Latest / Rusty's Garage / Chris Vermeulen (Part 2)

Transcript

Chris Vermeulen (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 bike racer, Chris Vermeulen.
0:24
If you haven't already, jump back to the garage library and give part one a listen.
0:29
It's terrific.
0:30
He's so articulate and a great storyteller.
0:33
We talk about his early years, meeting and being mentored by the great Barry Sheen and another star, a rock star who was in his corner with the first race team that he competed for when he left Australian shores.
0:47
We begin part two by talking about a trademark piece of apparel.
0:54
Now, bucket hats.
0:58
My kids love them.
1:00
They have become a popular thing.
1:04
I can't wear one to save my life.
1:05
You reckon I could though?
1:10
You may have led the charge on this.
1:12
Did you?
1:13
Why did this come?
1:14
I mean, it's iconically Australian.
1:15
Paul Hogan, all of those things.
1:16
What made you choose to do that?
1:18
Well, I was actually...
1:20
So the year I raced in the UK in 2000, my gear sponsor was AXO.
1:25
They made leathers.
1:25
They're an Italian company in helmets and boots and all the gear.
1:28
Yeah.
1:29
And they thought their English part, they sold this bucket hat as part of their range.
1:34
And they thought, oh, silly Aussie, he's going to wear this bucket hat.
1:38
You know, we'll give that to him sort of thing.
1:41
And I wore it.
1:41
And like I said, the first round, I was on the front row of the grid and I'm wearing the hat on the grid.
1:46
And it just took momentum in the UK.
1:49
From then.
1:50
So from the following year, when I, when I raced in the world championship, I thought, why not make a bit more of a scruffy looking Aussie bucket hat with one of my personal sponsors on it.
1:58
And, uh, I just continued then it had Parmalat, which was the milk sponsor that helped me in Australia earlier on.
2:04
And, uh, and yeah, then, um, I remember when I went to MotoGP and, um, yeah.
2:10
You know, part of our, it's obviously very commercial in MotoGP and part of the rules, you know, you've got to wear the team hat.
2:17
And I remember going to Paul Denning, the team manager, and showing him one of my hats from Superbike.
2:21
Can we make something like this for the team?
2:23
And he went, oh, do we have to?
2:27
Anyway, it ended up being...
2:29
So Dread Clothing Company in the UK did all the merchandising for Suzuki MotoGP.
2:34
It was their highest selling item that they sold.
2:37
Those bucket hats.
2:38
You know, you still see a few of them around in Grand Prix paddocks today, you know, so I reckon it was the only thing that challenged one Rossi item out there, I guess.
2:46
So, yeah.
2:47
Very good.
2:48
Very unique.
2:49
You touched on before the transition into World Superbike, the...
2:54
opportunity to ride the Fireblade.
2:57
Is it true that when you were doing the early kind of development with Tenkata, maybe even the first test, did you use a road clutch in that thing?
3:05
Was there lots of sort of development?
3:07
There was very minimal development going on with that bike.
3:13
I think our success came a lot quicker than Honda or Tenkata expected.
3:17
Yeah.
3:19
And I mean, Ducati were dominating World Superbike at that time with factory teams and private teams.
3:25
Okay, so the first few rounds, I remember being at Phillip Island.
3:29
So the bike was very quick.
3:30
It had a heap of horsepower.
3:31
It was good in a straight line.
3:33
I was the first superbike to ever do 200 miles an hour, 322 k's an hour.
3:37
That was at Monza that year.
3:38
And I remember, so I can tell you, the fairings were pretty much taped on.
3:41
They didn't even really have a fairing set that fitted this thing.
3:44
And Carl Muggeridge was my teammate in Supersport.
3:48
I was the only superbike rider.
3:49
And he goes, I can see the headlines tomorrow.
3:51
Yeah.
3:51
yellow submarine takes out crowd because he thought this thing was going to go so fast and just disintegrate, you know?
3:59
But yeah, we didn't have, we had this electronic steering damper or Honda had it on it, but because we had this HRC ignition system to help with the bike, they thought it was work.
4:10
The steering damper was working.
4:11
They kept adjusting and I'm saying there's not much difference, not much difference.
4:15
Long story.
4:15
The bike didn't have a steering damper on it.
4:17
It had a standard clutch.
4:18
It had no electronics, but,
4:20
It had 200 horsepower and at 200 horsepower in first gear or top gear.
4:26
She was a bit of a handful to ride.
4:28
I mean, I've got no experience in world super bikes.
4:31
So I'm just thinking it's a big super sport bike and that's what I was trying to get out of it.
4:36
So yeah, it took us a little while.
4:38
But like I say, I think our success came a lot quicker than Honda or Tenkata expected because the bike was very agricultural.
4:46
And I actually led the world championship team.
4:50
that year with three races to go.
4:52
After the first race at Imola, the second race I started at Imola, the bike had an oil leak on the warmup lap and I crashed and broke my scaphoid, chipped my hip, got a lift back with Giovanni Boussé on the back of his Ducati, jumped the pit wall.
5:06
Actually, I cracked my ankle as well.
5:09
Barely ran, got on my spare bike, had to pass the safety car on the first lap of the race, ended up finishing sixth or seventh
5:18
And I was two or three points behind Regis Laconi going to the last round at Magni Cor the next weekend.
5:24
So I've got these broken bones that I need to get fixed.
5:27
But I thought, no, no, we might even be world champions here.
5:31
But this is how the bike was.
5:33
We went to those last two rounds and it stopped in both races.
5:35
It's basically Tenkata had no money left.
5:39
They ran on a shoestring budget.
5:40
We didn't have any title sponsors.
5:43
And the bike was brand new and it was just lots of failures.
5:47
But yeah, we were quite successful that year.
5:49
I did the double at Laguna Seca.
5:51
I won at Silverstone.
5:52
I won at Assam.
5:54
Yeah, we had some speed, that's for sure.
5:57
Crazy, mate.
5:57
four race wins.
5:58
I mean, you were surrounded by Ducatis and some very experienced riders to kind of pull that off, knowing that, that, that, uh, that ingredients that, that mix was super impressive.
6:09
Yeah, it was, you know, and, and I learned a lot.
6:10
I got to race against Nori Hihaga and Regis Laconi, you know, 500 legends.
6:15
James Tozlin was, was champion that year.
6:17
Um, and,
6:18
There were some fast guys.
6:19
Steve Martin was competitive in race.
6:21
Gary McCoy was on a very fast Ducati as well.
6:26
Troy Corsa was on the Foggy Patronus.
6:28
Chris Walker was out there on a quacker.
6:30
There were some fast guys.
6:32
And, yeah, we did show some good speed at times.
6:36
But it was fantastic the next year because we actually had money come into the team.
6:40
We had Winston Cigarettes come as a sponsor.
6:44
So it definitely made a difference, that's for sure.
6:46
That connection too that you've just gone with, am I right in saying that it kind of expanded your connection and therefore ultimately your profile in Japan?
6:57
I mean, you're still loved in Japan to this day, mate, things like the Suzuka 8-hour and as I say, that enhanced that.
7:04
Is that fair?
7:05
Yeah, I think so.
7:06
I think so, definitely.
7:10
Yes.
7:11
And I pretty much rode for Japanese manufacturers the whole time.
7:13
So even when I went to Suzuki, I had a big following already in Japan and through the corporation.
7:20
But I think you mentioned Suzuki 8-Hour and I did one in 2005.
7:26
And it's huge.
7:27
You're like a rock star.
7:29
You are a rock star when you go over.
7:30
And I finished on the podium.
7:31
I finished second in the 180 hour I did.
7:33
And I was the only non-Japanese on the podium that year.
7:37
So my teammate was Japanese.
7:38
The guys that won and the guys that were third were Japanese.
7:41
And I mean, there's 200,000 people underneath the podium and they just love you.
7:46
They just think you're this biggest legend.
7:48
And I remember in Grand Prix a few years later, I went, my wife was my girlfriend, then Tony, and my dad came to Metegi with me.
7:56
We flew into Tokyo and on the plane from here before we landed, I said, now it is Japan.
8:02
Things are a little bit nuts here.
8:04
Just don't be surprised.
8:05
There'll be people at the airport that'll be cheering for me.
8:08
And they love wanting me up because they keep me level, level.
8:12
Yeah, whatever you reckon, whatever.
8:14
And Tony couldn't believe it.
8:15
The girls there, you know, the Japanese, and they're just screaming.
8:19
They know what flight you're coming in.
8:20
They seem to find out or they know the Grand Prix riders are coming in.
8:23
They're just at the airport waiting.
8:24
You are a bit of a rock star over in those countries, that's for sure.
8:28
It is a strange feeling, you know, boy from Yandina going that way.
8:31
Insane.
8:32
Hey, you rattled off a couple of legendary racetracks there a moment ago too, and Laguna Seca would feature for you in the World Super Sport or World Superbike paddock, but also in MotoGP.
8:45
Is it fair to say you had a little bit of a soft spot for that place?
8:47
I mean, I've been there.
8:49
It's the most amazing, cool kind of roller coaster.
8:53
What's it like around there on a bike?
8:55
It is awesome.
8:56
It is.
8:57
I love it.
8:58
Now, but you always like the tracks you do well at.
9:00
And I won my first ever World Superbike race there.
9:03
I qualified Poland, my first GP there.
9:06
I probably should have won that Grand Prix as well.
9:08
We had a technical problem, but I finished second to Casey.
9:11
I was third in that famous race that Stoner and Rossi had.
9:15
Everyone forgets that.
9:16
They only talk about those two.
9:17
I was there.
9:18
I was there.
9:20
Couldn't see them.
9:21
They were miles in front of me, but yeah, I was still there.
9:24
So, yeah, no, I do like that place.
9:26
Love it.
9:26
I like the area.
9:28
It's just nice too being an Aussie.
9:31
going to a country and everyone speaks English.
9:33
It's pretty cool when you get over there.
9:34
And it's just that American thing.
9:36
Everyone goes and buys a heap of, you know, trainers, running shoes, whatever, because they're cheaper.
9:42
It's just a nice area, that Monterey area.
9:46
But, yeah, I remember the first time I ever went to the circuit.
9:49
thinking, wow, this place is tight, this is steep, it's twisty.
9:53
And Chris Walker actually took me around the track.
9:55
We walked around it because I'd never been – because Supersport didn't go there, only Superbike and MotoGP.
10:00
So in 04 was my first year.
10:01
And Stalker's walking around the track and he's showing me.
10:04
He says, hey, Neil Hodgson could always turn the bike really good here or he could do this here or –
10:09
whatever.
10:10
And so, um, yeah, Walker said he's never going to walk me around a track again because I went and did the double and he couldn't, he couldn't get anywhere near me all weekend.
10:18
But, uh, also that weekend I met Kevin Schwantz, um, 2004.
10:22
Kevin was there the weekend and, um,
10:24
and giving me advice, you know, that's the first time I'd ever met him.
10:27
And he said, yeah, you know, I always did well here.
10:29
It was important not to rush into the corners and make sure you get on the throttle early and accelerate out and make those straights as long as you can.
10:35
And I just remember these guys are just heroes.
10:38
They're just legends, you know, and they're giving me advice on the Grand Prix bike.
10:42
And it was only a couple of years later, I went there,
10:45
in GPs and I met Wayne Rainey.
10:47
I got to go to Wayne's house because he lives quite close to the circuit.
10:50
He's just up on the hill.
10:52
And he was my childhood hero.
10:54
You know, I was a McDoan fan, but I was more of a Wayne Rainey fan and got to see his bikes.
11:00
And then he said, you know, I remember watching you here a couple of years ago on a superbike and the way you, and I was just thinking, gee, Wayne Rainey's watched me race around this track.
11:08
You know, it was,
11:10
It was very cool and a little bit embarrassing a bit later on at a barbecue.
11:13
I was with Kevin Schwantz and his family and Wayne was there.
11:17
And I was talking about how I was really quick after the corkscrew.
11:21
You go down and there's a fast left-hander.
11:23
And I said, the way I turn it in there, I'm making a lot of time, Wayne.
11:26
I don't know which corner it is.
11:28
He goes, oh, they actually named it Rainy Curve.
11:31
I had no idea what it was to be.
11:33
At least he knew the corner I was talking about.
11:35
But, yeah, we're talking about the track, and it was, yeah, very good times.
11:39
And I just love going there and racing bikes at Laguna Soka for sure.
11:43
Rainey is an incredible human being, not just champion, an incredible human being.
11:47
Let's move to, because you've kind of gone there in some respects to the GP phase, what transpired?
11:55
Because you're in the Honda family.
11:57
your firstly how did the first MotoGP test or ride come about where were you and what was your reaction tell us that okay so 2005 I finished runner-up in the world superbike championship to Troy Corsa we had a bad start to the season but I won I won like five of the last eight races and it's
12:17
two seconds and one DNF because the bike stopped.
12:19
So I was really strong, but Troy put a whole great season together and beat us and he did a great job.
12:26
Now, during that year, I did the 8-hour, which I spoke about earlier.
12:28
And my main reason behind doing the 8-hour, I'd do whatever I could to get an opportunity on a Grand Prix bike.
12:34
I thought that was my next step in my career.
12:38
so at the end of end of that year I just finished missed out on winning the world championship but won a race and then the chain fell off in the last one at Magni Core um Sunday night after race party end of the season world superbike and I actually get a call um
12:55
from Honda saying, Troy Bayless has broken his wrist back in Australia and Phillip Island's next weekend.
13:01
We need, would you be interested in riding the bike?
13:03
And I'm like, where do I sign?
13:04
Like, get me there, sort of thing.
13:07
And this was the Camel Honda.
13:08
And yeah, it all happened very quick.
13:11
So I was pretty much, I just finished Imola Magni Corp back to back, jumped on a plane, flew to Phillip Island,
13:18
Got the ride here.
13:20
And then I ended up doing Turkey the next weekend.
13:22
So I did four races in four weekends in three different continents.
13:25
So she was pretty full on.
13:27
But, yeah, amazing experience.
13:31
So I remember I rode for Cito Pons's team, another legend in motorcycle racing.
13:36
on Troy Bayless's bike, you know, another hero of mine.
13:40
And I'm next to Alex Barros in the garage.
13:42
So it was definitely surreal.
13:45
I'd never ridden those Michelin tires.
13:47
I'd never ridden carbon brakes.
13:49
I'd never ridden a bike with electronics, with traction control and engine brake control.
13:53
And you're at your home track for the first one.
13:55
I'm at the home track.
13:56
I'm at Phillip Island.
13:57
We roll out in the first session.
13:58
It's wet, isn't it?
13:59
You know, and you go, oh, like patchy damp.
14:02
And I was just thinking, wow, don't fall off it.
14:03
Don't fall off it.
14:04
But in the end, we had a fantastic weekend.
14:08
I can't remember.
14:09
I was either 10th or 11th.
14:10
I was like close.
14:11
I was racing John Hopkins, actually, who ended up being my teammate the next weekend.
14:15
And just a bit of inexperience.
14:16
John got me the last couple of laps.
14:18
But yeah.
14:19
I remember coming out of the last turn, turn 12 at Phillip Island, it's very fast.
14:24
And this is in one of the practice sessions.
14:27
And my electronics engineer goes, oh, you're using full throttle in fourth gear out of the last turn.
14:32
I said, yeah.
14:33
He goes, I will give you a bit more power if you want.
14:34
And I was like, there's more power?
14:36
There's even more, you know?
14:38
Because this thing, I mean, world super bikes were fast.
14:41
And I said I was the first world super bike to do 200 miles an hour, 322 k's an hour.
14:46
But a Grand Prix bike, the acceleration is just another world.
14:49
It just being on that thing at Phillip Island and cresting the bridge just under the bridge.
14:54
And it would want a wheelie.
14:55
I was having to use the rear brake to keep the front wheel down at 315, 320 k's an hour.
15:00
And it's just still accelerating.
15:03
It was definitely a step.
15:05
And it was right then.
15:06
that I knew I needed to go to MotoGP to further my learning and my career.
15:12
The earlier I could get on a Grand Prix bike, the better I was going to be was my sort of thinking.
15:18
And that's why I left Honda basically.
15:20
Honda wanted me to stay in World Superbike and win the championship.
15:25
I said to them that I'd believe personally –
15:28
I had the speed that I'd won it the last two years, and we didn't win it because of mechanical failures.
15:33
Now, I know that's a whole team thing, but that was my reasoning.
15:37
And Honda were gonna pay me more than twice as much money than I got to go to Suzuki MotoGP to stay in Superbike and try and win that championship.
15:45
So, but I said, look, I'm not here, I don't do this for money.
15:48
I'm here because I want to be the best.
15:51
I want to try to be the best.
15:53
And I've got an opportunity to go to a factory team in MotoGP.
15:56
So, yeah, I signed with Suzuki.
15:59
That's big, mate.
15:59
That's brave.
16:01
Did you ever stop and go second-guess the decision or not?
16:05
You were absolutely committed to it.
16:06
I was absolutely committed to it.
16:08
And I've never looked back at it now.
16:10
You know, yeah, maybe getting on a Honda, maybe I would have done better or maybe I wouldn't have.
16:14
You know, I mean, the bike I would have ended up racing would have been the LCR bike that Casey Stoner ended up starting his Grand Prix career because I was going to ride for Cito Pons, but Cito lost his, you know, if I stayed in, if I went to Grand Prix with Honda and, you know, if I worked that angle and got there, Cito lost his camel sponsorship that went to Yamaha.
16:35
So he pretty much pulled out and went back to 250s.
16:38
And then, yeah, LCR, Lucio Cecinello came in with a one-bike team and ended up taking Casey Stoner.
16:45
So that was the Honda opportunity I had.
16:48
Now, I mean, Casey had a good year, but he didn't have a fantastic year on that bike.
16:52
Obviously, his second year in Grand Prix was much more impressive.
16:56
So who would have known if I stayed at World Superbike with Honda or pushed to get on that satellite bike?
17:02
But I believe I made the right decision by going and working with a factory at Suzuki.
17:07
So there you are racing for Suzuki.
17:11
Baz had won his world championships with that team.
17:14
You're a factory rider.
17:16
Mate, that's amazing.
17:18
And what are we talking?
17:19
We're talking roughly six years into your international adventure.
17:23
Career.
17:24
Tell me about it.
17:24
It felt like it took forever, but it's only six years, isn't it?
17:28
And I'd only been road racing for a year and a half longer than that.
17:31
So I didn't have a lot of experience, I guess you could say.
17:36
So I was a big gamble on Suzuki's part, but I had a pole position in my first year.
17:41
I actually had two pole positions in my first year.
17:43
I polled at Turkey.
17:45
And we should have been on the podium that weekend, but I got taken out by Olivier Jacques on the first lap and polled at Laguna Seca.
17:54
And again, I potentially could have won that Grand Prix, but it was very, very hot that weekend.
17:58
It was 112 degrees Fahrenheit, over 40 degrees.
18:03
They canceled all the support races, which were the AMA Superbikes, because the bitumen was melting on the edge of the circuit.
18:09
There was almost a rut in the ground and believe it or not, the fuel pump on my bike was boiling.
18:15
The fuel was boiling in the fuel pump before it could make its way to the engine.
18:18
So the last 10 laps of the race, I lost masses of power and, um, and the bike barely made it over the finish line.
18:26
It was just sort of running on, on a couple of the cylinders and, uh, yeah, ended up finishing fifth, but I led, I led a big chunk of that Grand Prix as well.
18:33
And then, then we get to Phillip Island, the first ever flag to flag race and, uh,
18:37
my first ever podium at home, second place.
18:40
My parents were there to enjoy it, to see it, to enjoy it.
18:45
Suzuki's first podium in many years.
18:49
And I mean, you beat Valentino Rossi, you know, at a legendary circuit like Phillip Island.
18:53
So it's a pretty cool moment.
18:54
That is a race, Chris, that is etched in my mind.
18:58
When you say flag to flag for non-bike racing followers, it was a change for the championship where you could, if weather conditions
19:07
mix things up you could literally pit and change bikes to a to a wet bike or whatever and and off you go so it had so much drama going on and i can remember you know people smoking up the rear tire coming out of the final turn i mean it just had so much going for it and to cop it you know to top it all off you grab a podium too that's super
19:26
I know.
19:26
And Marco Melandri was the guy smoking it the last turn, doing the big one-handed fourth gear power slide.
19:33
It's the coolest thing you've ever – you should go on YouTube, but it is very cool.
19:37
I was just sad that I couldn't see it.
19:39
I wasn't close enough to him.
19:40
But yeah, no, it was a special moment.
19:43
And like you say, they brought that rule in earlier that year, so they didn't want to stop races if it rained.
19:49
You could change the bikes, like you say.
19:51
Now, Phillip Island is probably the narrowest pit lane of all the Grand Prix circuits you go to.
19:56
So this is the first time it's happened.
19:57
And there's bikes crossing each other and going in and out.
20:00
And, you know, the MotoGP Championship are trying to learn this rule and how it goes.
20:04
But my team did a fantastic job and they gave me a fantastic wet bike because we had limited wet experience that weekend.
20:12
And they put the right tire on.
20:15
They gave me the right setting, you know, because there's different wets.
20:19
There's full wet.
20:20
There's partially wet.
20:21
Is it going to dry out?
20:22
So the team did give me an excellent machine to go and deliver the goods, that's for sure.
20:28
I'll digress here for a second and just fast forward, but there's a method to my madness.
20:33
Years later, you would work for Fox Sports in a broadcasting sense and did an amazing job for them, mate.
20:38
You would work with James Harrison there.
20:40
And I can recall him telling me about...
20:44
working with you on your first kind of series of interviews.
20:48
So being the bloke, actually asking the questions.
20:50
And you have this amazing rapport with Valentino Rossi when you do this stuff.
20:55
But typically with Valentino, he has been throughout his whole career in such high demand that the team would often say, right, two questions.
21:03
That's it.
21:03
You get two questions.
21:05
So you guys kind of workshopped the questions that you were going to ask him and you unlocked him.
21:10
Can you remember what you said to him when you reflected on that very race we've just spoken about?
21:15
I got to tell you, I was very nervous with this.
21:17
This is my first time interviewing.
21:19
And I'll tell you, being interviewed a lot over my career, it's really easy to answer questions and do whatever.
21:25
But when you're the guy going to ask the question, and like you say, you've got Valentinos, you've got two questions.
21:29
You don't want to fluff this up for Fox because it looks terrible if it comes over.
21:33
And I just started, I remember my first interview was with Casey earlier that day.
21:37
They made busts for him and Mick Doon and Wayne Gardner.
21:41
So I had Casey and Mick and Wayne.
21:42
I know those guys.
21:43
So it was a little bit easier and it wasn't so precious, you know.
21:47
And then I got Valentino straight up, first guy interview.
21:49
So I said, Valentino, you've had so many successful moments here.
21:54
It was something along these lines.
21:55
So many successful moments here at Phillip Island.
21:58
race wins.
22:00
But apart from 2006 when I beat you, what was your favourite moment?
22:03
I think I started with that.
22:05
And he just thought it was the greatest thing.
22:07
So, yeah, it definitely... Well, I know him reasonably well anyway, and he was good to me.
22:13
But, yeah, we got a lot more than two questions.
22:15
So, James Harrison was very happy with what we got from Valentino the first time.
22:19
And you got a laugh out of him, which is awesome too.
22:21
We'll get to your thoughts on Valentino a little bit later and more about that.
22:25
But I want to just...
22:26
Zero in a bit on Suzuki now.
22:28
So you talked earlier in the podcast about the fact that, you know, Kenny Jr. had had success around the turn of the century for Suzuki.
22:39
As you and I talk here now, Suzuki are very prominent in the championship winner's circle, again, in MotoGP.
22:47
What was it like in that period for you?
22:48
I mean, you're working with Paul Denning.
22:50
The team had changed a bit.
22:51
What were the ingredients like for you?
22:54
I've got to say 2006, I think the early time in Suzuki, they did a fantastic job.
22:59
Now, one of the biggest downfalls is they only had two bikes on the grid and all the other manufacturers, apart from Kawasaki at that time, had many more.
23:06
So, the development for the others happened quickly.
23:08
So, what Suzuki did in 2006, because they knew they brought me in as a new rider, Hopkins was still developing.
23:16
So they pretty much built, 2006 was the last year of the 990cc category before 2007 was all going 800s.
23:24
Suzuki did all this development on an 800 engine and pretty much put a 990 engine into an 800 bike for us to race 06.
23:31
That was for me to learn the tracks, for John to develop.
23:35
and just get feedback back, you know, that we wanted to do well that season, but we didn't think we could challenge for any championship.
23:42
Now, this time, Bridgestone were coming along stronger as a tyre manufacturer as well.
23:46
We were on Bridgestone as were Ducati and Kawasaki, and all the main contenders really were on Michelin.
23:52
So...
23:53
It was fantastic because the end of 06, I had a year of experience under my belt, knew all the tracks finally.
24:00
John was very fast.
24:01
He was a hard guy to beat at any time, but he was going very well then.
24:05
And we pretty much finished the Grand Prix at Valencia.
24:08
And two days later, they bolt the 800 engine into our bike.
24:11
We go out and we go like half a second quicker straight away.
24:14
Boom.
24:14
Boom.
24:15
And we're like, wow, we're on for this.
24:18
This is very good.
24:20
We're on for something here.
24:21
Little did we know that Casey Stoner was going to go to Ducati and just blitz everybody.
24:25
But realistically, otherwise, we were...
24:29
we were quite competitive in 07.
24:33
I had four podiums.
24:34
John had four podiums at another couple of pole positions, I think.
24:39
At one stage, I was fighting for third in the world championship.
24:42
I think I finished fifth or sixth in the end because I had a couple of bad races at the end of the season.
24:47
But yeah,
24:48
But we were fighting Pedroza, Melandry, Hopkins, myself, Nikki Hayden.
24:55
We beat Nikki in the championship, Colin Edwards.
24:57
We had a really strong year and Suzuki did a fantastic job.
25:03
What they did that wasn't right after that, first of all, they let Hopkins go.
25:07
They brought Caporossi in.
25:09
And Loris is a fantastic guy and a fast motorbike rider.
25:13
but it pretty much stalled everything that we'd done as a pairing.
25:16
And we sort of started again with development.
25:19
So it slowed down.
25:20
And then after that in 2008, when the global financial crisis sort of hit and it hit America very hard, Suzuki's, a lot of their income was coming out of America.
25:31
And the factory pretty much cut the budget for the race department, sort of a big chunk come out of it.
25:38
And that's when our development slowed down and our results, you know, in 2018,
25:42
I think I had two or maybe three podiums in 08, but they were early in the season and it pretty much went backwards from there.
25:49
And 09, we didn't have a bike that was competitive anymore.
25:51
It was just purely down to money.
25:53
We just didn't have the funds there to develop and try and keep up with our counterparts.
25:59
Tell me a little bit about John Hopkins.
26:01
What was Hopper like as a teammate?
26:04
I can't wait to read his book, which is coming out soon, I'll tell you, because if any of the true stories are in there, man, it's going to be a wild read.
26:12
So he's a loose character.
26:14
He is a really nice guy.
26:16
I think he's a year younger than me with similar age and just a character, just a fun guy to always be around.
26:26
Very, very fast motorcycle racer.
26:28
A little bit loose at times.
26:29
I reckon if he had a little bit more guidance in the early part of his career, he definitely could have been a world champion.
26:35
But what a character.
26:37
I mean, legend.
26:38
Still a nice guy.
26:39
Still get on well with John today.
26:40
And we talk about the old days.
26:42
He's quite smashed up.
26:44
He's had some pretty bad injuries, especially when he went to British Championship at the end of his career, smashed his pelvis up.
26:51
struggles to walk a little bit now, but, um, but, uh, no, he's, he's a great guy and he's, he's working in the MotoGP paddock again now and, uh, and working with young riders and, uh, I think he'd be very good at it.
27:12
200 miles per hour is almost three times the wind speed of a standard hurricane.
27:17
Lucky motorbikes have those tiny wind screens.
27:20
Yeah.
27:21
It's always good to have sources when you do a podcast chat like this.
27:25
So I probably shouldn't give up my source.
27:27
Let's just call him Michael Strano because that's his real name from Fox Sports.
27:32
Who are we talking to?
27:34
He tells me on the quiet that you may have been able to keep a Suzuki.
27:39
Is this true?
27:40
Have you got a GP bike somewhere that you've been able to hang on to?
27:44
I do.
27:44
Mega.
27:45
I do.
27:45
Mega.
27:46
And I believe that Caporossi's got one as well and myself.
27:51
And we're the only guys, the only Suzuki's out of the V4 era.
28:00
So this is...
28:01
sort of from 2002 through to when Suzuki left in 2011, left the championship.
28:06
There's only two bikes in private collection.
28:07
Loris has got one, I've got one.
28:09
And Suzuki got a couple in their museum and that's it.
28:13
So it's in the front room of my house.
28:14
Now I'll tell you, my wife doesn't let me keep much stuff in the house.
28:17
You can see my, this is my office, Rusty, and I've got a world championship super sport trophy, a couple of helmets.
28:23
There's a few little trophies.
28:25
Other than that, I'm allowed the motorbike in the house with a leather suit next to it and a helmet and that's it.
28:30
I love it.
28:30
Tony doesn't let – she goes, I don't want it as a shrine to you.
28:33
So we'll let the bike in the house because it looks good.
28:37
That's all.
28:37
Cool.
28:38
Winning in the wet at Le Mans, you win a MotoGP race.
28:43
Just huge, mate.
28:45
Can you take us back to the wildness of that day and how you feel about it all these years on?
28:53
I've got to say Le Mans was never a great, well, I shouldn't say never.
28:56
It wasn't a great track in 06 for me.
28:58
I had to learn the place and it was hard to learn and hard to go fast, always cold and quite often damp there.
29:06
And I didn't have a great race in 06.
29:07
I didn't qualify particularly well in 07.
29:09
Again, I think I was 12th, 10th, maybe 11th on the grid, somewhere around there.
29:14
And...
29:16
but it, it rained and I was strong in the wet.
29:19
Basically we did a few laps of the race.
29:21
It started out dry.
29:22
Again, it was a flag to flag race and, um, come into the pit lane.
29:25
And, and again, I was fighting Marco Malandri for the race win and, um, ended up winning from Marco and Casey Stoner third.
29:33
But, um,
29:36
Yeah, I remember that weekend.
29:38
I said earlier in Phillip Island, the team gave me a fantastic bike for the flag-to-flag race.
29:41
This weekend, the team didn't give me a fantastic bike.
29:44
The tires and the setup were very good for the full wet condition, but the electronics were horrible.
29:49
And the bike was quite hard to ride.
29:51
And that was basically down to we had limited wet setup over that weekend.
29:56
these bikes are quite difficult to set up electronically and they need time and understanding of how it all works.
30:02
And, uh, what the wet setting they put in was, was pretty bad.
30:05
So I was using the clutch coming into corners to stop the rear wheel locking up.
30:09
And it, and I had no traction control because the setting they put in was horrible.
30:13
So I pretty much turned it all off and, and just went out and rode.
30:17
And, um,
30:18
And I think because it was so raw and I had a really good, I could feel the bike then I could feel the mechanical grip of the bike and slide it around.
30:28
I was, I was just in my element.
30:30
It was like being in a flat track back in the day and I could, I could control the bike and drift it and, and feel it and, and understand it.
30:37
And, um,
30:38
And yeah, it was a very cool moment crossing the line first.
30:43
You know, I'd had a few second places until that stage and I'd had a few pole positions, but to actually win a Grand Prix was very cool.
30:51
But what I was prouder about was Suzuki.
30:54
I could see the effort that, you know, we had 30-odd people at the racetrack for two riders, plus the numerous engineers back at the factory and the effort they put in and day and night work and...
31:07
And, you know, it'd been so long since they'd won.
31:09
They hadn't won a four-stroke race.
31:11
They hadn't won since Kenny Jr. in 2000 or 2001 since they'd won a Grand Prix.
31:16
So it was quite a gap.
31:18
And I was just so proud for those guys.
31:21
I was more happy that all those engineers and my crew chief, Tom O'Kane, and those people could actually say they were Grand Prix winners as well.
31:31
That's what I was happy about for sure.
31:33
Can you take our audience just on a little ride with you, mate?
31:37
What was that machine like to ride?
31:39
You rattled off some of the speeds you achieved at places like Phillip Island before.
31:46
I've been fortunate in my career to sample Chris or to experience.
31:50
And one of the things I did was go with Randy on the two-seater.
31:55
You're nuts going with Randy.
31:58
So Randy Momola at Phillip Island on the Ducatio.
32:01
I mean, it was just amazing.
32:04
So eye-opening for me in many ways.
32:08
What's it like from your perspective to ride that thing, to win a race and try and take the non-bike race listener into that space for a moment?
32:20
I guess the first thing with something like this, with a MotoGP bike is...
32:26
It's very, very stiff.
32:28
It's very rigid.
32:29
The tires are very hard.
32:31
The bike doesn't work.
32:32
If you go three seconds a lap too slow, the bike feels horrible.
32:36
Now, the journalists used to ride our bikes at the end of the season, and that would be 15 seconds a lap off the pace.
32:42
And, look, they're trying their best, but they don't ride these things all the time, and I understand, and they're trying to talk about the difference in the Grand Prix bikes.
32:49
they wouldn't even feel the same and they're getting different tires than us and they don't even get enough temperature in the brakes for them to even start to work.
32:56
Because the carbon brakes work at sort of over 250 degrees, sort of 400, 500 degrees is optimum working temperature in the brake disc.
33:05
Um, so you've got to generate that heat.
33:07
You've got to, you've got to make these things work.
33:09
And the more you make them work, the more grip and everything they create.
33:13
So that, that's the first hard bit.
33:16
The other bit is nothing accelerates like a MotoGP bike, not even a formula one car from 200 to 300 or more Ks an hour.
33:23
These things are.
33:25
They just push you back.
33:26
I'm sure like top fuelers, et cetera, I'm not talking about them, but I'm talking about other circuit racing stuff.
33:31
Yeah, these things accelerate very, very fast.
33:33
And when you have the off-season and you don't ride one for two months or so and we'd leave the garage, it was generally Malaysia, you ride out, they've got a pit lane speed limit of 60Ks an hour, blah, blah, blah, blah.
33:44
You hit that button to switch it off and you accelerate away and your whole insides and your mind, your head sort of, it just goes back when you go...
33:52
That's right.
33:52
That's what I do.
33:53
That's what these things do.
33:55
They just push you backwards.
33:57
People have asked me, what's 330 Ks an hour feel like or whatever?
34:01
And I said, to be honest, it doesn't feel any different to 300 or 250 really because your body only feels acceleration.
34:09
And that's
34:10
like speed it doesn't feel.
34:12
And that's where these things, and even now they're even faster, more power, more electronics, the rear squatting device on the MotoGP bikes, they just accelerate.
34:20
And with someone that doesn't ride one, if you got on it, it would just blow your mind at how quickly –
34:27
how quickly they accelerate.
34:28
And then, like I said before, how stiff and rigid.
34:32
When I came from World Superbike to MotoGP, one of the hard things for me to understand was how hard I could brake and push these things into the corner.
34:39
And like I said, the more temperature you get in those brake discs generally, the better they are and the better control you've got.
34:46
And then you've got this really stiff, hard front tyre and this chassis that if you tried to ride on the road, it would feel horrible.
34:54
You'd pick up every bump and it just needs to be worked and pushed really hard.
34:59
And if you're a couple of seconds off the pace, it feels horrible.
35:02
But when you're right on the limit, that's when the bike is in its sweet spot.
35:06
You mentioned the journos before, and there's always a big scrum of them when you're in the MotoGP paddock there.
35:13
Some of them, Chris, kind of tagged you like a wet weather specialist.
35:17
Did that sit well with you?
35:19
How did you feel about that?
35:20
I mean, clearly you've been successful in the dry in other classes and so on.
35:23
How did you feel about that?
35:24
Yeah, well, I've had seven podiums in MotoGP.
35:27
Four were in the dry and three were in the wet.
35:29
So I sort of figure it's 50-50.
35:32
Look, it didn't bother me.
35:34
I actually hated riding in the rain.
35:36
So I didn't actually enjoy it because the risk level is higher and it's so easy to make a mistake.
35:42
And I've crashed out of a wet Grand Prix as well in the past.
35:45
But so it didn't worry me.
35:49
I took that as a compliment because I think as a rider, you understand to ride fast in the rain,
35:57
is a lot more about feeling, ability, control.
36:02
Sometimes in the dry, if you're lacking a little bit of equipment, you can't manage the situation, where in the rain it's a little bit neutralized from the bike equipment.
36:12
So in a way I took it as a compliment, but yeah, I didn't enjoy racing in the rain.
36:17
Just a little mistake could mean you're on your ear, you know, where you'd get away with it in the dry for sure.
36:22
Tell me about the end of the MotoGP chapter and how difficult that was.
36:26
Michael Heaton, who's been a good producer at Channel 10 for many years, said to me, was there other opportunities there?
36:31
Was there, you know, other teams that expressed an interest?
36:35
Maybe you felt the bike wasn't as competitive.
36:37
Was there a chance to stay in MotoGP?
36:40
There was.
36:40
I could have stayed at Suzuki past the end of 2009.
36:45
But basically, like I said, the GFC, the budget was cut with the team.
36:50
And I wasn't talking about my pay.
36:52
I was talking about the whole development process of the bike.
36:55
And I couldn't see it going forward for another year or so.
36:59
So I thought...
37:00
I'm not going to enjoy staying here.
37:01
It's going to be the same old thing again.
37:03
So I was happy to leave there.
37:07
And I had an opportunity to stay in MotoGP with Primac Ducati at the time.
37:10
Now, Primac weren't a team like they are now.
37:12
So they were very much a second-rate team.
37:14
And that was pretty much my only opportunity.
37:17
Otherwise, I had an opportunity to go with Kawasaki to World Superbike and develop the new ZX10 there.
37:25
And I just thought, well, this is an awesome opportunity, isn't it?
37:27
You know, to work with another manufacturer, develop a new race bike and go that way.
37:33
Unfortunately, it didn't end very well because in my first race weekend, I did some quite bad damage to my knee and never really came back from it.
37:40
Yeah.
37:42
But yeah, I think I made the right decision.
37:44
It's all if, buts, and maybes.
37:46
Maybe if I went to Pramak Ducati, maybe I would have raced longer and would have done a few more years in MotoGP, but we'll never know.
37:54
You could argue too, Chris, knowing the success that Jonathan Ray, who's been a guest on the podcast, has had as well, that Kawasaki could have been a very good move in the same breath, couldn't it?
38:03
Yeah, look, and I think it was.
38:04
The bike was very old.
38:06
It was underrated at the time when I got on it, and yeah,
38:10
It was my first race weekend.
38:11
The first race, I was in third place and crashed at Honda Hairpin at Phillip Island and made a little mistake.
38:17
And what actually happened is I blew the engine up in that race.
38:20
And yeah, the throttle got stuck on when it was stuck in the gravel trap and it blew up.
38:25
So race two, we've gone back to the game.
38:28
We've put a new engine in the bike.
38:30
And basically, I was running around at fourth and I was very comfortable and going up the hill to Lukey Heights.
38:35
So I've...
38:36
uh during the race I'd had some some issues with this new gearbox in this bike and uh yeah went to go down a gear and the gearbox locked up and I sort of grabbed the clutch and speared off the track and uh and crashed into the wall up at the top of the Lukey Heights and uh that's when I did all the damage to my knee so um yeah broke four ligaments in my knee I've got plastic meniscus in there now I've got a couple of donor ligaments I was I was five and a half months non-weight bearing after the major surgery three operations on it and
39:04
it was quite a difficult time in my career.
39:07
But that's, I guess, it set me up for the rest of my life.
39:10
I guess being a motorbike racer, I was still young then, and I didn't know when I was ever going to stop.
39:15
And I wanted to have a family one day, but I didn't want to bring a family up in a racing environment.
39:20
Being an Aussie, living overseas, I was always going to come back here.
39:23
So my wife and I decided to, you know, I would call it quits and we'd come back home and have a couple of young kids.
39:30
And it's fantastic now.
39:32
Good stuff.
39:33
So you were living in Andorra at that stage when you made the decision to come home.
39:37
How difficult was that, Chris?
39:38
I mean, it had been such a passion for you, a childhood thing that you loved.
39:43
To call time on something like that for any athlete, for any elite athlete, is never an easy decision.
39:49
I think I wouldn't have known when to stop.
39:51
And, you know, and putting that into perspective, some people say with Valentino Rossi now, should he have stopped?
39:57
Has he gone on too long?
39:58
I personally think he's gone on too long.
40:01
But it's hard when you're the guy there and that's all you know.
40:05
Why should you stop?
40:06
He can still get the bike.
40:07
He can still race.
40:08
He can – he still finishes in the field.
40:10
But so I wouldn't – I don't think – I think I would have been a little bit the same and not known when to stop.
40:14
So I had –
40:15
I had pretty much nine months where I wasn't going to be riding a motorbike.
40:18
And it gave me, it was a long time for me to think and realize and understand there's other things in life apart from motorcycle racing.
40:27
You got to remember when you do, when you do this, and I'm sure any professional athletes are saying your whole world is that, is that sport.
40:34
Everything I ate, drank, drank.
40:36
did where I traveled, it was all about going faster on a motorcycle.
40:39
And, and you didn't, I didn't think about anything else outside of it.
40:42
And, um, and I had nine months to, to really realize there was another world outside of motorcycle racing and, um, and, uh, yeah, I could have, I could have a lot of fun in that too.
40:52
So.
40:52
And you did.
40:53
And you've been in this chat so articulate, Chris, in your knowledge of the sport.
40:59
You retain, I know, very good connections in the paddocks and the information that comes with that, the currency.
41:10
around the bikes and the technology and so on.
41:13
You may not recall, I've got a great photo of you and I at a desk for Channel 10 in Melbourne for coverage of the Phillip Island race, wearing suits and ties as they made us wear.
41:27
God knows why.
41:28
It was very early days of television for you.
41:30
I think Daz, Daryl Beattie...
41:31
I think this was my first ever go on TV, like live TV.
41:36
And the thing I love about it is you are in thongs.
41:41
You had thongs on under the desk.
41:43
This has been pretty much a little trademark of yours.
41:46
And I think Harrow told me that they made a change to the desk at one stage at Fox Sports or something or other.
41:52
And they had to physically put you in pants and shoes.
41:55
In shoes.
41:55
Yeah, exactly.
41:57
I got told at Fox Sports because I've been doing it a few years.
42:00
And that was my first TV gig.
42:02
And, I mean, what a way to start.
42:03
Darrell Beattie on the ground and working with you, Rusty.
42:06
He's made it very easy and showed me how fun it can be.
42:09
But, yeah, I wear thongs.
42:11
I wore thongs everywhere.
42:12
12 years of World Championship Motorcycle Racing, I wore thongs everywhere.
42:16
I remember Nikki Hayden asking me once at a press conference.
42:18
She said, man, do you own any blue jeans?
42:22
I just wear shorts and thongs anywhere.
42:24
Casey said I'd turn up to the Ducati.
42:27
I would, if I was riding for Ducati, I'd turn up to their launch in the snowfields in Thongs.
42:30
You know, he just thought I wore them everywhere as well.
42:33
But I guess it's just been a Queenslander and the way you grow up.
42:38
But yeah, if I can get away with it, I will.
42:41
So there you go.
42:42
You got to see him in your flat track or your dirt track racing days.
42:47
Casey's an intensely private guy, but you're probably one of the few people that's retained a friendship with him along the way.
42:53
Would that be fair?
42:54
Yeah, sure.
42:55
And he's a guy.
42:56
Look, we're not friends that we speak every week or anything, but we stay in touch a few times a year.
43:00
And I've been down to his place and ridden minibikes down there.
43:04
And our girls are similar ages.
43:07
You know, his oldest is older and his youngest is younger.
43:09
And I've got sort of two in the middle.
43:11
So they get on well.
43:12
And I think Tony, my wife, and Adriana, Casey's wife,
43:16
have a bit of an understanding because they travel around with us, you know.
43:20
So, you know, we've known each other for a long time and they understand what it's like to sort of come back to Australia and set up life and look after kids.
43:28
So we all get on quite well.
43:30
And believe it or not, tomorrow, actually, I'm doing a charity lunch that Casey and I do pretty much every year to raise money for kids, homeless kids on the Sunshine Coast.
43:40
So we do that every year together.
43:41
And, yeah, we stay in touch a little bit.
43:46
And more than anything, I admire him as a motorcycle racer, probably the biggest talent that I've ever seen on a track.
43:53
And it's just a shame that I had to race against him.
43:58
I think I finished second to him, sorry, three times or something like that.
44:02
So I would have been a four-time Grand Prix winner if he wasn't there.
44:04
But I mean...
44:08
what a legend.
44:08
And he dealt with a lot over his career and come out along, come out, come out at the end and he's got a fantastic family.
44:15
And yeah, I still get on very well with him for sure.
44:17
Couple to finish.
44:18
Let's, let's tap into your, your media brain, if you like, for a minute, your broadcast brain.
44:24
Firstly, the emergence of Remy Gardner.
44:27
What are you thinking about his future?
44:30
I've been a fan of Remy's for quite a while.
44:32
He, he,
44:35
he had that pressure of being Wayne's son, you know, and, and, and coming into the championship and everyone thinks, oh, he's been given everything.
44:41
He's got everything.
44:43
Now I can tell you, they, they work very hard to get him into some, into some opportunities.
44:48
And for sure, Wayne's name opened up a few doors, but Remy's the guy that's delivered, hasn't he?
44:53
You know, and,
44:54
Even those early days on the Moto3 bikes, he showed some speed.
44:58
He couldn't put the whole lot together, but he showed speed and potential.
45:00
And I think he's very driven and he's working extremely hard at being a successful motorcycle racer away from the sport.
45:08
I've been very impressed with him.
45:10
I'm impressed how he's come along in so many areas.
45:14
But this year, working with Aki Ayo, I think that's brought the whole package together and how he's managing the situation.
45:21
I really hope he can go forward.
45:23
continue this championship and win a world championship in Moto2.
45:27
And I'm very excited that he's got an opportunity to go to the Premier class next year.
45:31
It's going to be great to see two Aussies in there again, that's for sure.
45:34
So that leads me to Jack Miller.
45:35
I mean, he's had some good spikes this year in success terms.
45:39
What about his potential?
45:41
His potential is there.
45:42
And I think Cal Crutchlow said it, you know, maybe outside of Marc Marquez, Jack is the most talented guy on two wheels in the field at the moment.
45:50
Again, it's just little areas that he needs to put himself together.
45:54
So I do some interviews for the media, as you know, Rusty.
45:59
And we spoke to Davide Tardotzi recently this year, and he's the team manager for Jack Miller.
46:04
Yeah.
46:04
And he's worked with a lot of guys, won a lot of world championships with Troy Bayless, you know, with Casey Stoner, with Carl Fogarty.
46:10
And he said, Jack has the ability.
46:13
Jack has the speed.
46:14
There's a few little things he needs to put together to get it all right.
46:18
But the main thing is Jack's got to believe in himself that he can do it a little bit more.
46:22
He said he still has that doubt there that, well, should I be here or can I compete with these guys?
46:27
And he said, once he realizes that, that'll put him together as definitely a championship challenger.
46:32
He's certainly growing, I think, in that mental sense.
46:35
So hopefully those building blocks keep coming, Chris.
46:37
It's great that you can kind of see that.
46:41
You touched on the kids a moment ago.
46:42
You shared on social media very recently they have been doing a little bit of riding.
46:46
As a dad, are you okay about this?
46:49
Are you nervous, Nelly?
46:51
Are you in there, hands and all?
46:53
What are you doing?
46:54
I'm so proud because I've got two girls.
46:56
They're seven and five and they're both riding motorbikes.
46:58
The five-year-old's just started.
47:00
We did a bit of homeschooling last week and it was sort of her first go on the motorbike on her own.
47:05
And I was sitting on the back with her and she was pretty much right.
47:08
So I just jumped off the back.
47:10
Excuse me, and away she went.
47:11
So very proud.
47:13
Now, my oldest is very sensible and she's very in control and she rides a bike quite fast on the track, but everything is smooth and in control.
47:23
She slides the bike a little bit.
47:25
It's all really good.
47:26
The youngest, on the other hand, all she wants to do is beat her older sister and she doesn't care how she does it.
47:30
So now I watch her and she goes, Dad, I really like the straight bits because I can go full gas.
47:36
Yeah.
47:36
And she just winds the throttle on.
47:38
And I'm actually like a little bit concerned that she doesn't realize how fast she's going and what's going to happen when it goes wrong.
47:44
But that'll be the next thing when she has a crash, I reckon, Rusty.
47:47
So there you go.
47:48
If my eyesight is right, I think you've woven the number seven onto the plate too.
47:53
Is that right?
47:53
So I'm tight Dutchman, like I said earlier.
47:58
I bought a pack of three number sevens.
48:00
One of them's got number seven and one's got 77 on their bike.
48:03
There you go.
48:04
Fantastic.
48:04
Fantastic.
48:05
Did the thought of ever, you know, launching into a serious four-wheel career ever come your way and were there some experiences you want to share there?
48:14
Yeah, look, I guess the biggest opportunity I got in four wheels, I got to drive a V8 supercar back in about 07.
48:23
It was the end of the last year of the H-Pattern gearbox.
48:26
I drove Jason Bright's car, so he had a bit of a connection with Suzuki Australia, and they organized it, and I went to Winton.
48:33
And I hadn't been to Winton since I raced Australian super bikes those years.
48:37
And Jason took me for a few laps in the car and actually showed me how to spin it because he went off the track once there and pushed it quite hard.
48:44
And it was good fun.
48:45
You realize that you don't roll over on these things like a motorbike.
48:49
You sort of just go around as long as it's not near a wall or whatever.
48:53
But yeah, that was a pretty cool experience.
48:56
very different to the bikes, but it's not something that enticed me.
49:00
I wasn't like, oh, wow, I'd love to go and do more of this.
49:03
You know, it's I'm still more of a motorcyclist at heart.
49:07
I've got some cool cars and I like cars, but I don't think I was ever going to try and go down that car racing route.
49:15
Can we finish on that then?
49:16
Because we've dwelled in a great way on two wheels, which is awesome.
49:21
But you do have...
49:23
And I know the collection's probably changed a little bit over time, but you do have a fascination with a couple of cars.
49:28
Share with the audience about them, where that comes from, and what you currently have.
49:32
Yeah, I think it's my dad is sort of, he always grew up with one of nine kids.
49:37
He had five brothers and they're all into sort of cars and building their own cars and making things back in the day.
49:44
And he's quite a good mechanical understanding and engineering sort of side.
49:50
So we've built a few cars.
49:51
My first one was...
49:53
When I was 19, I bought, I always wanted a mid fifties F100 and I've still got this car.
49:58
So I found a shell for a 1954 F100 and it was pretty much rotten.
50:03
It's just the shell of the cab, no floor left on it and a couple of chassis rails and that was it.
50:07
That was my 54 F truck.
50:09
I thought I was made, you know?
50:11
And anyway, about $30,000 later, we're talking, you know, a long time ago when I had no money, it was pretty much all my, anything I had left.
50:20
I finished this car off and it's got fuel injected 347 Windsor engine.
50:26
It's got independent front suspension out of a Mitsubishi L300 van.
50:30
It's got power steering out of a Cortina.
50:33
It did have a manual.
50:33
I did have a four-speed manual, but being a bench seat, I couldn't shift gears with a third passenger in.
50:38
So when the kids come along, we put a three-speed auto in it.
50:42
But yeah, ute back, it's red and a four-wheel disc brake, a rear diff out of an XB GT Falcon and...
50:50
Um, it drives like a nineties car.
50:52
So that's, that's my pride and joy in my 54 F truck.
50:55
Um, but yeah, since then I had a few hot rods.
50:58
We built a, well, we restored a, a 1957 Buick two door.
51:03
Um, I had a 1933 Ford coupe, um, that we built.
51:08
I've still got, uh, sold those two cars.
51:10
I've still got a 1929 Hupmobile, which was a rare car back in the day.
51:14
It was a,
51:15
sort of a very old car and we hot-rodded it.
51:18
It was a four-door sedan.
51:19
We made it a two-door, four-seater, no bonnet top or sides.
51:24
The thing's extremely low.
51:25
Like you look right over the top of it.
51:27
And, yeah, it's got a 360 Mopar in it and a Jaguar independent diff in the back.
51:32
And so that's a pretty cool-looking hot-rod.
51:35
I've also had a couple of fast cars.
51:37
I bought a Morgan Aramax.
51:39
They made 100 Morgan Aramaxes back in 2008.
51:44
I think it was 08.
51:45
I tried to buy one off the list and I was number 138 on the list.
51:50
Anyway, not long before we got married in the UK, 2011.
51:54
Richard Hammond decided to sell his.
51:56
So I bought Hammond's Aramax.
51:59
It was three years old with 3000 miles on the clock and we used it as our wedding car.
52:03
So I was complaining about how expensive the wedding was gonna be.
52:06
And I go and spend nearly a hundred thousand pounds on a car that I'm gonna use for the wedding.
52:12
But yeah, I brought that car back to Australia and used it here for quite a while till the kids come along and then actually sold it.
52:19
So I collector bought that here and
52:21
Yeah, I've had a few other cars, but they're sort of the iconic ones, I guess.
52:25
But you've got to have toys, I reckon.
52:27
And I've still got that 54 F100 and the Hupmobile.
52:31
They're just two because the F100 I always wanted.
52:35
But me and my dad built those two cars.
52:37
We spent a lot of time together.
52:39
So they mean as much to me as anything because of that bond with my old man and what we did with the cars.
52:46
What a great story to finish on, mate.
52:48
Thank you very much for the walk down memory lane of an awesome two-wheel career.
52:54
Baz, he was a cheeky boy.
52:55
I'm hoping you made it upstairs.
52:58
If he did, he would have seen what you've done and been immensely proud of it.
53:03
And from a broadcast perspective, mate, you just...
53:06
I know that's stopped for a little bit for now, but I hope in the future you go back to it because you...
53:12
have a very good way with words.
53:14
You have great, as I said before, currency around the motorcycles.
53:18
And I know from my colleague, Chris Stubbs, how diligently you worked at developing, at watching back some of that stuff and knowing what you could, you know, with Michael Strano, with James Harrison, what you could bring to the table.
53:33
So congratulations on that.
53:35
Congratulations on what you've done on two wheels.
53:36
But more importantly, I know you're loving family life as well and keep enjoying that.
53:40
Thank you very much for talking to us.
53:42
I do, Rusty.
53:42
I enjoy the family.
53:43
Thanks for having me on.
53:44
It's been great listening to your podcast, so I'll be able to listen to myself now.
53:47
Don't know if I like that, but the other ones have been good anyway.
53:50
Cheers, mate.
53:51
Thanks, mate.
53:58
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
54:02
Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
54:06
Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
54:15
Listener.