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Transcript

Brad Jones (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:20
  All set for part two of a very special edition of The Garage with Supercars team owner, Brad Jones.
• 0:27
  By popular demand, we have been to the workshop to record this one, all with thanks to our partner, Pizza Hut.
• 0:34
  Now, if you've somehow...
• 0:34
  arrived here and missed part one, jump back to the library and give it a listen.
• 0:39
  There are some fabulous yarns in there, from the racing legends that used to come round for a feed after the races when he was younger, the hard yards in trying to stitch together a race program as he climbed the ladder with brother Kim, life lessons around business and money, the guidance of people like Kevin Bartlett, racing the Mitsubishi Starian, and much more.
• 1:01
  Brad has always enjoyed a chat and I've only ever known him to be incredibly engaging.
• 1:06
  For some reason, this chat is even more so.
• 1:09
  I'm grateful that we can help share a terrific racing story with lots of twists and turns about a bloke who isn't afraid to give it a go when most of us couldn't see a way to make it fly.
• 1:21
  And he is still there, immersed in the business he loves today.
• 1:25
  We begin part two with a couple of recollections of the great Barry Sheen
• 1:29
  and that time that he tested the broxy era, a yarn our mate Baz didn't like to talk about too much.
• 1:38
  The thing about Brock is he's got so much star power, he tracks people.
• 1:41
  I remember we went down before the Celebrity Grand Prix and drove Glenn Wheatley and John Farnham some training.
• 1:48
  And that's the power of Brock.
• 1:50
  You know, they'd ring him up.
• 1:52
  And so Brock quickly worked out that Wheatley had more of a chance to win than John Farnham.
• 1:57
  So he jumped in with Wheatley and gave me John Farnham.
• 2:01
  And so, you know, all those amazing people would bob up on Brock's radar and for him it was an everyday current.
• 2:08
  So then Baz, who's very personable, you know, we knew he'd done some racing and either he or either Brock or Gow decided it was a good idea to put him in my car to do some laps at Winton and he poked it into the wall and broke his rib and damaged the car and so I had to miss a round of the championship, which Gow docked me for, I might add.
• 2:27
  So...
• 2:29
  But I got him.
• 2:29
  I invoiced him a bit later in the year twice.
• 2:37
  But Baz was a great guy.
• 2:39
  And funny, that day, we built a bit of a relationship and I went to a couple of rock concerts with him and stuff.
• 2:46
  So well connected.
• 2:47
  Yeah.
• 2:48
  Honestly, we went to Phil Collins.
• 2:50
  I was in Queensland and Baz was like, oh, what are you doing?
• 2:54
  And I said, oh, not much.
• 2:55
  He goes, you want to come to Phil Collins?
• 2:56
  I went, no.
• 2:57
  Yeah, sure.
• 2:59
  So, you know, we get there and the lady's like, I hear your tickets.
• 3:03
  And Baz looks at them and, you know, he couldn't offend anyone really unless he wanted to.
• 3:07
  And he's like, oh, dear.
• 3:09
  These are not good tickets, are they?
• 3:11
  I said, could you just grab the manager for me?
• 3:13
  I think there's been a mistake.
• 3:15
  And so I'm like, what are you doing?
• 3:17
  He goes, these are shit tickets.
• 3:19
  We'll get some better ones.
• 3:20
  Just hang on.
• 3:22
  So the manager comes out and he goes, hi.
• 3:23
  He said, I'm Barry.
• 3:24
  Oh, no, no, you are.
• 3:25
  He goes, oh, I think there's been a bit of a mistake with our tickets.
• 3:27
  He goes, oh, what are you doing sitting there?
• 3:29
  He said, pfft.
• 3:30
  Leave it to me So you know We were right in the front Then he goes Look If you've got time Phil and the boys Would like to meet you So you know We're backstage With Phil Collins And the band And they're all Getting their photos Taken with Baz And he was getting His pictures with babies And then When we went To sit in the seats I said to him What just happened Baz?
• 3:52
  Um, they, they all think you're the star.
• 3:56
  And he goes, well, you know, in the UK, um, they did a survey and like one in four people know who I am or one in seven or something.
• 4:02
  I had a television show and you know, rattle through all this stuff.
• 4:05
  He said, matter of fact, he was amazing guy.
• 4:07
  Yep.
• 4:08
  And so, yeah, he said, yeah, pity he didn't come to the Rolling Stones concert.
• 4:11
  That was even better.
• 4:13
  So, yeah, he was a funny guy.
• 4:16
  But he did damage the Sierra.
• 4:18
  What were the Sierras like to drive and did you enjoy them?
• 4:21
  And, you know, interesting enough.
• 4:22
  Go.
• 4:23
  They put Lyco in the car with me, or they were going to, and I forget, something happened, and then Radisic got involved.
• 4:31
  But, you know, it's funny how you come across those people all the way through your life, and then Paul and I drove together at Bathurst.
• 4:39
  You brought up celebrity races.
• 4:42
  A gentleman by the name of Neil Crompton, who may or may not be in Indianapolis, has texted me and said to ask you about the suits that you fixed us up with when you trained some of the girls at the Australian Grand Prix.
• 4:53
  What happened that year?
• 4:54
  What did you do?
• 4:55
  Well, it was always interesting training the celebrities.
• 5:00
  And so, but we needed suits to wear out to a function with the, you know, with the... Post-event stuff.
• 5:10
  No, just they had the government...
• 5:12
  and they're like, you've got to wear a suit.
• 5:13
  And I'm like, you've got to be kidding.
• 5:15
  Where am I going to get a suit from?
• 5:16
  So we went to a friend of mine who sold suits in Adelaide and then we got exactly the same suit but slightly shade difference.
• 5:24
  So we looked like the Bobsy twins.
• 5:27
  One was like green and one was blue, but they were a bluey green and a greeny blue.
• 5:32
  So we looked...
• 5:34
  Like twins.
• 5:35
  Yeah, yeah.
• 5:36
  But, you know, he and I would – I mean, he was always very – you know, Neil was always – he'd do the chat and then he'd run them through all the flags and very thorough, you know.
• 5:46
  And I can remember there was – I won't tell you who it was, but there was one lady there and she couldn't tell the difference between any of the flags.
• 5:54
  And so Neil's railed through every flag, including the Union Jack.
• 5:57
  Yeah.
• 6:00
  that you use on a race meeting.
• 6:02
  And I'm like, are you kidding me?
• 6:04
  So we stood there for like 30 minutes.
• 6:08
  She played a flute, this woman.
• 6:09
  Anyway, in the end, I walked up and I said to her, only flag you need to pay attention to is this one, the yellow flag.
• 6:18
  If this is waived, slow down.
• 6:19
  And the blue flag, if that's waived, get out of the way.
• 6:23
  Ignore the rest, which imagine Crompton.
• 6:25
  He's like, no, no, no.
• 6:27
  So, yeah, but it worked really well.
• 6:28
  The two of us are very, you know, different, but we fit each other really well.
• 6:32
  You are the odd couple.
• 6:33
  I mean, you talk about sharing a room and stuff before, and you've done some trips together to places like Williams and things like that, haven't you?
• 6:40
  Share that, share that now.
• 6:42
  Oh, well, you know, we were at Gow's and Gow's office was in a castle.
• 6:46
  And so they want us to get changed.
• 6:49
  And so Neil being Neil drags his bag, which weighs a ton, up all these flights of stairs in a castle, little, little, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong.
• 6:57
  And I'm like, I'm not doing that.
• 6:58
  So I just went out in the car park and got changed on the grass.
• 7:02
  And so, you know, which horrified Gow and Crompton.
• 7:06
  And so I'm standing there.
• 7:08
  And the springless system would come on, put my bag back in the car, but I left my briefcase on the grass.
• 7:15
  And so Neil gets in the car, so we're going over to meet Frank Williams and have a look around Williams Engineering.
• 7:20
  So I pick up my briefcase and Neil's got on some, you know, like chinos that are almost white.
• 7:26
  You know, they're sort of like – Perfectly creased.
• 7:27
  Yeah, yeah, perfectly creased.
• 7:29
  And I picked up my briefcase off the wet grass and sat it on his knees and gone, just move that to the other side of the car.
• 7:34
  So then when he's lifted it off, it's like mud.
• 7:38
  He's like, oh, my God.
• 7:40
  And I'm like, are you kidding me?
• 7:41
  What, you think Frank Williams is going to go, wow, you look talented.
• 7:44
  I'm going to put you in a Formula One car.
• 7:46
  No one gives a shit if you've got mud on your pants and the off.
• 7:48
  Just get over it.
• 7:49
  So then we go over and we do the tour of Williams and we have a look around and then we get right to the end and we're thinking we're going to meet Frank Williams.
• 7:57
  And so someone comes down and goes, okay, Frank's able to see you now.
• 8:02
  And so we leap out of the chair and he goes, not you two, just Alan.
• 8:09
  And left us in the foyer.
• 8:12
  So that was a crazy trip.
• 8:14
  We went through the Donington Museum and there was like no one in there.
• 8:18
  And I'm jumping over the banners, you know, don't get on the other side of the banner, don't touch the cars.
• 8:25
  And I'm climbing in and out of centre's McLaren and, you know, and Neil's standing there going, get out of that car.
• 8:32
  Get out.
• 8:32
  Can you not read the sign?
• 8:33
  I said, what are they going to do?
• 8:34
  Kick me out?
• 8:35
  Who cares?
• 8:36
  Here, take a picture of me.
• 8:37
  I'm not taking a picture.
• 8:38
  You're not allowed to sit in that car.
• 8:40
  So I'd get out of Senna's car and we'd go and look at something of Prost had, you know, because he would not take a photo.
• 8:46
  In the end, Alan Jones' old Formula One car was there.
• 8:50
  The Lola.
• 8:51
  And so I was a little worried it might bite me, actually.
• 8:54
  And so...
• 8:56
  he wouldn't take a picture of me in it so we got the janitor to take a picture of the two of us standing beside it so that's that's his but i he had all these great photo opportunities you know uh there's a speedway bike there was all plated with gold a new zealand guy had won the world championship what was his name is it ivan i've been major maybe yeah yeah yeah he is and and so i jumped on that you know get off it yeah so so yeah he wasn't that much fun to travel with
• 9:22
  As mates, you've been involved on the business side with supercars and things like that.
• 9:27
  Do you argue the pair of you?
• 9:29
  What are you like?
• 9:30
  Do you have the same sort of common wants for the game?
• 9:35
  We don't argue much.
• 9:37
  I mean, not everyone has the odd argument.
• 9:39
  And so sometimes we have a difference of opinion.
• 9:41
  But...
• 9:43
  Honestly, we're such close friends.
• 9:45
  We hardly ever have a crossword, really crossword.
• 9:48
  I'm sure I frustrate him.
• 9:50
  You know, you've been on doing radio shows with the two of us, you know, understand he turns up with, you know, a pad and notes and it's a second-by-second run-through.
• 9:59
  And if I'm interviewing someone and I'm enjoying it, I don't stop.
• 10:02
  So, which frustrates him and so he's...
• 10:05
  We're just very different people, but we fit nicely together.
• 10:08
  And so, and we can see the same common goal in all honesty.
• 10:13
  And yeah, he's one of my very dearest friends and we've had an amazing life together.
• 10:21
  The Oscar and NASCAR chapter is a special one that fans love.
• 10:26
  The foray into that, you talked about the prize money being quite a lure before as well.
• 10:30
  But, I mean, you were green in terms of that sort of style of racing and speedway and what have you, weren't you?
• 10:37
  Oh, absolutely.
• 10:38
  We had no idea.
• 10:39
  I mean, we bought the car from a guy in Sydney.
• 10:41
  It was an automatic Commodore, even had an automatic crossmember.
• 10:46
  When we got down to Brock's, we went to put the engine in an arch builder, so it wouldn't fit.
• 10:51
  It had the wrong crossmember.
• 10:52
  The good thing about being at Brock's...
• 10:54
  Brock's joint was there was still plenty of holding stuff laying around.
• 10:58
  And so in the middle of the night, you walk around with a torch and it'd be like, I wonder if this cross member would fit in the car.
• 11:04
  So we'd just make a note and I'd put it in the car and then, you know, say to Brock in the morning, hey, I found this old, where'd you find it?
• 11:10
  Out the back there.
• 11:10
  Oh, it's rubbish.
• 11:12
  And I was like, not anymore.
• 11:13
  So we had no idea what we were doing.
• 11:15
  So we...
• 11:19
  We built the car and we turned it out, went out to Calderon.
• 11:21
  We didn't have any time to practice.
• 11:23
  And so Brock was out there.
• 11:24
  I think he was driving the Falcon Oscar.
• 11:26
  And Phil Brock, his brother, he kept his car Birdie Street.
• 11:30
  It was parked just opposite where the garages were, you know, where you worked on the car.
• 11:35
  And Brock let us work there all night, all day, all night to get the car.
• 11:39
  And so we only just got there, missed all practice, turned up for qualifying.
• 11:43
  And I remember I was walking down the lane there at Pit Lane at the Thunderdome and I was with the two Brocks and Pin said, well, this is going to be a bit daunting for you.
• 11:55
  And I said, oh, yeah.
• 11:57
  And he goes, never driven around here?
• 11:59
  I said, not in a race car.
• 12:00
  And he goes, hmm, I've got no idea what you're doing.
• 12:03
  You've got no idea what your setup is.
• 12:05
  You've just got no idea really.
• 12:07
  And I said, well, I know my tyre pressures are right.
• 12:10
  And he goes, your tyre pressures are right, are they?
• 12:13
  And I said, yeah, I think my tyre pressures are right.
• 12:16
  And he goes, how would you know that?
• 12:18
  And I said, because I checked yours on the trailer before we loaded our car up.
• 12:23
  And so I put them in my car, which made Brock...
• 12:26
  Pee in pants.
• 12:27
  He was pissing himself laughing.
• 12:29
  He thought that was hilarious.
• 12:30
  And Phil was a bit – he didn't think it was funny as Brock and I did.
• 12:36
  But, you know, then away we went.
• 12:38
  And then the first race meeting, I think we finished 13th or something, but we came into a pit stop and all my mates were the crew.
• 12:46
  So, you know, Kim and I and Dove and Grubb and we'd all build the car, I painted the car.
• 12:53
  And Kim built it.
• 12:54
  And then one of my schoolhood friends.
• 12:59
  Childhood mates.
• 13:00
  Childhood mates helped.
• 13:02
  And he was Colin Duddridge.
• 13:03
  He was on the jack.
• 13:03
  And so he's a tree lopper.
• 13:06
  He's a solid guy.
• 13:06
  And we had like the trolley jack from my panel shop.
• 13:09
  So it's a cast iron trolley jack.
• 13:12
  And so he said, if I'm going to cart this thing over here this many times, the next one you'll get another trolley jack.
• 13:17
  Those aluminum things.
• 13:19
  But we were jacking the car up under the front cross member and under the diff.
• 13:23
  Not under the sides.
• 13:24
  Not under the sides because we didn't know you had to jack it up under the sides.
• 13:27
  So when we came in to do pit stop, and I remember Brendan Jones, who was in race control, came down and went, what are you cowboys doing?
• 13:35
  So I was like, we hadn't even seen the NASCAR race on television.
• 13:37
  We had no idea.
• 13:39
  So then the next race, we had no sponsors, so we did that race.
• 13:45
  And Bob Jane had said that he would sponsor us, and he got Alan Mance to sponsor us.
• 13:52
  And so we struck a deal and we painted orange, put Alan Mance on it, Bob Jane team arts, and then we won.
• 13:58
  That was a Christmas race.
• 13:59
  That was my second race, and we won that.
• 14:01
  And in those days, it paid $30,000 if you could win three races in a row.
• 14:06
  And then we turned up in January and we won that.
• 14:10
  And we thought, wow, this is good.
• 14:12
  We're going to pick up 30K here.
• 14:15
  And then they changed the rule to say you had to win three in a season.
• 14:19
  You know, so we won the next one.
• 14:21
  So that's two in the season.
• 14:22
  So then we lined up to win the next one and they took the 30 grand away.
• 14:26
  Sure, yeah.
• 14:26
  So we won the championship that year.
• 14:29
  It was the start of a string of success there.
• 14:32
  What did you enjoy about the cars and racing, you know, at the Thunderdome and venues like that?
• 14:37
  I think looking back, you know, there's circuits that meet your eye.
• 14:41
  So Bathurst was a very good circuit for me.
• 14:44
  Simmons Plains was a good circuit for me.
• 14:46
  There were circuits that you just go a little bit better on than some of the others.
• 14:51
  um you know it depended a little bit on the car but but honestly i think oval track racing something really met my eye and um i enjoyed a lot and and and was in the prime of my my life and we were very successful um it was it was just one of those things and and
• 15:10
  And as a kid, I always wanted to be an Australian champion or something.
• 15:14
  And I think it was probably just that it ended up, that was my first Australian championship as a race car driver was at the Thunderdome.
• 15:22
  It was amazing.
• 15:22
  I mean, I remember the presentation dinner.
• 15:24
  Bob had 350 people there.
• 15:27
  I can't remember where the venue was, but it was two-story.
• 15:29
  And we're having drinks downstairs.
• 15:31
  And then you had like a band walk up playing instruments and you followed them like the Pied Piper into the – it was amazing.
• 15:38
  Yeah.
• 15:39
  And I remember my speech went forever the first time and Raymond leaned across to my ear and said, wind it up.
• 15:48
  And I said, Mike, I've got a lot to say and I might never end up here again.
• 15:51
  So just settle down and we'll be finished in due course.
• 15:56
  It was good racing, great opportunity to spend time with friends, taught me a lot, and it was just something that I took to.
• 16:05
  My greatest disappointment in life is I never really got an opportunity to have a run in something in America.
• 16:10
  You did explore that, though, didn't you?
• 16:12
  It was frustrating as the, you know... Yeah, I did.
• 16:17
  You could...
• 16:18
  If you won the championship, then Bob paid for two tickets to America.
• 16:23
  And so, you know, we won six times.
• 16:25
  So, I spent a lot of time in America.
• 16:27
  And every year, I'd stay there longer.
• 16:29
  I...
• 16:31
  met Bob Gaden and we helped on Dick Johnson's crew when he raced at Charlotte and Kim did the pit board and I think I cleaned the windscreen and but we met met Bob Gaden and and you know sort of tried to get involved in in that crew I don't think Dick was probably that interested in
• 16:53
  in racing in the states and i was really really interested so you know ray every hand was building those cars so i went and stayed at ray's place for a period of time and and tried to talk him into giving me a chance i mean it wasn't his choice but but you know yeah i mean a relationship in in the modern era marcus had a had a had a great chapter there mate it would have been phenomenal for you to to have
• 17:17
  Gone off and done that.
• 17:18
  But what was the barrier?
• 17:19
  Was it money?
• 17:20
  Was it reputation?
• 17:20
  Australians weren't known?
• 17:23
  What was the thing?
• 17:23
  I think it was money.
• 17:25
  We went over there.
• 17:26
  I just couldn't afford to do anything.
• 17:29
  I hadn't done a lot of NASCAR racing.
• 17:30
  I'd been in NASCAR.
• 17:32
  So we flew our NASCAR over there and ran them around Charlotte.
• 17:35
  And Kim and I had decided to make it look the very best we could.
• 17:40
  We went and got the lowest stiff ratio we could.
• 17:44
  And then we put it in the car.
• 17:45
  And then...
• 17:45
  We went out to GM's Proving Ground and ran around the banked oval there and geared it up to do like 180 or 190 miles an hour.
• 17:53
  So when the cars got there, they had me and Terry Sawyer, and they just had the Calder gearing in it.
• 18:00
  And so...
• 18:02
  for the americans to be driving in the opposite direction of them was quite a novelty and so it was part of the pre-race entertainment was us doing three laps around the track and i asked if i could go as fast as i could and they said no you need to go the same speed the other car's going so i'm like oh man so i was only like second gear and i said when the checkered flags out
• 18:23
  What happens then?
• 18:24
  We come back to the pits.
• 18:25
  And I said, well, can I go as fast as I want then?
• 18:27
  And they're like, yeah, just come into the pits.
• 18:30
  I'm like, no problem.
• 18:32
  So then they wave the checkered flag and I'm like coming up the checkered flag and I'm like back through the gears.
• 18:38
  and then whistling into what was turn one for me, turn one and two, going down the back straight.
• 18:43
  It'd be the first time I've ever really been able to hear a crowd.
• 18:46
  There's 190,000 people there or something, and they're all standing up watching.
• 18:51
  And this thing, because it had a megaphone on it, it sounded like it was doing 14,000 rounds.
• 18:57
  And the track was so smooth compared to the Thunderdome.
• 19:00
  It was like a billiard table.
• 19:02
  And then pinged it down into three.
• 19:05
  And then I only had a little standard holding brakes on.
• 19:07
  I was trying to try and stop it to get in the pits.
• 19:09
  So I came in there all out of shape.
• 19:12
  But it was amazing.
• 19:13
  But that was the only time I really got to try.
• 19:17
  I went to Pocono with Ray when they ran the car and had a different driver in it.
• 19:24
  But I just couldn't – I didn't have any money.
• 19:25
  What were they wanting?
• 19:27
  What sort of number?
• 19:28
  I couldn't even tell you the truth.
• 19:31
  Like telephone book stuff like a crazy – No, not riches.
• 19:33
  I didn't have any money.
• 19:34
  We didn't have any money.
• 19:36
  And so I can remember Ray saying to me, lots of Australians come here and they don't go very well.
• 19:41
  What's different about you?
• 19:42
  And I said, well, I've got no money.
• 19:44
  So I – but I can drive.
• 19:46
  So you just give me an opportunity and we'll work it out.
• 19:49
  And, but it just wasn't, I never ever got to do a test.
• 19:53
  It was just sort of disappointing.
• 19:55
  And I would have been keen to run on half miles and three quarter miles.
• 19:59
  And I didn't really need to go and do, you know, Daytona and Talladega.
• 20:03
  I wanted to make a living out of it.
• 20:04
  So I felt my best chance was to go somewhere where, you know, you've got your elbows out a little bit.
• 20:10
  And then when we finally did get an Ascar and go racing, you know,
• 20:16
  I went quite well against the Americans here, but, you know, the opportunity had sort of come and gone.
• 20:22
  If I couldn't get into the redcoat car, I didn't feel like I had any opportunity, and that was shut down on me.
• 20:28
  That was a cool car that you brought back from the States, and it was a bit of...
• 20:31
  bit of a yarn in getting it too wasn't it the pure later car the first one we bought yeah so so how that came about was every every december um americans would come and race at the thunder and bob would fly them out with their cars and and so prize pool was a million dollars and and so there was a little restaurant in hamilton and uh sorry in hawthorne and
• 20:53
  and it had a million dollars in cash and two security guards with shotguns and it was a perspex safe and my brother and i were pacing around that thing like a couple of cage tigers trying to work out how we could get some of that money and i said to kim we gotta have a go at this like this is crazy it's me and bucks
• 21:11
  You know, while we think Oscar is where it's at, you know, we'd won a lot at Oscar.
• 21:18
  And let's get that into a road race because they had the Service Paradise race where they were paying $75,000 to win that race.
• 21:26
  And so I said to Kim, I reckon we can win that race.
• 21:29
  They'll pay for the car.
• 21:30
  We've got a bit of money in the bank.
• 21:31
  So we took every cent we had.
• 21:34
  We went to America when I won the championship, and then Kim had befriended a guy called Billy Hess, who was a chassis maker, and he took us around to buy a car, and he took us over to this workshop, and the Purolator car was there, or the Purolator cars were there.
• 21:51
  There was a guy called Derek Cope who'd won the Daytona event a couple of years before.
• 21:55
  And so we walked in, and we're looking around the car, and Billy's gone off to talk to the owner.
• 22:00
  And he's walked back out again.
• 22:01
  And he said,
• 22:04
  What do you want?
• 22:05
  And I said, oh, Derek?
• 22:07
  And he goes, yeah, what was he saying to you?
• 22:09
  And he said, oh, he was saying that this is one of his favourite cars.
• 22:14
  He doesn't really want to sell it, but they've got some new ideas going on.
• 22:18
  And he goes, oh, man, that wanker.
• 22:21
  He said, yeah, he hates that car.
• 22:22
  They put it in the truck so he doesn't wreck his primary car.
• 22:25
  He does not like that car.
• 22:26
  But it's a good car.
• 22:27
  We're going to cut the nose off it and we'll...
• 22:29
  you know, we change it and that's what we did.
• 22:31
  But we went to Carl Yarborough's yard and he named all his cars after the Flintstones.
• 22:36
  And so, you know, you go out the back and he's got all these cars under a peppercorn tree and then Billy's walking around with a tape measure working out if he cuts the clip off it, what sort of car it would end up with.
• 22:48
  And so he fixed this car up for us and then we came back and painted black and Castrol sponsored it.
• 22:54
  And off we went to the Gold Coast.
• 22:56
  Just amazing, mate.
• 22:58
  And such a cool car that evokes great memories even now.
• 23:03
  I'm glad you bring up the Castrol connection.
• 23:06
  At this point, are you, you know, Pizza Hutter here assisting us with this podcast today, making it happen.
• 23:13
  Are you confident walking into boardrooms?
• 23:16
  Are you, you know, or is it more about relationships?
• 23:18
  You could ring a Castrol and go, hey, I need a hand with it.
• 23:20
  How did you do that side of it?
• 23:22
  I had a good relationship with Castrol.
• 23:24
  They were looking to sponsor cars.
• 23:26
  And so they had Larry in, well, to start with, they decided to do my Oscar program.
• 23:32
  We've been very successful at that.
• 23:34
  And then they ended up with Larry in touring car racing and they had the same look and feel right across the field.
• 23:42
  So drag cars, Oscar and Larry in the Group A car.
• 23:47
  And so I had a great relationship with John Surzak at Castrol.
• 23:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:51
  And they felt like they were grooming me for the future.
• 23:56
  I was also driving at HRT who had Castrol sponsorship at the time.
• 24:01
  And it was like not a bad connection.
• 24:03
  And it lasted for four or five years, like,
• 24:09
  It was quite a while.
• 24:11
  But they were talking to us about running a touring car, and they ended up with a new marketing guy, and he wanted to do a deal, and he was hoping to get a young driver in as well, and end up doing something with Longhurst.
• 24:25
  Yeah.
• 24:26
  The numbers didn't stack up.
• 24:29
  And so we raced the Aus car and then slowly got choked.
• 24:33
  So it just didn't work out.
• 24:35
  We started with Cooper Tools, ended up with Castrol.
• 24:38
  And that popped me.
• 24:40
  Yeah, that was how it all worked out.
• 24:42
  How did you feel about the demise of that series?
• 24:43
  Because, I mean, it seemed like such a cool thing.
• 24:44
  It's really sad.
• 24:45
  You know, I had some – some of my most amazing memories were the Thunderdome, good and bad.
• 24:51
  You know, before we raced the NASCARs there, I can remember the last Oscar race I won.
• 24:58
  And, man, there was 35,000 people there or more, 35,000 on a bad night and 50,000 on a good night.
• 25:03
  Yeah.
• 25:05
  and they just booed me like crazy and so when when they did the driver introductions i'd always you have to back your car up to the fence and i'd go and sit down on the in the outside front wheel so you know i wouldn't get hit while i can or just then the things they'd say to you so i just quietly sit down there and
• 25:25
  Just purely because of your success.
• 25:27
  Well, yeah.
• 25:28
  And so I just didn't really like it.
• 25:32
  And so they booed a lot and we went back and the car was in the garage and had the trophy on the bench and my dad, you know, came in on his crutches and said, well done, son.
• 25:43
  That was great to see.
• 25:44
  Fantastic race.
• 25:46
  And I said to him, you know –
• 25:47
  I just wish I wouldn't boo me.
• 25:48
  I haven't done anything wrong except one a lot.
• 25:51
  And I don't like it.
• 25:53
  And I just don't like it.
• 25:55
  He goes, who's booing?
• 25:57
  I went, are you kidding?
• 25:58
  Where do you watch your race from?
• 25:59
  The MCG.
• 26:02
  man if this had a roof they would lift it off so so as a as a segue for that um the next season i raced the nascar and so we did the first race and they didn't do the driver introduction and then the second race was when the americans were here and they backed us all up the fence and i went sat down where i normally sit in the corner and
• 26:24
  And my brother was standing just near me.
• 26:26
  And then they introduced a couple of Americans.
• 26:29
  They got to me.
• 26:29
  Man, I got the biggest cheer.
• 26:30
  It was unbelievable.
• 26:32
  I looked at Kim and I said, what's going on?
• 26:35
  You're their guy.
• 26:36
  And he goes, they think you're the only one that can beat these guys.
• 26:41
  That's why they're cheering for you.
• 26:42
  I went, wow, that's so weird.
• 26:44
  But it was...
• 26:46
  I guess it's a bit fickle, but that was some of the rough stuff, but some of the races I had.
• 26:54
  Racing, I can't explain to you what it feels like to come off a corner with all the G-forces pushing your body down, a little bit opposite lock on, you slide up within...
• 27:06
  you know, six inches or eight inches of the wall, the wheels are spinning, the thing's got over 650 horsepower, it wants to turn left and you're trying to hold it straight.
• 27:16
  It's just unbelievable feeling.
• 27:19
  And, you know, and some of those races I had were, you know, some of the best racing I've ever had in my life.
• 27:27
  You captured it very, very well.
• 27:28
  And I know you said you didn't think you could, but add to that, mate, the sense of show, people like Bob Jane driving it, things like prize money.
• 27:36
  You even mentioned Mike Raymond before.
• 27:38
  It is a real shame it is no longer around or that it didn't continue given all that stuff, you know?
• 27:43
  Yeah, and really it was right in my hip pocket.
• 27:48
  I felt like a lot of the touring car guys came out.
• 27:51
  There's one particular guy came out and he's like, I'm going to smash you.
• 27:55
  And I went, yeah, well, we'll see about that.
• 28:01
  And a bit ahead of his time, the thing that brought it undone was he paid so much money in prize money,
• 28:07
  that there wasn't a lot of us that had strong commercial sponsorship.
• 28:12
  And so when he had to pull the money back because he was running out of money, then people couldn't race anymore because they needed his money to go racing.
• 28:20
  The commercial support wasn't there for it.
• 28:21
  Yeah, and so really then he couldn't upgrade the track.
• 28:24
  It was rough.
• 28:26
  It was unfortunate.
• 28:28
  But my time, I was starting to get –
• 28:32
  feel like I was getting treated really badly there at the end.
• 28:34
  And so, so, you know, I had decisions against me that I felt shouldn't have been against me.
• 28:40
  And so, you know, my timing to get out a couple of years before it's total demise was, was probably well time.
• 28:46
  What was interesting was John Sydney was like our nemesis with NASCAR.
• 28:51
  And I always looked at to him as, as good cars, hard to beat.
• 28:56
  And so I got an opportunity to go back and drive one of his cars, which, which Rodney Jane normally drove.
• 29:01
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:02
  And it was a, it just reminded me how difficult it was.
• 29:05
  First time I got in the car, I got down to the start finish line and I lifted off because I felt like it was going too fast.
• 29:12
  So when you get up to the corner, you're doing 170, 180 miles an hour and you're pointing the thing at the wall and you get off the throttle and just drag the brake a bit and tip it into the corner.
• 29:22
  You don't wake up one morning and do that.
• 29:24
  The thing about NASCAR racing is you can go fast for a lap if you're really brave, but ultimately you need the skill to be able to do a lap after lap after lap.
• 29:33
  And that's where the craft is in it.
• 29:36
  It's tricky.
• 29:36
  It's tricky.
• 29:47
  With Rusty being in the country, we're left in the studios all alone.
• 29:51
  Oh well, here I'll do a quick levels test.
• 29:55
  One, two.
• 29:57
  One, two.
• 29:58
  Okay, we're good to continue with the episode.
• 30:02
  Let's talk Bathurst 1000s.
• 30:04
  There's some great trophies in this venue here, and I know that's a race that you love with a deep passion, mate.
• 30:12
  Is there one race of all of them that is, you know, from perhaps it was the double stint that you did when you were with Lowndes that year, is there one race that sticks in your mind that you sort of think, wow, you know?
• 30:24
  Oh...
• 30:27
  There's probably a couple of things.
• 30:29
  I wouldn't say there's one standout.
• 30:30
  I mean, I felt like that year in 94 when I did that double stint, I thought that was, you know, I was very proud of that and frustrated that I wasn't going to be in the race at the end.
• 30:47
  2002 or 2001 when I chased Scaife down in the Aussie male car, I just, you know, there ended up being a bit of a gap between us when we went past Morris, white Morris, and allowed him to skip away.
• 31:05
  You know, I felt like I had given it everything I could that day.
• 31:10
  The following year was probably the best car I've ever had JB was a really good teammate To run around Bathurst with And I thought we really complimented each other And so That car We blew an engine the first day Russell Ingle ran into me
• 31:28
  And damaged the car in one of the practice sessions But the car was just on fire and I'd done a handful of laps before the race started I led the first 33 laps until we did the pit stop and it broke Unfortunately where where Russell and I had made contact it had damaged the rose joint which which Unfortunately hadn't been replaced and and we we end up going down three or four laps and that cover so fast I think we unlabbed ourself once just on pace so so
• 31:56
  That was a race where you never end up with a lab record, but no one knows how good that was.
• 32:02
  I mean, that was a pretty funny day.
• 32:05
  We were in the car, it was freezing cold going around before the race started.
• 32:11
  Parade, the parade lab.
• 32:12
  Yeah, in the back of the ute.
• 32:14
  And there's a lot more Holden fans there than Ford fans.
• 32:18
  And they're booing us like crazy, JB and I.
• 32:21
  And I said to him, oh, man, this pisses me off.
• 32:24
  I don't like getting booed much.
• 32:26
  And he said, oh, well, you know, it's part of racing.
• 32:29
  And I said, you know what?
• 32:31
  If I'm leading this race for the first lap, I'm going to flip in the bird as we sail across the top of the hill out the window.
• 32:37
  And he goes, I think you're better off just focusing on driving.
• 32:40
  Yeah.
• 32:41
  So I said, nah, I'm going to flip him the bird.
• 32:43
  So I got a good start and I can't remember if Scaife or Murph were beside me on the grid.
• 32:50
  Anyway, I get up to turn two and Stevie Richards in the wins card found his way into second place.
• 32:56
  And I had like three or four...
• 33:01
  car length gap.
• 33:02
  And so I remember going around the turn two and coming out and having to really think about whether I was going to flip in the bird or knuckle down.
• 33:10
  And I hadn't done many laps in practice and I felt, I mean, I could only just get off the toilet to start the race.
• 33:16
  I was that nervous.
• 33:18
  And so I thought, you know what, I'm just going to put my head down, which I did.
• 33:22
  And I didn't look back for the whole lap.
• 33:24
  And there's a great picture of,
• 33:26
  um during the round somewhere of me on the first lap and i've come out of the last corner and i'm at that little rise you know and i looked in the mirror then and i said to phil um has it been an accident he goes no mate you've just got a two second lead
• 33:45
  And I was like, cool, okay.
• 33:46
  And then I just waited for Scaife and Murphy to catch me, got myself in, and then when they caught up, I was ready to go.
• 33:54
  And then so, you know, I'd break the lap record and then MS would break the lap record and then a couple laps later I'd do it and then he'd do it and we'd just go faster and faster.
• 34:03
  And then it got near the end of my stint and I could see him, I could start to pull away from him.
• 34:08
  I could see him up on the curbs and I'm like, okay, this is the day.
• 34:12
  We're going to, this is going to be a good day.
• 34:14
  But unfortunately, we had a problem with the car.
• 34:17
  So there's things like that that you remember back fondly.
• 34:20
  You know, for me, that was just a moment in time, but a special one.
• 34:24
  How brutally unforgiving is it, mate?
• 34:26
  I reckon I can vividly recall talking to you, maybe the year you were with Larco, and I think you welled up when I interviewed you.
• 34:31
  I did, yeah, that was on telly.
• 34:33
  And the physio sent me a message the following year saying, hey, good luck, mate, at Bathurst.
• 34:39
  This is Crompton's mate.
• 34:41
  And try not to try and cry on TV.
• 34:45
  No, was it Sven?
• 34:46
  I can't remember.
• 34:47
  We jokingly called him Sven.
• 34:48
  Yeah.
• 34:48
  Yeah.
• 34:49
  Yeah.
• 34:49
  Yeah, there was two of them.
• 34:50
  I think they both ended up being called Sven.
• 34:52
  But, yeah, it's a very emotional – I'm not an emotional guy.
• 34:55
  You know, like very much not an emotional guy.
• 34:59
  But that brings every emotion out in you.
• 35:01
  And so I felt that year with Larko, we were a big chance to win that race.
• 35:07
  And it really came down to us and Bridie and Stephen Richards and –
• 35:14
  The seat was broken and it was like putting a rib out in you.
• 35:16
  And so I was going down and getting a drip in the first aid office in between stints to, it was just hard work.
• 35:25
  And then that thing stopped opposite the pits and it really took us out of a podium position.
• 35:30
  And I think we finished fifth.
• 35:34
  It was disappointing.
• 35:35
  Super touring.
• 35:36
  You and I would have a bit to do with each other with the coverage.
• 35:39
  Awesome chapter globally.
• 35:41
  I mean, what Alan Gow was doing in the UK, for example, and what we started doing here.
• 35:47
  You would, basically, in the wake of Bathurst that year and that podium with Craig, pick up the phone and join some dots with Audi and start putting wheels in motion, wouldn't you, to do something here in Australia?
• 36:00
  Yeah.
• 36:01
  Yeah, I was at an Oscar race straight after Bathurst, and I knew Audi were interested in doing something in super touring.
• 36:08
  You know, they're racing around the world.
• 36:10
  And Peter Ruffley was a managing director.
• 36:13
  And so I got his number, and I took a deep breath, and I rang him, and I said, Hi, Peter, my name's Brad Jones.
• 36:20
  I'm not sure if you watch Bathurst, but I finished second.
• 36:24
  And my brother and I have got a team, and I'd love to come and talk to you about super touring and Audi and what we can do for you.
• 36:31
  And he said, oh, Bradley, thanks for the call.
• 36:34
  I don't know who you are.
• 36:35
  I didn't watch Bathurst, but I'd be interested in seeing you.
• 36:39
  And he made an appointment like two months down the road.
• 36:44
  And I said, fantastic.
• 36:45
  Thank you for your time.
• 36:46
  See you then.
• 36:47
  And really...
• 36:48
  you know uh that was the start of a really great relationship and and peter still you know comes to the races you know he's a very kind and generous man and you know just another person along the way that i'll never never forget um how much help he was to us at the time it was a um we had no money and um and he had a belief and we put a deal to him and we sold him the dream and and it all worked out for us
• 37:14
  Tell us a little bit about the cars in a short snapshot.
• 37:16
  So Audi 80s to begin with.
• 37:18
  Yeah.
• 37:18
  Then it was the all-wheel drive car, and then you had the front-wheel drive A4 at the end, didn't you?
• 37:21
  Well, yeah, the 80s and the A4 are all four-wheel drive cars, and we started with the 80s, and then Kim and I worked really hard at our relationship.
• 37:31
  Kim especially had a good relationship with some of the key German guys.
• 37:38
  They were as kind as each other.
• 37:39
  They're a cool-looking car.
• 37:41
  Were they...
• 37:42
  Yeah, no, they were great cars to drive.
• 37:44
  And then, you know, obviously we had to race against Morris' team with the BMWs or Frank Gardner's team, whichever way you want to chop it up.
• 37:51
  And so, you know, it was the start of a pretty tense part of our lives where we, you know, had some great races, some great opportunities.
• 38:05
  We went and raced in Macau and Frank Beeler drove one of our cars.
• 38:11
  We were very successful here.
• 38:13
  You know, it was really, really good times and great people, both sides of the relationship, you know, Germany, Audi Sport Australia, which was us working with Audi.
• 38:29
  It changed a little bit once Peter Roofley wasn't the managing director.
• 38:33
  He was fantastic with us and understood what he wanted.
• 38:38
  and but but we kept on going it for years and years and years it was good and we got the front wheel drive car and that was a real struggle was it you've kept that car though i think haven't you you were talking to noons it's at the it's at the bathys museum is it not well that car that's at the bathys museum is a four-wheel drive car that's the car that they air freighted out for us to race in the last round of the championship in 96 um so um
• 39:02
  um we turned up and i want to park with that car and i did not like it at all and i wanted to drive my my normal car which my brother wasn't that keen on and they'd sent an engineer from germany as well so um but that's that car and then we have a front wheel drive car here at the workshop next door
• 39:19
  um that we didn't sell when we sold all the stuff off and it's one of the very few genuine two-wheel drive cars left in the world but they were terrible things and until until we got you know the the clutch sorted out until we got it to drive properly once once we got the thing hooked up
• 39:37
  we were in business and we could race against the best front-wheel drive cars in the world.
• 39:40
  But it took us a long time and the Germans even started sending people out to see what we were doing and sent us a note and rang and wanted to know if we were cheating because the car, you know, we were racing against Tom's Volvo and the BMWs and we were capable of winning.
• 39:56
  Kelvin O'Reilly has a message to say to ask you about the final round at Oran Park and how stressful that was and everything that went down at that event with the battle with BMW.
• 40:08
  It was pretty heavy, wasn't it?
• 40:09
  Yeah, well, we all had, you know, in those days, they wanted to, they had a weight penalty, the BMWs.
• 40:17
  It wasn't much.
• 40:18
  It was 10 or 15 kilos or something.
• 40:20
  And they wanted to pull it out.
• 40:21
  And so they'd swap from Yokohama to Michelin tyres and gone faster instantly.
• 40:27
  And so we had done a test at Lakeside and ran, stayed around on the Monday, ran the same time of the day, same everything pretty much.
• 40:35
  and finish the race like 15 seconds faster than we'd won the day before.
• 40:40
  And so we wanted to go to Michelin's, but we weren't allowed to.
• 40:43
  And then they were hard to beat.
• 40:45
  And they had, you know, it came down to Morris versus me.
• 40:50
  And I can remember sitting in the truck, not letting anyone come in, and you didn't have a little officer in those days.
• 40:57
  I was just sitting with my hand.
• 41:00
  Those lawyers at 10 paces and stuff wasn't there, I think?
• 41:02
  Yeah, well, they ended up on Saturday night.
• 41:06
  They had their lawyers and we had ours and Peter Adden was part of Audi Sport.
• 41:09
  And Terry Morris is there and Kim and that massive fight and argument.
• 41:15
  And I remember Kim suggesting to Terry they might pack up and go home.
• 41:20
  So it was pretty colourful and pretty fiery.
• 41:24
  Anyway, it all sort of got sorted out on the track in the end.
• 41:28
  Paul would drive for you at one point later on, wouldn't he?
• 41:30
  Yeah, he did.
• 41:31
  Look, he was a good driver.
• 41:33
  He's a very different person to me, but the thing we have in common is both love racing and racing cars.
• 41:41
  And later on, a couple of years later, he came and drove the Quattro for me at Bathurst and...
• 41:47
  commented on how easy it is to now we can understand why I won championships Time's going to be to see but I want to bounce through a few things if I can.
• 41:54
  Have you got a plan in place to resto one of those Audi's at some point?
• 41:57
  That would be a really cool project Yeah one day.
• 42:00
  I mean we've got enough stuff nearly to build the two wheel drive car up so I'd love to do that and I'd like to get the other one going
• 42:07
  A couple of drivers that I want to bounce through.
• 42:08
  Firstly, from a super touring perspective, Cameron McConville.
• 42:11
  Quick thought on Cam when he was with you.
• 42:13
  Yeah, Cam was a really good little peddler, and he was my teammate in 97, I think.
• 42:19
  Yeah, I always had a good relationship with Cam, and then Cam came back and drove for us in the WOW Cup.
• 42:25
  Peter Adderton's cheeky, animated vocal in the supercar space these days.
• 42:30
  He's asked about Greg Murphy and how things were in terms of the in-house relationship.
• 42:34
  Things are pretty tough with Greg, to be honest.
• 42:37
  We had a better mousetrap than anyone else.
• 42:38
  And so what we used to do was we'd take it in terms of winning races.
• 42:42
  So when it was my turn to gift him a race, I'd roll out of the brakes at a corner and let him slide down the inside.
• 42:48
  And when it was my turn to win a race, he'd jump in the brakes immediately.
• 42:51
  in the middle of a straight, which I didn't like.
• 42:53
  And so we didn't have a very good relationship.
• 42:55
  We've got a good one now, but it was, you know, Murph was looking to move forward, and I totally get that, but it was a pretty – it wasn't a great relationship here.
• 43:05
  Fabian Coulthard came on the podcast last year, and I had a good chat with him.
• 43:09
  He talked about –
• 43:10
  how difficult leaving here was.
• 43:13
  You might like to give your side on it, but he did say, which I was quite pleased that he felt as though you guys were sort of patching your relationship, that it was better and that you're having a bit more sort of dialogue.
• 43:24
  Yeah, look, Fabian was, you know, we were fighting for championships when Fabian was here driving our car.
• 43:29
  And so for me, my problem with him was never that he was leaving to go to DJR.
• 43:37
  Mind you, I was upset at the end when Phil Keed went out the door as well, but I was all over Fabian for weeks trying to find out, just get an indication of what he was thinking and where he was wanting to go, and so they ended up telling me when he was doing a television show.
• 43:53
  interview at the same time he's filming a television show that he was he was going to be leaving and i felt like i felt like i'd earned more respect than that so that that bothered me for a long time but i have a great relationship with gray and fabian now and chat to them and have no problem with them but at the time it left a bad taste in my mouth jason richards you talked about the photo in your office and things like that much missed i can still even as you and i sit
• 44:20
  quite an honour.
• 44:22
  He had his funeral at a non-denominational church in Melbourne.
• 44:26
  I did a little bit of MC stuff there.
• 44:28
  One of the hardest things to do in life, but a great honour.
• 44:31
  I often wonder now, mate, what he would have achieved, what he would have done in our game.
• 44:36
  Well, we have a picture of him in the boardroom as well.
• 44:38
  And look, Jase was taken away before his time.
• 44:42
  He was...
• 44:45
  Unfortunately, what I think, and this is just my opinion, getting sick gave him structure.
• 44:51
  And I think if he had it recovered, I think he certainly would have been in a position to go on and win a championship.
• 45:00
  I mean, the raw speed he had...
• 45:02
  was staggering.
• 45:04
  And, you know, a lot of the times all I can afford really here, certainly back in those days, was people that were a little bit broken or people thought were past their prime.
• 45:14
  And I see something in them and I try and, you know, get them...
• 45:18
  to maximize their potential and he was one of those guys and Simon McNamara pushed him towards me and I knew how fast he was and then it was my job to try and make sure he could understand what he needed to do to get the best out of himself you know the last time he drove a race car was in Hidden Valley
• 45:37
  and he did a time that was only beaten by one other driver, which was Craig Baird on soft tyres.
• 45:44
  And I don't think Bridie on used tyres went as fast as him for the whole weekend.
• 45:49
  And honestly, he was taking so many drugs to just...
• 45:53
  With the pain.
• 45:55
  And with the pain.
• 45:56
  And he got so sick when he got out of that car because the intention was for him to drive a Bathurst that Kerry Stokes ended up sending his plane up to fly him back.
• 46:05
  And I thought he was not going to make it.
• 46:07
  But he went on to last for another six months after that.
• 46:11
  Did you sense something wasn't right with him before you discovered it?
• 46:15
  Yeah, he was having trouble.
• 46:16
  He was sick a lot.
• 46:19
  And so I sent him off to see a doctor and the doctor told him that he – what did the doctor say?
• 46:28
  The doctor said to him that he probably had an allergy, you know, there's something like that wrong with him and so gave him a puffer.
• 46:35
  and then he was still not well by Bathurst, and I'm not sure which one of his daughters slid down a slide and kicked him in the nose and broke his nose, and so he went back to the doctor, and he said, oh, you know, they just put you on a different medicine, and then when we went to Tasmania, he looked really terrible, and so we talked to him about it, and he went and saw Dr. Carl.
• 46:59
  We got Dr. Carl to have a look at him, and that's when they diagnosed him as Dr. Carl,
• 47:02
  as being really sick and having cancer and so so that was the beginning of that particular part of the journey for him yeah and um you know very very sad and difficult time for him and his family just such a waste that that someone so young and talented um ended up so sick great let's let's bounce to a couple of positives mate john cleland
• 47:25
  What was it like having him around here?
• 47:26
  He's been on the pod too.
• 47:27
  I think he told a funny story about business class airfares or something or other and Kim having to.
• 47:33
  Yeah, I wouldn't want to pay for those.
• 47:36
  That's for sure.
• 47:37
  Especially after we finished second, he figured his value was much higher than what we did.
• 47:42
  So, but look, he was great.
• 47:44
  And we really struggled with that car.
• 47:46
  He came and drove it with me.
• 47:48
  And then we changed the car on the Saturday afternoon and we went out in practice.
• 47:55
  And I can't remember whether it was a car star, but it was so hard to steer.
• 48:00
  You had to take your hands off the steering wheel going across the top of the mountain, put your leg against the steering wheel like a dampener, and then move your hands so they were straight.
• 48:08
  Jam it in there, wedge it in there.
• 48:09
  Yeah, and so the car, the wheels would have a bit of lock on it, but your hands would be straight.
• 48:13
  And so I came back in and I said, how's it to drive?
• 48:16
  Because it's pretty fast.
• 48:18
  And I said, honestly, I could barely do a stint like that.
• 48:21
  And Clallon walked in, threw in a couple of colourful adjectives and went, we're not driving a car like that.
• 48:27
  And so they changed it.
• 48:30
  And then in the warm-up in the morning, man, it was just a rocket.
• 48:34
  You know, it was – I can remember because they used to have that totem pole.
• 48:39
  Come down, look at the totem pole, you know, car 21, be, you know, wherever it was in the top 10, go across the start-finish line, look at it going up to two, and car 21, fastest lap.
• 48:51
  And so we were on wets, and it was so – Kim's on the radio going, hey, slow down.
• 48:56
  Like –
• 48:58
  we got a race today i went no the car's that good so we stopped and put slicks on it we're on a few cars to go and i went out on slicks and it was damp and when we came in um i said wow this thing like we're on today and we started out at 21 or 22 and then we got up near the lead and then john's radio didn't work and so when i got in the car the first time we were last again and then we worked our way back to the front he was a great guy really really funny funny funny guy maca
• 49:25
  Well, Mac is my son.
• 49:26
  So, you know, he's my best friend.
• 49:28
  You know, we do so much stuff together.
• 49:30
  We're so close.
• 49:31
  And, you know, he's living the dream.
• 49:36
  He's trying to anyway.
• 49:37
  And so I see from the time he started racing go-karts, you know, he's very successful with that, with the Formula Fords.
• 49:45
  He and Anton raced for the Formula Ford Championship.
• 49:49
  And then really supercars have been really, really difficult for him.
• 49:52
  But I understand that grind.
• 49:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 49:54
  And I feel like now he's starting to get a couple of good results and, you know, it's his whole life.
• 50:01
  He's wired a bit differently to me.
• 50:03
  In what way?
• 50:03
  Well, he's, I live off my wits.
• 50:10
  You know, I think my mental toughness is one of my real strengths.
• 50:15
  Is that from your dad?
• 50:17
  Yeah.
• 50:17
  Yeah, maybe.
• 50:18
  I know.
• 50:18
  It's just the way I've come up, really.
• 50:21
  And with Macca, he's the most determined person I've ever met.
• 50:28
  His training, his commitment to life is unbelievable to watch.
• 50:35
  And, I mean, every parent talks about their kid like this.
• 50:38
  But, you know, I'm so fortunate that I can give him that opportunity to live the dream.
• 50:46
  And it's, you know, for some young guys, they come in the sport and they instantly get where they want to be.
• 50:53
  And others, it's not like that.
• 50:55
  You know, if you look at…
• 50:56
  pd when he's he got into supercars it took him a long time but he ended up winning you know races in the end and was was really strong and and it's it's just a hard old grind so it's it's great that he does what i've done but um it's hard work
• 51:14
  Is there a balance in all that as parent but also as team owner and sort of mentoring but also pushing them to want to succeed?
• 51:26
  What has all that balance been like for you?
• 51:28
  Yeah, that's a tricky one.
• 51:30
  I try not to push too hard.
• 51:32
  I get frustrated.
• 51:33
  I mean, if someone roughs me up.
• 51:35
  But you're a parent.
• 51:36
  You want them to avoid the pitfalls too, mate, don't you?
• 51:38
  Yeah, I do.
• 51:39
  And so I try pretty hard to help with that.
• 51:43
  um you know where we you know someone does me wrong i'll do them wrong but he's not like that okay you know he doesn't go down and poke anyone in the chest and go hey idiot that's not his style um but he he has his own way of working out he works really hard and
• 51:58
  and you know we're we're unbelievably close you know we do so much stuff together um you know we when he moved out he just moved like 800 meters away and his gym was in my backyard and and now i'm a little bit out of town and he's got a block of land not very far from me again and you know he's around a lot we're just extremely close
• 52:17
  Awesome.
• 52:18
  Paint a picture for the listeners of the size of Brad Jones Racing as we know it, as it sits here today from a staffing point of view.
• 52:25
  And in the landscape post-COVID slash economy slash whatever, how challenging is it running a business like that in motorsport right now?
• 52:35
  Well, yeah, it is really tough.
• 52:36
  When you think about it and look back at the people that have been successful in motorsport that really don't have another business to prop up their motorsport or get involved in motorsport, haven't started with a big bag of gold, that's what you see when you walk into this place.
• 52:50
  There are others that have done it, the Stones, but not many.
• 52:54
  And that's something that I'm really proud of.
• 52:57
  We started off in this very shed that we sit in at the moment and built this amazing business almost by accident.
• 53:06
  We have 55 full-time people here at BJR.
• 53:08
  We have two B-doubles and another B-trailer where we run our Super 2 car.
• 53:12
  We've got four cars that we run in the main game.
• 53:15
  We've got a spare car.
• 53:16
  We've got two Super 2 cars, two Super 3 cars.
• 53:19
  We have our own fabrication department, our own design studio.
• 53:23
  We wrap everything.
• 53:24
  We have a sub-assembly department.
• 53:26
  We fundamentally do everything here except for engines.
• 53:28
  This is the first year we haven't done transaxles for a long time.
• 53:32
  So we're a one-stop shop and we've got a very strong engineering group.
• 53:39
  It's a very family-friendly business and I know everybody that works here and we're all close.
• 53:46
  It's when Andre and Bryce came to join the team at the start of the year, Paul Scalzo had a barbecue at his place and Pauletti, our truck driver, got a lamb and put it on a spit and 90% of the team came along and Andre went...
• 54:00
  oh, my God, I can't – this is Saturday.
• 54:02
  You've got, like, your whole team here.
• 54:05
  But it's a close-knit, close group, and it's really how we've been racing our whole lives.
• 54:13
  You should be immensely proud, mate, not just of some of the drivers that have proudly represented you over time, but also some of the engineering group that have come through here and along the way.
• 54:22
  Can we finish with some fun stuff, if we can?
• 54:25
  Crompton says to ask you about Brock and the gumboots and riding.
• 54:30
  Oh, Richo talked us into going out for a bike ride and Brock turned up in a pair of gumboots on a Suzuki.
• 54:39
  I mean, it was like crazy stuff.
• 54:42
  And I remember it was freezing cold.
• 54:45
  And Brock had – he might have been able to drive a car, but I'll give you the tip he couldn't ride a motorbike.
• 54:51
  So we had a pretty fun day though.
• 54:52
  Neil turned up in all the motocross gear.
• 54:54
  You know, he looked like Mr. Motocross.
• 54:56
  And I remember I was on a bike and we went through a puddle of mud and I dragged my toe through it and just coated him in mud from head to toe.
• 55:04
  So all his white gear turned brown pretty rapidly.
• 55:06
  So, yeah, that was crazy stuff.
• 55:08
  You've raced some great tracks around the world, including Spa.
• 55:12
  True or false?
• 55:15
  Eau Rouge.
• 55:15
  One of the most amazing sequence of corners in the world.
• 55:19
  On a long stint, you had a slash in the car through Eau Rouge.
• 55:23
  True or false?
• 55:24
  Well, sort of.
• 55:26
  I did, but it was behind a safety car.
• 55:31
  Oh, classic, classic.
• 55:33
  Which is very, very... Tamara Vidalia, who I was sharing the car with, her Italian was a bit broken.
• 55:37
  And so I told the head guy who's South African that I'd peed in the seat, not in the seat, but on the floor.
• 55:44
  You know, one thing about urine, it stinks when it's drying.
• 55:47
  And so I said to him, look, just put some gloves on when you're pulling the floor out of the car.
• 55:51
  So then at the end of the day, there's like 80 people standing in a room and he's like, I want to thank everyone.
• 55:56
  We ended up on the podium with two of the cars.
• 55:58
  Great result.
• 55:59
  And Brad, thanks for pissing in the car through Our Rouge.
• 56:03
  And I was like, oh, man, now everyone knows.
• 56:06
  And Tamara, whose English was broken, but I knew her quite well, she'd come out here and driven a car for me.
• 56:11
  She's like looking at me a bit perplexed and she's walked over and said, Brad, so you piss in the car through Our Rouge?
• 56:18
  And I said, yeah, but it was behind the safety car.
• 56:21
  And she goes, really?
• 56:23
  And I went, yes, Tamara, I did.
• 56:27
  Flat tack on the throttle, urinating through the corner.
• 56:32
  And she goes, wow.
• 56:34
  And I went, that's right.
• 56:35
  First bloke you've ever met that can do two things at once.
• 56:40
  Krompo says to ask about Mandy and Fiona and the plugs, but I reckon that's harsh and I reckon you've told that story before too.
• 56:47
  More than once.
• 56:48
  So I won't subject you to that again.
• 56:50
  Can I just finish with the car?
• 56:53
  Along the way, you've driven some amazing stuff in your career, mate.
• 56:57
  What's the one car, if you could go to sleep and dream, that it was the perfect car on the day or have they just been tools for the pursuit, mate?
• 57:07
  Yeah.
• 57:08
  Um, look, it's, it's, you know, the funny part is you look back and you think about, um, what you could have done in that car, which, which relates to making it feel like a perfect car.
• 57:19
  And there's different errors, you know, and I've driven four wheel drive cars and rear wheel drive cars and front wheel drive cars.
• 57:24
  So it's hard to actually go.
• 57:27
  wow, you know, that car.
• 57:29
  I mean, what we did with the front-wheel drive Audi, that's the worst car we had.
• 57:32
  But to win a race with that and be the only one that ever won a race with a two-wheel drive Audi against proper competition, that was pretty special.
• 57:40
  But I wouldn't say I overly loved that particular car.
• 57:43
  So, you know, the...
• 57:46
  The best way to answer that question, I guess, is the R8 Audi I drove at Le Mans.
• 57:51
  Race it at Adelaide.
• 57:52
  Race it for 1,000 years, yeah.
• 57:53
  Yeah, and I didn't get to race it.
• 57:54
  So at the time, I was really angry.
• 57:59
  But that was as close as a Formula 1 car I could ever get.
• 58:02
  By then, I had a good relationship with Frank Bieler.
• 58:05
  I knew all the factory Audi guys because I'd met them in different functions and things, so they all knew me.
• 58:12
  But I'd never driven anything with downforce like that.
• 58:16
  going through on the kink in the back straight and around behind the pits, I was so weak there and I couldn't get my head around.
• 58:24
  I said to Frank, how do you know when you're going to slide off?
• 58:27
  He goes, you don't, you just hold it flat.
• 58:29
  And I'm like, yeah, I can't do that.
• 58:31
  And so...
• 58:33
  You could, but not in that circumstance.
• 58:35
  Not after a handful of laps.
• 58:37
  And in the race meeting.
• 58:39
  Yeah, I did.
• 58:40
  I sort of drove it anyway.
• 58:41
  McNish, who I was meant to be replacing, his back was okay, started the race.
• 58:46
  And then Dindo got in it, who was a co-driver in that car.
• 58:49
  I mean, they won by 17 laps.
• 58:51
  And then I thought I might get a chance to drive in the last stint, even though they all thought I was slow.
• 58:56
  I knew.
• 58:57
  Once I did a handful of laps in it, I'd be fine.
• 59:00
  And we were so far in front of the field.
• 59:02
  And so they decided to put me in at the end of the race.
• 59:06
  Then Dr Ulrich had a fight with the guys from Yost.
• 59:10
  They didn't want me in the car.
• 59:11
  And then the laps counted down, I didn't get in the car.
• 59:14
  So that car won.
• 59:15
  And then they came to me and said, okay, cars won.
• 59:18
  Up you go to the podium.
• 59:19
  I went, fuck.
• 59:20
  I won't be going to the podium.
• 59:21
  I didn't win the race.
• 59:23
  And they're like, yep, this happened with Alboreto in the States, Sebring or somewhere.
• 59:28
  You need to go up and get your trophy.
• 59:29
  And really that was a pretty stupid moment of mine.
• 59:32
  I should have just gone and got the trophy, but I was embarrassed because I didn't feel like I earned it.
• 59:38
  Contributed, yeah.
• 59:39
  But that was an amazing car and amazing weekend.
• 59:41
  I look back on that weekend and wish I had done things a lot differently, but...
• 59:46
  It must have required a serious brain reprogram to know you could brake that deep and lean on the car in that sort of manner, given that you come from...
• 59:53
  In the touring car, you brake at 300 metres on the back straight.
• 59:57
  In that thing, I think it was 70 or 90 metres.
• 1:00:01
  And so, you know, I looked at the data when I got out of the car and I was braking at 160 metres.
• 1:00:06
  and having to give her a stab at the throttle to go up the corner.
• 1:00:09
  And so I went, shit, okay, no problem, 90.
• 1:00:14
  I can do that.
• 1:00:14
  I don't know where the board is.
• 1:00:16
  But trying to get your head, your brain, to accept that you could actually stay on the throttle, I think the closest I got was 110.
• 1:00:23
  And even then I thought I was going to die.
• 1:00:26
  And then for the first 20 metres, the car didn't feel like it was going to stop.
• 1:00:30
  Then when the heat got in the carbon brakes, it would just stop at no time at all.
• 1:00:36
  You know, and I got called on a Saturday morning or Friday morning, whatever.
• 1:00:40
  So I got one practice session.
• 1:00:42
  It was crazy.
• 1:00:43
  But amazing, you know, through those twisty bits.
• 1:00:46
  And like I said, that's as close as I'll ever get or ever got to racing a Formula 1 car.
• 1:00:52
  So that was a – even though it was a pretty shitty experience, it was –
• 1:00:56
  But the downside of that was I didn't anywhere near getting the most out of that car, where I can actually sit here and say, that car I finished second at Bathurst with Craig, you know, that particular day, I was pretty happy with my job.
• 1:01:11
  As you should be.
• 1:01:12
  Hey, thanks for spending some time and talking to us.
• 1:01:14
  You've done some incredible things during your career that you should be immensely proud of.
• 1:01:19
  I know your dad was immensely proud of what you've achieved, mate, and that you're continuing to,
• 1:01:26
  you know, bring engineers through and, you know, give drivers an opportunity, and we wish you the very, very best with the next chapter for Supercars, mate.
• 1:01:35
  Thanks, Josh.
• 1:01:35
  See you.
• 1:01:36
  I appreciate the time.
• 1:01:43
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 1:01:47
  Series editor and producer is Ed Gooden.
• 1:01:50
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• 1:01:53
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• 1:01:57
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• 1:01:58
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