Latest / Rusty's Garage / Alex Briggs (Part 1)

Transcript

Alex Briggs (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:14
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:30
  In this episode, I've travelled to the far north coast of New South Wales, but I'm in the stunning hinterland as opposed to beachside.
• 0:37
  I've had some heavy rain of late and my rental car looks like it's done a stage of the World Rally Championship as I arrive, much to my guest's delight.
• 0:46
  He's having a good laugh about it.
• 0:48
  It's here that former MotoGP mechanic Alex Briggs has escaped after almost 30 years travelling with the World Motorcycle Championship.
• 0:57
  It's actually been his home for quite some time, so he's racked up some frequent flyers and also done some decent stints away from family while working in the pit lane.
• 1:07
  It was a tight-knit crew he was with, including some Aussies and Kiwis who worked with some of the greats, including Valentino Rossi and Mick Doohan.
• 1:17
  Alex was on the tools, playing a significant part in no less than 12 Premier Class World titles, five straight with Doohan and a magnificent seven with Rossi.
• 1:30
  As you'll hear, Briggs still loves bikes and is working around them again while hot-rodding golf clubs, of all things.
• 1:38
  No, I didn't read that wrong.
• 1:40
  He's learned a lot from Jeremy Burgess, who you can also find in the Rusty's Garage Library.
• 1:46
  Both respectfully waited until they'd finished their MotoGP chapters before sharing their stories.
• 1:53
  Like Jeremy, you'll enjoy some of Alex's behind-the-scenes insights on life in the paddock and what makes champions tick.
• 2:02
  Now, I've kind of had the red carpet rolled out for me here.
• 2:05
  His wife, Ellen, a successful stand-up comedian, has made coffee and insisted that I use her podcast gear, which is already set up and good to go.
• 2:15
  All we have to do is grab a seat and let the conversation begin.
• 2:19
  We'll talk more about Ellen a little later, but we kick things off with early life for Alex in Canberra and what made him gravitate to bikes.
• 2:29
  Pretty normal suburban house with my parents.
• 2:32
  Both my father worked for the CSIRO, which was like a government science department.
• 2:37
  So I'm sure he used to just cry when he walked past my bedroom once we got into motorcycles, but there's funny stories with him as well.
• 2:43
  And my mum, she basically towards the end owned a shop that sold jokes and makeup and stuff like that for what's called the funny shop.
• 2:56
  Yeah, so very interesting.
• 2:58
  Her background's German, although she never spoke German in the house, which now as years have gone by, I wish I learnt something like that.
• 3:07
  But anyway.
• 3:08
  And how do I get into bikes and stuff like that?
• 3:11
  Basically I used to be into sport.
• 3:12
  I used to play cricket in summer and hockey in winter or soccer and soccer.
• 3:22
  One of the kids had a mini bike when I was probably year seven.
• 3:26
  Can you remember what kind of mini bike it was?
• 3:27
  Actually, no, no.
• 3:28
  Now I remember now exactly what happened.
• 3:30
  I got billeted to Daniloquin as a- Like a boarder?
• 3:34
  Boarding?
• 3:34
  Yeah, for hockey though.
• 3:35
  So we had like an inter-school thing with this school in Daniloquin.
• 3:39
  So we went- This is- Yeah, now it's all coming back to me.
• 3:42
  So we went there and-
• 3:46
  And the kid was on a farm, like a really big farm, you know, and he had a KX80, Kawasaki 80cc minibike, and I'd never ridden a motorbike in my life.
• 3:56
  And the guy said, oh, you know what, I'll show you how to ride.
• 3:58
  So there we were, we used to just rip up and down this guy's farm road, which was like a couple of kilometre road to the house.
• 4:07
  Yeah.
• 4:08
  And that's it.
• 4:09
  I just was hooked from that minute on.
• 4:11
  I mean, the first time you ride a motorbike, you know, no helmet, just in probably school uniform up and down this road, just like going, wow, you know, you think you're doing a million miles an hour.
• 4:21
  And that was it.
• 4:21
  I was hooked.
• 4:23
  Came home and a friend of mine had a minibike, a little tiny Honda.
• 4:27
  I don't know what the really little ones were called.
• 4:29
  Like a QR but, you know, tiny little minibike.
• 4:32
  Yep.
• 4:33
  And I used to, this is how bad it was, I used to carry his bag home if he let me ride around the backyard on this bike, you know.
• 4:40
  So because I was just hooked then.
• 4:42
  So then that was it.
• 4:44
  Then I saved up some money, bought a car.
• 4:47
  How did you do that?
• 4:48
  Did you have like a paper run or you sold toys or something?
• 4:51
  What did you do?
• 4:53
  I just washed cars, my mum and dad's cars, and they overpaid me.
• 4:56
  And then I also later on I mowed lawns for money to go racing because I remember I lost a $10 entry fee and my mum said, I'm not giving you any more.
• 5:07
  And I said, shit, I've got to race tomorrow.
• 5:09
  Yeah.
• 5:11
  So I just grabbed the mower and just walked down the street and just went into every house with a lawnmower and my can of fuel and said, I'll mow your lawn, I'll mow your lawn for $10 to $10, you know.
• 5:20
  And I eventually found somebody and I mowed his lawn for like, I don't know, years I mowed this guy's lawn.
• 5:25
  Fantastic.
• 5:26
  Yeah, so that was another bike-related story.
• 5:29
  The racing took place where?
• 5:31
  Fairbairn Park and places like that in Canberra?
• 5:33
  Yeah, so in Canberra there was pretty good...
• 5:36
  When I was growing up, there was a pretty good short circuit track.
• 5:39
  Yeah.
• 5:39
  And then just near the short circuit track was a motocross track called the Kamigatza.
• 5:44
  That's what everyone caught it.
• 5:45
  Because, you know, that's exactly what would happen.
• 5:47
  It was a rocky, harsh, harsh place, man.
• 5:51
  Anyway, so we do short circuit.
• 5:52
  There was a junior short circuit track and a senior short circuit track, which was quite a good track in the day.
• 5:59
  Yeah.
• 5:59
  So in the mornings you would do short circuit and in the afternoon you would either, if you had the money, you would change wheels and then race motocross in the afternoon.
• 6:08
  Awesome.
• 6:09
  I did it for a little while and then I'd just sit to my dad, I don't like short circuit, I like motocross, you know.
• 6:13
  Okay.
• 6:15
  Which is kind of interesting how we ended up in road racing and didn't like short circuit, which is kind of, you know, almost like a derivative.
• 6:20
  But anyway, motocross was my thing and I just thought this is it, you know, I'm going to be world champion.
• 6:26
  Yeah.
• 6:28
  And that's how it started.
• 6:30
  But I was kind of a late starter, you know.
• 6:32
  I think it was probably 16 or 15 when I started, you know.
• 6:35
  So, you know, all the good guys that were already champions by then.
• 6:39
  Who were the influencers?
• 6:40
  Was it, you know, Craig Dack, who you would end up working for?
• 6:43
  Was it Jeff Leesk?
• 6:44
  Who were the guys that inspired you then?
• 6:46
  At that time, it was all about America, you know.
• 6:49
  So I just would wait for them, the magazine called Motocross Action.
• 6:53
  Yeah.
• 6:55
  I used to have surfing magazines, I do that a little bit too, but
• 6:59
  Living in Canberra was a two-hour drive, but, you know, the posters soon got replaced.
• 7:05
  I had them on my roof and everywhere I was surfing and stuff.
• 7:07
  They soon got replaced just with motorcycle, motocross riders from America pretty much.
• 7:12
  Like who?
• 7:13
  Oh, they'd be Ricky Johnson, Johnny O'Mara, David Bailey.
• 7:17
  Those people were like, just like for me, were gods, you know.
• 7:20
  I just was exactly like how kids probably would look to Valentino Rossi, you know, like, or they did, you know, so...
• 7:26
  It was like that.
• 7:26
  So I just had them everywhere and I just couldn't wait for this magazine to come in, you know, like a month late.
• 7:32
  Yeah.
• 7:33
  It was great.
• 7:34
  Did you lose any bark along the way?
• 7:37
  And what was the relationship with Dad like?
• 7:39
  Is he on the tools and helping you?
• 7:41
  Are you listening to him?
• 7:42
  Are you trying to do it your way?
• 7:43
  What was that all like?
• 7:45
  Basically, we learnt, I mean, I got into mechanics because of the bikes and I got into all of that and so did he.
• 7:53
  Like he was, he's a really smart guy, still is, but in a different way, you know, like in a scientific kind of way.
• 8:03
  Right, yeah.
• 8:04
  So there we would have this KX80 in the laundry.
• 8:08
  We didn't have a shed.
• 8:09
  We didn't have a garage.
• 8:10
  We'd have it in the laundry of the house.
• 8:11
  My mum just fucking hated that.
• 8:13
  But she'd put up with it.
• 8:14
  So there it was just sitting in the middle of the laundry and we had to change piston rings one time, you know.
• 8:20
  So my dad's reading the manual and I'm reading the manual.
• 8:22
  It was like a two-day job, you know.
• 8:26
  to get this air-cooled motorcycle apart and off we did and we felt so proud, you know, like that was the first big job we'd ever done on a motorcycle.
• 8:36
  And by then I was sort of hooked, you know, and I decided that I wanted to be a mechanic for trade, you know, but it basically started from the motorbike.
• 8:46
  I didn't really think at that time I guess I wanted to be a world champion or anything but I kind of had that inkling that I like riding motorcycles.
• 8:54
  Yeah.
• 8:56
  So I ended up getting a trade as a mechanic in Canberra.
• 8:59
  On buses, wasn't it?
• 9:00
  Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 9:01
  Government buses?
• 9:01
  Government bus service.
• 9:03
  So I didn't, basically I went to my careers advisor like you do in school and the guy just went, you know, you're a loser basically, right?
• 9:10
  So...
• 9:13
  I hate those sort of, anyway.
• 9:15
  So.
• 9:15
  Isn't that funny how that ironically motivates you?
• 9:19
  Yeah.
• 9:20
  You know, you're so wound up about, you know, what the hell would you know and look where you've gone.
• 9:25
  Yeah, well, I see it with kids today, you know.
• 9:28
  I talk to other kids and stuff and people, you know, I've done talks about my job and, you know, for schools and a few other things.
• 9:36
  And it's always interesting talking to those people, you know,
• 9:39
  The careers advisors, they just sort of miss the boat with these kids, you know.
• 9:42
  They just haven't found the thing they like, you know, so they don't do particularly well on the things that they don't like and so the teacher assumes that they're an idiot or something.
• 9:50
  But anyway, so this career advisor basically looked at me and just went and looked at my grades and stuff and said, mate,
• 9:55
  This is when year 11.
• 9:57
  So in Canberra you did year 10 and then you went to year 11 and 12 at a college, they'd call it, like as preparation for university sort of.
• 10:04
  Like a TAFE or a. .
• 10:06
  .
• 10:06
  No, no, it wasn't a TAFE.
• 10:07
  It's just like just the last year before you would go to uni.
• 10:11
  Okay.
• 10:11
  But some schools in other states go all the way to year 12 and then you off you go.
• 10:15
  But in Canberra you did year 11 and 12.
• 10:16
  It's kind of.
• 10:17
  .
• 10:17
  .
• 10:18
  Their opinion was it was you sort of were a little bit more on your own, so getting you used to being ready for university, I guess.
• 10:25
  So anyway.
• 10:26
  So I was in year 11.
• 10:27
  I was doing what would get me a very low entrance score into university, I guess, and the careers advisor said, I think you should start applying for jobs now because you're going to have to get used to getting knocked back, you know.
• 10:40
  Basically, you're just saying you're not going to get anywhere.
• 10:43
  So anyway, I went and did work experience at this government bus company and I just loved it, loved it.
• 10:49
  Like you couldn't believe the guys were great, just amazing.
• 10:52
  And I don't know, the motorcycle thing started me on the mechanics and then I just loved it.
• 10:56
  It was great.
• 10:58
  Anyway, then an apprenticeships, the government apprenticeships turned around and said, okay, we're having an intake of apprentices.
• 11:05
  So I applied.
• 11:06
  Yep.
• 11:07
  And there was like hundreds of people, you know, like big intake of people and lots of people applying.
• 11:13
  And, you know, I was all nervous, you know.
• 11:15
  I turned up there and I was sitting like a desk kind of like this, but there was engine parts on it, parts I had never seen before, you know.
• 11:23
  And then there was a panel of four or five guys I was just like,
• 11:26
  No, you know, and I'm there in like a pencil-thin tie, leather tie in the 80s.
• 11:32
  I know those ties.
• 11:33
  Yeah, yeah.
• 11:34
  And then like... Miami Vice.
• 11:35
  Yeah, it was that style and I was in like a little cheap suit that my mum had bought me, just all wrong, you know.
• 11:40
  But anyway, these guys asked me questions about...
• 11:44
  the mechanical parts but also about life and TV and politics and real weird stuff, you know, which I understand now.
• 11:51
  I was just seeing if you were sort of grounded, I guess.
• 11:54
  Worldly and level.
• 11:54
  Yeah, a little bit, you know, just to see what you would say, you know.
• 11:57
  So I think I nailed most of the parts and I remember they had a turbo on there and a few other little things.
• 12:06
  And they asked me about who was the prime minister at the time, a few other things.
• 12:09
  And, you know, I did okay.
• 12:11
  Didn't hear anything back from him for ages.
• 12:12
  So then I rang up maybe three weeks later and said, oh, I applied for this apprenticeship.
• 12:18
  How did I go?
• 12:19
  What's happening?
• 12:20
  And the lady said, hang on, what's your name?
• 12:22
  Blah, blah, blah.
• 12:23
  Briggs.
• 12:23
  And I said, oh, yeah, actually, yeah, you're starting next such and such.
• 12:28
  You're second on the list.
• 12:29
  I've gone, shit, you know, here, I've got this job.
• 12:32
  So I quit school and started as an apprentice bus mechanic and I did that.
• 12:37
  It was great.
• 12:37
  So what's the first set of wheels?
• 12:39
  Was it, you know, motocrossers often liked high-ace vans and things?
• 12:42
  What did you have?
• 12:43
  Well, the high-ace came a little later.
• 12:45
  The first car and still probably one of my biggest mistakes in my life was not the car, but...
• 12:51
  what I did to it, you know.
• 12:52
  What did you do?
• 12:53
  What was it?
• 12:53
  Well, I had an XY Falcon U.
• 12:56
  Like now they're going for silly money, you know, right?
• 13:00
  So two grand, I think it cost.
• 13:01
  Yeah.
• 13:03
  maybe less.
• 13:03
  I can't remember.
• 13:04
  What state was it in?
• 13:05
  What colour?
• 13:06
  Tell us about it.
• 13:07
  It was a white one.
• 13:08
  I bought it in Queenbeyan, which is a- Not far from Canberra.
• 13:12
  Yeah, yeah.
• 13:12
  Just across the road from Mark Webber's dad's shop.
• 13:17
  Servo?
• 13:17
  Yeah, whatever it was.
• 13:18
  Yeah, the shop.
• 13:19
  Sorry, yes.
• 13:19
  Oh, yeah, we had like a Servo shop.
• 13:21
  I forget exactly.
• 13:22
  It was a motorbike shop, a Yamaha shop.
• 13:23
  At the time, I didn't know that.
• 13:25
  So it was just across the road from there.
• 13:27
  I forget what it was called.
• 13:28
  But anyway, so car deal and I bought this car.
• 13:30
  My dad's come and looked at it and, you know, okay, spent-
• 13:33
  I spent all my money from my first year apprentice wage or something like that.
• 13:37
  I can't exactly remember, but yeah.
• 13:39
  But then I butchered it, you know.
• 13:41
  Did you?
• 13:41
  Well, the car was okay for quite a while, but it started using more oil than petrol.
• 13:50
  So then I came across an engine from an XF Falcon Ute and the guy said, yeah, you can buy this.
• 13:58
  I bought this engine from a car.
• 13:59
  I don't know how many years later the car version is like...
• 14:03
  15 years later, whatever.
• 14:04
  Anyway, the engine fits straight in, right?
• 14:06
  The exhaust bolts up and everything.
• 14:08
  Like, that didn't change anything except for the throttle cable.
• 14:11
  It was a cable and not levers.
• 14:13
  Okay.
• 14:14
  Did that and I remember trying to register it and the guy said, you can't because it's got too much power.
• 14:19
  And I said, it's the same capacity.
• 14:20
  It was a 4.1 or something.
• 14:24
  It's the same capacity.
• 14:25
  And the guy had an argument with me and I said, read the rules, you know, so we'll check the rules.
• 14:28
  You said read the rules.
• 14:29
  Yeah, because I'd read them.
• 14:30
  I'd read them and you're allowed as long as the engine capacity hasn't changed.
• 14:33
  He wanted me to put disc brakes on the front of this car.
• 14:36
  Yeah.
• 14:36
  I didn't have the money for that.
• 14:37
  So anyway, passed it and off it went.
• 14:39
  I had that for years.
• 14:41
  Then the high-ace vans came and it was just a constant stream of high-ace vans.
• 14:44
  So tell me the story then because –
• 14:47
  From memory, you're earning about 35 grand as a government bus mechanic.
• 14:51
  That's pretty good money for a young bloke back then.
• 14:54
  By the time I'd finished, I got my trade and it was, I think, about 30 grand.
• 14:57
  Yeah.
• 14:57
  Amazing.
• 14:58
  So you then get an opportunity to go and work for a motocross team that involved Craig, Dak and others.
• 15:05
  I think it was Sydney-based.
• 15:07
  Is that right?
• 15:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:08
  And you, for significantly less pay, decide to up and leave, move to Sydney, move to Sydney,
• 15:15
  Sleep on the floor.
• 15:17
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:18
  Pretty much.
• 15:18
  Tell us that story.
• 15:20
  Well, so up until that point I'd been racing bikes and thinking I was going to be world champion and I'd travelled all around Australia with all my mates.
• 15:27
  What was the reality that maybe you wouldn't be world champion?
• 15:30
  It turned out I was better at fixing them than riding them.
• 15:33
  So, yeah.
• 15:37
  But some of my mates were really good riders, you know, and so we'd drive in these high-age vans all crisscrossing the country and...
• 15:44
  And I'd work on their bikes in car parks at hotels.
• 15:48
  We'd put the bikes in hotels and stuff and be at the car park and stuff like that.
• 15:52
  And anyway, I kind of got a little bit of a name for fixing these guys' bikes, I guess.
• 15:58
  Sometimes people would say, who's working on your bike?
• 16:00
  I started porting engines and doing suspension and all sorts of stuff for these guys that were quite good and they were winning, you know.
• 16:06
  Yeah.
• 16:08
  There was a guy called Stan Bergen.
• 16:09
  He was a 125 rider.
• 16:10
  He did really well and there was kind of good mates with him.
• 16:14
  There was a whole group of guys from Sydney, you know, we used to travel.
• 16:17
  Anyway, so, and then I ended up with a broken tailbone from practicing somewhere.
• 16:29
  Bargo, I think I was practicing with some friends.
• 16:33
  Had an awkward jump landing.
• 16:34
  Oh, I can't remember.
• 16:35
  You know, just probably cartwheel the thing around for end, you know.
• 16:38
  Who knows, trying to be better than I was.
• 16:40
  So anyway, so I'm driving home, you know, thinking about my life.
• 16:43
  I've got two bikes.
• 16:44
  I've got a race bike and a practice bike.
• 16:46
  I was pretty serious at that stage.
• 16:47
  Get a phone call a few weeks later from someone, from a guy called Ross McWatters, and he said, would you like to be a mechanic for Yamaha Australia with the motocross team, you know, in Wetherill Park?
• 17:03
  Peter Jackson Yamaha, you know, and my rider would be Stephen Andrew, I think it was.
• 17:08
  Yeah.
• 17:10
  So... Daka was in the team though, wasn't he?
• 17:13
  Was he the other rider at that stage?
• 17:14
  I'm trying to remember.
• 17:14
  No, he came back, I think, the following year from, I think he was in the UK, I think.
• 17:20
  He finished, it's hard to remember back then.
• 17:22
  But anyway, yeah, Ben Parise, I think, was the other rider.
• 17:25
  Was it Ben Parise?
• 17:26
  Shit.
• 17:27
  No, maybe not.
• 17:28
  Anyway, you knew you were rider.
• 17:29
  Anyway, yeah.
• 17:32
  So, yeah, I went, all right, look, I'm going to pack it in here and I'm going to go and do that.
• 17:36
  So...
• 17:38
  Went to 20 grand before tax.
• 17:41
  Stayed at Ross's house, on the floor at Ross's house in the spare room.
• 17:44
  Roll out futon and all sorts of stuff.
• 17:45
  Exactly, yeah, that's right.
• 17:47
  It was the cheapest thing I could buy.
• 17:49
  High ace van.
• 17:50
  Sold my bikes.
• 17:52
  bought a futon and rolled that out.
• 17:57
  I slept on that for ages.
• 17:58
  I can't even remember what happened after that.
• 17:59
  But anyway, so I stayed at Ross's house basically.
• 18:02
  Ross ended up moving to another apartment and I moved with him there and slept, you know, had a bedroom.
• 18:07
  Yeah, rented a room and off you went.
• 18:09
  Closer to Weatherill Park for a while, yeah.
• 18:12
  So did you, I mean, you...
• 18:13
  So that's what happened, yeah.
• 18:14
  You competed in it and, you know, clearly loved it.
• 18:17
  Now you've sort of transitioned to the mechanical side with a good team.
• 18:22
  Were there learnings in all that?
• 18:23
  Did you love it even more?
• 18:25
  Did you sort of think, this is a bit of me, I want to...
• 18:28
  continues.
• 18:29
  In my sense, I was a terrible go-kart, right?
• 18:32
  I did some fun stuff for the old man and commentary and things morphed out of an opportunity that I went, this is a great way to stay involved with the game that you love and learn more about the people and just offer something different, but be connected to the sport.
• 18:45
  So obviously that must've been a similar realisation for you in some way, was it?
• 18:51
  I just loved motocross and I loved racing and I loved everything about it.
• 18:54
  And I don't know, I just...
• 18:57
  It was definitely not worked for me.
• 18:59
  Like I enjoyed it.
• 19:00
  We did lots of, I guess you had caught overtime, but we were just mucking around in the shed really.
• 19:06
  Till sort of late at night.
• 19:07
  Sometimes, yeah, but just playing, you know, like doing stupid stuff and polishing things and learning all the whole time, learning what not to do, what to do.
• 19:15
  Any late night test runs?
• 19:17
  Sometimes we'd get them out and ride around the back of the car park at Weatherill Park and there was this like a forklift ramp that they'd back up to trucks and you'd drive up a forklift and then, you know, load stuff into the back of a pallet truck.
• 19:29
  So it was like a back of a truck height and that made a perfect jump.
• 19:32
  So we used to do that, but you'd just destroy the tyres in an heartbeat.
• 19:35
  So I remember... You'd get in trouble over that, did you?
• 19:38
  Yeah, but Ross would have a go too sometimes, but yeah.
• 19:40
  Yeah.
• 19:41
  So how many years did you do that for?
• 19:43
  Were you with them for?
• 19:44
  I think it was probably, it wasn't really a long time.
• 19:48
  It was maybe just under three years.
• 19:50
  I was like, I think, 92, 93.
• 19:54
  No, no, 91, 92.
• 19:58
  Something like that, only a couple of years, you know, really quite a short time.
• 20:01
  But I'd met a lot of people in that time, you know, because I still had this dream of just, oh, actually the dream of,
• 20:09
  kind of evolved, I wanted to know more, do more, and then I decided I wanted to go to Europe.
• 20:13
  Yep.
• 20:14
  So I decided I wanted to go to Europe as a motocross mechanic.
• 20:16
  And motocross opened the doors for you to do that.
• 20:19
  Initially the path was going to be, instead of circuit racing, was actually going to be via motocross, wasn't it?
• 20:24
  Yeah.
• 20:24
  You had a deal.
• 20:24
  You actually did a handshake deal with the team, I think, didn't you?
• 20:27
  Yeah, yeah.
• 20:28
  So I'd just met all these people.
• 20:29
  I'd even went to Japan.
• 20:30
  I'd been to Japan in that time because there was the Wind Safari was called.
• 20:35
  Oh, yes.
• 20:35
  No, well, yeah.
• 20:36
  maybe it was a different sponsor at that time, PIAA maybe or something.
• 20:40
  Anyway, there was basically effectively the wind safari and they had asked for a mechanic and said, we've got two factory Japanese riders and we have an Aussie guy, I forget the guy's name, and he's going to kind of show the Japanese guys how it gets all done.
• 20:58
  And so they invited me to do that and there was no money and I said, yeah, I'm doing that, I'll do that.
• 21:02
  So I did that.
• 21:04
  It was great, you know, like you just.
• 21:06
  Then from there we went, they invited me to go to Japan.
• 21:10
  So I went, well, no money.
• 21:12
  I had to pay my own way.
• 21:13
  They said you can come to the factory.
• 21:15
  So off I went to the factory in Japan.
• 21:17
  I spent Christmas there in 90, must have been Christmas 90.
• 21:22
  Sorry, you're four?
• 21:22
  No, no, because 93 is when I went to Japan.
• 21:26
  Europe, so it might have been 90, maybe I've got the years a little bit, and maybe it's 90, 91, something like that.
• 21:30
  Okay.
• 21:31
  Anyway, so around 92, Christmas I spent in Japan for Yamaha Japan, like the factory that I ended up going back to years later, you know, like what an unbelievable story really.
• 21:43
  But anyway, so this factory, couldn't believe my eyes, just everything about Japan, there's so many stories about that, and it was the first time in Japan, and I'd never been there.
• 21:55
  Did you go okay with language barriers and things like that?
• 21:57
  Oh, mate, it was just unreal, you know.
• 21:59
  I was just, and it was a time when you go to Japan back then, it was nothing was in English.
• 22:05
  Like maybe the very central Tokyo stations had English.
• 22:09
  Everything else didn't, you know.
• 22:10
  So it was interesting.
• 22:11
  I remember walking around Iwata, which is where the factory Yamaha is, just walking around on the weekend one day, and these girls were,
• 22:20
  had locked their keys in the car, these two girls.
• 22:24
  I went up to them and said, oh, hey, how's it going?
• 22:26
  It's got a thing like probably as Aussie as possible as you could imagine.
• 22:31
  And they've just gone, they're freaked out, you know, like I've gone.
• 22:33
  Thought you were an expert or something.
• 22:34
  I don't know what they were thinking, but anyway, they were just laughing and giggling and I drew a picture of a coat hanger in the dirt.
• 22:39
  I said, can you go and get me one of them sort of thing?
• 22:42
  I can't speak any Japanese.
• 22:44
  And anyway, they come back with a coat hanger.
• 22:46
  I unwind the coat hanger and bend it up and shove it in the window sill and unlock their car.
• 22:53
  And they freaked out.
• 22:54
  It was like a magic trick, you know.
• 22:55
  So they've just gone, no way.
• 22:56
  They're in Japanese.
• 22:58
  Thank you, thank you.
• 22:58
  A lot of bound, a lot of stuff.
• 23:00
  And then they drove off.
• 23:02
  And about half an hour later, they just pulled up alongside of me.
• 23:04
  I'm still just walking around the town.
• 23:06
  They pull up alongside of me and get out of the car and give me a full-size bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
• 23:10
  Yeah.
• 23:12
  Because they've just gone, what are we going to give this Weston guy?
• 23:15
  Yeah, give me this chicken.
• 23:16
  So, you know, that was a good memory.
• 23:19
  So how did the handshake deal to Europe come about?
• 23:21
  Oh, yeah, so we were really going off the wrong law.
• 23:24
  So I was at a, I'd spoken to lots of people, you know, like about just going to Europe, wanting to go to Europe.
• 23:32
  And Gary Benn was running the motocross racing team in, you know,
• 23:39
  in Europe for Yamaha.
• 23:41
  And he was in Australia for the motocross designations and I was, yeah, I was down there and we spoke.
• 23:49
  I think it was there where we spoke and anyway, we shook hands on a deal.
• 23:52
  And he said, yeah, you can come next year and you can work for a guy called Marnik Bevertz who, yeah,
• 24:02
  who was racing, but he ended up not getting the contract for the following year.
• 24:06
  But anyway, regardless of that, so then driving from, I'd agreed, yep, I'm off to Europe, you know.
• 24:13
  So then I drive the truck from there in the bottom.
• 24:16
  Part of Europe.
• 24:17
  Oh, no, no.
• 24:18
  We're in the motocross destinations in Manjima.
• 24:21
  Okay.
• 24:21
  WA.
• 24:22
  WA, right.
• 24:23
  So then I drive the truck, the team race truck.
• 24:26
  It's all coming back to me now.
• 24:27
  So I drive this truck right all the way back up to Brisbane because there's a supercross in Brisbane.
• 24:32
  Good road trip.
• 24:33
  Man, we didn't have that much time.
• 24:34
  It was just me.
• 24:36
  I don't know if that was the trip that we drove...
• 24:40
  It might have been the trip we drove driving there.
• 24:42
  Dacca was in the truck, right?
• 24:44
  Driving there.
• 24:44
  Craig Dacca.
• 24:45
  Yeah.
• 24:45
  So I think he's in the truck and it wouldn't even pull top gear across the Australian bike because the wind was that strong, right?
• 24:52
  So he just wanted to see.
• 24:53
  I'm pretty sure this was the trip.
• 24:56
  And he gets in and goes, fuck it, I'm flying back.
• 25:00
  So I had to drive this truck back alone.
• 25:02
  I mean, he didn't drive anyway because he didn't have the truck licence, but he goes, I'm not flying, you know, I'm flying back.
• 25:06
  I'm done.
• 25:06
  I think it was this trip.
• 25:07
  Anyway, I...
• 25:08
  Anyway, that did happen on maybe one of those trips.
• 25:11
  So driving back, I'm just going, like, eyes are hanging out of my head, you know.
• 25:15
  I remember hitting some roos and the headlights.
• 25:17
  I just saw them sparring off on the wires until they just blew off, you know, because I couldn't drive any further.
• 25:22
  So I remember having a wait at Port Augusta, I think, and at Repco to get some new headlights.
• 25:28
  Anyway, get to Brisbane.
• 25:32
  And Ross goes, oh, you've got a phone call from a bloke called Jeremy Burgess.
• 25:36
  You've got to ring him back.
• 25:36
  This is your number.
• 25:37
  And I go, who's he?
• 25:40
  So I ring this bloke, Jeremy Burgess, and it turns out that I'd been, that they're expanding the team in Europe for road racing.
• 25:48
  And they're going to, they need another mechanic.
• 25:50
  And my name was mentioned because I knew a guy called Peter Laskowski, nicknamed Buddha.
• 25:56
  And he was Jeff Leesk's mechanic.
• 26:00
  And I'd met him a few times through motocross saying, I want to go to Europe, I want to be a motocross mechanic.
• 26:05
  And so he'd sort of help me out a little bit on that.
• 26:08
  And I had seen him at Eastern Creek.
• 26:11
  For some reason I went out to watch the road racing in Eastern Creek, you know, got some tickets through Europe
• 26:18
  Mick Doohan's manager at the time.
• 26:19
  Yeah.
• 26:20
  But I didn't really know all these people anyway.
• 26:22
  So it all just sort of all happened, you know.
• 26:24
  And so Jerry Burgess rings me or I ring him and just go, hey, I've got a message to ring you.
• 26:29
  He explains that we're expanding the team.
• 26:31
  Would you like to work?
• 26:33
  And I go, shit.
• 26:35
  He goes, well, it's going to be 50,000.
• 26:38
  I think it was 60,000 US dollars.
• 26:42
  which was like nearly 100 grand, you know, like back then with the exchange rate, and I've gone from 20.
• 26:48
  So he's gone, you know, this, and I said, man, I've got the job just like that.
• 26:51
  And he goes, well, I can sack you any time I want, right?
• 26:56
  So that's him.
• 26:57
  So I didn't know this guy, right?
• 26:58
  I mean, clearly I know him now.
• 27:00
  Then, so yeah, shit, okay.
• 27:05
  I don't know what to do.
• 27:06
  I said, look, I've got to ring a bloke first.
• 27:08
  I don't know, you know.
• 27:09
  Because of your loyalty, you'd shaken hands.
• 27:11
  Yeah, so I was going to go to Europe on the motocross deal.
• 27:14
  Either way I'm going, right, so that's what's happened.
• 27:17
  But I didn't really know much about road racing, didn't know much about any of that stuff.
• 27:22
  So I ring Gary Benner and say, Gary, I've had this offer, you know, but it's kind of it's good money and yada, yada, and he's gone.
• 27:33
  mate, I think you should go road racing because it's a lot cleaner.
• 27:36
  That's what Gary said to me.
• 27:38
  And honestly, he just went, just do that, you know.
• 27:42
  I think he might have said we'll still be here if you don't want to do it or whatever, you know, but just go road racing.
• 27:48
  So if it wasn't for Gary, you know, I wouldn't have accepted JB's offer, I guess.
• 27:53
  So then I rang JB back and he said, yep, okay, okay.
• 27:57
  You got the job.
• 27:58
  That conversation, from what I can gather, between the, you know, finalising the negotiation, him offering the job and we're all go, was like 30 seconds or a minute.
• 28:09
  It was just like bang, bang, bang, we're all done here.
• 28:11
  And you were like, what?
• 28:12
  What?
• 28:12
  I've got the job.
• 28:14
  Pretty much, yeah.
• 28:15
  And JB in his way just like, don't worry, I can sack you any time I want it.
• 28:20
  So then I remember he said, what I need to do now, he said, you need to buy a fax machine.
• 28:25
  Because Honda Japan will send you faxes and you need to be at Phillip Island on this day.
• 28:34
  For pre-season testing.
• 28:35
  Yeah.
• 28:35
  Yeah.
• 28:36
  And that was it.
• 28:37
  Amazing.
• 28:37
  Yeah.
• 28:38
  And that's what happened.
• 28:39
  So-
• 28:40
  To join the dots, Jeremy, as you know, has been on the podcast and worked significantly with you for the bulk of your work life with Mick Doohan, with Valentino Rossi, et cetera.
• 28:51
  But your initial pathway here in the expansion of the team that he was working on was to actually work with our good mate, Darrell Beatty.
• 28:57
  Yeah.
• 28:58
  Wasn't it?
• 28:58
  Yeah.
• 28:59
  So just explain the role that you were going to do there and your first impressions of Daz when you got to meet him.
• 29:04
  Oh, mate, it was just terrific.
• 29:05
  I was just so wide-eyed, you know.
• 29:07
  It was great.
• 29:08
  You know, turn up at Phillip Island, never been there before in my life, and meet all the guys.
• 29:13
  And, yeah, it was just, it was unreal.
• 29:17
  And then Daz and I were both going to Europe, really, for the first time.
• 29:21
  So it was kind of cool.
• 29:24
  What was he like back then?
• 29:25
  I mean, we're mates and he hates the whole notion of look in the rearview mirror, how good you were, blah, blah, blah, all that sort of stuff.
• 29:33
  And if we turn the pages on his career, you know, he ticks some mega boxes but not a world championship and I often feel for him in that regard because he clearly had immense talent, mate, didn't he?
• 29:47
  Oh, he was good enough and like everything in life, a little huge –
• 29:51
  Sometimes you just need a few things to fall your way.
• 29:53
  But he was a good enough rider to be there.
• 29:55
  I mean, most of them are, you know, once they get that level, if they just things go the right way for them.
• 30:01
  But he was good enough.
• 30:02
  I mean, I think if you're good enough to win a race, then you just need to win more races and you win a championship.
• 30:08
  So, like...
• 30:11
  Yeah, I mean, anyway, it was just terrific and his dad came over there and, oh, man, it was just such good fun and I was so green, you know, too.
• 30:21
  I remember turning up to the first time I went away.
• 30:25
  I had a gear bag, a jet pilot gear bag like for jet skiers.
• 30:30
  It was a massive, massive motocross bag.
• 30:33
  I had that.
• 30:33
  I had a camera bag like with a video camera and a steel camera because I think I'm going on this world tour of Europe, you know.
• 30:40
  Like I don't know.
• 30:41
  Got to capture all this.
• 30:41
  What a dickhead I was.
• 30:43
  Anyway, so I turn up and like JB and all those guys just laughing at me.
• 30:47
  So off we go to Europe with these massive bags, huge bags.
• 30:51
  I mean, I think we did Japan first and a few other things, but I just remember now, I mean, not now, but the last sort of 20 years it was just a wheelie bag and that was it.
• 31:02
  Yeah.
• 31:03
  Five jocks, five socks, a pair of jeans you're wearing, a pair of jeans in, two shorts, one sweater, that's it.
• 31:10
  We'll illustrate more of the story because your life has been a suitcase for a long time.
• 31:16
  Just rattle off.
• 31:17
  the stats for the people that are listening.
• 31:20
  Was it 28 years?
• 31:22
  How long have you done this for since then?
• 31:24
  Yeah, well, this is like I was saying to you.
• 31:26
  I'm probably going to forget all the exact details, but it was 28 seasons, so from 1993.
• 31:30
  Well, I started the very last...
• 31:34
  In 92 was probably the, I did the first test at Phillip Island.
• 31:36
  Okay.
• 31:37
  But basically 93 was the first season with Dazza.
• 31:39
  And the intriguing thing for me in this, and it's the way of the world in motorsport in many respects, there are a couple of times where you've had a multi-year deal, a two-year deal, but by and large it was year to year, wasn't it?
• 31:52
  Yeah, so it was always just year to year, yeah, racing.
• 31:55
  I only had two two-year deals once with Ducati, sort of midway through the whole season.
• 32:01
  experience and then the last deal I was on was a two-year deal.
• 32:06
  Amazing.
• 32:07
  Generally it's a one-year deal because I think...
• 32:11
  You know, you're racing and you just don't know what's going to happen.
• 32:13
  Sponsors, money, riders, who knows, you know.
• 32:16
  A lot's evolved in that timeframe in the sport.
• 32:19
  When you walk into a garage now, I mean, it's beautiful.
• 32:23
  Carpet, the way that the garages are set up and decorated more or less with the panelling and the walls and the screens.
• 32:31
  And I mean, it's super professional.
• 32:33
  What was it like back then?
• 32:34
  It wasn't like that.
• 32:37
  But, I mean, it was this, but because you didn't know any different or things weren't different, it was still the top of the top, you know.
• 32:44
  It was as good as it gets.
• 32:45
  Yeah.
• 32:47
  And I kind of liked it.
• 32:49
  Then when I look back, the focus was really on the motorcycle.
• 32:52
  The focus was on the motorcycle and how you're going to win that race.
• 32:55
  Yep.
• 32:56
  And I think they've lost that to some degree.
• 32:59
  You know, some people argue either way.
• 33:01
  In what way?
• 33:01
  What do you mean?
• 33:02
  Well, the show is in a lot of people's eyes almost seems to be more important than the actual –
• 33:09
  winning a motorcycle race, in my opinion, to a lot of people, you know, managers and some of the bigger people.
• 33:14
  It seems to be the image and the show seems to be where they spend a lot of their focus, a lot of, I think, wasted energy in a lot of times.
• 33:25
  But, yeah, but I've just recently gone to a couple of Australian, well, I've been to a first Australian race and it's back to basics there, which kind of reminds me a bit of the first time in the world
• 33:36
  Yeah.
• 33:37
  We'll get to that in the discussion.
• 33:38
  I'm glad that you're still on the tools and the Australian scene is, you know, benefiting from your involvement and Brent's because Brent is there too, your partner.
• 33:48
  Well, it remains to be seen if it's benefiting.
• 34:02
  What happens when a mechanic, a comedian and a journalist meet at a house in the hinterland?
• 34:07
  We get a podcast.
• 34:09
  That was my version of a joke.
• 34:11
  Did it work?
• 34:13
  Daz tells a good story about...
• 34:16
  I don't know which team it was, whether it was Honda or Suzuki or who he was working or riding for at the time, but just working with the Japanese engineers and that crossover.
• 34:25
  And one year they were at Phillip Island and crazily Phillip Island had two back-to-back days that were nigh on identical in weather and conditions perfect, right?
• 34:39
  So he goes out this particular day, day one, and, you know, kind of in his eyes it's mega.
• 34:45
  It sets the world on fire.
• 34:46
  Bike's great.
• 34:48
  Comes back day two.
• 34:49
  And identical conditions.
• 34:52
  The Japanese have told him they want to test a few things or whatever, but he cannot get within a second of the time the day before, and it is doing his head in his head scratching.
• 35:01
  He said, I just about hurled myself over the bars on a few occasions and, and, um,
• 35:07
  He didn't quite get a clear answer on the day as to why, you know, was it tire related?
• 35:12
  What had changed in the bike?
• 35:14
  And it wasn't until like four months later and he ran into one of the engineers again and he said, what the hell happened there?
• 35:20
  And the Japanese engineer sort of, you know, um,
• 35:24
  I said to him, oh, you know, Biti Sun, different chassis.
• 35:28
  They tried a completely different chassis on him, but they wanted his, I guess, authentic feedback.
• 35:34
  They didn't want to let him know that they changed something wholesale.
• 35:38
  I think they figured if he just applies himself the same way he did the day before, we'll be able to really gauge whether this is a, you know.
• 35:44
  He was like...
• 35:46
  Oh, he wanted to pull his hair out when he heard that story.
• 35:50
  But where I'm going with my question here is that now you're playing with one of the biggest teams in world sport or in motorsport.
• 35:58
  As a group, you integrate with the Japanese and what is being developed and built at the factory, aren't you?
• 36:06
  When I first started, definitely at Honda and early years at Yamaha, it was a really, it was quite a, I guess it was a collaboration between everyone.
• 36:15
  That's one of the things that's changed a lot too.
• 36:17
  But definitely when I first started at Honda and really when I first started at Yamaha, it was very much...
• 36:23
  the whole group was involved, you know, the many, the mechanics and the engineers was very much involved.
• 36:28
  It definitely changed over time, but at that time it was really all involved and I don't think that was, that doesn't sound like our story because generally we would,
• 36:39
  Also, as mechanics, we would have told the rider how we chose the chassis.
• 36:43
  Maybe it wasn't Honda.
• 36:44
  I can't remember.
• 36:45
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 36:45
  Which brand.
• 36:46
  Yeah, but anyway, I feel bad for him.
• 36:50
  No.
• 36:50
  I can understand sometimes, you know, you do not want to tell your rider everything because then they start thinking about that thing while they're riding, you know.
• 36:58
  But, you know, a chassis, man.
• 37:00
  Yeah, yeah.
• 37:01
  But ultimately the stopwatch tells you the answer.
• 37:03
  You just go, the riders are going to try to go as fast as they can no matter what.
• 37:06
  Yeah.
• 37:08
  So, okay, we'll change this chassis because we want to see if we can go faster.
• 37:11
  I mean, that's a whole game, right?
• 37:12
  Yeah.
• 37:12
  But anyway.
• 37:14
  So 93 is Daz season one.
• 37:18
  Am I right in recounting that?
• 37:19
  Yeah.
• 37:20
  And then I'm not sure what transpires here, but you end up on the garage with JB and Mick for 94, don't you?
• 37:27
  Yeah.
• 37:28
  And the path of success is...
• 37:33
  begins.
• 37:33
  Well, yeah, I mean, I think, so Darrell, I think, had been asked by Honda to race superbikes, maybe they wanted him to do that, and he said, no, I won't stay in GB, so...
• 37:46
  And then I don't know.
• 37:47
  That was the old faded year he went to Yamaha, wasn't it?
• 37:49
  Yeah, so he wanted to keep racing.
• 37:54
  I think they really liked him and wanted him to do well because they had a new superbike and for them that was important but it wasn't important for Daryl.
• 38:01
  So, man, it was a great time though.
• 38:04
  And then at Christmas time I'm up on the Gold Coast with Mick on, it was just like Miami Riders.
• 38:12
  So on a speedboat, Mick's speedboat, he had this speedboat.
• 38:15
  Piscator.
• 38:15
  Yeah, it was.
• 38:16
  I don't know, man.
• 38:17
  It was mental, that thing.
• 38:18
  Anyway, so we're on this speedboat.
• 38:20
  I think it was there.
• 38:21
  It was one of the two boats at the time.
• 38:24
  Anyway, he just says, you know, I'd like you to come and work on outside of the garage kind of for next year.
• 38:30
  And I said, yeah, okay, that'd be cool.
• 38:33
  So that was it.
• 38:34
  So that was 94 and Mick won the championship that year.
• 38:38
  So I put it down to me.
• 38:40
  You put it down, yeah.
• 38:43
  So it was great, you know.
• 38:44
  Can you imagine?
• 38:45
  I was a young guy, it was just second year, it was just great, you know.
• 38:50
  Surreal, mate.
• 38:51
  So you're part of a world championship winning scenario.
• 38:55
  Yeah, but I don't know.
• 38:57
  I've never known you to get off on that, by the way.
• 38:59
  You've never, the whole time I've known you, walked around and gone, you know, X world titles or chess out.
• 39:05
  You just quietly toil away and it's.
• 39:06
  Yeah, well, it's not my world championship, you know.
• 39:08
  But you played a part in that, though.
• 39:10
  Yeah, I'm trying to help the rider, you know.
• 39:12
  The whole object is trying to help your rider do well, you know.
• 39:15
  So that's it, really.
• 39:18
  You get to see both sides of the athlete, too.
• 39:21
  So in that...
• 39:22
  you recounted a minute ago about the skater, the boat.
• 39:25
  Yeah.
• 39:26
  Man, that thing, when you were pinned in that thing, your face would flap in the breeze.
• 39:29
  It was so fast.
• 39:30
  That was such a cool thing.
• 39:32
  We're digressing here.
• 39:35
  This is no way going to be even close to long enough, this challenge.
• 39:38
  No, I can tell already.
• 39:39
  The...
• 39:41
  Thing is, you get to see him in that casual conversation moment and to see the human being.
• 39:47
  Sometimes I would rock up for an interview and I would be super nervous, mate, because he was such an intense cat and so driven.
• 39:55
  I think you've reflected elsewhere that he just wanted to be first.
• 39:57
  He wanted to be first at the ticket counter at the airport to fly home.
• 40:02
  He just had such a competitive streak in him.
• 40:05
  But you got to see both sides of that, didn't you, of the human?
• 40:08
  Yeah, it's interesting also seeing him now, you know, because he was very, at that time, like you said, he was just into him.
• 40:14
  Time has helped him sort of chill more, hasn't it?
• 40:16
  And he just wanted to win it.
• 40:17
  But I think part of the thing that helped me is because I wasn't a massive fan of road racing or, you know, maybe it would have been different if I suddenly was working for Ricky Johnson because I'd had those pictures on my, I don't know, you know, but I never, I never thought,
• 40:37
  I don't know, I never idolised any of the people I've worked for or anything like that.
• 40:40
  I've just been like, I'm working for you, you're working for me.
• 40:44
  I don't know, it just never seemed like that.
• 40:45
  And with Mick, Mick was good because he was, you know, the second rider I worked for in road racing, but he was intense, you know, like massively wanted to win everything, like I said, you know.
• 40:56
  But...
• 40:58
  He once asked me, he said, oh, you know, what's Valentino like when I work for Valentino?
• 41:01
  And I said, mate, after you, he's a dream.
• 41:05
  And Mick typically was like...
• 41:08
  what do you mean?
• 41:08
  What the fuck does that mean?
• 41:09
  I go, what do you mean what does that mean?
• 41:11
  You were just like a nightmare, you know?
• 41:13
  But I didn't know that at the time.
• 41:15
  I had no idea.
• 41:15
  And he wasn't a nightmare.
• 41:16
  When I say that, I've got to say it in a way that- That's in perspective.
• 41:21
  He was a- He wasn't a nightmare.
• 41:22
  He was someone so driven that he just wanted to win and- You have to have that as an athlete at that level.
• 41:29
  But they show it in different ways.
• 41:30
  Darryl wanted to win.
• 41:32
  Every rider I've worked for wants to win like crazy, but-
• 41:35
  Mick, he couldn't hide that he wanted to win.
• 41:38
  And he did it with everything.
• 41:40
  It was like he was training for racing.
• 41:42
  Like a boxer.
• 41:44
  Just everything he did.
• 41:45
  Although he was always shit at qualifying, you know.
• 41:47
  So, like, you go, man, you know, he'd qualify sometimes good, but other times he'd just go try that hard and we'd end up in, like, eighth.
• 41:53
  You know, he'd have to come through the whole field.
• 41:55
  But, you know, that was no problem for him either.
• 41:58
  It was just, yeah, like I said, you know, first to the airport, first in the queue, first, you know, loved being first.
• 42:06
  500 cc's, two strokes.
• 42:09
  It's four stroke now, which we'll talk about later, but, you know, everyone talks about what a golden era that was, the riders that were around, the machines.
• 42:18
  What was that like?
• 42:19
  I loved it.
• 42:20
  I loved it.
• 42:20
  It was just an extension of the motocross engines.
• 42:22
  You know, they're just four 125 cc motocross engines bolted together.
• 42:26
  That was it.
• 42:26
  That was great.
• 42:27
  I loved it.
• 42:27
  And...
• 42:29
  My favourite thing was working on the cylinders and pistons and that sort of stuff, you know.
• 42:33
  We didn't really do the fine tuning that you might think you did.
• 42:39
  You know, you used basically maintenance or the Japan had figured out a new spec and then you might grind something to what they had said, you know.
• 42:48
  We weren't there like just guessing and making, you know, changes with porting and stuff.
• 42:53
  But I loved all that, you know, cleaning pistons and stuff
• 42:56
  exhaust pipes and just it's just I still love it I still love that that group of people um would become family and that the tight nature of it um was it was a constant through through your career and very clever that people like Mick and Valentino you know kept that group by and large together over over a long period of time there were some changes but but in essence
• 43:20
  Were there moments where, you know, because you're playing at the top of the game and you know each other so closely like that, that intuitive stuff must help because you can understand, you know, you can read situations.
• 43:34
  Yeah.
• 43:35
  But does that also get tested?
• 43:36
  Were there moments where you were, you know, it got a bit tense but you had to...
• 43:43
  let it go and, you know, can you remember moments like that or was it pretty good by and large?
• 43:47
  In my career there's been a few like that but mostly not because mostly the guys that spend their time in racing for that long, one of your attributes is that you generally get on with people, you know, or you're able to get around a problem like those sorts of social problems without being a drama, you know.
• 44:05
  They're the people that have been in the paddock a long time generally
• 44:10
  can get on with people, you know.
• 44:12
  So, you know, lots of people say, oh, you must be a great mechanic and you must be this and I go, well, you know, I think I'm average, I'm this and this, but, you know, it's a whole package.
• 44:21
  I'm decent because I get on, I don't mind the travel, you know, lots of things like that you have to be if you're going to be in this game for a long time.
• 44:30
  And people, some people come and go and the reason they go is generally because I don't get on with other people.
• 44:34
  People, yeah.
• 44:35
  Or just the lifestyle of...
• 44:38
  of travelling and getting tired and then it's, you know, puts a bit of stress and the stress of racing sometimes.
• 44:42
  But, yeah, we were always really good.
• 44:44
  We never really had any majors.
• 44:46
  So if I've got my homework right here, Bruno,
• 44:50
  1994, there's a party afterwards to celebrate some stuff.
• 44:57
  And you end up going to some club, and I think the club's got bouncers with machine guns or something out the front.
• 45:03
  That's true.
• 45:04
  All true.
• 45:04
  And in you go, in you go.
• 45:06
  And there might have been some colourful dances there.
• 45:09
  And at some point, the quiet bloke opposite me on the microphone decides, I'm going to get up and have a crack at this bowl dancing or mucking around or whatever you were doing.
• 45:17
  Yeah.
• 45:17
  Yeah.
• 45:18
  And the bouncers came out of nowhere.
• 45:19
  And then I think Daz.
• 45:21
  Yes, he told you the story.
• 45:23
  Yeah.
• 45:24
  And they stepped in and more or less tackled the bouncer or something, didn't they?
• 45:28
  What transpired there?
• 45:29
  You pretty much nailed it.
• 45:30
  That's exactly what happened.
• 45:31
  So we win the championship.
• 45:33
  We're up at the track.
• 45:34
  We're all...
• 45:36
  And we're all drinking up there like out of, I don't know what we're doing.
• 45:39
  I can't picture you doing this.
• 45:40
  No, and it's not really me, right?
• 45:42
  Okay.
• 45:42
  So this is probably what, this is causing some of the problems.
• 45:45
  So anyway, so we start drinking after the race, you know, in what was this little truck we used to call Roger's truck.
• 45:51
  Yep.
• 45:52
  Anyway, so then we, I don't know, we probably have dinner and then somebody decides we're all going out to this discotheque at the hotel.
• 46:00
  It was called the Hotel Bobby, which was like,
• 46:03
  I don't know, it was just a hotel, discotheque and a casino.
• 46:07
  It's a Czech Republic, by the way, for people who don't know.
• 46:10
  Yeah, Czech Republic.
• 46:10
  And so they're a little bit loose with some of the things, right?
• 46:14
  So anyway, so we're there and there's this big discotheque.
• 46:17
  And for some reason they wouldn't let us in, right, because there's a whole heap of people turning up, like not just our team, like lots of the paddock have turned up to go into this discotheque.
• 46:26
  And it's got these big double glass doors, like as if like you open one, go in, then they lock them, you pay your money, then they open the next one and off you go into this massive big hall or discotheque thing, right?
• 46:37
  So there's guys with machine guns there and just I don't know why, I guess they must have trouble.
• 46:44
  I have no idea where the guns come from, right?
• 46:46
  So anyway, they're there and we're all trying to get in and slurring and barbara.
• 46:50
  And anyway, some girls from the press girls I think at the time,
• 46:55
  Maybe from Marlborough team, I think.
• 46:56
  Yeah.
• 46:57
  Yamaha girls.
• 46:57
  Anyway, so they've negotiated with these guys and got us in, right?
• 47:03
  So off we go.
• 47:03
  We all go in there and having a good time drinking.
• 47:06
  Daz is in there and Mick and everyone.
• 47:10
  We're all in there.
• 47:11
  And there's these big cages kind of like tubular cages with girls dancing in them, you know, like different levels dancing in these sort of, I can't remember if they got lowered in there or they just climbed up and then they sort of did this dance in there, you know.
• 47:25
  They're not naked but you know what I mean, you know.
• 47:27
  It's provocative sort of stuff.
• 47:29
  And everyone's, this music's pumping, boom, boom, boom.
• 47:32
  And anyway, I must have had enough Terps in me to do something stupid.
• 47:35
  So I decide I'm climbing up one of these things, right?
• 47:39
  The girls took it in shifts, so there was nobody in the thing, right?
• 47:42
  Yep.
• 47:44
  And so I scale this thing, open the cage door, and I'm trying to get in there, and then this bouncer just rips me from, like, the back of the shirt just onto the ground, and then he's carrying me out.
• 47:55
  You know, like, I'm off and going, you know?
• 47:57
  And so Roger and Daz have seen this come out of nowhere, like, just bull terriers, and just tackle this bouncer.
• 48:04
  Yep.
• 48:04
  Yep.
• 48:05
  I don't know, because they're full of Terps too, you know.
• 48:08
  To tackle this bouncer, we're all rolling around, and then I just run, you know.
• 48:13
  I didn't look back for them in a run, so they must have done the same thing.
• 48:17
  Anyway, that was it.
• 48:20
  We survived and we carried on.
• 48:22
  I love it.
• 48:22
  I don't know what happened, but, yeah, I do remember that, and that was a bit bizarre.
• 48:26
  What a patch, mate.
• 48:27
  I mean, that's the beginning of a run of five straight for Michael Sidney-Dewin.
• 48:31
  Yeah.
• 48:32
  You guys are a part of...
• 48:34
  all of that, is there one that is, I mean, maybe the first one that you experienced is the one, is there in that block of five, is there one that was tense, hard fought and perhaps you savour it for that reason?
• 48:49
  Is there one there?
• 48:51
  I can't really remember individual races as well back then, but, you know, I don't really, they're all kind of,
• 49:02
  he could win if we just did our work, you know.
• 49:05
  So, like, the pressure was just don't cock up because he'll win if we can give him a bike.
• 49:11
  So, yeah.
• 49:12
  My worry every race was just have we given him a bike, you know, like is something going to go wrong?
• 49:19
  So there was stress from that, but I never, ever worried that,
• 49:22
  He wasn't going to win.
• 49:23
  He was clearly the best rider and he wanted to win.
• 49:26
  There was problems we had here and there and we had engine problems somewhere.
• 49:31
  I remember we dropped the kilometres to like 400 k's when we had piston problems and there's always these little things that people never hear about, you know, like things break.
• 49:41
  So you limited the running to save it, to look after it.
• 49:43
  Oh, well, you just start changing the parts like way under mileage, you know, like new piston and little wind bearings.
• 49:49
  To be safe.
• 49:51
  Yeah, so when there'd be a problem, the mileage would drop.
• 49:55
  So you might go from 1,000 k's to 400 k's, you know, and then you'd just be changing those bits.
• 49:59
  So Honda would go righto, that's it.
• 50:01
  And for Honda, an engine is everything for Honda.
• 50:04
  For Hondas, there's the engine.
• 50:05
  If they have an engine failure with anything, for them, it's like that's the worst thing ever, you know.
• 50:10
  The Japanese can just see they all just want it.
• 50:12
  So engines were a big thing for Honda.
• 50:14
  So if you had a problem...
• 50:15
  mileage would drop and that meant we'd be working a lot, just changing parts to keep them alive.
• 50:21
  Anyway, so I remember that sort of thing and I remember a few different races and bad weather and racing Daz.
• 50:31
  Daz was- On the Suzuki this stage?
• 50:34
  Yeah, so I remember those sorts of things because Mick was really good at, and most of the riders do this, whether they say it or they don't.
• 50:41
  They basically, anyone that's competitive against them,
• 50:46
  they build up a hate for them somehow.
• 50:49
  It's just like an easier to race them if they don't like them.
• 50:51
  You know, they all do it.
• 50:52
  So they go, if he's my competitor, Max Biagi, or for both Valentino and Mick, you know, they just go, right, I hate him, you know.
• 51:00
  So, and Mick came up against Daz, which is his mate.
• 51:04
  And I think there was always a slight struggle for Mick because he,
• 51:09
  he couldn't do the old I hate you, you know, because he was his mate.
• 51:12
  So I think there was a little bit of a struggle sometimes racing Daz.
• 51:17
  I mean Mick might say, what a lot of shit, but I always felt it was just a bit harder to beat Daz because he didn't hate him, whereas he was able to hate everyone else for the time that you're racing, you know.
• 51:30
  It's like it's almost a manufactured hate, although some of them I think still carry it, but, you know.
• 51:36
  So some of those races were difficult when Dazza was doing well and we struggled.
• 51:41
  We actually were behind him for a championship for a little while and then I think... Maybe 95.
• 51:46
  He had a good year in 95, didn't he?
• 51:48
  Yeah, but then I think he had a big crash, didn't he, like in Assen maybe, somewhere like that.
• 51:53
  Yeah.
• 51:54
  Anyway.
• 51:55
  Yeah.
• 51:55
  I think, yeah.
• 51:57
  Anyway.
• 51:58
  So.
• 51:59
  So the bikes in that five year window, how much do they change?
• 52:02
  How much do they evolve in that, in that timeframe?
• 52:05
  Or was it a case of you guys have fundamentally got something that's good and let's just finesse, let's, let's keep a good thing.
• 52:12
  Don't go too far.
• 52:13
  It really didn't change a hell of a lot, you know, like it was, it was really similar from the beginning to the end, but.
• 52:18
  It's so incremental that you forget.
• 52:20
  So when you go to a museum sometimes now you see the first one and the last one, you go, oh, shit, I remember that.
• 52:26
  You know, they change.
• 52:27
  But because it happens...
• 52:29
  incrementally, like one week to the next, we might change a little thing, you know, and by the end of the season, and it still happens exactly now, like you start the season with a bike, you know, X, and by the end it's a different bike because, and people always say, oh, what about the 2000 bike and the 2001 and the 2000, you know, because everyone talks in years like cars, like they've bought a new car, but it's not like that in racing.
• 52:51
  people talk about it like that, but it's not the truth.
• 52:54
  I mean, the truth is you start with a bike, pre-season testing, by the end of the season, it's not the same bike you started with, whereas the car you bought off the showroom is the same car.
• 53:02
  Some people say, you know, it's a 1998 Mazda, you know, but it's not like that in racing.
• 53:07
  So people always talk about it, but it's not the same.
• 53:09
  You know, you can have three bikes before the end of the season.
• 53:11
  You get along the way in the job that you're doing to witness some flashpoints for the riders that you work with.
• 53:20
  Okay.
• 53:21
  Some of them happened, which we'll get to outside.
• 53:24
  So, it was maybe, you know, Valentino and Casey at Laguna Seca, for example.
• 53:28
  What about when it's inside?
• 53:31
  the Repsol garage and you're at, I would imagine if my memory serves you, you're at Eastern Creek.
• 53:35
  Yeah.
• 53:36
  Mick has the coming together with Alex, wasn't it, at turn nine.
• 53:41
  Man, how was that day and the fallout from all of that and, you know, how you're all, you're in effectively the same garage, but how was that day?
• 53:53
  Yeah, I still remember that.
• 53:55
  That was pretty, that was a good race until it was a bad race, you know, from a team's point of view.
• 54:00
  We had to work first and second, I think, probably, or maybe second and third.
• 54:04
  I think it was first and second we were going for it.
• 54:07
  And I was doing the radios back then.
• 54:08
  You do the radios out on the circuit, so you do the split time.
• 54:11
  So I would say, you know, Alex or Mika is in front by X amount of seconds.
• 54:15
  Yeah.
• 54:16
  On the radio, at the corner they crashed, right?
• 54:19
  So I'm at this corner and JB's on the pit wall and I would say to JB on the radio, plus 0.5, you know, Alex, plus 0.5, blah, blah, something like that.
• 54:28
  And JB would, you know, and I remember going, JB, they've crashed, you know.
• 54:33
  So they got close and they were...
• 54:37
  Yeah, I think Mick ran him wide, I think, could turn one and turn two and then I maybe put the slipper into him a little bit down there and then they were just at each other.
• 54:45
  And then Alex, he came in that corner, he sort of go around the hill at Eastern Creek and then it was a right-hand turn.
• 54:52
  I'm standing right there.
• 54:53
  Yeah.
• 54:54
  And I'm watching it and Alex is just like, he's...
• 54:58
  In his mind, I guess he's going, I'm making this faster or not.
• 55:01
  Yeah.
• 55:02
  You know?
• 55:02
  And anyway, that noise.
• 55:05
  The noise you hear when you're, it's horrible, but you never forget the noise.
• 55:09
  It's just this car crash type of noise.
• 55:13
  Anyway, there they go and they're having a bit of a go at each other in the gravel there or the dirt.
• 55:18
  I think they both pick it up and off they go and I'm just on the radio to JP and I'm like, they've crashed.
• 55:24
  And JB, just like he probably would have just put the headphones down and walked in the garage, you know, so it's JB.
• 55:29
  And then afterwards in the garage it was going off.
• 55:32
  There was a couple of mechanics like, you know, yelling at each other.
• 55:35
  And I don't know if that was a weekend.
• 55:38
  Schwanty crashed too down the main straight.
• 55:39
  That was a big crash.
• 55:41
  Anyway, yeah, it was going on and then there was a bit of TV stuff where Alex is like having a go at Mick and Mick's having a go at him.
• 55:48
  It's just racing, you know, really.
• 55:50
  Just you kind of, when those sorts of things happen, you kind of want to back your rider up whether he's right or wrong.
• 55:57
  And in this case I think he was in the ride.
• 55:59
  Yeah.
• 56:00
  But just because...
• 56:04
  you know, you want to show him that you're on his side.
• 56:05
  That's what you want to do all the time, mechanically and, you know, with physical sort of gestures and stuff.
• 56:12
  You want to be on their side so they know you're on their side.
• 56:14
  For lots of reasons, you know, but that's just racing.
• 56:17
  But, yeah, there was a bit of, no fisticuffs but just a bit of tension.
• 56:22
  A bit of tension.
• 56:23
  You can find that on the MotoGP website or probably even on YouTube.
• 56:26
  We're talking about Alex Craville and McDewan, famous moment at Eastern Creek, weren't we?
• 56:30
  Yeah.
• 56:31
  So...
• 56:33
  Five straight.
• 56:35
  And then Mick has a crash in Spain that is life-changing, career-changing.
• 56:43
  When that happened, did you think that it was severe straightaway?
• 56:48
  What did you think?
• 56:51
  Yeah, I was really worried.
• 56:52
  I mean, I remember standing in the garage and I remember talking to him just before he went out because it was damp and...
• 57:02
  I remember saying something like, I think we said, the weather's going to be fine tomorrow, you know, you don't have to, you don't even have to go out, you know, and I don't know, and he decided to go out and, um,
• 57:15
  He went round and on the TV he'd made the similar mistake the lap before.
• 57:18
  Like I think it was only maybe, look, I could be wrong, it's a long time ago and maybe when someone watches the replay they'll go, oh, you're wrong.
• 57:26
  But this is how I remember it.
• 57:27
  Basically he went out to do a qualifying sort of lap, you go down the main straight, up the hill, round, down, and then you can see the corner on the signage.
• 57:38
  You can't see the signage but you can see all the tyres.
• 57:40
  It's opposite the pits, right, the corner.
• 57:43
  And on TV he just kind of hits a white line like the lap before and you go, mate, don't do that.
• 57:49
  It's going to be in all sorts of trouble.
• 57:53
  Next lap he does it and has a crash, you know.
• 57:57
  But at the time, JB, I remember JB was on the wall like with his stopwatch and at the time that he should be about that point in the track, I think he said he just saw like a muffler or something come over the
• 58:09
  come over the wall.
• 58:11
  Sugar.
• 58:12
  But in the end it sounds like at the same time a guy on a scooter crashes on.
• 58:17
  I think he was a photographer.
• 58:19
  Yeah, and maybe part of what JB saw was that, you know.
• 58:22
  But anyway, Mick's had like a pretty, he's had a bad crash.
• 58:26
  I think Mick recalls seeing that guy crash midair as he'd been flung off the bike.
• 58:30
  Fair enough, really?
• 58:30
  It's something like that.
• 58:31
  I may not have it correct.
• 58:32
  So it's all happening right, almost opposite the pits, and Mick's pretty beat up and.
• 58:41
  And that was the last race in anger, sort of he did, you know.
• 58:46
  And I remember sitting outside, sitting on the concrete step of the medical centre, just sitting there, just wondering what had happened because we didn't know how bad it was, you know.
• 58:54
  Sure, you think of the very worst things.
• 58:57
  But then, you know, it wasn't life-threatening, but they were bad injuries, you know.
• 59:02
  He also had like...
• 59:03
  injuries on the upper part of his body from the screws from they had these, all the signage was screwed onto the tyre walls or with these big, long screws with washers on them.
• 59:13
  And I remember looking at the leathers and later on I think Mick had head, like, come a hold in his back, like, I think it was his back where the screws had gone right in, like, big, long screws, you know, like, kind of,
• 59:26
  blunt stab wounds, you know, like through the leather and everything from these screws that were holding the signage up, apart from the leg and the other bits of bark in his helmet that was pretty barked up and everything.
• 59:35
  And I remember Jono, his manager, saying, look, you know, I want you to go up there and take photos of the corner because he was in Australia and this was potentially for insurance, you know, type of thing, you know.
• 59:48
  So I remember I had to go up there and I had to take pictures of the paint strip.
• 59:51
  I took samples for him and, like, scraped up some paint.
• 59:54
  Wow.
• 59:54
  Yeah, all this stuff in preparation for anything.
• 59:57
  That might happen.
• 59:58
  That, yeah.
• 1:00:00
  Yeah, and I remember looking at the bitumen too.
• 1:00:03
  There's big scratches in the bitumen where I think the fork legs, the top of the fork legs, the handlebar part, had dug into the ground as it left the track, you know.
• 1:00:13
  So anyway, it was a bit of a...
• 1:00:16
  And he didn't ride there again.
• 1:00:18
  Did you go through then, I mean, obviously, you know, he has to make a big career call.
• 1:00:24
  Yeah.
• 1:00:24
  In your mind, were you thinking, because of some of these one-year arrangements and things, are you thinking I might have to come back to Australia or was the opportunity to, you know, eventually to go and work with Valentino, was that immediately a plan B?
• 1:00:37
  What unfolded there?
• 1:00:39
  But until everyone really knew what was going on, it was like a while and then Dickie went to America with him.
• 1:00:46
  Dickie Smart.
• 1:00:47
  Yeah, so he's got on the plane and they went to America to see the doctors that they trusted over there.
• 1:00:52
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:54
  And then Honda said, okay, so I think they basically said JB and Dick, you can stay home for the rest of the year, and me and a –
• 1:01:08
  Who else was working?
• 1:01:09
  Me.
• 1:01:09
  I don't know about Bud.
• 1:01:10
  I forget what Bud did.
• 1:01:11
  I think he might have worked home.
• 1:01:12
  I can't remember now.
• 1:01:14
  God, bloody hopeless.
• 1:01:15
  Anyway, I know what I did.
• 1:01:16
  They asked me to work for Sete Jibanao.
• 1:01:19
  Yep.
• 1:01:20
  So Sete Jibanao was riding a twin cylinder Honda, the lightweight version of the sort of, it was a really nice bike.
• 1:01:28
  but the V4 was still beating them in most tracks.
• 1:01:31
  So they, um, they gave him effectively mixed bikes and said, you know, we want you to, to show the guys, um,
• 1:01:39
  help them on the bike because you know the bike and just work there.
• 1:01:43
  So I did that all up until maybe the very last race.
• 1:01:47
  They said, you can go home now.
• 1:01:48
  You don't need to stay here for the last race, wherever that was.
• 1:01:51
  Maybe like saving money on a ticket too.
• 1:01:53
  Okay.
• 1:01:54
  I forget where.
• 1:01:54
  But anyway, said I did quite well.
• 1:01:56
  Used to crash in warm-up though.
• 1:01:58
  Oh, man.
• 1:01:59
  So people will be interested in race day or race weekend things.
• 1:02:04
  When that happens, you know, all the groundwork's done, quality's done, you're in race bike mode, warm-up crash.
• 1:02:10
  Yeah.
• 1:02:11
  How crazy does the day become when that happens?
• 1:02:13
  It sucks.
• 1:02:14
  It sucks when they crash in warm-up.
• 1:02:16
  Like that's the worst one to crash in, you know, because –
• 1:02:20
  especially in recent times, like, because if it rains, you need two bikes, right?
• 1:02:24
  So you can't just go, okay, we'll race, we'll have bike B and that's it.
• 1:02:28
  Now you can have two bikes in a race, so you've got to have them both ready.
• 1:02:31
  So it's always just a massive stress, you know, getting it ready.
• 1:02:34
  Yeah.
• 1:02:35
  Every side of the garage pitches in, you know, so everyone, when the shit hits the fan, just everyone.
• 1:02:39
  And that's one of the things I've loved about my job probably without knowing I loved it, you know.
• 1:02:46
  When something goes wrong and you fix it, that's probably the best feeling, you know, like you never want anything to go wrong, but as a mechanic and a team.
• 1:02:53
  When you pull it off and you get it.
• 1:02:54
  When it goes wrong and you all get it right, you get it together, that's like when you push the guy off down the garage, out down pit lane and you've still got a...
• 1:03:02
  I mean, this is, it happens, you know, you'll have an eight mil spanner in your mouth or a ruler and the last thing he did was just adjust the lever and like he's on the bike, you're still working and then you push him off, you know, but everyone's involved.
• 1:03:16
  It's one of the things that people never really get to see and if they saw it, they would, it's like an adrenaline rush from mechanics, like to watch...
• 1:03:26
  Got away with that, got it done.
• 1:03:28
  Yeah, but to watch it happen, like if you had a camera in the garage and watched six or eight people and people were just standing around just waiting for something to do, just watching it happen, it's unbelievable.
• 1:03:40
  Like six good mechanics working on a bike or eight mechanics, never touching each other, never like running into each other, passing spanners because you can see that that guy's about to do the job that you know what he's going to do and you've got that spanner in your hand and you go, well, here you go.
• 1:03:53
  Yeah.
• 1:03:54
  Without talking.
• 1:03:55
  Keep it moving.
• 1:03:56
  Keep it.
• 1:03:56
  It's honestly like, I mean, you see sometimes in really good restaurants the way people move in a restaurant, it's like that, but it's just out of control and the pressure.
• 1:04:04
  And then you have idiots come and say, you know, we've only got this much time left.
• 1:04:07
  You just go, mate.
• 1:04:07
  And everyone just goes.
• 1:04:09
  All the mechanics shake their head like, you know, one of the sort of pen and push of type people who just go, as if we didn't know.
• 1:04:16
  We just do it.
• 1:04:17
  Yeah, or like, you know, make sure you do this.
• 1:04:19
  And you just go, mate, you know.
• 1:04:21
  And so as the time counts down in your mind, everyone's got the same clock in your mind counting down.
• 1:04:26
  You just go...
• 1:04:27
  You just start cutting corners.
• 1:04:29
  You just go, okay, this will survive.
• 1:04:31
  This will make do.
• 1:04:32
  This will get through the race.
• 1:04:33
  So you just go, I'm not doing that now.
• 1:04:35
  No time for that.
• 1:04:37
  So you can fix stuff properly as in pull it apart, clean it, measure it, or you can get it out to try and win the race.
• 1:04:43
  So you can go, look straight to me, just bend it round, stuff like that, and you just, yeah, I think that'll be fine.
• 1:04:50
  Japanese mechanics in general aren't that good at that, which –
• 1:04:55
  I think is one of the reasons maybe we've had our jobs because they have doubt, you know, and they like to...
• 1:05:02
  Perfection and...
• 1:05:04
  It's like their whole life has been like that.
• 1:05:06
  So, like, they'll look at something and...
• 1:05:09
  they'll have to agree as a group that it's good enough.
• 1:05:13
  Like we'll say, what do you reckon?
• 1:05:15
  And one of us will say, should we write, mate?
• 1:05:18
  Honestly, it's like sometimes it's like that and we'll just agree with him.
• 1:05:21
  You know, if he says it's going to be good enough, it'll be good enough.
• 1:05:23
  So sometimes we've gone to races like, you know, and they're the things that I'm like, I'm getting excited now because that's kind of the best part of the job.
• 1:05:29
  but the worst part, you know.
• 1:05:30
  So I'm talking duct tape and it's elastic and cable ties and tie wire and just shit that shouldn't be on, man.
• 1:05:37
  And it wins a race.
• 1:05:39
  You know, that's the best.
• 1:05:40
  If it actually wins.
• 1:05:41
  Finishing is good because you know you did a good job.
• 1:05:48
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with longtime MotoGP mechanic Alex Briggs.
• 1:05:53
  Now, I always promised that Rusty's Garage wouldn't be just about riders and drivers.
• 1:05:59
  You can also find former F1 engineer, for example, Sam Michael in our library.
• 1:06:04
  And if you're enjoying Alex, make sure you give former chief mechanic Jeremy Burgess, his good friend, a listen as well.
• 1:06:11
  Now, we're not done with Alex just yet.
• 1:06:13
  Part two has his fascinating take on how the riders get in the zone, the different ways they celebrate, why the Ducati chapter didn't work out for Valentino, plus some under-the-cover-of-darkness negotiations they had to make when the rider changed teams, and the advent of his social media alter ego, the Wrench Racer.
• 1:06:36
  It's all there, good to go, in our library right now.
• 1:06:39
  All you have to do is kick-start it.
• 1:06:42
  Listener.