25
  big name in the World Championship, Adrian began channeling his skills into the administrative side and he quickly came to the attention of key events people and the governing body.
• 1:36
  He's become sought after beyond Rally and Service Park too, leading to opportunities on the circuit racing side, the kind of crossover that isn't unheard of, but it is pretty rare.
• 1:47
  And now that he's taken the reins of running the ARC with his wife, Jill, who
• 1:52
  I'm indebted to for a bit of intel for this chat and especially to Michael Stratus from Network R for planting the seed and helping with some backstories.
• 2:00
  We'll talk to Adrian about his plans long and short term for the sport, what the road ahead would ideally look like.
• 2:08
  Adrian, as you'll discover, has some good yarns and he's the kind of figurehead who seems to just roll his sleeves up.
• 2:14
  He gets on with it.
• 2:15
  He's not outspoken.
• 2:16
  And as you'll hear, he's mindful of the great history that rallying has in Australia and the responsibility that he's been entrusted with.
• 2:24
  This is one of those pods for someone with speed and skill who chose to apply himself in the same way, but in another area of the sport to create a life, to create a career in a game that he truly loves and a career with real potential.
• 2:41
  True fan, competitor, promoter.
• 2:45
  I hope you enjoy getting to know Adrian Coppin.
• 2:50
  Hello, mate.
• 2:50
  Welcome.
• 2:52
  What is harder, pulling on the helmet, working for the governing body, or running a series?
• 2:58
  Yeah, right.
• 3:00
  That's a good one.
• 3:01
  Let's open the batting with that, shall we?
• 3:03
  I can't answer that, honestly.
• 3:04
  I don't think they're all very challenging in very different ways, to be honest.
• 3:08
  Am I right?
• 3:09
  Your dad, Philip, is that right?
• 3:10
  Yes.
• 3:11
  He was a co-driver.
• 3:12
  Maybe that's where the love for rallying clearly came from.
• 3:15
  Yeah, definitely.
• 3:16
  Yeah, Dad was a co-driver and I grew up with him co-driving and I guess he was co-driving before I was born but then in those sort of, I guess, five or six, I really sort of have memories of he was just finishing up co-driving, doing like the New South Wales State Championship and did a rally in Europe actually with Paul Gover.
• 3:35
  Paul Gover.
• 3:36
  Yeah.
• 3:37
  So, yeah, but I sort of have those memories of him co-driving in the New South Wales State Championship.
• 3:42
  I reckon it was like...
• 3:43
  93, 94.
• 3:44
  Okay.
• 3:46
  And then, yeah, but then he ultimately came in and being an organiser as well.
• 3:48
  Cool.
• 3:49
  I want to come to him being an event organiser and the memories of that, if you will, with PG, Paul Gover.
• 3:55
  Is he godfather to you or something along those lines?
• 3:57
  Yeah.
• 3:57
  Or am I that right?
• 3:58
  Yeah, correct.
• 3:58
  Yep, yep, yep.
• 3:59
  PG's my godfather.
• 4:00
  So, obviously, yeah, very successful motoring journey.
• 4:05
  Journal, yeah.
• 4:06
  He obviously sort of cut his teeth in Canberra where I grew up and has gone on to do some great things in that space.
• 4:11
  I think he, in...
• 4:13
  only the way that pj can do it he kind of claims that you he and your dad were possibly like first ever australians to compete in european rallying or there's some there is someone like that isn't there i've heard that story too i probably need a fact fact check it actually but yeah uh dad says the same was in a bda escort somewhere in the uk i believe and yeah the stories if you ever get told one never got go on forever and ever
• 4:35
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:38
  BJ will be listening.
• 4:38
  He'll wind me up on that.
• 4:40
  Now, coming to what you talked about with your dad being an event organiser there in the 90s, tell us about those events.
• 4:45
  And you did join him, I don't know how old you were, on that mission and helping to sort of set things up.
• 4:51
  And what kind of things were you doing?
• 4:53
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:53
  So dad finished up co-driving and with his good friend Peter Lambie set up a New South Wales state rally in Tumut.
• 5:02
  What time of year were we talking?
• 5:04
  Tumut, be cold and be cold.
• 5:05
  Yeah, it was.
• 5:06
  Well, I remember, yeah, it was late in the year because I remember going over one time.
• 5:09
  It was the first time I saw snow.
• 5:10
  We went over to check the rally and he used to just be able to pop over the back of Canberra and he had a Subaru station wagon.
• 5:17
  I don't remember what model it was, but I can picture it.
• 5:19
  That was the first car I drove, actually.
• 5:21
  And, yeah, we went over to check a rally.
• 5:23
  We popped over the Brindabella Ranges and it was snow.
• 5:25
  And I was like, oh, how good is this?
• 5:26
  And, yeah, just spent the day driving around, getting lost.
• 5:29
  We got bogged.
• 5:31
  But I guess that was all trying to find the roads.
• 5:33
  But I was actually thinking back.
• 5:34
  So the rally ran...
• 5:36
  And car one was John Long and Damien Long, which is... Who are here this week?
• 5:41
  Yeah.
• 5:42
  So, yeah, ironic in an Evo 3 Lancer.
• 5:46
  So, yeah, I guess just sort of how small the rallying world is.
• 5:49
  But, yeah, Dad ran a rally there.
• 5:52
  They ran some sort of classic tarmac rallies too.
• 5:55
  There was one big one.
• 5:56
  We're talking blind rallies?
• 5:58
  Yeah, blind rallies.
• 5:59
  So, yeah, there was a New South Wales State Championship predominantly in a round of the ACT Rally Series.
• 6:04
  So they ran that there and they ran a lot of rallies too, like classic touring events.
• 6:09
  I remember there was a big one out of Sydney.
• 6:11
  I was a lot younger and sort of hadn't really appreciated everything yet, but it was based out of the west of Parramatta and they left there and they went up through the Blue Mountains, up into Bathurst.
• 6:18
  It was a proper mapped tulip sort of event that they had to sort of guide their way through all open roads but very big touring event.
• 6:28
  So you're a young bloke.
• 6:30
  You're sort of touring around parts of New South Wales but with a predominantly motorsport focus here, aren't you?
• 6:36
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:37
  So I remember Dad had an office downstairs in our garage, which was Rally Sport Australia was the name of their little venture.
• 6:45
  And, yeah, he and Peter used to organise all the rallies there.
• 6:48
  They would come over and I remember Dad was in the public service and I remember going into whichever department he was working for at the time at like 9 o'clock at night printing road books next to the...
• 6:58
  Thanks to the federal government and the ACT government and all those things that, you know, you do time cards and then you come back and then you have to collate and bind and, you know, put all that sort of stuff together, pack all the envelopes for the control packs and all that sort of stuff.
• 7:09
  So, yeah, very fond memories of doing all that.
• 7:11
  I think in helping to tell your story here, as simple as you make that story out and the fun nature of it, it's actually quite an important block.
• 7:19
  There are lots of building blocks with you.
• 7:21
  I mean, that's clearly one of them that has ultimately been good for where you've ended up, hasn't it?
• 7:26
  Yeah, definitely.
• 7:27
  I think you sort of look back on all that now and go, you know, obviously there was sort of something there that I enjoyed about all that.
• 7:32
  And I think I just remember like growing up loving rallying, like when dad was competing and then he obviously stayed involved as an organiser.
• 7:40
  And mum and dad will probably tell the story too.
• 7:43
  So dad had all this stuff under the house like bunting, but like the old school bunting, like the triangular bunting that you sort of see when people sell their houses.
• 7:51
  Every Saturday morning I would get up, I would port it all up and literally make a track record.
• 7:56
  from the back of the house, living on a bit of a hill, bunting the control boards.
• 8:00
  There was a start control.
• 8:01
  There was a finish control.
• 8:01
  There was all the flags.
• 8:02
  I put on his old helmet and I'd ride my bike all day, like build this track.
• 8:06
  And mom and dad got the shits in the end because it looked like the house was for sale every Saturday morning.
• 8:11
  And I'd sort of start to actually started wearing a track in the front lawn and that was enough was enough.
• 8:15
  But then I turned it into like using matchbox cars and I sort of cut up little bits of Rio and cut up little bits of bunting tape and set up tracks.
• 8:22
  So yeah, it was...
• 8:24
  It was, I guess, inevitable that something was going to happen.
• 8:26
  They call it in our game getting the bug.
• 8:28
  That is obsession or disease, but good disease, isn't it?
• 8:32
  So fast forward a little bit for us.
• 8:34
  First car event, before you even come to competition, the driving aspect of your career, first ever car for you.
• 8:40
  What was it?
• 8:41
  What did you drive?
• 8:42
  First ever road car was a KE Ford Laser.
• 8:44
  Okay.
• 8:46
  And, yeah, it was blue.
• 8:48
  It was a hatchback.
• 8:50
  Gear or what was it?
• 8:52
  Yeah, what was it?
• 8:52
  I think actually...
• 8:53
  Yeah, it was the slightly nicer model.
• 8:55
  I can't remember what it was.
• 8:56
  It might have been a gear, actually.
• 8:57
  You would have meant if it was a gear.
• 8:59
  Yeah, fast-speed manual, blue, and yeah, it was a cool little car.
• 9:03
  It sort of probably wasn't my first choice of what I really wanted, but it's what I could afford and got, and ultimately, yeah, I ended up cutting the springs and putting bigger wheels on it and had the biggest loudest stereo in it and...
• 9:14
  In Canberra at the time, there was a bit of a very big car culture.
• 9:16
  You sort of go into Braddon and you could park up and observe all the nice cars.
• 9:22
  So that was my first ever road car.
• 9:24
  First ever rally car, though, if I'm right, was a KE Corolla.
• 9:27
  Yes.
• 9:27
  So what age are you?
• 9:28
  Tell me about that.
• 9:29
  Are you like late teens?
• 9:30
  How old would you have been?
• 9:31
  Yeah, late teens.
• 9:32
  I reckon I was 19.
• 9:33
  We're talking early 70s spec kind of Corolla here.
• 9:38
  Yeah, 74 spec.
• 9:39
  Yeah, hatchback, two-door.
• 9:40
  With twin cams.
• 9:41
  Three games, Soul X's.
• 9:42
  Three games, Soul X's, exactly right.
• 9:43
  Love it.
• 9:44
  A little 1600.
• 9:44
  Yeah, it was gutless and went nowhere.
• 9:47
  There is a max.
• 9:48
  My question is leading here.
• 9:49
  Yeah.
• 9:50
  My question is leading because there's a connection to Trevor Stilling here that your dad had, did he not?
• 9:54
  I mean, he's a bit of a Canberra legend, rotaries and things, wasn't he?
• 9:57
  Yeah, yeah.
• 9:58
  So Trevor Stilling was who my dad sort of wrapped up his co-driving career with doing the state championship in a Evo.
• 10:05
  Oh, no, it might have been a VR4, actually.
• 10:08
  So, but yeah, I've known Trevor for, well, Trevor's known me since I was, could
• 10:11
  could walk.
• 10:13
  And Trevor... We don't want to get him in trouble.
• 10:15
  Yeah, I'll pick my words wisely.
• 10:19
  Trevor's known to do a deal or two, I guess you could say.
• 10:22
  And yeah, we... Ironically, I ended up buying the Corolla off him, but...
• 10:27
  It was his initially, which I don't think Karen, his wife knows, but I'm pretty safe so she might listen to this.
• 10:34
  But we did one rally in it and we shared it was a Blue Range rally sprint.
• 10:36
  So we shared he drove a stage, I co-drove.
• 10:39
  Excellent.
• 10:40
  And this was my second ever rally because the first ever rally I did, I co-driven for a guy called Peter Taylor in a little Corolla.
• 10:47
  I did a little rally sprint in Wagga.
• 10:49
  And then this was the second rally.
• 10:49
  And it was like, this is a chance.
• 10:50
  I always wanted to drive.
• 10:52
  I don't know.
• 10:52
  Even though Dad was a co-driver, driving was something that I thought I wanted to do.
• 10:56
  So are you soaking up what Trevor's doing or are you just hellbent on what you wanted to do here?
• 11:02
  I think I was just a bit hellbent on it.
• 11:03
  I just wanted to drive.
• 11:04
  I remember I was at the first stage and I had to co-drive and I was terrible.
• 11:08
  It was never my thing to co-drive.
• 11:10
  I always just wanted to drive.
• 11:10
  And I'd had a little stint doing some circuit racing before.
• 11:14
  in a sort of a breakaway series of what essentially people would know as Aussie race cars.
• 11:17
  Oh, wow.
• 11:18
  So like legend cars.
• 11:19
  Yeah, legends.
• 11:20
  Exactly what they were, yeah.
• 11:21
  Like Chris Clarehan.
• 11:22
  I don't know if you know who I am.
• 11:23
  Chris was around.
• 11:24
  He was in Canberra Guy and sort of got us into it and we had a few rounds there and it was fun because ultimately rallying, you need your full license.
• 11:32
  So we did this rally sprint and Trevor bought the car.
• 11:35
  And he's like, I reckon this would be a good car for you when you bought it.
• 11:37
  But I was like, oh, yeah.
• 11:37
  And lo and behold, as people would know, Trevor, you end up – I bought the car at the end of the rally.
• 11:42
  So we did one stage.
• 11:43
  I did another stage.
• 11:44
  It went pretty well.
• 11:44
  I thought this was cool.
• 11:45
  And, yeah, it was three grand, I think it was, and bought it.
• 11:48
  But this is back in a time where the ACT Rally Series was pretty big.
• 11:52
  Like there was six rounds, yeah.
• 11:53
  And there was like four or five rallies in Canberra.
• 11:55
  Like I think unfortunately now they – I think it's NatCap and maybe the Light Car Club might do a rally sprint there.
• 12:01
  So like two events.
• 12:02
  But, you know, you could go out and –
• 12:05
  You literally sort of drive out Saturday morning to a rally and drive home and sleep in your own bed and it was pretty cool.
• 12:09
  So, I did my first rally driving.
• 12:13
  I started third last car and got in the top 10.
• 12:16
  I remember it was…
• 12:18
  an event put on by the Light Car Club at Canberra.
• 12:20
  Excellent.
• 12:21
  I thought this was pretty cool.
• 12:22
  Was Neil Bates watching this one or was he watching anything?
• 12:25
  Yeah, I think Neil was there.
• 12:26
  It was the second rally that I did.
• 12:29
  And he basically after that, he came up and said, you need to get rid of that car because you're going to kill yourself.
• 12:35
  Just because of the progression you'd made?
• 12:36
  I think, yeah.
• 12:37
  I don't know.
• 12:38
  I probably need to ask him actually again.
• 12:39
  But I vividly remember him saying, like, it's not, you know, he said, you're driving it too hard.
• 12:42
  It's not like it was pretty basic.
• 12:44
  It had, you know, all the sort of essentials he's like.
• 12:45
  But he said, you need to...
• 12:47
  You need to get a better, safer car.
• 12:50
  So I sort of took that on board.
• 12:51
  Need a couple more rallies.
• 12:52
  And then basically I thought, oh, yeah.
• 12:54
  And I think I'd, yeah, again, a couple of top tens in the New South Wales.
• 12:58
  Sorry, in the ACT rally series.
• 13:00
  That's pretty impressive.
• 13:01
  Yeah.
• 13:02
  So I thought, oh, this is pretty cool.
• 13:03
  I was going okay.
• 13:04
  And I thought, oh, well, you know, again, I'm pretty competitive by nature.
• 13:08
  And I thought, oh, the best thing to do will be to sort of
• 13:12
  you know, pair myself against people in similar sort of cars.
• 13:15
  And the XL rally series was a thing back then.
• 13:19
  Really well subsidised and supported by Hyundai and went and bought a little, yeah, Hyundai XL of all things.
• 13:25
  I love this because this is – you now live in Queensland and you got this – if I'm right, you were maybe doing something in maybe a rally or something in northern New South Wales and you duck across to Queensland to get it.
• 13:37
  Did you drive it over the Gateway Bridge?
• 13:39
  Yeah.
• 13:40
  Yeah.
• 13:40
  So, yeah, it wasn't a little rally.
• 13:42
  It was Rally Australia.
• 13:43
  Oh, sorry.
• 13:44
  Okay.
• 13:44
  Yeah.
• 13:45
  So, Rally, it was the first Rally Australia on the East Coast, 2009.
• 13:47
  And, yeah, I said, oh, go buy this.
• 13:51
  I thought, go buy an XL.
• 13:52
  And ironically, a guy that's a good friend now who works with us on the AIC, Fro.
• 13:57
  Fro was doing the XL series as well.
• 13:59
  He had a little green XL.
• 14:01
  Spoke to Fro and he's like, yeah, get one of these.
• 14:03
  They're good.
• 14:03
  They're bulletproof.
• 14:04
  You can't kill them and thought it'd be a good way to go and see how I match up to people in similar sort of cars.
• 14:09
  And so I looked around and there was a few about.
• 14:11
  I found one up in Queensland.
• 14:14
  It was bright yellow.
• 14:16
  It had a nickname called Tweety, which I learned after the fact, but for obvious reasons.
• 14:20
  But I remember I looked and it had Murray Coote suspension in it.
• 14:22
  And I was like, that was the selling point.
• 14:24
  I was like, you know, it was a good car.
• 14:27
  I was up here for Rally Australia 2009 just spectating.
• 14:30
  It was my first WRC event to witness and go and watch.
• 14:33
  And I thought, you know what, I'm going to go look at this car.
• 14:37
  So, ironically, it was my biological dad, Phil, my stepdad, Tim, and another good mate, Michael Taylor.
• 14:44
  We shot up the road.
• 14:46
  Michael Taylor as in Motor Magazine, now based in Europe, Michael Taylor.
• 14:49
  No, no, no, Michael Taylor.
• 14:50
  Taylor is in, yeah, Michael Taylor from Canberra, Peter Taylor.
• 14:52
  Sorry.
• 14:53
  Yeah, his son.
• 14:54
  So we shot up the highway.
• 14:55
  We're in, because it was in Cuyahoga, the rally.
• 14:58
  So we popped across the border and drove up to Brisbane two hours and looked at this car.
• 15:02
  It was sort of on the north side of Brisbane and, yep, you know, could we do it?
• 15:05
  And, yeah, yep, let's do it and buy it.
• 15:07
  It was $10,000, I remember.
• 15:08
  I was like, oof, okay.
• 15:10
  let's buy it and um i had savings and i just sort of everyone had to go to the bank to help pull because i couldn't get my limit i think at the time was like 500 bucks a day so if we sort of had to like pull and run around from atm atm to get the deposit to pay it and i was like all right cool we got it and then we went back to the rally and then i was like how are you yeah i remember the tim at the time the stepdad saying well how are we going to get these back to to camera it's like oh we'll just go as neil like surely surely there'll be a trailer coming back and sure enough
• 15:35
  So Neil was doing a rally in the S2000 Corolla.
• 15:39
  So yeah, on the Sunday after the rally, I had to drive back up to Brisbane, finally found enough ATMs over a few days to get money out, and everyone else had to get a few bits of money out and pulled it together and paid 10 grand cash for it, and drove it all the way from Brisbane back down to... Coyogle.
• 15:54
  Coyogle, yeah.
• 15:55
  I remember driving up over the gateway,
• 15:56
  It was noisy as buggery because he put an exhaust on it.
• 15:58
  It was a brrrr, all the way down the freeway, which is now a freeway that obviously I drive a fair bit going up and down the coast.
• 16:05
  Yeah, and drove it into the WRC service park with all the world rally cars at the time in this bright yellow XL, and it went in the back of Neil's Transporter and went back to Canberra.
• 16:14
  So good.
• 16:15
  So good.
• 16:15
  I mean, front wheel drive, you know, low power.
• 16:20
  How good was that?
• 16:21
  Yeah, it was bog stock, like the rules were.
• 16:24
  You could change a suspension and that's basically put all the safety gear in.
• 16:28
  But you wanted to benchmark yourself against people in similar gear and that does teach you a lot, that sort of thing, doesn't it?
• 16:34
  Yeah, it does.
• 16:35
  Yeah, so that was sort of the intention.
• 16:36
  I thought, oh, well, this will tell if there's something in this or not.
• 16:39
  And it was really good, like, sport from home.
• 16:42
  So parts, like, I think I rebuilt the engine for, like, literally $300.
• 16:47
  Had some great support from some guys in Canberra, Michael and Thomas Barrett.
• 16:50
  Were you handy on the tools?
• 16:51
  No.
• 16:52
  No.
• 16:52
  No, no, it's funny actually.
• 16:53
  I was listening to Dino's podcast and I feel like Dino and I often joke about, you know, I think we sort of had similar sort of, you know, careers in terms of I wasn't like, I got the fundamentals, but and I'd jump in and do whatever I could and that's how I had to like, obviously Michael and Thomas Bout were really supportive in those early years and they had a workshop five minutes, like a normal automotive workshop, but I was able to go in after work.
• 17:14
  They'd come in service for me, but they'd show me the ropes and put it up on a hoist and, you know, we'd do all the basics and nut and bolt and I can do all that sort of stuff.
• 17:20
  But yeah, if it turns out,
• 17:22
  Rebuild an engine light, no way.
• 17:23
  So when you say after work, is this the period where you may have started a landscaping business?
• 17:29
  I think you told me in the lead up to this that, you know, although in saying that, in saying what the industry is, it might sound poles apart from what you're doing now, but ironically, there are a lot of things from that business that still serve you well now, do they not?
• 17:44
  Yeah, definitely, yeah.
• 17:47
  So I, yeah, sort of studied it.
• 17:49
  Funnily enough, in all this, I was finishing up school and I'd studied events and sports admin at school because I sort of… At school?
• 17:57
  Yeah.
• 17:57
  Yeah.
• 17:57
  So year 11 and year 12, I did sports administration and I went to the college I picked was… I went there purely for that was the only college in Canberra that could offer that sort of sports and that course.
• 18:07
  Yeah.
• 18:08
  And then went on to CIT and did some extra study there to sort of get as qualified as you could without going to uni in event management.
• 18:15
  So I did all that.
• 18:16
  And then in between all that, I was working just on the weekend for a mate in landscaping doing stone cashies to sort of basically pay for rallying and really loved that.
• 18:26
  Like it was the idea of just being outdoors and I just liked it.
• 18:30
  And in the middle of all this, I sort of wrapped up school and I was like, I hadn't really sort of landed like what was...
• 18:37
  work going to be like.
• 18:39
  And Jono, the guy that I was working for doing these cash, he said, well, do you want to come work for me full-time as a landscape labourer?
• 18:45
  I was like, oh, yeah.
• 18:46
  And it was about six months into that, and he's like, you should really go and get qualified.
• 18:50
  So I did.
• 18:50
  So I went and did my... Because he thought you had good talent, and that's why you could do the job.
• 18:53
  Yeah, no, I think Jono was real big on just...
• 18:56
  Have a ticket.
• 18:57
  Yeah, don't waste your time.
• 18:58
  If you're going to do this and you're one inches, go and get yourself qualified.
• 19:02
  So I went through, did my apprenticeship and ironically after doing all that, managed to get a lot of stuff for recognition for prior learning.
• 19:08
  Like Canberra is pretty good for that sort of stuff.
• 19:10
  There's a few abilities through the CRT TAFE and stuff there to sort of fast track some of those sort of elements.
• 19:17
  It's very hands on TAFE.
• 19:19
  So I did all that.
• 19:21
  And came out of that and probably, I don't even reckon it was 12 months after, he decided to sell up the business and became a publican in Yass of all things.
• 19:31
  But he said to me, he said, like, I've got your job.
• 19:34
  So, there was two of us.
• 19:34
  There was myself and Trent.
• 19:36
  And he said, I've got you guys a job.
• 19:39
  You can go and work for another guy, Phil, or you can go and sort yourselves out.
• 19:46
  And he said to me, he's like, why don't you, you should go out on your own.
• 19:48
  He said, my business isn't worth anything, but you can go and work.
• 19:53
  go out on your own if you want.
• 19:54
  And because I had all my own tools and stuff by then.
• 19:57
  And he said, and anytime the phone rings, I'll just send the work your way.
• 20:00
  Yeah.
• 20:00
  Which is, which is what he did.
• 20:01
  So I started reading new landscaping and, and when did that for four or five, four or five years, I reckon.
• 20:09
  Okay.
• 20:10
  Had a couple of guys working for me and that was sort of in the early phases and I was paying for Rallying so it was great because there was good money.
• 20:18
  But teaching you business acumen as well.
• 20:19
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:21
  So that's when I was sort of running the XL and doing all that and then there was an opportunity to do Rally Australia in a ST Fiesta which came about because when I was on the XL, there was a few times.
• 20:36
  Kumo had just come on board for the ARC.
• 20:38
  You...
• 20:40
  cross paths with a representative of theirs yeah yeah john mills um who he kind of i guess you could say almost gave me a bit of a break there so he i approached him so i guess in all this i was sort of chasing dollars like i was paying for all the rallying through my landscaping and that sort of stuff and i said oh well kimo's good enough there i say it's all it's good enough for me running around in excel in new south wales so i approached him and got a tire deal so free tires and um
• 21:04
  Free tires?
• 21:05
  Yeah, I think it was free tires in the end, but I was subsidized and yeah.
• 21:08
  And lo and behold, I came second in the XL series that year.
• 21:12
  But John was really happy because everything I said I'd do from a sponsorship point of view, I did and went over and above.
• 21:17
  So, did a lot but chose to sell the XL because my landscape business was taken off and I needed to buy some more tools.
• 21:24
  So, I was like, oh, well, yeah, I've got to make it and this is where I'm going.
• 21:28
  This is going to, you know, rallying is great, but
• 21:31
  It's not really going.
• 21:32
  So I sold the XL to go and buy a trailer and some more tools because the business sort of – Jono had been feeding me this work and all of a sudden everything I quoted on I was getting and I was like, oh, this is good.
• 21:41
  So I sold the XL, I was out.
• 21:42
  I didn't really have any idea what I was going to do.
• 21:45
  But you were yearning for rallying still.
• 21:47
  Yeah, still got it.
• 21:48
  I just decided I was early 20s, like I need to make a bit of a grown-up decision here and need to go and say I sold the car, sold everything and that was that.
• 21:58
  About six months later, my co-driver at the time was Tim Batten, rang me and said, oh, you know, he was doing work.
• 22:08
  He's a mechanic and he was doing work in the Middle East and for a guy called Ron Kremen who… Yep.
• 22:12
  People in the rally community will know.
• 22:13
  Yeah.
• 22:14
  And he said, oh, Ron's got one of these STM Sport Fiestas, which was like back then in the duck's guts.
• 22:19
  It was a little two-wheel drive.
• 22:21
  It had a dog box.
• 22:22
  It was built from M Sport.
• 22:23
  that he's selling out of the Middle East and it was going dirt cheap.
• 22:26
  Like I think it was like 20 grand and it came with a heap of spares.
• 22:29
  He's like, you know, you should buy it.
• 22:31
  I was like, man, I just sold the XL.
• 22:33
  I got all my tools.
• 22:34
  Like it's not an option.
• 22:36
  But ironically, I remembered that John Mills in all these conversations had said he wanted to actually give a young guy a break in the ARC because he was the control tire for the ARC.
• 22:44
  And this is when the era when Scott Petter was just taken over and was running and it was a two-wheel drive.
• 22:50
  And he said, oh, I want to give someone a break, but I need to sort of think one of these STFs would be great.
• 22:56
  And this was 12 months earlier.
• 22:58
  I sort of – I remember it.
• 22:59
  I banked it.
• 22:59
  I was like, no, I don't.
• 23:00
  But I reckon I might know someone.
• 23:01
  I was just trying to do the right thing.
• 23:02
  I said, I reckon I might know someone who wants to buy it, John Mills.
• 23:05
  You know, remember John?
• 23:06
  He's like, oh, yeah.
• 23:07
  So, I rang John and said, hey, the exact car that you mentioned to me 12 months ago, there's a bit of a deal here.
• 23:13
  He's interested.
• 23:14
  And so, I put him and Ron and through Tim and put him in touch.
• 23:18
  And sure enough, John bought the car.
• 23:20
  And John then turned around to me and said, as a favor, put me on to that.
• 23:23
  I want you to run it in Rally Australia in 2011.
• 23:25
  How good.
• 23:25
  I was like, what?
• 23:27
  So, yeah.
• 23:27
  So, it was homologated.
• 23:28
  So, I could do the WRC section.
• 23:31
  So I'd gone from selling everything up, no car, to then John putting me in the car, free kumos.
• 23:37
  I had to find some sponsorship.
• 23:38
  For the pinnacle event in the country?
• 23:40
  Yeah, for the biggest event.
• 23:41
  And it was the first time in Coffs Harbour.
• 23:43
  And I still remember it like we had so many dramas.
• 23:46
  The car land, it was left-hand drive.
• 23:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:48
  We then did a little test in it and then we had gearbox problems leaking rear main.
• 23:52
  It was just one of those events.
• 23:53
  We had to end up MacGyvering up a Coke bottle with a pipe to keep pushing Coke onto the flywheel to keep it dry so it could get friction to get through the rally.
• 24:00
  But that was Ken Block was there.
• 24:02
  I remember pulling up on road sections talking to Ken Block.
• 24:06
  I was sitting in the driver's briefing too.
• 24:07
  Sebastian Loeb was in front of me.
• 24:09
  Auger was behind me.
• 24:10
  I was just those pinch myself moments.
• 24:13
  And it all went downhill from there then, really.
• 24:15
  Yeah, that was the start of a pretty successful sort of fast six years of rallying for me.
• 24:44
  So we make the team decision to go and sacrifice the spot to give Cody.
• 24:48
  Check in late.
• 24:49
  So we checked in late to the end of service.
• 24:51
  And this is like super serious.
• 24:52
  It's a two-hour service.
• 24:53
  So most people probably, you know, you can check in early and go to bed.
• 24:55
  I think only Brett Middleton drove past us going, what are these guys doing hanging out the front of the gate by it?
• 25:01
  And we check in late.
• 25:02
  Most people didn't know.
• 25:04
  Dino also talks about being one of the first on scene at Peter Brock's Fatal Crash and more.
• 25:09
  It is a gripping episode even if you're not a rally buff like Adrian.
• 25:13
  He's really got the bug, hasn't he?
• 25:17
  Come back a little step here because...
• 25:20
  you know, you weren't afraid to pick up the phone and speak to John.
• 25:25
  You have, over time, you've had sponsors like Castrol, Optus and more.
• 25:30
  Did that door knocking and the whole stitching together a deal thing come easily to you?
• 25:37
  And you must have realised very early on, because, you know, return on investment, over-deliver, that must have been from the get-go, something that you were...
• 25:47
  conscious of it's funny you say i i looking back on it yes but i just i knew just that's what you need to do you just sort of need to hustle and i guess sell yourself and uh and i guess that's a big part of you know sort of i was pretty successful in sort of getting sponsorship and in that regard so um yeah i just just it came naturally i guess just sort of that and i guess maybe it came off the
• 26:11
  Even that landscape period when I was going and quoting people and have to build up a rapport with the client to convince them to give you your work.
• 26:18
  Maybe it came from that, I'm not too sure.
• 26:20
  But yeah, I was never really scared of some cold calls or trying to put a deal together.
• 26:24
  And yeah, now that's what I do so much of.
• 26:29
  How does this section of your story lead to, and I may be jumping around a little bit here, but how does it lead to, I think was there an M Sport Australia distributorship here or something or other?
• 26:38
  What transpires next?
• 26:40
  Yeah, so we ran the ST Fiesta in Rally Australia in 2011.
• 26:44
  And then 2012, John was like, well, let's keep this going.
• 26:48
  Like, we were happy we got a result.
• 26:49
  We got second in class.
• 26:50
  Immediately, there was like three of us in the class.
• 26:52
  Doesn't matter.
• 26:53
  Whatever, we got our result.
• 26:55
  So we went into the next year and I did the ARC campaign.
• 26:58
  So there was a van from John, there was a car and basically he gave it to us to run.
• 27:03
  He supported us with some tyres and we went and did the Rally Sport, sorry, Rally School Junior Challenge.
• 27:12
  And this is where some likes of Guy Tyler and Aaron Kazmieri and stuff were sort of doing.
• 27:17
  So it was, again, another step to sort of try and see where we sort of were.
• 27:21
  So a bit of forward support in there too?
• 27:23
  Yeah.
• 27:24
  Oh, no, not that year.
• 27:25
  No, but that sort of led to, yeah, so it was just us running the car.
• 27:28
  That's kind of where Innate was born because it was like, oh, well, you know, I'd learned enough through business and landscaping and had a good account and I was like, well, there's a few ways to do this.
• 27:38
  So I set up a decentity in that motorsport.
• 27:42
  and yeah, we ran and ran.
• 27:44
  I think, I can't remember, Calder Park.
• 27:45
  It was the year of Calder Park actually.
• 27:46
  Oh, wow.
• 27:47
  That rained out an unfortunate event for Scott and Katie, but that was the first event and we came second in the two-wheel drive.
• 27:54
  This is when we had ARC four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive.
• 27:58
  I did Rally Queensland and got second in the APRC.
• 28:03
  When I still remember sitting there and Scott's like, and this is, again, the APRC, this was Escopeca Lappi was in the Skoda, in the factory MRS Skoda,
• 28:12
  I reckon there might have been eight of us in the APRC that were generally able to do the APRC, the FIA, because we had homologated cars.
• 28:18
  We still had Scott and the Clio and all those sort of cars.
• 28:21
  But I remember Scott just said, you just need to drive around and you'll get a good result here.
• 28:26
  And I kept my nose clean and we got second in the APRC ablately by like five minutes.
• 28:31
  But that was...
• 28:33
  That was pretty cool.
• 28:34
  But in the middle, so about halfway through the year, we sort of thought, this is going okay.
• 28:38
  And we were buying parts off M-Sport because you still had to buy it.
• 28:41
  Like none of it was really sort of from a road car.
• 28:44
  So we started building up this rapport with M-Sport.
• 28:49
  And yeah, this is when the R2 Fiesta was just coming online and the WRC Academy was running it.
• 28:56
  And lo and behold, a bunch of conversations.
• 28:58
  They said, oh, do you want to run a car in Australia?
• 29:02
  I was like, oh, well, yeah, I hadn't really thought about that.
• 29:04
  And this is where it all started to get a bit serious.
• 29:07
  So, yeah, basically, we'd sort of set up the – become the M Sport reseller in Australia because we had the ST Fiesta.
• 29:14
  I think someone else – I can't remember now.
• 29:16
  I feel someone else was getting another ST Fiesta.
• 29:18
  Okay.
• 29:20
  And we had to get Ford Australia's endorsement to do that.
• 29:23
  It was all part of that global scheme, which we did.
• 29:25
  And then that led to essentially, oh, well, if we run a car in the ARC,
• 29:30
  is there any support?
• 29:32
  And we got a bit of support and some cars and a recce car and some money and a little bit of money and stuff, but basically we had to then go and buy the car.
• 29:40
  So, yeah, that's sort of where it all kicked off.
• 29:46
  Did you stop to think that the timeframe between K.E.
• 29:48
  Corolla and this moment contacting Ford is relatively short?
• 29:52
  It is, yeah, really short.
• 29:53
  And I didn't do, I sort of did a lot, you know, I look back on it now and talk to a lot of people and I didn't do a whole lot of...
• 29:59
  traditional state rallying.
• 30:01
  Like I sort of did one season in the XL and a few ACT rounds.
• 30:03
  The next thing I know we're doing a WRC round and then we're just doing ARC.
• 30:08
  So from that regard, I was still very green.
• 30:11
  But the opportunities were presenting themselves.
• 30:13
  I was really fortunate that my mom... Don't say that with regret because, I mean, opportunity presented, but you also created opportunity.
• 30:21
  You've got to go with that, don't you?
• 30:22
  You've got to, yeah.
• 30:24
  So, I was very lucky that, yeah, I obviously had the support of my mom and stepdad, Tim, they sort of said, right, let's give this a crack too.
• 30:31
  So, they helped me buy the car and stuff and a truck and we sort of got set up and then I sort of wanted to take it, I guess, that little bit more serious.
• 30:38
  I was like, well, we need to do this properly.
• 30:40
  So, like if we're going to be representing forward and the idea behind it was to try and get more of these cars in.
• 30:47
  and be the sole parts supplier or seller.
• 30:49
  Unfortunately, it didn't sort of really take off.
• 30:51
  I guess the R2 Fiestas were very underpowered to what were the rules we had at the time, which was G2.
• 30:57
  So we had the factory Honda team with Eli and Mark Pedder.
• 31:01
  Scott was running the Clios, which was R3 spec.
• 31:04
  So back then they had a pyramid and Scott was in R3.
• 31:09
  So we were sort of on the lower end of the
• 31:11
  the power side of things.
• 31:14
  But I guess in the middle of all that, we also brought out Elfin Evans to run in Canberra and he was blitzing everybody in it.
• 31:21
  So I guess it wasn't necessarily all down to the car.
• 31:24
  You've led me there, right?
• 31:25
  So your first couple of things, you mentioned Innate there before, for people listening that don't know, Innate Event Group, right?
• 31:31
  Which is you and what you do now, but it starts back then.
• 31:36
  And is Elfin, when you did that for older listeners, right?
• 31:40
  Like his...
• 31:41
  His father is Gwyndaff Evans, you know, former British champion.
• 31:44
  Elfin, I mean, he's been in the WRC pretty much since he was with you, basically.
• 31:50
  I mean, M Sport, Toyota Gazoo Racing, 11 WRC wins.
• 31:53
  That's a very cool thing to think that you...
• 31:56
  Yeah.
• 31:56
  And how does that come about?
• 31:58
  How did you make that happen?
• 31:59
  Well, it was all off the back of this whole Ford sort of, we want to get some R2s out here.
• 32:03
  So they, yeah, fine.
• 32:05
  We could sit here and tell you the stories for days.
• 32:07
  The more I think about it, how all some of this stuff came up.
• 32:09
  But yeah, they obviously wanted to try and Elfin was, they identified M Sport that he was the next, because he'd just won the WRC Academy and he was like, this is the next big thing.
• 32:18
  Thing, yeah.
• 32:20
  And we wanted to do what I do with Ford Australia, sort of wanted to make a bit of a mark and sort of, you know, just put these cars in front of everyone.
• 32:26
  So we came up with a deal to run Elfin in round one in Canberra.
• 32:31
  But we'd bought the car that I was running in and I was like, well, what's this car going to look like?
• 32:38
  And lo and behold, it was like, well, we need another car for this, but it would probably be handy to have a spare car.
• 32:43
  And then sort of talking to Ford, Ford, we're arming an iron with, oh, maybe we can put a journo in it here or there or run some other people.
• 32:49
  So we got a second car, which ironically we bought off Molly Taylor.
• 32:53
  So it was Molly's old car that she had bought to do events with when she was turning to WRC Academy.
• 32:58
  So, yeah, a bit of a deal was done.
• 33:01
  We got it out here and Elvin drove it, but...
• 33:04
  For those that know that story, that didn't last very long.
• 33:07
  He got into about 7 or 8K into Stage 3 in Canberra and crashed it massively, like really bad, like ripped a corner out of it.
• 33:16
  And there's some in-car still going around on YouTube where he's sort of thrown in, he's like, oop, I'm going to be in trouble now.
• 33:20
  And it was his at the end.
• 33:22
  But yeah, he showed the real pace of the car.
• 33:24
  And yeah, at that time, that was, you know,
• 33:27
  It was pretty impressive and pretty surreal to now see where he is and I can still talk to him now.
• 33:33
  That's cool, mate.
• 33:34
  That's cool.
• 33:35
  And that you've stitched that portion of it together.
• 33:38
  Timing may be out for me here in what I've noted.
• 33:41
  I mean, did you get Canberra back as an ARC event at around this time?
• 33:45
  And were you president of the Brindabella Motors?
• 33:47
  How the hell did you have enough time to do all of these things?
• 33:50
  Yeah, that was the same era.
• 33:51
  So that was, yeah, I was the president of the Rindable Moseport Club at that time.
• 33:55
  And yeah, so events, ACT used to run the Rally of Camberls, the Rally of Camberls, everyone would remember it back in its heyday when it was APRC.
• 34:04
  And it had been a number of years.
• 34:05
  I feel like 2008 might have been or 2009 might have been the last time it was run by them.
• 34:10
  So we're in 2013.
• 34:13
  Yeah, I'd convinced the car club and said, you know, we need to, they probably hate me now because they're still running it now.
• 34:17
  But yeah, I said, we need to get this back.
• 34:20
  Like we're the biggest car club in Canberra and we should get it back.
• 34:24
  So I remember I did, Scott was running the championship at the time and got him to fly up.
• 34:29
  We had a meeting at the Hellenic Club and he came in and...
• 34:32
  sold the dream and um the club was like yeah this is a good idea and we basically yeah that was the start of what was the national capital rally and adrian dudok was the car course and that that that national capital rally was his little baby it was a state news had a state round stepped up to an arc and yeah i'd rocked in being the ford supported driver with elvin evans for year one of arc in canberra crazy so yeah i was doing all that and helping organize the event in the background and then you had to go and do the rally so yeah it was pretty pretty busy now you
• 35:02
  Can we talk, you mentioned Molly Taylor.
• 35:03
  Can we bring up a little fun yarn with her?
• 35:05
  And this may be 2012, so this may be a year prior.
• 35:09
  She runs something like a WRC Academy raffle.
• 35:13
  $150 a ticket.
• 35:15
  You buy three.
• 35:16
  Is this true?
• 35:17
  What was the prize and what happens next?
• 35:20
  Yeah, so she was doing a fundraiser for her, to keep obviously going rallying, and she basically ran a raffle, put a raffle prize together, which was return trip for two to business class seat, flights to, I feel like it might have been Italy, then driving a supercar, so Ferraris, Lamborghinis.
• 35:39
  Yeah, through the Italian outs, French outs.
• 35:41
  Sounds terrible, terrible.
• 35:43
  Totally terrible.
• 35:44
  Into Monaco, then on a super yacht for the weekend, watching the Grand Prix, all expenses paid.
• 35:50
  So that was the prize.
• 35:51
  And it was $100, I'm pretty sure it was $150 a ticket.
• 35:53
  Congratulations, Mr. A. Coppin, ticket $150.
• 35:56
  Yeah, I actually think it might have been ticket $153, actually.
• 35:59
  That's ironic.
• 35:59
  Yeah, so, yeah, I bought three tickets, one for my dad, one for my stepdad Tim and myself for Christmas because it was born.
• 36:06
  I was drawn on New Year's Eve.
• 36:09
  Now, for fans listening, they would go, that's awesome.
• 36:12
  Yeah, Monaco Grand Prix, da-da-da.
• 36:14
  You go...
• 36:15
  Can I cash it in?
• 36:16
  Yeah.
• 36:16
  Well, I had to cash it in because I couldn't actually do the drive component because I was too young.
• 36:21
  Oh, no way.
• 36:22
  Yeah, for insurance.
• 36:23
  So a big part of it, which now in hindsight I wish it would have been cool to do, but I couldn't drive the supercar bit.
• 36:29
  You weren't old enough.
• 36:30
  I wasn't old enough for insurance.
• 36:31
  So I was like, oh.
• 36:32
  we're stuck here.
• 36:32
  And then I didn't really know how to take because there was two people and I was like, oh.
• 36:36
  So Molly and I have been known to wheel and deal over the years trying to find budgets and stuff.
• 36:41
  And I couldn't even tell you how it came about, but we basically came up with the idea, well, let's cash it in.
• 36:48
  And that's a start towards coming over and doing an ERC round.
• 36:52
  That was the year that she was in the United Business team with the Citroën.
• 36:56
  So, yeah, I don't even remember...
• 36:59
  I kind of vaguely recall, but I remember us basically taking it to Coral and Mark saying, well, how does this work?
• 37:07
  Can we cash this out and transfer it into a budget towards me to go into a rally?
• 37:12
  And I feel like at the time, Coral and Mark were like, what's wrong with you like this?
• 37:16
  That's what we did.
• 37:17
  So, yeah, it turned around.
• 37:18
  That's how I did my first event in Europe.
• 37:27
  That's the end of part one of my feature episode with Adrian Coppin.
• 37:30
  But like all good rallies, there are more stages to come.
• 37:33
  Jump back to the garage and you can find part two all loaded up right now for you to enjoy at your leisure.
• 37:40
  And this second part has a flavour to it that will appeal to fans and constituents or those in the industry.
• 37:46
  What Adrian's plans are now that he's at the helm of the Australian Rally Championship.
• 37:57
  Mother Nature played a brutal card and applying his skills on the circuit racing side too as the speed series sought to involve him as it turned a page and began a new chapter.
• 38:09
  All that and more ahead here on Rusty's Garage.