Latest / Rusty's Garage / Cameron Donald (Part 1)

Transcript

Cameron Donald (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:10
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:31
  For this episode, I'm in Melbourne.
• 0:32
  I've driven about 45 minutes east of the city where suburbia kind of begins to become rural.
• 0:38
  There is a bit of traffic, but it's on the Yarra River and you immediately feel a change of pace, like you've been able to escape some of the rat race.
• 0:47
  Little country stores, a bakery and lolly shop line the main road into town.
• 0:52
  I've come here to meet a motorcycle racer that you could hold in the same light as, say, Toby Price.
• 0:58
  He's conquered one of the most dangerous racers on the planet more than once and lived to tell the tales.
• 1:04
  Cam Donald loved motorcycles from an early age and still does, but instead of doggedly chasing the superbike or MotoGP dream, he turned right on circuit racing and decided to tackle the Isle of Man TT.
• 1:17
  Most of you that listen to the podcast will know it, and if you don't,
• 1:21
  put it on your bucket list.
• 1:22
  Let's be honest, anyone who's ridden there is a very special breed.
• 1:27
  Australia and New Zealand have had their share of competitors who've made the pilgrimage over the 100 plus year history of the race.
• 1:34
  In the world we now live, where regulation and red tape would never allow it, it's difficult to imagine how the tourist trophy still exists.
• 1:43
  And yet, it is a huge annual event for the sleepy tax haven that sits in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland.
• 1:51
  This race is last bastion stuff, careering at breakneck speed through towns and along narrow country roads by the rugged coastline.
• 2:01
  Almost every year, a competitor dies.
• 2:04
  sometimes more than one.
• 2:06
  Each lap is over 60 kilometres, top speeds around 330 k's an hour, but it's the high average speeds that they aim for while tackling some 200 corners.
• 2:18
  The pictures are breathtaking, roaring by hedges and old stone fences, fans sneaking a look by letterboxes and through the trees.
• 2:29
  It's revered and feared.
• 2:31
  You need to be immensely brave for this race.
• 2:35
  And as you'll hear from Cam, have some real smarts too.
• 2:39
  Fittingly, we are in his garage for this chat, surrounded by a few motorcycles.
• 2:43
  You may occasionally hear his young kids running around upstairs too.
• 2:47
  They've got as much energy as dad and been good enough to let us borrow him for an hour or so.
• 2:53
  Life has come full circle, right back to where it all began and where the Donald family has lived for over a century.
• 3:02
  Yeah, this is a property my family moved into.
• 3:04
  They've always been around Warrandyte, but Dad moved in here with my pop and, yeah, my grand.
• 3:11
  They lost their home in the 1939 bushfires completely, lived in a tent for six or eight months and then bought the little shack that was here.
• 3:21
  So, yeah, and we've moved back to this place and built a new home.
• 3:24
  It's on the banks of the Yarra River and it was a great place to grow up then and it's a great place to live now.
• 3:29
  He is, your dad, very responsible for where you've ended up in terms of the love of motorcycles.
• 3:34
  Even in this garage where we're talking now is one of his bikes, isn't he?
• 3:38
  Yep, yep, one of Dad's Velo sets around there.
• 3:40
  It's, yeah, 54 Velo, which it's not the same bike, but the same model as Dad's first ever club race bike.
• 3:47
  But, you know, Dad grew up, my pop had only a motorbike and sidecar.
• 3:51
  He would have the sidecar on to take tools to work and usually take the sidecar off on the weekend, save fuel.
• 3:57
  But he rode bikes back then like most of my family, not because it was a cool thing to do, but back in those days it was all they could afford.
• 4:03
  But that taste for motorcycles was in the blood from then.
• 4:07
  And for you, as a young man, you'd think, well, you'd gravitate to more modern machinery.
• 4:12
  And you do get to race that and you still do enjoy that.
• 4:15
  But you do have a passion for the classic ones too, don't you?
• 4:19
  Yeah, massively.
• 4:20
  I guess for my age, I mean, I'm 44.
• 4:22
  Dad's 91.
• 4:23
  So, you know, he's an older generation.
• 4:25
  And when I grew up, you know, he still talked a lot about the greats of the day, which were the Manx Norton's and, you know, G50 matchless, Gold Star BSAs.
• 4:34
  And I saw pictures of these bikes and grew up admiring them.
• 4:37
  And then, of course, Dad, you know, always had British single cylinder bikes.
• 4:41
  So I got to ride them from a young age and really felt a passion for that.
• 4:44
  And of course, then years later, going to the Isle of Man, it sort of all put the puzzle together.
• 4:49
  What is in the water at Warrantype, mate, from a rider's point of view and even an engineering point of view, there's some good people in these parts.
• 4:56
  Yeah, incredible.
• 4:58
  Like the Hollinger family, heavily involved in making gearboxes.
• 5:01
  Mick Cole, first Aussie to win the Suzuka 8-hour with Tony Hutton, was my neighbour as a kid.
• 5:06
  Grant Hodson was another top rider from Warrandyte, born and bred.
• 5:09
  And of course, Phil Irving that wrote, you know, Tuning for Speed.
• 5:13
  He lived his life out in Warrandyte.
• 5:15
  So, yeah, there's a lot around, which is cool.
• 5:17
  And I guess it rubs off if you've got a neighbor that's into bikes, you're more likely to be into bikes.
• 5:21
  What was the first bike for you and what are your earliest kind of recollections?
• 5:26
  Suzuki RM50.
• 5:28
  It was about a 76 model.
• 5:30
  It was my older brothers.
• 5:31
  With two older brothers, you know, all my early bikes were hand-me-downs.
• 5:34
  It was an angry little two-stroke, and my first memory is riding that down the paddock at my grandparents down the road here and Dad chasing me around the paddock, trying to scream it out, pull the clutch, you know, trying to get me to stop.
• 5:45
  But, yeah, that were the first memories, and I was really blessed to, one, have older brothers that had bikes to hand down to me and to look out for, and having a few acres down the road of family, so I always had somewhere to ride.
• 5:56
  Were there idols in bike racing terms back then for you?
• 5:58
  Who were the kind of posters on the wall or those that might have been a little bit of inspiration in addition to that family love for it?
• 6:05
  Well early days it was always dirt bikes so you know we used to get ADB magazine and and it wasn't so much motocross I love enduro riding so like you know Jeff Ballard and some of those Aussie early Aussie enduro champions and you know Jeff's become a mate in later years and
• 6:21
  a true living legend and and those guys but you know more homegrown heroes before a little bit older i'd start to sit up on the couch with dad and watch you know 500s and then it was like eddie lawson and wayne rainy and then on to gardner and the other other riders to look up to was school just an unnecessary distraction were you just you know fully immersed in bikes what were you like at school
• 6:44
  No, school was definitely something that got in the way.
• 6:47
  Yeah, no, it was, yeah, I struggled with school and attendance.
• 6:51
  And I mean, I've got too much, too many places to ride dirt bikes around home.
• 6:55
  So yeah, it was definitely not a conversation you want to have even to this day with dad chasing me around to school.
• 7:01
  He dropped me out the front gate and I'd run out the back.
• 7:03
  But, you know, it really was.
• 7:05
  And when I look back, it's a shame.
• 7:07
  And I don't really know why.
• 7:09
  I just didn't want to go.
• 7:10
  But from quite a young age, I made my mind up.
• 7:12
  I wanted to race bikes.
• 7:13
  And to be honest, I used to say to my teachers, you know, how's this going to help me later in life?
• 7:19
  So I was probably a little bit too smart for my own good.
• 7:22
  It was funny, actually, because one of my first overseas racing was in Asia and I had Malaysian Mechanics.
• 7:27
  and indonesian was one of the classes i failed when language was a compulsory subject and i bumped into that language teacher in the supermarket years later and it was great for me to i walked up me reintroduced myself and said i really should have paid attention because now i'm learning malaysian um because two of my mechanics are you know speak malay so so yeah now i tell my kids pay attention because you never know when you're gonna need it
• 7:51
  Were you handy on the tools then, being around your father and, you know, by necessity being around those dirt bikes and things?
• 7:58
  That's filtered through in life.
• 7:59
  You know, I think you're a qualified plumber.
• 8:01
  You've, you know, done some very good things in concreting and so on.
• 8:04
  But were you always handy on the tools?
• 8:08
  Uh, enough to keep the bikes going, you know, um, I, I'd like to think that I'm pretty handy.
• 8:13
  I mean, there's plenty of bikes here pulled apart around us, but it's funny, you know, my best mate, Donnie, he's, he's traveled with me.
• 8:19
  He's been my mechanic, but every time I ring him up for mechanical advice, it's the same response.
• 8:24
  Put the tools down, step away from the motorcycle, you know, so sort of puts me back in my place.
• 8:30
  But, um, no, I mean, I love tinkering and working on bikes.
• 8:32
  So I'm definitely not a great mechanic, but capable.
• 8:36
  The CV shows success in dirt track racing in this country in the late 90s there, and a string of Victorian titles, for example.
• 8:47
  When you look at the careers of some good Aussie racers, that's a bit of a staple, isn't it?
• 8:52
  How important was that in the grounding for you, do you think?
• 8:57
  Very.
• 8:57
  So how it sort of started, both my brothers are racing junior motocross, big age gap between myself and them.
• 9:03
  So they were going quite well.
• 9:04
  I was too young to race and, you know, older brother made A grade, middle brother B grade, both, you know, going really good.
• 9:11
  We're driving all over the state.
• 9:12
  Then my eldest brother, sort of 15, started his apprenticeship.
• 9:16
  Plumbing started working, probably 16.
• 9:18
  You know, my brothers were starting to go to parties and,
• 9:22
  I wouldn't say they lost interest in racing, but the dedication probably wasn't there that, you know, dad expected for the time he was putting in.
• 9:28
  So right at the time I put my hand up to say, I want to start racing, my brother stopped.
• 9:33
  And dad was like, no, I've been down this road before.
• 9:35
  Like he was great.
• 9:36
  He said, you'll always have a bike to ride down the paddock.
• 9:39
  But he didn't want to go racing again.
• 9:41
  So I didn't start racing then, which was probably a good thing when I look back in later years.
• 9:47
  Because when I was 15, I was having a few issues at school.
• 9:51
  Got a job.
• 9:51
  Saw a job advertised at a local Honda dealer, a spare parts junior.
• 9:55
  Came home and told Dad, I've got a job.
• 9:56
  I'm going to go work at a bike shop.
• 9:57
  That's all I need because I want to start racing.
• 10:00
  And I think that's when he realized how serious I was.
• 10:02
  So I didn't start racing until I was 15.
• 10:05
  which was late but um i started and there was a racer that was an ex Rothmans Honda rider Michael O'Connor was working at that Honda dealership and he said come up to Broadford there's a flat track and when i went up there i think the first time i was there Robbie Phyllis other road racers were there doing it for training um and that's what really gave me the idea to road race because within a year or two i started racing in seniors and i was
• 10:29
  And even on my 125, I was qualifying for, you know, the All Powers final.
• 10:32
  And I remember quite often there'd be Anthony Govert, Marty Kragle, Kurt McCarthy, like in the same race.
• 10:39
  And I was going very, very well at flat track.
• 10:41
  And I just figured, well, you know, I can keep up with them flat track.
• 10:45
  I should be able to if I get on a super bike as well, literally as a 16-year-old thinking, so I need to start road racing.
• 10:51
  And of course, dad had done a bit of club racing and loved the road.
• 10:53
  So that's what channeled us off in that direction.
• 10:56
  So what were you and your dad going to these race meetings in?
• 10:58
  Were we talking the classic high ace?
• 11:02
  Did you have a ute and a trailer?
• 11:03
  How did you sort of put the program together?
• 11:06
  At the start, well, so I worked at Honda, got a CR125, and Dad had the company, just the bog stock company car, the Commodore, and we had just the old three-bike, rusty three-bike trailer, which was fine back then.
• 11:17
  I mean, things have moved so fast with that.
• 11:19
  But...
• 11:20
  Yeah, it was, you had what you needed and that's all we really needed.
• 11:24
  And then I remember we moved on when we started doing races around the state and the country.
• 11:28
  We bought a box trailer and, you know, we just thought we're absolutely made, which we were.
• 11:32
  And here I am now getting older, the kids looking to buy another one.
• 11:35
  But it was, you know, it was just all about the racing.
• 11:38
  And it was the same when I started on the bitumen.
• 11:40
  We didn't worry about what anything looked like.
• 11:42
  It was, you know, spending the money on engines and tyres and things that were going to help us win.
• 11:46
  So take us there.
• 11:46
  You saw some of these guys and it obviously made you think, well, you know, I could go down that path.
• 11:52
  Where was the first opportunity to ride on a bitumen circuit or something like that and what kind of bike?
• 11:58
  Well, so my eldest brother had grown up, you know, and then he'd gone back to racing 250 proddies, RGBs, huge class in Australia.
• 12:05
  He was in the thick of it.
• 12:07
  We were going to watch him.
• 12:08
  And that's when I was like, I've got to have a crack at this.
• 12:10
  And dad was like, yep, I'm all up for it because, you know, it was, it was crazy.
• 12:16
  just something I wanted to do and something dad probably wanted to do himself and never got the opportunity at a young age.
• 12:21
  And dad really made a deal with me then when I was quite young.
• 12:25
  He basically said, mate, if you keep your head down and you put everything you earn into this, I'll make up the difference and help you.
• 12:32
  So that was the thing.
• 12:32
  He said, you know, if you start going out drinking or...
• 12:36
  smoking dope with your mates or getting up to mischief, he goes, it's all off.
• 12:39
  But as long as you knuckle down, we'll do this.
• 12:43
  And I thought, what an opportunity.
• 12:45
  So, you know, it's a beautiful place I grew up in here, but it was pretty rough and ready with some of my mates who were younger and they used to get up to a lot of mischief.
• 12:54
  You know, when I was at a party, if you weren't drinking or you were heading off early, you might have got a bit of stick.
• 12:59
  But with my mates, you know, I was leaving early because I was going to race bikes.
• 13:02
  And that was, I guess my mates saw my focus and they were like, you know, they really respected me for it and probably supported me in a lot of ways.
• 13:08
  So I had, you know, it gave me credibility to a point.
• 13:11
  It gave me, it was what I wanted to do.
• 13:13
  And...
• 13:14
  it was a good reason to stay on the straight and narrow and it really think it it guided me in a great direction and i just grabbed the opportunity with both hands because i started late um i felt like i had to make up for lost time and i was just really on a mission so i started about 15 i think i was only about 17 when dad and i we sold the dirt bikes because we couldn't afford both bought a secondhand rs125 gp bike um because we loved the idea of tinkering with our own two-stroke and we headed off to do a round of the
• 13:42
  hartwell club champs then at phillip island which was the first race um wet race i was like a bat out of hell i think i got into the lead in the second race before high-siding myself out at siberia and finding out that um yeah you can't ride a 125 gp bike sideways like a dirt tracker
• 13:58
  Hey, I'm intrigued about the focus because you've painted the picture of not really enjoying school and trying to duck out the back door and things like that.
• 14:07
  Was it love of dad, not wanting to let him down?
• 14:09
  Was it exhilaration of motorcycle?
• 14:13
  What was it that made you absolutely commit that way?
• 14:17
  From a young age, just riding down the paddock, having two older brothers to chase that were both very competitive themselves.
• 14:24
  Always being competitive and probably never having an outlet for that.
• 14:27
  Dad tried kayaks, racing little yachts in a lake.
• 14:32
  Didn't cut it.
• 14:32
  BMX.
• 14:33
  He tried anything that was cheaper than...
• 14:35
  And, you know, I took BMX pretty seriously, but it was just, nah, I always had a drive to ride fast.
• 14:41
  And, you know, putting that helmet on to this day, the freedom, the speed, the excitement, it really was just deep down.
• 14:48
  And then, you know, 15, I was 15 and at the time you could race seniors or juniors at 15.
• 14:54
  So I was racing senior dirt track as a 15 year old.
• 14:58
  I won the Vic title that year in Mildura.
• 14:59
  It was quite competitive.
• 15:01
  And to see, to racing against, you know, full-grown blokes at that age, just that hunger for victory and the taste of it, it was something I'd never experienced.
• 15:11
  And it just went on from there.
• 15:12
  And it hasn't changed to this day.
• 15:14
  You and I talked before starting the podcast today about a...
• 15:19
  a long and very important chapter in Asia of racing for you.
• 15:23
  How did the transition happen between Australia and there?
• 15:26
  You've talked about starting out in road racing here and so on.
• 15:30
  How did the door open?
• 15:31
  How did you make the door open?
• 15:33
  How did that all come about?
• 15:35
  Like any aspiring young racer in Australia, you want to get out of the country because you want to go to Europe, you want to go to America and become a professional.
• 15:42
  So that was my dream.
• 15:45
  And I was racing away in Australia and doing quite well with some great local help.
• 15:49
  And then a good friend of ours, Rod Tingate, that's another amazing motorbike genius that lives just up the road, he called me one day and said, oh, there's a team in China that need a rider to fill in for the Macau Grand Prix.
• 16:03
  So this is when he goes, have you got a passport?
• 16:05
  And is it current?
• 16:06
  Because it was only like 10 days away.
• 16:08
  And I was like, yeah, I've got a passport.
• 16:09
  And I thought, this is what an awesome opportunity.
• 16:12
  And I look back now, pre-Google, YouTube, pre-internet at home.
• 16:16
  So I couldn't look up what the Macau Grand Prix was.
• 16:19
  I was trying to find out.
• 16:20
  I knew it was a street race, but I figured, you know, well, this is my opportunity.
• 16:24
  And that was the first chance to go to Asia.
• 16:26
  So I went over there with Roddy and went to mainland China to Zuhai, the circuit, which was brand new then, and tested this 600 Yamaha and then turned up to the Macau street Grand Prix, you know, which I learned was the final round of, you know, F3, world touring car.
• 16:40
  Yeah.
• 16:41
  And all these UK teams and American teams and top riders were there.
• 16:45
  And I raced there on a 600 and yeah, talk about getting thrown into the deep end, but it was incredible.
• 16:51
  Just,
• 16:51
  For the audience that don't know, I mean, I've talked about it with Steve Parrish and a few others, Paul Morris, for example, from the car side.
• 16:59
  It's a joint with no margin for error, mate.
• 17:01
  It's a famous race meeting for all sorts of reasons.
• 17:05
  What the heck is it like on a bike around there?
• 17:09
  Yeah, funny, I start getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
• 17:11
  Mind-blowing, especially when you turn up and you don't really know what you're going to expect, like literally.
• 17:16
  I tracked down a video of it, a VHS, but I was like, whoa, there's walls everywhere, like no runoff anywhere.
• 17:22
  Like it's much more daunting than the Isle of Man, much more.
• 17:25
  I mean, Macau's like the Las Vegas of Asia in this seven-kilometer circuit, just zigzags in and out of high-rise buildings and...
• 17:32
  Arm car everywhere.
• 17:33
  If it's not an arm car, it's a concrete wall.
• 17:36
  And I remember thinking there's going to have to be a shitload of air fence to go around this, and they must have air fence.
• 17:41
  And we were riding around on a scooter for a couple of days first, Roddy and myself, thinking, nah, must put the air fence.
• 17:46
  The track's going to be narrow in some of these sections with air fence.
• 17:49
  I don't know why I got this idea in my head.
• 17:51
  And it's a story I often tell, but it's a funny one.
• 17:52
  I come in from the first session, and I said to my Chinese mechanic, there's no air fence.
• 17:58
  Like, there's no air fence.
• 17:59
  And he paused and he had a chat to his mate there in Chinese and he turned back to me and they started laughing.
• 18:05
  And I was like, Donald, yes, yes, there is air between you and the fence.
• 18:08
  That's true.
• 18:10
  And I was like, it was so daunting, but there was something about, you know, threading the needle around a street circuit that really...
• 18:18
  It was a buzz.
• 18:19
  It was another level that I'd never experienced.
• 18:22
  And I guess I've always ridden roads around here.
• 18:23
  We've got great country roads.
• 18:24
  I was always sneaking out, even on dirt bikes, riding on the street.
• 18:28
  So that feeling of riding on the road, it was next level.
• 18:32
  I often say there's nothing like going into Turn 1 at Phillip Island, 6A to Brest, on a superbike race.
• 18:37
  But heading off on a street race when all of a sudden it's you against the course, even though it's a mass start at Macau, it just blew my mind.
• 18:44
  And fortunate enough to get a win on debut on the 600.
• 18:47
  And that opened up a lot of doors.
• 18:49
  And that opened up the doors to go follow on and race the Asian Pacific Championship on the 600s, which was a really domestic championship held through China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, which doesn't get much coverage back here, but it's hugely competitive over there.
• 19:03
  And clearly puts you on the map with the constituents too, mate.
• 19:06
  I mean, there's, I think, if memory serves, a win in the Singapore Juro and all sorts of things that are on the CV there.
• 19:12
  And you still, on occasion, have gone back, haven't you?
• 19:14
  Yeah, yeah.
• 19:15
  That Malaysian, the Asia-Pacific Championship was hugely competitive.
• 19:18
  Two years there in Supersport, running one many races, finished runner-up two years to a top Japanese rider.
• 19:24
  Quite a few good Japanese riders would come out fantastic.
• 19:26
  Fierce racing.
• 19:28
  And yeah, it did open up a lot of opportunities racing there in the Malaysian Championship.
• 19:32
  But it was good.
• 19:33
  And it was a good way of getting out of Australia because it's not far away.
• 19:36
  But it was a hugely competitive championship.
• 19:39
  But to them, Macau was always a very big race.
• 19:41
  And the other Japanese and Thai riders wouldn't even look at the place.
• 19:45
  understandably so, but I was able to go there each year too for the Chinese sponsors and try to get a good result.
• 19:52
  And of course, the top TT riders were there, McGuinness, Dave Jeffries, Michael Rudder.
• 19:57
  So that's how I started meeting those guys and started asking more questions about it.
• 20:01
  the isle of man awesome we will get to the isle of man in a moment can we just sort of close out that chapter and that is kind of turn of the century early 2000s if you will because there was some more racing back here in the likes of formula extreme and so on the the australian the unity in the australian superbike scene is is different now there were two kind of championships back then wasn't there and terry o'neill ran the the formula extreme stuff was it a privateer effort from what i can recall and you were you were punching above your weight in that category weren't you
• 20:31
  Yeah, best grounding for any aspiring racer at the time, 250 proddy class, you know, 50, 60 bikes entering for 40 grid spots.
• 20:38
  It was so competitive.
• 20:40
  And I've got to thank where I got from that class, the experience gained in that class, I think.
• 20:45
  And then, of course, it was wanting to make the step up to 600 Supersport, and we could not afford to do that.
• 20:51
  Mick Hone at Box Hill, Mick Hone Motorcycles, been around bikes in Australia forever and put a huge lot into racing.
• 20:57
  He was sponsoring me, helping me on the 250 with a few parts and letting me run an account, which was probably the biggest sponsorship and brave of any bike shop to do to a young racer.
• 21:06
  But then...
• 21:08
  A customer of his and friend of his, David Bancel, he helped a lot of aspiring Australian superbike racers, Paul Young and other riders that went on to do great things overseas.
• 21:18
  He was the one that put that first 600 ride together, helped get me on the 600.
• 21:21
  Dad and I had to come up with getting it to the track and the tyre budget, which even that in the first year, I think was about 15 grand worth of tyres.
• 21:30
  Trying to work in between.
• 21:31
  We were full privateers, taking the van, quite often taking the swags, driving to Wanneroo and swaggering it.
• 21:37
  Over the Nullarbor.
• 21:38
  Yeah.
• 21:39
  And looking back, all I wanted to do was ride for a team, get a uniform, get flown.
• 21:43
  And it's funny.
• 21:44
  And when you get that, all you want to do is go back to swagging it in the van with the old man.
• 21:48
  Like, it was when I look back, it was an amazing experience.
• 21:52
  But it was literally quite often.
• 21:53
  I mean, I'm not saying I was hard done by.
• 21:55
  I had so much support.
• 21:57
  I was blessed.
• 21:58
  But, you know, it was a case of...
• 22:00
  do we spend a night on a motel or is that another rear tyre you know and at the time it was like i'll go the tyre because that's what's going to give me the win so yeah we saved and scrimped everywhere we could that 600 ride gave me the opportunity to put my name on the stage for bigger bikes lead on to some support and then riding for dyna bike another local company on a super bike and formerly extreme and then that led on to getting overseas but
• 22:23
  You know, we don't give credit how competitive and how tough it is in Australia.
• 22:28
  And those hard times is what makes us excel when we get the opportunity to go overseas.
• 22:32
  So what were you doing then from a work point of view?
• 22:35
  And you must have had a good understanding boss to give you the time off and your midnight motors, prepping motorcycles after hours and so on.
• 22:43
  It was, that's when I really, I dropped out of, I was working for my brother and uncle plumbing and that's when I end up, I was working then going back to my family.
• 22:51
  I had a garden supplies quarry yard and warrandyte.
• 22:53
  It was my nan's brother, my great uncle who grew up with my dad racing bikes.
• 22:57
  So I'd work there and I would just work at the quarry yard.
• 22:59
  Every day I would work six or if not literally seven days a week that I wasn't riding just to save the money.
• 23:05
  They weren't happy about me going away, but I was going.
• 23:07
  And they're being family, they understood.
• 23:09
  But that, yeah, it was tough and coming in with, you know, a broken collarbone occasionally or an injury.
• 23:14
  But it was literally work every day.
• 23:15
  I wasn't on the bike to do what was needed to do to get to that next race, man.
• 23:30
  I bought a bike the other day, but all it's been doing is laughing at me.
• 23:35
  It just goes, Yamaha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
• 23:38
  Not one of my best.
• 23:41
  You had a good, frank conversation, I reckon, with your mum and traded good lines.
• 23:47
  I think she said something about, you know, when are you going to grow up here?
• 23:52
  You can't race a house or something.
• 23:54
  What was the line you two had?
• 23:56
  No, I remember I was getting, you know, because I was putting everything into it.
• 23:59
  And, you know, like to the point, I never had a motocross bike for many years when I started road racing to train on because I literally, we didn't have the money to have two bikes.
• 24:06
  And then, but yeah, I think Monday mum had that said to me, when are you going to realise you can't live in a motorbike?
• 24:11
  How about, you know, putting some of this money towards something that might help you in the future?
• 24:14
  And my response to that was, when are you going to learn or realise that you can't race a house?
• 24:18
  You know, her mum, she just shook her head and I think she gave up.
• 24:23
  And, you know, I was lucky there was so much support.
• 24:25
  And dad had retired, but, you know, he was, I was working then.
• 24:29
  I remember he did the trip across the Nullarbor a couple of times on his own, taking the bikes so I could get those punchy in an extra few days at work and then fly over and be a bit fresher to do it.
• 24:39
  But, you know, I wouldn't change a thing.
• 24:40
  I used to joke all the time because, dad, we're tight.
• 24:43
  He's my best mate.
• 24:44
  But, you know, I'd go crooking him for something and warn him that I was going to cut his wages, you know.
• 24:47
  I mean, yeah.
• 24:50
  You give me that look that I know I've gone too far and pull up, but, you know, we did a lot with what we had, and that's the thing you did in racing in Australia, and it's no different now.
• 24:59
  It's just deer and the stakes are higher.
• 25:02
  The Isle of Man is held in the most special place in the hearts of lots of motorcycle racers.
• 25:11
  Not everyone in the general public knows about it, and if they do, they might know, well, it's this incredibly dangerous fortnight of,
• 25:18
  racing that happens once a year that is kind of last bastion stuff more than 60 k's a lap over 200 corners i mean at what point did you first get a sense of the more than 100 year history of this race and the want to go and do it was it those conversations that you had at macau when when did that all the catalyst for that all kind of kick in
• 25:40
  It was definitely Macau was a thought, hang on, I'm mixing with some of these TT riders.
• 25:45
  So I started taking and racing a street circuit and having some success.
• 25:48
  You know, I started taking a bit more notice of the onboard DVDs and some of the others.
• 25:52
  But the real, I was still world super sport.
• 25:56
  That's where I wanted to get to Europe.
• 25:58
  Rod, you know, he knew people from Yamaha, Netherlands, the base of Yamaha, and he was making some calls and trying to get my foot in the door and helped me a lot.
• 26:06
  And we've been very successful in Asia.
• 26:08
  And then we had an opportunity to go over and do a test for a team in Europe.
• 26:12
  And then, or actually prior to that, one of the privateer teams at Macau had just bought a couple of ex-Crescent Suzuki Superbikes in the British Championship.
• 26:21
  Very competitive, a transport company in Northern Ireland of all places.
• 26:25
  And he said, do you want to come over and do a couple of rounds of British Championship?
• 26:28
  So I was like, absolutely.
• 26:30
  So he'd seen me race at Macau a couple of years.
• 26:32
  So we flew over, headed into Belfast, this transport company.
• 26:36
  And we rocked up and we went to Thruxton, the fastest circuit in Britain.
• 26:42
  And we finished well.
• 26:43
  I think we're in the top three of the privateers in the British champs.
• 26:46
  I clicked with that circuit and racing a fire-breathing British superbike.
• 26:51
  But it was an amazing experience.
• 26:52
  And we did quite well.
• 26:53
  So they said, stay two weeks.
• 26:55
  And the next round's at Mondello in Ireland, the Irish round of British superbikes.
• 27:00
  which is not around there anymore.
• 27:01
  And they said, stay for that.
• 27:02
  And we, again, had good results.
• 27:04
  It was only, it was, while I was there, Billy, Billy Barron, that owned the company said, hey, we're ducking over to watch the senior on a charter flight, you know, out of Belfast.
• 27:15
  Do you want to come over?
• 27:16
  So I was like, yeah.
• 27:18
  I didn't even know it was on at that time.
• 27:20
  So next thing I was wedged into the back of this little twin-engine Cessna, push-pull engine thing, flying around a storm and landing in someone's paddock, which literally this guy flew.
• 27:30
  He's passed now.
• 27:32
  I won't mention his name, but he had quite a successful business flying from Belfast to the Isle of Man and landing in his field.
• 27:38
  And I kid you not, there was two of us and a couple of drums of race fuel in this little plane.
• 27:46
  And we landed in his paddock and we came through rain and I was sitting in the front.
• 27:50
  It was so noisy and I'm like, I couldn't even see the runway.
• 27:53
  And I'm like, where are we landing?
• 27:54
  And he's like, down there.
• 27:56
  I remember I was sweating bullets just thinking, we're going to crash into a paddock.
• 28:00
  And then I saw a windsock.
• 28:01
  And when we landed, I said to him, where are we?
• 28:04
  He goes, this is my paddock.
• 28:05
  And I'm like, you're landing your paddock?
• 28:06
  He said, yeah, then I don't have to worry about, you know, all the rules and regulations and schedule maintenance and all that other stuff patting me on the shoulder, like winding me up.
• 28:13
  We ended up flying in and out of there several times.
• 28:15
  But that was the first experience.
• 28:18
  um with a bunch of mad irishmen and um billy took me out to a section on the course there just before balagueri often they refer to as balasqueri so it's one of the fastest corners on the circuit we stood in this lady's front yard was a friend of a friend and watch bikes come through uh in the i think there was a 600 production race in the friday morning before the senior at that time um
• 28:43
  And the first time, one of the first bikes I saw go through there was actually Bruce Anstey, Kiwi that came on to being still a dear friend and one of my teammates and fiercest rivals.
• 28:51
  And I remember seeing Bruce come through and like the hedge is shaking, the dust flying off the road.
• 28:57
  Like you could feel the force of speed on your chest because you're literally half a metre back from the road edge.
• 29:01
  And I turned to Billy and said, mate, I've got to have a crack at this.
• 29:05
  You know, I just have to, I've got to tick this box.
• 29:07
  And everything made sense.
• 29:09
  Everything I'd heard about it, you know, my dad, my grandfather, my great-uncle, they never, ever got to the TT.
• 29:14
  They talked about it for years.
• 29:16
  They admired all the heroes, Hayward, Aggo, they'd all raced, you know, made their merit at the TT.
• 29:22
  And I was there, and I was like, I've got to do this.
• 29:25
  And that was the start of it.
• 29:26
  You've just painted a great little picture there of...
• 29:31
  you know helmets almost brushing houses or hedges or you know hundred year old hand-built brick walls i mean it is just the most daunting place you could imagine what's the top speed we're talking there over 300 k's an hour and and you know it's almost like you could you could as the crowd member almost touch you as you come flying by at times is that
• 29:55
  You could if you lent out, or sometimes you could if you don't lean back, because the crowd lean over the hedge.
• 30:02
  Actually, coming out of Ramsey there, sometimes I'd run the bike wide on the last lap just for a bit of fun and watch everyone on the hedge.
• 30:08
  It was like a high-speed Mexican wave as I'm coming up the edge of the road watching everyone jump back.
• 30:13
  But, yeah, I mean, look, it's 66 kilometres, 250 corners, huge elevation change through the lap.
• 30:24
  Top speed of a superbike is over 200 miles an hour, so, yeah, 330 k's.
• 30:29
  But it's the average speed.
• 30:30
  That's the thing.
• 30:31
  Like, there's corners where you're back to first gear, literally running pace, some of the double-back corners that are under trees and the roads, patchy green moss, literally.
• 30:41
  So you can imagine to be able to average over 200 kilometres an hour, I mean, now we're averaging, or they're averaging 135 miles an hour per lap.
• 30:50
  That's, yeah, that's the mind-blowing thing is the high speed.
• 30:54
  And it's just, I guess, you know, that's where the first time I rode around there was just like, this is what sports bikes are built for.
• 31:01
  You know, I mean, Phillip Island's fast and it's incredible.
• 31:04
  But on a 200 horsepower superbike, well north of 200 now, you get to the end of the straight, they're just winding up and you've got to shut them off.
• 31:11
  We're at the TT, there's so many spots where you just hold it tapped and press your chin into the tank.
• 31:16
  And that's something you can't do on any other circuit around the world.
• 31:19
  And it's just, yeah, that's what got me in.
• 31:22
  The argument, I love these descriptions, mate, because it just gets you thinking more and more and more.
• 31:28
  First thought is,
• 31:31
  A car racer with lots of experience of, say, a Nürburgring or another classic long circuit like Le Mans, over time, I guess you get used to it.
• 31:42
  How long does it take to get used to the Isle of Man, to be able to tackle it at the right speed?
• 31:47
  Do you fully ever get used to it?
• 31:48
  Well, you never stop learning.
• 31:50
  And that's why it's so hard to beat guys like John McGuinness and now even, you know, Michael Dunlop, Peter Hickman.
• 31:54
  They're all getting more and more years under their belt.
• 31:56
  And there's some incredibly fast, talented young riders coming through.
• 31:59
  But you've got to do your apprenticeship.
• 32:01
  I remember when I...
• 32:02
  So I did it as a newcomer and I told mum, dad, I just do it once.
• 32:04
  I just want to finish him with Doughlin.
• 32:06
  But I end up going pretty good in the first year there.
• 32:08
  And I was like, wow.
• 32:09
  Also, back then you could race a senior 600 in the senior.
• 32:13
  And I was only riding a 600.
• 32:15
  You underrate yourself.
• 32:15
  You were best newcomer that year, I think, weren't you?
• 32:17
  Yeah, yeah, which was a huge, something I'm very proud of.
• 32:20
  But I got to race the senior on a 600, which they don't allow now.
• 32:24
  So I think it was 2,000 quid for the first 600 in the senior.
• 32:27
  So I was like rock and roll because I was paying my own fuel and tires.
• 32:30
  So I was first 600 by a long way and I was doing really well.
• 32:34
  And I wanted to clock.
• 32:35
  I was trying to get 120 mile an hour average on a 600 with some feet.
• 32:39
  Then I got to 119.98.
• 32:42
  And I did a pit stop and I thought, right, they told me my time, I'm on.
• 32:47
  And the next lap it fired a rod.
• 32:49
  So it did it into signpost corner.
• 32:52
  So basically a second gear, went bang, pulled the clutch, ran straight on, pulled over on the road edge.
• 32:58
  Felt sorry for myself.
• 32:59
  But it also made me think, wow, three miles earlier, I was in fifth gear going around downhill off Canberra corners.
• 33:05
  So I learned a lot in that first year.
• 33:07
  I learned how quickly it could bite you, but also learned how exciting it was.
• 33:11
  And I also thought, right, I'm going this fast now.
• 33:15
  If I apply myself to this,
• 33:16
  I thought, I'll give it three years.
• 33:17
  I reckon I could get a podium here.
• 33:19
  And I thought, I'll give it everything for three years and then walk away.
• 33:22
  We got some good results in three years.
• 33:24
  I didn't walk away because it was so exciting.
• 33:26
  But getting back, so I get carried away when I talk about TT.
• 33:29
  But the old saying is, first year to learn which direction it goes.
• 33:35
  Second year to add some speed.
• 33:37
  Third year, start thinking about a result.
• 33:39
  And I think a lot of the young guys now need that link to them too, you know, that it takes time.
• 33:43
  No matter how good you are and how bad you want it, you can't see around corners.
• 33:48
  There's so many blind corners, so many changes of direction, elevation, surface change.
• 33:53
  You need to do your apprenticeship.
• 33:54
  So you need to go out there and learn.
• 33:55
  I was lucky I applied myself and it came quickly.
• 33:58
  For some it doesn't.
• 33:59
  But you've got to, yeah, you can't push a square peg through a round hole around that place.
• 34:03
  You need to do your apprenticeship.
• 34:05
  So throw in a few changeable elements too.
• 34:07
  Weather, I think you talked about a bit of shade or moss on the track or the road there before.
• 34:12
  And although you're going off at 10 second intervals, other competitors when you ultimately come up on them.
• 34:18
  And just a little story.
• 34:21
  And I still wonder if he's, I think he's serious.
• 34:24
  We went out in one 600 race.
• 34:25
  It started with damp patches.
• 34:27
  No siding lap, no warm-up lap, damp patches.
• 34:29
  So I'm like, well, this is going to favour the brave.
• 34:32
  And you're standing up there too, and they're holding up the sign, damp patches at Bella Gary, Bella Brigg, all these other names.
• 34:37
  I can't even remember, you know, like which, yeah, they can't say turn 115, you know, and I'm still trying to work out even after years where some of these places are.
• 34:45
  So you go out in that first lap.
• 34:48
  you're racing a TT, you can't go in gently.
• 34:50
  So pushing hard.
• 34:52
  And there was actually a sprinkling of rain between the first and second lap.
• 34:55
  And I was in a group with Keith Amore, myself, John McGuinness, and I think there was one other rider.
• 34:59
  So there was four of us on road and we were just outside the podium.
• 35:03
  The Dunlop boys were first and second.
• 35:06
  Just a full, amazing effort when I look back at what they were doing.
• 35:12
  put their brains in the toolbox of that one, I think.
• 35:13
  It was just, so we're out there racing.
• 35:15
  And anyway, lack of adhesion flag on lap one, sprinkling of rain between lap one and lap two.
• 35:20
  And as we came around there, I remember John was in front of me and he actually rolled and I passed him.
• 35:24
  I thought he must've had a problem.
• 35:25
  Two corners later, Keith Amor up the road in front of me.
• 35:27
  And as I roll the throttle, I'm, whoa, there's been a shower of rain.
• 35:31
  Keith went, fired it up the middle of the road.
• 35:33
  Luckily didn't hit anything, walked away.
• 35:35
  And then they red flagged the race.
• 35:36
  So they neutralized the race.
• 35:38
  You stop on the side of the road where you are.
• 35:40
  So a group of us pull up.
• 35:42
  And I said to John, you rolled off.
• 35:43
  Did you have a problem?
• 35:43
  He said, no, no, I figured it had rained.
• 35:45
  And I said, what do you mean I figured it had rained?
• 35:47
  He said, oh, just after rain in that valley, there's a lot of garlic, and you can really smell the garlic after a shower of rain.
• 35:53
  And I smelt the garlic, and I thought, I reckon there's been more rain.
• 35:56
  So I rolled it.
• 35:57
  Now, I'm getting goosebumps telling that story now, but he rolled the throttle.
• 36:01
  And I remember that's when I thought, now experience at the TT, the 15 extra years, 10 years or whatever he'd had on me, that's...
• 36:09
  can make the difference, not between first and second.
• 36:11
  It can make the difference between survival, I think.
• 36:14
  So yeah, experience around there really does count.
• 36:16
  And that's why the greats like Joey back in the day and those riders, you know, no matter how much you want it, when they've got all those starts, they know where the shade holds dampness.
• 36:27
  They know which curves have got grip and grip and which are slippery.
• 36:30
  They know where the sun glare will hit you in the afternoon.
• 36:33
  So, you know, that's what you're up against and that's what you learn each year at the TT.
• 36:36
  And you just keep banking that experience.
• 36:38
  You, you,
• 36:38
  rattled off a couple of names there that I wouldn't mind tapping into for a moment people will have seen Guy Martin on television shows and things like that I mean it takes a unique breed to do this thing mate right what is when the tv cameras are off and you get to spend a bit of time with those guys around the the bikes and stuff post racing what's he like
• 36:57
  Yeah, Guy's a real character because he raced in Asia before he raced at Macau.
• 37:02
  I remember taking him out to see some of the local sites and to a couple of nightclubs that I think opened his perspective on life a little bit for a little country English boy.
• 37:12
  I remember that quite well.
• 37:14
  Really great fun.
• 37:16
  Yeah, he really was.
• 37:17
  Really great guy.
• 37:18
  And he'll go down to history as one of the most successful ever TT riders to not win.
• 37:22
  So many poties, he never won.
• 37:24
  But...
• 37:26
  All of them have got a lot more beneath the surface than I'd expect.
• 37:29
  I always thought, TT, you just got to, like I said before, put your brain in the toolbox.
• 37:32
  But if you did that, you'd be in a hedge within the first two miles.
• 37:36
  It's high-speed chess.
• 37:37
  It's calculated.
• 37:38
  Everything's calculated.
• 37:39
  And you've got to put a lot, a lot of thought into it.
• 37:42
  So I'm amazed all the riders, and I've got to know them all very well, because...
• 37:47
  even some of the ones I haven't got along with so well, I've got to know.
• 37:50
  And quite well, I think there's something about the danger that unites the riders too.
• 37:55
  Like I remember John before a race, you know, coming up and just sort of giving me that look in the eye, you're lining up in that start line to take off.
• 38:01
  you know, 10 seconds apart on your own.
• 38:03
  I remember him just sort of giving me a tap on the elbow and like giving me the nod saying, I'll see you in six laps.
• 38:07
  You know, it's just that little camaraderie.
• 38:11
  You know, I've seen a rider pull over.
• 38:16
  Ryan Farquhar, I think in one of the races, was in a podium contention and he came up behind a slower rider that was dropping oil.
• 38:21
  He pulled over to tell the marshals, flagged that rider, gave up his own result because that rider was going to hurt himself if not someone else, you know.
• 38:28
  So you do look out.
• 38:29
  for each other.
• 38:30
  Michael Dunlop and I had a huge rivalry.
• 38:32
  We're good, you know, there's a lot of respect there.
• 38:34
  Now to the point I'd say we're mates again.
• 38:36
  But, you know, it had come to blows between us in the pits at one of the races.
• 38:40
  And it was pretty heavy duty.
• 38:42
  It's not good to get on the wrong side of the Dunlops when you're racing roads living in Northern Ireland.
• 38:47
  And his bloody brother was my teammate at the time.
• 38:50
  But, you know, that next year we're on classic bikes and he was slipstreaming me behind me on a Norton.
• 38:55
  I was on a G50 mattress which fired a rod.
• 38:58
  And he almost wore me and we clipped and he came up to me in the pits that afternoon and just said, you did well to hang on to that.
• 39:04
  And that was sort of that, you know, last time we spoke, we were throwing blows at each other in the paddock.
• 39:09
  And it was just like, I said, yeah, well, I did what I had to do.
• 39:12
  And he said, well, you know, lucky you did, because if you went down, we're both going down.
• 39:16
  And we sort of, you know, shook hands.
• 39:17
  And it was just, I think, the level of danger was...
• 39:21
  um creates a level of respect you have to have and we all look out for each other and and coming back to it too the all those riders have got most of them are pretty working class um they're grafters because i think you have to graft to race the tt it's it's hard work um but yeah they're all pretty switched on guys and i think a lot of them have got to have mechanical knowledge or mechanical sympathy too because if you don't have a little bit of mechanical sympathy you'll kill your bike around there
• 39:47
  Your mate and mine, my TV colleague and Michael Heaton, lived on the island for a time and worked for Greenlight Television and he talks about the enormity of the event.
• 39:58
  Not everyone appreciates just how huge it is for the Isle of Man economy, shall we say.
• 40:04
  It sort of defies the crazy health and safety stuff in this part of the world.
• 40:10
  I mean, you could never get an event like that off the ground down here, could you?
• 40:13
  It's beautiful.
• 40:14
  It's a religion over there.
• 40:15
  And I love it.
• 40:16
  I love the danger.
• 40:17
  I often say in this world where we're so wrapped in cotton wool,
• 40:21
  especially in Australia, the country I love, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but we're so wrapped in cotton wool.
• 40:26
  To go somewhere where you can accept the dangers, accept the risks and do it, it's great.
• 40:32
  And, you know, it gets harder each year you do it.
• 40:34
  But, you know, I've lost now friends at the start.
• 40:38
  You know, riders lost their lives, but you didn't know them and you think, well, that won't happen to me because that's how you deal with it in motorsport.
• 40:44
  But as time goes on, it got harder and more confronting.
• 40:48
  And I hated that, you know.
• 40:49
  I've hated losing some of, you know, good friends around there and great people.
• 40:53
  But...
• 40:55
  if it wasn't for that danger, then it wouldn't be as exciting and it wouldn't be what it was, you know.
• 40:59
  I often say some people want to climb Everest.
• 41:02
  Some people want to surf big waves.
• 41:04
  Some people want to ride the Isle of Man.
• 41:06
  I just think it's so great in this world that we can still take on those risks.
• 41:09
  I mean, you can't go and race there unless you're experienced and you know the dangers, but you can take that on and still do it.
• 41:15
  And, you know, as a TT rider, one of the things the government do is leading up during practice week or the week before, they organise for riders to go around and speak at schools.
• 41:25
  as part of it and um lucky enough being a front runner i got to go to the schools and i went to several primary schools and i talked to it like prep grade one and i sit down for a q a with them you got kids saying to you at that age already oh i watched you on this corner and you ran wide or i was there when you broke down and stopped on this junction or you know um do you think you'll beat this one this year they know just the knowledge of everyone and just i i'm
• 41:52
  I was only telling a mate at work yesterday a story where I remember I was leading a 600 race and it broke the end of a camshaft off and I rolled to a stop.
• 41:59
  But there's a practice lap after racing that day and I knew I had to get back to do a lap on the stock bike.
• 42:05
  And I'm on the side of the road and I said to a fan, how do I get back to a road that goes to town?
• 42:09
  I'm going to have to flag a lift.
• 42:10
  He's like, run down there's a walking track at the end of its campground.
• 42:13
  And as I'm running down this walking track, an older lady walked out her front gate with a dog.
• 42:17
  And I'd sat on the side of the road for a minute, looked at the bike.
• 42:20
  It was on the last lap.
• 42:21
  But anyway, she says to me, you lost your bike, sweetheart.
• 42:24
  You know, I'm like, no, no, I'm actually looking for a lift as a road down there.
• 42:27
  You know, she goes, you don't know where you're going.
• 42:28
  You're lost.
• 42:29
  I said, I was actually in that race.
• 42:31
  She'd been listening.
• 42:31
  She goes, Cameron.
• 42:33
  I said, yeah.
• 42:34
  She gave me a hug.
• 42:35
  And she's like, oh, Dale, you look like you were set for the win.
• 42:38
  You know, she'd been listening to it on Manx Radio.
• 42:40
  The race had finished and she'd gone to take the dog for a walk.
• 42:42
  And she's like, come in, have a cup of tea.
• 42:44
  I was like, no, no, no, I've got to get back.
• 42:46
  She gave me directions and off I went.
• 42:47
  But just that's from a grandma to a prep kid, the Isle of Man, they live and breathe it.
• 42:53
  And that's why I love going back because it's such a beautiful place.
• 42:56
  It's like the Mecca of motorcycling.
• 42:58
  Kaz, your better half, would be listening to the radio, mate, while you were out there racing.
• 43:04
  How nervous was that for her?
• 43:06
  What about for the rest of the family?
• 43:08
  And my question is a little bit compounded here in that you lost mates.
• 43:14
  Paul Dobbs, I think, is one that comes to mind immediately.
• 43:18
  And you're acutely aware of the places around the track where they left us, aren't you?
• 43:24
  Yeah, and I get, you know, goosebumps thinking about it.
• 43:27
  It's emotional, it's hard, you know.
• 43:29
  Like, I work with, you know, Sportsnet, a tour company that do tours over the Isle of Man.
• 43:33
  I've been instrumental with them.
• 43:34
  It's been brilliant, you know, to showcase it to so many Australian people.
• 43:38
  And I organise the bus tours and get riders to come on and I go on myself.
• 43:42
  And, you know, we swap buses halfway through and talk people through it.
• 43:46
  And...
• 43:47
  Yeah, I mean, I'll never forget losing Dan Neen, a really dear friend in practice, and then doing a bus tour the next lap.
• 43:54
  And I'm like, you come through here, the conca tree.
• 43:56
  I just froze.
• 43:57
  And I just said, look, I'm sorry, guys.
• 43:59
  I've got to, you know, and there's a hole in the hedge, you know, where Dan had gone through the night before and lost his life and just a beautiful human, beautiful family and partner.
• 44:08
  And it's times like that you do sometimes think, why and how can we let this happen, you know?
• 44:16
  But then when you're there and it's a beautiful day's racing, lap records are broken, people tick a box of racing the Isle of Man or they do a personal best or they, you know, get a bike, limp a bike home with a mechanical issue.
• 44:29
  And the joy and the excitement of the team, the riders, the families, and that's why, and that's what brings you back.
• 44:36
  So it's a double-edged sword, and it always will be.
• 44:40
  The organisers do all they can.
• 44:42
  Now there's no early morning practice.
• 44:44
  You know, with Sun Glare and Damp Road, you know, riders have to have done so many national or international meetings before they can ride.
• 44:50
  They do all they can to make it safe.
• 44:53
  But at the end of the day, it's still the most dangerous motorcycle race in the world, you know, and that's why we love it.
• 45:05
  just gripping isn't it he is a great storyteller and thankfully there's more to come part two of my podcast with Isle of Man TT winner Cam Donald is in the Rusty's Garage Library right now ready to go for you to throw your leg over and kick into gear more on the race and place that has captivated him will he go back there the resto project in his garage and the ultimate relationship test sidecar racing
• 45:41
  Listener.