Latest / Rusty's Garage / Leigh Diffey (Part 2)

Transcript

Leigh Diffey (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with IndyCar commentator and accomplished Aussie sportscaster, Lee Diffie.
• 0:27
  If you haven't heard part one yet, make sure you head back to the library and hit the gas on it.
• 0:31
  Diff talks about his early years around motorcycles and a lifelong friendship with 500cc race winner, Darrell Beattie.
• 0:39
  How he made ends meet after leaving a teaching job to chase the broadcasting dream and not being afraid to take a risk to create opportunities in the Northern Hemisphere.
• 0:49
  He's a great believer that life's a journey and to enjoy it along the way.
• 0:53
  Now, normally I'd apologise for being a little self-indulgent with some of our stories from our time working in the supercars pit lane and beyond, but they were seriously among the best days of our lives, and it's nice to share a little bit of that with you.
• 1:06
  We take the mickey out of each other and relive some embarrassing moments.
• 1:11
  I once wrestled the steering wheel off an Aussie racing car, for example, and tried to drive no-handed.
• 1:16
  Bit of YouTube gold for you to search there.
• 1:19
  He crashed in a Celebrity Supercross event, breaking his leg on the eve of a big Supercars broadcast.
• 1:24
  He crashed in a Supercross event,
• 1:25
  We'll begin part two by talking, though, about the king of stitch-ups, Steve Parrish, Barry Sheen's great mate, who, incidentally, you can find in the Rusty's Garage Library.
• 1:36
  I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.
• 1:38
  There is no point having a sense of humour failure when you're around Stavros, but you have to be on your guard.
• 1:49
  Well, yeah, I was actually working for, so while I was working for the BBC, I was also doing some stuff for RPM on Network 10 and I was doing the London to Sydney Marathon and this was in 2000, 2001.
• 2:05
  I think it was in, yeah, whatever year it was.
• 2:08
  And I'd finished at Hockenheim, I'd finished a round of the world super bikes at Hockenheim, and then the 10 crew, they'd done the London, like the rally had started, they'd come over to Europe, and the camera crew and car, they picked me up outside Hockenheim Racetrack.
• 2:23
  So I gave Steve my three BBC shirts, you know, one for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I said, mate, I'm so sorry, but could you get your wife Ruth to wash these, and could you bring them back?
• 2:32
  Because
• 2:33
  When I finish these 10 or 11 days on the road of going all through Europe and Eastern Europe, then I would come back to Misano for the next round of the World Superbikes two weeks later.
• 2:42
  So I came back and they were beautifully folded and they were in a nice pile, they were waiting on my bed.
• 2:47
  And when I got to the room late at night and I was so tired from, you know, like every day we were working flat out, you know, going through Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece.
• 2:56
  Like it was, we were all over the shop, an amazing experience.
• 3:00
  So I just, I got up the next morning, had a shower, had a shave, I saw my shirt there and I literally just picked the top one up, I unbuttoned it and I just put it on.
• 3:08
  I didn't think anything.
• 3:09
  I didn't look at the back of it or the side of it or anything.
• 3:11
  I just put it on.
• 3:12
  And in those iron-on letters, they were about that big.
• 3:15
  I looked like a football player across the back.
• 3:17
  He'd had his wife iron-on stiffy across the back of it.
• 3:21
  So I'm walking through the Misano World Superbike paddock and I'm waving at the Ducati mechanics.
• 3:26
  Hey, mate, how are you?
• 3:27
  And they're kind of looking at me strange.
• 3:29
  And I'm waving.
• 3:30
  And people kept looking at me.
• 3:31
  And I'm thinking, what the?
• 3:31
  Bloody hell are they looking at?
• 3:33
  Anyway, it just so happened, it was coincidental that that same meet was part of an RPM, Network 10 Motorsport overseas trip.
• 3:41
  So Billy Woods and Daryl Beattie were there as well.
• 3:44
  Anyway, they were crying with laughter.
• 3:47
  They said, oh, you poor bugger, we've got to tell you, you got stitched up big time.
• 3:50
  Take your shirt off and have a look what's on the back.
• 3:52
  Anyway, that was an easy one from Stavros.
• 3:54
  There were a lot more difficult ones with him where he would just...
• 4:00
  outside of Monza one year, you know, you got two massive roads going either direction and there was a traffic jam, Steve's like, I'm not sitting in this.
• 4:07
  So we drove up the middle, up the middle island or we bounced off there and we drove up the sidewalk, up the footpath.
• 4:14
  We did...
• 4:16
  We went to a Yamaha dinner once in, I think that was in Italy as well, and it was down by this little canal and there was no parking on the street, so Steve just drove down the pedestrian stairs and parked right out the front of the restaurant.
• 4:28
  And, yeah, the skies were the limit with Stavros.
• 4:32
  He was crazy.
• 4:33
  He is crazy.
• 4:34
  Then he had his remote control fart machines.
• 4:36
  He'd be sitting in the lounge for British Airways and he had, it's like a garage clicker, right?
• 4:42
  And he's got this thing that looked, you know, kind of about the size of your iPhone.
• 4:47
  And he'd go and put it behind the newspaper stands and, you know, those lounges are all a little bit stuffy and everyone's very quiet.
• 4:53
  And Steve would be like, yeah, Steffi, Steffi, have a look.
• 4:55
  This guy walking up here, he's going to go and get the Times.
• 4:57
  We'll trick him.
• 4:58
  So a guy, as he's reaching for the newspaper, Steve would press the button.
• 5:02
  I'm not.
• 5:03
  And the guy looked around.
• 5:04
  Everybody's looking at him.
• 5:06
  And you could see on the guy's face, it's like, it wasn't me.
• 5:08
  I didn't do anything, you know.
• 5:10
  So, yeah, every time with Steve Parrish, there was something going on.
• 5:15
  I don't know that it was his fault.
• 5:16
  It may have been someone else.
• 5:17
  But there was some hijinks too, mate, around.
• 5:19
  I think you treated yourself to an Audi while you were living in England.
• 5:22
  And you might have gone to Brands or to Donnington.
• 5:25
  I can't remember where.
• 5:25
  And you'd parked it somewhere.
• 5:27
  And didn't someone fully sticker up the passenger side of the car and you didn't realise until you got home?
• 5:33
  Yeah, and that was thanks to Steve.
• 5:35
  Steve had convinced him that it would be a good idea.
• 5:37
  And I had to peel all the stickers off.
• 5:39
  There must have been 300 of these little stickers.
• 5:43
  I wasn't too happy.
• 5:45
  I wasn't good to be around on that day.
• 5:47
  Classic, mate.
• 5:49
  The World Superbike chapter is remarkable.
• 5:50
  I mean, you look at Colin Edwards, Carl Fogarty, Troy Corsa, Troy Bayless.
• 5:55
  I mean, amazing to be a part of that for a good couple of years, wasn't it?
• 6:00
  Yeah, it was.
• 6:01
  It was fantastic.
• 6:01
  I mean, that was probably the big eye-opener for me and growing up and learning about global motorsport, you know, firsthand as opposed to being a viewer and enjoying it or calling it remotely off the tube or whatever it might have been actually –
• 6:17
  you know, traveling to Kyalami and going to Japan and to Sugo and being at Assen and Monza and Hockenheim and all of these legendary circuits that I'd only ever seen on TV.
• 6:27
  You know, Steve and I, we got into a really good routine where as many as we could, we'd try and run the circuits to learn the circuit.
• 6:35
  I mean, he knew them.
• 6:35
  He knew them from his bike racing days and his truck racing days.
• 6:38
  But, you know, to help me learn them, we would, when we could, when the weather was good, we'd jog them.
• 6:43
  And that was great.
• 6:44
  I mean, really, really happy, really happy memories.
• 6:49
  getting to know the team.
• 6:50
  And yeah, there was a good contingent, a small contingent, but a good contingent of Aussies as well, like whether they'd be mechanics or engineers, but then, you know, you had the two Troys, Troy Bayless, Troy Corsa, Andrew Pitt, Carl Muggeridge, I'm trying, Christopher Muhlen was a young fellow there.
• 7:08
  He was in World Supersport on the Castrol Honda.
• 7:11
  I hope I'm not forgetting anybody, but yeah, it was really good.
• 7:13
  So, and the life in the paddock at the end of the day, you know, because the guys had all their motor homes there and you'd kick back and have a beer in the hospitality suites and wherever it'd be with Troy Corsa when he was riding for Aprilia or Troy Bayless when he was riding for Honda or...
• 7:29
  Sorry, Troy Bayless when he was riding for Ducati.
• 7:31
  We would spend time in the Castrol Honda hospitality.
• 7:34
  So, yeah, it was good.
• 7:35
  It was a big learning experience for me as to what it was like to work and travel on a world championship.
• 7:41
  Did you ever fly Plummet Airways, which is what Steve... Oh, yeah.
• 7:45
  Did you tell people about that?
• 7:48
  So Plummet Airways is Steve Parrish's made-up name for his plane and for what he does.
• 7:55
  And, you know, Steve's flown many a celebrity.
• 7:57
  Actually, when our mate Darrell Beattie crashed in the 1995...
• 8:04
  motorcycle world championship when him and Mick Doohan were battling it out for the world title and Daryl crashed in Assen.
• 8:09
  It was Steve who brought Daryl back to the UK for his surgery on Plummet Airways, which I wish I had paid better attention.
• 8:17
  And I think Steve's changed plans now, but it's like a Cessna.
• 8:19
  It's like a four-seater Cessna or something like that.
• 8:22
  And he has stickers and signs made up where he lives now.
• 8:26
  Where he lives now, he lives in a house that's on a farm and the farm, you know, he has bought this place from the farmer.
• 8:35
  But behind where all the agricultural sheds and everything are is an airstrip, a grass airstrip.
• 8:39
  So he has his plane right out the back of his house.
• 8:41
  And as you go out the gate, it's the only gate, by the way, it says Gate 1 Plummet Airways.
• 8:47
  And there's his plane sitting there.
• 8:48
  And so we flew to the Assen round of World Superbikes one year.
• 8:54
  So we flew into a place called Groningen from the UK.
• 8:58
  And yeah, it was fun.
• 8:59
  His wife at the time made up little lunch boxes, you know, and it had like a little gin and tonic and it had some cucumber sandwiches.
• 9:06
  And in-flight meal.
• 9:08
  And thank you for flying Plummet Airways on it.
• 9:11
  He is mad.
• 9:11
  We love catching up with him.
• 9:13
  In the midst of, I'm not sure what year it was, maybe it was 01, mate, or at some point, clearly the idea of going to the US, where you are now, your second and longest stint in the US, we'll get to that.
• 9:25
  But clearly the first window of, you know, maybe I might go and have a crack at the United States.
• 9:30
  How did that come about?
• 9:31
  It came about because I didn't get the Formula One job.
• 9:33
  So whether it was, whether it was, you know, whether ignorance was bliss, or I was so naive, or I was just so determined, I don't know what it was, probably a little, a blend of all of them.
• 9:48
  I went to the UK because, I didn't go to the UK because I wanted to call World Supervikes, that was a bonus, right?
• 9:53
  But I went to the UK because I had to work out a stepping stone
• 9:55
  because I knew Murray Walker was going to retire and I thought, well, may as well aim for the top.
• 10:00
  I want to try and get Murray Walker's job.
• 10:02
  And they were already in the phases then in 2000, 2001, when it became public that they were starting to give other people kind of rehearsal goes.
• 10:12
  So James Allen would do several, Ben Edwards would do one or two,
• 10:18
  And they would see how other people fitted.
• 10:22
  Talk about massive shoes to fill, following a legend.
• 10:27
  And so as it turned out, connections and contacts are everything, my producer at the BBC, Mark Wilkin,
• 10:34
  was a long-time producer of Formula One at the BBC.
• 10:38
  So the legendary story about, I want to say it was in Monaco, I think, you know, when Murray Walker and James Hunt, for many years, they had to share one microphone, one of those lip-ribbon microphones.
• 10:49
  You know, Murray would talk for a bit, James would talk for a bit, Murray would talk for a bit.
• 10:53
  Well, both had the same thought about each other that the other...
• 10:58
  spoke for too long.
• 10:59
  So James would snatch the microphone off Murray and Murray would snatch the microphone off James and this one time James had had enough and and he was getting ready to biff Murray.
• 11:10
  Whoa.
• 11:11
  And it was Mark Wilkin, it was Mark Wilkin who stepped in and said no, knock that off, that's not gonna happen.
• 11:16
  Everybody calm down.
• 11:18
  So Mark, you know, knew the Formula One world in and out, and he knew the then head of ITV Sport, a guy called Brian Barwick, and he wrote me this really wonderful letter of recommendation, and I got an interview.
• 11:30
  And so I got down to the final three, or part of the final three, and the final three were Ben Edwards, myself, and James Allen.
• 11:37
  And James was at the time a pit reporter for ITV, so, you know, he was already part of the team, and understandably and rightly so, they picked him.
• 11:46
  It was super intimidating.
• 11:48
  When I went to the meeting, you know, Brian sat back, put his feet up on the desk and folded his arms and said, tell me why I should replace Murray Walker with you.
• 11:58
  Wow.
• 12:00
  I was like, oh, shit.
• 12:02
  Okay.
• 12:03
  Think fast, think fast, think fast.
• 12:04
  And anyway, so I didn't get that job.
• 12:08
  And at the time, we were young guys, right?
• 12:13
  Everybody loves free cool stuff.
• 12:16
  And I used to get free No Fear gear and the clothing.
• 12:20
  And my friends who ran the UK and European side of No Fear...
• 12:27
  They were American-Norwegian and a buddy of theirs was coming over from the US.
• 12:34
  He was going to be in London and he was, at the time, he was in charge of a lot of the creative stuff and marketing for No Fear, but he was also tapped into Cart, Champ Cart at the time.
• 12:47
  And I had told my friends, Tom and Inga, that I missed out on the Formula 1 job and they were like, well, you should go to IndyCar, you should do Kart.
• 12:55
  And we know just the guy who might be able to help you with that.
• 12:57
  His name is Jim Hancock and he's going to be in London.
• 12:59
  Why don't you get together and have a beer with him?
• 13:02
  And I literally went and saw Jim one day, had a meeting with him at his hotel and he's like,
• 13:11
  Give me one second.
• 13:12
  He calls, he called Chris Pook, who was the head of CART, Champ Car at the time.
• 13:17
  And he's like, I'm sitting here with this young Aussie guy who I've met through friends.
• 13:21
  Formula One want him.
• 13:24
  And why should Formula One have him when IndyCar should have him, you know, or Kart should have him?
• 13:30
  And he's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 13:32
  And he hung up and he goes, let's go and get a beer.
• 13:34
  And from the time we were walking from his hotel, walking along the side of Hyde Park, we were going to a pub nearby.
• 13:39
  In that short walk, my phone rang from a gentleman called Don Helms from Kart International Television.
• 13:47
  And he said, we'd like to offer you a job.
• 13:49
  Can you be in the United States?
• 13:51
  in February or March or whenever it was.
• 13:53
  Amazing.
• 13:54
  And that's how it all, that's how that came about.
• 13:57
  Amazing, mate.
• 13:59
  I'm really glad that you mentioned about the Formula One side of things because in the midst of getting to the top three and the heaviness around that whole process, you had personal calls with Bernie Eccleston too, mate, didn't you?
• 14:11
  Yeah.
• 14:13
  I lived in a little house in Ermington, not too far from where you grew up as a kid.
• 14:21
  And again, it could have been naivety, it could have been over enthusiasm, or I don't know what, but I just thought stuff, let's cut through all the crap and just ring the big guy.
• 14:34
  And so I rang Formula One management and I asked to speak with Bernie Eccleston and the lady said, yes, who are you and what's it about?
• 14:45
  And I said, I'm from Network 10 Australia and it's about Formula One.
• 14:50
  I didn't say, you know, I want to be a commentator.
• 14:53
  And she's like, yes, okay.
• 14:54
  So I would go to sleep and in the middle of the night, Sydney time, my phone rang and this happened not once but twice and I answered it and the lady said, yes, Mr Diffie, Mr Eccleston's ready to speak with you now.
• 15:06
  And, you know, say what you like about Bernie.
• 15:10
  He rang me twice.
• 15:11
  Mm-hmm.
• 15:11
  You know, he returned my call, I should say.
• 15:13
  He returned my call twice and was very polite, very nice with me.
• 15:16
  He said, yes, well, I don't make those calls, but these are the gentlemen you need to call who look after our television and you tell them that I told you to call them.
• 15:25
  Amazing.
• 15:26
  And, you know, nothing materialised about that, but at least I got to talk with Bernie.
• 15:31
  Obviously, I'd meet him many times years later, but, yeah, I thought I'd have a crack.
• 15:37
  Good on you, mate.
• 15:39
  You're a proud Aussie.
• 15:39
  We know that.
• 15:40
  But America is very much now home.
• 15:43
  Hang on.
• 15:44
  Hang on.
• 15:45
  Hold on.
• 15:46
  Oh, here we go.
• 15:46
  Stand by.
• 15:47
  Here we go.
• 15:48
  Hold on.
• 15:49
  He's about to hold something up here.
• 15:50
  What have we got here?
• 15:52
  Just one?
• 15:53
  What are you talking about?
• 15:55
  Just one.
• 15:56
  I've got my Brisbane Lions scarf.
• 16:00
  I got my Brisbane Lions stuff.
• 16:03
  I've got my scarf, I should say.
• 16:06
  I've got my Mighty Morines.
• 16:07
  Jersey.
• 16:08
  Jersey.
• 16:09
  Yeah.
• 16:11
  State of origin champions, just in case you needed reminding.
• 16:14
  Thank you, Lee.
• 16:16
  Greg.
• 16:17
  I don't go swimming with anything else other than my billabongs.
• 16:20
  Love it.
• 16:21
  Love it.
• 16:22
  Still wear my billabongs.
• 16:24
  And then, as you know, my beloved...
• 16:27
  Brisbane Broncos.
• 16:28
  Fantastic.
• 16:29
  Fantastic.
• 16:30
  No, and I use this podcast as a platform to say, no more wooden spoon, Broncos.
• 16:35
  Yeah.
• 16:36
  You don't belong in last place.
• 16:38
  We do enjoy... Let's fix it.
• 16:40
  We do enjoy the odd text exchange around the time of origin, particularly if...
• 16:45
  The Blues, New South Wales are up in my case, or the Maroons, Queensland are up in your case.
• 16:50
  And it's been far too much one way on your side over the years.
• 16:53
  You clearly fell in love with the US very quickly, mate.
• 16:56
  And a few things happened.
• 17:00
  you know, through your time at Le Mans and sports cars and things like that, you would get to know the great Don Panos and, you know, the sports car chapter from Daytona 24 Hour and more and getting to work at Speed Channel.
• 17:12
  That played a very important part in that US league, didn't it?
• 17:16
  Yeah.
• 17:20
  you know, bookend, like top and tail in total.
• 17:22
  I spent 10 years at speed and it was wonderful.
• 17:28
  You know, I have friends, made friends and colleagues that will be friends and colleagues for life.
• 17:33
  And, you know, for us, you know, even though both you and I have worked on a multitude of different sports, motorsport is the main thread through our lives and our careers.
• 17:43
  For us, working at the world's first sport
• 17:48
  24-7 motorsports channel network was awesome.
• 17:53
  You know, we had everything, you know.
• 17:57
  I shouldn't say everything, almost everything.
• 18:00
  And, you know, the people who worked for Speed at the time, whether on the NASCAR front or the Formula One front or Champ Car Cart through World Rally.
• 18:10
  You know, World Rally was huge then.
• 18:12
  We had WRC, the sports car stuff.
• 18:14
  I mean, everything, it was just a dream.
• 18:15
  And then the studio shows, which I got to be a part of, Speed News.
• 18:18
  And if you watch Talladega Nights, you see them on the set of Speed News.
• 18:23
  You know, I used to, that was almost a weekly occurrence for me, which was a lot of fun.
• 18:27
  Yeah.
• 18:29
  I'd holidayed there at one stage.
• 18:30
  You were based in Charlotte at this point of your time in the US.
• 18:33
  And you took me around to all sorts of NASCAR workshops, race workshops.
• 18:36
  I mean, it's just such a beautiful countryside and such an amazing racing hub there.
• 18:40
  And when we went into speed, I was blown away, mate, because I had in my head typical America that it would be...
• 18:47
  a smaller scale version of a television station, but in many ways it was like walking into a Network 10, but just dedicated to motorsport, wasn't it?
• 18:55
  Motorsport, yeah.
• 18:56
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, it certainly was.
• 18:58
  And the one that you came to was the new building, and you know, like,
• 19:04
  like anything, you know, there's humble beginnings for everything.
• 19:06
  Like I told the story before when, you know, Network 10 at the studios in Ultimo, which was like, you know, little shoebox, you know, offices and studios and what have you.
• 19:15
  And then we moved to that massive facility in Piedmont, which is a beautiful purpose-built,
• 19:21
  building and speed was the same.
• 19:23
  Speed was towards South Charlotte in North Carolina and it was on two sides of a road.
• 19:29
  There was the executive offices and then the studios were on the other side
• 19:35
  And we shared those premises with an evangelical network, which at times was pretty interesting, especially when they had some big performers come in.
• 19:49
  You know, it was like the president was coming in.
• 19:51
  You know, areas of the hallway would be blacked out.
• 19:53
  There were guys in suits and sunglasses and security and you couldn't walk in certain areas of the building.
• 19:58
  Oh, wow.
• 19:58
  So that was an experience in itself.
• 20:01
  And then, you know, we moved up the road to the building that you came to, which, yeah, which is full on.
• 20:06
  There was a little window back in Oz for different reasons and you partnered again with supercars.
• 20:12
  For me, mate, it was just a beautiful chapter with great friends.
• 20:17
  Sadly, Baz was gone at this stage, but the sport was more or less at its zenith, if we can say that.
• 20:24
  You know, it was a real great time.
• 20:26
  And you got to call...
• 20:28
  The last Bathurst that you called in 2006 was a very memorable one because Peter Brock had passed away.
• 20:34
  Craig Lowndes would win it that day with Jamie Wincup.
• 20:37
  And you used words like, you know, on the day that he farewelled his friend.
• 20:41
  Did you have a lump in your throat that day?
• 20:43
  I mean, it was hard not to, wasn't it?
• 20:45
  Oh, yeah.
• 20:46
  Oh, yeah.
• 20:47
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:48
  And I was just discussing this with somebody else.
• 20:52
  just recently, actually it was with Matthew White on his radio show, on his morning radio show, and he asked me about that day and we obviously it was a combination of typically Billy Woods would host the broadcast, right, and then we would call, but then I can't remember why, but maybe because it was for the special significance, we weren't in the commentary box before
• 21:17
  pre-race, Krompo and I, I think, and yourself, we were all down in the pit lane doing different interviews because, you know, Billy was, Billy was, you know, captain of the ship, he had it under control and we were gathering interviews.
• 21:27
  And I remember, I went down, you remember, they did that special parade in all nine of Peter's cars.
• 21:34
  And so, you know, Greg Murphy got to drive one, Craig Lowndes got to drive one, I think Scaifey drive one, everybody else, whoever else got to drive.
• 21:41
  And I happened to be standing kind of,
• 21:44
  whether it's the right or wrong place at the wrong or right time, when Craig finished that lap and got out of the car and then I think the national anthem was performed.
• 21:54
  And I had just done an interview with David Brabham and we were looking right at Craig and he was crying.
• 21:59
  He was just, he was sobbing.
• 22:01
  And, and I'm so pleased to be proved wrong because I, the first thing I said to Brabs is, you know, louncy shot and he's not going to win today.
• 22:11
  Yeah, look at what happened.
• 22:12
  You know, you turn that emotion around and you use it as a positive tool.
• 22:18
  And Craig and Jamie did an amazing job that day.
• 22:21
  But for Craig, yeah, that's for all of the, I don't know, I don't know if I've called thousands of races.
• 22:27
  I guess I have.
• 22:27
  I guess for the thousands of races I've called, that certainly is a very memorable one.
• 22:32
  Great stuff, mate.
• 22:33
  You would move back to the States and some...
• 22:36
  Can I say something?
• 22:37
  Can I say something before?
• 22:39
  And you respectfully jumped over it, which I am grateful for you doing that, but I don't mind talking about it.
• 22:47
  You said I came back to Australia for one or a variety of reasons.
• 22:52
  I came back to Australia because I got divorced.
• 22:54
  And, you know, people talk about my career very lovingly and in glowing terms and makes me, you know, proud of my accomplishments.
• 23:04
  But, you know, there's a toll.
• 23:05
  There's always a toll to pay for everything.
• 23:07
  And my first marriage was part of that, you know.
• 23:12
  I was very hell-bent and driven on succeeding and making the overseas gamble work.
• 23:21
  that I was probably blind, you know, blind to a part of my life, which was my marriage, my first marriage.
• 23:28
  And, you know, unfortunately my first wife was a casualty of that and my marriage was a casualty of that.
• 23:33
  And so I was very grateful to, you know, we came back to Australia to try and make it work and it didn't work.
• 23:41
  And I was very grateful to David White, who gave me a two-year contract
• 23:46
  to be with you and be with Billy and Daz and Krompo and everybody.
• 23:51
  And those two years turned the ship around for me.
• 23:55
  Got me loving life again, feeling positive, doing good work.
• 23:59
  And it was in those two years that I met my now wife and the love of my life, who I have two kids with, Mikaela.
• 24:08
  So something good came out of something bad.
• 24:10
  But there's a casualty and there's a price to pay for everything.
• 24:14
  And unfortunately, that was mine.
• 24:25
  Here's some history.
• 24:27
  Across 63 days in 1909, 3.2 million paving bricks were laid on top of the original surface to upgrade the Indianapolis Speedway.
• 24:36
  Then in 1938, the entire track was paved with asphalt except for the middle portion of the front straightaway.
• 24:43
  This became known as the famous Yard of Bricks.
• 24:46
  In Australia the Spectator Hill at Bathurst is known as the Yard of B****s.
• 24:51
  Formula One, going to Monaco, working for a great American network, getting to be beside David Hobbs and Steve Matchett, and the trio formed a very special bond.
• 25:06
  You would do things like even do stage shows, if you will, or gatherings of theatres for fans to come and learn more about Formula One away from television.
• 25:15
  It was a great, you know, that in itself, the bond between you guys was pretty special and it came through on air, didn't it?
• 25:21
  Yeah, it was terrific.
• 25:22
  And, you know, that was a tough situation as well because that was the end of my period at Speed Channel.
• 25:30
  But I had always, you know, the opportunity to go to NBC was there because NBC was getting IndyCar and Formula One at the same time.
• 25:38
  So it was a huge jump.
• 25:39
  And the Speed Channel Formula One team of Bob Varsher, who was the play-by-play commentator and host for so long in America,
• 25:47
  is a really good friend of mine.
• 25:48
  We both lived in Atlanta and together, not too far from each other.
• 25:51
  I worked with Bob a lot.
• 25:52
  And so NBC said, we're going to take the whole team over from Speed Channel, except Bob, that's going to be your job, Lee.
• 25:58
  And so that was a little bit difficult.
• 25:59
  That was a bit tricky for me because you never want to, you never want to, you know, you don't want to be put in that situation, but at the same time, you're grateful for the opportunity.
• 26:07
  So we had five years on NBC, Formula One on NBC, myself and Hobbo and Steve and Will Buxton.
• 26:13
  It was really good times.
• 26:15
  We feel as though we grew the sport in the United States.
• 26:18
  The ratings certainly reflected that.
• 26:20
  It was a shame when it all came to an end, but it was very cool to go to Monaco and Barcelona for testing and, of course, then in the early days of the US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, which is coming up now close to, you know, it's getting close to its 10-year anniversary.
• 26:36
  So yeah, we were part of some really great times.
• 26:41
  Obviously Monaco was the top of the hill.
• 26:45
  We would host the show over near the ocean on the Prince Rainier Quay, and then Steve and David would leave, but before they left,
• 26:56
  we would pre-record the final segment of the pre-race show.
• 27:00
  The rest of it was live, live, live, live.
• 27:02
  But the commentary booth was over near Rascas and across the other side of the harbour.
• 27:07
  And so Steve and David would go, we had a tender, NBC would arrange a tender, pay for a tender.
• 27:14
  With the harbour master and Steve and David would leave and they'd scurry down the stairs and I still had to do another segment myself before we got to the taped segment.
• 27:24
  And so Steve and David would go, they'd get on the tender, the tender would take them across the harbour and then they'd go up to the commentary booth.
• 27:30
  The tender would come back to get me.
• 27:32
  And so I would go from the hosting set
• 27:35
  across the harbour up to the booth in the space of a very short segment and a commercial break.
• 27:41
  And it worked great for years except this one time the tender kind of forgot and went and picked somebody else up instead.
• 27:47
  So I'm standing there and the cars are coming round to the grid.
• 27:50
  I'm like, holy hell, I'm going to miss the start of the Monaco Grand Prix.
• 27:53
  And I got there with about...
• 27:55
  I don't know, 30 seconds to spare or something, you know, out of breath after running up two flights and two stories, I should say.
• 28:01
  And yeah, there are lots of happy times.
• 28:04
  They were really good times.
• 28:05
  People don't realise sometimes it's a military operation behind the scenes, mate, to get stuff to happen, isn't it?
• 28:10
  Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 28:11
  And, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of wriggle room for things to go wrong.
• 28:16
  But the whole time at NBC has been quite the ride.
• 28:20
  It's been awesome.
• 28:21
  You know, eight years has flown by.
• 28:23
  I've just finished my eighth year with the Peacock and done lots of really cool things.
• 28:29
  So I'm enjoying the ride.
• 28:31
  And just on that subject, Olympic Games.
• 28:35
  I mean, to think you were talking earlier in the podcast about rocking up to sports tonight, working in a newsroom for the first time.
• 28:42
  You and I are a little bit last bastion in that we're not traditionally university qualified or trained and we'd probably never recommend to an aspiring broadcaster or journalist not to do that now.
• 28:53
  But to think you've got to go to the Olympic Games and call some great stuff and let's hope that...
• 28:59
  Japan happens, mate.
• 29:00
  If it does, what's your role there?
• 29:03
  What are you going to do?
• 29:05
  So, Tokyo.
• 29:06
  So, let's knock on wood.
• 29:07
  Let's, you know, everything going right.
• 29:10
  In Tokyo, I'll call track and field.
• 29:11
  Fantastic.
• 29:12
  Which I'm really, really, really excited about.
• 29:15
  Yeah.
• 29:15
  So, it'll be my fourth games.
• 29:18
  My first games were in Sochi and Russia, the winter games, of course, and I did bobsled, skeleton, and luge.
• 29:24
  So, again, a form of racing, super exciting, and I got to do that a couple of years ago in Pyeongchang.
• 29:30
  And then at my first summer games in Rio, I did rowing and canoe, kayak, the flat water sports.
• 29:37
  So, yeah, certainly, you know, very different from motor racing.
• 29:41
  But, again, it's racing, right?
• 29:43
  So a race is a race is a race.
• 29:45
  Just the parts and the characteristics of the race change and the duration changes, you know, from going to...
• 29:53
  you know, say calling the Rolex 24 at Daytona or a 24 hour sports car race to calling a bobsled or a luge race, which lasts about 38 seconds.
• 30:05
  You have to set it up, you have to call the race, you have to story tell, and you have to share it with your commentary partner as well, all within 38 seconds.
• 30:13
  You know, so you have to balance it out.
• 30:15
  And again, it's getting outside your comfort zone and learning a new discipline and a new sport.
• 30:21
  Yeah, relying on what you've learned over all the years and trying to blend it all into one.
• 30:25
  Have you stopped and soaked that in for a second?
• 30:28
  An Aussie?
• 30:30
  For the biggest network that covers the Olympics, calling track and field, that is mighty.
• 30:34
  Yeah, I'm excited.
• 30:36
  I'm excited and nervous because it's a pretty hefty responsibility.
• 30:43
  But the one thing that NBC does incredibly well is they – it's almost like to use the Penske, Team Penske analogy –
• 30:54
  Roger Penske gives all of his teams, whether it be, you know, they've just finished their sport, their IMSA sports car program, that's no longer for them, but whether it be supercars in Australia, whether it be IndyCar, whether it be NASCAR, whatever team Penske's involved in, Roger's mantra is, I will give you everything you need.
• 31:16
  Therefore, you kind of don't have any excuses.
• 31:19
  You know, perform.
• 31:20
  We've hired you to perform, so perform.
• 31:22
  I'll give you all the resources you need.
• 31:23
  And NBC are very much like that, where the Olympic research department is incredible.
• 31:29
  You're never gonna fall through the cracks unsupported.
• 31:34
  You know, you are encouraged, you are treated well, you are supported well with information and resources and personnel.
• 31:43
  So therefore,
• 31:45
  What's left is do your job.
• 31:46
  Yeah, deliver, do your job.
• 31:48
  And so to me, I don't find that daunting.
• 31:52
  I find that exciting.
• 31:53
  I think that's a really good way to operate because, you know, there are no excuses.
• 31:58
  No, sorry, why did you get that wrong?
• 32:00
  Why did you forget that?
• 32:01
  We gave you that.
• 32:01
  Research supplied you that.
• 32:03
  You read that.
• 32:04
  You should, you know, so it's good.
• 32:05
  There's big expectations, but the rewards are certainly worth it.
• 32:09
  And the motorsport continues as the mainstay, if you will.
• 32:14
  2019, first non-American to call the Indy 500.
• 32:20
  That is huge, my brother.
• 32:22
  Yeah, that was a great day.
• 32:24
  That was a great day.
• 32:25
  This year was bizarre with no fans, but 2019 was really special.
• 32:31
  Made even more...
• 32:34
  Just beautiful and memorable because my mum came over from Australia, from Brisbane.
• 32:39
  Excellent.
• 32:40
  My wife and two sons were there.
• 32:42
  I had some really good friends from Connecticut.
• 32:45
  Phil Christensen, to go all the way back to near the beginning of this podcast.
• 32:49
  Christo came over with some friends.
• 32:53
  So, yeah, I had some really key people in the timeline of my life there to share that with me.
• 33:02
  So...
• 33:03
  Am I right in saying you really soak it up to, mate, you get there before dawn and you do all sorts of things to really get in the zone for it, don't you?
• 33:11
  Well, you've got to get there before dawn because of the bloody traffic jam.
• 33:17
  Forget soaking it up.
• 33:18
  No, no, no.
• 33:19
  It's, yeah, to get there in those, you know, when it's dark and you see sunrise and, you
• 33:28
  Yeah, the build-up is crazy.
• 33:29
  That's why this year was so bizarre.
• 33:31
  You know, there's in excess of 300,000 people there year in, year out.
• 33:36
  And this year, because of COVID, have nobody was such an extreme and such a shock.
• 33:41
  And where we are, we're on the ninth, we commentate from the ninth floor of the pagoda.
• 33:45
  So we have an unbelievable view.
• 33:47
  We can see...
• 33:48
  As they come out of turn three along the short shoot through turn four, we're directly, like where I sit, I'm directly above the yard of bricks and they come past us and you can see them go into one.
• 33:59
  So not that we commentate by looking out the window, but if you need to, you can.
• 34:03
  And so we have an amazing view.
• 34:05
  So you can see in that span from turn three around here, you can see, you know,
• 34:12
  I don't know, 150,000 people.
• 34:13
  Just awesome.
• 34:14
  Because you can see the infield as well.
• 34:17
  There's so many things going on at Indy for people to be wherever you want to be, whether it's the snake pit where the live concerts are going on.
• 34:24
  And I think probably most of the people in there don't know that there's a race going on.
• 34:30
  They're partying and having a great time.
• 34:31
  But, yeah, you can see so many people.
• 34:33
  So this year to look out the same vista and see nobody was quite eerie.
• 34:38
  Wild.
• 34:39
  Yeah, very much so.
• 34:40
  It was very, it was really, I was a very proud Australian that day.
• 34:46
  I'm a proud naturalised American citizen, but of course, you know, I carry my Aussie heritage with me very, very, very close to my heart.
• 34:54
  And so, you know, Australians have an interesting history at Indianapolis.
• 35:00
  And so to be the first Aussie and non-American to be the play-by-play was a huge honour.
• 35:06
  You're to be congratulated.
• 35:07
  It's just super cool.
• 35:09
  You're great with people.
• 35:10
  You always have been from, you know, taking calls from Roger Penske.
• 35:17
  You talked about Bernie Eccleston before.
• 35:18
  Mario Andretti is another one.
• 35:21
  But on the side of that, you're great at building...
• 35:23
  relationships that are important to you and i must speak you know every week or two at least you've forged a great friendship with calvin fish in the united states haven't you and and he his story and his his time in racing himself he's a great broadcaster now as well but his time in racing when he was up against center he's a terrific terrific steerer mate wasn't he
• 35:42
  Yeah, he was, yeah.
• 35:43
  I mean, not too many people have Calvin's story of going wheel to wheel with Ed and Senna when they were young guys in Formula Ford and in F3.
• 35:53
  You know, Calvin says, yeah, there weren't too many wheel to wheel battles because Senna was always in front.
• 35:59
  Or if I got close to him, he ran me off the track.
• 36:01
  But, you know, they would hang out at the local cafe at lunch, you know, up near Snedderton when they were there doing test days and what have you.
• 36:09
  And, you know, Calvin's a little bit of a humble hero because he did some terrific things in his racing career, you know, winning at Daytona at the Rolex 24 and winning the Sebring 12-hour with Robbie Gordon and Lynn St. James for Roush Racing and...
• 36:26
  Yeah, so I'm pleased that he's been able to have both a really great career.
• 36:32
  He wanted it to go further.
• 36:33
  He would have loved to have gone to F1 or IndyCut, but he made a very pivotal decision at an important time in his life to go broadcasting, and it's worked.
• 36:42
  A couple of ones to lead to the finish here, mate.
• 36:44
  Firstly, Scott McLaughlin leaves this part of the world as a triple Supercast champion.
• 36:49
  He's got a big mission in front of him.
• 36:52
  For people that are listening to the podcast that are Supercast fans, give them an insight into how this guy has been received in the United States and his potential.
• 37:01
  It's a big move, I know, and quite a change of discipline.
• 37:04
  But what do you think about Scott McLaughlin?
• 37:08
  I think he's going to be a champion.
• 37:12
  Wow.
• 37:13
  I think there's no reason why he will surprise people this year.
• 37:20
  There will be some tough learning moments, but he will surprise people this year.
• 37:28
  I don't think what happened at St. Petersburg at his first IndyCar race was any true impact
• 37:33
  indicate in the race a true indication of how well that he will do next year and in the future.
• 37:39
  Um, what was incredible was the fact that he did the Bathurst 1000 on a Sunday, jumped on a plane,
• 37:47
  Flew not only to LA, then all the way across the United States to Charlotte, North Carolina, did not go to bed, went straight on the simulator to get ready, then slept.
• 37:57
  So then he's dealing with getting physically and mentally getting over Bathurst.
• 38:01
  Physically and mentally, he knew that he wasn't going back to Australia at that point in time.
• 38:05
  That hadn't become public yet, but he knew.
• 38:09
  and confided in a few of us that that was the case.
• 38:11
  So he and Carly, his wife, they leave.
• 38:13
  So you're dealing with the goodbye factor, you're dealing with the physical factor and the mental factor, and then you're gonna be racing an Indy car for the first time at a track that you've never raced at before, all within a week of doing Australia's biggest motor race.
• 38:26
  And it totally, you know, it's like,
• 38:29
  you know, it couldn't have been a greater extreme and a greater test and examination.
• 38:35
  And in the practice sessions, and he was disappointed with himself in qualifying, but in the practice sessions, he was so methodical.
• 38:42
  He didn't do anything crazy.
• 38:43
  He got faster and faster and faster and better and better and better.
• 38:47
  And I mean, you're talking, you know,
• 38:49
  pretty close in times, the difference between maybe being fifth or 15th, and he slotted right in there.
• 38:54
  And at times he was right on level with Joseph Newgarden, who was vying for his third championship.
• 39:01
  with willpower, with Simon Pagina, you know, pretty lofty company and pretty lofty teammates, right?
• 39:08
  And he wasn't overawed.
• 39:11
  And, in fact, you know, he expects so much of himself that he was pissed at himself for qualifying and then got tangled up in the race and ended up not finishing.
• 39:20
  But that is not representative of how well he will go.
• 39:23
  And you don't have to convince any of his players
• 39:25
  now peers in the IndyCar paddock.
• 39:28
  They know how naturally gifted and how talented and how fast he is.
• 39:31
  Scott Dixon, I mean, just a super talent, mate, in and out of the car.
• 39:36
  He might be 40 now, but he'll definitely be a factor in 2021, won't he?
• 39:40
  Oh, God, yeah.
• 39:40
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 39:41
  I mean, Scott is so...
• 39:45
  So young as far as his, you know, age is, you know, what's the old adage, age is just a number.
• 39:51
  And then Scott personifies that, you know, to have, you know, won his sixth IndyCar championship, you know, be one-off AJ Ford, you know,
• 40:06
  You know, I run out of superlatives for Scott because he conducts himself so well.
• 40:14
  He's so meticulously prepared.
• 40:18
  He's so, you know, he will admit that this year he made a few uncharacteristic, un-Scott Dixon-like errors.
• 40:25
  He felt the pressure, you know, he kind of felt the walls closing in a little bit.
• 40:29
  You know, to lead the championship every step of the way, you don't want to...
• 40:32
  throw it away or give it away at the last or second last race so the pressure was mounting there on him but yeah for a kid who grew up in New Zealand to make the step and then do what he's done over the past 20 years in open world racing over here is remarkable and you won't
• 40:49
  You know how some drivers won't concede or won't compliment or won't give anything to certain other drivers?
• 40:57
  You won't meet one person in the IndyCar paddock, one driver in the IndyCar paddock who doesn't speak with enormous reverence when it comes to Scott Dixon.
• 41:07
  And why wouldn't you?
• 41:09
  He's the class of the field.
• 41:10
  Most definitely.
• 41:11
  Could Will Power give an Australian another Indy 500 win?
• 41:15
  I love the fact that gradually on social media we're seeing more and more of his personality.
• 41:19
  I've worked with his comedian brother who's crazy.
• 41:23
  But, you know, he's still a mighty force too, isn't he?
• 41:28
  Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 41:29
  Will is...
• 41:31
  Will is spectacularly fast.
• 41:34
  And there's no reason why he couldn't get another one.
• 41:38
  But that's the great thing about the NTT IndyCar Series.
• 41:43
  Somebody, before this year's race, where we have to do our media commitments and interviews with whether it's network affiliates or podcasts or radio interviews or whatever it might be.
• 41:58
  Somebody said to me,
• 42:00
  So how many drivers in this race could actually win the race?
• 42:04
  And I said, probably two-thirds.
• 42:07
  Whoa.
• 42:09
  You know, there's 33 cars.
• 42:11
  And I said, probably two-thirds of the field can legitimately win this race.
• 42:15
  And that's really, that's a lovely thing to have that many good drivers with the series from a...
• 42:24
  a sporting and technical regulation standpoint for the series to be that stable and that competitive that when we go to the racetrack, you know, and you and I love Formula One as much as anybody else, but it is somewhat predictable, right?
• 42:39
  You know, it's going to be either the Mercedes, Verstappen's going to be there.
• 42:43
  It was terrific to see Checo Perez get his first win.
• 42:46
  But you kind of know where it's going to go.
• 42:48
  With IndyCar, we go to the track every week and have no idea.
• 42:51
  I love it.
• 42:52
  I mean, you can go to certain tracks and you say, well, based on history, he's really strong here.
• 42:57
  But that doesn't mean that that particular driver is going to win, which is the beautiful thing as a live sports broadcaster to have that unpredictable nature to it.
• 43:07
  It's in a great space, mate, and you're part of a very good commentary team to watch and to listen to the action.
• 43:14
  Couple to finish.
• 43:15
  Firstly, supercars going through some potential change from a commentary lineup for 2021.
• 43:20
  There was one story that I read that suggested they may have reached out to you to see if you would be interested.
• 43:25
  You're clearly focused on America.
• 43:27
  Did they reach out to see if you would come back?
• 43:29
  No.
• 43:29
  No?
• 43:30
  Not at all?
• 43:30
  No.
• 43:31
  Yeah.
• 43:31
  No.
• 43:32
  No, no, no.
• 43:34
  I'm not sure where that came from, but nobody, no, I didn't.
• 43:37
  I mean, I'm under contract here for several more years at NBC and my life and my family are here.
• 43:42
  So as much as I, you know, the notion of coming back to some warm Queensland beaches or something like that sounds pretty good right now as we're gearing up for...
• 43:53
  I think there's 15 inches of snow predicted here tonight in my hometown here in Connecticut.
• 43:58
  So thinking of Noosa on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, well, that sounds pretty good.
• 44:04
  No, it's not even an option.
• 44:05
  Very cool.
• 44:06
  Okay, the boys have got some Honda dirt bikes.
• 44:09
  Are you okay with that?
• 44:11
  How are they going with that?
• 44:12
  Yeah, they're going good.
• 44:14
  We have a small property up in New York about an hour and a half from here, some acreage, and the boys ride around there.
• 44:23
  Excellent, man.
• 44:23
  They're loving it.
• 44:25
  Unfortunately for Mum and Dad's wallet and purse, they've already pretty much outgrown the bikes that they're on.
• 44:34
  So they're already hassling me about the next larger one.
• 44:40
  So we'll see.
• 44:41
  As Barry Sheen used to say, answer on a postcard.
• 44:45
  I hope you remember some of the lessons that Pedro told you as well, mate, about bike preparation and things like that.
• 44:51
  What set of wheels does Lee Diffie drive?
• 44:53
  And I'm told from the time that you kind of returned to the United States to now, you've kept one vehicle that's a bit close to your heart, haven't you?
• 45:01
  Yeah.
• 45:01
  Yeah, and I drive it almost every day.
• 45:06
  This is a, this is a, um, a great dis-, was a great point, point of disappointment to, uh, to the F1 viewers when they would see, uh, David Hobbs and myself and Steve Matchett or Will or whatever.
• 45:21
  at a hotel or at a restaurant or at a bar or something, they'd be like, hey, hey, what do you drive on the road?
• 45:27
  And David Hobbs would say, well, I'm a Honda dealer, so I'd just take one from the Honda dealership, so I'd drive a Honda Accord.
• 45:33
  And they'd be like, oh, they wanted David to say something, you know, a Porsche or a Bentley or an Aston Martin or something like that.
• 45:42
  And they'd say, what about you, Lee?
• 45:44
  I'd say, I drive a 2008 Dodge Ram 1500.
• 45:45
  They'd be like.
• 45:51
  She's a great realtor.
• 45:51
  They say, oh, yeah, so it's still going strong.
• 45:55
  So I make sure my wife has a nice car and I go all over the place in the trusty old truck.
• 46:01
  Good stuff.
• 46:01
  You get a chance in your role as a broadcaster at times to go for rides or drives.
• 46:07
  Is there one that sticks in your mind that you were blown away by to sample it to be passenger for a moment?
• 46:14
  Oh, that's a good one, Rusty.
• 46:17
  Bloody hell.
• 46:19
  Oh yes, yeah, sorry, sorry, sorry.
• 46:20
  That's easy, that's an easy one.
• 46:21
  That's not a hard one.
• 46:22
  That's an easy one.
• 46:23
  That was last year at the Indy 500, prior to the Indy 500, I got to do two laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Honda two-seater with Mario Andretti.
• 46:32
  Oh, how was that?
• 46:33
  That was awesome.
• 46:34
  It was awesome.
• 46:36
  And Mario has been so good to me over the years.
• 46:40
  I'm proud to be able to call him a friend.
• 46:44
  When we would go around and do our F1 theater shows, we would do one about half an hour down the road from Mario's place in Pennsylvania, and Mario would come for free.
• 46:54
  And just to hang out on stage and talk Formula One.
• 46:58
  I mean, it's so generous.
• 47:00
  So generous with his time.
• 47:04
  And so when they said, do you want to go for a ride with Mario?
• 47:07
  I was like, yeah, I don't need to think about that.
• 47:10
  So it was amazing.
• 47:11
  And he gets in full race mode.
• 47:13
  He's serious.
• 47:13
  Like he's, it's not just tinkering around.
• 47:15
  He, as soon as you get belted in, they fire the car up.
• 47:18
  He's, he's into it.
• 47:19
  So that was awesome.
• 47:20
  That was a, that was a life changing moment.
• 47:23
  Oh, bet.
• 47:24
  The sensations must've been like, you know, could you feel it on your neck?
• 47:28
  Could you sense that?
• 47:29
  What was it like?
• 47:30
  Yeah.
• 47:30
  Yeah, crazy, crazy.
• 47:31
  And, you know, we were probably doing 190 miles an hour, 185, 190 miles an hour in the two-seater.
• 47:38
  And so, you know, the real guys in the race are approaching...
• 47:45
  Turn 1 at 240 miles an hour.
• 47:48
  And it's just insane.
• 47:50
  But even with Mario in the two-seater, cranking that two-seater as hard as he could and going out to the walls and then coming off turn 4 and diving down towards pit wall and then coming back up for turn 1.
• 48:02
  Yeah, it helped me call a better race, I think, just those two laps.
• 48:07
  Obviously, I sit beside Paul Tracy and Townsend Bell.
• 48:10
  Townsend did 10.
• 48:12
  Paul...
• 48:13
  you know, got very close to winning it.
• 48:16
  He will still argue to this day that he won it in 2002, but, you know, to sit beside those guys and the wealth of knowledge they have around that place is awesome.
• 48:25
  So, but just those two laps, it was, like I said, it was a game changer for me.
• 48:29
  Final one, probably very hard to do because you've ticked some incredible boxes.
• 48:35
  Le Mans 24-hour, Daytona 24-hour, Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500, Bathurst 1000.
• 48:41
  Is there one in the thousands that you described before that kind of stands out for a special reason?
• 48:48
  Was it 2019 Indy 500?
• 48:49
  Yeah, yeah, I think it was.
• 48:52
  I think it was because...
• 48:55
  because I was the first foreign voice to be play-by-play, David Hobbs and Sir Jackie Stewart, they called Indy, but they were analysts.
• 49:03
  You know, there hasn't been a foreign play-by-play call for American television.
• 49:06
  So I'm very proud of that and got to do that in NASCAR as well when I did that in Watkins Glen in Michigan several years ago.
• 49:17
  So, yeah, I would say Indy.
• 49:18
  And people say not the Olympics or anything like that.
• 49:21
  And I say, well, in all due respect to everything else I've done,
• 49:25
  Lots of people have broadcast the Olympics and lots of people have broadcast Bathurst and other events and Le Mans, et cetera.
• 49:33
  But not many have been the play-by-play for the Indianapolis 500 over the course of time.
• 49:39
  So, yeah, I'm really, I'm very, very fond of that accomplishment and really proud of it for my family name.
• 49:46
  Mate, you should be.
• 49:47
  Congratulations on everything you've done.
• 49:49
  It's a remarkable 20-year story, and I hope there's even more great chapters to come, my brother.
• 49:54
  And let's finish with a little bit of fun.
• 49:57
  You took, when you left Australia, to go to America a postie bike.
• 50:04
  I want the new one.
• 50:05
  Have you seen the new one?
• 50:06
  No, go.
• 50:07
  Oh, there's a new one.
• 50:08
  You look it up.
• 50:09
  I mean, I think it's called the CT Trail or the CT 125 Trail or something like that.
• 50:16
  It's a really cool-looking bike.
• 50:18
  But I had my cousin in Shepparton, she used to work for Australia Post, and I said, do you ever go to those auctions?
• 50:24
  And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can get you a bike.
• 50:26
  So I got it for $750.
• 50:29
  And she bought it for me years ago and it stayed on her farm in Shepparton for, I don't know, probably five years.
• 50:36
  And I would come back to Australia with you and Daz and everybody else and we'd do the MotoGP at Phillip Island or we'd do whatever and do the odd job here or there for Honda Australia.
• 50:48
  And, yeah, they were friends and I didn't send them an invoice and they were like, Lee, we've got to give you something.
• 50:53
  What can we do for you?
• 50:54
  And I said, I tell you what you can do for me.
• 50:56
  Can you send a truck?
• 50:57
  up from Melbourne to my cousin's farm in Shepparton, pick up my postie, take it back to Honda MPE headquarters in Campbell, Campbell...
• 51:08
  Yeah, Campbellfield there in the airport.
• 51:10
  Campbellfield, Campbellfield.
• 51:11
  Near the airport, yeah.
• 51:12
  Yeah, and I said, give it some love, pull it apart, give it the big once over and make sure it's all good to go and then send it over to my house.
• 51:18
  I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina then, and I was away working and my wife called and said, babe, there's a big truck and it's got a big crate on the back of it and this guy's unloading it.
• 51:28
  And I said, oh, that's the postie.
• 51:29
  They sent it over with this big steel frame fully assembled and it just arrived like that.
• 51:35
  And anyway, the guys at Honda, you know, at the front end of the story, they were like, come on, we need to do something for you.
• 51:41
  We need to do something for you.
• 51:42
  So what started out as like a small favour when they sent it over and then when they finally rang to say, hey, we see that it's been delivered, I said, yeah, thanks so much for that.
• 51:50
  And they said, yeah, no problem.
• 51:51
  We think it's the world's most bloody expensive postie bike.
• 51:56
  awesome stuff we've had some great adventures along the way i can fondly recall going dirt bike riding with the likes of daryl and jeff leask and and murph and and others um in wa after the the rounds at wannaroo and stuff like that mate that's awesome that you've kept that machine as i said before well done on uh on everything that you've achieved and um we hope that 2021 is an even more successful year for you
• 52:19
  Thank you, mate.
• 52:20
  Yeah, it's been quite the ride.
• 52:21
  Let's hope it keeps going.
• 52:22
  And I'm just, I'm shocked and I'm disappointed that you haven't mentioned about when you put my life and Darryl Beattie's life in grave danger, when you crashed that Tarago on the way down to Phillip Island that year, and you went in down a big ditch and Darryl and I could have been killed.
• 52:42
  Stop it.
• 52:43
  The car, we need to set the record straight here.
• 52:46
  The car got a little bit loose in damp conditions.
• 52:48
  Tell the audience what I said while I'm desperately trying to catch it.
• 52:51
  Well, I think it got loose because Daryl pulled on the handbrake, didn't he?
• 52:55
  Yes, he did too.
• 52:59
  Oh, brother.
• 52:59
  Oh, brother, brother, brother.
• 53:00
  Oh, brother, brother.
• 53:01
  I've got this.
• 53:02
  And it ends up sideways.
• 53:04
  And it was like a scene out of a movie because the next thing I saw was a busload of tourists that were clearly going to the penguin parade at Phillip Island.
• 53:12
  They're all looking out the window of the car at us.
• 53:16
  Thank you, Lee.
• 53:17
  Thank you for chilling.
• 53:18
  You were like a crab running along the beach.
• 53:20
  You're like this.
• 53:21
  You have all hands everywhere.
• 53:22
  You're all going, trying to catch it.
• 53:27
  it's been wonderful to catch up brother love you and thank you so much for the walk down memory line super cool thank you mate and i saw on a i saw on a poll recently that your podcast is the most listened to motorsport podcast in australia so well done well done to you and the whole podcast one gang nice work cheers chuffed mate thank you
• 53:50
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 53:54
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 53:57
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 53:59
  I'm Greg Rust.
• 54:01
  Enjoy the drive, but drive safely.