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FCTTN: Chevrolet conspiracy or coincidence? · Full Credit to the Noise

• FCTTN EPISODE 39: This week on Full Credit to the Noise, Kimmy delivers a masterclass in Texas, while Chas Mostett was low-level flying and surfers. And there's definitely nothing sus going on at Chev. Welcome to Full Credit to the Noise. Well hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome to full credit to the noise. You can find this podcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at FCTTN Podcast. You find me on Instagram, Twitter, Blue Sky and Facebook at former underscore legend. You can find the mic across from me on Twitter at AVL underscore motorsport. He's on Instagram at AVL.motorsport. He's a man who this week released a list of his top five snuff films. He's taken out Fashions on the Field at Geelong Cup, and tonight he's wearing his best low suit, fresh from what he's described as a meet and greet at Southport Courthouse. Welcome to Speed Cafe's Andrew Van Lewen. Thank you, former. I'm about, I don't know, fifteen, fourteen hours away from departing the Gold Coast, and I haven't been required to go to Southport Magistrates Court yet, so I'm chalking that up as a win. The finish line is in sight. tell me you're a cow without telling me you're a cow. Quite the weekend. Let's just go through it because well, thankfully the Moto GP got caught off, so that's one less thing we to talk about. But the Gold Coast Boost Mobile five hundred Race one on Saturday was won by Chazzy Mostard, who was a absolutely spectacular OVL. he beat Dave Reynolds and Matt Payne, and then on Sunday. race two was won by Brock Feeney, who was equally as untouchable, with a stonking pole lap, followed by a faultless race. Second was Brody, who overcame a mediocre Saturday, and then Chaz, who gave up ten seconds midway through the race to help his teammate, but then still got a pot spot on the podium. So that pretty much sums up how fast he was going. How did you go, mate? Did you enjoy the rain on Saturday? Look, I I sort of had this a bit later on the run now, but I think the weather actually played a pretty fun part in the weekend, to be perfectly honest. Like it wasn't overly disruptive. It was a little bit annoying. Probably the worst day, I think it was the was it the Friday walking into the track. It was the Friday, yeah, where it like it was really wet. Got very soggy shoes very early on the in the day on that one, but Generally it wasn't too bad. The crowd was still pretty good. you expect a bit of a hit when when the weather forecast is what it is. We didn't have a whole bunch of disruption and it kinda made for some pretty spicy racing on the Saturday as well. So I didn't mind it. Did you go with tradition and throw your jacket out for Stefan to walk over in the wet, like you did last time on the way to the car? Yep, definitely. No, I just took my shoes off. I took my shoes. Actually on the on the Friday when we got when we got into the track, I actually said we should have just worn boardies. 'Cause jeans was a horrible choice when you're getting soaked like that, it would have been better off just chucking a pair of boardies on. So anyway, it was a fun weekend. It's always a fun weekend here. let's go to our champagne and shizen over the weekend and we'll start with champagne. And I just can't walk away from this, but the bravery at Erebus and Premier a couple of weeks after watching team eighteen lose the unlosable at Bathurst AVL, well done to those teams at Erebus and Premier to call their cars in to get a splash and dash. Sure they gave up track position and positions in general, really, and sure it benefited the only Chev left in the finals race, but that's just coincidence. well done guys. I mean a gutsy and brave brave call. Your thoughts. I think we'll go into this in more detail in a moment. So I'll just let's let's wait for the proper discussion about it, 'cause it is a a remarkable talking point. Our next champagne, it was something you brought up in the Discord over the weekend, well done to supercars for their graphics to explain who was in and who was out of the the semi-finals race. Clearly from last year when we're all like, Well, we don't know what's going on, who's who and and everything else. through the whole weekend up until the probably the last ten laps on Sunday, it was easy to follow, easy to understand. The only time we got a bit confused was when we had Woody trying to get enough points to make sand down and then the thirsty Chev's running out of fuel. put Anton back in the game. But other than that, I thought it was really well covered off and well done to those people. Totally agree. I think the entire presentation of this as a finals round was excellent. It it felt like something different to kind of what we've seen up until this point. It was a step up from last year. you know, y you gotta have a little bit of forgiveness for that that was a really tricky storyline to follow towards the end of that race for all the factors that you just talked about. So I think it's forgivable that It wasn't entirely straightforward all the way. I actually think it was presented reasonably well and it was actually reasonably easy to follow what was happening and the integration of the team radio, particularly with Chaz and Ryan and you know, even that was telling the story to such a huge extent because you got Chaz who really didn't want to give up that position, saying, Well, is this gonna help? And you've got Sam Scaffidi saying, Yeah, it's gonna get Ryan Wood into the finals. So you're gonna do it right now. it was yeah, it it it felt like I don't know, it w the the drama of it all and we'll get onto the controversial element of it in a moment, but the drama of it all just made what wasn't actually a entirely thrilling motor race top to bottom compelling viewing. And that is what I really love about Vines. Yeah, totally agree. My third champagne, and maybe it should have been number one, was just the absolute standard of driving on Saturday in as bad a conditions as we've seen all year AVL. How we got through that race without a safety car is nothing short of a situation of hats off, tip of the lid to the teams and drivers out there. It's sometimes easy to take w for granted what these blokes do and the skill on show in this series, but geez, I tell you what, when you see those twenty four blokes attacking street in pissing down rain, I thought it was unbelievable 'cause I actually had a s sneaky suspicion they weren't even gonna start that race at one stage. There were concerns heading into the weekend that we'd seen no racing this weekend. And obviously when you then talk about the finals The implications of that are massive. If you're not giving the three drivers below the cut line even the opportunity to progress, it would have been quite problematic. Totally agree about Saturday's race. I mean, the water, the the water in the first sector there, particularly on the way out of the sort of turn one, two chicane, was incredible. So massive kudos to race control for getting that race going. I there I can mm I'm sure there were people Sitting in Paris at the FIA Towers choking on their croissants when that when the safety car came in at the start of that race. but as you said, it was remarkable driving. The BRT boys did their best to try and bring out bring out a safety car individually. my god. but it never happened. And the way that they got through that early phase of the race without anyone wrecking a car on a circuit like that, remarkable. So yeah, it's I I totally agree with you. And my final champagne goes to our mate Dafford Reynolds. It's been a thousand plus days since his last podium. He goes out, he runs second on Saturday, and for dead set, a fleeting second, when Sam Scaffidi radio through to Chaz and said, You need to go fuel saving. There was a dead set sniff that Daf David could actually get the win. And I got a wee dot in my undies at that stage. Lassic Reynolds. He shows up just in time to save his job time and time again. Yeah, did he? I don't know. Shison. Look. A lot of this is taken out of the Discord, but this is one I can get around because I get Jess Yates has got a kid's book out. And you know what the old what was going through your mind, Jess Yates, she could be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald or George Orwell I know, but this integration marketing of putting her kid's book into puff pieces in between races felt a bit rich to me, and I wasn't the only one saying it, let me tell you. And making Brody read the book to a kid as part of some side story felt cringy and awkward. And while we talk about puff pieces, as a bloke who consumes as much of the Supercars TV product as I can on a race weekend, Avial, I've starting to find watching the same stories over three days to be a bit insulting. I actually pay for this extravagance and so do a lot of other people. Someone needs to make me feel like I'm getting value for money and not pissing on my back and tell me it's raining. Written and authorised by I didn't see the Jess Yates book promo segment So you miss it, I did not see it once, so I can't really comment on that one. I I see your point with the recycling of the colour pieces, but in fairness, it's not easy to produce enough of those to constantly run fresh content through three full days of broadcasting. So we see Sky do the same thing with F1. It's just the nature of how much TV time there is for a motorsport event compared to most other sports. So I I I I I I d I think you just gotta have it's only fourteen times a year, mate. Yes, but you also don't have c constant access to these guys. A lot of the stuff is filmed in the immediate lead up or at the event. It's not that easy. So I I have some sympathy for the fact that you have to recycle a bit of that a bit of that content. And also, I think a point you've made there, we are in the world where we consume so much of it. You probably more than me, because when I'm at the track I'm not We we quite often go back at in the evening when we get back on the track and and go back and watch a lot of that stuff because we haven't had a chance to to watch it during the day. So I actually miss a lot of the colour stuff unless it's something like the Adrian Burgess interview over the weekend where you think, there could be some news value here. I better we better sit down and watch this. So it doesn't probably become as as repetitive. To to someone like me. And again, you're more casual fans aren't necessarily dedicating three days of ten hours of viewing to this. And it's probably not as repetitive to other people. But you talk about feedback in the Discord and stuff. We're talking about the highly engaged fans. So of course they are seeing it over and over again. But yeah, there's there's got to be a bit of balance there. So I'm not sure it's something that I would say, well, Supercars Media needs to do a better job of it. I think it's just the nature of being that level of highly engaged fan. And w consuming that much of it. Because it's a lot of TV time to film. it's a lot over three days. I get that. I get that. But I also think there's plenty of opportunity. There's plenty of different angles. There's plenty of people to talk to. And go and find someone that's a little bit left of field to go and ask some tricky questions. Because I feel like a lot of them are softball hits for these people. And Given that you are feeling a lot of time on TV, I totally get I totally get that thing, mate. But when it's real sort of lame TV that's even a little bit cringy, then to have to watch it three times in three days. We don't have to watch it, but to watch it three times in three days and pay for the experience, I find that a little bit stiff. But anyway. my next shizen goes to Well, our men, poor old Ryan Wood. I I was looking forward to the weekend. I I thought This would suit him to the ground to be on a g in a gunfight, on a street track. And then when it rained, I thought, Well, you beauty. He's he's even he's on here. I might have backed him too, by the way, Abel. But anyway, he dead set sunk like a stone on Saturday, ran nowhere while his teammate was low level flying. Sunday was okay without being great, but it wasn't enough to stay alive in the finals race. Chaz tried to hand him a podium, but even that wasn't going to be enough by the time those thirsty chefs came in and handed over some points to Anton. Maybe having Woody out of contention makes him more dangerous over the next few rounds. That might be the only upside. Yeah, definitely. I think we saw the way that played out last year is that a competitive rear gunner is is pretty important and he's not going to be the only one going into the semifinals out there as well, the way that it's shaken out. and we'll we'll get onto that a bit later too. But I think to clarify with Woody's s race on Saturday in the wet, he actually only had one bad stint. It was just a really costly one. So he didn't stink the entire race up. He just had one stink where he had no pace. And he wasn't the only one to to experience that. And this is a conversation that goes back to the bend as well. And if we remember Todd Hazelwood stink like going from pole to 20th in the space of 10 laps, there is there is a feeling amongst teams that there are good sets of wets and bad sets of wets out there. They're obviously the treatment of the wet tire is totally different to the slicks. The turnover of them is much lower. their storage is is kind of different. The teams store some of them, Dunlop stores some of them. Like it's nobody's fault. It's just kind of a case you don't use a lot of wets. You can't just get rid of the wets at the end of every season and buy new ones. That's not a cost effective way to do it. So, we saw Tommy Randall have a horrendous stint in that race on Saturday. It's and the Walking Shore team were pretty confident that that was just a really bad set of wets and it was one there was that middle stint and it just left him nowhere and put him really put him on the back foot for Sunday and obvious and ultimately contributed to the fact that he's no longer in contention. But yeah, as long as as long as he he never goes back and listens to any of the radio transmissions from Sunday's race, I'm sure he'll be a very willing rear gunner for Chaz across the next couple of rounds. Hey, the next one And th this might be nitpicking, but the official broadcast used what I unless someone wants to t prove me wrong, AI music at the back end of the broadcast as their outro music. I mean, is this what we've got to? I I I know this is not the worst thing in the world, but AI Slop is still AI slop and this it stood out like dogs you know what's. Yeah, it's funny. So, I was watching the coverage as the race finished. Obviously my brain pretty quickly went into How we going manage this whole Chevrolet controversy thing? So it was still playing, but I wasn't listening to it at all. And then I sort of had a quick look at the Discord and a bunch of people were going, What on earth is this AI song that's playing? And I just I should have gone back and listened to it. I'd never had a chance to go back and listen to it. But that is that is something bad. Yep. I'll say that. If that is the case, I'll go I will go back and listen to it. Yeah. I I wanted to not believe that it was AI and I actually said, Can anyone totally prove that's that's AI because I just want to someone again, nah it's not, it's just some really bad piece of music. But and if it is someone's piece of music, I apologize in advance. But I tell you what, have another go, 'cause that was terrible. My final sh shizen is and I again I know how much you caught up on this mate, but just some of the driving standards in the supports. And I know look, conditions, I'm not taking away conditions. But geez, there were some rough moves being made in the Aussies and the Porsches, especially down at turn four, where blokes had the belief that they could dive bomb from four positions back. Our man Matt Basso was the victim of a very optimistic pass attempt on Saturday, but he was far from the only victims. There were blokes getting absolutely railed in some outlandish, crazy moves that Senna would go, That's not on. It was yeah, no good. Don't know whether it's street races, I don't know whether what it is, but geezy, there was some poor driving. Yeah, I I didn't watch heaps of support category action over the weekend, but I did sort of walk you know, you sort of walk around the paddock talking to people in in those windows where supports are on. And I did feel like every time I looked at a at a screen out the back of a garage it was a safety car or or a car hanging out of a fence somewhere. So that does come with the Gold Coast, even in the best of weather conditions, it is a pretty high jeopardy circuit. Throwing a bit of wet weather, probably gets a bit worse. So I think it comes with the territory to some extent. But yeah, I did see a whole lot of safety carboards and and munted cars. Yeah, alright. Let's go to the shift cut because it's the biggest story maybe of the year. And General Motors has staunchly denied manipulating Sunday's supercars race on the Gold Coast to ensure that Anton Deep Ascali kept his final hopes alive. Despite both Erebus drivers Jared Hughes and Premier's Cooper Murray pitting from the top ten positions, causing the drop well back into the field, Chev says there's nothing happening here. The stops proved advantageous to Deeper Skyle, with the two positions gained ensuring he jumped Toyota's Ryan Wood to bank the last final slot for Sandown. This was after factory Toyota team war control TWG racing swapped its drivers Ryan Wood and Chaz Mosted around, despite Mostett being ten seconds ahead at the time. To give Wood his best possible chance of progression. If anything, just stopping myself there. Done it too early. Probably should have just not done that for a little while and then hung on for a bit. Anyway, a manufacturer is explicitly banned from delivering team orders of any kind like that. That means that if GM asked Erebus and Premier Racing to pit their drivers unnecessarily would be illegal. GM's supercar boss Simon McNamara reiterated in plain terms that allegations of illegal team orders were wide of the mark. He said there's no manipulation in it. We weren't ten seconds up the road and slowed down for someone to come past. What's he talking about? there were some procedural issues in a fortunate sense. It's one of those days I said to GM technical lead Grant McPherson, we didn't have a car in the top ten and I'm actually smiling. So what's your thoughts on this former? Are you on the conspiracy or coincidence side? Listen. I I still don't think we walked on the moon. So I'm probably not the guy to be asking. So You have spent a lot of time with David Reynolds. Yeah, I know. I'd love to hear Reynolds' version, but I might have to wait twelve months before I can get the unfiltered version of that. But yeah, look, sometimes when it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck AVL, she's a duck. And my initial thoughts was just as Mark Larkham's was, is that this has a bit of a stench to it. Although Larco seemed to swing around to a full one eighty, it was an unbelievable cartwheel that he did to change his mind. I can't prove it. I'm not gonna say people have manipulated it because I know people get very sensitive about these sorts of things, but geez, it's easy to believe that it could have happened. Yeah, I mean gave my early thoughts on this on the Sunday Daily Pod, but that was literally a few hours after it all happened, and I've had some more time to ruminate on the whole thing as we record on the Monday evening now. I mean my first instinct was that it was illegal manipulation. that is absolutely the first place that my brain went to. And that was as early as when Hughesy pit it. I thought, that's pretty interesting. As soon as Cooper pit it, I was like, no way. They've got greedy and they've given their game away here by doing that. So it is a it is a hugely believable theory. And anyone that does hold that belief. It's understandable because to be honest, to get to get your brain in a place where you don't think it's a it was manipulation is harder than just believing that that's what it was because that's what it looked like. you say, it was it was walking and quacking. it's very easy to to to think it's a duck. So and th the the the reality of this scenario is is that there may well have been a an organized plan to short fuel those two cars at the second stop to help Anton. And we'll never know for sure. It can't be proven because by a short fueling, if they did do that, the cars passed the post race fuel dump checks, as we found out on Sunday evening. Because trust me, like Tim Edwards, his brain went to the same place that all our brains went to. And they very quickly went and pulled the fuel out of those cars. And if they had had more than enough to get to the finish without that stop, we'd be having a very different conversation about this. So it we'll never know if there was an incredibly detailed, clever plan to bring this all together. It it's just it's impossible to prove. But as much as I kinda want to believe the conspiracy because that's much more fun than two teams making coincidental mistakes, there's a couple of things that don't quite add up on the conspiracy front. And firstly, I don't understand why supercars would actually want to cover up the conspiracy. that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. They have rules for a reason. They they aren't afraid to enforce them. It It is a bit of a blight on the final system if it did happen that way. And while you might think, okay, well there's a good reason to cover it up, I actually think that ruling with an iron fist on it would be a more effective way to stamp it out and and being draconian about it rather than trying to cover it up. So so a cover up doesn't doesn't make sense to me. I think that supercar's genuinely the evidence in front of them suggested that there was there wasn't any foul play. But here's the bigger thing, and I said on the Sunday night pod that I couldn't imagine Roland Dane effectively cheating to to that level, and I and I stand by that. But the more I thought about it last night and and during the day, the least believable part is that Barry Ryan would participate in a stunt like this. That's the bit that really gets me. So Barry wasn't at the track on Sunday. He he flew back to Melbourne on Saturday for a family function. No further questions, Your Honor. No, but he still would have needed to be involved in something like this. There's no way that Brad Tremain, the team principal, would agree to something like this without going through Barry. It just I that's not how that team operates. And I cannot for the life of me imagine Barry agreeing to take his new young star, Jared Hughes, out of this unbelievable top ten fairy tale position to help a rival team even from the same manufacturer. this is the Barry Ryan that refuses to play BOP games in practice at the twelve hour when he's running that SDM Mercedes. It's just not it's not in his DNA to think like that. He's all about how do I make these cars go as fast as as possible. So out of curiosity, I did call Barry today. And I know it's e it's also easy to say, well, of course he'd say what he said, but he very emphatically told me that what he well, he told me what his response would have been if GM had picked up the phone and asked him to do that. And it is not suitable to to be repeated on a PG show like ours for me. I can assure you that it had It was fantastic, but I'll give you that. It was fantastic what he said. He completely agreed that the optics of it were horrible. But he even sent me a screenshot of the message, text message exchange from the person within the team who put their hand up for the miscalculation, apologizing profusely for it. And again, I know these are all the things you would do and say if you were part of a massive conspiracy, but we b Barry's Not perfect, nobody's perfect, but I this feels I I don't think this is how he would go motor racing. And I think that particularly with everything that happened in the lead up to the event, having Jared on track ahead of Cooper Murray, like Barry would have been enjoying that a lot, and I'm not sure he would have given that up willingly for anyone. So that's my gut feeling on it. I I do think that it was an a near unbelievable coincidence. rather than a conspiracy. I'd love to be as positive as you, mate. I get it. I get it. No, I get it former because it's it's taken me twenty four hours to to actually kind of be out of that point because it it it looked fishy. Man did it look fishy. It was and my first instinct was the same as yours. I was like when it the first car I was like wow that's pretty clever. That'll be hard to prove and the second one I was like, hang on. They've gone too far here. Didn't need to do this. So yeah, it's the only two cars in the top top fifteen who crazy it it honestly calculated a few I guess. Same make as the only bloke who was needing a couple of spots to make the finals. I get it. I mean it's a crazy world, I'll give you that. No, I I don't I do not blame a single person out there who always believe it was manipulation. It is a very believable thing. So But yeah, anyway, that's just that's just my my insight into it. Yeah, I can tell you I was getting some well, first of all, rest in peace my inbox on Instagram. I'm too scared to even go near it. It is like I don't know what the capacity is on Instagram, but it's near full. Second of all, th I was getting some interesting text messages, as I'm sure you did, from from the Toyota side of things and also from the Ford side of things and They weren't buying AV, not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie at all. I'm not the no surprise. But they are not buying the bridge that's for sale in Sydney Harbour. Mm-hmm. Anyway, we head into the semifinals at Sandow. We have seven live chances to win the title. Matt Payne retained his place at the top of the standings ahead of Theney, Kastecki, Mostert, Will Brown, Cameron Waters, and Deeper Squale. eliminated were Ryan Wood, Kai Allen, and Frenchman Jack LeBrock. Mate, I have to have it explained. We don't just reset now, do we? W what's the point situation from here? So yeah, so it's a seating system. So you've got Matt Payne on four thousand one hundred and fifty points. Brock Feeney is thirty behind him, Brody Kastecki is fifty-four behind Payne, Chaz Most at seventy two behind Payne, Wilbrown seventy-four behind pain, Cam Waters ninety-three behind, and Anton a hundred and two, right? So Right. You still have there'll be a cut line between four and five. Will Brown, Cam Waters and Anton will go into the round. needing to improve to progress. And that's how it works. And and particularly for the grand final, I think it is, the seeding has been widened a little bit to try and just make sure the guys that have done the hard yards to lead the way at this point of the season do carry a somewhat decent advantage into that into that last round. So it'll be it'll be really interesting. I mean there's some pretty long straights at Sandow. So I don't know. I was gonna say Anton's gonna be gonna be in a pretty good place going there. we've seen some pretty wishy. Just wish those ships weren't so thirsty over. Yeah. Well, I don't think that'll be better. I mean, conspiracies aside, surely there's gonna be a bit of work on fuel management going on amongst the GM alliance heading to heading to Sandown. But yeah, I don't think Anton's that badly placed. I I think he he could look all right at at Sandown and then There's a question mark everywhere we go over the competitiveness of the Supra. But Chaz Mostett is the ultimate finals player. He just thrives in this, in this environment. and then, yeah, it's kind of Tigford have just been really wishy washy with their form recently, but you wouldn't wouldn't put anything past Cam Waters. Like it's all, it's all quite well set up, to be honest. And then you've got that triple eight battle. But, you know, we're we're in a position now where we've got Your likes of Kai Allen and Ryan Wood out of contention, usually near the front, and they're gonna be guys that can play their role in in how the Sandown weekend plays out, which is pretty fun to think about. And we only have to wait ten days. That's right. It all starts again. Now a solution to the supercar's calendar dramas has finally been found with twenty twenty seven set to see fourteen rounds. The supercar season will begin at Sydney Motorsport Park in late February with Simmons Plains moving into the second round slot. Ahead of Albert Park and the New Zealand double header. And Supercar's plans to fill the sea freight induced gap in its schedule with a standalone Super Two round. It's South Australia's Malala Motorsport Park. I know you'll boo an AVL, but plenty of us think that's a great idea. Good track too. Yeah, also beauty. Yep. No, I've I have very fond memories of of the joint from just last November, to be honest. So I love it. But this whole TRC slash calendar thing was just such a roller coaster over the Gold Coast weekend alone, to be honest. But it feels like there finally is some progress on it. It looks like we are gonna end up with a kind of bizarre two tiered system where we've got five teams on one deal and seven teams on another deal, but it has kind of reached a point. That everyone's happy with what they've got or happy enough and and so I'd be surprised if we don't have a formal announcement by the end of this week. But 14 rounds. That's where we're going. Like the it it feels like the threat of twelve is has dissipated massively. And good that's good news. Congratulations to to Supercast and to Barclay Nettlefold, to be perfectly honest, for actually getting to a point. Well, maybe we save the congratulations until the media release hits the inbox. But this has not been an easy process, but the right outcome in terms of what is going to be delivered as a product seems to be where we're heading, and that's awesome. Mates that KO Bill a little bit more palatable despite the triple repeats of stories. Hey, let's talk about Formula One. from the Circuit of America's. in qualifying, Kimmy Anonelli showed that he had no nerves despite leading the championship and possibly about to wrap up the titles. He stormed a pole position with a perfectly measured, faster slap in qualifying. Max Verstappen was his nearest challenger, but he was.179 of a second behind. And Red Bull teammate Isaac Hadger, a career best third. Charles Leclerc was fourth ahead of Russell. George Russell that is in the second Mercedes and seventh time champion Hamilton was in the second Ferrari. Oscar Piastri started from seventh. He's just he is dead set middling at the moment. it was the s the ninth time he started from seventh, AVL, out of eighteen races. Lando Norris, his teammate had his lap deleted for track limits. And then in the race, Kimi Antonelli is now within a few points of wrapping up his first ever drivers championship title after a dominant display in Texas, beating home Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri picked up seventh in front of the Hall Monitor, and Liam Lawson was ninth. I tell you what, I'll say it again, it's not the first time I've said this. If you want to see a bloke really, really in the in the doldrums, have a look at the interview with the hall monitor after the race. He is he's no good. Yeah, I didn't see a single second of any of the We did miss week, not gonna lie. just being between between the Gold Coast and the and the time. Difference and all that stuff. So I'm a bit undercooked in terms of being able to offer any real insight here. But obviously, perfect result, near perfect result for Kimmy Antonelli. I think there's there was another outcome where he could have actually won the title, but that's a formality. Yeah, that's a formality heading to Mexico, basically. But to come back to your point on Oscar Piastri, like, you know, we know there's the four big teams, right? You know, you've got Red Bull, yeah, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. Now, four times two is eight. So if you're rolling around in seventh, you like it's not a great look. It's not. It's not. Someone messaged me today and said he's got to get out of mess out of McLaren. I'm starting to think it's just the cars. I don't know that change of seat will do him a whole whole heap of good. And it's kind of like where I see George at the moment. George, after the race, they said to him where did it go wrong? He said, I put in six absolute stonking laps and fifty six shocking laps. And he said, No, don't know why. Yeah. He looks absolutely lost. And to be honest with you, while Oscar's not going to give you as much personality in his replies, he kinda looks the same. Like the cars just don't suit him, suit the way they drive. Yeah. And yeah, it's it's not a good not a good scene. So yeah, I agree. I agree with both Both those guys look to be struggling. I think George Bud he is bashed up. He is he won't be able to wait until the end of the season just to have a rest, I think, and hopefully reset. I don't know how you reset, but he's gonna have to because at the moment he's driving out there and looking beaten before he even kicks a lap in. So former Red Bull advisor Helbert Marco says he would give Nikola Zolov a racing bull seat ahead of Liam Lawson next season. Mate, this plug. The team is weighing up whether to retain Lawson and rookie teammate Harvard Limblad or make room for Zolov, whose Formula Two performances have brought him in contention for promotion. Marco, who previously oversaw Red Bull's junior driver program, believes the decision should favour the next prospect in line rather than Lawson's experience. Speaking to Austrian newspaper Krohn, the former advisor explained his position by recalling the approach champion by late Red Bull founder Dietrich Matich. When the organization chose not to pursue Fernando Alonso, he said, I agree with a saying by Matsic, we don't buy stars, we make stars. We've always looked for our own drivers who can win a Grand Prix, apart from a few exceptions, it's worked. In keeping with his philosophy, the difficult decision between Liam Lawson and Nikola Zolov at Racing Balls should actually go to Zolov's favour. Jeez, you could pull that apart and knock it down pretty easy. Matzich he's been the author of a couple of pretty ordinary decisions. No matter how much he wants to tell you about how he's doesn't buy stars. yeah, for sure. I mean, I I've said this before. I mean, I I think that Lawson and Lindblad is a pretty good lineup. And if it wasn't for the kind of expectation and pressure that there has to be this revolving system within Red Bull, for a midfield team, other teams would sit there and go, Geez, I'd have those two blakes. And I wouldn't be thinking about tipping them out. A hundred percent. So yeah. It's just one of those things. But that the the time will come. where one of will have to move on in some way, shape or form. In terms of the two incumbents of that team. So yeah, that's just how that system works. I think it was on Saturday, where they're saying that there's discussion now that Red Bull might look at what their second team actually serves its purpose as and that it could well come back to favour Liam in that maybe we just need some doesn't have to be a junior team as such. But yeah, look, he's doing the job. Again, he did it last night, he finished ninth. Linblad wasn't in the points, so I feel like he's doing the job himself. And it's just if he got kicked out for a kid from Formula Two, he wanted to be able to go, that's all I can say. One of the main talking points in the Formula One paddock on the weekend was the extreme bumps at the Circuit of America's drivers raised their concerns during Friday evenings drivers briefing. After which Max Verstappen stayed around to talk to speak further with representatives of the FIA and the circuit. the chairman of the Circuit of the Americas AVL, Bobby Epstein, you reckon Bobby's travelling these days with that name, responded to Verstappen's initial comments by suggesting that the situation was not as bad in practice as the Dutchman had made it sound. He even expressed the expectation that Verstappen would change his mind after Friday practice. That didn't go happen though, because those comments were poor. Put the Verstappen during the Dutch media session and proved to be anything but the case, he said, I invite him to come and drive my car. I think he'd he'd have to get out after five laps and he wouldn't ever walk again. You can put down a few layer of ashveld. Apparently it's because the underneath that track is clay based and there's a lot of movement amongst it. And so it would almost be a case of having to put down an entire base and start again. So that's that's essentially what's going on there. But I just found it interesting how Max has invited this bike to have a drive of his car. I'd nearly take him up on that just for the sake of I'd give it a go. NASCAR, Shane V. Gisburg, qualified fourth at the Blue Wave 500 at Talladega. In the race, he ended up with a DNF, an unfortunate casualty in a 15-car crash where Joey Logano ended up on his roof. you can hear SVG say on the radio, I'm done. I had someone on my roof, we won't be able to get back out. The car's f thanks for the fast cars he did say. And the car the race was won by Kyle Larson. If you haven't seen the last lap of that AVL, find it. It's unbelievable where Kyle Larson starts and ends. Have a look at the last lap, it's amazing. in Moto GP, like I said, it got called off, but not before a big get off from Jack Miller in practice one on Friday at turn one. The worst place to get off. in the sprint race, Jorge Martin travelled to Melbourne for further checks after a wrist fracture when he crashed in the sprint at the hay shed. He was following Mark Marquez w after eight laps and he came off in a big way high sided and went into the gravel trap in the ha at the hay shed. Broke his wrist, though saying that he's r he was ruled out for Sunday's race, which actually didn't happen, so that w that worked. Although there were rumors on Sunday morning that he was going to ride, which would have been extraordinary to see with a broken wrist. It's unknown whether he's gonna race in Malaysia, although given that he was gonna race or possibly race on Sunday in Australia, he might be a chance. He's gonna have to do something because he's now about twelve points behind Marquez and they have Malaysia this weekend and then Qatar the next weekend. So he's gonna have like I said, he's gonna have to do something. The sprint race was won by Mark, I should say, from brother Alex and Fabio DJ Antonio completing AGU Caddy one, two, three. Senor Adjus qualified seventh in Moto two, but they obviously they didn't get to race and Joel Kelso qualified third. He didn't get to race either, which was a shame. And finally I want to cover off on our very own because we're gonna claim him, Matt Basso in the ARC Australian Aussie races, I should say Aussie racing cars. Second overall for the round AVL, despite being taken out in the second race on Saturday from what can only be described as a very hopeful move at turn four. He ended up with results of fourth, eleventh, fifth and second. So keep punching, Matt, because I tell you what, this kid has something and I've sent out a text or two to blokes to have a look at him, AVL. Cool. No get around him. Thanks. all right, we'll go to a break. We'll come back with what's the forward headline? For credit to noise. Winter could spell bad news for your vehicle's battery. Here are three maintenance tips from the battery gurus at R<unk>J Batteries. 1. Avoid frequent short trips to keep your battery at a healthy state of charge. 2. Keep the battery terminals clean and corrosion free. 3. Avoid running your accessories with the engine off for too long. If your battery is three years or older, it might be time to get it tested for free at your local R<unk>J battery. R and J batteries, power like nothing else. Yeah, welcome back. Now obviously we're gonna do what's the forward headline. I'm gonna hit you with a topic. You just tell me what the forward headline is. Not one of my headlines is a forward, I should say. Nah. what's your forward headline, AVL, for Brock Feeney over the weekend? is the redemption in the works. Because he's got that he's got that dangerous look about him again. On Sunday you could see it, and it's coming at the right time. potentially his biggest issue is that so does Chaz. Yeah, I wrote went like an aspirin in the rain because he s started the front and ended up somewhere, I don't know. But yeah, on Sunday he was dominated the sun the race on Sunday, but anyway, that's all right. He was low level flying in in the dry, so I'll give him that. Like you say, what'd you make of the yellow car, by the way? I don't think it looked fantastic, if I'm perfectly honest. No, I'm with you. It looked kind of all right. So when they did the launch, they did the launch at Surface Paradise on Wednesday. And it was in this weird box and you could really only see it from the side. And I thought, yeah, okay, that looks all right. And I love yellow yellow race cars is my thing. I'm right into that. Same, I like it, yeah. but the from the front, I'm happy it's a one off, let's put it that way. Not ordering the one to eighteen, me neither. Ryan Wood, what's your forward headline for Ryan? wonder if he's reviewed the Sunday race radio yet. He was very complimentary of Chaz after the race and Chaz's willingness to play the team game and I reckon he might sit there at some point and go, hang on a minute. Hang on. This bloke. I've got the most dangerous driver on the grid because now yeah, you know. David Reynolds, what's your forward headline? the Gold Coast job lifesaver. He just it always comes along. Nice. that's clever. Yeah, thanks, man. Mine is Old man carries on teenager on Gold Coast. Yeah. Not the first time you've heard that sentence muttered, but yeah. Hey, went good for an old bloke. What about Kai Allen? Well, I I'm a bit like your Ryan Woodwind, like rear gunner mode activated. He's gonna be a pretty handy bloke for for Matt Payne over the next couple of rounds, I reckon. I've written could have stayed at home. Yeah. It was an ordinary weekend. Chaz Mostett. The finals player strikes again. Like if you want if you really want a genuine conspiracy theory I feel like Chaz Mostett somehow designed this final series because it's like it was built for him. it's just perfect for him. And he showed it again on the weekend. So I I I you like I said before, we don't know where the Toyota's gonna sit in terms of pace for Sandown, but still hard to bet against him getting to the grand final and playing a big role in it 'cause he just he just knows how to work this final system. Has our man Ryan Walkenshaw come out and said we've deliberately gone slower to this point just to build up to the crescendo of the finals yet? Does he run with that one? No. No. They had a few other things going on on Sunday. I don't think they were thinking about that. My my headline for Chaz Mossett, if you're a Seinfeld fan, you'll get this. His mutter was a mutter. Because he went good in the rain, I've got to say. he was untouchable. And like he was good in the dry too, I will give you. But in the in the wet, man, he was He was on another planet, I've got be honest. What's your forward headline for the Gold Coast Beach Chicane? Just leave it be now. Just leave it alone. I think this works. I think it works all right. I know the tie bundles aren't ideal, but I actually thought it worked okay. Mine is did more damage this year because man, like I think Chaz had a front bar go after one lap in qualifying on a on a top ten shootout, so I don't know, man. I I I know I understand the theory behind it, understand why and I understand it was the FIA that got involved. I get all that, but yeah, I don't know whether that was the solution. But anyway, what's your forward headline for the Gold Coast weather? Great weather for curly hair. It's hot, humid. Really good to keep the curls tied up. My forward headline was postcards are full of shit. I'd never seen one bit that looked like any of those postcards I've seen from the As I said before, I think the weather actually played a really fun role in the weekend. It was a good talking point, wasn't overly disruptive, still a good crowd. I it was actually a fun element of the weekend. And again, like getting wet isn't as bad when it's still twenty something degrees. It's not miserable, true that not miserable kind of wet conditions. It was it was kind of fun. What about Kimmy Antonelli? What's your forward headline from the weekend? currently researching the legal drinking age in Mexico. Because I reckon he I reckon he might be planning a bit of a party in a week's time. I wrote brilliantly piece of brilliant piece of timing because I don't think I think you've got to be twenty one or over to get on the drink in Texas. Yeah. It's genius from my opinion. Yeah. Finally, Philip Island. What's your forward headline for Philip Island? Heartbreaking but predictable. Like it was almost always gonna happen something like this, because this is this has been the issue with with this. With this venue from Motor GP's perspective. But we'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment. My forward headline is supercars will treat you right. I supercars, yeah. There there there is genuine excitement like about this supercars round in the paddock at Phillip Island. That's the one thing I will say. So I think it's gonna be good. And just to come back to it, and I know it's a big topic of discussion and I I should have mentioned it before, but we talk a lot about, racing in the rain and there not being enough of it and all that sort of stuff. And my thoughts on it. I'm very much in the They should get on with it, Camp. In this case, Yep. You know, if you can't have a medical helicopter available at a circuit in a regional area for motorcycle racing, that's a pretty understandable reason to have to cancel the race. I think. Are you surprised that there wasn't one already there, but base there? But whether it can come or go Go. it's just one of those situations it is it th this is you talk about safety concerns and all that sort of stuff, but motorcycle racing is inherently dangerous regardless of the conditions and Philip Olin's a long way from anywhere and like it is just one of those sad situations where you go, What can they actually do? It wasn't oversensitivity from a promoter or from a sanctioning body or from a series. It was just one of those things. What they need to do is put a race in the middle of a city near the hospital so they don't need a helicopter. Yeah, if you're lucky you'll flip over the fence and land in a bed. Time it right. That's bad juju making those jokes. All right, let's just leave all the leave all the windows open at Royal Adelaide Hospital. You never know. Yeah, you're right, we shouldn't say that. Let's let's go to a break before we get cancelled and we'll come back all the motorbike blokes are wrong to you. at At AVL underscore motorsport if you're looking for him. we'll go to a break and we'll come back rear of grid. Full credit to the Noise Yeah, welcome back to Rear of Grid AVL. I know that you're actually in there. I was surprised to see you in there actually in the Discord as part of the full credit to the noise membership. We did get an influx over the weekend again, and man, it was busy. Yeah, it was a it was a perfect weekend for me to get get involved in the Discord in the races. so I spent most of the races sitting there, sort of chatting with chatting with the crew there, which was really good fun. So yeah, no, it's an awesome thing. Definitely get involved. the more people that get involved, the more fun that it is. And both of those races were just built for Discord conversation. And the the funny part, and I mentioned this in the Sunday Daily pod as well, because it was already kind of going through my brain after, like I say, the Hughes carp hit it. I thought, ooh, that's a bit sus. And someone in the Discord, and I can't remember who it was, so I can't give them credit, said Watch the Cooper Murray car come in now and a lap later there it was. And it I think it just amplified the kind of notion that, this this really doesn't look good. So it's a pretty savvy, it's a pretty savvy crew we got going there as well. So yeah, head to FCTTN.com, sign up, get involved. It's fun. When that second car came in, I had to go out to the kitchen and grab some tin foil to build a hat. But Alright, just to believe that it wasn't a setup. But I'm gonna do six statements. You're gonna tell me whether you agree with the credit or disagree with the shredded. We'll come back after we've done all six. Number one, supercars should give the IndyCar qualifying system a crack at non-street tracks next year. Shredd it. Credit. Number two, Kimmy Antonelli leading the championship by a million points will make it easier for F1 to cancel the final two rounds. Credit. Credit. Number three. Dave Reynolds' second place on Saturday was enough to keep his job at team eighteen in twenty twenty seven. Credit Credit. Number four. GM supercar teams are the worst equipped of any teams in any motor sport in the world to calculate fuel usage. Shredd. Credit. Number five. Just like manufacturers, teams shouldn't be able to manipulate results between teammates over the radio. Shred it. Credit but with a caveat. Number six. Melbourne Meteor Identities are convinced that Moto GP will return to Phillip Island at the end of the Adelaide contract. They are right. Shredd. Yes, read it. All right. The IndyCar qualifying system. For those that don't know, the grid is divided into two groups of twelve. They go out, they punch out the the top six from each group. Well, this is the the a little bit of a modification. The top six from each group, then go again to find the top three from that. Those two groups to become a top six, but all six are out on the on the track at the same time, basically, or in your group sessions. You say no. yeah, I mean I didn't really know how it works 'cause I don't watch a heap of IndieCart and I tried to research it before we started recording and my brain nearly broke in half. So I didn't kind of go this would be awesome. I honest It sounds harder than it is. I honestly don't know why every series in the world doesn't blatantly rip off the F one format or at least something based heavily on it, because it's actually a near perfect system. I love it. Yeah, I I I can't get away from that either, which is in a way a little bit like IndyCar but not, but I suppose yeah. I wouldn't mind just seeing try this anyway. Number two, Kimmy Antonelli that's also I should say, put the finish line before the pit entry. So if you screw your lap up you can go straight into pits. But anyway, that's a conversation we've already had. Antonelli leading the championship will give make it easier to cancel the final two rounds. I think it eases the pressure a lot because it does seem likely that the two Middle Eastern races will get replaced by that one Imala race. So it's a it's not a two cancelled entirely. It's a two into one scenario. If you had a really close title battle, it would feel unfair to un to to limit the scoring opportunities for, you know, the driver or drivers leading but not sorry, in contention but not leading. and this just eases a whole bunch of that that pressure for sure. Totally agree. Reynolds second place was enough to keep his job in twenty seven. Yeah, I said credit. I I don't I probably would only revise that based on the fact that that decision won't be made based on one good Saturday afternoon on the Gold Coast. I still think that a lot of it will will i will come down to team Adam's confidence as to whether Matt Payne is coming to them in twenty twenty eight or going overseas in twenty twenty eight. I think that it was a timely reminder that Dave can get the job done. And if you're looking for that year gap filler effectively. It sounds like a pretty harsh thing to say about Dave, but I feel like he's still absolutely the best possible man for that job. I've heard this wild theory about how this is all gonna play out. So do you want to hear it? maybe tell me off here and we can we can discuss whether we bring it up next week. Alright, yeah, let's do that. GM supercar teams are the worst equipped to calculate fuel use. I mean, that just feels like a pretty bold statement, like in the world. So I couldn't give it a credit, even if I am siding with the genuine mistake thing. Recency bias would say maybe. Yeah, that's true. True. I gotta get credit, bugger it. manufacturers, just like manufacturers' teams should be able to manipulate results over the radio. I have no issues with team orders. I draw the line at the widespread manufacturer corruption. But banning team orders Why do you think there's a difference? Because there's too many cars involved. it's too it becomes too easy effectively. if a manufacturer can sit there and I watched I covered DTM. I I I I worked in DTM. I was gonna say DTM are the best of it. And I worked in DTM at the height of the manufacturer corruption. So I I've seen it at play. If you've got all of these different cars that you can shift around as chess pieces and can influence the race, then it's quite easy to do and it does become staged almost. If it's just about how can we get a Kai Allen or a Ryan Wood to help a Matt Payne or a Chaz Mosted, there's a bit more finesse in that. It takes a little bit more clever more clever management to actually do it and all that sort of stuff. So I have no issues with team orders, but I think that the as fun as this whole thing have being a conspiracy would have been, I'd I wouldn't like to see that be be allowed or or Supercast to open itself up to that. Banning internal team orders is useless. And effectively all team orders bans are problematic because as I said at the top of the show, Chevrolet could have manipulated that race and will it'll never be able to be proven. So i if they did, then they've already got away with it. So and it's even harder when you're just talking about individual teams, you know? Felipe Fernando is faster than you. It can't be policed. It just all becomes code or, you know. Drivers complaining about problems they don't have and ultimately it just creates this air of disingenuousness around it because fans eventually feel like they're being treated like idiots. You know, when you've got teams having to say to a driver, we're the data says that you've got a problem, you need to slow down. And then the other car goes past and then suddenly they go fast again. So I think actually just allowing motorsport to be a team sport is a much better approach. Yeah. Look, I get it. The only yeah, anyway, God. The the one thing I've copped a couple of messages that I have opened during the weekend was that people saying this is why the semifinal system doesn't work and to that I say this was happening before the semifinal system kicked in. Yep. Mate, there is a number of e ask Marcus Ambrose about yeah, the theory the manufacturer rule exists for a reason. Correct. And it says existed for a much longer than finals has existed. Yeah. Yeah. Well I remember a long time ago that that was all the the rage at the time where they were talking satellite bloody holding teams are going to help the factory holding team and things like that. And you just Yeah. I mean it's been going on since Jesus playing halfback for Jerusalem. Melbourne media identities are convinced that the Moto GP's coming back to Phillip Island. Ultimately, one of the key things Moto GP has always hated about Phillip Island is the weather. and what happened on Sunday will actually give Moto GP confidence that it's made the right call. So that's that that's that's that's what I think. And I covered I've covered that event plenty of times. Listen to drivers complain constantly sorry, riders complain constantly about how it's the wrong time of year because of the weather. Try to explain to them that this is Victoria, you're on the south coast. the the weather's a lottery regardless of what time of year it is. So this is this has always been the issue. So I think that like I say, what happened on Sunday is probably the point where they all sit there and go, Cool. We don't have to deal with that anymore. That's a harsh take, but I think that's the take that will be that will be applied at at Moto GP level. Yeah. All right. Our letter of the week comes from Josh Schofield twenty one on Instagram. He says, hey former question for the pod AVL's repeatedly raised concerns about the Gen 3 vehicles at Bathurst not delivering good racing. What would either of you change to spice things up? Things that impact strategy like multiple tire compounds being used in the race like in Formula One, designated safety car periods to bunch of fueled up like in NASCAR, scrubbing marbles from the track like in Indy, minimum number of driver swaps per race, low deg tires, so there's a save fuel versus push hard option throughout the stint. What do you reckon? Over to you. Bathurst is a tricky one to meddle with. you don't it's and you d you don't want to be bringing more rules into the sport. You know? So I think it's just something like for whatever reason, the track layout combined with this kind of near Career Cup spec sort of Gen three thing we got going on, doesn't doesn't seem to quite work. Great under dry green flag conditions. But well, we spoke about it after Bathurst this year. it's we've also had two incredible Baths in the last two years. So yeah, I I I don't know. But if you take the the rain out at twenty-five and you take the last lap out at twenty-six, were they really amazing races? Like it's but who knows? But I don't I I I I would struggle to advocate for mixed high compounds or competition cautions or anything like that. I think you've just got to let the Bathus one thousand play out as it plays out. So it's a problem potentially without any real solution, which is a pretty boring answer. So apologies, Josh, but that's kind of where I sit on it. I feel like all those things, all those you know, we bring in this to try and combat that, there's always an equal and opposite reaction and it just never seems to fix the problem. The law of unintended consequences as well is one you have to always be very careful of. Yeah. scrubbing the marbles from the track might make a difference in maybe one or two places, but not many. Driver swaps per race, well, they've got minimum laps. Yeah, there's a and that's all been designed to be as awkward as possible for the teams. there's the whole point around some tweaks in the last couple of years for that. I mean, ultimately what has what makes things less exciting to an extent is the fact that We don't see many safety cars because the drivers are too good and the cars are too reliable. And it's exactly what we talked about. if you could have a wet race, five a wet two hundred and fifty kilometer race on the Gold Coast without a safety car, like that's that's just where the level is at. So Bathus is the sort of race that does benefit from safety cars. but we see less of them because the driving standards are so incredibly high. So it's just Which brings me to my crackpot idea of the week from the Discord that I raised for the bend next year. The bend next year should be a nine hour race, three drivers per car, and one driver must be from Super Two. That when you say crackpot idea, I didn't even think it would go that far. So well done. You've exceeded even your own your own description of of your idea. There you go, Josh. I've answered your question for you. You're welcome. Fifteen hundred kilometres around the bend with three drivers. One of them must be super two or over fifty. What a solution. Righto, on that startling revelation. Get your mind around that. You got seven days. Get back to me. that'll about do us for this episode of full credit of the noise. Don't forget you can find the show on all the socials at FC T T N Podcast. You read ABL's excellent work over at speakcave.com. Where he is gonna be very busy for the next five or six days, I'd imagine. Where they do break all the big motorsport news first, of course. Until next time, I've been Former Legend, he's been A. Earl, this has been Full Crew of the Noise, and we'll see you at Supercars headquarters to push for the nine hour enduro. See ya there. Credit to