Latest / Rusty's Garage / Dean Herridge | Part 3 - Bathurst 12 Hour & Peter Brock's Crash

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Dean Herridge | Part 3 - Bathurst 12 Hour & Peter Brock's Crash · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  Hey everyone, Rusty here at The Stage Start with Dean Herridge for a rare part three.
• 0:25
  I should never be trusted as a co-driver.
• 0:27
  This feature ep has had it all.
• 0:29
  Make sure you check out parts one and two if you haven't already.
• 0:32
  You know I bang on about that at the top of these.
• 0:35
  But there is so many good yarns to Dean's story, not just from the Australian Rally Championship either.
• 0:43
  A little footnote from me regarding his memories of being around the first, or among the first, I should say, on the scene at Peter Brock's fatal crash.
• 0:53
  Peter...
• 0:55
  was a hero to so many of you that listen, and he was to Dean as well.
• 1:00
  Competing alongside him in events like Targa was the realisation of a childhood dream for Dean.
• 1:08
  With the benefit of time...
• 1:10
  His reflections are both objective and with a real sense of sadness.
• 1:15
  Just keep that in balance as he recounts that.
• 1:17
  That's not an easy conversation that I asked him to bring back up again.
• 1:23
  Dean's opinion, and he's not alone in that view I should point out, doesn't mean that he wasn't moved or saddened by Brock's passing.
• 1:32
  Quite the opposite, in fact.
• 1:33
  But it wasn't the way a legend like Peter should have left us.
• 1:39
  As Brock would have said, he was having a red hot go.
• 1:42
  Let's crack on now with the final instalment of my chat with Dean Herridge.
• 1:46
  Enjoy.
• 1:50
  One yarn I would love you to share brings forth your childhood love of touring car racing.
• 1:58
  You get, I think in 2005, the chance to test with Dick Johnson Racing at Queensland Raceway.
• 2:04
  So you drove a supercar.
• 2:05
  How did that come about?
• 2:07
  What was that like?
• 2:08
  Yeah, well, it was, yeah, like I said, I'm trying to do supercar racing.
• 2:13
  You know, Dean Orr, who had been around it, you know, I think started with the Peter Brock back in the day when he was younger.
• 2:20
  He's now suddenly the manager of DJR.
• 2:23
  Yeah, Curl, most people know him as Curl.
• 2:25
  I don't know how it came about that I got the opportunity.
• 2:27
  Clearly through – He had a little side love of rallying or something, didn't he?
• 2:30
  Yeah, and he liked rallying particularly.
• 2:32
  And so I think we were able to get him in the rally car at some point and a bit of a favour return.
• 2:36
  I get a chance to test an AU at Queensland Raceway.
• 2:39
  So same thing, we get an opportunity to go across, stay at his house, I think boot one of his daughters out of their room.
• 2:44
  David Stewart, I think, was with the team at the time.
• 2:46
  So he brought him around for dinner, chatting to me about the cars and, yeah, give me a proper insight to how that would all work.
• 2:51
  And I rocked up.
• 2:52
  James Moffat was there.
• 2:52
  James Moffat and one other.
• 2:54
  I think at the point, because they were sort of through this West Point sponsorship deal, I think they had obviously Stephen in the main game and I think Seton in the team at the time.
• 3:03
  So that was the era.
• 3:05
  And yeah, we get a chance to drive what was, I think, Will Davidson had won in the development series maybe.
• 3:11
  In the AU.
• 3:11
  Yeah, in the AU.
• 3:12
  So I'm in an AU.
• 3:13
  And there was a couple of other teams floating around on the test day.
• 3:16
  Yeah.
• 3:16
  And so, you know, I'd been given a bit of info by David, you know, in the lead-up and, you know, this is what we're going to do.
• 3:22
  And I now look back in hindsight and go, it's probably a little bit too nice.
• 3:26
  I should have jumped into the car first because, you know, you've got some who knows what tyres, the quality on there.
• 3:30
  It's only getting worse every lap that goes past.
• 3:33
  James is probably more astute than that than me as he's trying to emerge through and, you know, he's testing it and then I'd get in and we're all slightly compromised on the seat position.
• 3:41
  I do remember, you know, you had the ability to – it was a –
• 3:43
  It was a H pattern, but you had the ability to flat shift with it ultimately, which I could never do because I just couldn't, the wrong angle to pull it past, et cetera.
• 3:52
  Jeez, that hard to drive.
• 3:53
  When I thought I was going fast, I was going slow.
• 3:55
  Stevie was notorious, I think, from memory, sixth to fourth to second kind of thing.
• 4:00
  And I think Dick might have even used to just go sixth to second or something or other.
• 4:04
  Well, I was being told that by the way.
• 4:05
  by the engineers.
• 4:05
  They're sort of saying, and look, we were running dog boxes in those days, even in the rally cars, but you'd go down the box.
• 4:10
  Well, I did.
• 4:11
  Cody might not have, and like I said, he was quite aggressive.
• 4:14
  So I'm going down the back straight, and then I'm, and they're going, oh, you could probably try and just go, like you said, loop four second or six to second.
• 4:21
  I could not make that work at all, lock it up the rears and do all sorts of crazy stuff.
• 4:24
  And then getting the engineers looking and going, James is, I think James is probably second, which is probably light years realistically, but I was pretty happy I was close.
• 4:34
  You've got a bit more understeer, you know, on the back of turn two and stuff.
• 4:37
  You know, you probably need to get on a little bit more there and feed the power on them.
• 4:40
  I could not balance it.
• 4:42
  I was either.
• 4:42
  Well, the thing would just, okay, a bit of understeer, so I'm feeding it on.
• 4:45
  The thing would just, you know, buck and kick and carry on.
• 4:48
  And you're chatting in the pits late and they're going, oh, the BA is a much different car.
• 4:52
  It's a much more oversteery car.
• 4:53
  I'm going, oh, can you give me the BA?
• 4:54
  I reckon the rally driver needs a bloody BA rather than that.
• 4:57
  It was a great insight.
• 4:58
  I mean, what a – Very unique beast back then, though, too.
• 5:00
  And I had a lot of appreciation for how hard they were to drive and particularly in traffic, you know, when they're all close.
• 5:05
  I even had one moment where I think Barguana came down the inside.
• 5:08
  I mean, I was probably in my own zone for half a lap or something like that where I wasn't really looking in the mirrors and I was like, oh, they sort of dive-bombed me on the inside of a corner like –
• 5:15
  God, no wonder you have a big wing off the back.
• 5:17
  You can't see out in the mirrors, the little tiny ones on the side.
• 5:19
  God, no wonder they bloody bump into each other occasionally.
• 5:23
  So it was a great experience, but I guess if I was ever going to be an outside chance of getting an enduro roll or anything like that, it was quickly no chance.
• 5:33
  I don't think I quite had it.
• 5:34
  I will come to a bit of Bathurst experience on the 12-hour side in a moment.
• 5:39
  Can I deal with what you mentioned before around Subaru's commitment to the ARC, a period of change and so on, when they opt out and they make that big call?
• 5:48
  How did you feel about that and what happened?
• 5:51
  We were surprised.
• 5:53
  So at the end of 05, we were due to go and have a meeting at HQ in Sydney after Bathurst, which is the final round of the championship.
• 5:59
  Yeah.
• 6:00
  Codes won the series.
• 6:01
  I was second in the series.
• 6:02
  So, you know, team won two.
• 6:03
  I think we were one-two in the rally.
• 6:05
  Everything's looking great.
• 6:06
  You know, that year we'd had a bit of change, Coden and I, because our co-drivers had changed, like we just said.
• 6:09
  So I had Bill Hayes come on board and he had Dale Moskett.
• 6:13
  And so, you know, really we were all singing all dance.
• 6:15
  We had a great car.
• 6:16
  We were competitive in, you know, New Zealand and, you know, Rally Australia's coming up.
• 6:19
  And we probably didn't realise the battle that some of the management were trying to find ways to, or the team, you might say, to try and find it to work.
• 6:27
  Mm-hmm.
• 6:29
  We sat in a meeting and Nick cited probably 10 reasons for the decision to pull the pin on, you know, Rally Team Australia.
• 6:35
  And to be honest...
• 6:37
  I could have probably only argued against one.
• 6:38
  Really?
• 6:39
  Yeah, some of it was, you know, marketing and sports marketing and plateauing and stuff like that.
• 6:44
  Like we'd achieved, you know, 10 championships in a row as a manufacturer winning.
• 6:49
  You know, what's number 11 look like?
• 6:51
  You know, Codes won three championships on the trot.
• 6:54
  You know, we're winning internationally.
• 6:56
  You know, it's a big investment from the team.
• 6:58
  I think there were a lot of worries around the regulations at that point, particularly with Group NP, with Toyota.
• 7:07
  There was a bit of butting of heads between some of the managements of both sides in regards to freedoms given.
• 7:12
  Because, of course, Mitsubishi and Subaru were governed by a set of homologation papers and ironically for many, many years that worked out to be quite close and had some synergies where now domestically we're coming up with our own rules to try and allow manufacturing aimed clearly for there.
• 7:25
  They're trying to make their car as competitive as they can and
• 7:28
  the word parity, I guess, would come up on how many freedoms they were given.
• 7:31
  And I think maybe Nick felt that Subaru's getting boxed into a position where we don't have any real legs to stand on and we have to run as per the homologation papers and yet we're granting freedoms.
• 7:42
  And I think at that point Nick didn't think it was taking into account who was building the cars and who was driving them and all those little nuances that were being sort of pushed forward is my understanding.
• 7:51
  I mean, I wasn't involved in it.
• 7:52
  So, yeah, they make the big call after 10 years of Subaru Rally Team Australia.
• 7:57
  to pull the pin on the Australian Rally Championship.
• 8:00
  Interesting perspective from you there because you could have looked at it as a competitor, which would, I'd suggest, meant a very blinkered view, but instead perhaps your exposure around the corporate side of the company made you pause and go, oh, well, you know, on balance, we've won 10 championships, we've done an amazing thing, do you kind of –
• 8:23
  call time with that all intact, given what you've talked about, about other things in the pipeline and your concerns about whether you'll be competitive and so on.
• 8:30
  I mean, sad.
• 8:31
  It's sad to think of that.
• 8:33
  I think I was disappointed.
• 8:35
  Were you?
• 8:35
  But I guess you have to understand it.
• 8:36
  You have to accept it.
• 8:38
  At that point, they put a lot of work in, I think, particularly Ian Chesterman who was involved in the PR and at that time, Greg Folletta and probably even Phil Rogers put a lot of work into trying to find different ways to create something to land, to make it worth the commercial dollar.
• 8:52
  Subaru were quite innovative when you think about it.
• 8:55
  We had Subaru Rally Radio at one point.
• 8:57
  We had televisions, but we would go to rounds.
• 8:59
  We had VIP tours and stuff.
• 9:01
  Stuff at Canberra where the fans would turn up and stuff.
• 9:02
  Yeah, it was sensational.
• 9:04
  So they were definitely leveraging as good as you could and trying to find new ways that had never been really done before to sort of do that, which was part of the success.
• 9:13
  So here we were lined up with now only Rally Australia to go and it got a little bit political for Cody's career path because basically Nick then sits down and says, right, here's what we're going to do.
• 9:24
  They'd been running this RS Challenge and part of that prize was they were going to give a second seat with the Les Walkden team to the driver who wins.
• 9:31
  I think it was a Benny Turant back in the day and then Eli Evans was going to be this next year.
• 9:35
  So Eli Evans is due to get some form of drive in the Australian Rally Championship.
• 9:38
  I think...
• 9:39
  Subaru are probably trying to be slightly sneaky because TV deals were being sort of spoken about and if you were supported by a manufacturer or manufacturers involved, you had to cop up some of the TV.
• 9:48
  So I think Nick's going, well, we're going to run with Les Walkden.
• 9:51
  So, Code, you'll do ARC with Les Walkden as a private...
• 9:55
  operation.
• 9:56
  Eli will get his chance in that car.
• 9:58
  So that's how that's going to work.
• 9:59
  So I think Code at that point was set to do ARC with Les.
• 10:03
  Sure.
• 10:03
  And Subaru's viewpoint, it's not a manufacturer car.
• 10:06
  We're not doing the TV, but we'll run another year.
• 10:09
  And probably thinking we'll probably have a chance to win anyway.
• 10:12
  And then for me, it was like, well, Dean, we're not sure, you know, we'd love you to stay with the brand.
• 10:17
  We actually think you would be a great tarmac driver.
• 10:19
  I'm like, what?
• 10:20
  Okay.
• 10:21
  We think your style would suit that.
• 10:22
  Yeah, like tarmac rallies.
• 10:23
  Yeah, like tarmac.
• 10:24
  And, you know, we'd like you to head up an opportunity to run in and around some of the tarmac things that we're getting some, you know, the Targa events that we're getting some head up where we were going to go and do Mount Buller Sprint.
• 10:34
  rally TAS, Target Tasmania, and look at doing Target West at the end of the year.
• 10:37
  So still a contracted driver, but arming up that side.
• 10:40
  And, of course, Code and I were both at that point still free and around doing other deals with China and Japan.
• 10:47
  We're going up and down there.
• 10:48
  So you weren't going to be lost to it.
• 10:50
  And that was our choice to take on both those.
• 10:52
  Now, you know, Code can cover his stuff off, but ultimately push came to shove.
• 10:57
  And I think because it got political on their side, Les, I think, was one who went, bugger it, we'll do Asia Pacific.
• 11:01
  That's why they end up doing Asia Pacific.
• 11:03
  Coed ends up doing Asia Pacific in boycotting.
• 11:05
  They effectively boycotted the ARC.
• 11:08
  I end up fronting up and running the tarmac program for Subaru.
• 11:12
  And then at that point, as a privateer, we bought an ex-factory car as a maximum motorsport and ran a couple of years of ARC ourselves.
• 11:18
  But you have, on the tarmac side,
• 11:22
  Jimmy Richards, there's Tony Quinn, there's all these names that are on the tarmac side.
• 11:27
  And I think your mum, was it your mum that saw a photo of you in a press conference?
• 11:31
  Darryl Beattie might have even done Targa that year and so on.
• 11:33
  And there's this line-up of people.
• 11:36
  And you, was Brock there too?
• 11:38
  I can't remember.
• 11:39
  Anyway, and your mum sort of said, hey, I hope you paused to soak that in.
• 11:42
  You're in this press conference.
• 11:44
  Which I probably didn't because you end up competing against these people, you know, at the end of the day.
• 11:47
  And so, yeah, there was a press conference before Targa Taz.
• 11:50
  Like exactly the names you were at a loft, Jim Richards, Darrell Beattie, Tony Longhurst was there, Peter Brock, I think Jason White, people like that.
• 11:58
  And my mum's the one who sort of alerted me to go, hey, you should bank that photo.
• 12:02
  I'm like, what?
• 12:03
  I said, well, these were the guys that you were taking photos of at Wanneroo Raceway back in those times you and I just spoke about before.
• 12:08
  And I have found those photos since and used them in a couple of talks where, yeah, there's me taking an actual still photo that had to go and film of Wanneroo Raceway.
• 12:17
  B&H, Tony Longhurst, and Jim Richards in the Nissan and Peter Brock.
• 12:21
  And I was a massive Peter Brock fan.
• 12:23
  I think I was caught up in that whole thing of being, he made you feel like a million bucks.
• 12:27
  He was really good with the fans engaging.
• 12:29
  Dad thinks we funded his program for a while there with the amount of merchandise that I bought.
• 12:34
  I think I could forge his signature and all sorts of stuff.
• 12:36
  So that was cool to be in and around those people.
• 12:39
  I'd done a couple of mountain bullet sprints.
• 12:41
  I'd never been so nervous.
• 12:42
  I reckon I was about fried the clutch on the first run because we had a big target on our back.
• 12:46
  Like we were the Australian Rally Championship Subaru team.
• 12:50
  You're a works driver rolling in to do, and I didn't know how good I was going to do or not do.
• 12:55
  And so we literally plucked the rally car from last year, pulled the – you can always see the faded S on the side of the door and some gravel rash from Rally Australia on it.
• 13:04
  And in and amongst some beautiful cars like Jimmy's Porsche and Weeksy and Whitey's Lambos and stuff, our car stood about, buddy, a foot taller than theirs and looked like it had been done.
• 13:14
  But you hustled it.
• 13:14
  You hustled it well.
• 13:15
  Yeah.
• 13:16
  So we podiumed the first up Mount Buller and that gave me some confidence.
• 13:20
  And then, you know, in an actual rally, Rally Taz, we beat Tony Quinn on the final stage to get second and Jim won both of those.
• 13:26
  He was, of course, the Targa master.
• 13:28
  And then what had happened is I think Subaru were just feeling it out as well.
• 13:31
  We literally ended up playing blue car for Mount Buller.
• 13:35
  Rally Taz the next round, we had a little bit of white, a little bit of corporate Subaru signage on there.
• 13:40
  By the time we got to Targa, they'd basically gone, right, we're going full back to the S with Subaru Motorsports starting.
• 13:46
  And I think that's why they were looking into circuit race opportunities and the ability to maybe sell Group N or race cars based off this, you know, GD platform that we're running.
• 13:55
  Yeah, we had a pretty rubbish run in that particular Targa because of the, you know, they had tie rules back then.
• 14:00
  You had to make four tyres last and clearly I didn't do that.
• 14:02
  So we had to put a couple on, et cetera.
• 14:04
  But, yeah, and that entered a phase of me then doing Targa events, which I, you know, won the Targa Championship in 11 eventually in a hatch as a private runner.
• 14:12
  Awesome.
• 14:12
  Awesome.
• 14:13
  I don't know how much you want to talk about this.
• 14:15
  If you don't want to talk about it, I fully respect that.
• 14:18
  No problem.
• 14:19
  You mentioned Billy Hayes before, so he's in the co-driving capacity with you.
• 14:23
  He's an ex-policeman.
• 14:26
  You two are among, if not the first on scene when Peter Brock crashed and ultimately died.
• 14:35
  How did – I mean, you just tell me what you're comfortable with from that moment.
• 14:40
  The thing about rallying is that, and we've had it happen a few times, you're the first on scene a lot of the times.
• 14:47
  We called it a buddy system.
• 14:48
  That's why we have OK boards and SOS.
• 14:50
  And now with innovations like RallySafe, that's become much, much, much better.
• 14:53
  But for a long time, we have those systems in place.
• 14:55
  Like Glenn and I were second on the scene when...
• 14:58
  Simon broke his leg in Tassie, for instance, and you go to the SOS point.
• 15:02
  But a lot of those times when your colleagues are down and you're doing your part to make sure that they're okay and safe, so you boycott your run, you make it all happen, you'll get a drive time from the organisers, but then you will run later on.
• 15:14
  So when you get a new coder on board, you talk through some of these things, and Bill particularly said, look, if we are at a big scene of a big accident,
• 15:21
  I reckon I'm better to go to the scene of it and you're better to sort of hang around the peripherals.
• 15:25
  You talked about this long beforehand in case.
• 15:27
  Yeah, because you sort of need to know that we've got to get back out there and have your head switched on if you need to go back out there and run because sometimes that's hard.
• 15:33
  If you're thinking about the big crash and your mate who's in trouble or a colleague.
• 15:37
  So I had had that chat ironically with Bill and he was good into that sort of stuff anyway.
• 15:42
  He'd coach him for dad for a few years and Ross Duncan and stuff.
• 15:44
  So he was an experienced campaigner.
• 15:46
  So, yeah, we've done our year's worth of Targa.
• 15:49
  We're going quite well.
• 15:50
  We end up at Targa West.
• 15:51
  And, of course, those rallies we did prologue half the time.
• 15:53
  So we go out to the driver training centre, we prologue.
• 15:56
  Brock hadn't appeared at that point.
• 15:58
  He's flying in from the UK.
• 15:59
  So Mick Hone, his co-driver and mate of his, I think, drove the Daytona around to have a drive around and just put some runs on the board.
• 16:05
  But Brock had been at Goodwood or something, hadn't he?
• 16:06
  Correct.
• 16:07
  He was flying in that night.
• 16:09
  And, of course, I don't think he'd wrecked the stages at all.
• 16:12
  He bought notes or used someone else's notes, which wasn't unusual.
• 16:15
  That's not a problem.
• 16:16
  They still do it to this day and it's a good way to start.
• 16:19
  So he had notes.
• 16:20
  But in my understanding, not been to Targa West before and not been on these roads and hadn't checked them.
• 16:27
  So we roll into the next morning.
• 16:29
  We qualified or prologue first.
• 16:30
  So we're at the back.
• 16:31
  We're the final car in the field.
• 16:32
  And maybe because he did it in prologue, I think I had Blackie in a Porsche in front of me while at Rookland.
• 16:39
  And I think Brock was fourth last to run.
• 16:41
  Uh-huh.
• 16:41
  The very first stage that morning, it's a bit misty and rainy, and we do a stage called John Forrest just in the hills of Perth here.
• 16:47
  Great little stage, but bouncy rally-type stage.
• 16:50
  The crews can drive in off Grayson Highway and have a look as well and spectate.
• 16:54
  And we get to the end of that stage, and we'd always thought that one would suit us, and we think we should be doing okay.
• 16:59
  We get to the end of the stage.
• 17:00
  We actually ask the officials, because, you know, no live results or anything, going, how did we go?
• 17:04
  And they're going, yeah, you're the quickest through.
• 17:06
  We go, awesome, that's what we're aiming to do.
• 17:09
  Who was second quickest?
• 17:10
  And they go, Brock.
• 17:12
  Like holy shit in there To beat you know all these other cars And you know Dunk goes in and I think my old man's in it In Subarus and bits and pieces and going Shit that's a fair effort from Brocky in the bloody Daytona Through that bumpy stage
• 17:24
  And without a word of a lie, we ended up, because you can sort of service on the run, there's not like we do now with sort of cloverleaf servicing, the crew on the side of the road, so you literally pull up next to them, check a few things, have a chat, and go, no, good, car's good.
• 17:38
  Yeah, look good, we saw you.
• 17:39
  It's a bit bumpy on the way.
• 17:40
  It's doing really well.
• 17:41
  We go, shit, you're not going to believe it.
• 17:42
  Brock was second quickest.
• 17:44
  They said, and this is not a lie to us, geez, it looked a bit ugly coming towards us, just the thing bouncing around and moving, and you're like, oh, okay.
• 17:51
  Okay.
• 17:52
  He's a talented driver but done a good job.
• 17:54
  The next stage we go to is out in the Gidjigana up, I think it's O'Brien Wright.
• 17:59
  I think Dad rides it quite often on a motorbike.
• 18:02
  And on that stage is probably the most deceptive or trickiest corner of the rally from that point of view.
• 18:07
  And my notes were something like left four, which means it's more open than 90 so it's tight-ish.
• 18:14
  Long, double caution, tightens late to a three plus, something along those lines.
• 18:20
  And unfortunately, that's the corner where Brock come unstuck.
• 18:23
  And so we arrive on the scene and not knowing what's going on exactly, got flagged down.
• 18:27
  Blackie's there.
• 18:28
  He was as white as a ghost.
• 18:30
  So instantly, you know, this is a big crash because he doesn't look great.
• 18:32
  And remember, we are a minute and a half behind Brock.
• 18:36
  So they've been there for probably a minute and we're there a minute and a half later.
• 18:41
  So we stop.
• 18:43
  He tells us, look, the big crash.
• 18:44
  We pull up down the side and just go into default mode where Billy jumps out.
• 18:48
  He's over near the car.
• 18:50
  I get out, take my helmet off.
• 18:51
  There's a couple of spectators around and just tell them to stand back a little bit, bits and pieces.
• 18:55
  And because we're the last car, FIV is not far behind.
• 18:58
  Like they are whatever buzzing along FIV does, maybe a couple of minutes at worst.
• 19:04
  And then they're on the scene, Bill clearly hands over to them, et cetera.
• 19:07
  And then he hops in the car and he said, how are they?
• 19:11
  And he said, no, not good.
• 19:12
  And I went, who?
• 19:13
  And he said, Peter.
• 19:15
  And so instantly, it gives me chills thinking about it now, I know that Peter Brock's passed away.
• 19:20
  And my hero, the guy that I'd followed and started to do some racing with, et cetera.
• 19:25
  So we don't say anything on the drive out.
• 19:27
  You just slowly drive out.
• 19:29
  The FIV are now dealing with all that, et cetera.
• 19:32
  and we get to the service and we have a closed-door chat with Phil Rogers, our team manager, to advise and say, look, this has been a big accident, Peter's passed away.
• 19:39
  Well, that's the report that Bill gives me, et cetera.
• 19:42
  And then they go into management mode and bits and pieces.
• 19:47
  The event sort of halted for a little bit, and we sort of had to be a bit proactive with the event, saying you're going to have to start to give some news out because pretty obviously he's not here.
• 19:56
  Yeah.
• 19:56
  And then the rumours start flying around a little bit.
• 19:59
  And I don't remember all the details from there.
• 20:00
  I think they actually halted the rally at that point and everyone reconvened.
• 20:05
  Mitsubishi had a works team, so they had Warwick-Rookland.
• 20:07
  Heapy was running that program and then Mini had a couple of cars.
• 20:10
  Grant Daniel was driving maybe with Sinclair in the other car.
• 20:15
  So you still had three works cars.
• 20:17
  Obviously, this is massive news, and by the time it hits properly, Subaru did what they've done before and did with Dad when Roger passed away, and as a mark of respect, we draw out of the event, which I have to respect that.
• 20:30
  The event goes on, and there's some quotes from people, I think even like Dad, who said, look, Peter probably would want us to run, and that's up to them, but I think...
• 20:37
  The other brands then sort of followed suit, whether they would normally do or they sort of felt like they should.
• 20:42
  So all the manufacturers sort of withdrew as a mark of respect.
• 20:45
  And I sort of get that.
• 20:46
  It's a bit of a Japanese thing to do as well from like Subaru.
• 20:51
  And they've done it a couple of times.
• 20:52
  It's Nick's call at the end of the day, Nick's senior's call.
• 20:55
  And obviously the big thing was it was about, you know, Brock and that stuff, not about winning rallies.
• 20:59
  I mean, we were there to promote how good our cars are and everything
• 21:03
  and winning events and stuff, and you're not going to promote that even if we did end up winning, et cetera.
• 21:08
  Now, the event went on and there are winners.
• 21:09
  I think Dunko won another one, et cetera.
• 21:11
  So, yeah, that part.
• 21:14
  I think Nat later on.
• 21:17
  She checked in on you, didn't she?
• 21:18
  Yeah, because she sort of said, I'm not...
• 21:20
  the most emotional person per se, I have my moments now, you have kids, kids change everything, doesn't it?
• 21:27
  Are you all right?
• 21:28
  Like this was your guy and I think there's two parts.
• 21:31
  One, it's different when you know, like you're one of the first to know in the world that this has happened.
• 21:37
  And you know it's solid info.
• 21:39
  It's not shock value.
• 21:40
  Like, is this actually true?
• 21:41
  Yeah.
• 21:41
  I reckon when some other icons have passed away, like Ayrton Senna and even bloody Steve Irwin, I think I was more shocked at that news.
• 21:47
  You're always walking around half a day going, oh, I can't believe that's happened.
• 21:49
  But sometimes in those circumstances, it's third or fourth hand or it's a media story that may not be accurate.
• 21:54
  Correct.
• 21:54
  Where now I know this is locked in.
• 21:57
  I think the other part was I'm almost as a colleague, and I wasn't his best mate by any stretch,
• 22:04
  I was almost a bit disappointed in him, which sounds bad to say, but I just felt like he didn't give himself the best chance.
• 22:10
  He's come across, not seen the roads, et cetera, and it's a bit of fate as well.
• 22:15
  A less talented steerer would have, in that circumstance, crashed three metres earlier and missed the tree altogether.
• 22:21
  He probably had a fight on the whole way to the tree and dragged that slide out longer and you end up, and that's our sport, and he's not the first person to do that.
• 22:29
  But I just felt like...
• 22:31
  shit, Brockie, how fast were you tackling this car?
• 22:34
  He was an unbelievable steerer and I have admiration for that.
• 22:37
  And on that first stage, he clearly was steering that muscle in that car as good as anybody.
• 22:42
  Don't take that the wrong way.
• 22:43
  Your personal view, I think you're not alone in feeling that way.
• 22:47
  I think there are people that...
• 22:50
  look back on it broadly and think that's not the way an icon like that should be.
• 22:55
  Yeah, and probably disappointed is the wrong word.
• 22:57
  It's probably upset.
• 22:58
  Yeah.
• 22:59
  Like everybody else.
• 23:00
  You just go, there's, you know, a hero of our sport.
• 23:04
  You shouldn't go like that.
• 23:05
  One of the biggest names.
• 23:06
  Yeah, and you just think, Jesus, Brockie, you bugger.
• 23:09
  Yeah.
• 23:10
  Yeah, and it was just obviously a massive, massive moment in Australian motorsport, really, a massive day.
• 23:16
  Yeah.
• 23:27
  Bathurst 12-hour nowadays has lots of GT3 cars, flash Audis, Ferraris, Porsches, you name it.
• 23:33
  Back in the days when you had a crack at it, the line up the field was different.
• 23:38
  But Subaru had, I can vividly recall one year, I mean, there was a car with Grant Denny, who you mentioned before, Neil Crompton was in it, maybe Chris Alajarjan too.
• 23:46
  But then there were the rally boys.
• 23:48
  Yeah.
• 23:48
  There was you, the trio we talked about before, reunited.
• 23:52
  So you, Cody, and Chris Atkinson, and you podium in that thing.
• 23:57
  Yeah.
• 23:57
  Apparently, I got told later we probably should have potentially won.
• 24:00
  I think Paul Morris, Bardo, and in the BMW.
• 24:06
  W, Gary Holt maybe, yeah.
• 24:08
  Yeah, they won.
• 24:09
  Not bad.
• 24:10
  Not bad people we were racing against in the Bimmer.
• 24:12
  Yeah, what an experience.
• 24:13
  I mean, we were definitely the rookies.
• 24:14
  I mean, yeah.
• 24:16
  He'd done a little bit of track work, I think, at Co. Co, not so much.
• 24:21
  I was doing Targa.
• 24:21
  I actually did an event here at Wanneroo to get my licence up.
• 24:24
  Did you?
• 24:24
  Yeah, in Dad's Legacy.
• 24:25
  Probably one of the last events I did, actually, to sort of do it with a circuit racing to get my licence across the line and that sort of stuff.
• 24:31
  That was cool because it was our brand doing an enduro event at the Iconic Circuit.
• 24:38
  Yeah, it wasn't the 1,000 I watched on television, but at that point I'd obviously done a rally in and around Bathurst and actually used the pit area as a part.
• 24:46
  So I'd been there a few times in bits and pieces, but yeah, it was cool to be involved in an endurance event there with your rally guys.
• 24:52
  We were quick in those cars, not the fastest down the straights, but we were quick across the top.
• 24:56
  Yeah.
• 24:57
  And, yeah, as it turned out, we all of a sudden just found ourselves in second position and apparently could have won.
• 25:04
  But, yeah, how cool.
• 25:05
  At the mountain.
• 25:06
  I'm not sure the establishment loved the rally guys coming in and doing that.
• 25:10
  I think there was a bit of pushback.
• 25:11
  There was probably a few people rooting for the BMW to beat us ultimately because it –
• 25:14
  It's pretty surreal to – we were a car 98 because we were sponsored by Caltex at the time and it was sort of advertised in a 98 Ron and I think the other car was number seven because Crompo was with Channel 7 and I think so was Denya, so they were car seven.
• 25:29
  But to come down the straight and glance at the board and see 98 at the top at some parts of the race was surreal.
• 25:35
  At the Totem, which is iconic.
• 25:37
  Yeah, which was cool.
• 25:38
  So, no, that was great.
• 25:39
  And I've obviously been back a couple of times since with no real success because, you know, it was a great event to do.
• 25:44
  And we went there a couple of times with some people like Angus Kennard and John O'Dowd and stuff.
• 25:48
  I even drove Jim Hunter's car there with Barton Moore actually a few years later in a hatch and we were doing okay.
• 25:53
  So, yeah, it was my only real way I guess I was ever going to do a Bathurst in and around those cars apart from doing some drive days.
• 26:00
  You kindly took me for a hot lap there.
• 26:02
  I have a very, very vivid memory of riding beside my mate around the mountain, which was awesome.
• 26:07
  You've never kind of formally retired, which I love.
• 26:10
  And in the latter years here, and I talked to your dad about this as well, there's a great photo outside too of the room where we're recording here.
• 26:17
  You've contested Sunrasure, haven't you?
• 26:19
  Yeah.
• 26:20
  Well, at one point when Dad was probably in a similar situation, I said, so, you know, Dad wanted to have a crack at doing some endurance style, you know, safari, because safari was running here in WA, run by Justin Hunt and with some support from the WA government, and that was, I think, a pretty hard, you know, event to do.
• 26:36
  And he says, I wouldn't mind looking at doing that.
• 26:37
  And I'm like, oh, really?
• 26:38
  Okay.
• 26:39
  I said, what, have you retired?
• 26:40
  And he said, yeah, I've retired.
• 26:41
  I said, well, you didn't tell anyone.
• 26:42
  He said, no one cares.
• 26:44
  But he was looking at a Pajero at that point.
• 26:46
  Okay.
• 26:46
  And I'm going, well, that doesn't fit what we're doing.
• 26:49
  So anyway, he takes it on board and takes up the challenge and did a great job.
• 26:52
  So every time that the Safari would rock up or then eventually Sunranger Safari, which Troy Bennett runs, it always sort of clashed with Tiger West.
• 27:00
  So I would always be back here either running some cars or running the business.
• 27:04
  I actually never went on a Safari or a Sunranger with Dad until I entered with him in a car several years back.
• 27:11
  So I've only done three.
• 27:12
  Yeah.
• 27:13
  And, of course, the poor buggers, you know, had some amazing results and nearly Dan won the thing in the Forester and then he's gone, right, you know what, the next evolution of that, get an XV, we'll run it here and improve it, right?
• 27:24
  Yeah.
• 27:24
  I think he had one run at it and then he's given it to his son because it's probably super ago.
• 27:28
  We'd like you to be in it and...
• 27:29
  Dad runs along with the old girl again and I sort of joke to people, you know, they say, do you still drive?
• 27:34
  I say, well, not necessarily.
• 27:36
  We sort of do this, you know, iconic long-distance event.
• 27:39
  Subaru, I think, like us doing it because it's probably the toughest, longest rally-style event in the country, which is cool storyline and –
• 27:48
  we've got to have two cars because dad and I won't sit next to each other.
• 27:51
  So otherwise most people would think you'd go and do it.
• 27:54
  Dad and Dan can go off and do an event together and we cost more money because we're going, he doesn't want to sit with me and I don't want to sit with him.
• 28:00
  So we have to do it with two cars.
• 28:02
  I love it.
• 28:02
  I love it.
• 28:03
  Few to finish here.
• 28:04
  Firstly, beautiful family, mate.
• 28:06
  Three gorgeous daughters, all, you know, at various stages of their life.
• 28:11
  One still at high school and the other two kind of pursuing their dreams.
• 28:14
  Olivia, yeah.
• 28:16
  is with us in Service Park.
• 28:17
  She's kind of pursuing media, doing a cracking job at it as well.
• 28:21
  And I've seen her pop up at Race of Champions and all sorts of things.
• 28:24
  She's going well, isn't she?
• 28:25
  Yeah.
• 28:26
  I sometimes feel bad that did I – do my kids want to drive in motorsport or not?
• 28:30
  And –
• 28:31
  I feel like a bad parent.
• 28:32
  They haven't given them some opportunities around driving.
• 28:34
  We might try and do some autocross with them just for skill set and see how they go.
• 28:37
  And Amber jumped in with me doing Bernalbo last year, which was the first time I ever met Toby Price.
• 28:42
  So she was sort of pseudo teammates with Toby Price when Glenn Brinkman got us across.
• 28:45
  And that was a cool moment because –
• 28:48
  We were at one point going to put a celebrity in it or a Subaru management person and then Glenn's gone.
• 28:53
  I said, the only person who's likely to jump in from anyone close and not an experienced co-driver is Amber.
• 28:59
  She's going to help for challenge.
• 29:00
  Olivia's smart enough to go, hell no.
• 29:02
  And Amber jumped in and took that bull by the horns.
• 29:04
  Oh, cool.
• 29:05
  That was a cool moment.
• 29:06
  That is the first time there's been a heritage heritage on the same car.
• 29:09
  Is that right?
• 29:10
  Yeah, because I don't co-drive for dad and vice versa.
• 29:12
  So technically a third generation has happened both in what Olivia does.
• 29:17
  It's a bit scary though when the current sort of inch cape boss, which is the parent company for Subaru, Blair Reads, on the phone to me going, oh, I saw Olivia on the social media doing some posting for the WRA Rally Championship.
• 29:26
  And he says, geez, your days are numbered.
• 29:28
  I'm like, oh.
• 29:29
  Oh, that's handy.
• 29:31
  But I like the fact that they're different, you know, and Olivia's finding a bit of a niche and enjoying that part it seems like.
• 29:37
  And all I'm doing is opening some doors.
• 29:39
  She has to walk through them.
• 29:40
  Oh, I don't have the skill set that she does and what she produces and that's what I'm proud about.
• 29:43
  I said, you have the eye for that and she's very good at doing what she does.
• 29:47
  And also, you know, Nat is backing Nat the same way she's backed me.
• 29:51
  Actually, as I get a little bit older and, you know, we're running stuff, you probably don't appreciate it early how rallying in motorsports is pretty selfish realistically and if you don't have that support at home, home life can become really difficult and it'll become hard, et cetera, and it's hard.
• 30:09
  I probably appreciate her more and more every day and year that goes by because we are lucky enough to have three gorgeous girls and building this stuff and doing stuff together.
• 30:18
  And a lot of that wouldn't happen.
• 30:20
  We wouldn't be able to put those runs on the board without the support from home.
• 30:23
  And that then extends through to clearly I'm lucky enough to work with dad.
• 30:26
  And even though my mom and dad haven't been together for 20 years of support from my mom, et cetera.
• 30:30
  Absolutely.
• 30:31
  But I think that's a big part, and I think there'll be lots of people who listen who have tried to forge a career in and around motorsport to know that it is really hard.
• 30:38
  And like I said, as I get older, I appreciate that very much.
• 30:42
  And Nat was very quietly working away while I recorded with Toby Price at the weekend, and I've rocked up.
• 30:49
  semi-unannounced at your place at times for a pasta meal.
• 30:51
  I think I bought Greg Murphy one night for a meal, which was really good fun.
• 30:55
  Can I come to a couple of things to finish?
• 30:57
  Firstly, to Maximum, where we are recording today, that your dad started, he's detailed in his own podcast chat the difficult moments that he had along the way that required some pretty serious digging deep.
• 31:09
  But what you've created, we are upstairs, there are a number of cars that are
• 31:14
  stripped, cleaned, whatever from the Forest Rally at the weekend.
• 31:18
  Was it six or seven cars you had?
• 31:19
  Yeah, ultimately we had our fingertips on, you know, with the WX Challenge and, you know, two Rally Two cars with, you know, Tom Christensen coming from Sweden and of course we run Scott Petter's program and then we have state programs.
• 31:29
  You know, we have a guy called Keith Hamilton and Dave Humphries who have bought one of our hatches and we're running them in the state series and then
• 31:36
  Then you support a mate of yours, Mike Gigny's got a little old classic car and he does a bit of coordination for us, particularly around the ARC and stuff.
• 31:42
  Of course, he wanted to be a hero driver for the weekend.
• 31:44
  So you give him a bit of a spot under a tent as well.
• 31:48
  That's been a massive month, by the way.
• 31:50
  I'll bet it has.
• 31:50
  But I mean, Maximum is more than that.
• 31:52
  I talk about...
• 31:54
  that almost like race car preparation, but it is far more than that, isn't it?
• 31:58
  Yeah, well, over the time it sort of evolved.
• 32:00
  I mean, Steve, who started the business with Dad, Steve Wisby, he was probably more the mechanical, engineering type guy who tuned the cars, Dad was more engineering and management style.
• 32:11
  And...
• 32:12
  I came up just to talk a lot of shit probably.
• 32:14
  I don't play my part in the business.
• 32:16
  But when Steve passed away, that was a real big moment for Dad and I because, you know, Steve was in the centre of that.
• 32:23
  And he was, you know, Dad's one generation, Steve was the next, and then I'm younger than that.
• 32:27
  So it was always probably thought that Steve and I might continue the business together.
• 32:31
  So when Steve passed away, you know, through cancer, we were sort of by his side when he battled that for a while.
• 32:37
  All I remember saying to Dad, at that point we were very mechanical because we should be.
• 32:40
  That's what Steve did, et cetera.
• 32:42
  And I sort of said, look, you do what you've got to do in business, but I said I don't really want to be a glorified service advisor.
• 32:48
  And that's sort of we did a lot of servicing with some great clients and all around Subarus and stuff like that.
• 32:53
  And bit by bit I guess it's evolved a little bit through we still service cars and we still provide parts and we can upgrade them and we have a special edition downstairs that we've done a bit of R&D on, et cetera.
• 33:03
  But yeah.
• 33:04
  One big point for us with the brand was when we became a motorsport parts dealer.
• 33:08
  So when in that heyday of Subaru running Group N cars, they did a great job where if you ran a Subaru in rally or motorsport, you could be looked after with particularly genuine parts.
• 33:19
  And it was all run sort of through Subaru's HQ with someone like Stephen Puckridge, who's still there.
• 33:24
  And eventually I saw that that was becoming more and more difficult as more and more things landed on his lap.
• 33:28
  It got harder and harder to get hold of the right people and motorsport's down to days and you've got to hit targets and stuff and he probably got angry with me a couple of times and vice versa where I'm going, mate, you've left me hanging for three days to get back to me and now it's ex-Japan and, oh, God, you motorsport people are playing the arse, which we sort of are because you've got to make things happen.
• 33:45
  And so the idea of trying to take that from them
• 33:49
  to be able to deliver that for motorsport people is what we propose.
• 33:52
  It probably took a year to put together, to be honest.
• 33:54
  So we are, you know, one of two motorsport parts dealers, Buckby's in Tassie, Ben Newman and his team, and Crichton Lewis, they're sort of the other agent down south.
• 34:04
  We effectively can run and, you know, manoeuvre,
• 34:07
  genuine parts to rally and motorsport competitors.
• 34:09
  It's awesome, mate.
• 34:10
  Yeah, which has been good.
• 34:12
  And I think Dad's proud of that part.
• 34:14
  We've pivoted a little bit in that regard.
• 34:15
  And then the motorsport stuff has sort of phased in and out.
• 34:19
  We've always sort of run cars in and around Targas or 12 hours and depending who our clients are, et cetera.
• 34:24
  And then, you know, Daniel Gonzalez, we ran his program to win a state championship in a rally two car.
• 34:30
  And, you know, now Scott has the confidence to run his cars with us with the likes of Remain downstairs.
• 34:34
  You know, Daniel, who's in the office, he's been with us for nearly 20 years and stuff, so he has a heap of knowledge and he helps, particularly myself, with the parts.
• 34:43
  And then, you know, Craig is an apprentice who's showing some real talent.
• 34:46
  So, you know, then I keep dragging Dad and his mate Crispian, who you've well documented before.
• 34:50
  So we are quite tight as a core, but I've got really good people here.
• 34:54
  Yeah.
• 34:54
  And then what we do is we extend that to the other guys like Gordon and Paul Beebe and Mike and those guys who support us and we get people in to try and play other roles, which is not unusual for race teams to do that.
• 35:04
  It's pretty hard to have an operation that can have 10 permanent staff that just run race cars, et cetera.
• 35:09
  So, you know, over the time we have younger guys come through and old stayers.
• 35:12
  And, you know, as I'm thinking to you, I'm thinking of Steve Palmer who was on the rally on the weekend and those sorts of names and, you know,
• 35:17
  But, yeah, surrounding yourself with good people.
• 35:20
  So I'm very, very lucky because, as you can see, my hands still don't get very dirty.
• 35:24
  But you play to your strengths.
• 35:25
  I walked into your office before.
• 35:27
  It's freaking immaculate.
• 35:28
  There's a whiteboard with everything all lined up.
• 35:29
  Your phone ran hot at the weekend as you're juggling all of this stuff and making sure that it was delivered right for Subaru, who you are proudly blue for your customers like a Scott Petter to ensure that it was competitive and da-da-da-da-da.
• 35:45
  But somewhere and somehow you squeeze in some television with us as well, which for me, mate, I mean, this conversation, this podcast is one of the easiest I've done in some respects because we're mates, we've known each other for a long time.
• 36:00
  We, you know, I've,
• 36:01
  I didn't know every story.
• 36:03
  I've banked a few when we talked on the road and so on with you, but the conversation just flows.
• 36:08
  And I think that's reflected when we do the commentary together for the ARC now, which I love.
• 36:11
  And they're experimenting with live stage coverage and trying to do a few different things.
• 36:16
  That's cool, mate, isn't it, to do that?
• 36:18
  Yeah, it is.
• 36:19
  And it was actually...
• 36:20
  I guess when we weren't running as many cars, by the way, it's probably become a little bit more difficult in the last few years as the competition program stood up because there for a while we weren't running cars in ARC necessarily and it was a bit easier to do.
• 36:33
  Paul Mullen probably was actually totally chalice, ironically, in a state level who probably gave me the first opportunities in and around it and then Paul Mullen from ARC.
• 36:41
  And I learned a lot and it was sort of started originally with some social media when that was a bit new and stuff.
• 36:45
  But I think… Worked with Jessica Dane for a while too.
• 36:47
  Yeah, of course, as part of when Motorsport Australia took it on.
• 36:50
  And I've been very fortunate, but I also see there's probably only one role like that.
• 36:55
  It's not a big enough sport, and I do love the sport, and I love telling the story about it.
• 37:00
  And I think spinoffs of that have come with opportunities of emceeing, you know, Targa West Award dinners and emceeing things around Subaru and stuff.
• 37:08
  But even, you know, and you and I have done this together, the Rally Hall of Fame.
• 37:12
  Now as I get older and I appreciate all parts and the history of our sport, some of my fond memories away from doing television with the likes of yourself and showcasing our sport and at the moment it's in a great spot with awesome stories is being involved and emceeing the Hall of Fame dinners and introducing and talking and reading the citations and interviewing some of our, what are therefore legends of the sport.
• 37:35
  And so, yeah, I find that's put me in a position where I've been very lucky to do that at the same time because now I, you know, I...
• 37:41
  When you're younger, you're 10 foot tall and bulletproof and you don't know anything.
• 37:44
  I would then induct, you know, you're inducting somebody, you go...
• 37:48
  I remember them being 10, 15 years ago with a fluoro shirt on doing a control.
• 37:52
  I didn't know that he'd coached him for Andrew Cowan or done whatever it was.
• 37:56
  And so I like that bit of our sport.
• 37:59
  And I think the same way I bleed blue blood for Subaru, it's our sport.
• 38:04
  And the fact that our family, from whether it be Nat and the living and the girls to dad and everybody, we've lived and breathed and been very lucky to be able to sort of call it our sport and we've been able to do it for our career.
• 38:15
  Yeah.
• 38:15
  You've been doing as well a little bit of work, well, maybe I'm not describing that very well, that's probably the wrong choice of words, with GMAC on a project that he's heavily embedded in too, aren't you?
• 38:24
  Yeah, that's just to keep it slightly busy.
• 38:26
  That's because GMAC, who's an unbelievable co-driver, and I mean Scott Petter, I think part of the reason he wanted to come back and get the right people on board was to put someone like Glenn McNeil who's done more WRC rallies than any other Australian driver or co-driver.
• 38:39
  He's made a career of being a professional co-driver.
• 38:41
  You would walk past him in the service park.
• 38:43
  He'd never make big noise about that.
• 38:44
  No, and he's always been.
• 38:45
  like that, always.
• 38:46
  Like he's never been the one of those co-drivers who's, oh, my name should be on top or underneath.
• 38:50
  He didn't care.
• 38:51
  He wanted the best for the team and he loves the sport the same way.
• 38:54
  So, yeah, he was living in Europe at the time and just probably decided, well, I want to look to come home and, in his words, get a real job.
• 39:00
  And so I guess he was starting to look at what opportunities were there and would you believe between he and our best mate Brad Markovic, we'd have barbecues and catch up with their families and do stuff and we're thinking about this go-karting stuff and bits and pieces and stuff
• 39:13
  You know, Power Play, it's now been probably three years and it's growing.
• 39:17
  There was a bit of work.
• 39:18
  It wasn't, you know, 52 weeks of the year, but we'd catch up.
• 39:21
  And then on one of those 12-hour trips, would you believe, we did a boys' trip.
• 39:25
  Sorry, I'll rephrase that.
• 39:26
  We did a... A reconnaissance trip.
• 39:28
  Yeah, a reconnaissance.
• 39:29
  That's what it was.
• 39:30
  We weren't boys' tripping.
• 39:30
  We did a...
• 39:30
  Yeah, yeah.
• 39:51
  That's a magnificent stadium.
• 39:53
  When you talk about how they built it, they actually did a reconnaissance and went to all these stadiums around the world and picked out the bits that they liked of it.
• 39:59
  And then Glenn put that on paper and we looked at it and ultimately this was for him and I think he went to try and raise the capital to sort of I'm going to give it a crack and, of course, no one wanted to touch it.
• 40:09
  So I guess he reached out, or I don't know how the conversation started, and ultimately Brad, myself, Annette, and his parents got involved to back him and become a small share and give it a crack, and June Lupp started.
• 40:21
  And ironically, you know, the side story on that is that the track's a dual-level track that comes from Italy and the karts are Soti karts from France.
• 40:28
  When that all landed, COVID hit.
• 40:30
  It was parked up for a little bit.
• 40:32
  Like we had the containers parked up thinking, well, what is- You've made the commitment and then it's all on board.
• 40:35
  Yeah, so like lots of things, it's on the water and now landed and COVID has now hit full stream.
• 40:40
  Now, Perth was one of the better places, don't get me wrong.
• 40:42
  So after halting the idea of opening that up for a couple of months, we decided, well, Perth's okay.
• 40:48
  We think this can still work and we're getting enough gaps.
• 40:51
  But of course, part of that deal with the track was that the Italians were supposed to fly out and help you set it up for a week or two.
• 40:57
  On your own.
• 40:57
  Couldn't do it.
• 40:58
  So guess who he installs?
• 40:59
  the old Rob Herridge, his mate Crispy, to basically pull this Lego set of an Italian truck out of containers into this big sort of open space warehouse and start putting it together.
• 41:10
  How good.
• 41:10
  And so, yeah, and that was how the first one was built without the Italians being here, literally grabbing bits and pieces and using Dad's know-how.
• 41:16
  And there was quite a funny story.
• 41:17
  I mean, Dad loves Italian bikes and guns and stuff, and he loves their flair and all that sort of stuff.
• 41:23
  So it wasn't missed on him that they had these fantastic down ramps and they're beautifully made.
• 41:27
  And at one point he turns to the glen.
• 41:28
  Because, no, no.
• 41:29
  No instructions, of course.
• 41:30
  It's all there.
• 41:30
  It's just supposed to know what you're doing.
• 41:32
  He says to Glenn, Glenn, I feel like we've got like four right down ramps and no lefts.
• 41:37
  So they ring the Italians the next day and go, you think we've got four rights and no lefts?
• 41:41
  And they, yes, because Holland have four lefts and no rights.
• 41:46
  Must have painted containers wrong.
• 41:47
  Sorry about that.
• 41:48
  And then, you know, they'd use their nails to work it all out.
• 41:51
  And anyway, it went gangbusters.
• 41:53
  You've got one in Melbourne now, I think, don't you?
• 41:55
  Yeah, it's expanded.
• 41:56
  So we tried not to fluke it.
• 41:58
  We then opened up one in Bibrile.
• 41:59
  And this is all, this is Glenn's, he lives and breathes this every day.
• 42:02
  Like Brad and myself, we might come out in the early days and help late at night to try and shoppeen this and get the experience right.
• 42:08
  But this is Glenn's vision.
• 42:10
  And even I feel like some of our ideas around what would work and us as parents with kids and stuff,
• 42:16
  Glenn would be on board with somebody.
• 42:19
  He had the vision for it.
• 42:20
  Did he?
• 42:20
  And like I said, he lives with a breeze.
• 42:22
  So all the accolades go to him.
• 42:23
  We backed him and we were there for him, but he still does that to this day.
• 42:27
  So Bebber Lake started.
• 42:28
  It wasn't a fluke.
• 42:29
  We then done a raise and there's now one in Melbourne, another one here in Perth and Malaga, and there's going to be two more in Melbourne and one coming on stream in Adelaide before the end of the year and hopefully growing it from there.
• 42:38
  So...
• 42:39
  We're on for the ride.
• 42:40
  It's been, I guess we've rolled the dice.
• 42:43
  It doesn't owe us anything now.
• 42:45
  Glenn wanted to give it a red hot go and try and go for gold, do as much as he could in a small period and just organically run them around.
• 42:50
  So, you know, still myself and Brad, and that's play a light role in some of the small management stuff, I guess, in the background.
• 42:57
  Now there's a board and all sorts of other little things like that.
• 42:59
  But, yeah.
• 43:00
  Yeah, and it's been cool.
• 43:01
  I mean, at the end of the day, the thing that was telling for me, I guess we backed him in and you've got to be like a rally car.
• 43:08
  If you're going to drive it flat out, you've got to be prepared to ride it off.
• 43:10
  You have to be prepared to risk your money.
• 43:12
  And Nat and I had to be comfortable with that, as did Joe and Brad and his parents.
• 43:16
  And it's easy later to say, oh, it could have been.
• 43:19
  And Dad says to me occasionally, he goes, fair play to you guys.
• 43:23
  Because he said, there I am, building it in June Lut, making all this stuff work.
• 43:27
  And he said, even if you'd turned to me in the middle of that before you'd even opened on opening day and said, do you want to come in and invest?
• 43:33
  He said, I probably wouldn't have.
• 43:34
  Is that right?
• 43:35
  Yeah, yeah.
• 43:36
  So I think, like I said, with all these things, it looks easy and it was- Hard work.
• 43:41
  Yeah, they put the hard work in.
• 43:43
  And it's all about the experience there.
• 43:45
  All we've really done is take it and try and really focus on all the percentage.
• 43:49
  There are electric carts in good venues with cool tracks with the carts that slide, and that's all about- Family-orientated outings.
• 43:55
  Yeah, and you know what reminded us of that?
• 43:57
  And I spoke to GMAC on the way to Forest, because obviously-
• 44:00
  Power Play got on board to help Toby run in the rally.
• 44:03
  And so Toby Price lands, comes here, says g'day to the boys and then goes to Power Play at Bidwell Lake, does a little bit of promo and runs around on the track.
• 44:11
  The coolest bit of that, forget the marketing, forget the spiel, is that eventually I got there a little bit late before I headed down south as well.
• 44:18
  And for him to have Brinkman there and a few of their team, et cetera, and Holly driving and stuff, and we all got out.
• 44:25
  And guess what?
• 44:25
  We're like kids.
• 44:27
  I said to GMAC, those moments when there's an experienced guy with his team and a friend of his and Glenn Brinkman and me there and someone who doesn't know and some staff members to get out of eight carts and be giggling around the place and think it was awesome, I said, that's why you did it and why we did it.
• 44:43
  And that's a pretty cool moment.
• 44:44
  And if we can try and replicate that around the country, then hopefully it hits it in all marks.
• 44:48
  And, yeah, fair play.
• 44:49
  Let's see what happens.
• 44:50
  Old Bill Gates McNeil, hey?
• 44:52
  Yeah, yeah.
• 44:53
  Exactly.
• 44:54
  The visionary.
• 44:55
  The visionary.
• 44:55
  He got it at work, but don't worry.
• 44:57
  He puts in plenty of work at the same time.
• 44:59
  This has been long, but been a joy for me to do.
• 45:01
  It's very rare in around whatever it is now, 300 podcast episodes, that I get to sit down with a mate.
• 45:07
  And, you know, we got to deal with each other.
• 45:10
  as a media person and a competitor in Service Park 20-plus years ago.
• 45:15
  Our conversation is always easy.
• 45:16
  You just sort of pick up and keep going, and we've just peppered all of those yarns that we've learnt along the way through this, mate.
• 45:22
  Be proud.
• 45:22
  You've done some incredible things, not just locally but internationally.
• 45:26
  I'm a huge believer in loyalty.
• 45:28
  The blue runs deep for you, and to think that you've had 25-plus or thereabouts years with them and still going I think is remarkable, and that you proudly...
• 45:39
  and very authentically champion the brand.
• 45:41
  You're not just a squawker or a talker.
• 45:45
  Fam are great, and I'm loving doing the stuff that we do on television together.
• 45:49
  Thank you for telling a good chunk of your story with us here today.
• 45:52
  My pleasure, mate, and thank you so much.
• 45:54
  It's a pleasure, and that means a lot, you say, on that.
• 45:55
  Thank you.
• 46:03
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 46:07
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 46:12
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.