Latest / Rusty's Garage / Simon Crafar (Part 1)

Transcript

Simon Crafar (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:12
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  For this episode, I'm in the track commentary box at Phillip Island, at the very top of the control tower.
• 0:32
  You go up a series of stairs to get here, but the 360-degree view of this awesome track makes the climb worth it.
• 0:40
  Bass Strait is clearly in view down beyond turns two and three, and the MotoGP bikes that return here this weekend will break the top speed record for this venue on the main straight just below us.
• 0:54
  355 Ks an hour.
• 0:56
  They are heroes.
• 0:58
  My guest has ridden these latest machines for his role as a commentator with the series, and he's in the record books as a race winner during the legendary 500cc era.
• 1:09
  These days, Simon Craifar lives in Europe, in Andorra, but he's a proud Kiwi.
• 1:14
  His story, as you'll hear, is one of sacrifice by family, where life taught him lessons, lessons he heeded that would be powerful motivators.
• 1:23
  Simon shares some of those during our conversation, and they are good takeaways for those of you listening with racing ambitions.
• 1:31
  We don't chart every race and season of his career here.
• 1:35
  It is a linear chat, though, from learning to twist the wrist on a farm and being drawn to bikes like a magnet as a little fella, some junior motocross in New Zealand, graduating to road or circuit racing, there's a Malaysian superbike title, Time in the World Superbike Championship, alongside...
• 1:54
  Another Kiwi, Aaron Sleight, who you can also find in our Rusty's Garage Library, as well as Grand Prix Racing.
• 2:01
  Briefly in the 250cc class and a few podiums in the famed 500s, including one here at Phillip Island that he remembers very fondly.
• 2:10
  Simon has this beautiful demeanour.
• 2:12
  He almost seems at peace now with the kind of disenchanted way he finished the racing part of his time in the sport.
• 2:20
  What followed was a journey of discovery.
• 2:22
  After some time in Extreme Enduro where he won the expert class, he was involved in a massive accident.
• 2:30
  It was life-changing.
• 2:31
  During the recovery, he had an epiphany around rider training, and he became one of the best in the world for his Moto Voodoo Dark Art of Performance courses.
• 2:43
  More recently, he's taken to track days in Mazda RX-8s with his sons, a passion project with family that he loves.
• 2:51
  And he is back in the MotoGP paddock as a pit reporter and commentator, something he openly admits wasn't great to begin with.
• 2:59
  It's getting better.
• 3:00
  Sometimes in the leaner business broadcasting has now become, you don't always get the kind of one-on-one training like he did with riders.
• 3:09
  it can be a bit sink or swim.
• 3:11
  Best approach is to just get back on like he did when he first started.
• 3:18
  I love to start these with a bit of early life and where you grew up and so on.
• 3:23
  And you grew up in a very small part of New Zealand, didn't you?
• 3:27
  Tell me where you grew up, what part of which island it was and describe early life for Simon Craver.
• 3:32
  Okay, well, to give you a good picture of early life, I believe I was conceived in the back of a car at a school social dance.
• 3:43
  And so I turned up mum and dad at 18.
• 3:45
  Oh, wow.
• 3:46
  And in those days, in kind of small town New Zealand, it was really frowned upon.
• 3:52
  So to save me to want a better...
• 3:55
  want of a better word, save me getting flushed down the toilet, they ran away.
• 3:59
  So I grew up with these teenage parents.
• 4:02
  I don't remember the very early years, but I can imagine it was really hard, you know, because they had no support, because people didn't agree with what they were doing.
• 4:14
  I suppose religion came up into it, et cetera.
• 4:17
  And just, I suppose it's Victorian English mentality.
• 4:21
  So that's only my guess.
• 4:23
  But anyway, so dad went back.
• 4:26
  He'd just finished his apprenticeship as a, was finishing his apprenticeship as a farrier, blacksmith.
• 4:32
  That's what his passion was.
• 4:33
  But he went back to, what do you call it, shepherding.
• 4:38
  So because he could get a house...
• 4:40
  meat off the land and mum could have a veggie garden, you know, so they had everything they needed to... And then, yeah, so I grew up on a sheep station, which is basically as far as you can see in every direction, land that dad was managing with other guys...
• 4:59
  I grew up watching him kill three sheep every week and play with the bits.
• 5:03
  And I know that sounds gory, but when you grow up with it, it's not gory.
• 5:06
  It's like normal.
• 5:07
  And it doesn't mean it disturbs you at all.
• 5:10
  It's the opposite.
• 5:11
  It feels normal.
• 5:12
  Anyway, skip forward about six years.
• 5:15
  I was about six years old when he went back to ferrying his passion, you know, showing horses and started his own run.
• 5:21
  And then just to finish on mum and dad, but he worked his way up.
• 5:25
  getting better and better runs.
• 5:27
  But it meant growing up, I think I had seven different schools because they're moving around with their life, getting further ahead.
• 5:35
  Dad made it all the way.
• 5:37
  He can say he's the only world champion in the family.
• 5:40
  He won it twice, the World Cup for ferrying, once in Aussie, once in England when they move around doing that.
• 5:45
  So he made it really good, but it meant a heap of...
• 5:50
  moving around, which I think only teaches you how to make friends, be social, and starting new schools.
• 5:56
  But it was about, I was 10 years old when I learned how to ride a farmer's TS-185 because my classmate, these real tough guys,
• 6:07
  a farmer family that I got on really well with.
• 6:10
  The youngest son had been taught by the older brothers.
• 6:12
  He taught me, because I begged him to, to ride this TS185, and I was absolutely hooked from that moment on.
• 6:19
  I pestered, yanked my dad's shirt, pestered him saying, Dad, I want a bike, I want a bike, you know.
• 6:26
  It took a year to convince him because he's into horses, you know.
• 6:28
  I could have free horses, but I want an expensive motorbike, you know.
• 6:32
  It took a year, and it took getting knocked out at rugby.
• 6:35
  I remember waking up in the back of his Holden station wagon with a very, I remember the look on his face, a very worried dad.
• 6:43
  And I just said, Dad, I don't want to play rugby, you know.
• 6:47
  But that's a religion in New Zealand, though, isn't it?
• 6:49
  Well, that's.
• 6:49
  The thing, you have to, you have to play for your school.
• 6:52
  But he just went, at that moment, I think it shocked him that much.
• 6:55
  I mean, I was sprinting along with the ball, and this much bigger lad grabbed me by the shirt and swung me around.
• 7:01
  So I did a U-turn and then head first to another guy.
• 7:04
  That was coming there, following him, you know.
• 7:06
  Head on.
• 7:07
  Yeah, head on.
• 7:08
  And so I was Sparko for a while.
• 7:10
  And then soon after, Dad got me my first bike.
• 7:14
  And because, I mean, how do I short term this?
• 7:21
  Basically, Mum knew through the chemist, you know, the ladies she spoke to, the chemist, her son was a really good motocrosser.
• 7:28
  And they got talking and she said, we'll take your boy.
• 7:30
  So they took me, you know, with my kind of little farm bike.
• 7:34
  It was a TSA.
• 7:35
  Sorry, TM75, you know, with my rugby shirt and my gumboots, you know what I mean?
• 7:39
  Like, actually, that's not true.
• 7:41
  I had army boots, open face helmet, you know, like no gloves, turned up jeans, turned up to a motocross like that.
• 7:48
  And I had a ball, you know, absolute ball.
• 7:50
  And I was probably close to last or second to last, something like that.
• 7:55
  And the dad, I was unloading my bike, and I heard dad say, how'd he go?
• 7:59
  How'd the boy go?
• 8:00
  And he went, he's got some natural ability.
• 8:03
  You need to get him a decent bike.
• 8:05
  And dad, being competitive, went, really?
• 8:07
  You know?
• 8:08
  Well, what do I got to get him?
• 8:09
  Well, same as my boys, you know?
• 8:10
  He let me ride that, and now dad ordered one, and that was the beginning of it.
• 8:14
  Amazing.
• 8:14
  You have this beautiful kind of way about you, mate, this beautiful sort of soul.
• 8:19
  Was that mum?
• 8:19
  Is that dad?
• 8:21
  And does it change when you pull the helmet on?
• 8:23
  Do you become this super competitive human being that is not the kind of calm guy I talked to here today?
• 8:32
  I believe that all, if we're talking about my sport, what's the word?
• 8:39
  You've got to have a little bit of mongrel in you to want to risk your body, risk everything to beat that other guy.
• 8:48
  You know what I mean?
• 8:49
  You've got to have a bit of that.
• 8:50
  And I mean, that mellows with age.
• 8:52
  I'm 53 now, so...
• 8:54
  the old testosterone level drops off a bit, which is not a bad thing, folks out there.
• 8:58
  Don't dread it coming, because I'm the happiest I've ever been.
• 9:01
  You make better decisions with a bit less of that.
• 9:05
  But, yeah, you've got to...
• 9:07
  I mean, I grew up not shying away from fighting at school or whatever, so I knew I had that competitive or will to fight and win, but I don't know.
• 9:22
  Otherwise, I'm really not sure...
• 9:24
  Yeah.
• 9:24
  Okay.
• 9:25
  So join the dots for me here.
• 9:26
  So I would imagine there's a bit of sacrifice from mum and dad in this process to get you a better bike, to do these kinds of things.
• 9:34
  That's, you know, the Kiwi way, you turning up in your army boots and open face helmet and jeans, that's not unusual, but did that kind of grounding give you a real hunger here?
• 9:47
  And did you recognise at some point the sacrifice mum and dad were made?
• 9:50
  Oh, I mean, when I look back, actually it puts a lump in my throat because...
• 9:56
  Sorry, but mum worked two jobs.
• 9:58
  Yeah.
• 10:00
  To be honest, I feel sorry for her.
• 10:03
  It's all right, mate.
• 10:04
  It's all right.
• 10:04
  Excuse me.
• 10:05
  It's all right.
• 10:05
  It's all right.
• 10:07
  She worked at the IHC, so that's what it was called back then, you know, for handicapped kids.
• 10:20
  And she worked in a restaurant at night.
• 10:23
  And she bought, you know, she paid for half for Dad the other half, which is, you know, to get me to racing, and she did it again for my first road bike.
• 10:33
  And that hit me.
• 10:35
  I didn't expect that.
• 10:37
  But I do really recognise what they did.
• 10:39
  They were...
• 10:42
  They only just had their first house, you know, got the deposit on the first house at that stage.
• 10:46
  And then for Mum to work...
• 10:49
  And Dad, you know, he was working extras on weekends and stuff to be able to afford the trip to take me to the motocross, you know, and he's paying half my bike, Mum's paying the other half.
• 11:00
  I mean, I really recognise, hey, sorry for losing my shit there.
• 11:04
  Sorry.
• 11:05
  I really recognise what they did at that age.
• 11:07
  They were super young.
• 11:09
  So, yeah, super cool.
• 11:10
  Like I said, they just bought and built their first house.
• 11:14
  And that's, you know, by the time I was 10, so it took them 10 years to get their first house here.
• 11:21
  Fast forward a little bit, we'll come back to the next phase of life here for you, but it must be immense pride from a family perspective, knowing what you went on to do, mate, to the level that you were able to go and ride, and even to be here as we are now and commentating, working in the World Championship.
• 11:36
  Very cool.
• 11:37
  Yeah, you can tell the pride on mum and dad's face for sure.
• 11:41
  You know, I just saw them first time for two and a half years last week because of the COVID thing.
• 11:47
  And yeah, they love it and they watch all of it and stuff.
• 11:50
  But the most pride I've ever seen on their faces was...
• 11:55
  I'm standing on the podium here, Phillip Island, next to Mick.
• 11:58
  He's just won and won the World Championship, and then I'm standing next to him in second.
• 12:03
  And it's my favourite race in my memory.
• 12:06
  You're probably going to get to that.
• 12:07
  Sorry to spoil it.
• 12:09
  But because...
• 12:11
  It wasn't the 101 in Donington, it was the one here in second because I got a bit of an average start.
• 12:17
  I was down in seventh and by half race distance I was seventh.
• 12:21
  But then to come through and recognize that you're passing guys that are like my heroes.
• 12:26
  I mean there's Barros and Kaczynski, Krivier, oh so many, Max Biagi, you know, past those guys
• 12:36
  to get to seconds is an absolute buzz.
• 12:40
  And to ride this track doing it, which that's just getting me off track.
• 12:45
  But one of the most pleasure feelings I've ever had on a motorcycle was here in that race because all motorcyclists, especially racers, but all of them dream of doing slides at 200 kilometres an hour.
• 12:58
  But...
• 13:00
  And when I first turned up to Phillip Island, it scared the hell out of me because it is intimidating.
• 13:05
  You know, and I thought, shit, have I got it?
• 13:08
  It feels like it's too much, you know, like I didn't feel confident.
• 13:15
  And then year after year, you come back.
• 13:17
  And that day to be losing the front and sliding the rear at 200 kilometres an hour and in control –
• 13:25
  is like literally a dream come true, you know, for a bike racer.
• 13:28
  And then to stand on the podium, look down and see my grandparents, my uncle and auntie, you know, my parents, that's the best memory I've got of bike racing.
• 13:36
  Closest thing to a home race for you as well.
• 13:38
  And all these years on, mate, that's still a very vivid recollection for you, all that sliding.
• 13:42
  Just describe, like, are we talking Stoner Corner and, you know, through Turn 1, for example, where were you doing that sort of stuff?
• 13:48
  Well, I mean, you're on the edge everywhere, but I remember getting past the last two guys into turn one.
• 13:54
  I remember, I've got a photo of the three of us.
• 13:56
  I'm in the middle and Barris is on my right, I think, Crevio on my left, or the other way around, but three of us in a line into turn one, and it was literally who's gonna chicken out first, you know, like going into turn one.
• 14:08
  And then there's that stoner corner it's called now.
• 14:12
  It wasn't then, that is extremely intimidating going there, but...
• 14:18
  Yeah, awesome to slide through there.
• 14:21
  Then the most, the other memorable shot in my mind is the last two turns because coming out of, you know, you go down to Lukey Heights, the right-hander, then that left there, I don't know what the left's called.
• 14:35
  You've come out of MG and then you hook left and you're starting that long sweeping...
• 14:39
  Well, when you start there, that is probably the easiest place to slide the rear.
• 14:43
  And I'm thinking of the crowd sitting on the bank there.
• 14:46
  And I'm already in second.
• 14:47
  It's quite safe.
• 14:48
  And pinning it out of there and getting it right sideways on the way out to the paint.
• 14:53
  And then it's still...
• 14:56
  It goes sideways again as you lean into the last turn.
• 14:59
  It lets go because you've leaned over the rear.
• 15:01
  You've gone up a gear, and the rear steps out again as you lean over.
• 15:05
  Does that make sense?
• 15:06
  And then you've got to shut the throttle, so it comes back into line.
• 15:09
  You've got to do it smoothly.
• 15:10
  It goes back into line, and then the front starts pushing.
• 15:13
  And then the rear lets go again when you get back on the gas.
• 15:16
  So to feel all that around there is a dream come true.
• 15:20
  It's bloody awesome.
• 15:21
  Awesome.
• 15:22
  And to see your folks and your grandparents in the crowd there, I reckon, is awesome.
• 15:25
  You've just done something there which we'll come back to later, and that is your unbelievable ability to describe, to teach in relation to motorcycles.
• 15:34
  And I want to talk about that a little bit later.
• 15:36
  Cast your mind back for me to...
• 15:38
  the next phase in your career.
• 15:39
  Firstly, who were the heroes when you were this little kid who decided, I love twisting the wrist here, I'm enjoying motocross in New Zealand.
• 15:48
  What was the car that dad had and where were the kind of places you were doing, you know, motorcycle trips to, you know, trailer and a bike and where were you going racing?
• 15:56
  Yeah, I would say the coolest car, you know, that triggered a memory there was the Midgley.
• 16:07
  They were a motocross family, two brothers that rode, and their dad had a...
• 16:13
  Subaru, Subaru.
• 16:15
  Black and red thing that used to take us for a ride.
• 16:17
  And they had a car trailer covered in bikes because they'd bring different families' bikes, transports.
• 16:22
  Awesome.
• 16:23
  Yeah, so that was a really cool memory.
• 16:25
  And the dad was a bit of a hoon, so he'd tear up the paddock, you know, and it just sounded so good.
• 16:30
  So that was the coolest car of that time, for sure.
• 16:33
  Aussie car as well, yeah.
• 16:35
  Exactly.
• 16:36
  Were you traipsing sort of North Island all over the place?
• 16:38
  Where were you going?
• 16:38
  Oh, yeah.
• 16:39
  So dad had a HQ Holden wagon and we, yeah, my poor old sister got dragged all over the, you know, and little brother as he was growing up, all over the North Island, New Zealand.
• 16:48
  Yeah, we didn't go down south.
• 16:50
  But yeah, there was races everywhere in North Island that we, yeah, we didn't go very far north, but sort of between Taupo and, I think we made as far as Hamilton, but all the way down to Wellington, sort of, you know, just central North Island mainly.
• 17:05
  But...
• 17:07
  The heroes, first of all, my bedroom wall was covered, you know, from the pull-out centre page from motocross action and stuff like that, you know, and that would have been, I remember the early one was, like, Harkin, Carlquist and, what was it, George's, Joe Bay, it's probably said wrong, but then...
• 17:27
  What are we talking here, like Roger DaCosta?
• 17:29
  David Thorpe, Roger DaCosta, Brad Lackey, all those boys coming through.
• 17:33
  I mean, they were all over my bedroom all year.
• 17:34
  And then once I got on the tarmac, it was the guys of the time, you know, especially it was mid-'80s.
• 17:41
  So I even had a...
• 17:42
  I work kind of alongside them now, Franco and Cheney.
• 17:45
  I had a...
• 17:46
  He was world champion then and I had, you know, actually another guy.
• 17:50
  Anyway, I had all that era of it and then, of course, the next era of Doohan and Rainey.
• 17:57
  And I would say my biggest hero out of all that road racing time would be McDoohan because he did just ahead of me what was my dream.
• 18:09
  He proved it was possible.
• 18:10
  to go from, he went from Aussie, you know, and then beat the World Superbike Boys and went straight away, you know, and went to 500 Grand Prix and got a factory ride.
• 18:18
  I'm like, that Aussie's just showing that it's possible, you know?
• 18:22
  So that, he was my biggest hero, you know, and he ended up being my training partner and good friend till today.
• 18:27
  And for a time, not too far away as a neighbour, more or less, and he and Darryl Beattie, what did they call you?
• 18:33
  Bloody, bloody excellent, didn't they?
• 18:35
  Exactly.
• 18:37
  Good times, good lads.
• 18:38
  Good lads.
• 18:39
  Yeah, and yeah, I had a holiday place near them in Queensland, and that's what I was meaning, off-season training with Mick.
• 18:46
  And he was actually really good to me, meaning coming to the Gold Coast, and he knew the whole place.
• 18:53
  It's his home.
• 18:54
  But he did a really awesome job of showing my wife and I around and making us feel welcome, you know.
• 18:59
  It was pretty nice of him.
• 19:01
  Cool.
• 19:01
  So did it click?
• 19:02
  When did it click?
• 19:03
  When did trophies start sort of happening or were there moments where you were bruised and battered and you weren't sure?
• 19:08
  What was that early part like when you were motocrossing or did you gel with it fairly soon?
• 19:15
  Motocrossing went, you know, like in a short period, I think it was three or four years, I did it only.
• 19:20
  So 81 to 85, 84 really.
• 19:25
  And I got to the point where I was 15 years old and I did a senior motocross.
• 19:31
  I begged Dad to talk to the organisers and say, look, I just want to ride because it's close to a house rather than not ride that weekend.
• 19:37
  Can you call them and say, well, sign something.
• 19:39
  I don't want any prize money.
• 19:40
  Just let me ride.
• 19:42
  I was lucky I did it because the two guys there was the old New Zealand champion, senior 125, Phil Turnbull, and he was about 33 and has a bike shop, you know, Suzuki shop.
• 19:52
  And the current New Zealand 125 champion, you know, motocross champion was there, Gabides, Dean Gabides.
• 19:58
  And...
• 20:00
  I got two seconds to the old one beat the current one at 15 years old.
• 20:04
  So the old champion, Phil Turnbull, said, at the end of the day, do you want to have a motorcycle apprenticeship and we'll supply you bikes in a ute, you know?
• 20:17
  And I just went, that's all I want to do.
• 20:22
  So it took me the whole trip home to convince Dad, you know?
• 20:25
  I was like, he's like, no, you've got to finish your schooling just being a good dad, you know, because he knows that was the right.
• 20:30
  And I said, Dad, if I finish my schooling, my apprenticeship, he told me, you know, if I get school C in there, well, my apprenticeship will be six months less.
• 20:41
  But I've got to wait six months to do that.
• 20:42
  And the job probably won't be there.
• 20:45
  And the big thing is he's going to pay my bike.
• 20:47
  So you don't have to, you know.
• 20:48
  And I know that was a big thing.
• 20:50
  things stress oh yeah big style so they finally agreed and i went and did that it was too young to go and do it i i i lasted two years two and a half years and of my four and a half year british haven't got got the sack like falling asleep under quads i discovered girls and drinks and falling asleep under a quad working on it you know proper dipstick really when i look back
• 21:12
  His shop was really hard in the workshop.
• 21:15
  They were hard on us, but very good.
• 21:17
  Like I learned a lot from there that took me on to my next job to finish my apprenticeship.
• 21:22
  I learned a lot.
• 21:23
  I went up to the city, didn't have to light the gas to get rusty car piss bolts out anymore because they were all farm bikes.
• 21:30
  And then I went to the city and worked on road bikes, got paid better, and I realized, hey, I'm not bad at this.
• 21:35
  These guys, you know, I learned so much in the first place.
• 21:40
  I think also trust in people brings the best out of them, if they're the right mentality.
• 21:46
  You know, they gave me full faith, fixed those bikes for the front shop for as little as possible.
• 21:52
  And I took pride in turning those bikes around, costing the boss a little as possible, and they were good and reliable.
• 21:58
  It was a massive, what's the word, yeah, trust, faith in me.
• 22:01
  And you thrive if you're the right mentality.
• 22:05
  So that changed my life that bit as well, and managed to finish my time as a bike mechanic.
• 22:10
  I think kind of where this naturally leads to is how much has that helped you in a race sense and even now in a training sense, that knowledge of the bike, the mechanical knowledge of the bike, how much did that help you in your career?
• 22:21
  It did.
• 22:22
  I mean, because I could tie it together.
• 22:24
  You know, I knew what they were doing to the bike and I knew then understood the feeling that it gives.
• 22:29
  So with all the changes, I understood all of them.
• 22:31
  But...
• 22:32
  I don't think you need that to be better because I probably thought too much about that and not enough about riding, you know, if I look back.
• 22:40
  So I think there's a balance.
• 22:41
  You've got to, as a rider, sometimes just, well, we haven't been able to sort it.
• 22:47
  You've just got to get on and adapt yourself.
• 22:49
  And I think the real winners are the ones that can adapt.
• 22:54
  You know, you get the bike in the ballpark, not perfect because it's very hard in the time you've got to get it perfect.
• 23:00
  Or some people say it's impossible to get perfect.
• 23:03
  But the winners, I think, are the guys that can adapt themselves to the problems that the bike's having, you know.
• 23:10
  That's what I genuinely believe.
• 23:12
  So there's positives and negatives.
• 23:15
  Bit of a mixture of both, maybe.
• 23:16
  How did the opportunity to go road racing come about?
• 23:19
  And tell me about some of the tracks that you got to go to in New Zealand because there's some iconic...
• 23:23
  I mean, Pukukau, we've just learned in the last little while, is going to close next April, for example, which is sad.
• 23:28
  And they've also got some other...
• 23:30
  ball-tearingly, you know, amazing tracks over time, haven't they?
• 23:36
  Yeah, I think, though, that what I noticed going overseas from New Zealand is that the tracks are quite slow in New Zealand.
• 23:45
  The only bookie is the fast one.
• 23:46
  The rest are, there's not very much high-speed stuff, so you don't learn that.
• 23:51
  That's why Phillip Island scared the hell out of me the first time I came here, because I hadn't done 200-kilometre-anour-corners, you know.
• 23:57
  And so...
• 24:00
  But we were very lucky that there were seven tracks that were running when I grew up.
• 24:04
  You know, there's a lot less than that now.
• 24:05
  Most of them had houses built on, or half of them.
• 24:09
  So, yeah, I got what happened.
• 24:12
  You're talking like Manfield and Pookie?
• 24:14
  Manfield's the first place I rode at because that's where the bike shop was that I worked, just near there, Palmerston.
• 24:19
  And what happened was I was planning to go motocrossing.
• 24:23
  To be fair to me, you know, 15 years old, a few months is a very long time, and the boss hadn't turned up with any bikes or a ute that I could do, and I was just working on motorbikes, getting bored, and I hadn't even ridden my own motocross bike, which I still, you know, mum and dad.
• 24:38
  So I was kind of going...
• 24:40
  I wonder when something's going to happen.
• 24:42
  It was probably off-season or something, but I just wanted to ride.
• 24:45
  And then a guy from the same club that I came from, which is Taihepe, Central North Island, this guy rang me and said, I want to do a track day, Manfield, this weekend.
• 24:58
  Can I stay with you?
• 24:59
  Because I live down there.
• 25:01
  And I went, yeah.
• 25:01
  Yeah.
• 25:02
  But if I supply a tyre, can I ride a different group, you know, another class on your bike?
• 25:08
  And he went, yeah.
• 25:09
  So I put some good tyres on his bike that I'd got off something else that was traded that needed some other tyres, and they were sitting on the rack, and I, you know, hustled them out of the rack and put them on his bike.
• 25:20
  Which was what?
• 25:21
  What kind of bike was it?
• 25:22
  a Z440 Kawasaki, just an old twin, you know, closer to a Triumph than a race bike, you know, an old British, kind of British bike copy, Japanese.
• 25:31
  And I did that one day and realised I could do it because I was going around the outside of loads of people and I just rang my dad and said that...
• 25:41
  I am absolutely hooked dad.
• 25:43
  I want to do this not motocross.
• 25:45
  This is amazing, you know, and and dad went All right, let's do that then and just like that he trusted me that uh, that was my passion and so we sold the motocross bikes got a motocross bike got a road bike That was probably the beginning of the end for my employer as well because he was a motocrosser And that's what i've been hired for and so I think that was the beginning of the end and um
• 26:07
  Yeah, that was it.
• 26:08
  I was off just doing club days and, you know, club racing and whatever, you know, a few Whanganui streets, cemetery, something like that.
• 26:14
  I didn't believe that I was any good, really.
• 26:17
  Yeah.
• 26:27
  Hi there.
• 26:28
  Simon is about to do a U-turn.
• 26:30
  He will go from a punk, before continuing straight to be a racer.
• 26:34
  In his life, he was lost but went on to be a champion.
• 26:37
  The learnings from this legend are about to go up a notch.
• 26:42
  I want to put some things in here that are useful, rather than just an old bloke talking about his career.
• 26:49
  Go for it.
• 26:49
  I would like to put some things in here that are useful for young people coming through.
• 26:53
  And then I think that were things I wish I knew.
• 26:57
  The first one is that I felt lucky that I could go off track, meaning...
• 27:04
  discover girls and and live alcohol and uh you know smoke a bit of you know adolescence yeah normal and get lost a little bit and to the point where my boss didn't want me to work there anymore my dad thought i was loser but then realized i don't really want to do that i really want to race you know and um that's a light bulb moment or this progressively kicked in
• 27:28
  Yeah, kind of progressively kicked in.
• 27:30
  And I got in trouble with the law and, you know, just being an idiot and just honing everywhere on the street like a lunatic.
• 27:39
  And then once I got again in trouble with the law and Dad really told me I was a loser, you know, that this was a light bulb moment.
• 27:48
  When he told me that, I thought, I'm going to prove that old bastard wrong, you know, meaning...
• 27:53
  It spurred you on a bit.
• 27:54
  Yeah, the whole reason I'm saying this is because I feel sorry for the young guys now that don't get to make that decision themselves.
• 28:02
  They're so young, they've got to commit to a career of racing before they even discovered what I did.
• 28:08
  Go off the wrong track and go, I don't want to do that.
• 28:11
  They never get to do that.
• 28:12
  Does that make sense?
• 28:13
  Yeah, it totally makes sense.
• 28:14
  So I feel sorry for them there, but then go forward a couple of years.
• 28:18
  Well, basically, when I decided, I went to my dad and went,
• 28:21
  I'm over being a loser.
• 28:23
  Basically, it was about around 17.
• 28:25
  Yeah, 16 and a half to 17 and a half in there, you know.
• 28:29
  By the time I was 18, I realised I don't want to do that anymore.
• 28:33
  Then I went to my employer, my boss that I worked for at the time.
• 28:36
  He was close with Kawasaki and Yamaha.
• 28:39
  He went to Kawasaki, got me a deal from them, a cost bike, a KR1S.
• 28:45
  I told Dad that I'm really sorry, I'm focused, I want to win.
• 28:50
  I didn't even know I could because I hadn't before.
• 28:52
  And I told my employer I'm going to win, told Kawasaki I'm going to win, I told the tyre shop that were going to sponsor me some tyres, I'm going to win the championship.
• 29:00
  But I didn't really believe it myself.
• 29:01
  I was just trying to convince myself, you know.
• 29:03
  And I...
• 29:05
  I won.
• 29:05
  I won like the first race.
• 29:06
  I didn't only because I didn't believe it.
• 29:09
  I got second.
• 29:09
  I went, I could have beaten him.
• 29:11
  I won the next date.
• 29:12
  You know, that was Glenn Williams was probably the best rider at the time.
• 29:16
  He'd come back from Europe and I beat him in every race that I raced.
• 29:20
  So your second message here about self-belief, mate, about backing yourself.
• 29:24
  was so my main message there is to aim high and that was I wish I understood that before basically commit I found the ingredients by fully committing don't get distracted by all that shit I had to leave my drinking mates behind all my earning around the street mates because I knew if I joined them that I would end up having one and then 10 with them you know so I just didn't do
• 29:49
  But then I found the ingredients to succeed.
• 29:51
  You know, the first year I won that championship, that got me out of New Zealand.
• 29:55
  I got offered to ride the eight hour.
• 29:56
  I mean, that's wild.
• 29:57
  Huge.
• 29:58
  Yeah, with Scott Doohan.
• 29:59
  You know, like Scott Doohan, Stroudy, me and a Japanese rider.
• 30:02
  I met Mick Doohan, who's my hero, you know.
• 30:05
  And so in a short time, turned it around, you know.
• 30:08
  So I...
• 30:09
  I think that's one little message is aim high.
• 30:13
  Believe in yourself.
• 30:14
  You've got to aim high as you can.
• 30:16
  Do all your homework, prepare, training, do everything.
• 30:22
  But further on, we'll get to it.
• 30:26
  There's another more important one that I wanted to say once you get on the right track.
• 30:31
  Okay, cool, cool.
• 30:32
  I mean, I love that sort of stuff for young emerging races.
• 30:37
  I reckon that's hugely important.
• 30:39
  So you are able to unlock the secret, if you will, to winning, and part of it is obviously your own drive.
• 30:46
  What happens then?
• 30:47
  Are you like, right, New Zealand isn't enough for me?
• 30:51
  I want to go international?
• 30:53
  Or did the opportunity with the eight-hour come left of field and you didn't expect it?
• 30:58
  What was the next phase in your aspirations?
• 31:00
  Okay, I didn't expect the 8-hour.
• 31:02
  That came out of the blue because it was Morinaga-san who owned the most Yamaha dealers in Tokyo, you know, the biggest Yamaha dealer in Tokyo.
• 31:11
  So he'd helped Mick Doohan.
• 31:15
  Mick Doohan went to Japan the first time, rode for him, with factory support, but with him, then Aaron Slight, then Andrew Stroud, and then me and Scott Doohan.
• 31:24
  And we all end up riding for him.
• 31:26
  I mean, at this stage, I really doubted myself because I'd gone from a 250 production bike to a bike with slicks for the first time.
• 31:37
  We had no warmers back then.
• 31:40
  It's just...
• 31:41
  well, basically a superbike, but F1 rules.
• 31:43
  So they had more carburation, less rules, you know, so you could modify the bikes more than superbike.
• 31:48
  And I had seven high sides in three and a half months because I thought to go fast, you had to open the throttle earlier, but it's not true.
• 31:56
  You've got to get the thing turned and up off the edge of the tyre.
• 32:01
  And basically by opening earlier, you only go higher.
• 32:04
  you know, high side.
• 32:06
  And I cried myself to sleep quite a few nights, really with swollen ankles and lucky didn't break anything, but really battered.
• 32:13
  And so I was like, oh, God, that was my apprenticeship on how to ride a super bike.
• 32:16
  And it made me figure out, you've got to get the thing turned up off the edge and drive off, you know, watching other guys learning.
• 32:24
  And it was a...
• 32:26
  fast track course, you know, which wasn't easy.
• 32:29
  It was horrible.
• 32:30
  And then I came back to New Zealand, raced there.
• 32:33
  Mourinaga decided he was going to race boats the next year.
• 32:35
  And so that was the end of the bike thing.
• 32:37
  He was a lovely guy.
• 32:38
  It was an awesome opportunity, but it was the end of bike racing.
• 32:41
  So I found a job in Malaysia.
• 32:43
  I just wrote to them, Mike Webb, actually, who I was working for in a bike shop.
• 32:47
  He said, do you want me to help you put some letters together, which I'd never written a business letter before, you know?
• 32:53
  So he helped me.
• 32:55
  And Yamaha Malaysia.
• 32:57
  Basically, I said, give me one chance.
• 33:00
  I don't want anything.
• 33:01
  I just need an air ticket.
• 33:02
  I'll bring my, just give me one shot.
• 33:04
  Then we can talk after that.
• 33:06
  And I went there and almost won the first race, but it was the heat that killed me.
• 33:10
  I only faded the last laps and got overtaken, but they signed me up in the end of the next year and a half.
• 33:17
  So that's where I really learned to ride a superbike.
• 33:19
  Yamaha Malaysia were really good to me.
• 33:21
  Hong Leong Yamaha, they were called.
• 33:23
  And...
• 33:24
  Then Ron Lim was the main man there.
• 33:27
  He was awesome to me, very good to me.
• 33:29
  And then from there, I realised I've got to get to the UK.
• 33:33
  So I went to order ticket, went to the UK for one race.
• 33:37
  I just honestly figured out my head.
• 33:38
  On a whim?
• 33:39
  On a whim kind of thing?
• 33:40
  Yeah, I'd met some English guys that were racing in New Zealand, and I was trying not to draw it out, but you kind of need to know how I got out of it.
• 33:48
  So these English guys said, we reckon you can make it in the UK, mate.
• 33:52
  You're fast enough.
• 33:52
  Like, if you come over, you can borrow one of our bikes.
• 33:55
  So I went, great.
• 33:56
  When?
• 33:57
  And they went probably, I said, the last races of the year when everyone's thinking about hiring, you know.
• 34:02
  And so they said, come over October and we do a sunflower race, which is in Ireland at the end of the year, to learn the bike because you'd never ridden a Honda.
• 34:09
  It was an RC30.
• 34:10
  And then the next week is the big end of the race, end of the year race.
• 34:15
  They had the Brands Power Bike, Brands Hatch Short Circuit, which didn't take much to learn.
• 34:20
  And so I turned up there and I think I got fourth in the first race.
• 34:24
  I mean, I got a...
• 34:26
  I took my brain out because I thought I have to get a job for next year, you know, and get – All on the line.
• 34:32
  Yeah.
• 34:32
  So I just went apeshit.
• 34:34
  The first one I got fourth.
• 34:35
  The second one I thought I've got to get on the podium.
• 34:37
  You know, that's one step more.
• 34:39
  But I just – man, they used the crash as the lead-in for the next year's championship, you know, during the – The promo.
• 34:46
  The promo.
• 34:48
  I mean, I'm talking carburetors on the end of throttle cables and wheels smashed off it and, oh no.
• 34:54
  It was actually Ron Grant's bike.
• 34:56
  He lived, I don't know if you've ever heard him, bit of a legend, factory Suzuki rider in America in the 60s.
• 35:02
  I didn't have the money to pay for it, but he was super cool.
• 35:05
  He just went...
• 35:06
  Well, I think you made an impression, you know, like mission accomplished.
• 35:11
  And actually it was Honda UK that rang him and offered me a job over winter and I ended up riding for Honda UK.
• 35:17
  So it was just putting it all on the line there to get the job.
• 35:21
  Yeah.
• 35:22
  But yeah, and then UK I did one year and this is the bit that I wanted to pass on to the young fellas as well, super important and I look back now and shake my head even at the decision I made but it was pivotal I think.
• 35:38
  At the end of that year, and that year was the first year I got paid to ride a motorbike and it was very little but...
• 35:44
  I got paid, you know, I didn't have to worry about anything.
• 35:49
  Got a company car and some pocket money, you know.
• 35:52
  But the end of that year, they offered me three times that money to stay and the promise of better material.
• 36:00
  And this is, I remember Joey Dunlop and I were at this end-of-year function, Philip McCullum, all the Honda riders and staff.
• 36:08
  And Bob McMillan, who was a big boss at the time of Honda UK, Neil Tuxworth, sat me down and went, here's the deal, you know, a piece of paper for me to sign.
• 36:18
  We're going to give you three times the money, company car, we're going to have an RVF and blah, blah, blah.
• 36:22
  And I went, I want to go to World Championship, you know, because I'd seen, I'd done three Superbike races while I was there for him.
• 36:31
  Actually, one was for Rumi.
• 36:32
  He loaned me to Rumi to save some money, you know, because it was in my deal.
• 36:36
  I rode that first year.
• 36:38
  I didn't try to get more money.
• 36:39
  I just tried to get more World Superbike races with him.
• 36:42
  And he agreed to three.
• 36:43
  He did two and then loaned me to Rumi for another one.
• 36:45
  And it went really well.
• 36:47
  qualified seventh and got two top tens, you know.
• 36:50
  So end of the year, they offered me three times the money at the end of this deal.
• 36:53
  And I went, I can't believe I did.
• 36:55
  I went, nah, I'm going to World Championship.
• 36:58
  And they went, have you got a ride of you?
• 36:59
  And I went, no.
• 37:01
  Oh.
• 37:01
  Yeah.
• 37:02
  And so they looked at me and each other and went, Simon, this is a really good deal.
• 37:07
  And I went, I know it, but I know me.
• 37:09
  If I get, I'm bored.
• 37:11
  I want to go to World Championship.
• 37:12
  If I get bored, I'll drink and chase girls.
• 37:14
  You're worried about complacency here.
• 37:16
  It would be too easy for you.
• 37:17
  Is that what you mean?
• 37:18
  No, no, I only got fourth in that one, and I couldn't beat the good guys on that bike, because it was the last years of the RC30, the Kawasaki had come out, was the bike to beat, then there was two good guys on Yamaha's, there was Jamie Whittem on the Suzuki, basically Jamie and I were struggling on our older material to...
• 37:36
  you couldn't beat the Kawasaki's John Reynolds and Brian Morrison, you know, that they were and the new generation of bike kicking our ass.
• 37:42
  So I didn't really want to do that again.
• 37:44
  And more importantly, I'd seen the factory bikes teams and tracks at World Championship and that what I had my heart set on.
• 37:52
  So I was only going to do that.
• 37:54
  I only was going to accept a World Championship ride.
• 37:56
  I didn't even want any money.
• 37:57
  I just wanted to ride that.
• 37:59
  And I told them,
• 38:00
  They were obviously trying to push me, and I went and said, you know, this is a really good deal.
• 38:04
  I said, I'm bored.
• 38:06
  I know if I get bored, I'll drink and chase girls instead of focusing on the job.
• 38:10
  I've got to go world championship.
• 38:11
  And they went, fair enough, you know, because they believed me.
• 38:14
  You know, it's pretty convincing.
• 38:15
  They don't want someone drinking and chasing girls.
• 38:17
  So they went, okay, shook my hand, all done.
• 38:20
  I went home and didn't have a job till...
• 38:22
  April the next year, this is October.
• 38:24
  So I was getting nervous, and then the phone rang and said it was Peter Graves and said, do you want to ride my very private Yamaha?
• 38:32
  Because I don't think they accepted his entry for some reason, and they needed to find another rider.
• 38:37
  So he said, you can ride it for free.
• 38:39
  If you're getting finished in the top 10, we'll give you a bonus, which is kind of far-fetched, top 10 on a very... We had...
• 38:46
  I rode it four times.
• 38:47
  We had...
• 38:48
  two sets of tyres per race weekend.
• 38:52
  And it was two people, his girlfriend, and another mechanic.
• 38:58
  She was a mechanic.
• 39:00
  And there's more to that story.
• 39:02
  And, yeah, it was so private.
• 39:04
  Like...
• 39:05
  You were hands on there.
• 39:06
  Very, very private team.
• 39:07
  And we finished ninth on the fourth go.
• 39:09
  So that got me another job, you know.
• 39:13
  Kosinski had been given the boot for breaking their bike, and they wandered down.
• 39:17
  We were partying, you know, because in our little awning.
• 39:20
  What you'd achieved.
• 39:21
  Yeah.
• 39:22
  And then Debbie Irvine was the mechanic.
• 39:25
  She was bloody good.
• 39:27
  Like...
• 39:28
  I'd never seen a lady be that good on spanners before, so I feel bad now.
• 39:34
  But at the beginning, I was looking over her shoulder, you know, as a mechanic going, ah, you know, it's your life on the line, your collarbone, you know.
• 39:41
  But she was awesome, you know, completely changed my mind.
• 39:44
  She was very good.
• 39:46
  She came to me and said, hey, Ponce Rail's at the tent door there.
• 39:49
  He wants to talk to you, and he offered me a deal.
• 39:51
  He said, two and a half grand, that motorhome's over you, a per race, that motorhome over there, we hired for Kaczynski to get changed in.
• 40:00
  You can have it.
• 40:00
  We'll put the diesel in it, meaning drive it.
• 40:03
  Drive it, yeah.
• 40:03
  I could ring up my girlfriend that became my wife and say, we've got a home, because I was just staying wherever.
• 40:09
  and I had what I wanted, you know.
• 40:13
  That was two 50s.
• 40:14
  I'd never ridden one, meaning I'd ridden one twice in the UK when my teammate Alan Carter got hurt, and I'd ridden it twice and went all right on it, but I was too big for it.
• 40:26
  But it was...
• 40:27
  an amazing experience working with Tech3.
• 40:29
  First time I'd worked with data, you know, recording, and they taught me so much.
• 40:34
  Geek Ulong was my chief mechanic, you know, amazing.
• 40:37
  So that was a really key point in learning as well.
• 40:40
  But the thing is that I want to say to young guys is it was so important to focus on what you want, what you want to achieve and not the money because the money so early on will lead you off track, you know, the wrong way.
• 40:56
  Does that make sense?
• 40:57
  It does, it does.
• 40:58
  Super important because I'm convinced if I'd taken the money, I would not have got to a world championship.
• 41:03
  How did you do that?
• 41:04
  Because, you know, you sounded like a, you know, just a wayward teenager having fun.
• 41:09
  All of a sudden you've got this, you know, laser focus about, I have to do that.
• 41:15
  And I'm going to thank you, but no thank you to that offer, to that money.
• 41:19
  I have to do that.
• 41:20
  Yeah.
• 41:21
  How did that change, you know, with such certainty come about?
• 41:27
  I think it's just making mistakes on the way.
• 41:29
  That's why I feel lucky that I did make those mistakes, to know myself.
• 41:33
  Does that make sense?
• 41:33
  I feel sorry for the young guys that don't get to do that before they have to make the decision.
• 41:38
  And I think I learned that that is the wrong track, wrong path.
• 41:43
  It leads to nowhere.
• 41:44
  And everyone's disappointed with you, where this one, if I keep focused on it, leads the right way.
• 41:49
  I think it was just purely that.
• 41:51
  My heart was in racing those world championship bikes on those world championship tracks, and you have to keep following that.
• 41:57
  And Mick Doohan had another saying for that, he told me later, is, don't worry about the money, focus on the results and the money will come.
• 42:04
  And that is it.
• 42:05
  That is it.
• 42:07
  So, yeah.
• 42:08
  Sage advice, mate.
• 42:10
  Just as we're going through the climb here, two things immediately come to my mind.
• 42:14
  And firstly, that is playing at elite level sport.
• 42:17
  I mean, you'd play rugby and other things at home in New Zealand, but suddenly you're playing at world championship level where the best have come from everywhere.
• 42:24
  How eye-opening was that experience for you?
• 42:27
  You mentioned a little bit about self-doubt before in relation to the bikes and the tracks and stuff like that.
• 42:33
  So this is kind of three-pronged question.
• 42:35
  Elite-level sport, coping with self-doubt and probably exposure to politics for the first time in the sport.
• 42:43
  How did you cope with all that?
• 42:45
  Yeah, early on, you don't have to worry about the politics thing so much.
• 42:49
  I wasn't very affected by that.
• 42:51
  I think they just see a young guy who's going forward and people help.
• 42:56
  You know what I mean?
• 42:58
  I think that's actually another thing I've got to throw in for the young guys is that people help.
• 43:04
  people who want to help themselves and that's what I noticed like in New Zealand for example to get out of there in the first place by having the laser focus as you put it on what I wanted to do people recognize that and then come out of the woodwork they're watching they are watching it's just they're watching for someone to help and now they're like 50 or 60 years old with a successful company and they love bike racing and they're looking for the next
• 43:30
  kid coming through and unless you show those attributes of being completely committed they're not going to come out of the woodwork when you do i never expected it but they turn up and i mean for example he didn't they don't give you money but they they gave me a truck and fuel to run my bikes around and and got me my first ticket out of the country and they help where
• 43:52
  they are needed you know what i'm saying and i think that's super important to know dig deep and hooking yourself committed to it people will start helping if you do that you know um sorry uh the self-doubt yeah the self-doubt i mean that's a bad one in sport because i think most people suffer from it and
• 44:13
  I would like to say all, but I'm not sure.
• 44:16
  But I think most people do.
• 44:18
  And it's super important to keep aiming high because, like that first experience, you know, for the New Zealand Championship.
• 44:26
  But then as soon as I realised I could, then you aim higher again.
• 44:30
  And I think overall my career, I was guilty of not aiming high enough.
• 44:34
  Because...
• 44:36
  My dream was always to ride those factory bikes that I see in the magazine against the best guys in the world, because I love the machinery and those guys are heroes.
• 44:46
  But I never actually said, I want to be world champion.
• 44:48
  I never had that burning desire to do that, I'll be honest.
• 44:52
  It was more just having the job of riding the most beautiful bike in the world against the best guys on the best tracks.
• 44:58
  It was like a dream.
• 45:00
  And I think that is...
• 45:03
  why it didn't go further because I didn't aim high enough, which is a bit silly, but I don't have regrets.
• 45:10
  I got to do what I dreamed of.
• 45:13
  I didn't realize they were going to pay me as well, you know?
• 45:16
  But they bought my house, so I'm super happy.
• 45:19
  It's just super important not to doubt yourself, to force yourself to keep aiming high, you know?
• 45:26
  Because, yeah, you won't get there otherwise.
• 45:34
  It's the end of part one of my podcast with former 500cc race winner turned MotoGP commentator Simon Craver.
• 45:41
  This is a two-parter and that second lap of our conversation is all loaded up and ready for you to enjoy right now in the Rusty's Garage Library.
• 45:50
  From working with the seriously talented Anthony Gobert before his fall from grace, to Simon's own disenchantment with the sport he loved, breaking his back and how it snapped him out of a funk, from being lost to bonding with family, and the moment one of the most respected rider training methods in the world was born, plus picking up the mic to share his insights in the MotoGP paddock.