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The Motorsport Brief: Travelling to Mount Panorama with Jamie Whincup · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Tuesday, the 3rd of October, 2023.
• 0:09
  Bathurst Week.
• 0:10
  It's about to properly shift into gear.
• 0:13
  And today we are talking with one of the favourites for Sunday's race after a brilliant performance at the Sandown 500.
• 0:19
  And as Mark Scaife said recently, someone who seems destined to add to his tally of wins in the 1,000 and to perhaps further cement his status as the sports goat.
• 0:32
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this special edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:37
  A bonus ep that reflects the significance of this week, the 60th anniversary of the great race.
• 0:43
  It is going to be huge, as the late Darrell Eastlake would say.
• 0:47
  Now, October is a brilliant month for lovers of motorsport in this part of the world, with the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix just a few weeks away as well.
• 0:57
  On Monday, we released an ep.
• 0:59
  with Jack Miller, recorded on the eve of the Japanese MotoGP round.
• 1:03
  Jack talks fatherhood, a special KTM that the Austrian manufacturer gave him for the pool room, plus the good things in the pipeline that give him confidence for his home race after a bit of a challenging year getting comfortable on that RC16.
• 1:20
  We might just be in for some Miller Island magic, given the positives that came out of the weekend at Matigi there.
• 1:28
  Got a feature ep out soon with Ben and Jason Barguana together on the mic in the lead up to the Baffist International in November.
• 1:36
  So keep an eye out for notifications on that in the weeks ahead.
• 1:40
  We also spoke with Simona DiSalvestro for a shorty recently ahead of her return to Mount Panorama as a part of Dick Johnson Racing's wildcard entry.
• 1:50
  For this edition, we wanted to keep the other race that stops the nation very much in focus.
• 1:55
  Now,
• 1:56
  We spoke with Jamie Wincup back when we released our very first episodes of Rusty's Garage in 2018.
• 2:03
  We recorded that in the team debrief room upstairs in the hauler or transporter.
• 2:08
  You can still find that in the library too.
• 2:11
  He's not a massive fan of talking about himself, so at some point we are going to have to twist his arm and get him back on for a part two feature effort.
• 2:20
  Today's chat is all about the now, about the weekend ahead and more.
• 2:25
  Fittingly, he's on the road from Sydney to Bathurst.
• 2:29
  Jamie, welcome back to the podcast.
• 2:32
  Hey, Rusty, how are you?
• 2:33
  Can we start with what you're in?
• 2:35
  Is it a rental car?
• 2:36
  Is it on brand?
• 2:37
  And you've just literally left Sydney.
• 2:38
  Is that right?
• 2:39
  Exactly.
• 2:40
  Yeah, just flew into Sydney and we're heading out to Bathurst in a rental car and it's off brand.
• 2:45
  So I can't.
• 2:46
  Okay.
• 2:47
  Okay.
• 2:47
  Don't mention it.
• 2:48
  Who's in the car with you?
• 2:49
  You can tell us that though.
• 2:50
  The roof's too high for a good cast.
• 2:53
  Got Tom Wilson, our commercial manager, and then got my co-driver for the weekend in the back.
• 3:00
  Happy days.
• 3:01
  Happy days.
• 3:01
  Can we start with your co-driver or actually, more importantly, that Sandown win?
• 3:06
  That's a perfect way to lead into this race, Jamie.
• 3:09
  Where did that kind of rank for you?
• 3:11
  Because now you've got a different role with the team.
• 3:13
  Your driving is more part-time orientated.
• 3:16
  How special was that Sandown 500 victory?
• 3:18
  Yeah, it's obviously big in our world.
• 3:20
  There's a few people trying to, you know, to lower the race itself and say it's just a warm-up for Bathurst.
• 3:27
  But for us, it's a 500k race.
• 3:29
  It's one of the marquee events on the supercar calendar.
• 3:33
  So Brock and I and the hot and tight team, we...
• 3:37
  We worked really hard for that one, went down there, put in our best effort, and got the chocolates, which is very nice.
• 3:46
  And then for SVG to be third, and also our wild card, our Super Chiboto wild card entry to be 10th.
• 3:54
  To have all three cars in the top ten, as a driver, fantastic.
• 3:57
  As a team owner, fantastic.
• 3:59
  But at the same time, yeah, take that.
• 4:01
  Use that as confidence heading into the weekend.
• 4:03
  But take it too for ahead of yourselves.
• 4:05
  We've got 1,000 Ks on Sunday, and we want to make sure we make the most of it.
• 4:09
  And the goal for everyone for the season of endurance is to score the most points over the two.
• 4:15
  So that's certainly our objective.
• 4:18
  He's obviously over your shoulder, so we don't want to pump his tyres too much.
• 4:21
  What observations have you made of Brock?
• 4:23
  I mean, RD talked for some time about what a star he was.
• 4:27
  We got a sense of that at Adelaide last year and then what he achieved at Sandown.
• 4:31
  How has he grown as an athlete from what you've seen?
• 4:34
  Yeah, it's always hard to talk about someone when they're sitting beside you.
• 4:37
  But no, no, Brock's had a fantastic rookie season.
• 4:43
  You've got to remember, last year was his first year, first year in the championship, and it's always tough for any rookie to jump in and be ultra-competitive.
• 4:51
  But to finish in the top six in the championship and then to win the Adelaide 500 last round, it was a phenomenal effort.
• 4:59
  But like all rookies, it's a steep learning curve at the start.
• 5:02
  You've just got to keep your head down.
• 5:04
  not get too far ahead of yourself and just keep chipping away, keep chipping away.
• 5:07
  And, you know, this championship is gauged on, you know, your performance is gauged on how many Bathurst you've won and how many championships you've won, you know.
• 5:17
  So it's one thing winning a few races.
• 5:19
  It's another thing winning those major trophies.
• 5:22
  But he's well and truly on track to do some great things and let's all hope keeps his head down and does us all proud.
• 5:30
  It's a massive undertaking for the entire team, two cars plus a wild card, biggest event, no doubt, of the year for you all.
• 5:38
  Do you get to park the boss cap, Jamie, and just focus on the driving?
• 5:42
  How do you juggle all that?
• 5:43
  I do.
• 5:44
  I'm very grateful that I've got a fantastic management team, and they basically run the race weekends by themselves.
• 5:51
  So while I'm – generally when I'm not driving, I'm there overseeing, but –
• 5:56
  there's not a huge amount I'm doing because everyone's got their role, they're playing their role really well, so it's more of an observation thing for me.
• 6:05
  So, no, I can certainly...
• 6:07
  I'll still be observing.
• 6:08
  I've got to make sure that I don't... You know, I do the best job that I can this weekend, and the best job I can do is drive the car to the best of my ability and hand it back over to Brock to do his thing.
• 6:22
  So, no, no, no, I'll certainly be a driver this weekend, but...
• 6:26
  If there's a bit of a, you know, if there's something going on behind the scenes I've got to get involved in, well, so be it.
• 6:31
  But I'll try to minimise that as much as I can.
• 6:33
  Cool.
• 6:34
  I think you spoke about this with my colleague, Stefan Bartholomaeus and Andrew Van Leeuwen, just after Sandown.
• 6:41
  It was a big tick for Gen 3 there, wasn't it?
• 6:44
  I mean, lots of people question marked reliability and all sorts of things around these new cars.
• 6:48
  Bathurst is naturally a bigger test, twice the distance.
• 6:51
  Are there things we have to watch out for with these cars this weekend?
• 6:54
  It's an ongoing observation and learning process, but, you know, the world these days, there's so much negativity around.
• 7:02
  There's so many big statements made about all sorts of things.
• 7:05
  And, you know, there were a couple of people come out before sand down and said, oh, half the field aren't going to make it or no cars are going to finish.
• 7:12
  You know, this and that, and look what happens.
• 7:15
  You know, there was a wheel, a wheel come off, but apart from that, it was quite clean.
• 7:20
  So, yeah.
• 7:23
  The cars are good.
• 7:24
  You know, not only they sound good, they look good.
• 7:27
  You know, they're 100 mil lower, they're wide, they're fab.
• 7:29
  The racing's been fantastic.
• 7:31
  We've got to...
• 7:32
  You know, we've got such a good product with these cars.
• 7:37
  Unfortunately, in some regard, you know, some of that shine has been taken off with, you know, just silly statements and the P word, the parody that we've been banging on about.
• 7:48
  But, you know, I can't wait to get behind those things and then just get out there and do what we love doing, and that's racing cars and all trying to get to the finish line before everyone else.
• 7:59
  I'm reluctant to bring that up, but it does sound like there's a team managers meeting actually going to happen up there and Ford looking for a late change.
• 8:07
  How do you feel about that?
• 8:08
  I don't know what you can share at this point.
• 8:10
  Yeah, it's ongoing.
• 8:12
  It's been ongoing for all year.
• 8:15
  We all want to get to the end of it.
• 8:17
  And who knows how long it's going to go for.
• 8:19
  It could go to the end of the year.
• 8:21
  could go on to next year.
• 8:24
  Hey, we could be in this position next year, still be talking about the same thing.
• 8:27
  So there's responsibilities on the homologation teams.
• 8:33
  We've got a huge responsibility to represent the GM brand and make sure that we represent it as well as we possibly can.
• 8:41
  So supercars have been quite transparent.
• 8:44
  They've said, this is the testing we're going to do.
• 8:46
  These are the things we're going to test, present your car,
• 8:50
  to the best of your ability.
• 8:51
  And then if it's not perfect, there's a process after that.
• 8:55
  If you trigger five out of eight races, then it goes into a review process, which is what happened with the Ford.
• 9:02
  Review was done, and they were able to make basically any changes they sort of wanted before we went to Townsville.
• 9:10
  So another trigger hasn't come up yet.
• 9:15
  Yeah.
• 9:16
  I think it's been three trigger, but you need five out of the eight.
• 9:19
  So supercars are following the rule book, which they should, but there's always plenty of smoke in the background.
• 9:28
  Hey, can we talk more broadly about the race for fans here?
• 9:32
  Will it play out differently this year?
• 9:34
  What sort of things can they look forward to that might be slightly different to what we've experienced with the 1,000 in years gone by, do you think?
• 9:41
  Yeah, that's a good question.
• 9:43
  The biggest change is the capacity of the fuel tank.
• 9:46
  The fuel tank is much bigger in these cars.
• 9:48
  So you've basically got so much more petrol than the tyres will last.
• 9:56
  But if you get a safety car quite a long way out, you might see some teams absolutely fill the fuel tank and get to the end and be absolute in struggle street on tyres, and trying to make it to those last 10 or 15 laps.
• 10:08
  So...
• 10:11
  That's the biggest change.
• 10:13
  What that'll do to strategy and how that'll change the race, I'm not sure.
• 10:19
  That's above my pay grade.
• 10:22
  That's on the engineers to work out what's going to happen there.
• 10:25
  But it could play a big influence.
• 10:27
  in the race.
• 10:27
  We've got the soft tyre for the first time at Bathurst.
• 10:30
  Now, while that sounds crazy, because these cars are lighter than the old car, they've got a lot less downforce, therefore you don't put the strain through the tyre as much as what we did.
• 10:42
  in the Gen 2 car.
• 10:43
  So you can run a softer compound to have the same sort of effect.
• 10:48
  So I'm looking forward to driving the car.
• 10:51
  It's going to be almost a bit of old school, back to when we were sliding around all over the place.
• 10:57
  The Coltex, the chase, it hasn't actually been a corner for many, many years, but it might actually be a corner this year.
• 11:04
  We'll be five, six, seven Ks an hour faster down the chute.
• 11:09
  Now with no downforce going through that kink at 300 clicks, I think the car's going to move around a bit.
• 11:15
  So it's going to be interesting.
• 11:18
  Exciting.
• 11:18
  60th is special.
• 11:20
  You've been there for some special iterations over the years.
• 11:24
  Firstly, what sort of memories does it evoke for you?
• 11:27
  And what kind of things will you get to do to soak up this milestone in the lead up to the race?
• 11:32
  What cool things around the event will you do?
• 11:34
  Yeah, no, it is massive.
• 11:35
  The 60th anniversary of the great race.
• 11:39
  How is it?
• 11:39
  Bathurst is Bathurst.
• 11:41
  One, because of the circuit itself.
• 11:42
  It's a top five track in the world.
• 11:45
  The race, 1,000 Ks, six and a half hour of just ringing the neck of these 650 horsepower supercars.
• 11:55
  But the history makes up a big part of what we do.
• 11:57
  It's the same as the Melbourne Cup.
• 12:00
  The race has been on for 60 years.
• 12:03
  The blood, sweat, tears from the guys and girls before us have...
• 12:07
  really make the event so special.
• 12:10
  I was lucky enough to win the 50th anniversary.
• 12:13
  I purchased that car that won the race, the Team Vodafone.
• 12:18
  Commodore and I've actually, I'm bringing it to the racetrack this weekend.
• 12:23
  So Kate will be there this weekend.
• 12:25
  I spent all weekend making sure that she's going to run well.
• 12:30
  Give her a run up, fill her up with petrol, make sure the shock absorbers are right.
• 12:33
  We've got rang up Kevi from Dunlop, got a brand new set of Dunlop tyres for her and we're going to do.
• 12:39
  Excellent.
• 12:54
  The Sunday parade laps are actually now before the start of the race, so it's a little close for me.
• 13:01
  So I gave Paul Dunbarrel the call up.
• 13:03
  I said, mate, you're on.
• 13:05
  So he's going to do the laps on a Sunday morning just before the race in our 2012 winner, so it's going to be special.
• 13:11
  A quick break here on the Motorsport Brief.
• 13:13
  Stick around.
• 13:13
  More with Jamie Wincup in just a few moments.
• 13:19
  You're listening to the Rusty's Garage Shorty, a special Bathurst bonus edition, which we're releasing in the lead-up to the 60th anniversary of the great race this weekend.
• 13:28
  And we have got Jamie Wincup on the line, fittingly, as he drives to Bathurst.
• 13:35
  Shane kind of wasn't completely himself in the lead up to Sandown.
• 13:40
  What's his frame of mind like this weekend?
• 13:42
  And I ask that in a positive way, Jamie.
• 13:45
  Many of us would just love him to finish the full-time chapter and finish the chapter for now at least with Triple Eight with a nice high.
• 13:54
  That would be a wonderful wish this weekend.
• 13:55
  Oh, for sure, for sure.
• 13:56
  No, SVG, he's in a good head place.
• 13:59
  For sure, the lead up to Sandown was difficult.
• 14:02
  He's a driver that goes, he just loves the feel of the car, and it's really important for him to have good feedback.
• 14:08
  And with the Gen 3 car, he's not quite getting the feedback he likes, and hey, we're running through a process, I'm trying to fix it.
• 14:15
  But at the same, while we're doing the parody debate, week in, week out, and trying to get on top of parody, it's, unfortunately, the true cost of that
• 14:24
  is you haven't been able to move the car forward in areas that it needs.
• 14:30
  It needs to evolve.
• 14:31
  No new product is brand new or perfect as it's dropped on the circuits.
• 14:38
  So, yeah, the steering rack is a place where we'd love to keep developing.
• 14:42
  We've already done a couple of days to try to improve it, but it still needs some work.
• 14:46
  But, no, no, SVG, on all the lead-up to Bathurst, he's in a good headspace.
• 14:51
  We all just want him to have a fantastic run
• 14:54
  a fantastic end to what's been his supercar career.
• 14:58
  It's an amazing supercar career.
• 15:00
  And then we wish him all the best and we're all going to be cheering him on when he goes to the US next year.
• 15:05
  Agreed.
• 15:06
  Does the schedule, it's going to be busy for him next year, does it look like it'll lend itself to getting him back for the Enduros with you guys?
• 15:13
  I certainly hope so.
• 15:14
  You know, I've said to him, mate, we'd love to have you back for both Sandown and Bathurst or whatever the 500 is going to be.
• 15:22
  So we'd love to have him back.
• 15:23
  He's more than welcome.
• 15:24
  It's just going to come down to his schedule.
• 15:26
  And if he can make it fit, I'm sure he's keen to come back.
• 15:29
  But that's a bit of a TBC watcher space for now.
• 15:34
  Cool.
• 15:35
  Richie is off elsewhere.
• 15:36
  He's off to your rivals at Grove next year.
• 15:39
  Are you kind of sad to lose him?
• 15:40
  He seems really reinvigorated.
• 15:42
  And at the same time, you've got to let him off the leash, but also, you know, not let him take too much stock in the brain bank away either, I suppose, do you?
• 15:52
  Yeah, no, Richie did a great job at Sandown, another good Kiwi driver from your neck of the woods.
• 15:57
  Yeah, it's going to be sad to miss him, but that's what we do at Triple Eight.
• 16:02
  Himself, Declan Fraser, we just try to bring new blood in.
• 16:06
  And, you know, Richie was on the stockpile.
• 16:09
  He was known as a guy that's been given an opportunity and didn't make the most of it.
• 16:13
  So to bring him back out of semi-retirement and give him a seat and get him back into full-time driving, that's something that we're all pretty proud of.
• 16:22
  You must be enthused after the 500.
• 16:24
  I guess you'll sit down after Bathurst and re-evaluate it all, but are you pretty confident you'll go around again in the co-driver's seat next year?
• 16:31
  I'll make that call after Bathurst.
• 16:34
  So after this weekend, I'll decide what performance I'll put in and decide whether I'm going to go on for 2024.
• 16:40
  But it's an unselfish decision for me.
• 16:42
  I'm managing director, so I want the best for the team.
• 16:45
  If there's somebody that I think can do a better job as a co-driver, I'll certainly put them in.
• 16:51
  At the moment, hopefully I'm the best person for the job this year.
• 16:55
  And, hey, I love driving.
• 16:58
  I've driven my whole life.
• 16:59
  Since I was seven years old, I've been driving a Go-Kart or a Formula Ford or a supercar.
• 17:04
  So I'd love to go around again.
• 17:06
  But as I say, it's going to be an unselfish decision.
• 17:09
  What is it about Craig Lowndes?
• 17:11
  I mean, the performance we saw at Sandown, that kind of just vindicates the decision to extend the whole wildcard program with him, doesn't it?
• 17:18
  Yeah, what a legend, Craig Lowndes.
• 17:21
  He's getting in the late 40s now and he's just, he always comes good at these long races in this season of endurance.
• 17:27
  So, did a cracking job at Sandown.
• 17:30
  We know how strong Lowndes he is at Bathurst and certainly in those last couple of stints.
• 17:35
  he's in a good headspace.
• 17:37
  He looks like he's enjoying his motorsport more than he ever has.
• 17:41
  Teaming up with a young fella in Zane Goddard, I think.
• 17:46
  Those guys, 10th at Sandown, they're in for a shot.
• 17:50
  If the cards fall their way, they can certainly do some damage and be right up the front there.
• 17:55
  So looking forward to seeing how they go.
• 17:57
  to finish, the magnitude of this event is huge because of the milestone, naturally, and because of Bathurst, as you rightly point out before.
• 18:05
  What would it mean to you guys to win the 60th, first for Gen 3, and where does that kind of sit in the whole realm of goals that the team set out to hopefully achieve when we started 2023?
• 18:17
  Yeah, whoever stands on the top step of the podium...
• 18:20
  this weekend, it's going to be absolutely massive.
• 18:23
  As you say, the 60th anniversary, first year of Gen 3, it's a huge, huge thing and something that everyone wants to do.
• 18:33
  Of course, we're one in 25 cars or 26, I don't know how many wild cards there are, but we feel like we've got the tools, we've got the people, we've got everything.
• 18:44
  in place to do the job but it's um it's a hard race to win and an easy race to lose so we'll put our head down hopefully we're in contention we're not worrying about the result we're just worrying about what what we can do and the performance um and we just we're focused on trying to put in our best performance we can and play our role and um hopefully we're there at the end of the day
• 19:04
  Good stuff.
• 19:04
  We wish you guys well.
• 19:05
  It's been great to talk to you on the road to the mountain.
• 19:08
  Back in the day, I can remember you spinning the disc, JW, you in charge of music on this road trip and what is on the playlist.
• 19:16
  I am actually.
• 19:16
  I'm under pressure.
• 19:17
  As soon as I hang up here, I'm going to have to get the Spotify playlist going.
• 19:22
  Wish me luck.
• 19:24
  There you go.
• 19:25
  An ep of the garage recorded while the guest, J-Dub, was in the passenger seat of a car.
• 19:30
  That will not be the last time we do an episode like that.
• 19:33
  Before we go, a couple of other pieces of news that caught our attention.
• 19:36
  Make sure you find Andy Raymond's tip of the hat.
• 19:40
  his late legendary dad the v8 sleuth for example has shared it on their facebook the youtube clip is of andy doing an alliteration filled retro style bathys preview just like mike raymond used to do it is a must watch or must listen ahead of the weekend
• 19:58
  Lots of cool helmet schemes and Bathurst special liveries around.
• 20:01
  Blanchard Racing Team has clearly taken inspiration from the Mercedes-AMG F1 team with a shared sponsor and colours for Jake Kostecki and Aaron Love's wildcard there.
• 20:13
  Didn't mention Super 2 in Monday's shortcast, but the second tier of the sport should be unmissable racing this weekend as well, with lots of young stars determined to make an impression at the biggest event of the year –
• 20:26
  Young Kiwi Ryan Wood was brilliant at Sandown and underscored the faith that Walkinshaw and Dreddy United has placed in him with that big promotion to the main game next year alongside Chas Mostert.
• 20:39
  Zach Best is top of the points coming in by 33 from Kai Allen, who's teaming up with Simona Di Silvestro, as you know, for the big race.
• 20:48
  Wood is third on the ladder but determined to fight for the title even though the step up is already guaranteed.
• 20:55
  Speaking of Andretti, Andretti Formula Racing has been given the tick to go to the next stage of the process as it seeks to secure an entry to Formula One.
• 21:05
  The governing body, the FIA, seems happy, but now they need a commercial agreement with Formula One management.
• 21:12
  And as you know, the sport is in an incredibly healthy place right now, so lots for them to consider in this before...
• 21:19
  potentially Andretti grids up in 2025 at the earliest.
• 21:24
  And congrats to Tom Sargent and McIlray Racing for their efforts at Laguna Seca in Porsche Carrera Cup North America.
• 21:31
  A win in race one, a third in race two.
• 21:34
  Tom is the first Aussie to score a win in the series which supported the prestigious...
• 21:40
  Porsche Rensport reunion.
• 21:42
  That's a big thing for McElroy Racing as well.
• 21:45
  Well done to everybody involved there.
• 21:47
  That is it for this edition.
• 21:48
  Hope you enjoyed hearing from Jamie Winkup.
• 21:51
  If you are driving to Bathurst, please be safe on the roads.
• 21:54
  Have an awesome week up there and if you're not heading to the mountain, enjoy the coverage.
• 21:59
  We'll be glued to it.
• 22:00
  Bye for now everybody.