Latest / Rusty's Garage / Anton De Pasquale | Part 2 - Team building and dream resto projects

Transcript

Anton De Pasquale | Part 2 - Team building and dream resto projects · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:06
  All set for part two of a Ripper Convo with Anton Di Pasquale.
• 0:09
  If you've landed here without giving part one a run, power this one down and fire that one up first.
• 0:15
  Why?
• 0:16
  He wasn't necessarily bad at school, but every waking moment was more or less spent...
• 0:20
  thinking and dedicated to racing, playing catch-up in karts after a late start and figuring it out with his dad as they drove around country Victoria and beyond learning, coming to the attention of Mark Larkham and heading to Europe with his guidance, where Anton enjoyed success in Formula Renault, winning the title in 2014, plus changing tack and coming back to Australia and how a day at Norwell with Paul Morris helped him get started on the supercars path.
• 0:49
  That's a great story.
• 0:50
  There's some other fantastic stuff in here coming up, including recollections of his time at DJR, the highs and lows there, and why he is such a good team leader.
• 1:01
  There's also a very funny driving story from his time in Europe.
• 1:04
  Just keep that in a bit of perspective.
• 1:06
  Young blokes on the road together.
• 1:08
  No one got hurt.
• 1:09
  Bit of fun.
• 1:09
  And I sense that Jack Aiken was at sixes and sevens after that one.
• 1:13
  It'll make sense when you hear it.
• 1:15
  Let's get back into the convo now.
• 1:19
  You've always struck me as a very calm-natured person.
• 1:23
  You seem that way.
• 1:23
  I don't know if it's different when you pull the helmet on.
• 1:26
  Some of the team have said to me how level-headed you are was one description.
• 1:30
  You kind of ride the motorsport emotional roller coaster that happens for other people with seemingly a level approach.
• 1:38
  Does that period at Erebus, which is a huge test, you've just talked about how relatively little...
• 1:43
  experience in a supercar sense you're bringing to the table for that.
• 1:46
  A lot is being asked of you in a leadership sense.
• 1:48
  How big was that learning period for you?
• 1:51
  And I guess what the first part of prefacing that is that your nature generally or you chose to be like that?
• 1:59
  Um, probably generally, I don't know.
• 2:00
  I haven't thought about it, so it must come naturally.
• 2:03
  But I guess in all that, the beauty of, um, well, really everywhere I've been, I've always had a, an experienced teammate, like rolled in, obviously Dave Reynolds is your teammate.
• 2:14
  He's running at the front.
• 2:15
  Um.
• 2:16
  So you had that baseline and that experience within the team to sort of know what to expect and where to go and all this stuff.
• 2:25
  So it wasn't on me.
• 2:26
  I'd sort of just was allowed to sort of do my thing and he was getting the results for the team and could learn through that process.
• 2:33
  And he's always been really good to learn.
• 2:35
  Obviously, we've gone full circle with teammates again now.
• 2:37
  Yes.
• 2:37
  But at that time, it was...
• 2:40
  ask questions and listen and um he was always very helpful and then um yeah and then i'm second to that obviously moved and had had davo as a teammate which is another big learning step as well so i've been lucky to have two really good teammates with a lot of experience to lean on um through that process so never felt like it was on me to to perform or whatever obviously it is yeah um but yeah you always had had had experience and people willing to
• 3:10
  Adrian Burgess, who is a part of the Team 18 structure where you are now, said to me that you have this keen interest always in the crew of people that are around you, that there are social events that you'll regularly take yourself to and social events around those people, whatever it might be, birthdays, blah, blah, blah.
• 3:29
  I think it was even Adrian's birthday a week before we recorded this and you were out with him, for example.
• 3:34
  Yeah.
• 3:37
  Maybe Paul instilled a bit in that in you.
• 3:39
  I don't know.
• 3:40
  Did you get conscious when you're at Erebus of, right, I have to have this bond with these people that are around my car and be good at that?
• 3:51
  Maybe you enjoy that.
• 3:52
  I don't know, being around those people generally.
• 3:54
  And so that comes a bit easier.
• 3:55
  But were you conscious of that?
• 3:57
  Yeah, it's important, I think, but I enjoy it and I'm very, especially now, the crew on my car and the team as a whole, everyone's so close and everyone's a really cool person.
• 4:10
  So it's not a chore to travel and go to all these places and team dinners and stuff.
• 4:15
  Everyone wants to be there.
• 4:16
  Everyone does attend, which is really helpful.
• 4:18
  I think that...
• 4:20
  Makes a big difference and it makes a big difference.
• 4:23
  And the good days, everyone's going to get on like you win, whatever you get a podium, everyone's happy.
• 4:28
  But when shit's gone bad or, you know, you need a fix or all night, or you got to ask, ask the boys to pull a gearbox out off, you know, they've only got an hour or whatever.
• 4:38
  And, you know,
• 4:38
  that I really want to do it, but they will because you're a team and everyone has their role.
• 4:44
  But, um, because, because you get on and you're not asking just cause you're a prick.
• 4:48
  So, um, yeah, I think it's really important and ultimately within the team, um,
• 4:54
  um, the drive, like we have the best role naturally and we do the less hours as well.
• 4:59
  So, um, those guys, uh, you know, we're leaving the track and everyone's still working and we get there and they're still working.
• 5:05
  Um, it's very rare.
• 5:07
  You'll see us there before the crew.
• 5:09
  And, um, it's good to show respect for that because it is hard and, um, the, like all up and down pit lane, everyone that's working is like putting some hours in, um, and we get to.
• 5:21
  drive the race cars and ultimately crash them and destroy them.
• 5:25
  And they will always come back brand new.
• 5:28
  Just on that character reference that I set up that question with, on the flip side of the assessment of you, they were saying things like, you know, when things don't go your way, you're not the kind of lash out in frustration and around the people that you work with.
• 5:42
  You're always kind of measured in the way that you work through
• 5:45
  the problems associated with the car.
• 5:48
  And people see that as a real strength of yours.
• 5:51
  Do you see yourself as mechanically minded?
• 5:55
  Like everyone talks about Brody and what he does with the car.
• 5:57
  Maybe you've got an element of that.
• 5:59
  But I see clearly from what people are telling me here, that the people skills are very important.
• 6:06
  part for you too um yeah i think i'm like i i understand the car pretty well not to the point of like i couldn't pull it together and put it back together in the same condition that um they could but understanding i think um and through the years you get better and better at is understanding what you need from the car at any given time is is quite difficult and
• 6:29
  It's something that I sort of take responsibility for within, obviously, the car because an engineer can only do so much.
• 6:38
  But you have to feed it.
• 6:39
  Like, you have to give them the information of where to go and what to look for.
• 6:44
  So that's our responsibility as the driver to guide that direction.
• 6:48
  And I quite enjoy that.
• 6:49
  And we have...
• 6:52
  That's why they're always talking about driver-engineering relationships, so important, blah, blah, blah, because it is.
• 6:56
  And we have the – I'm sure if you sort of stepped in and listened to some of the conversations we have together, you would think we hate each other.
• 7:05
  Let's call them robust.
• 7:07
  Are they robust?
• 7:08
  Yeah.
• 7:09
  Because you only got limited time, so you've got to be blunt, but you know –
• 7:13
  Like you both understand each other and it's sometimes it's, you know, you might get upset about whatever and this is happening.
• 7:20
  And it's also the engineer comes back and go, yeah, mate, but you're breaking like shit.
• 7:24
  You've got to fix that and then I can help you.
• 7:25
  And you go, okay, yeah, cool.
• 7:27
  Fair shout.
• 7:27
  I'll work on that as well.
• 7:29
  So you have that respect to each other and it's the only way to move forward.
• 7:32
  Like this sport is so cutthroat, so limited time that...
• 7:36
  emotions can't really be at the forefront.
• 7:38
  They've got to be left at home and you just got to want to go better.
• 7:42
  And you want to do it together, right?
• 7:44
  Yeah.
• 7:44
  I mean, does that describe the kind of relationship that you have with Andrew Donnelly and Donnelly's, right?
• 7:50
  So he works closely with you on that car and maybe there's a mutual respect in that.
• 7:53
  Like you have to just be, what's that line people talk about?
• 7:56
  Brevity or, you know, just, just, it's not, you're not being rude.
• 8:00
  You're just being succinct kind of thing in your description of stuff.
• 8:03
  Yeah.
• 8:04
  Yeah.
• 8:04
  Yeah, no, you have to be because, like I said, you're so limited on time.
• 8:07
  You might only have 30 seconds to talk to each other before the decision's going to be made.
• 8:12
  And you need to have your cue words, which mean, is it bad or is it really bad?
• 8:17
  And the harsher the words get, the more, because you have to sometimes show the little bit of emotion.
• 8:23
  I'm not just saying it on the excuse.
• 8:24
  I'm saying it like that.
• 8:26
  To illustrate it, to highlight it.
• 8:28
  Don't.
• 8:29
  I don't polish it, re rebuild it kind of thing.
• 8:31
  So we have a pretty good relationship and I think we understand each other very well.
• 8:36
  Um, we don't really get each other's faces much at all.
• 8:40
  Um, he's a really good listener and understands really well.
• 8:45
  Um, and our language is pretty similar.
• 8:47
  Like we're a weaker part in age.
• 8:48
  We sort of speak the same language.
• 8:49
  We kind of enjoy the same thing.
• 8:51
  So we got on really, really well.
• 8:53
  Um, yeah,
• 8:54
  And we both just love racing and making cars better and making everything better within the team as much as we can.
• 9:00
  So we spend a lot of time during the week just, you know, just analyzing things and just talking through things as much as we can.
• 9:07
  And we feel like we get something out of that.
• 9:11
  When did the love of cycling kick in?
• 9:13
  Did it kick in in Europe?
• 9:14
  Did it kick in Europe?
• 9:16
  on the Gold Coast?
• 9:17
  Did it start when you were with Erebus?
• 9:18
  When you loved them, I think when you were bikes generally, when you were younger, you talked about dirt bikes earlier and so on.
• 9:24
  When did you get involved in cycling?
• 9:26
  I think I got my first bike sort of Formula Ford time.
• 9:31
  mainly because I think all the sort of supercar driving and stuff was cycling.
• 9:35
  And it was pretty – everyone knew that.
• 9:37
  So I was like, oh, well, I might as well do that too.
• 9:40
  So I sort of did that briefly.
• 9:41
  And then when I went overseas, that's when I sort of hit it pretty hard.
• 9:45
  I got a pretty good bike over there through some connections in the team and all that.
• 9:50
  So I got this really good bike, really cheap.
• 9:52
  And I was living in some of the coolest places to cycle.
• 9:56
  And I was also very close to the weight all the time.
• 10:01
  as skinny as possible.
• 10:03
  So that was the best way to do it.
• 10:04
  Like you should just wake up, have a bowl of cereal and ride 100Ks or whatever and just come back and jump on the scales and go, yeah, sweet, off to the race track.
• 10:13
  And I had to just – that was so hard for me to keep under the weight.
• 10:17
  And the weight was pretty strict.
• 10:18
  Like I'm like 80 kilos now, which is just like a normal dude.
• 10:22
  But I was like down at like 66, 67 kilos.
• 10:24
  Yeah.
• 10:26
  And to sort of make the weight, it was quite hard for some reason.
• 10:30
  It's all got a bit leaner now, and it's a bit easier for everyone now.
• 10:34
  But back then, the lighter you were, the more chance you had.
• 10:38
  So that's the only way I could do it.
• 10:40
  You just ride and ride.
• 10:41
  And I really enjoyed it.
• 10:43
  I was sort of riding through the mountains of Austria and stuff and just enjoying it.
• 10:47
  So then that's something I've always...
• 10:50
  carried on.
• 10:51
  A little bit more fair weather now.
• 10:53
  Don't ride too much in the winter.
• 10:56
  Don't ride too much when the magpies are sweeping.
• 10:59
  But in summer, pretty much most days, yeah.
• 11:02
  Cool.
• 11:02
  Can I give you an open opportunity to, in your own words, tell me how you feel with time about the DJR chapter, how the opportunity came about?
• 11:13
  I feel there were some great moments there to be positive of.
• 11:17
  There's probably some frustration at the end.
• 11:18
  How have you
• 11:20
  Now that you've been nearly two years with Team 18, how do you kind of feel about that section of your career now and maybe a zenith moment and a tough moment in that place?
• 11:28
  Yeah, it was good, I guess.
• 11:31
  Had a lot of good results and a lot of good times with a lot of good people as well.
• 11:35
  People.
• 11:37
  I guess the hardest part about all that is like when you talk results and stuff was how good, um, like Red Bull and Shane got at like in that last couple of years, I guess it was at the same time, obviously Scotty went and everything, but those guys brought a new level, um, to it.
• 11:54
  And I think that caught the field off guard, like, you know, um, yeah.
• 11:58
  through the years when Scotty was there, Waters was second or whatever in the championship, Shane come along and just sort of trapped everyone.
• 12:03
  So, um, that was the hardest bit because you would lead so many races and just the tie life that they had.
• 12:10
  Um, me and Will spoke at that time, like, what do we do like to, you know, the state just never had any tie deck and it was just like, is this really hard to do anything about?
• 12:20
  Um, so we, the amount of seconds that we had and stuff over the years, it was really annoying, but, um,
• 12:26
  we're in competitive cars all the time.
• 12:28
  We're having a good time racing and, um, learn a lot through that experience.
• 12:32
  Got to work a lot of good people.
• 12:33
  Um, um,
• 12:35
  obviously that team was in a different life cycle than obviously where it was a couple of years before and everything, but there's a lot of the good people were still there and we still had a great team.
• 12:43
  So, um, had a good experience and obviously got to experience the gen three from the brunt of it from the start and sort of understand that process and see how that all went about and, um, how hard that was for everybody.
• 12:58
  Um,
• 12:58
  And then obviously we rolled out our cars and we weren't very good and just getting through that.
• 13:02
  And then ultimately when we won in Townsville in 23, which was the first official Mustang win, just sort of knowing where we come from, that was probably one of my best wins there.
• 13:14
  And it was, yeah, I have a lot of good memories still and I'm still close to a lot of people.
• 13:20
  Tell me about that, about that, you know, was it because you'd come through all of that tough stuff?
• 13:24
  So to get that
• 13:26
  result in Townsville was so satisfying in that sense.
• 13:31
  Yeah, it was just like what, obviously, what we rolled out of Newcastle that year, and then just with the parody and the Mustang and all the stuff, and eventually winning it and being a part of that was just a good feeling.
• 13:45
  And then we went on a bit of a run and got a few podiums, and we had third at Bathurst that year, where we had zero straight line speed.
• 13:53
  Yeah.
• 13:55
  It was a perfect day.
• 13:56
  We got third and it felt like we – I mean, you never deserve to win when you don't win, but it was like we felt like we did everything we could and had a really good day and did everything right.
• 14:05
  And that felt like a mini win in itself.
• 14:08
  So we had a lot of good moments, I think, and even prior to that in the old gen cars and some one-twos with Devo and sharing front rows and bumping into turn one and stuff.
• 14:19
  And not many people can say they've been able to do that, you know, with their teammate on a regular basis.
• 14:24
  So that was cool.
• 14:25
  Did you feel like it was going to be, you know, timely to have a refresh, a reset maybe?
• 14:31
  Did Charlie call?
• 14:33
  What transpires to get you to go south again to Team 18?
• 14:36
  I think it was just timing was right.
• 14:38
  It was obviously a lot going on.
• 14:40
  Yeah.
• 14:42
  They were trying to reset and, yeah, I was ready for a move as well.
• 14:47
  And I obviously had some good discussions with Charlie and Adrian and I didn't know Charlie too well.
• 14:53
  I obviously got to know him well.
• 14:54
  Obviously, he knew him briefly from the paddock and stuff as you do.
• 14:57
  I knew Adrian quite well because he spent a lot of time, obviously, when he was working with supercars for the prototype phase and all that.
• 15:04
  So I knew what operator he was and I was quite excited to put myself in that situation.
• 15:12
  come from a different perspective to where I had been.
• 15:15
  Obviously, join a team and go upwards and be part of that process.
• 15:21
  And I felt like I could contribute to that.
• 15:24
  And obviously I have, but I felt like there was a lot of links there that with a couple others could link up really well and we could be where we are.
• 15:31
  So it was an opportunity that I was excited about.
• 15:41
  Anton's teammate Dave Reynolds is a character.
• 15:44
  He came on the pod in 2024 and talked about a side project, restoring a Series 1 Mazda RX-7 that he had a sentimental connection with.
• 15:53
  It started life out as a 12A bridge port.
• 15:55
  Immediately it was all fuck.
• 15:57
  I bought it for $1,000.
• 15:58
  It was a shocking car.
• 16:00
  It was buggered.
• 16:01
  And I spent, I was 16, 15 when I bought it, and I got it ready for paint when I was 16 and watched all that happen and tried to realise I didn't want to be a panel beater after that because the amount of hours you spend rubbing back stuff and all that, it was just crap.
• 16:18
  I'm not good at this.
• 16:18
  I hated it.
• 16:20
  Enjoy a laugh with Dave later.
• 16:22
  Search for it in the garage library once you've finished listening to Anton's story.
• 16:27
  You sense there is more pages for Anton to write, and he's got the talent to make those chapters good ones.
• 16:34
  Adrian tells me you are a regular at the workshop.
• 16:37
  You may have even been there today before you've come into the studio here.
• 16:40
  They're obviously on a massive growth curve.
• 16:44
  I was with you in Hidden Valley, which that was huge for the team and so on.
• 16:49
  How, from what you're observing, are all the ingredients kind of
• 16:52
  coming together?
• 16:53
  Because I know there's all that stuff with Scafie and whatever else, which seems to have been ironed out at Perrette's birthday party, which is lovely.
• 17:00
  But do you feel like the ingredients are coming together?
• 17:03
  And then maybe perhaps by enduro time or something, it's starting to be on a more regular basis?
• 17:09
  Yeah, I think we're definitely on a good path.
• 17:11
  And I think I've said it before, but like
• 17:16
  It is to do well in this series and to do it well regularly or more than once.
• 17:21
  So hard.
• 17:22
  It is so hard.
• 17:23
  And that's why it feels so good when you do win.
• 17:25
  That's why, you know, it feels the way it does.
• 17:27
  And I think for us to just be able to go, oh, yeah, we're a factory team.
• 17:33
  Yeah, okay, yeah, we have me.
• 17:34
  Okay, yeah, we've got a couple other people.
• 17:36
  We're going to win.
• 17:37
  Like that's not fair to ourselves.
• 17:40
  And it's like borderline disrespectful to the other teams as well because, you know,
• 17:45
  people have been building for years and years and years to get to where they are.
• 17:48
  And, um, we're only sort of, you know, 12 or so months into our, our sort of, our progress.
• 17:54
  And I feel like we're on, on a good path and, um, we're competing regularly at the front, um, which is a hard thing to do and we're only getting better and stronger and we're understanding more.
• 18:06
  Um.
• 18:06
  You know, bad days don't last as long as they used to and whatever.
• 18:10
  But yeah, it's just a process and I think you have to sort of respect the process a little bit and it takes time and you've got to learn from it.
• 18:17
  As long as you sort of stick to your own goals and what you think where you should be, you'll be on the right path.
• 18:24
  So for us, when we can win races and we can get podiums against the...
• 18:31
  you know, the best of the best, it feels great.
• 18:33
  Do you like the final format?
• 18:35
  And has everyone kind of rethought the way we're potentially going to go about this in 2026?
• 18:42
  I think so.
• 18:42
  It's like a, it's so borderline between like the thought train of obviously, you know,
• 18:49
  we're testing for the finals and then there's, well, if you make your car as fast as possible every day, you are testing for the finals anyway.
• 18:57
  Like it's sort of what's true and what's not.
• 19:01
  I still don't know.
• 19:01
  And I probably, you probably never will because, you know, you go to like a Townsville 12 months on and it's completely different.
• 19:08
  You got to change your car completely different than the year before.
• 19:10
  You know, the sun's shining in a different direction than the last year and it's different.
• 19:14
  So it's, I think it's hard to predict that.
• 19:18
  what your problem is going to be at Gold Coast now.
• 19:21
  But in saying that, there's some learnings, obviously, through the year that we see that we're trying to solve for later in the year and there's some place we feel confident to go to and some place we don't.
• 19:32
  And we're trying to get ahead of that as early as we can.
• 19:35
  But at the same time, if you've got an opportunity to go well, you want to go well now.
• 19:40
  Few to finish.
• 19:41
  Firstly, you mentioned a little bit of GT stuff overseas.
• 19:45
  You know, we've seen Shane successfully go to NASCAR.
• 19:47
  Brodie's dabbled there.
• 19:48
  Will Brown's dabbled there.
• 19:50
  your immediate focus, I'm sure you'll tell me is supercars, Bathurst, whatever, but is there a little want to tick a couple of other things along the way?
• 19:57
  And if so, what is that itch you want to scratch?
• 20:00
  Um, plenty of itches, but, uh, obviously I'd love to do some more GT stuff.
• 20:05
  I think I really enjoyed that.
• 20:07
  Um, obviously got to do it with the Groves and they're good friends of mine.
• 20:11
  And we had a really good time and we sort of, you chuck in half a holiday at the same time.
• 20:14
  And I really enjoyed that racing and that style of racing and those cars.
• 20:19
  Um, um,
• 20:20
  So yeah, love to do, you know, your 12 hours and your 24s if they line up and whatever.
• 20:25
  But at the same time, like, you know, I think it'd be cool to do a, like a wildcard NASCAR that obviously people have doing, but it's not easy to do.
• 20:33
  Like you can't just roll over there with your helmet and you're going to drive a car.
• 20:37
  There's a process and, you know, obviously someone's got to pay for it and all that.
• 20:43
  Um...
• 20:44
  But I think that'd be really cool.
• 20:45
  And obviously... One day.
• 20:46
  Us being the chef team, obviously there's a natural link there.
• 20:49
  So that'd be something, um, be good to explore.
• 20:52
  And obviously you have to be smart with where you do it and very difficult.
• 20:56
  You can't just go test there and then decide what you do, you know, like they've sort of, you go in, you walk in straight to a race pretty much.
• 21:03
  It's not an easy thing to do either.
• 21:05
  Um, so that'd be really cool.
• 21:07
  But yeah, I think a mixture of racing is, um, is good.
• 21:12
  I think I...
• 21:13
  I love supercars and I love sort of what we do and now shootouts and our racing and the way we race is awesome.
• 21:20
  I'd love to do a little bit more of it firstly, which they're obviously trying to do as much as they can.
• 21:28
  But then on those off weeks, especially when we've got those big breaks, you do get pretty bored and you would be cool to be driving something else.
• 21:35
  And yeah,
• 21:36
  I've had fun driving many different things, having six hour over the years and stuff like that.
• 21:39
  So, um, yeah, I don't really say, I wouldn't say no to too much.
• 21:43
  Okay.
• 21:44
  Collingwood, you love the club.
• 21:46
  You've been to a few games recently, but I don't know that they've all gone well when you've, when you've been dated.
• 21:51
  Is this true?
• 21:54
  Yeah, I went to a heap at the start of the year, and obviously I have really close games.
• 21:58
  There's a draw in there and some losses, but I watch most games.
• 22:03
  Yeah, I love the footy and I've gone for the pies forever.
• 22:08
  So yeah, obviously...
• 22:11
  Naturally, all my mates go for Carlton, so that's a natural rivalry.
• 22:15
  And then when pies aren't going too well, my mum goes for Geelong, so I just go with her.
• 22:18
  Good stuff.
• 22:20
  Yeah, I like going to the footy, so pretty regular at the G. Now, I don't know whether the statute of limitations has passed enough on this story.
• 22:27
  If it's no good, we can edit this out.
• 22:30
  Mate, tell me from your days back in Europe, you had...
• 22:35
  In association with Jack Aitken, who these days is WEC, Cadillac, etc.
• 22:41
  There is a story that you may have had a car.
• 22:44
  I don't know whether it's a rental car.
• 22:46
  I don't know who was driving.
• 22:47
  I don't know what the story is.
• 22:49
  But there is some yarn around maybe roundabouts and hillsides.
• 22:54
  Yeah, definitely.
• 22:55
  What happened there?
• 22:56
  Where have you heard this from?
• 22:58
  That's pretty good.
• 23:00
  You're a pretty good investigator.
• 23:02
  You can vet it.
• 23:03
  You can just say, yes, that's a true story, and we can leave it at that if you prefer.
• 23:07
  It was possibly one of the funniest things I've ever experienced in my life.
• 23:13
  The brief story was it was myself, Jack, and Jake Hughes, a formerly driver.
• 23:20
  Yep.
• 23:22
  We were coming back from a test day.
• 23:25
  I think we were leaving like Aragon or something, and we were driving to where I was living in Barca.
• 23:32
  And basically, we're just... You're hauling all the time on these freeways.
• 23:38
  This sounds like Juxa Hazard coming here or something.
• 23:40
  And there was just this one... For some reason...
• 23:43
  there was like a sort of like a blind corner.
• 23:46
  We just happened to miss what Jack was driving.
• 23:49
  He missed the roundabout a head sign and just come in all crossed up and straight through the traffic over the curb into the, into the, um,
• 24:01
  embarkment in the middle and like it was once we knew that we survived and everyone else survived it was the funniest thing i still laugh about it today and oh yeah there's there's a bit more to it but it was um it was really good it's just one of those moments where you you look back and 20 years and i can still picture it i reckon um heaps of fun but yeah we had a lot of good times over the years with a lot of uh cool drivers and a lot of those little moments that um
• 24:26
  you'll remember for years to come and everyone, you see each other, you remember, you know, like a random nightclub after a race in some random town somewhere that, you know, you're doing stuff that you shouldn't be doing and you're just having a laugh about it.
• 24:38
  And, um, yeah, you, you sort of remember those things obviously in between all the races.
• 24:42
  I love that.
• 24:43
  Keep that in perspective, kids.
• 24:44
  Don't try that at home.
• 24:45
  Bit of fun, harmless fun and everyone walked away, which is, um, which is great.
• 24:50
  At the end of 2026, what ideally would you like to say you'd tick the box on?
• 24:56
  What's a wish list?
• 24:59
  I guess walking into the year, it was win some races.
• 25:05
  You try and win races every year, but I think for us to...
• 25:11
  hold our heads up.
• 25:11
  We have to win some races.
• 25:12
  Obviously we want two, like a few more, but, um, we're on that path.
• 25:16
  And I think we've, um, not ticked that box, but we're, we're ticking it with the pens down.
• 25:23
  It's kind of thing.
• 25:23
  I think where the formats work, you have to make the finals, which we're on that path as well.
• 25:29
  Um, but you want to make the final four.
• 25:31
  I think you want to give yourself a chance at the,
• 25:34
  the title.
• 25:35
  Um, whether you, you get it or not is a different story, but you want to be there, be part of that, you know, parade and stuff that they do before the final four, um,
• 25:45
  and give yourself a chance at the ultimate for the year.
• 25:48
  So for us, it'd be good to be part of that.
• 25:50
  And we could have, we'll, I mean, could have been a part of the last year, just things went a little bit different way.
• 25:56
  Um, so it'd be good to get through that and get to there and give yourself a chance and throw everything at it.
• 26:01
  Um, cause I think we can, we can upset if we are there, but obviously anything can happen.
• 26:07
  Um, um,
• 26:09
  And then at the same time, I think you want to compete well at Bathurst.
• 26:11
  Obviously, that's the ticci throughout the year.
• 26:13
  You want to have a chance at Bathurst.
• 26:15
  You want to have a chance at the championship.
• 26:18
  Normally, you'd get to a certain part of the year, the championship disappears.
• 26:20
  But with the finals, that's where you can say the final four, you want to give yourself a chance.
• 26:25
  So you want to be part of that.
• 26:26
  And then you want to give yourself a chance at Bathurst and throw everything at that, which at the same time, with the finals, you want to be...
• 26:34
  above the cutoff by a good margin to not think about it.
• 26:37
  So for us, we want to get to Bathurst, to start at Bathurst and, you know, be above that cut line and not be stressing about if the car breaks down or whatever, we're out.
• 26:47
  So for us, it's have a good buffer leading into it so we can have a crack at that and then reset and try and aim for the four.
• 26:54
  To finish a people question, a machine question.
• 26:57
  Let's go with the machine question first.
• 26:59
  Davey Reynolds, Davey Reynolds,
• 27:01
  kept his... You started machine, David Reynolds.
• 27:04
  Well, so yes, he kept his or got hold of his original RX-7 that I think he'd had as a kid.
• 27:11
  There are different stories in the paddock.
• 27:12
  Some people think of the race car as a tool and maybe aren't deeply connected to it.
• 27:19
  Do you have a little garage project that you'd either have got or would like one day?
• 27:24
  No.
• 27:25
  No.
• 27:30
  I would love something old school.
• 27:32
  And for anyone that knows me quite well, I've had a fair few cracks at some auctions for some cars.
• 27:36
  A few?
• 27:37
  Like what?
• 27:37
  What are we talking?
• 27:38
  Things within my price range first.
• 27:42
  But then there's always someone with a bigger wallet.
• 27:44
  Yeah.
• 27:45
  And...
• 27:45
  It annoys me a little bit.
• 27:47
  Are we talking like a classic 911 or something?
• 27:49
  What is your thing?
• 27:50
  I think like American muscle, old school, 60s, late 60s muscle car.
• 27:55
  Camaro?
• 27:56
  Yeah, like Camaro, your Chevelle, even some fastback Mustangs.
• 28:01
  I've had a fair crack at some different auctions throughout the years.
• 28:05
  Even like...
• 28:08
  F100 and stuff, small body ones and things.
• 28:11
  Some of the prices are nuts, huh, at times?
• 28:12
  Yeah, and they've gone ballistic.
• 28:14
  And someone always wants it more than me.
• 28:16
  Maybe that's when my level head comes in.
• 28:18
  I don't go over the top.
• 28:19
  I sort of stick to my budget.
• 28:21
  And usually dad helps me set that.
• 28:23
  Does he?
• 28:23
  And he's generally on the low side.
• 28:25
  So...
• 28:28
  Yeah, I've come close a few times and there's just always that one person.
• 28:31
  I don't know where they are.
• 28:32
  I don't know who they are.
• 28:33
  And they always just want a little bit more than me.
• 28:36
  But yeah, I'll pick something up at some point.
• 28:40
  I just don't like overpaying.
• 28:42
  Okay.
• 28:42
  I like it.
• 28:42
  I look forward to hearing about that.
• 28:43
  And well done, Sam.
• 28:44
  I love the fact that you keep those tight reins that appeals to me.
• 28:49
  On the people side of things, to conclude this.
• 28:53
  you talked earlier about knowing now what you would tell yourself in say Formula Renault or that, you know, that sort of stuff.
• 29:00
  What would you tell a, a, an aspiring Anton de Pasquale, someone with a dream that wants to come in and, and have a crack at this about, about the way to, to get to a premier drive with the leading chef outfit and so on.
• 29:16
  Um, obviously there's the,
• 29:20
  there's the assumption that you've, you obviously got the talent and you're doing well and all that stuff.
• 29:24
  Put that aside and assume that that's what we're talking about.
• 29:27
  I'd say, um, well, you want is the apply yourself part of it, like do it properly and take it seriously because it's pretty serious and you only get sort of, you only really get one shot at it.
• 29:39
  It's pretty hard, um, to have multiple goes at it.
• 29:42
  So yeah,
• 29:43
  you've only really got one shot to impress people.
• 29:46
  And at the same time, really, it's just connect with people throughout the industry, whoever that is, obviously with the right people.
• 29:54
  But even simple things like if you're racing in Super 2 or whatever, don't be scared to start a conversation with us because that one day might lead to an endurance drive or something.
• 30:08
  Nice.
• 30:09
  these little things that you remember, um, like even just something about Charlie before, obviously got to know him.
• 30:15
  He was always, I'd always remembered.
• 30:17
  He always would say hello, always shake your hand, ask you how you are.
• 30:20
  You might have a 20 second conversation, but it was, it was always, Hey man, how are you?
• 30:24
  And it's always had in my mind, like, Oh, he's always a good bloke.
• 30:26
  Like he's always said hello to me, you know, and just all these little things, you know, you never know where that you make impressions of people.
• 30:31
  We all do it.
• 30:32
  We're all bad for it.
• 30:33
  Um, you judge people, but, um, yeah, for like young guys, don't be,
• 30:37
  Don't be scared to, you know, speak to people.
• 30:40
  And because we've all been there, it's not like we're not going to, we're not going to shove someone off and go, you know, who's that or what's that?
• 30:46
  We all, everyone knows who everyone is.
• 30:48
  We all watch Super 2.
• 30:49
  We all watch 86s.
• 30:50
  We all know.
• 30:51
  So yeah, just...
• 30:54
  apply yourself really it all sort of lines in that same same field great stuff very sage advice i had some notes for this today i had a little bit of help with a couple of people but fundamentally we've turned the microphones on and just chatted i know by and large you're um you're a private person mate but i feel like this has been an ace conversation good you've got some really good good um let's call it ingredients there this year for the stuff that you hope come bathurst and hope come finals i genuinely hope you have a cracking year mate and you're um you're powering keep
• 31:23
  Thanks very much.
• 31:24
  Been a pleasure.
• 31:27
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 31:31
  Series editor and producer is Joel Harrison.
• 31:34
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 31:36
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me on social media.
• 31:41
  The Garage, it's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fueled stories.