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Transcript

Dick Bennetts - 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 West Surrey Racing's Dick Bennett.
0:24
If you've landed here and not had a listen to part one, as we always say, jump back, have a little listen.
0:29
There are some great memories in there.
0:32
From growing up in Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island and getting the racing bug, thanks to some piranhas.
0:39
That'll make more sense when you hear it.
0:41
Heading to England on a shoestring and being spellbound watching the British Grand Prix.
0:46
His dealings with the legendary Aussie engineer Ron Turanac, working with Ayrton Senna and being left in no doubt of his greatness.
0:55
Memories of a young Micah Hackinen who was blindingly fast and much more.
1:00
We begin part two on learning to deal with an imperative part of the racing business that would help make West Surrey Racing the well-oiled machine that it is today.
1:11
Early on in our chat, you talked about not necessarily feeling like the commercial side, perhaps like Eddie was your forte, that your forte was more the engineering and the chassis and mechanical side, if you will.
1:24
What were the kind of learnings as you forged ahead with the business here on that side?
1:28
Because you're obviously juggling the lot at the end of the day and trying to make a successful organisation.
1:33
Yeah, we then grew, we started running two F3 cars, then we actually had two teams, two cars each, because we were running the Morroba Young Driver Program for seven, eight years.
1:47
But then we were approached from a Spanish, Pedro de la Rosa.
1:52
Yes.
1:53
and Racing for Spain.
1:55
And of course, they had a conflicting sponsor.
2:00
So we- You set up a separate team, basically, did you?
2:02
Well, that's, I hadn't thought about it, but then by this stage, Mike Ewing, Kiwi accountant, as the company was getting bigger, so we set up Racing for Spain and WSR.
2:16
So WSR ran two Marlborough cars, and Racing for Spain ran two, well,
2:22
but the hiccup with that team was the deal was that Pedro was Formula Renault champion.
2:28
We had to have Renault engines and Renault were building an F3 engine so we fitted Renault engines in but they were dogs.
2:38
They were seriously down on power so I felt sorry for Pedro.
2:42
But, um, 93, 94,
2:50
At the end of the year, I felt sorry for Pedro.
2:53
So we actually fitted a Mugen Honda engine in, went testing, and he was just so happy.
2:59
The best he could qualify would be 18th to 20th on the grid.
3:05
And our Marlborough car, Vince Rademacher, we were qualifying 1, 2, 3 all the time.
3:10
And Vince was a very good driver, so was Pedro.
3:12
Pedro was Renault champion.
3:14
So we decided at my expense, we put this Honda Mugen engine in and went, and then we went to the race meeting, Donington, and Pierre, the French Renault F3 guy, come over for the race.
3:29
He knew we'd fitted a Mugen Honda, but he still wanted to see it.
3:32
And he arrived just after qualifying.
3:35
He said, where's Pedro?
3:37
Because Pedro always qualified 18 to 20.
3:39
He's looking down there.
3:40
I said, Pierre, P1.
3:44
Is it the same car?
3:45
I said, yes.
3:46
Is it the same engineer?
3:48
Yes.
3:48
Is it the same mechanic?
3:49
Yes.
3:50
I said, it's the same chassis, same driver.
3:52
All we've done is take out your Renault and put in a Moog and Honda.
3:57
Maybe we have a problem.
4:00
I said, I have been trying to tell you for six months.
4:05
So that was a typical sort of way.
4:10
But as we grew bigger, then we're...
4:15
Probably silly me because the rules were changing for 85 to flat floor.
4:19
I went back to running one car so we could concentrate on one car.
4:22
Instead of commercially, probably should have run two or three.
4:25
Was that about you wanting to ensure that one thing was done right and competitive?
4:31
What was your rationale behind that?
4:32
I was worried the rule change going from full ground effects to flat bottom would be a massive change.
4:37
But at the end of the day, it wasn't as big.
4:38
So we should have.
4:39
But we went back to one car.
4:42
So then we won the championship and won Macau as well.
4:46
So that put us back up the top of the list for a good team.
4:52
So then we grew bigger, but then we switched to touring cars for 96.
4:56
And that was, I don't know whether thank Paul Radisic or...
5:04
But it was hard work, the year one.
5:06
It was Paul got me down to a race at Brands.
5:09
Come and have a look at touring cars.
5:10
You know, interesting.
5:12
You've done enough here, three.
5:13
Yeah.
5:14
So, you know, we did it, but we were let down by a late call from Ford to do it properly.
5:21
So we were left with some old cars from Germany and it was a nightmare.
5:26
So halfway through year one, I've got to be honest, I was ready to bow out of touring cars.
5:31
Really?
5:32
We were working till two or three o'clock in the morning because the car would always break, something would crack, engine problem, transmission problem, suspension problems, because the cars were converted in a hurry from four-wheel drive to front-wheel drive.
5:45
And of course, the load going through the front axle
5:49
We're gearing up to have a lot of people on the team.
5:52
We're going from a very compact little F3 team to suddenly having 30 people on the team, design engineers.
5:59
So it's quite a lot of work to manage all that, especially with the works team.
6:06
But interesting engineering-wise, it was a good...
6:10
The supertoring was a fantastic formula, but it became far too expensive.
6:16
Let's come to that in a second because when I first started commentating and I got my kind of first proper job on commercial television, it was with the Australian Super Touring Championships.
6:25
I have very fond memories of that two-litre chapter.
6:28
Can we conclude F3, though?
6:29
Firstly, you mentioned Mauricio Gudrum there before.
6:33
Did you do a test with him?
6:36
And I think you wanted to back-to-back something and test him what he was like.
6:40
And I think you sent him...
6:42
with him believing there had been a change to the car, but there may not have been, to tell me about that.
6:46
Yeah, that was a test day at Alton Park.
6:49
And Ayrton has said to me, this guy is good.
6:53
So we were testing Alton, playing with rear geometries.
6:57
And we were going quick, once we saw the original problem, and we were already happy how quick I was.
7:04
I thought we need to see if we can explore more.
7:06
So I played around making an adjustment.
7:08
He went out and went, come back in.
7:09
He said, yeah, that's better.
7:10
And he was about 10th and a half quicker.
7:14
So I thought, bloody hell, his feedback is incredible for what he could feel, what we changed.
7:19
And he said it was better and stopped what showed us.
7:22
I said, okay.
7:23
I said to the guys, do the same again.
7:26
We'll go a bit further with the rear geometry.
7:29
But I'd gone around the back of the car, I said to the guys, just keep rattling the span and spend the same time doing it, but don't touch a thing.
7:38
So, away you go Maurizio, off he goes, there's another five laps, comes in, and he actually took his helmet off this time, and he said, I don't know Dickie, he said, he said, to be honest, he said, I can't feel any different to this change.
7:53
I said, yeah sure, he said, yeah, he said, it feels the same as the last run.
7:57
I said, well done mate, because we didn't touch a thing.
8:02
I won't use his words.
8:04
He'd learnt a good graph of the English language.
8:08
Good, good.
8:09
No, but just proved he actually had a very good feel for a car.
8:13
People will want us, because you mentioned him before, to naturally talk briefly about Micah Hackanan, right?
8:20
I think in the chat you did with the motorsport guys, you talked about him being very animated with his hands in relation to feedback, but maybe not being able to necessarily communicate it.
8:33
But his raw speed was unbelievable, wasn't it?
8:36
Oh, he was...
8:38
I've told the story many times before, but...
8:42
He wasn't the brightest guy when it comes to immigration at Heathrow.
8:48
We were racing at Alton and I got a phone call on a Thursday night about 9.30.
8:53
Oh, Mr. Bennett, I said, yes, we've got a Mr. Hacker...
8:58
I said, Hakenen, yeah, that's him.
9:00
We've got him here at Heathrow Terminal 2, and we're going to put him on a plane back to Finland.
9:04
I said, no, no, you can't do that.
9:06
We're racing this weekend.
9:07
He said, we have told him five times, and he hasn't done it.
9:11
He needs a visa to come into the UK.
9:14
I said, sorry.
9:15
I said, he is Finnish.
9:16
I said, he's a fantastic driver, and, you know, we have to have him this weekend because of our sponsorship deal.
9:23
So they said, no, we've told them five times.
9:25
We're putting them on a plane.
9:26
I said, please don't put them on a plane.
9:28
But I said, we'll sort it out tomorrow.
9:31
So they let them stay.
9:33
We're on to Philip Morris in the morning, solicitors involved in that.
9:38
So we got them about 2 o'clock.
9:41
They rang and said, yeah, we're in for the weekend.
9:43
We're here.
9:44
I said, well, get your bum into gear.
9:45
Get up to Alton Park.
9:47
Of course, rumours went round the paddock at Alton.
9:50
Oh, Huckenden's not allowed in the country and all that.
9:53
So I'll never forget Steve Robertson racing F3, Bowman.
9:59
His dad come down, Dave Robertson, he said, Dickie, we've heard that Mika's not allowed in.
10:03
I said, yeah, possibly, true, he might make it, he might not.
10:07
So they're all tests and we were running Christian for Dipaldi.
10:10
We had a new,
10:12
We'd convinced Ralph to make a smaller main plane on the rear wing.
10:16
That was quicker.
10:17
We'd done a tweak on the front wing.
10:19
That was better.
10:20
So Christian was doing all the testing.
10:22
So everything ticked the box for Christian.
10:24
We put it on Mika's car, ready.
10:27
Mika turned up at quarter to five, got in, I said, right, overall's on.
10:33
Tommy got in the car, 10 minutes left, out you go, you've got new brakes, two laps, come back in, yep, everything good.
10:39
I said, right, you've got five minutes, away you go.
10:41
He goes out, P1.
10:45
Dave Robber come down to it all wasting our effing time.
10:48
We thought if he wasn't here we'd got a chance to when he said, he turns up, hasn't driven all day and goes P1 within five laps.
10:54
Unbelievable.
10:55
And that was his pure talent.
10:57
And he gets out of the car, everything all right, Megan?
10:59
Yeah, yeah, it feels okay.
11:01
I said, he's just gone P1.
11:03
Oh, okay.
11:05
Did you have to work on a feedback thing with him and the way he went about giving you that?
11:11
Yeah, the car was good because we knew what Christian was setting up.
11:15
We knew Alton Park, so the little tweaks were done were even better.
11:19
But I probably kicked myself again with him being finished.
11:25
The first time we drove, I left him in the truck for half an hour.
11:30
I come back, he hadn't written down one thing.
11:32
And then he said, I'm not very good at writing English.
11:35
I said, oh, sorry, mate, my fault, because I thought you could write English.
11:39
So we sat there and went through a lap of brands, and it was all, you know.
11:43
Hand movements, hand actions.
11:44
And I said, understood, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:46
And then over, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:48
So we went round, I mean, lucky brands Indy short.
11:51
We did a whole lap, and then I wrote down for him.
11:54
I said, right, here you go.
11:55
And same thing again, TI, turn in, mid-corner, exit.
12:00
And then in the wet, the year before, this was the second year of F3, year one is because he had won the Vauxhall Lotus with Huey Absalon, Dragon Motorsport, Magnetian Hakanam.
12:20
They came into F3 and Raynard's offered Huey a free Raynard F3 car
12:26
but had a very trick front suspension, but only unless you knew what you were doing, it was no good in the wet.
12:34
Of course, when I watched Mika, when we were running on the McNish in our car, Mika would struggle in the wet, had a very highly preloaded front spring, which doesn't work in the wet.
12:46
And when he hopped in our car in the wet, we only had a tiny amount of preload, we'd still change that for the wet.
12:53
He went out and they went and he come back in and he said, wow, he said, your car's great.
12:57
I said, well, you've just gone P1 on the wet, quicker than David Bradham.
13:01
I'm quicker than Brabham.
13:02
I said, yeah, he's good in the wet.
13:05
I said, so are you.
13:08
And he was happy with that, going P1 in the wet, and then what he was, P1 in the dry.
13:12
Because I think a lot of people talked about Brab's and his wet weather performance, didn't they?
13:16
Oh yeah, no, he was, and Bruce Keery's no longer with us.
13:22
Bruce was a good engineer, and we had some good battles over the years.
13:27
but for Mika to go P1 in the wet.
13:29
And I said, the trouble is you were given a car that was no good in the wet.
13:33
Ours is okay, but, you know.
13:35
Yeah, but I'm crickering and brim in the wet.
13:39
And that was his gauge, you know, to be.
13:42
So, yeah, no, he was.
13:44
And I saw him again last year at the McLaren 60th, and we had a good old laugh again about the immigration.
13:49
I said, have you got a visa yet, Mika?
13:52
Can we talk a little bit about, I would imagine along the way you've had, because it becomes a bit of a well-worn path of Aussies and Kiwis looking for opportunity abroad.
14:05
Those that might have come in perhaps as mechanics or whatever.
14:07
There are a couple of stories of some that have come from your country to work for you along the way.
14:12
Am I right in joining the dots?
14:13
Did Tim Miles work for you at one point and a few others?
14:16
Tim worked for Trevor Carlin.
14:18
Carlin, that's right.
14:18
Yeah, yeah, Trevor Carlin.
14:19
So good mates.
14:20
Tim's just still, hopefully he's here this weekend.
14:23
I don't know if he is.
14:25
Yeah, no, we used to have some good laughs off track.
14:29
Kev Western back in the project four days.
14:33
Kev...
14:34
We bought a little apartment down in Dorset and it turns out Kev Western lives about 15 minutes away.
14:40
Crazy.
14:40
So we caught up with him last year.
14:42
He came up to Thruxton to see the touring cars and he can't believe how things have moved on with our little team where we started.
14:49
We've got 3R techs, 18 tonners, motorhomes and...
14:54
But no, we've had some good Kiwis and Aussies over the years and we still keep in touch with some of them through social media.
15:02
Hence today, there's 12 of us going to dinner tonight and most of them are from ex-mates from Dunedin, a couple from Ashburton.
15:10
And I've only been downstairs for an hour and some of the stories were coming out with Central Otago in the early days.
15:17
Big days.
15:19
In wrapping the Formula 3 chapter, is there a zenith moment for you?
15:23
Because you came through that in what was a golden period.
15:27
I mean, it was...
15:28
an absolute proving ground for the stars of Formula One on the cusp of breaking into the very pinnacle of the sport.
15:36
You played a significant part in some of the names that we've rattled off along the way.
15:40
I mean, to think that this boy from Dunedin
15:44
who loved the British Grand Prix standing on top of a pie cart or whatever it may have been, was doing that pretty special.
15:56
To me, I'm just doing the job I enjoy doing.
16:00
I'm not so heavily involved on the engineering side now.
16:02
I still oversee things.
16:04
I'm still getting emails while I'm out here.
16:07
We're doing quite a bit of development through this current winter because it's a bit frustrating.
16:11
We've only finished third and fourth the last two years.
16:14
It's been front-wheel drive, front-wheel drive.
16:17
So I still take a keen interest on the R&D work going on.
16:21
We're going to a new engine, BMW, for this season, hopefully be a bit better than what we had.
16:29
We're doing quite a bit of work on the chassis this year.
16:32
So the design guys are sending me CAD drawings, CAD photos.
16:38
We're into quite a bit of 3D printing now.
16:40
It's becoming the latest thing.
16:42
Brake ducts, the hybrid cooling ducts, all 3D printed.
16:48
We've got a good association with a 3D printing company in the UK.
16:53
We don't have a printer ourselves.
16:56
Neil Brown's are doing the engines.
16:57
We're doing a 3D printed inlet manifold, the whole manifold, 3D printed.
17:03
It'll be probably two kilos lighter than the old aluminium one.
17:08
And the good thing is with 3D printing, you can make shapes and change it within 24 hours.
17:13
Whereas if you've got a cast aluminium inlet manifold, you're talking weeks to modify it, cast it, machine it.
17:20
Now they just get on the laptops, change that, change this.
17:24
So the technology is still moving on.
17:28
The hybrid is, we can see why it was done, but you help.
17:33
be seen to be green but it's...
17:35
It's been challenging that process hasn't it?
17:37
It's turned out more expensive than we all wished.
17:41
It'll be interesting this year, the rules have changed quite a bit.
17:43
When we deploy the hybrid now we'll probably have about a 60 horsepower increase because it's using the EV hybrid, about 30 horsepower from the EV motor, the battery, and it will also use turbo power from the engine.
18:01
because last year it wasn't a big enough jump when you hit the button like a DRS.
18:09
The good drivers, again, good teams, we have a little blue lightning thing on the side window, and the good drivers, if your team, not your team mate, your opposition driver next year...
18:21
when you press the steering wheel to deploy it, you can see the blue light flashing.
18:25
But you're using it.
18:26
Right, press mine.
18:29
So, but then it's cleverly done that if you lead the championship, you only get like one second a lap.
18:36
And as you go down through the championship, you get more seconds per lap to deploy it.
18:40
So to try and help stop one car dominating.
18:44
But engineering-wise, we've...
18:49
The racing is still we do three races a day on Sunday, so you need a good crew of people, and that's one of the key things now.
18:56
We've got a very good bunch of guys and girls running the team.
19:00
Hence, I'm away for six weeks, which I've never done before, but I've got my laptop with me and my mobile, so I keep in touch.
19:10
When Terry, my wife, goes to bed, I'm on the laptop emailing back to England
19:17
the biggest problem we're trying to find a fourth driver we geared up to run four cars last year and now it's just the cost of it all, the economy it's getting harder to find a good driver with a good budget so trying to find more team sponsors is becoming more important for us music
19:48
If you are liking what you are hearing, I reckon you might have a thing for Kiwis.
19:52
Or motorsport.
19:53
Or both.
19:54
Either way, you will love Brendan Hartley in the garage library.
19:58
The Le Mans 24-hour winner for Porsche and Toyota.
20:01
Also race for Toro Rosso in F1.
20:04
Yeah, when I called him all those years later, I said, look, if there's ever an opportunity, I'm ready.
20:10
You know, I'm a different driver than I was back then.
20:12
And he didn't say much.
20:13
He just went sign on the other side of the phone.
20:15
So he didn't, yeah, he didn't, you could almost hear the cogs turning.
20:18
You know, he didn't laugh at me.
20:19
He didn't say, forget it.
20:21
So I put down the phone, didn't think much of it.
20:23
I was like, okay, well, he didn't say no.
20:26
And it was probably only two weeks later, he said, okay, you need to hop on a plane and fly to Milton Keynes to drive the simulator.
20:33
I didn't ask any questions.
20:36
I didn't want to come across as desperate, although I probably was.
20:40
So I went there, drove a simulator, and a week later, I was in discussions to do my first Grand Prix at Austin.
20:50
So that's the time period.
20:52
It happened that quick.
20:53
It was really that quick.
20:56
Brendan is a testament to his hard work and dedication.
20:59
All right, back to another worker and another winner, Dickie Bennett's.
21:04
The British touring car chapter, you've come through different eras with that sport.
21:09
You started before on the super touring aspect.
21:12
When you were merging and moving into that, that was an unbelievable time.
21:18
We would see Formula One teams play a part.
21:21
We would see incredible development in those cars.
21:24
There's a number of those...
21:26
era super tourers in this country right now.
21:28
When they roll out and they get going again and they're a joy to look at in terms of the build quality on it and the sound and what they could do was remarkable.
21:38
Yes.
21:38
Now, I was lucky last year when they had the race at Brands Hatch.
21:42
I think it was five cars.
21:44
Greg Murphy came over and Stephen Richards, I think, didn't he?
21:46
Yep, and Nigel Arkell, a Honda.
21:51
It wasn't one of our Hondas.
21:52
He had the earlier Model 1, but I met with Scott O'Connell.
21:59
Yeah, yeah.
22:01
And we had lunch at the RAC Club in London, and Liam was there, Liam Lawson.
22:06
and young Louis Sharp.
22:07
Yes.
22:08
So we had a great lunch together, and it's good to see the Kiwis with those Super Torians, because I know they're not cheap to run, so getting things like spare parts and that.
22:19
But with the modern technology now, you can reverse engineer, you can 3D print things, and some of the materials now in 3D printing is just unbelievable.
22:30
So, and as you said, the V6, the Mondale and all that, I still remember that was, you know, and we had a V6 powered MG when we moved to the newer rules, not the current rules, but 201 to 203, we ran V6 powered MG and like, there's the best sounding car on the track.
22:51
Heavy old engines are not the best handling car, but no, the super touring cars, and I can't believe how many there are,
22:59
out here in NZ, yeah.
23:01
Have you got a memory you talked about how difficult that was to begin with?
23:05
Is there a real high for you in that super touring period?
23:10
The Honda Super Tour in the last two years, that was the technology moving and the cost of it all.
23:17
It was ridiculous for a national championship.
23:21
We thought we had a good budget, 99, 2000.
23:24
Then when it all finished, the end of 2000, he got talking to all the other team owners.
23:29
Oh, we had $9 million for that year.
23:31
We had $9.5 million, $10 million.
23:33
And that's pounds.
23:34
Pounds.
23:34
Pounds.
23:36
for Ford to win it in 2000 with three cars,
23:40
Three top line drivers, Anthony Reid, Alain Menuh, and Ricard Rydell.
23:47
Those guys are earning serious money, but also the development on the cars.
23:52
And having got to know the Ford marketing director, we all said, right, let's be honest.
24:00
What a, you know, oh, Nissan, nine and a half million to win it in 99.
24:05
10 million, I thought, oh, I thought we had a good budget at five and a half million.
24:09
Crazy.
24:11
I mean, it was unsustainable.
24:12
It was a fantastic period.
24:13
I look back on it very fondly, but it just got away, didn't it?
24:17
No, the handling, the development.
24:19
We were having new uprights made, right, do them, right.
24:21
Now we need that.
24:22
Now we need this.
24:23
Now we need to change that, right.
24:25
Make a new shell, move that there.
24:28
From an engineer's point of view, we had 35 people at the height of super time to run two cars.
24:33
That's crazy.
24:35
As I said earlier, we now have 12, 13 people full-time to run four cars, and we have 30 people at the racetrack to run four cars, plus catering team, so about 35 of us.
24:49
You need roughly six to seven per car these days because of the electronics.
24:54
Each car has its own race engineer, has its own data engineer, has its own tyre and fuel man.
25:03
And we have a dedicated number one and number two mechanic per car, a chief mechanic, and we have a floating one or two number three mechanics.
25:13
So team manager, Carl, and then myself, gradually trying to step back a bit, but haven't quite succeeded yet.
25:24
To kind of get towards the finish here, what's the BTCC like now for Australian and for Kiwi listeners?
25:31
Take them there.
25:33
My good friend Louise Goodman, who I commentate with on a regular basis, I know she's a part of that, and she talks very fondly about it and so on.
25:40
Just take people there.
25:41
Give them a sense of what the BTCC scene is like now.
25:45
It's still, apart from the one-off British Grand Prix, the BTCC is the biggest event in town.
25:51
There's British GT, but it doesn't get much television coverage, whereas we have 10 meetings, three races on Sunday only.
26:00
We've discussed having a race Saturday to Sunday to help spread the workload, but according to the administrator, the boss man, the surveys done shows that people want to see three races on the Sunday
26:14
but sometimes the time the car gets back in the garage to the pit lane open, sometimes only an hour and a half.
26:20
So if you've got any damage, any mechanical hiccups, that's why we need a big crew of people.
26:27
Live on ITV, it is still great racing, close racing, and I think we'll finish third and fourth, that's not very good, but then you look at qualifying, there'll be 20 cars within three quarters of a second.
26:43
Hang on, you've got different five or six different manufacturer cars.
26:48
You've got rear-wheel drive, front-wheel drive.
26:50
We're the only rear-wheel drive team now, so it's difficult for us to win many battles when it comes to regulations because if you have a vote, as I've mentioned, it's not democratic.
27:03
We can never win a vote because there's only one rear-wheel drive team versus six or seven front-wheel drive teams.
27:09
But they do a pretty good job of trying to keep it all equal.
27:14
Of course, you get people, oh, rear-wheel drive's winning too much.
27:18
So, you know, we've had that problem through us winning and with another team winning that was rear-wheel drive for five years consecutive.
27:28
So, therefore, the front-wheel drive, oh, the rear-wheel drive's got too big an advantage, so they penalise us.
27:32
Now, when we try and turn it around the other way, that, hang on, front-wheel drive's got too big an advantage.
27:37
But hang on, but you were one then and then.
27:39
Yeah, but we did, but now.
27:40
So last year we finished third and fourth.
27:42
The year before we finished third and fourth.
27:43
It's the same four drivers the last two years.
27:46
I see.
27:48
We finished third and fourth.
27:50
The two front-wheel drive guys, they've switched.
27:54
22 was Tom Ingram and 23 was Ash Sutton.
27:59
So front-wheel drive, front-wheel drive.
28:01
So I said to Alan, maybe it's time to change.
28:04
We need a bit more help towards rear-wheel drive.
28:06
Right.
28:06
Why is that, Dick?
28:07
Why should we do that?
28:08
I said, okay.
28:09
So then that forces us to spend more on development through the winter.
28:12
So we've done a lot of work on the chassis, weight distribution, new engine, playing around with power, how it delivers the power, a little bit of aero work.
28:24
We're done on facelift on the car, new front bumper, new headlights, new rear bumper,
28:31
A little bit of aero work.
28:33
So hopefully we'll come out fighting this year.
28:37
We look forward to that.
28:38
You mentioned the administrator there before.
28:40
People will know him from his time with Peter Brock in Australia, and he's been that driving force of the BTCC for, what, over 20 years now, more.
28:50
What's Alan Gow like even today?
28:53
Alan's all right.
28:54
We have our battle Aussies versus Kiwis, mainly about rugby or cricket.
28:59
um yeah no it's a tough job i you know i can see both sides sometimes we complain um but he he has a tough job to do to keep everyone happy front wheel drive then they suggested everyone goes rear wheel drive or everyone goes front wheel drive and then the public the social media the keyboard warriors um no we want to see both to get a variation going and
29:24
Yes, BMW, their one series now is front-wheel drive, so we looked at that, but BMW pure motor racing is rear-wheel drive, the M product, you know.
29:35
So, we've entered the first two years was a 330i, but because now we're hybrid, we actually enter a 330e.
29:44
Because you can buy a road-going BMW 330e.
29:48
So we race under that.
29:51
But the hybrid run by everyone is Cosworth.
29:56
So Alan was key on getting all that to be...
30:00
Formal or the same, basically.
30:03
Yes, yes.
30:03
So everyone has to run the same Cosworth hybrid system.
30:09
yeah it's a great show the television, the crowds certain circuits we're still getting 35,000 odd people social media is becoming bigger and better as you mentioned Louise earlier she's a key part of it pit lane interviews and that
30:29
She has a tough job sometimes.
30:31
Some of the drivers, I think, are a bit hard on her, but others are great.
30:36
And there's that mixture of serious drivers versus some you can have a good laugh.
30:43
And the days of the Jason Plato's and that.
30:47
Jason's retired now.
30:48
He's mid-50s.
30:49
But he was a character.
30:51
Good, quick peddler on the day.
30:55
So Alan has...
30:58
And one of the biggest hiccups, which he openly admits, as well as the regulations these days, track limits, it's an absolute nightmare.
31:08
And I was talking about it yesterday to people here in New Zealand Motorsport.
31:14
One big example that really I could not get my head around is I went as a visitor last year, busman's holiday down to Brands to watch the WEC, is it sports car series, Fanatec?
31:27
I went down because M4 BMW GT3 WRT team and happened to be a fairly well-known motorcyclist driving car number 46.
31:41
And I didn't realize the team owner knew me well because one of our Belgian F3 drivers was one of his best mates.
31:50
So he invited me into his garage and I watched their race
31:55
They didn't bother about track limits at all.
31:58
And Jonathan Palmer, who owns Brands, is quite fussy.
32:00
He'll keep his tracks all mint, a bit like Tony here at Highlands and everything.
32:05
Grass is always mowed, the edges are all painted.
32:09
They were probably two meters off the track coming out of corners.
32:15
And I said, we can't do that.
32:17
He said, we run under FIA.
32:19
We can, you know, we've got FIA stewards, FIA clerk of the course, we run.
32:24
An hour after, or half an hour after that race, was a BMW UK club championship race.
32:32
Up on the screen, every lap, six cars, track limits, track limits.
32:35
And they're only going six inches off.
32:38
It drives fans and particularly constituents who've been around it for a while.
32:42
It drives us mad, doesn't it?
32:44
And we get pinged because we've got three team BMW cars, very similar livery, and sometimes they ping because they... Jonathan has sensors in the track, which was very clever at the time.
32:58
And if you triggered the sensor with frontal rear tyre, and his sensors were about...
33:05
a foot to 18 inches off the edge of the track.
33:08
So if you got triggered that, set the camera off, you can't argue.
33:12
Now, due to Motorsport UK, or it can't be FIA rigs because of the GT3 cars.
33:20
If we go two inches off the line, you're penalized.
33:23
But they have to rely on observers to do it.
33:28
And they haven't got enough observers to do it properly.
33:31
And they know it's a problem,
33:33
the moment they won't change it and it's you know we get ping track limits and especially if you're on a hot lap and qualifying and you might have only gone off the edge you haven't gained any time you probably lost time but they take your lap away from you
33:49
And in a race, if you do it more than three times, they'll give you a warning first time, a warning second time, and then third time they'll come up penalty.
34:00
And if you do it a fourth time, they'll black flag you.
34:03
And an incident last year with a young one of our ex-drivers, Ricky Collard, he was leading the race, and you can see it on our screen on the pit wall, car number, whatever it was, Collard, track limits.
34:16
Next lap, I thought, why is he not...
34:19
not using it, why aren't they telling them?
34:21
So he finished first on the road, he came to come into Park Fermi and the chief scrutineer told him, no, don't come in Park Fermi, you're not, you know.
34:32
You've been pinged.
34:32
You've been pinged.
34:34
So major, major problem and it turned out, I know the engineer of him, I went down and spoke to him, I said, did you not tell him?
34:41
Yes, we told him.
34:43
I said, I went to the team owner, I know him quite well.
34:45
Did you not tell your driver?
34:46
Yes, we told him.
34:47
Why did he keep ignoring it?
34:50
His dad had told him, if you're leading, they'll penalise you.
34:55
They did.
34:55
He got excluded.
34:58
So father interfering with sons driving.
35:01
So, yeah, it was...
35:03
But that's...
35:04
It's a crazy regulation that they will penalise you when there's no gain.
35:10
And on this particular BMW car club meeting at Branson, there must have been...
35:17
10 to 15 cars per lap.
35:19
You can just see the numbers.
35:20
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
35:22
I mean, I don't know the easy fix to it.
35:24
I mean, if you compared it with other sports, if you go out of bounds, you're out of bounds.
35:29
I get that.
35:29
But for it to be so minute at times in our game, that's the stuff that drives fans mad.
35:36
To get to the finish here, you mentioned Jake before.
35:39
What about a word on your other driver in Colin Turkington?
35:41
He's been a...
35:44
I mean, for you guys, he's been such a staple, hasn't he?
35:47
Yep.
35:48
Colin's been with us off and on since he was, I think, Formula, sorry, Ford Fiesta Champion 201.
35:56
He joined us, Team Atomic Kitten, as a secondary team in 202, him and Gareth Howe.
36:05
Then he became a works MG driver, then BMW.
36:09
He won his first championship 09 with a,
36:12
E90 Second championship in 14 The eBay 125i All normally aspirated No turbo then sorry The 09 was normally aspirated Won it again in 18 with the 1 Series Team BMW Won it in 19 with the 3 Series Finished second in 20 Finished second in 21 So he's slightly dropping down a bit So we joke with him You're getting too old Kyle He's 41 so he's still young
36:42
So he's having a refresh this year because he's been beaten by his teammate Jake the last two years.
36:48
We finished third and fourth.
36:50
We finished, I think, two points apart last year.
36:52
But to be fair to Colin, he had more hybrid problems, especially 2022 almost.
37:01
We went into Silverstone, the penultimate round, leading the championships.
37:05
We come away from that meeting fourth in the championship because of hybrid problems.
37:10
And that's what we find hard to take when it's things out of our control.
37:17
But now this year, we've all learned more about hybrid, the Cosworth system, and...
37:25
we hit the ground running and Colin's up for it again he knows he's got to lift his game a bit and we're making some changes within the team engineering wise he's analysed things, he's rung me a lot through the winter and
37:42
He said to me, joking, he said, I won't annoy you while you're away on holiday, but I've had two texts from him while I've been away.
37:48
That's all, just two only.
37:50
So, no, he's looking forward to this year.
37:52
He knows what we're doing to the chassis.
37:55
Jake's looking forward to this year.
37:57
We've got Adam Morgan already.
37:59
He's looking forward to this year, and we're just...
38:02
Still looking for one more driver, so if there's any good young Kiwis out here with a good budget, we'll have a chat.
38:08
Have a chat.
38:09
To finish, what do you reckon you're most proudest of in this incredible 50-year-plus journey that you've enjoyed?
38:17
And then secondly, you've alluded a little bit to it.
38:21
What does the future hold?
38:25
It's hard to pinpoint one because I've had great times working for other teams in my early days.
38:31
with our own company, I guess winning F3 championship, winning Macau Grand Prix with both Senna and Guzulman.
38:43
Should have won it with Huckenden, but that's another story.
38:45
Could have won it with Irvine, that's another story.
38:51
Touring cars, probably our first championship win is great.
38:55
Competing in super touring engineering-wise, that was a fantastic challenge of,
39:00
reading the rule book, interpreting the grey areas.
39:04
That was enjoyable from my side.
39:07
It's a team that's just growing up and it's...
39:12
The future is I'm... We're looking for investors to invest in the team.
39:18
So we are looking at digressing into different formulas.
39:25
Sports cars, we know, is quite strong at the moment.
39:28
Yeah.
39:30
My young team manager wants us to do this, wants us to go and Porsche career a cup.
39:34
I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm getting on now.
39:37
But if you guys like to take over, I'll step back a bit.
39:41
And as long as you keep the WSR running at the front, it's easy to lower your standards.
39:49
And that's something I find...
39:51
I can't do or don't want to do but we've got a good bunch of guys working for us now and I am I don't spend as many hours at work as I used to but when I'm there I put my effort in and race meetings there to help and advise so but we're interesting talking my wife Terry we've
40:14
been out here and we've come back to central Otago and we were here four years ago pre-COVID and she loves Wanaka this time we've done a trip down the South Island down the West Coast and that Hokitika I've been to Mount Cook for the first time in my life yet I go fishing Lake Ohau when I was five or six years old with my dad so now I've actually been to Mount Cook got the photos but we come back to Wanaka we loved it there we were four days and
40:41
We had discussed during the old six months England, six months New Zealand, and then we canned it.
40:46
We bought a little apartment down in Dorset, two-bedroom overlook in the sea.
40:51
But now we're going, oh, hang on, we're enjoying it back here.
40:54
We loved Wanaka for four days.
40:56
We're loving it here.
40:57
We're staying in a little B&B, Bannockburn House, beautiful view out the back.
41:02
Had a lovely meal last night at the Bannockburn Hotel, and I thought the weather, the sun's shining, Highlands here.
41:08
I thought, hang on, we might review this six months, six months.
41:13
So we chatted about it last night, and we got quite serious about it.
41:17
You know, will we look at moving back here six months and that?
41:20
So what was on the agenda four years ago went off the agenda, and now it's back on the agenda because it's just the scenery and...
41:30
Something I didn't appreciate is from the whole day, from eight in the morning till eight at night, how the scenery changes with the sun moving over all the... And the vineyards, we never realised.
41:42
We got taken out yesterday to various vineyards.
41:45
I never realised there's so many little... You know all the big names.
41:48
We went to Blenheim, went to Cloudy Bay, went to all the big names.
41:52
But up here in Central, there's a little place we went yesterday, and the wine was fantastic.
41:57
So we love our wines.
41:59
And back in England, I do spend quite a bit on Central Otago wines.
42:04
Good for you.
42:05
It keeps the connection.
42:07
to back home.
42:08
It's great to have you here over summer.
42:10
It's been wonderful to walk through a handful of stories.
42:13
I reckon there'll be a lot more.
42:15
Some might make a book, some might not make a book.
42:18
But from all of us, congratulations on what you've achieved along the way and the people you've helped guide and shape as you've gone.
42:29
And the little takeaway from me here at the end is that you're still not afraid of growth of WSR at this stage, but so long as that doesn't compromise success.
42:40
Well done.
42:41
Yeah.
42:41
No, no.
42:42
Thank you, Greg.
42:42
No, no.
42:43
It's been great coming back here, having a chat.
42:45
And no, no, I am, as I said, trying to slow down.
42:49
I promise my wife I'll slow down a bit.
42:52
I still enjoy motorsport, but also you've got to keep your mind active.
42:56
I couldn't stop completely.
42:59
So I have promised her that I will slow down, but I still want to be involved, whether it's helping people.
43:08
I still buy motorsport engineering magazines.
43:11
I read them.
43:12
TV programs, anything to do with technology.
43:15
I follow what Reg Cook's doing up in Auckland.
43:18
Formula One, I follow mainly the technology, not the politics side of it.
43:23
What they're doing to the cars through the winter and, you know, aero development on that sort of stuff.
43:30
Yeah, I'd sooner do that than watch television, watch some soap or something.
43:36
Fabulous, mate.
43:36
Thank you very much.
43:37
Thank you.
43:45
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
43:49
Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
43:53
Audio production by Link Kelly.
43:55
If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
44:00
The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.