Latest / Rusty's Garage / James McFadden - Part 1

Transcript

James McFadden - Part 1 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:14
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  This is one of those episodes that left me thinking, why the bloody hell didn't I get this guest on ages ago?
• 0:33
  I'm in our cool new Melbourne listener studios today and James McFadden has kindly made the trip in when ordinarily he'd be banking much needed frequent family points back in Australia during the off-season from his hectic American sprint car racing program.
• 0:49
  He's the only Aussie currently running the full schedule there.
• 0:53
  McFadden is a great motor racing export from our part of the world, but his story hasn't been widely told, and I'm pleased we're among a few media outlets now shining more light on it.
• 1:05
  He deserves it.
• 1:35
  We'll chat about that as well as rivalries, speedway legends, iconic American tracks, working for one of the best engine builders in supercars and how that knowledge helps him behind the wheel.
• 1:48
  Plus, motorhome life on the road in the US going track to track.
• 1:53
  And we'll get his thoughts on the state of speedway in Oz too.
• 1:57
  As you'll hear, James has this adjunct.
• 2:00
  easygoing nature.
• 2:01
  We hadn't seen each other since a Speedway launch years ago and yet the conversation seems effortless.
• 2:07
  He's sporting an almost trademark beard nowadays that gives him a bit of a Ned Kelly look.
• 2:14
  His demeanour's relaxed.
• 2:15
  affable.
• 2:16
  But often in races I've found that belies an inner hunger and fearlessness, qualities that I'm sure come to the surface once his helmet goes on.
• 2:25
  In order to understand McFadden's makeup, we wound the clock back to life as a little tacker, growing up in the Northern Territory, Central Australia, in a family with a real sense of adventure that were properly into motorsport.
• 2:42
  Yeah, random place to grow up.
• 2:45
  Obviously, my parents are both from Sydney.
• 2:48
  And then when they were younger, went traveling around Australia and ended up in Alice Springs, I think.
• 2:53
  And then Dad started a car yard, a used car yard there.
• 2:56
  And that's where the racing all sort of began.
• 2:59
  Dad raced spring cars.
• 3:02
  in Alice Springs in Darwin, and they used to do an NT spring car trail, so Tennant Creek and Catherine, and I grew up, you know, working on it and hanging around the speedway, and then at the age of seven I got my first go-kart, painted up the same as Dad's spring car, so I thought I was –
• 3:18
  I thought I was the best.
• 3:19
  It was really cool.
• 3:21
  It was an absolute turd of a go-kart.
• 3:24
  Shocking.
• 3:24
  So we, I didn't realize how bad it was until, you know, two years later he actually bought me a kart and we won our first race.
• 3:32
  It was like, oh, it's a little easier than what I first thought.
• 3:35
  So, yeah, grew up in Alice Springs, great place to grow up.
• 3:39
  You know, running in the go-kart at the motor vehicle, like the registry office.
• 3:43
  The registry, amazing.
• 3:44
  Yeah, up and down the scales where the road trains went.
• 3:48
  you know, riding the four-wheeler to the Arunga Park Speedway at that time, you know, because we couldn't fit it in the trailer.
• 3:55
  So it was a lot of fun growing up, have a lot of great friends that are still there and, you know, race go-karts through ADCA go-karts, the dirt karts through...
• 4:05
  Man, I would have been seven until I was 16.
• 4:08
  So, yeah, I really enjoyed that part of it.
• 4:10
  The influences for family, you touched a little bit on your dad there who's got this deft touch, very, very good on the tools that he raced as well.
• 4:21
  But the racing in the family actually goes further than that because a bit of stuff for your mum that we should probably cover.
• 4:26
  And am I right in saying there's some solo bike racing experience in the family too?
• 4:29
  Yeah, so my mum's dad was a professional solo rider in England from the 40s through to, you know, 50s, 60s, raced.
• 4:41
  I can't exactly remember the team that he raced for, but he captained that team in England, and as I said, got paid for it back then.
• 4:48
  So that was pretty cool.
• 4:50
  He's still got some of his leathers and helmets and stuff.
• 4:54
  So I think he raced...
• 4:56
  you know, the Liverpool and the showgrounds and stuff in the sixties and did a few veterans races there towards, towards the end of, um, yeah, towards the end.
• 5:06
  So yeah, absolutely been a big part of racing my whole life.
• 5:09
  Um, I still remember going to his place in, in Bankstown.
• 5:13
  That's where they lived.
• 5:14
  And, uh, we talk, you know, racing and, you know, they get to race on velodromes back then on the bikes and, um, yeah, yeah.
• 5:20
  Pretty crazy.
• 5:20
  And then my dad's dad, he actually raced speedboats.
• 5:24
  I'm pretty sure he did the FedEx trial back then in an MG. And then my dad's raced about everything.
• 5:31
  He's done the Baja 1000.
• 5:34
  Then he was a co-driver back then.
• 5:36
  And my mum raced off-road buggies.
• 5:39
  And yeah, so I think I was destined to drive something at some stage, but a lot of history.
• 5:46
  Uh, it's really cool to, to sit, you know, with my grandma who's, who's still, still around with us and, and talk about that, that sort of stuff.
• 5:53
  Or even, you know, I still remember it 10, 10 years old, we went, um, pre-running a buggy with mom cause she was thinking about getting back into it.
• 6:01
  So yeah, we've, yeah, we've been around racing a lot really.
• 6:04
  But I love that it's such a strong family influence and iconic things that you just rattled off very easily, like Sydney Show, Grand Speedway and stuff like that.
• 6:15
  Just take us to poster influences for you.
• 6:17
  Was it just family or were there, you know, as a kid growing up, were you like, oh, you know, this sprint car racer or that?
• 6:24
  Who were some of the poster influences for you?
• 6:26
  Yeah, it's funny to say this now.
• 6:29
  I grew up before social media, so watching American guys wasn't as big a thing as what it is now.
• 6:36
  So Australia, to me, is the place, the pinnacle.
• 6:40
  Like, you heard of Brooke Tattnall going to America, and you heard of Kerry Madsen and
• 6:45
  Skip Jackson, you know, racing in America.
• 6:47
  But it wasn't like, I'm just going to flip up Twitter and watch what they're doing.
• 6:51
  It was just what you saw, you know.
• 6:54
  I got to see your Danny Lasoskis and your Danny Smiths come out here and race.
• 6:58
  So to me, it was Brooke Tattnall.
• 7:01
  He was the guy I looked up to.
• 7:03
  And he was realistically, when I was 16, the only guy that really gave me the time of day, you know, would be...
• 7:10
  we'd be happy to yell out some advice.
• 7:13
  I remember my first World Series race, I was leading the heat race and he was running second and we pulled up in a red light and he was yelling.
• 7:20
  And I just looked dead straight thinking, oh, no, I've chopped him or cut him off and I'm in trouble.
• 7:25
  And he's like, he just yelled, keep doing what you're doing, I won't pass you, you're doing a good job.
• 7:29
  And I thought, well, he doesn't have to do that or he's trying to get in my head and rattle me.
• 7:33
  But...
• 7:34
  Um, yeah, so he was probably the biggest influence, you know, outside of my family.
• 7:38
  Um, obviously some great people that have owned my cars and sponsors over the time that have, you know, helped me with life things, but the racing side of things absolutely would be hands down Brooke.
• 7:50
  And, um, it's actually really cool now.
• 7:52
  I, I sort of do that with him.
• 7:54
  Um, you know, he's.
• 7:56
  he's on the way now he's, you know, out of the world of outlaws tour and stuff like that.
• 8:01
  He's sort of racing locally and he'll come over to me and go, Oh, what do you reckon my car's doing?
• 8:05
  Or what do you think I should do?
• 8:06
  And, and it's cool to be able to, you know, to, to back and forward like that.
• 8:10
  So yeah, he's been a, probably the biggest influence racing wise outside of my, my dad on my career for sure.
• 8:16
  I'm glad that you brought him up because Bronnie Ingersoll is a colleague and friend, a supercast producer, a great presenter and reporter and loves Speedway immensely.
• 8:26
  And she brought this up when I was doing a bit of homework for this about your relationship with him, the great rapport that you have with him, the...
• 8:34
  almost, I think her words were like master and apprentice because he'd walked that road before you, hadn't he, in terms of going to the States and doing those things?
• 8:43
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:44
  There's no, with sprint car racing, there's no sort of feeder series to get to America like your, you know, your European asphalt stuff.
• 8:53
  You can, you know, you race your Formula Fords and you can go up that way where sprint cars is sort of
• 8:59
  here's a 900 horsepower.
• 9:00
  Good luck.
• 9:01
  Yeah, have fun.
• 9:02
  And, you know, there's sort of no right or wrong way to go there and do it.
• 9:07
  So to have someone like him in your corner and, you know, to look up, to me, to look up to someone like him, he's very outspoken, but to me it's all for the good of the sport and, you know, the best possible thing for the sport.
• 9:20
  So for me having a role model like that was great.
• 9:24
  Yeah, we...
• 9:26
  I think the coolest part about our relationship is we've probably raced the hardest out of all of them and we've never crashed.
• 9:32
  Amazing.
• 9:32
  We've never ran into each other.
• 9:33
  We've never crashed into each other.
• 9:35
  We joke about it, you know, and, you know, we can get a little cheeky sometimes and do a slider that's probably not as clear as you thought.
• 9:42
  Yeah.
• 9:43
  You know, that to me is huge.
• 9:46
  Respect.
• 9:47
  You know, respect in a racer.
• 9:48
  And to me, you know, Brook Tattnell's earned as much respect as anyone in the field.
• 9:54
  I think he's, you know, 75 World Series wins.
• 9:56
  And, you know, to me, the best Australian all-around guy.
• 10:02
  And, you know, it's pretty cool to be able to call him a friend and someone that I really looked up to.
• 10:08
  I can vividly recall, mate, going to his father, George Tattnell's funeral and the people, the volume of Speedway family spilling out of that church.
• 10:19
  I didn't go inside.
• 10:21
  I stayed outside because there was just so many people.
• 10:23
  I mean, his dad was such an iconic figure in Speedway.
• 10:26
  It's great that he's gone off and done that and that you have that kind of bond, if you like.
• 10:31
  Let's dial it back a fraction here.
• 10:34
  You wanted to be, I think, a mechanical engineer in school.
• 10:37
  Yes.
• 10:37
  I've done your research.
• 10:38
  And am I right in saying, too, that you got to experience some cool things when you were at school?
• 10:42
  Stuff like outward-bound style pursuits where you would go off for big distances, hiking and stuff like that.
• 10:52
  You're not afraid of adventure, mate, are you?
• 10:53
  No, no.
• 10:54
  No, absolutely.
• 10:55
  The engineering stuff sort of started.
• 10:57
  I actually did work experience for Tasman Motorsport.
• 10:59
  Did you?
• 11:00
  Yeah, and Wally's story was there.
• 11:02
  Yeah, and we were.
• 11:03
  Who was driving for them then?
• 11:05
  Jason Richards was.
• 11:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:08
  So we actually were building a car, a new car then.
• 11:12
  Well, what's grade 9, 10, whatever that is.
• 11:14
  Fantastic.
• 11:14
  Yeah, so I probably hadn't started racing spring cars yet, so I was, you know, 15.
• 11:18
  Uh-huh.
• 11:20
  Probably.
• 11:20
  So, yeah, really enjoyed that side of things and enjoyed the engineering side of what I could see as what they showed me.
• 11:28
  He's a great old school guy, Wally Storriar, to draw.
• 11:30
  I mean, like quick one-liners and straight to the point, isn't he?
• 11:33
  Yeah, yeah.
• 11:34
  So that was a lot of fun.
• 11:35
  And then, yeah, obviously the school I grew up in Alice Springs, St. Phillips, did a lot of...
• 11:41
  really cool outdoor education stuff.
• 11:44
  We went on ski camps in Mittergundy in Melbourne here and went 10 days in the snow.
• 11:50
  A world away from Alice Springs.
• 11:52
  Yeah, navigation stuff and obviously all of that, getting dropped out into the wilderness in Northern Territory there and trying to find your way back for nine days.
• 12:02
  So they did a great program through school.
• 12:06
  enjoyed that side of things, always enjoyed things that got your heart rate sort of going, but yeah, always, always fell back to racing.
• 12:14
  It was always the number one, but.
• 12:16
  Did that teach you a life skill or something that you perhaps keep with you to this day, that style of thing?
• 12:20
  I think independence, you know, having a.
• 12:24
  I left home at 17 to go race.
• 12:29
  That sort of stuff, I think, gives you independence to having to work things out yourself, some problem-solving and common sense in a lot of aspects.
• 12:39
  When you're hiking in the middle of the bush, the most common sense thing is the best way to do it.
• 12:45
  Yeah, learn a lot of really cool things.
• 12:46
  Like I said, that program there, I think, is something that most people should get the opportunity to do.
• 12:53
  So, really thankful that we could do that for sure.
• 12:56
  Thanks to my buddy, Stu McCarthy, who reminded me that he's got his great own podcast, I should point out too.
• 13:01
  You moved to Mackay to work, I think, as a diesel mechanic, literally, mate, the moment you finished your exams for school.
• 13:09
  Is that right?
• 13:10
  Yeah, so I had a meeting.
• 13:13
  It was actually Australian title in Perth the year before.
• 13:16
  I had a meeting with Dan Morton about going to drive his car.
• 13:21
  So mum and dad's team, we could really only do 10 races a year.
• 13:25
  And then he came up with the proposal of doing a two-car team, 40 races, full World Series schedule.
• 13:32
  So to me, that was 17 years old.
• 13:34
  That's the...
• 13:35
  that's the pinnacle to work to me.
• 13:37
  World Series was the place to be as a sprint car driver.
• 13:41
  So we jumped on that, but my dad said, absolutely not unless he's got a job.
• 13:46
  And he had a diesel fitting company out in the mines and dad's like, you're not doing unless you get an apprenticeship and a job.
• 13:54
  And so, yeah, I did my year 12 mass exam and literally flew out that day to Perth and, uh,
• 14:01
  when I worked on Dan's car, um, for a couple of nights and, and he couldn't make it to a race and I raced it and we ran third, uh, at Kwanana.
• 14:10
  So yeah, then straight on the plane to Mackay and started my diesel fitting apprenticeship and, um,
• 14:17
  Not the first job that I would have thought I was going to do.
• 14:21
  And it's definitely not my favorite couple of years of working.
• 14:25
  But learned a lot doing that.
• 14:28
  You know, we ran the workshop side of things there and are out, you know, servicing excavators and 30 tonners and rollers.
• 14:36
  Amazing.
• 14:37
  stuff straight out of school so yeah I was living the dream I got to race 40 races and I think you know fly in and out I think we would have done 100 flights that year because it was Mackay Brisbane Brisbane anywhere else and yeah got to uh got to race some really cool races and and do some things but yeah diesel fittings definitely in the minds is I take my hat off to those guys it's not the not the funnest job out there in Mackay
• 15:01
  How different was the James McFadden of then versus the James McFadden of now?
• 15:06
  And what things did you learn, tighten up?
• 15:10
  Because, you know, you're a professional racer now and family man and so on, but you were a different guy back then, weren't you?
• 15:18
  Yeah.
• 15:18
  Did you describe yourself as a skater boy or something?
• 15:20
  Yeah, I had, believe it or not, long blonde hair and my pants around my ankles and...
• 15:26
  had a skateboard with me.
• 15:27
  I actually, the day of my first race in a sprint car, my mates were like, oh, we'll go for a quick skate.
• 15:33
  And I broke my collarbone.
• 15:35
  Oh.
• 15:36
  Yeah, and I remember... Did you hide that?
• 15:38
  No.
• 15:39
  No.
• 15:39
  I remember thinking, oh, it's just dislocated.
• 15:42
  It'll be okay.
• 15:42
  And my mates were trying to pop it all back in, and then I'm like, man, I'm going to be in so much trouble.
• 15:47
  So my dad ended up racing the car, and he made me stand on the infield and watch him the whole night.
• 15:51
  And he's like, right, are you going to skate or are you going to race?
• 15:54
  Like, we're putting money into this.
• 15:55
  You've got to take it seriously.
• 15:57
  So that was the last time I rode a skateboard.
• 15:59
  But, yeah, I think, you know, like...
• 16:02
  growing up and experiencing life, things change.
• 16:06
  And I'd like to think I'm still the same kid as I was that grew up in Alice Springs.
• 16:10
  But, you know, you take on different things in life that change you in certain ways.
• 16:16
  But, yeah, I'm still laid back and...
• 16:19
  you know, sort of a chilled out person.
• 16:21
  But when you strap your helmet on, you've got to be that confident, a little bit ego-driven.
• 16:27
  And, you know, back then I'd just strap your helmet on because it was great fun and it's what you wanted to do your whole life.
• 16:34
  And now you strap it on because you're trying to feed your family.
• 16:36
  So it's just a...
• 16:38
  Different way of thinking, but yeah, still the same guy for sure.
• 16:42
  They are an intoxicatingly beautiful machine.
• 16:45
  That's probably not the right word I should use in conjunction with that, but amazing horsepower.
• 16:52
  Throttle is actually your friend because you want them to constantly go left.
• 16:56
  Take people there to your first proper drive in one, where you were, what you felt, and the impact that it had on you.
• 17:04
  So dad had a, a riot with 360 at the time, a ride day for sponsors and guys like Dave Fellows, the, you know, think desert race guy.
• 17:13
  And they, they were all driving it and having a good time.
• 17:15
  And I remember I packed my suit cause I just thought, you know, I was 15.
• 17:20
  So I packed my suit and, and been racing go karts a long time and.
• 17:25
  And my dad was a big person on if you bug me, you're not going to get a go.
• 17:29
  I remember we had a CR125 in the shed and I'd be like, Dad, can I take it for a ride?
• 17:33
  Can I take it for a ride?
• 17:34
  And I never rode that bike.
• 17:35
  Wow.
• 17:36
  Because I kept asking.
• 17:37
  He'd just be like, no.
• 17:39
  So I remember just sitting there just looking at him probably with the puppy dog.
• 17:42
  I was like, come on.
• 17:43
  And I remember him nodding, going, go get your suit.
• 17:45
  And I...
• 17:46
  could not have ran any faster, got dressed, come back down, and we had to put yellow pages and pillows underneath the seat so I could see and then fit in the seat, just sort of slap the belts over the top.
• 18:01
  I'd won a lot of races in go-karts, so I thought I was a bit of a badass.
• 18:05
  So I push start this thing, and I get down the back straight, and I go from zero throttle to 100%.
• 18:11
  And just tank slapped it the whole way down the straight.
• 18:13
  And then I still remember my dad walking out onto the track and giving me the, come on.
• 18:18
  Come this way.
• 18:19
  Slapped me across the helmet, said, if you do any of that stuff again, you'll never drive.
• 18:23
  And then, so I pushed off and, you know, sort of.
• 18:26
  Built up to it.
• 18:26
  Took it a little bit easy from then and actually ripped around the track pretty good.
• 18:30
  We were really close to the lap record there at Alice that first time and.
• 18:35
  Um, yeah, hooked ever since there.
• 18:37
  There's such a, you know, I've been fortunate enough to drive some really cool cars, you know, Lamborghinis and stuff, but not a lot of race style cars, but nothing's ever come close comparison wise to me to a sprint car.
• 18:50
  It's
• 18:51
  They're so violent and, you know, you've been in one and, you know, just idling around, they don't like going slow.
• 18:58
  You know, there's no driver aids.
• 19:00
  There's no harmonic balancer on the engine.
• 19:02
  So everything's just so harsh.
• 19:05
  You know, aluminium seat, you just...
• 19:08
  They're old school, but they're not at the same time, you know, with the driver aids and, you know, no data logging, no any of that stuff.
• 19:15
  So everything you do is by feel and, you know, by your butt and the noise.
• 19:21
  So, yeah, I just...
• 19:24
  I tend to try and explain it to people that really haven't got any driving experience as a jet ski.
• 19:30
  Okay.
• 19:31
  You know, if you lift on a jet ski and try and turn the corner, it's not going to do it.
• 19:35
  So the faster you ride a jet ski and get it to lean and turn, the easier they are to ride, which is a lot like a sprint car.
• 19:41
  But then there's that...
• 19:42
  over the edge point and you've seen what happens then when they when they crash so yeah i i love spring car racing i've never had any urge to go and race anything else outside of them because i just think they're such a raw and um yeah perfect perfect machine really to me
• 20:09
  James is quite a fan of the garage.
• 20:12
  Among his favourite episodes is Tony Cochran, which you might enjoy too.
• 20:16
  Perhaps Speedway can learn from TC, who turned supercars into one of Australia's biggest sports and is now a driving force of the WSX, the World Supercross Championship.
• 20:26
  All you can do is put the spade in the dirt and try and turn it over and make it work.
• 20:31
  Our dream is to grow it to 16 international rounds by the fifth year.
• 20:36
  Check out Coco if you haven't already.
• 20:38
  Now it's back to the podcast.
• 20:41
  I love the ethic that your dad instilled in you around working and so on.
• 20:45
  Part of the journey for you involves some time at KRE, working with Kenny McNamara.
• 20:50
  I mean, very impressive record in supercars from an engine building standpoint and in your world as well, in sprint cars.
• 20:57
  How did you get that job?
• 20:58
  What was the job?
• 20:59
  What did you learn?
• 21:00
  And how important do you reckon that is for young racers to have some empathy, some knowledge mechanically?
• 21:07
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:08
  So the deal in Mackay ended at the end of that year.
• 21:14
  And I had no want to stay and be a diesel fitter.
• 21:21
  So I remember ringing up Dave Sharman, who was my crew chief at the time, and a really, really good mate, and saying, hey, have you got a spare bed?
• 21:28
  I can come and...
• 21:30
  he was living in Brisbane, I can come and crash for a couple of weeks until I find my feet and figure out what I'm going to do with life.
• 21:35
  So I threw my toolbox in the back of my XG ute.
• 21:39
  I had an XG Longreach Montana, threw that in the back and went to Brisbane.
• 21:45
  And a couple of days in, Kenny was the engine builder for the team I was driving for.
• 21:51
  And I said, I'll just come and clean some parts.
• 21:53
  And,
• 21:53
  hang out for a little bit and, you know, I don't need to be paid straight away.
• 21:57
  And, you know, if there's a spot, there's a spot.
• 21:59
  So, yeah, we just sort of pulled engines apart and cleaned them and swept the shop.
• 22:04
  And at that time there was only three employees at KRE and it was Titan Garages, the Sprint Car team was in the front section and we had to move the trailer out.
• 22:14
  every day to be able to get to like the machine side of things and, and stuff like that.
• 22:18
  So obviously Kenny was quite new into the, the scene of, I don't even think we were doing VAT supercar engines at that time.
• 22:26
  You know, and then obviously to grow to what he is now is pretty crazy.
• 22:29
  So yeah, I did my, I did my engine reconditioning apprenticeship there.
• 22:35
  So I was, I'm a machinist by trade.
• 22:37
  So I did all of the machining stuff there and then,
• 22:40
  one of the engine builders left and I put my hand up and said I can build engines it'll be it'll be all good so yeah I started building all of the the sprint car all the brand new sprint car stuff um towards the end there so yeah had a really have a really good relationship with Kenny um and Wendy and and developed you know developed their sprint car engine stuff was was a lot of fun you know as I was racing at the time we were
• 23:05
  we were building engines there so I could give a lot of feedback and we could change some stuff.
• 23:09
  And, and I really think he's got, you know, one of the best engines, you know, in the world is sprint car wise.
• 23:15
  And obviously his V8 supercar stuff speaks for itself with what triple eight do, but yeah, big, big part of that.
• 23:23
  Huge part of the learning process of understanding cars and, you know, fuel systems and camshafts and, you know,
• 23:30
  I think there's a lot of different...
• 23:32
  There's engine assemblers and engine builders.
• 23:34
  And, you know, I could be a really good engine assembler, but the ins and outs to me is what makes a really good engine builder.
• 23:41
  And getting to know that stuff was crazy.
• 23:44
  I think, yeah, I learned more about motors pulling them apart because I understood, you know, the guy that was driving that engine.
• 23:53
  I'm like, all right, that guy's fast in this situation and slow in this situation.
• 23:57
  Why?
• 23:58
  So you'd...
• 23:59
  pull apart an engine and I may or may not have done some cam timing and some of the motors and figured out, you know, little things that would make that guy, I thought would make that guy better or worse.
• 24:09
  So, yeah, just learning the ropes of building an engine is exactly the same as learning the ropes of driving a car.
• 24:17
  There was little things that I found worked for me that I could sell that exact motor to.
• 24:22
  another guy and he hated it because your foot was in a different spot or he drove in a different RPM range.
• 24:27
  Like I said before, we don't have data logging, so you're going off the word of me saying, yeah, I'm half throttle when I really might be three-quarter throttle.
• 24:35
  Okay.
• 24:36
  Yeah, learn a lot.
• 24:37
  I think it's important to a point.
• 24:40
  I think sometimes it hurts me that I know a little too much and I start thinking, well, if I change that cam or if I change this, I'm going to be better instead of just driving, you know.
• 24:50
  Okay.
• 24:50
  Um, so I think it's a fine line between, I always tell any young kid that I try and help race that you need to understand your car, but you don't need to be able to change the shock shim to be able to, you know, take 10 pound out of the rebound or something.
• 25:05
  Cause I think you overcomplicate things and get it, get it.
• 25:09
  Spring cars are...
• 25:11
  As you've seen, there's no definitive apex in the corner.
• 25:14
  So if I change the way I drive a little bit, I can change the way my motor feels or I can change the way the car handles because I've changed my apex.
• 25:21
  Which is one of the beauties of that form of racing, that type of racing, isn't it?
• 25:25
  That's why I think to me why I love it so much.
• 25:27
  But yeah, I think that's a...
• 25:29
  there's a fine line between knowing too much and not knowing enough.
• 25:32
  So I think I got to the point where I knew too much and then I backed it back down.
• 25:37
  And so I was building all my own engines when I was driving for Scott Milling in the 25 car and
• 25:43
  When I went to the 17 car with the Monty Motorsport deal, I'm like, I'm not doing them because I think too much about it.
• 25:49
  I'm not concentrating enough on the driving part of it.
• 25:52
  So yeah, it's a tough spot.
• 25:55
  Yeah.
• 25:56
  I want to get to a little bit more of the career stuff.
• 25:58
  I haven't necessarily gone linear so far in this conversation.
• 26:02
  Just mentors.
• 26:04
  I mean, you talked about the great relationship with Brooke.
• 26:07
  What about some other people along the way, maybe even in the early days that were very important in helping you, perhaps on and off track?
• 26:14
  Yeah.
• 26:15
  Paul Stubber, big influence on my career.
• 26:19
  He sponsored me in my go-kart days.
• 26:20
  So if we rewind it back to the go-kart days, I wanted to travel a lot.
• 26:26
  We did really well in Alice Springs, and obviously being in the middle of nowhere, it was tough to travel.
• 26:32
  You did big miles?
• 26:33
  You must have been doing big miles.
• 26:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 26:35
  So my dad said to me, if...
• 26:37
  whatever you get in sponsorship money, I'll match.
• 26:39
  And that'll be, you know, our budget for the year and cart.
• 26:42
  So I ended up getting, you know, seven and a half grand or something.
• 26:46
  So he's like, man, that sucks.
• 26:48
  And, uh, and that was sort of our budget.
• 26:50
  So I used that to be able to fly to Adelaide.
• 26:53
  Um, and I had, um, some friends down there that looked after my cart and I'd sort of fly in and get ready and race on the Sunday and, and sort of fly back.
• 27:02
  And, you know,
• 27:03
  Guys like Paul Stubber were big on sponsorship.
• 27:06
  I remember I was 10, I think, when I sent the sponsorship letters out.
• 27:10
  I still have the letter at home.
• 27:12
  And it was like, what is my company going to get out of you?
• 27:15
  It's not just here's the money.
• 27:16
  It was a thing.
• 27:17
  And then I remember I sent a go-kart on the train to WA and flew over.
• 27:23
  And Paul and I just went to the races and we won the WA go-kart title.
• 27:28
  And he made me a frame with the rag that he had in his pocket all day saying this crew chief, you know, crew chief luck and stuff like that.
• 27:35
  So, yeah, I've got some really influential people like Paul.
• 27:39
  He's in America.
• 27:40
  Well, he was in America at the moment racing late models over there with the Outlaw Tour.
• 27:44
  So, you know, it was fun to catch up with him while we were there.
• 27:48
  And just a lot of people, car owner-wise, like, you know, Scott Milling gave me the opportunity when we were young and they're like family to me.
• 27:58
  Yeah, then you have people like Casey in America that have become really good friends.
• 28:03
  Casey Kane, you're talking about.
• 28:04
  Yeah, Casey Kane, you know, that I'm not driving for him anymore.
• 28:08
  But you have though.
• 28:09
  Yeah, yeah, but he's, you know, been really influential on, you know, life and stuff like that.
• 28:16
  So it's, yeah, there's plenty of people that have...
• 28:20
  put their hand up along the way and helped me through a lot of things.
• 28:23
  And, you know, great crew chiefs like, you know, your Dave Sharmans and Kim Buzzy and people like that that become great mates, but also, you know, you get little snippets of life from all these people that have done, you know, a lot of really cool things.
• 28:36
  So you learn a lot.
• 28:38
  Karting is one thing.
• 28:39
  Working the jobs is another as you're finding your way in life here, right?
• 28:45
  Is there a moment where you felt like, okay, I can – this is the commencement now of something that I could absolutely pursue in a life sense?
• 28:55
  And my question is a little bit loaded here, right?
• 28:57
  This may not be the answer.
• 28:58
  You might have a better one.
• 28:59
  Owen Kelly reminded me for this chat that I think he turned up for –
• 29:05
  World Series sprint cars, you might have been 16 years old and you put it on pole.
• 29:09
  Am I right in saying that?
• 29:11
  And how influential was a moment like that in what's now life for you?
• 29:18
  Yeah, that was pretty close.
• 29:20
  So my first race in Adelaide, I won my first heat race.
• 29:25
  That was that Brook Tatnal conversation we just had.
• 29:27
  And then the next one, I hung it from the catch fence.
• 29:29
  Okay.
• 29:30
  So I went from a really big hero to zero.
• 29:33
  And then so we fixed the car up and went to Warrnambool and went quick time at the World Series race and put it on the pole.
• 29:41
  Um, yeah, and that year I ran, uh, Fiss at, you know, the King's Challenge, which is a big race to, you know, behind Brian Brown.
• 29:49
  And, um, I'm pretty sure it was Craig Delansky, which were World of Outlaw guys.
• 29:52
  And I'm like, man, this is, it's a little easier than I thought it was going to be.
• 29:56
  And then the next year I was terrible.
• 29:58
  Okay.
• 29:59
  You know, so it, um, I don't think.
• 30:03
  There's a point where I thought, hey, I'm good enough to have a job.
• 30:08
  But I knew there was a point I had a little bit of talent.
• 30:12
  So I just wanted to pursue that.
• 30:14
  And I think making realistic goals is what helped me through all of that.
• 30:20
  I didn't go, I'm going to be a World of Outlaws superstar straight away.
• 30:24
  I reached goals and then made the next goal.
• 30:28
  Like, okay, if I win, if I make...
• 30:31
  A-Mains this year, it's going to be great.
• 30:32
  If I run top 10, then realistically, all right, I'm in it to win races now, and then I'll win a World Series Championship.
• 30:40
  And then I didn't go to America until I won an Australian title and won a World Series Championship, and then I was ready.
• 30:49
  Like, I went there ready, and we performed.
• 30:52
  Are you big on that sort of like goal setting or, or, or, or just even a target, even having a target?
• 30:56
  Yeah.
• 30:57
  Targets to me are big.
• 30:59
  And like I said, being realistic with your goals, you know, it's everyone wants to go and win, whether you're a, you know, V8 supercar, a go-kart guy that wants to be in V8 supercars, I'm going to win Bathurst.
• 31:09
  Well, that's not a realistic goal.
• 31:10
  You need to build up to get to that goal.
• 31:12
  So I've always sort of done that.
• 31:15
  Um, and I think that's helped my racing career, but yeah.
• 31:19
  Yeah, the end goal was always to be a professional sprint car driver and to do that you sort of need to be in America.
• 31:24
  So we just worked hard to get to that point.
• 31:27
  There was definitely points in that era that I thought I wasn't going to make it.
• 31:34
  We shipped cars to America with Scott Milling's deal and that whole deal fell through right at the last minute and that was, to me, my big chance to make it to America.
• 31:42
  I just remember sitting on the couch like, that's it.
• 31:46
  That was going to be...
• 31:47
  That was going to be it.
• 31:48
  And two days later, my phone rang an American car owner rang me to go and race their car for six weeks.
• 31:53
  I was all good again.
• 31:54
  So, you know, when I lost that ride when I was 17 with Dan Morton and went back to Brisbane, didn't know what I was going to do and just ended up driving anything I could get my hands on at the time.
• 32:08
  Um, I think that's a big difference between Speedway and, and a lot of asphalt stuff.
• 32:12
  You know, you, there's a lot of car owners out there that are willing to do five or six races here or there.
• 32:18
  So you just jump in what you can get.
• 32:19
  Yeah.
• 32:20
  Absolutely.
• 32:20
  But yeah, to be sitting here now is race on the world of outlaws tours is pretty crazy.
• 32:25
  Yeah.
• 32:26
  Do those tough moments teach you more in many respects and what, what has it taught you?
• 32:31
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:32
  Hard knocks always help.
• 32:35
  Sometimes for the better.
• 32:37
  Sometimes they're hard to get over.
• 32:40
  For example, this year for me, it took me 70 races to win a World of Outlaws race, which is terrible.
• 32:48
  And in a normal world, you're struggling to stay in that car and stay in a seat.
• 32:53
  So you lose that ride, then you're back to Australia.
• 32:57
  Yeah.
• 32:58
  Um, yeah, there's definitely times where you're, where you're on, on rock bottom.
• 33:03
  And you know, that, like I said, that when I lost that ride, when I was 17, we actually got a car, one of my mates car from out the back that was all rusty.
• 33:10
  And my dad and I put some torsion bars in it and sent it and we were on a tilt tray and, and we won that race.
• 33:16
  So then that, you know, I got to drive Reeve Crux Titan Garages car a couple of times because of that, you know, and then, and then that all just snowballs into something good, but
• 33:26
  Yeah, I think it makes you appreciate every opportunity you get and then car owners and sponsors see that and want to be a part of it.
• 33:34
  So it definitely helps, yeah.
• 33:36
  We'll get to some good things you have both America and here in the coming months and 2023 as we go in the conversation here.
• 33:43
  Can I ask you, when you pull that visor down, you have this beautiful easygoing nature about you.
• 33:47
  Our conversation is easy here, mate.
• 33:49
  But when the visor goes down, is James McFadden a different bloke?
• 33:53
  And what are you like?
• 33:54
  I'm the best race car driver that's ever lived.
• 33:58
  I think... That sounds cocky, but you have to have a bit of that, don't you?
• 34:01
  Yeah, I...
• 34:03
  So I have a, I sit here very calm and cruisy and I'm like that in life a lot.
• 34:09
  Not much bothers me, but I don't like to fail.
• 34:13
  Like I'll never give up.
• 34:15
  I've never given up in a race car ever.
• 34:17
  Like I'll always keep trying until it comes unglued basically.
• 34:22
  But I think that's what makes me where I am now is that,
• 34:29
  You know, I'm not happy to run 10th.
• 34:31
  You know, I'm not happy if my car's not good.
• 34:34
  I'll change everything I can possibly do to go faster.
• 34:38
  So I think, yeah, when my visor's shut, I'm just very aggressive, which is the complete opposite to what I am now.
• 34:46
  Yeah.
• 34:47
  Yeah, I think all race car drivers will tell you, you've got to have an ego.
• 34:51
  You have to.
• 34:53
  You won't lie.
• 34:53
  It's a brutal game otherwise.
• 34:55
  And you'll be too nice and you'll get pushed around and that's no good.
• 34:58
  Yeah.
• 34:59
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:00
  And sprint car racing's aggressive.
• 35:02
  People are going to use you up.
• 35:03
  You're going to get your butt hurt a lot about how people have driven you.
• 35:06
  And, you know, you just, the more you can fight back at that guy that did that, the more you're going to win.
• 35:12
  Win.
• 35:12
  Yeah.
• 35:14
  The extension to that question naturally leads to rivalries, right?
• 35:16
  Sport is built on rivalries.
• 35:18
  And invariably, as you climb the ladder in sport, you're going to have moments where you have either a coming together with someone or a disagreement with someone or whatever it might be.
• 35:27
  And the stuff, for example, with Robbie Farr is well documented.
• 35:32
  But respect to you because you have the ability to keep that to kind of the track when that's been like that.
• 35:39
  And if in the event that he walked in here now and we were all able to have a corona together, it would be okay, wouldn't it?
• 35:45
  Yeah.
• 35:45
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:47
  I grew up in the era where you could still get hit if you were smart.
• 35:52
  And I grew up with Robbie Farr, Kerry Madsen, Gary Brazier, guys that weren't scared to throw one if you did it.
• 36:01
  So you had to be respectful, but there was also a time where
• 36:04
  I thought I'd earned enough respect, you know, for them to do the same to me.
• 36:09
  And Robbie and I, we butted heads.
• 36:12
  And I probably picked the biggest, angriest guy in the pits to do that with, you know.
• 36:19
  But like I said, we can go to a barbecue right now and have 20 beers and it'd be fine.
• 36:24
  Not once you'd talk about racing or anything like that.
• 36:27
  So I have a lot of respect for what Robbie's done in racing.
• 36:33
  I don't agree all the time with the way he races sometimes, but that's just my opinion.
• 36:38
  And he probably thinks exactly the same about me.
• 36:41
  You know, Kerry Madsen and I have also had a very colourful past.
• 36:47
  as you can see on some YouTube videos.
• 36:49
  And then we were teammates this year in America.
• 36:51
  Crazy.
• 36:51
  Which is crazy and worked unreal, you know, helping each other get up and down the road.
• 36:55
  So, yeah, there's definitely the heroes and villains in spring car racing.
• 37:01
  And like I said before, we race so much compared to every other series that at some stage you're going to crash.
• 37:08
  Jamie Veal and myself were good friends and he crashed me one night and we were at the pub the next day and it was on the TV and the whole pub was like, oh, this is going to be bad.
• 37:17
  And we're just mates, you know.
• 37:19
  So it's, yeah, it's...
• 37:23
  I have rivals that are, you know, that I do like to race and guys that I'm like, man, this is going to be a brutal 30 laps because I know what's coming, but I think that's what's cool too.
• 37:34
  I love that elbows up, get mongrel, like let's have a, let's have a go.
• 37:38
  So, and it's going to turn into tears one out of the 10 times we do it for sure.
• 37:43
  Is it nice to be home mate?
• 37:44
  Because the schedule is massive for you.
• 37:47
  I mean, we, we, we, we
• 37:48
  You talk about a supercars championship of, I don't know, whatever it is, 12 or 14 rounds, and we're very proud of that.
• 37:54
  But what you do is just a whole nother level, you know, regular racing each week.
• 38:01
  I mean, it's – and crisscrossing across the country, which we'll get to.
• 38:04
  I mean, it's huge, isn't it?
• 38:06
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:07
  I think last year we did close to 110 races for the season between Australia and America, so busy.
• 38:17
  Like I said, I go to America on the – well, we race the Classic, and then I'll fly out the next week and go to Volusia in Florida, and that's the start of the World Outlaws season, and that runs till mid-November, so –
• 38:31
  Yeah, crazy miles.
• 38:33
  I drive – we live in a motorhome.
• 38:34
  I drive a motorhome.
• 38:35
  I think we do, you know, 20,000, 25,000 miles and, yeah, just race up and down the road.
• 38:42
  Your dad now is always with you on this.
• 38:43
  Yeah, so, yeah.
• 38:43
  So, yeah, I think the World of Outlaws schedule just come out.
• 38:47
  It was 84 races for this coming season.
• 38:50
  So, you know, with a rain out here or there and then you can throw in, you know, probably five or six other races we should be able to do, which –
• 38:57
  Yeah, which is busy for sure.
• 38:58
  But for me, I don't live in America.
• 39:01
  America's not my home.
• 39:02
  So I want to race as much as we can because it makes it worthwhile being there for sure.
• 39:07
  How sustainable is all that?
• 39:08
  Because it's, you know, it's tough, mate, but it is something to be greatly admired because you're chasing the dream.
• 39:15
  You're going to legendary places, a lot of hard work and all that.
• 39:20
  I mean, you know, from the success of a top five or a win or whatever it might be, and then the next day you're cleaning out the motorhome or whatever you're doing, you know.
• 39:30
  Yeah, unblocking the shit out of it.
• 39:33
  You said that on your... Yeah, so, yeah, it's crazy to sit here and think, well, we come from Alice Springs and we made it to the World of Outlaws Tour and then there was a stat the other day that came out, I'm the only fourth Australian to ever do the tour, which to me is mind-blowing with how many spring car races go backwards and forwards.
• 39:53
  It's a very special club, mate.
• 39:54
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 39:56
  But sustainability-wise is...
• 40:00
  Unless you win everything, you're not going to be a millionaire doing it.
• 40:04
  But you also get the chance to live the dream.
• 40:07
  I get to travel America with my boy and my wife.
• 40:12
  I've seen him grow up.
• 40:13
  He's a superstar in the pits now.
• 40:15
  He goes through and all the drivers high-five him and they take him on the four-wheelers around the track.
• 40:19
  And like it's...
• 40:21
  It's been a wild ride, but the cost of living over there, it's the same as here.
• 40:27
  It's expensive getting the motorhome up and down the road, and I have to do it the motorhome way because of the family and not owning a house and stuff over there.
• 40:36
  So yeah, I think for me, it's not a long-term deal.
• 40:42
  It's just a ticket off the list of the dream.
• 40:44
  And
• 40:45
  I sort of sometimes wish I was a little younger and these opportunities came up, but they didn't.
• 40:50
  And we're grabbing them with both hands now.
• 40:52
  Just for the benefit of our listeners, let's talk about that club, mate.
• 40:54
  And you'll correct me if I don't have this right, but it's Brooke, Kerry, Ian Madsen and yourself.
• 41:01
  Am I right?
• 41:01
  It's mega.
• 41:03
  Have you paused to take that in?
• 41:06
  Sometimes, yeah.
• 41:09
  We're so busy that it's crazy, but sometimes I actually, this year after the Knoxville Nationals, I just sat down at the track and was like, oh, wow, this is cool.
• 41:19
  That was our fourth Nationals in a row that we made.
• 41:23
  I didn't finish it, which was unfortunate, but it's still like, wow, this is cool.
• 41:27
  We ran second at Eldora, which is to me the ultimate racetrack.
• 41:31
  You sit there and you're like, man, this is...
• 41:34
  This is pretty wild.
• 41:37
  It's living, but then you've still got to turn around and be like, man, I haven't won a race in 70 races.
• 41:41
  Let's go.
• 41:42
  So I think when I do slow down and stop racing as much as what we do, I think I'll really sit down and be like, man, they were the best times of life.
• 41:53
  Like I said, I get to...
• 41:55
  I get to live my dream, race a car for a job and do it with my family.
• 41:58
  You can't really get much better than that.
• 42:00
  No, exactly.
• 42:01
  Speedway fans, the ears will automatically prick up at the thought of just famous, famous places.
• 42:08
  I mean, you talked about Knoxville or Eldora there.
• 42:11
  I mean, if there were midget fans, they might automatically think of Chili Bowl, for example.
• 42:16
  But there are other places that you get to race as well that may not be necessarily on the mainstream map.
• 42:20
  What about some of the other smaller, different venues?
• 42:23
  What's that like?
• 42:23
  What's that like?
• 42:24
  Yeah, some wild old hillbilly places we'd go to.
• 42:28
  I remember Waynesfield, Ohio.
• 42:30
  I jumped the cushion there and landed in the cornfield, like still going because there was no fence, and I had a corn husk on the back of my car.
• 42:40
  I'm like, man, this is just, it's pretty wild.
• 42:43
  So we race at some really wild places, some really cool places like Skagit, which is up near Seattle.
• 42:50
  You know, you're up near the ocean up in the whole backdrops, you know, the mountains with the snow on them and beautiful area.
• 42:57
  Like it's, it's unreal.
• 42:58
  And then you go to, you know, Vardo, New Mexico, which is in the desert, middle of nowhere.
• 43:04
  Yeah.
• 43:05
  Yeah, we get to race some wild places, see some really cool things.
• 43:09
  I've raced on Indian reservations in Canada, and I've raced, you know, Quebec area in Canada where they all spoke French.
• 43:16
  And, you know, I've been to some New Zealand.
• 43:19
  I've raced at Western Springs.
• 43:21
  Springs, yeah.
• 43:22
  Yeah, just...
• 43:24
  Got to travel a lot and do a lot of really cool things, see a lot of...
• 43:28
  I think the thing that's the craziest thing over there is their dirt's so much different at each place you go to.
• 43:32
  So your Pennsylvania dirt versus your California dirt versus your Iowa dirt, it's completely different.
• 43:39
  And you drive a car completely different at all of these places.
• 43:43
  I think that's the craziest part, which is probably hard to explain to anybody.
• 43:47
  The dirt color's different, so the grip levels are different, and the way your eyes look at the dirt's got to be completely different.
• 43:53
  So that, to me, is better than some of the little tracks we go to because it's so interesting...
• 44:00
  With the Outlaw Tour, we go to a place that, say, Pennsylvania, they race 100 times a year in Pennsylvania.
• 44:06
  You go to a track where Lance DeWeese has won 120 races at that one track.
• 44:11
  And we roll in there and we've got to beat them because we're the world of outlaws.
• 44:14
  And they know it intimately.
• 44:16
  Yeah, yeah.
• 44:17
  So I think that's the coolest part about the Outlaw Tour and travelling around to some of those tracks that, you know, most motorsport fans wouldn't know who Lance Deweese is, who, you know, who's won...
• 44:32
  hundreds of races in Pennsylvania and it's, you know, like, oh, he's not a mainstream guy.
• 44:38
  So it's, yeah, it's, that's the cool part.
• 44:40
  Yeah.
• 44:41
  The local, the local talent's cool.
• 44:43
  And you go to this random track that races 50 times a year.
• 44:46
  Yeah.
• 44:47
  I want to come back to your career in a second, but just a couple of things while we're on this, on this thread, if we can.
• 44:52
  Firstly, some of, I mean, you've mentioned Casey Cain before, that's kind of modern era.
• 44:56
  Are there some legends that you've had the chance to meet?
• 44:59
  And maybe there are others within that community now that are friends and colleagues.
• 45:03
  You're not a name dropper, right?
• 45:04
  But share with us some of the people that, because it ends up being a big community, a big family, who are some that you've rubbed shoulders with?
• 45:12
  Come on.
• 45:12
  Yeah.
• 45:13
  So Joe Gertie, he was, you know, his dad had Gertie race engines and in the 80s there, they were...
• 45:22
  If you didn't have a Gertie engine, Steve Kinzer, Sammy Swindells, they all had that.
• 45:26
  So I drove for him for two years and I actually lived in the hot rod shop on the couch in there.
• 45:32
  And the walls were just plastered with old school Victory Lane photos.
• 45:37
  Super.
• 45:38
  Like that stuff to me is unreal.
• 45:39
  So I'd sit in the trailer with Joe going up and down the road and say, like, give me a story from the 80s.
• 45:44
  Yeah, yeah.
• 45:44
  It's like I was on the podcast.
• 45:46
  I was giving him the... You're the interviewer.
• 45:48
  Yeah, yeah.
• 45:49
  So, you know, people like that were great.
• 45:51
  When I first drove in America, the 55 car, those four guys were, you know, all in their late 50s, early 60s and had been doing it for, you know, 40 years.
• 46:05
  And we went to the race shop and there was 50 seats up there from all the drivers that they've had over the years and guys...
• 46:12
  you know, like Billy Pouch and Dave Blaney and people like that drove.
• 46:15
  So to hear stories from them and that was a really fun time in my career with those guys.
• 46:21
  It was not a lot of expectations and just a lot of fun.
• 46:25
  So, you know, then obviously your Casey's and –
• 46:31
  Like Will Power was at the Charlotte, the last race of the world finals there.
• 46:36
  And we talked for an hour and he loves it.
• 46:38
  Mad spring car fan.
• 46:39
  He goes to Toowoomba all the time.
• 46:41
  Seeing Mark Webber at the Knoxville Nationals.
• 46:46
  I think you get to bump into a lot of people and talk to a lot of people over time.
• 46:52
  Like with Triple Eight, you get to meet all those guys.
• 46:55
  And when Casey Stoner was driving...
• 46:57
  you know you got to meet him so yeah we meet a lot of really good people and um i just i like the old school guys i'm i'm old school at heart i really enjoy the the racing back then when they were you know true outlaw style bobby allen for example i'm really good friends with his with his son and excellent you know you get to hang out and talk old stories with bobby allen in the middle of the desert somewhere it's pretty cool
• 47:26
  It sure is.
• 47:27
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with sprint car racer and family man James McFadden.
• 47:33
  The diesel mechanic turned engine builder is going all right, doing what he truly loves, chasing the American Speedway dream.
• 47:41
  Now we're releasing this in the lead up to the 50th edition of the grand annual Sprint Car Classic at Premier Speedway in Warrnambool.
• 47:48
  That's where James will be racing.
• 47:50
  It's a special event on the Aussie calendar.
• 47:53
  He's proud to be home for it.
• 47:54
  There will be a great line up there.
• 47:56
  So get along and enjoy it if you can.
• 47:59
  In the meantime, we have more of the pod for you to enjoy.
• 48:02
  James stuck around for part two, which is in the Rusty's Garage Library and all set for you to stand on the gas right now.
• 48:10
  From a possible next generation McFadden racer who loves it to bouncing back from a tough winless streak, going wheel to wheel with the likes of Shots, Sweet,
• 48:22
  and more.
• 48:23
  Plus the state of the game back home.
• 48:25
  A game with loads of potential.