Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief | Tabitha Ambrose - racing with a famous surname

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief | Tabitha Ambrose - racing with a famous surname · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief, a generational racer carrying a famous surname but making her own mark.
• 0:12
  Hi everybody, Rusty with you here at our Melbourne Garage studios with Tabitha Ambrose, daughter of Marcus Ambrose, supercars legend and former NASCAR race winner.
• 0:21
  Shortly we'll talk about the road that she's walking, coming to grips with the business side of the sport and how the energiser bunny, as some have called him, helps when he steps back too.
• 0:32
  Plus watching as Marcus battled cancer so bravely and being there as he shared that story for the first time last October.
• 0:41
  There is a fabulous 90-minute chat with Marcus that you can actually find in our garage library recorded back in 2019.
• 0:48
  And that is one of the first in-depth pod chats that he ever had, talking about his time in NASCAR, his junior days in Europe, conquering V8 supercars, as we used to call it, and its challenging moments, too, on both sides of his US chapter.
• 1:02
  With the Bathurst six hour just around the corner, we thought we'd introduce you to Tabitha.
• 1:07
  This is a really nice, engaging conversation with a young, switched on racer who is acutely aware of the weight of the surname, but immensely proud to be continuing the family's motorsport story.
• 1:19
  Hope you enjoy the chat.
• 1:22
  Hello, you.
• 1:23
  How are you?
• 1:23
  I'm good.
• 1:24
  I'm good.
• 1:24
  Thank you.
• 1:25
  This is crazy for me because I can remember you and your sister and the news of your arrival into the world, if you will.
• 1:34
  And crazily, the Rust daughters are a very similar age to you and your sister.
• 1:38
  So to think that we're sitting here now having a podcast, I think is remarkable.
• 1:43
  The fact that you are on your own motorsport journey, I love.
• 1:47
  Clearly, Dad is of inspiration to you.
• 1:50
  But what was the first thing that you can maybe remember that you were drawn to it?
• 1:55
  What was it?
• 1:56
  Well, I've spent my whole life around racing.
• 1:58
  Obviously, Dad raced in America, and so we spend every weekend at the track with him.
• 2:02
  And so I've been around the racing, what do you call it?
• 2:06
  It's like- Family?
• 2:08
  Family, yeah.
• 2:09
  I like the word for it.
• 2:10
  The racing family all my life.
• 2:11
  And then Dad said, oh, let's give it a go.
• 2:15
  Let's put you in a little pink go-kart.
• 2:16
  And so there we went, did a test day in a little pink go-kart.
• 2:20
  Mega, this is in America, yeah?
• 2:21
  No, in Australia.
• 2:22
  In Australia, okay, okay.
• 2:23
  Yeah, no.
• 2:23
  So, and then once we come back to Australia, everything kind of settled down for dad.
• 2:27
  He did less racing himself and then he focused on other projects.
• 2:31
  And so, and then he was like, well, you know, do you want to have a go in a little pink go-kart?
• 2:34
  I think it'll be fun.
• 2:35
  So we borrowed one of our friends' little pink go-karts and- In Tassie?
• 2:39
  In Tassie.
• 2:40
  In Tassie.
• 2:40
  So Launceston Kart Club.
• 2:42
  Club, yeah.
• 2:43
  which is really cool.
• 2:44
  And then, yeah, and then it all just kind of spiraled from there.
• 2:48
  And then COVID really kind of messed us up just with the whole trajectory of everything, obviously, lockdown, can't do much racing.
• 2:54
  Dad started building sims.
• 2:56
  And so if I wasn't in the go-kart, I was on the sim.
• 2:58
  He had a motion sim, which was really cool.
• 2:59
  So the VR, the motion sim, and, yeah, I just started loving it.
• 3:04
  He and I might have had a quiet few gin and tonics one night and he showed me that sim, which was remarkable.
• 3:08
  And at that stage, the whole advent of sims was sort of on this huge growth.
• 3:12
  But I love how he is, he's always thinking about stuff like that, isn't he?
• 3:16
  About what he could do, how he could do it and so on.
• 3:20
  You've missed a little element of the story, and I wouldn't mind bringing it out if that's okay.
• 3:23
  Brett Murray, who's here in the studio with us, reminded me today.
• 3:27
  He's been around motor racing, public relations, Speed Cafe, you name it, for many, many years.
• 3:31
  And he reminded me of this beautiful picture, I want to say, of you at school.
• 3:36
  Dad brought the NASCAR.
• 3:38
  You must have been at school in Charlotte, I think, were you?
• 3:40
  And he brought the race car to school.
• 3:43
  That was quite a big day, wasn't it?
• 3:45
  Oh, absolutely.
• 3:45
  I mean, it was the best bring your dad to school day, I think.
• 3:49
  I can't quite remember it, but I think they had this like profession program and, you know, parents came in, talked about one was a firefighter, maybe a police officer, and they came in, gave a little chat.
• 4:00
  And then dad was like, oh yeah, I'm coming to school today, you know, and I was like, oh, cool.
• 4:04
  And then all of a sudden they wheel out this, they bring out the hauler and they have the NASCAR come out and then dad's in his race suit and all the kids are kind of getting around it because there's such a big culture around NASCAR in America.
• 4:14
  It's huge.
• 4:14
  So yeah.
• 4:15
  It was a really awesome day.
• 4:16
  And then dad was like, oh, well, we don't have time for everyone to sit in the NASCAR.
• 4:20
  So I got to sit in the NASCAR.
• 4:22
  So that was really cool.
• 4:23
  And it ended up being the same car as I just raced at Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
• 4:28
  So it was a big full circle moment for us as a family.
• 4:30
  It was really, really cool.
• 4:32
  Can we go there?
• 4:33
  I mean, in a podcast sense, sometimes I do things in a timeline, right?
• 4:36
  But we don't have to here.
• 4:37
  So let's go there because...
• 4:39
  You got to test it, I think, in the lead up.
• 4:40
  There were a couple of little lessons around that for you too, weren't there?
• 4:44
  I mean, it's such a massive amount more horsepower, 700 plus horsepower, compared to the Formula Ford.
• 4:50
  What the heck was that thing like?
• 4:51
  It was just insane.
• 4:53
  So Repco reached out to us initially and just said, hey, we've got this idea.
• 4:57
  The car owner, Jared, he was really keen to get the car back out for the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
• 5:02
  And they wanted both Dad and I, but I don't think Dad was quite ready
• 5:06
  to step back into a race car just yet.
• 5:08
  So they said, oh, well, Tabitha, would you be interested in it?
• 5:11
  And so Dad and I, we kind of looked at each other and we're like, am I actually ready for this?
• 5:16
  Can I actually step into this NASCAR and be ready and be comfortable?
• 5:19
  And so we thought, well, we might just do a test day at QR and see how that goes.
• 5:24
  Won't lock ourselves into anything because if it's not right, then we won't do it.
• 5:27
  Don't want to really put myself in a situation, put Jared, the car owner in that situation to like step out in Adelaide and just not be ready.
• 5:34
  It's not a great look.
• 5:35
  Like you want to go out there and you just want to be professional and you want to be ready for it.
• 5:38
  Do it properly.
• 5:39
  Exactly.
• 5:39
  So no, the test day at QR went really, really well.
• 5:43
  How eye-opening.
• 5:44
  I know.
• 5:44
  It was very eye-opening.
• 5:45
  And I said to dad, the first thing I said to dad was, gee, I just got down the straight so fast.
• 5:50
  I was like on corner exit and then I was into turn one.
• 5:53
  One, yeah.
• 5:54
  And it was just so quick.
• 5:55
  But I think...
• 5:56
  The Formula 4 has taught me a lot because it is such a light.
• 6:00
  I know it doesn't have the horsepower behind it, but because it's such a light car, it kind of gives the effect of having a lot of power under your foot, if that makes sense.
• 6:08
  In a relative sense.
• 6:09
  In a relative sense because you can't just put the throttle on, otherwise you'll lose the rear.
• 6:14
  So it has kind of the same quirks as maybe as you would when you hop into a higher horsepower car because when you put the throttle on the NASCAR, that thing goes.
• 6:25
  So, no, it was good.
• 6:27
  The Formula Ford got me ready for it, but the amount of horsepower, I don't think anything can really prepare you for that.
• 6:32
  The Formula Ford is something that both of you, both you and your dad are very passionate about.
• 6:38
  There's a lot of great history in this country.
• 6:40
  So many good people have come through it.
• 6:42
  Most of the good people say you really need to go and do that along the way.
• 6:46
  And you've been kind of steadfast in that approach, haven't you?
• 6:49
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:49
  We've got Family Heritage with the Formula Ford.
• 6:52
  Ford Ford, yeah.
• 6:53
  Poppy, Ross Ambrose, he kind of started the whole Formula Ford thing for the family with Van Diemen and his roots with Formula Ford.
• 7:01
  And then dad raced Formula Ford in Australia and in Europe, and he's quite passionate about it.
• 7:05
  And then we kind of hopped out of the XLs, looked around and said, what's next?
• 7:09
  What am I going to do?
• 7:11
  We couldn't race Formula Ford in Tasmania, and that's kind of where I was at the time when I started my racing journey and it was just too hard to race Formula Ford over in, we call it, the mainland.
• 7:22
  Because little Tasmanians, that's just the mainland.
• 7:25
  So, yeah, so we kind of hopped out of the Excels and were like, well, what's next?
• 7:29
  And so for me it was Formula Ford, just learning the craft, rear wheel drive,
• 7:34
  A lot different to the XL, front-wheel drive, big heavy car, less horsepower than the Formula Ford.
• 7:40
  So it was a really good stepping stone.
• 7:43
  And I've just had a lot of fun in it.
• 7:44
  This is my second year in the Formula Ford.
• 7:46
  I learned heaps the first year.
• 7:48
  In the second year, I just want to kind of cement everything that I've learned and go out there and just kill it, basically.
• 7:56
  You are doing that with a nice tip of the hat to the colour scheme that dad ran in that iconic period in supercars.
• 8:03
  I can remember the release coming out in February last year and it immediately transported you back 20 or so years.
• 8:09
  And then even this year, I think with the subtle fluoro touches, that's very reminiscent of 04, I think, isn't it?
• 8:14
  04, 05, yeah.
• 8:16
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:17
  No, I'm so grateful to have ProTech back on board this year.
• 8:20
  I mean, it's so cool with the family heritage.
• 8:23
  And they're really big on passing down.
• 8:25
  So a lot of franchisees have now had kids and they're growing up and now they're passing on their franchise to maybe their children.
• 8:33
  And so it's really cool because dad and I, we can kind of represent that as like the passing down.
• 8:37
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:39
  Have you learned from, I mean, this is a business, right?
• 8:41
  Like at the end of the day, it's something that you want to pursue and I'm pursuing very passionately.
• 8:46
  But I mean, it's from all the back end stuff that you need to do.
• 8:49
  How big has the learning curve on that side been?
• 8:52
  Learning to deal with corporates.
• 8:54
  You're in a podcast scenario today.
• 8:56
  You might have been at Mount Panaramba Bathurst with Repco and doing some talks and so on and fun.
• 9:01
  It's a content for people.
• 9:02
  I mean, that is a massive.
• 9:04
  How big has that learning been?
• 9:05
  Yeah.
• 9:05
  Oh, it's been huge.
• 9:06
  And I'm very grateful I've got Brett in my corner too.
• 9:09
  So he's been teaching me.
• 9:10
  I've been learning the ropes.
• 9:12
  But yeah, driving's almost 10% of it.
• 9:16
  I know there's a lot within the driving, but you've also got to represent yourself.
• 9:20
  Yes.
• 9:20
  And you're representing brands, like representing Pertec, representing Repco.
• 9:24
  And so you've got to learn when to bite your tongue.
• 9:27
  You've got to learn.
• 9:28
  And you've got to learn how to speak in front of people.
• 9:30
  That was something that I was not so good at.
• 9:32
  I found that I talk a million miles an hour.
• 9:34
  An hour, yeah.
• 9:35
  I can't quite get the words out that I want to say.
• 9:37
  And so just being able to learn how to represent myself and represent a brand and talk to people, I think has been huge.
• 9:46
  Your dad can obviously bring a lot of learnings from his time and all of that, right?
• 9:50
  I mean, the amazing things that he did in his career.
• 9:53
  But you're also in a different generation.
• 9:56
  So I love the fact that you listen, right?
• 9:57
  That's very clear that whether it's around the team of people that you're with, you mentioned Crush there a moment ago.
• 10:03
  But what's it like with dad?
• 10:04
  Because you carry the surname and that is both blessing, but also spotlight at a very early phase of your career that other competitors would not necessarily have.
• 10:17
  No, absolutely.
• 10:18
  Having Dad in my corner has been great.
• 10:20
  I mean, we're both Team Ambrose.
• 10:23
  For him, he's got his reputation.
• 10:25
  Like he's Marcus Ambrose.
• 10:26
  You know, he's this supercar champion, went over to NASCAR, and he represents Marcus Ambrose.
• 10:32
  And so he also represents the Ambrose name.
• 10:35
  And so to step into it as well, like I've got to now represent the Ambrose name.
• 10:39
  And so that holds a little bit of weight for me because, you know, I don't obviously want to do anything to –
• 10:45
  You want to build on that, don't you?
• 10:46
  Yeah, I want to build on the Ambrose name.
• 10:47
  I don't want to just, you know, cut it down.
• 10:49
  So just being able to represent myself on social media too, I think is so important as well.
• 10:54
  Is dad helpful with that or not really?
• 10:56
  No.
• 10:57
  Oh my goodness.
• 10:57
  No, he is not.
• 11:00
  And I'm adding him on the podcast right now.
• 11:02
  But the Marcus Ambrose Motorsport, that's probably, well, you can tell when Dad makes a post on Marcus Ambrose Motorsport because it is so authentically him.
• 11:13
  It's like he's talking, isn't it?
• 11:14
  Yeah, exactly.
• 11:15
  And so I think 80% of the time it's me.
• 11:18
  Yes.
• 11:18
  And so I've learned how to, you know, write up a little Instagram post or something, trying to update people, not necessarily give a race report because I –
• 11:28
  You know, with all the stats and everything, because I think a lot of people just like to know about the journey.
• 11:32
  Yes.
• 11:32
  And also the behind the scenes stuff to actually get out on the track.
• 11:36
  We ran the little race team last year.
• 11:38
  And so I learned a lot about what actually goes into running a race team.
• 11:42
  Race team.
• 11:42
  You know, kind of coordination and business sense and everything else.
• 11:44
  Oh, my goodness.
• 11:45
  That's a lot.
• 11:45
  Yeah, the logistics.
• 11:46
  So I ended up being in charge of the logistics.
• 11:49
  So booking the accommodation, changing accommodation, like invoices, travel flights.
• 11:55
  That was a big one.
• 11:56
  I learned a lot at Darwin with the time zones and also like AM flights and PM flights.
• 12:01
  We ended up booking like an AM flight for the next day because we got all confused about which day we were trying to fly out.
• 12:09
  But otherwise, it's been a really great journey.
• 12:11
  And so to learn from the different sides of, you know, the...
• 12:15
  The representing Ambrose and then also being a part of a team, helping a team owner because dad was a team owner last year.
• 12:23
  And then also being a race car driver.
• 12:25
  Like I feel like I've got all these little hats that I've put on throughout my very short career in motorsport.
• 12:30
  And you are, I think, as you said before, you are telling your own story and writing your own pages in that, right?
• 12:35
  We're still very early in that story.
• 12:37
  A couple of things that stand out here for me.
• 12:39
  The six hour, you're going to do that again and we're going to release this pod in the run up to that.
• 12:43
  class victory there last year.
• 12:45
  I mean, that was really cool, wasn't it?
• 12:47
  Oh, no, it was so cool.
• 12:48
  And to do it with two other girls by my side as well, Carly and Courtney, it was a lot of fun.
• 12:54
  I've never been in an all-girls setting before.
• 12:56
  All my peers have been guys, and that's just what I'm used to.
• 13:01
  And so to step in the car with them in this little girl driver team that we've got, it's not an all-girls team.
• 13:07
  It's just like the three girls.
• 13:08
  In the front line.
• 13:09
  Yeah.
• 13:09
  In the front line.
• 13:10
  Yeah.
• 13:10
  Yeah.
• 13:10
  Yeah.
• 13:11
  Little Birdie tells me, you cheekily said to Dad, I'm the first Ambrose to walk away with the Bathurst Trophy.
• 13:15
  Is this true?
• 13:16
  It is.
• 13:16
  It is true.
• 13:17
  It is.
• 13:18
  I think that was the first thing that Crutch said to me after we won that.
• 13:22
  Make sure you tell him that.
• 13:23
  I know.
• 13:24
  He knows.
• 13:24
  Don't worry.
• 13:25
  He knows.
• 13:25
  I'm sure he does.
• 13:26
  The great initiatives, and there are many of them around women in motorsport, are something that you are very giving and happy to be a part of.
• 13:32
  But I sense in you two, you are racer.
• 13:34
  This is your own story.
• 13:35
  So it is a collective of all of those things, isn't it?
• 13:38
  But in the same breath,
• 13:40
  whether it's the business side, the driving side, whatever, that that's, is that where you're at?
• 13:45
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:46
  That's where I'm at.
• 13:46
  I'm just, I'm another competitor.
• 13:48
  I'm just another person in motorsport trying to make it.
• 13:51
  Um, I think to an extent we've all got an equal playing field, um, whether you're like a team owner or, you know, a mechanic in, in the workshop or a driver, I think that everyone's got their, um,
• 14:03
  There's just so many different pathways in motorsport now.
• 14:06
  And I love the initiative that they've got with the girls on track.
• 14:09
  I think that's awesome in bringing more women and just teaching them that, you know, this is your space too.
• 14:15
  Because it is.
• 14:15
  It's everyone's space.
• 14:16
  And it's good for our game, the inclusivity.
• 14:18
  Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 14:18
  Whatever you want to call it.
• 14:19
  Yeah, yeah.
• 14:19
  I just think it's anyone's space.
• 14:21
  It's anyone's game at the end of the day.
• 14:22
  A little breather on this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 14:25
  More with Tabitha Ambrose in just a few moments.
• 14:30
  For this episode of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast, we've focused on a young racer's story so far, helping you to get to know Tabitha Ambrose a little better as she forges her own path, all while proudly carrying a famous surname and the kind of added attention that goes with that.
• 14:47
  Let's get back to the convo now.
• 14:50
  From a storytelling point of view, where do you want this to go?
• 14:54
  And you alluded to it, I think, a little bit around COVID and stuff that you had
• 14:58
  a plan here, didn't you?
• 15:00
  There has been, I don't know how cemented and solid that was, maybe it was a loose plan, but there was an idea of where you wanted to go with this, wasn't there?
• 15:07
  Absolutely.
• 15:08
  I mean, dad sat me down pretty early on and said, we're not going to go up to Europe.
• 15:12
  That's not what's going to happen.
• 15:13
  We're going to be very realistic about it.
• 15:15
  And so that's the approach that we've had throughout, even in the go-karting, we've just kind of taken it one year at a time, one step at a time, and just looking at, okay, we've kind of wrapped that up.
• 15:24
  What's next?
• 15:25
  Next.
• 15:25
  And I want it to take me as far as I can handle it.
• 15:29
  And so, you know, maybe three years down the line, if it's not fun, then we're not going to do it.
• 15:34
  That is crushes looking at us over our shoulder.
• 15:36
  That's his kind of mantra, isn't it?
• 15:37
  Like it's got to be fun.
• 15:38
  It's got to be fun.
• 15:40
  And I've got to be capable.
• 15:41
  You know, I'm not there just to participate.
• 15:44
  Like I want to be in the front.
• 15:46
  I want to be fighting for a title.
• 15:48
  I want to be fighting for it.
• 15:49
  So, you know, in a couple of years, if I step sideways or, you know, I try and make it, it doesn't quite work.
• 15:55
  There's always going to be a spot for me in motorsport somewhere along the line.
• 15:58
  It might be, you know, in a team, working with the logistics, as I learned last year, or, you know, it might even be something a little bit more exciting, like being on TV or trying to be in the social media side of things.
• 16:08
  So I know that...
• 16:10
  If I don't make it as a driver, I'm going to sidestep and hopefully try and build a career in motorsport otherwise.
• 16:17
  They're alternate possibilities, but there is like a zero focus thing on driving, right?
• 16:22
  Yes, all the other business learnings about it, but a zero focus on the driving.
• 16:26
  my buddy Lee Diffie, who you know, the former IndyCar caller and now calling NASCAR and stuff, he's got this great line, a very appropriate line about a calling card.
• 16:35
  As you take those next steps on the ladder, you need a calling card to be able to say, hey, I'm the, you know, whatever I, my CV shows that I've won the Formula Four championship and so on.
• 16:43
  So is that the kind of thing now we want to get a couple of those things on the ticked list, if you're...
• 16:48
  Absolutely.
• 16:48
  I want to tick those things off.
• 16:50
  We had a great first round at the Bend, but eyes forward, I'm looking at the bigger picture.
• 16:55
  I do want to make it in the highest form of racing possible.
• 16:58
  I'd love to race supercar and I'd love to go to America and race NASCAR and just build myself up, but I do have to be very realistic and take it one year at a time.
• 17:10
  Did you test a Trans Am, true or false?
• 17:12
  Have you driven one?
• 17:13
  True.
• 17:14
  True?
• 17:14
  True.
• 17:14
  Can you tell me about that experience?
• 17:16
  I can.
• 17:17
  I did two sessions in a Trans Am.
• 17:20
  At Winton?
• 17:20
  At Winton, betting in brakes.
• 17:22
  Did you?
• 17:22
  Yeah.
• 17:24
  Yeah.
• 17:24
  And I kept running off the track because it's, you know, it's on the other side.
• 17:28
  Like you're driving on the other side and the car is so big too.
• 17:31
  Like I came from a Formula Ford.
• 17:32
  I know the NASCAR is big as well, but the Trans Am was just very wide.
• 17:36
  And so I kept running off the track and dad's like, you've got to keep it on the black stuff.
• 17:39
  What are you doing?
• 17:40
  And I'm like, I don't know.
• 17:42
  It's a really difficult thing.
• 17:44
  I'm speaking from a parent perspective now, and I can only imagine what it is like for Marcus, right?
• 17:48
  Because at the end of the day, you want your son, your daughter to avoid pitfalls, things that you might've done in your own life, and you wish only the very best for them success.
• 17:56
  But at the end of the day, you have to walk your own road.
• 17:59
  What is that conversation like for you guys around that stuff?
• 18:02
  Because he's got this beautiful knowledge bank of things that you can draw from.
• 18:06
  he's a great straight shooter, often in the way that he tells you things.
• 18:10
  What's that like being around him for that stuff?
• 18:12
  And do you – we covered the fact before that you listen, which I think is terrific.
• 18:16
  But sometimes in that generational thing, the age that you're at now, the natural reaction for a lot of kids is to roll their eyes and go, okay, Dad, like, you know, you don't know social media or you don't know blah, blah, blah.
• 18:25
  But I feel like you have –
• 18:28
  A beautiful relationship, you guys.
• 18:29
  Even that massive road trip you did last year where you went to Darwin and then back to Queensland or whatever.
• 18:34
  It was a beautiful time on the road there with Dad, wasn't it?
• 18:36
  Yeah.
• 18:36
  I've spent a lot of time with Dad over the past couple of years.
• 18:39
  I'd like to say that it was a mix of both.
• 18:41
  I'm like, yeah, right.
• 18:42
  Okay, Dad.
• 18:43
  And then sometimes I actually do listen.
• 18:45
  And it's our biggest conversation at the dinner table.
• 18:48
  We talk about it at dinner.
• 18:49
  We talk about it on the road.
• 18:51
  Our lives are just motorsport.
• 18:52
  That's all we talk about.
• 18:54
  And then we're on the sim.
• 18:55
  And then when I'm not on the sim, he's on the sim.
• 18:57
  Yeah.
• 18:57
  And so it's really funny because we're constantly trying to beat each other's lifetimes on the sim.
• 19:03
  And so we do.
• 19:03
  We have this rivalry on the sim.
• 19:05
  And then when we're at the dinner table, we're just constantly talking about motorsport, different ideas and what he's doing and then about my racing as well and what we're going to do there.
• 19:15
  And then when we're in the office, we're talking about motorsport.
• 19:17
  So it is.
• 19:18
  And we've got to try and find other things to talk about.
• 19:20
  But because we're both so passionate about it and we both love it and in the industry, yeah.
• 19:26
  It ends up being quite a... Yeah, it just ends up being motorsport.
• 19:29
  The balance might come a little bit from your beautiful mum, who's been an amazing photographer over time, like Julia Ringel.
• 19:35
  She's got a really good eye for it.
• 19:37
  And your sister, I wouldn't say she's not into motorising, because she's acutely aware of what you're doing and obviously what dad's done and so on.
• 19:43
  And we've seen her at some big events and things along the way.
• 19:45
  But I don't feel like necessarily that's the path she wants to get full on into like you do.
• 19:51
  No, she's actually started, she's a dental assistant now.
• 19:55
  Fantastic.
• 19:55
  I know, so she's gone into healthcare.
• 19:57
  Okay.
• 19:57
  So at least one of us has, you know, gone on to do something to help.
• 20:01
  Don't be harsh on yourself.
• 20:02
  You're doing good things.
• 20:03
  I know, I know.
• 20:04
  But no, she enjoys motorsport.
• 20:06
  She loves watching it, you know, and she gets involved in the dinner table conversation.
• 20:10
  Conversations.
• 20:11
  Same with mum.
• 20:12
  Mum's been telling me how to drive and what I should do on track.
• 20:15
  She's been getting very vocal.
• 20:16
  Has she?
• 20:17
  Yeah, even on the top of the, when we're watching like at the bend, I'll use the bend as an example.
• 20:23
  She's been doing the catering.
• 20:24
  Okay.
• 20:24
  And so it's a family thing for us at the racetrack.
• 20:27
  Nice, nice.
• 20:28
  Mum gets in and she does the catering and she helps out when she can and she's cooking up the sausages or whatever she's doing.
• 20:34
  And then when the race is on, she goes up and she watches.
• 20:36
  And apparently what I've heard, because obviously I'm in the car, she can be very vocal.
• 20:42
  up there standing there.
• 20:43
  Animated.
• 20:44
  Very animated.
• 20:45
  Very animated.
• 20:46
  She gets very excited.
• 20:48
  She gets very animated.
• 20:49
  It is really fun.
• 20:51
  It's a family thing for us.
• 20:52
  Adelaide isn't as involved in it anymore, but when she can and takes her time off work, she loves spending time at the track.
• 21:00
  Awesome.
• 21:01
  You got to play Fanbassador at Adelaide last year with Dad, and Dad had had success at that amazing event, grand final for supercars and so on, and you did
• 21:10
  You two, we joke about him, there's a group of us that joke about him being the energizer bunny because he's just all go, 10 tenths, whatever, he's one thing to the next and so on.
• 21:19
  You got to do some cool stuff around that, didn't you?
• 21:21
  But at the end of it, I think they tell me you jumped in a, I don't know, it was an Uber or whatever it was and you might have been leaving and you had this beautiful bright smile on your face around everything that you'd done.
• 21:33
  And dad gently brought it back to the ground again, didn't he?
• 21:35
  Just like, like, hey, it's not always going to be like this.
• 21:38
  I think he said, what he said.
• 21:40
  Yeah.
• 21:40
  Yeah.
• 21:41
  He did ground me and he does ground me a lot.
• 21:43
  Does he?
• 21:43
  He does.
• 21:44
  But no, being Fan Bastard was awesome.
• 21:46
  That was actually my first Bathurst that I'd been to, the first Bathurst 1000 that I'd been to.
• 21:51
  Yeah.
• 21:51
  And so to be a fan ambassador with my dad was really exciting.
• 21:54
  Yep.
• 21:55
  Thanks to Repco.
• 21:56
  I mean, we got to do so many cool stuff.
• 21:58
  And also Showtime.
• 21:59
  So that's also touching on what we spoke about before with the learning how to represent yourself.
• 22:04
  Yep.
• 22:05
  That was the first time that I'd ever been on like a stage in front of an audience.
• 22:08
  Oh, well done.
• 22:08
  They've got this little, I forgot what they called it, but it's like this little bus thing.
• 22:13
  Yes.
• 22:13
  And the little truck and it's got the stage and it's got the fireworks and everything.
• 22:17
  And it's all big and loud music.
• 22:19
  And the first time I got up there, they're like, now you have to dance.
• 22:23
  And so it was the first time that I was on stage and then I had to dance and then we had to speak and then we were throwing things out into the crowd.
• 22:29
  Right.
• 22:30
  We were at the top of the mountain.
• 22:31
  I'd never been at the top of the mountain before and in with all the fans camping and everything.
• 22:36
  And so it was just so much fun.
• 22:37
  And it was actually very eye opening for me.
• 22:39
  Was it?
• 22:39
  Because it was just like, okay, this is, you know, the activation around that.
• 22:43
  Repco had so much activation around that.
• 22:45
  Did that start around that amazing ad that your dad and Murph did?
• 22:48
  I mean, they were a bit of rivals back in the day.
• 22:51
  Very funny ad.
• 22:52
  Jimmy Richards and everything went crazy.
• 22:54
  I think you were on set for that.
• 22:55
  Were you?
• 22:55
  Did you watch it?
• 22:56
  And maybe that's how it all kind of started.
• 22:57
  Yeah.
• 22:57
  Yeah, no, I got to watch, I got to meet the Repco family, which was awesome.
• 23:03
  And it was a huge production.
• 23:06
  Like, I'd never really been a part of it.
• 23:07
  I'd never really seen a production or them making an ad.
• 23:11
  And it was very eye-opening when I got there.
• 23:13
  And they had this massive green screen, these floating trees that went around.
• 23:16
  And then they had the bus and they had all the actors.
• 23:21
  And then they had Greg and they had dad.
• 23:25
  And, yeah, it was just very, very eye-opening.
• 23:28
  But I love that, though, because that shows you how big it can be.
• 23:31
  Huge, yeah.
• 23:33
  Awesome.
• 23:33
  At the end of last year,
• 23:35
  You and I got to attend a thing called the Pertec Legends Night.
• 23:39
  I got to work on that in an MC capacity.
• 23:41
  I love that.
• 23:41
  Your dad was the guest of honor that night and he opened up on his battle with cancer.
• 23:48
  I was, like many in the room, blown away by that.
• 23:52
  I think a handful of people probably knew the gravity of what he went through.
• 23:57
  his candid, very open way that he spoke about that, I think was so beneficial for so many people.
• 24:02
  You saw that behind the scenes and that must have, I guess, been tougher times, but maybe there's a little something in that that you saw in your dad that's a great kind of life lesson.
• 24:11
  I mean, he attacked that with just this relentless determination, didn't he?
• 24:17
  What was that like?
• 24:19
  It was the fight.
• 24:19
  For me, it was, you know, the fight.
• 24:21
  Like he really, he really, he put on a fight and he didn't, he saved face.
• 24:27
  And it was, that was what I looked up to the most.
• 24:29
  I was like, yeah, that's, that's how you do it.
• 24:31
  That's how you go about it.
• 24:33
  And it was awesome.
• 24:34
  And it was such a great night too.
• 24:36
  It was.
• 24:36
  And so just to kind of finish off the chapter and to end it in such a great night, you know, and talk about it and have crush there was really good because you got to just, you know,
• 24:45
  control it, like in his own narrative.
• 24:47
  He didn't have someone, you know, talking for him.
• 24:50
  And so it was really good for you to MC it too, and for Crush to be there and everything.
• 24:54
  And it was just, it just went so smoothly and it couldn't have been done better by better people.
• 24:59
  It was just, it was the best.
• 25:00
  Has it made you sort of think, got to maximize what I do here and live life to the full kind of thing?
• 25:04
  That's a...
• 25:06
  in a sad but good way, a really life lesson here, isn't it?
• 25:09
  Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 25:10
  You've got to fight for it.
• 25:11
  And that's what I've learned.
• 25:12
  Like you've got to fight for everything that you do and everything, you know, you're back too.
• 25:16
  You have to back yourself.
• 25:18
  You have to fight for yourself too.
• 25:20
  And so just learning that and how strong a person can actually be.
• 25:25
  Well done you.
• 25:25
  This has been ace to chat with you today.
• 25:28
  I see this pod as just a little introduction to Tabitha Ambrose.
• 25:31
  You have so many more wonderful chapters to write.
• 25:34
  I love the perspective that you have in this and that at such a young age, what are you now?
• 25:38
  How old are you now?
• 25:39
  I'm 20.
• 25:40
  20.
• 25:40
  I mean, they're crazy.
• 25:42
  Born on the Gold Coast, bulk of your life in the States, and now here you are back where it began for your dad and carrying on that.
• 25:48
  I mean, it's great that you brought up Poppy before too, third generation in many respects.
• 25:52
  So we wish you luck with that.
• 25:53
  And I can't wait to get you back in for a follow-up pod at some stage and talk about the next phases of what you've gone on to do, because I feel like you've got all of these great framework ingredients around you to use and that you are using.
• 26:07
  Grab them with both hands and go for it.
• 26:09
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 26:10
  I've just got to use all my resources around me and I've just got to go do it now.
• 26:13
  So I think we're going to have a great year this year.
• 26:16
  I'm really looking forward to it.
• 26:17
  We're going to finish off the Formula Ford things and then just reassess and see where it all takes me.
• 26:21
  Go Will.
• 26:23
  Tabitha has a great outlook, doesn't she?
• 26:25
  She's just so enthusiastic and I'm sure that there are moments for Marcus where it is a little tricky, those things that parents go through where you have to let them process the stuff that maybe they didn't get quite right along the way as kids while also trying to steer them as a parent in the right direction.
• 26:42
  While we're on that, keep an eye out for the next edition of The Brief with AFL legend Brad Johnson, how he navigates similar challenges as his son Jack now pursues a career in motorsport and how that elite sport experience that Brad has, good and bad, can be a powerful tool with the big commitment that the family has made to GT4 competition in Australia.
• 27:05
  We'll release that next week.
• 27:06
  And our latest feature ep is with former 500cc Grand Prix bike winner Kevin McGee.
• 27:11
  Two parts there, an hour and a quarter of conversation that includes memories of his victory at Harama in Spain and some seriously frightening crashes in the US, including one where some members of the Aussie media pronounced him dead, plus how he helped a vision impaired rider into the Guinness Book of Records.
• 27:30
  That is it for this ep.
• 27:31
  We'll catch you next time, everybody.
• 27:33
  Bye for now.