Latest / Full Credit to the Noise / Darwin Triple Crown daily: Saturday
Transcript
- Speedcafe Team: Hello and welcome to the Saturday edition of our daily podcast from the 2026 Better Darwin Triple Crown. I'm Andrew Van Leuren and I'm joined by Speed Cafe's managing editor, Stefan Bartholomeyus. Stefan, that was a more Darwin day of the track in terms of the weather at least. The ⁓ the clouds and the cool weather gone. We were back to some pretty warm conditions out there. Very warm, especially ⁓ for those who are either suffering from an illness or without a cool suit, which I'm sure we'll get to a bit later on. But ⁓ certainly a dramatic sort of day with plenty of storylines. Yeah. Other than the fact that a bloke won by eight or nine seconds. Yes. yeah, let let's have a bit of a chat about that. Obviously Kai Allen won the race from Cam Waters and Brody Kastecki, that's a second career win. For Kai. ⁓ for you, is that a better drive than the one in Christchurch? Incredibly different. Like he delivered that win, that first win in Christchurch under immense pressure from Brody Kastecki, but you know, that was because he wasn't the fastest car on the track in the closing stages of that race. In this case, it was just controlled speed like dominance from him. What do you reckon? Well, I mean, it's it's hard to compare because they were such different. different races, I mean that in Rapuna to to hold off Brody. That was pretty special. Today everything just really fell his way. Obviously it was really under underlined by the fact he had such good pace. But when you look at it, he starts fifth, Chaz wobbles off in front of him on ⁓ on his teammates fluid, and then Kai overcuts Brody in the first stops in the middle stint, then his teammate Matt Payne lets him through. Yep. Cam Waters then actually makes a mistake and wobbles off in front of him to hand him in the lead. He then makes his second stop and doesn't lose anything, even though he supposedly short filled the first stop. Yeah. And then he just drives off into the distance. Yeah. How easy is that? Yeah, it does sound incredibly easy. He talked a bit about the fuel saving stuff in the press conference that came up. ⁓ and he sort of talked about the fact that it was kind of enforced for fuel saving in the first stint just because of the fact that ⁓ that he was sort of in traffic and and and that sort of stuff. So it was just the pace of the race sort of dictated that he was fuel saving and then when he needed to go, he could really go. I actually asked him in the presser how the two wins stack up for him given how different the circumstances ⁓ were and he he basically said, Look, your first win is your first win. Like that's always going to be a tough one to beat, I guess until you get to a point where you're winning Bathus one thousand or winning a race to win a championship or something. So he said, Look, the first one, ⁓ tough to ⁓ to top. He said, But today was really good fun because he could actually really enjoy it. Because in the closing stages of that Christchurch race, there was no soaking in the fact that he was about to win a race. It was all about holding off Brody Kastecki. ⁓ and in this case, the last f you know, he was so far down the road he could actually enjoy it. So, ⁓ yeah, he said they were They were both very enjoyable but ⁓ but quite different. ⁓ it is hugely impressive how much he's come on in a year because this was the real turning point almost, yeah. Yeah. And now he's had five races in Darwin in his career and he's been on the podium in four of them. Yeah, and won one of them. Like it's ⁓ yeah, he he really is a special talent, isn't he? Like we we're really seeing that now. Yeah, and ⁓ he's really putting the pressure on Matt Payne. Yeah. ⁓ even though like you can see they actually work really well together. You can see it on the track and that was one thing from today that Matt actually said that he was the one that volunteered to let Kai go because of where they were in their respective races in that. But ⁓ it's certainly keeping Matt honest ⁓ with Kai being so fast. Yeah. ⁓ second was Cam Waters backs up a a good Friday for him with that drought breaking race win. He kind of said after the race that he didn't quite have the car under him today. So to end up with some silverware is is a pretty good outcome. ⁓ but he also talked about the fact he was obviously under immense pressure from Brody towards the end of that race as well, and talked about the fact that you know, thank God Brody was crooked because that might have been the difference between being second ⁓ second or third. And Brody certainly was crooked. You could see that as he sort of had to be helped out of the car at the end of the race in that sort of post race park firme area for the top three. he was He got out of the car, he was sitting down straight away. ⁓ by the time they got to doing the T V interviews, he'd been put in a in a medical car and and whisked off to the to the medical center where ⁓ we believe he was on a drip to to top up his fluids ⁓ and to cool him down and and get him up and going again. He has since been released. There's a fair bit of confidence around the team that there's no real issues in terms of him getting back in the car tomorrow. But th there was this ⁓ there was an issue with his ⁓ drink system. So team manager Tom Moore said that it wasn't a car related issue because when they tested it after the race, it could squirt water out of the hose. So there must be something in his cheek pad in his helmet that's blocking ⁓ the drink straw, and he's not Tom said he wasn't getting ⁓ it wasn't working as well as they'd like. So I don't know if that means it wasn't working at all or whether he was getting a little bit of fluid, but basically, from what Tom was saying, that's not why he ended up in such a bad way. It's because he has come into the weekend carrying This virus. ⁓ it's something that's been managed all day. ⁓ he met with Dr. Carl first thing this morning ⁓ to be kind of cleared to to get on and race for the day. Tom talked about the fact they were dragging him out of a dark room in the truck basically. He wasn't really interacting with anyone during the day. ⁓ so you know, to go and finish that race third, two hundred kilometres in those tough conditions, with that drink straw issue. He did have a working cool suit and helmet fan. That's pretty ⁓ pretty gutsy stuff. Yeah, incredible effort ⁓ all round from him. The other one that was in trouble was Thomas Randall, who didn't have a cool suit from the start of the race. I cannot imagine what that would feel like lining up on the grid knowing that you're about to drive into this hell. You spoke to him afterwards. Yeah, he was he was definitely even talking to him. Like ⁓ we both know Tommy really, really well. He was certainly a bit out of sorts, like it was it hit him pretty hard. ⁓ he said that you know, as they as they pulled out out of the you know, out of the garage to go to the grid. ⁓ and then on the warm-up lap he could just feel that something wasn't right with the cool suit. And he said he looked over on the warm-up lap and there was water in the in the ⁓ in the sort of the the the foot tray or the floor tray on the on the passenger side of the car and he knew he was in a fair bit of strife at that point. ⁓ he was running the visor up to try and keep air going. ⁓ he said the pit stops were really hard because you just don't have any airflow in the car. He went through his drink bottle really quickly, obviously just trying to take on as as much fluid as possible. But yeah, he he talked about it being an incredibly difficult experience and he kinda got I don't know whether whether you want to class this as lucky or unlucky, but we've obviously got these revised driver welfare rules that came into play this weekend where if the ambient's over thirty two point nine, ⁓ if you have a working cool suit you're black flagged. You have to you you're out of the race. ⁓ the ambient peaked at thirty two today. So the rule wasn't enacted. So he I mean, he didn't have to suffer through it. You've always got the option of not of stopping. But drivers just don't do that. They they do fight on as hard as they absolutely can. And so he was just left in this position where, you know, from his perspective, he just had to keep going. So ⁓ he kind of said afterwards, he said, It looks bad on paper going from ⁓ eighth on the grid to twelfth at the finish, but like it that was actually a pretty good effort as well from Tommy. But Yeah, he couldn't walk when he got out of the car. He had to just lay down on the ground. Again, went to the medical centre. He didn't go on a on a drip, but ⁓ talks about having to ⁓ have ice in his groin and armpits, which doesn't sound like an overly pleasant experience on its own, to be honest. But yeah, he was definitely ⁓ he was definitely at a sword soul, Tommy, after that ordeal. It is somewhat ironic that this has happened ⁓ straight after this new the revision of the rule has has come in and there's been so much focus on it. And it's I believe it's actually like the predicted maximum. So at eight AM they look at the bomb and if it's predicted to be over thirty two point nine, then it it's inactive. ⁓ but it's one of those ones that's like, well today's what is the point of having the rule if it that can't protect you today? Yeah, this was the situation it was meant to protect the drivers from and it didn't. And I did think that leading into the weekend like Pretty much every day here's either thirty two or thirty three at this time of year. Just make it a blanket. Just make it a blanket. So I had the I had the same thought ⁓ when I was talking to Tommy. I thought what is the point of this rule if it doesn't work today? If it's not applicable to today, it doesn't make a great deal of sense. Yeah, and I think they can pull someone from the track if they think they are in in danger or in danger to others or yeah exactly which can come from like carbon monoxide fumes or anything like not necessarily a cool suit failure. Yeah. ⁓ and the only one that I actually remember seeing is Cam Waters got pulled from an Adelaide five hundred race like six or seven years ago when he didn't have things working. Like this rule wasn't actually in place. But ⁓ Yeah, it's ⁓ it's not really ⁓ done its job today, I don't think. Yeah. Anyway, Tommy was pretty confident he will be right tomorrow as well. He was sort of starting to come good and had his body back to a ⁓ to a more ⁓ healthy temperature and all that sort of stuff. ⁓ Cam Waters did get a flag today. He got a bad sportsmanship flag for weaving under brakes. What what exactly did they did they say it was for? Effectively he came out of the pits, he was weaving to warm his tires a bit and then realised Matt Payne was coming screeching down the inside and he just went to cover ⁓ Matt into the corner. Matt said it was incredibly dangerous or words to those effect. and Cam seemed completely bemused at the fact that he got a bad sportsmanship flag. So the exact reaction you would expect from both sides. Yeah, moving under brakes is what I'd written in my race notes. So would think that that's the that that was the official term behind the bad sportsmanship flag, although it took them twelve laps for them to issue that. Yeah. Not quite sure why it takes so long for them to see it and then decide whether it's bad sportsmanship or not. Yeah. But yeah, it's it looked a lot worse from the Matt Payne on board than from the external shot. The external shot looked pretty dicey, but when you actually look at it from Matt's point of view, it's like what is he meant to do here? You've Gotta pick a direction at some point. And it is the the weaving for the tire warm up that really causes it. It's like following a fish. He's just like going this way and that way. His his overall arc was kind of towards the inside, but the fact that he's yeah, he's jinking the car left and right actually was flat out dangerous in that circumstance. Cam certainly didn't think so. It was ⁓ again it was put to him what ⁓ Matt had said about it being dangerous, and he said, Well, of course Matt would Find it dangerous. I'm sure he was saying it was very dangerous and Cam delivered that with a healthy ⁓ dose of sarcasm or cynicism or maybe a mix of both of those things. ⁓ and I did speak to Matt about it and he wasn't fired up or angry, but he just talked through exactly basically what we could see on the T V. Yeah. And said it felt like ⁓ I had to commit one way and I committed to the inside and then he's moved after that, which is not the order that that should should happen in. But ⁓ I also put it to him that like he was Matt was quite kind 'cause he could have actually initiated the contact and and potentially gotten away with sending him at least a bit wide because of the whole situation. He just said, Well, you can't risk a penalty by doing that in that situation. Yeah. Yep, that makes sense. ⁓ interesting race for the Walkenshaw outfit for Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostit. Ryan Wood had a power steering failure, which put him out of the race. ⁓ and in the process of that, he left a heap of power steering failure. fluid on the track, which Chaz Mostett managed to find and spear off the road while running quite close to the front at that point. I can't remember the exact position he was in. I think it was fourth. Yeah. ⁓ so that put him obviously a long way back in the field, but there was some speed in that Optus Toyota because he ended up back up in sixth place. So that's that's a that's a heck of a recovery. Yeah, and Chaz was quite ⁓ sort buoyant afterwards because of the pace and ⁓ I think he described it as one of the best cars he'd ever had, certainly in this Gen 3 era anyway. but yeah the the Walkenshaw guys were still trying to work out exactly what had happened and why on Woody's thing, because he's had some contact with Declan Fraser and it's knocked the power steering belt off, which has taken the pulley off the water pump as well. So it's ended up actually overheating ⁓ and spearing him off the road when it dropped its fluid. Yeah. So ⁓ it didn't actually lose its oil pressure. So they're hoping the engine will be okay even though it got quite hot. But ⁓ yeah, a bit too unpacked for those guys. Well I think they are doing an engine change on that car ⁓ as we ⁓ as we speak, which probably makes sense here in particular given the strain engines are under temperature wise and and all that sort of stuff. ⁓ another driver that had to put in a bit of a recovery drive today. Was Anton Di Pasquale. It was a classic hero to zero effort from ⁓ from team eighteen today. ⁓ and sort of back to hero again in the end, I suppose. But you know, they they looked so strong yesterday, and we kind of expected them to in Darwin. ⁓ with Anton on the on the front row of the grid, and then today he's knocked out in Q1. And David Reynolds didn't go much further. ⁓ and yeah, they went from having two cars starting in the top ten to having two cars. effectively in the back end of the back half of the field. Yeah, and obviously a different tire today than yesterday they're on the super soft and clearly they just they just missed it. ⁓ Anton said in that qualifying it felt like he was on a wet. Which is ⁓ not what you want. ⁓ and again just going back I guess to to Camp Waters briefly, I think that's what was impressive about Tickford's day is that yesterday it was this breakthrough of him qualifying near the front again. They'd managed to find a a setup that That worked in qualifying as well as in the race, and today on a different tyre in in quite different conditions, he was up there again. So yeah, the the the tire variable was a big one that ⁓ it was impressive anyone who was fast on both days. Cam did say that he still feels more comfortable on the soft, which could be an ominous sign heading into tomorrow when we're back on that when we're back on that tire. But that was a good drive in the race by by Anton to to make those spots back and at least salvage something from it with the what was an eighth place finish. Yeah, and I think he had ⁓ some issues with overheating. He it was ⁓ getting quite hot in the footwell of that car too, so it wasn't too comfortable for him towards the end. what else did you want to talk about? The T V. What what have you made of the T V production? This is the first of the hub production where a lot of the crew aren't on site. They're back in Sydney producing this. Has anything caught your eye over the last couple days? Well, I'm glad that we had the ⁓ the timing totem up all day today 'cause when they had to film a ⁓ timing screen and split screen it yesterday, that wasn't ideal. I guess the main T V point for me today was the addition of JC, I think is really good in the in the longer races to have three voices in the box. And that dynamic with James and Garth is kind of fun as well. And at one point today James asked Garth for his view on something as a Grove man. Yeah. And Garth quite boldly said, I'm not a Grove man anymore, despite having a paid advisory position with that team. So I think sometimes you've got to own those ones. Yeah. But it's a it's a fun dynamic in there. and then I guess the other thing that a few people pointed out to us was ⁓ some of the unfortunate directing of things where y you wanna see what's going on and they cut to a replay or something like this. There was a bit of clunkiness in it. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, should we leave it there? We should. That will do us for the Saturday edition of our daily pod. Good timing too, because someone is extracting a frozen pizza out of the ⁓ out of the oven in the background. ⁓ so that's a good time but stop. Make sure you do stay tuned to speedcafe.com all day. Tomorrow we'll have all of the race reports, session reports, reaction, breaking news, all that kind of stuff. And we'll be back in this podcast feed tomorrow night with the Sunday edition of the daily podcast.