Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief - the Easter Bunny at Bathurst!

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief - the Easter Bunny at Bathurst! · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  The Easter Bunny in Bathurst and the TV director in Formula One, asleep at the wheel.
• 0:09
  It's all ahead in this edition of Rusty's Garage.
• 0:15
  They're mutually exclusive topics, I should point out too, but we're going to talk to today's guest about both of them.
• 0:20
  G'day, everybody.
• 0:21
  Rusty here for this ep of the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:23
  Shortly to my good mate Richard Crail, who's at Mount Panorama to talk about the six hour and a few other yarns making news in motorsport.
• 0:31
  He's a busy man, so we won't keep him waiting long.
• 0:33
  shameless plug for recent feature episodes.
• 0:36
  But did you know you can now watch a few of them too?
• 0:38
  We have just shared the Max Pappas ep on our listener YouTube channel.
• 0:43
  That's listener, L-I-S-T-N-R. And if you search for that or Rusty's Garage at Max Pappas, you should be able to find it.
• 0:50
  I'll put the link in the ep description for this one too.
• 0:53
  There are some great yarns in that chat.
• 0:55
  And he shows you around his MPI or Max Pappas innovations in Charlotte, North Carolina too.
• 1:01
  And I took a cameraman and producer...
• 1:03
  Braden from Scrambler, who I work with on the NextGenNZ coverage in New Zealand with me for the Steve Horn feature episode two.
• 1:11
  The audio version of that pod is already in our library for you to enjoy at all the regular places, but the YouTube or video
• 1:19
  of that episode will be out soon, so keep an eye out for that.
• 1:22
  Some cool discussion in there, wonderful memories that he and his wife Christine have kept along the way.
• 1:28
  You'll see a bit of that during the video of the conversation.
• 1:31
  Steve, I sense, has been quite selective with the media over time, just kind of quietly getting on with it, but he was up for this chat.
• 1:39
  It is one of the best that we have done, thanks mainly to Steve, who was open and really candid.
• 1:45
  Now, the
• 1:46
  Kralese is back on the pod today.
• 1:48
  And I think we last had him on when those peanuts invaded the track at Albert Park a couple of years ago.
• 1:53
  Well done to everybody at this year's F1 race for being so well behaved.
• 1:57
  It was great to see the crowd on the main straight after the Grand Prix wrapped up.
• 2:03
  is one of those people who has a real penchant for cars, for racing.
• 2:08
  He's so good at commentary, bloody good at that.
• 2:11
  He leads the world-class coverage of the Bathurst 12-hour, coordinates and calls the 6-hour, and he hasn't missed a 1,000 in probably about 20 years.
• 2:20
  He is back at his home away from home.
• 2:22
  Hello, mate.
• 2:23
  Hello, mate.
• 2:24
  I regret buying property here when it was still affordable.
• 2:26
  I'm not going to lie.
• 2:27
  Nice to talk to you, mate.
• 2:29
  Are the snakes in hibernation?
• 2:32
  Yes, the snakes are.
• 2:33
  The kangaroos are out en masse, though.
• 2:36
  Oh.
• 2:37
  It fills its plague proportions up the back of the paddock, so there'll be some management required, I think, by our friends at the Bathurst Regional Council this weekend because they are everywhere trying to find somewhere green because it's very, very dry here at the moment.
• 2:51
  So I think they're trying to find a food source.
• 2:54
  Do you feel like we have the balance kind of right now?
• 2:57
  You and I love the Bathurst International, right?
• 2:59
  But it almost sort of pains me to say this, that the truth is one less event there each year is probably a good thing, right?
• 3:06
  Yeah, I think the less is more philosophy does apply to Mount Panorama.
• 3:11
  And we want to keep this place special and keep the aura that it has and how important it is to our sport on both sides of the ditch, but even further abroad as well.
• 3:23
  I think if there's another Bathurst event, it needs to be something completely different from what's here.
• 3:29
  We've got the Great Race in October, the biggest sporting event in Australia.
• 3:33
  We've got the 12-hour, which is the International Bathurst, and we've got the 6-hour this weekend, which is the...
• 3:39
  egalitarian Bathurst.
• 3:40
  It's the Bathurst everyone can play at if they want to.
• 3:43
  I think it needs to be a completely different tack, something fundamentally different so it has its own IP and its own standalone sort of nature and doesn't have much crossover, if any at all, with what's there at the moment.
• 3:57
  I've just come from George Begg Festival on the South Island of New Zealand.
• 4:01
  I mean, hypothetically, a retro, a historic, a Goodwood-style event, maybe that even blends a few manufacturers, that could maybe work, couldn't it?
• 4:11
  Yeah, I think, honestly, that's the only tangible option I could think of in my mind.
• 4:17
  And having been involved in Bathurst events here in the management side for sort of 15 years, I think that stands out.
• 4:23
  And if you look at the historic events in Australia, you look at what they do down at Phillip Island, and they get more than 400 entries for that at Phillip Island.
• 4:32
  And internationals coming from around the world to race there.
• 4:35
  Imagine what that would be like today.
• 4:37
  here at Mount Panorama, I think the appeal would be massive.
• 4:40
  You'd get 500 cars and that in its own is great for local economies and tourism and filling hotel rooms, which is what local government and even broader than that the New South Wales government wants to see.
• 4:51
  So I think that's the most logical option.
• 4:54
  But even then, Rusty, I don't think you can make it just...
• 4:57
  Let's put some historic car racing on.
• 4:59
  I think you'd need to build other stuff around it and try and innovate really hard, like Goodwood do so well.
• 5:06
  And they've built such a unique IP for all of their various different events.
• 5:10
  Yeah, good to have a point of difference, I think, if they ever did that.
• 5:15
  Bathurst six hour this weekend.
• 5:16
  You'd love it, I know.
• 5:17
  Awesome way to spend Easter.
• 5:19
  What is it?
• 5:19
  70 plus entries.
• 5:21
  This is like the glory days.
• 5:22
  Just remind people of what grid capacity is there and how you get down to that number.
• 5:27
  Well, grid capacity is 72.
• 5:29
  That is the maximum allowable number of cars for the length of the racetrack.
• 5:34
  And I'm fortunate enough for us to stay at Ridges this weekend at Mount Panorama, so overlooking the racetrack, which is pretty special, just to walk out of your room in the morning and see the campsite waking up.
• 5:46
  But as I look out of my window, I can see to my left the iconic bridge going over Conrod Strait, and then not far away from that, I can see grid position 71,
• 5:55
  One and 72.
• 5:56
  So they will go all the way up, basically to the start of pit entry at Mount Panorama, which is incredible.
• 6:03
  What a sight.
• 6:05
  It has the potential, Rusty, to be the biggest field for a Bathurst race ever.
• 6:09
  So the record is 64 cars, which was set by this race in 2017.
• 6:14
  The great race, the 1,000, had 63 entries on three occasions, or 63 starters.
• 6:20
  We've got everything crossed,
• 6:22
  this weekend that we get everyone safely through three practice sessions and two qualifying sessions and somehow we can start 70 plus cars on Easter Sunday.
• 6:32
  It'd be amazing.
• 6:33
  Love the thought of you breaking that record.
• 6:34
  What did you say before?
• 6:36
  Egalitarian, I think.
• 6:37
  Lovely blend of kind of those that want to tick the Bathurst bucket list and a few guns in there as well.
• 6:43
  Who are the favourites going into this weekend?
• 6:45
  Oh, well, like every Bathurst race, that's a tough question, mate, because it is a very good field.
• 6:52
  And forgive me if I sit firmly on the Mount Panorama Conrod Straight fence here.
• 6:57
  But look, I think first and foremost, you can't go past the defending champions who have won this race the last two years.
• 7:03
  Simon Hodges, who's a businessman from Sydney, who just is a passionate racer.
• 7:08
  He's got Jadon Ojeda alongside him.
• 7:10
  You and I have been fortunate enough to call the Juicers races over the last couple of years in GT racing.
• 7:15
  And you know that when he gets behind the wheel, cool things happen.
• 7:19
  And then last year they added a friend of the show, George Medici, to the squad for a really well-rounded three-up driver combination.
• 7:28
  I think they're the favourites to go back to back to back.
• 7:31
  they're such a well-rounded, broad combo.
• 7:33
  But there's a couple of dark horses in this race as well that I'm looking at.
• 7:38
  And one of them is a Ford Mustang running in class A2, which is the big V8 powered muscle car class.
• 7:45
  And it's Gomiselle Motorsport, who are doing great things in Super 2 at the moment.
• 7:48
  Jason Gomiselle, who has been here plenty of times.
• 7:51
  And he's got Aaron Seaton and Todd Hazelwood, the Bathurst 1000 and Trans Am champ.
• 7:55
  driving with him.
• 7:57
  The way the rules work, Rusty, in this race are that those cars do two less pit stops than the BMWs in the outright class.
• 8:04
  And if this is a race with some safety car and some unpredictability, and let's be honest, it's Bathurst.
• 8:09
  That'll happen.
• 8:09
  It will be.
• 8:10
  Yes, exactly.
• 8:10
  Yes, exactly.
• 8:12
  there's a really good chance if they stay on the lead lap they could be right at the front of the race at the end of six hours and that would be pretty exciting all right what about you love your cars i know that there is the most diverse array of machines in this 70 or so field are there a couple of others that have caught your eye and and that are stories for different reasons
• 8:30
  Well, there are.
• 8:31
  I was wandering up and down the pits when I got into Mount Panorama this week, and it's such a wonderful atmosphere here.
• 8:38
  Everyone's up and about and enjoying themselves, and there's a mixture of professional teams like Garth Walden Racing, for example, who are running five cars across three different classes.
• 8:48
  And then you've got old mate right down the end of pit lane with the Toyota Camry.
• 8:51
  Camry.
• 8:52
  And I know that's what you wanted me to talk about.
• 8:54
  Yes.
• 8:55
  And we went and quizzed the Camry guys about what they changed year on year.
• 8:59
  So there were two key things.
• 9:01
  One, they bought a donor car in Bathurst last year.
• 9:04
  So they bought a spare car.
• 9:06
  They put the Facebook marketplace on, set the radius to 50Ks, and within a few hours found a Camry that they bought at the event last year as the spare car.
• 9:15
  Unreal.
• 9:15
  Unreal.
• 9:15
  So one of the things that's changed is they've put 4,500 Ks on that spare car because it turns out it's very good as a road car.
• 9:22
  Two, they've crocheted a cover for the tissue box on the parcel shelf this year.
• 9:27
  Didn't have it last year.
• 9:29
  It's an important performance upgrade for the Camry.
• 9:31
  Absolutely.
• 9:32
  That's what makes this event so special is you've got the World Championship at the front, but then you've got these three guys from the coast who all they want to do is race at Bathurst and have a good time and have fun and embrace it for everything that it is.
• 9:47
  And that's what makes this event so, so unbelievably special.
• 9:51
  Crocheted tissue box cover.
• 9:53
  Who would have thought that would be a lucky charm, hey?
• 9:56
  SupportCast is awesome.
• 9:57
  What is it?
• 9:58
  41 Trans Ams, and the field bolstered by the likes of Sprint Car star Robbie Farr, the TA2 competitors.
• 10:05
  This is awesome, isn't it?
• 10:06
  Yeah, biggest ever field for the category in either version.
• 10:10
  TA2, which has traditionally been the more Queensland and state-based category, and Trico Trans Am, the national category.
• 10:17
  Amazing grid.
• 10:18
  It is stacked.
• 10:19
  I think 28 Mustangs, 16 Camaros and one Dodge Challenger, Todd Hazelwood, James Moffat, a bunch of young stars at the front of the field.
• 10:30
  It's every bit as competitive as Super 2 this year, the Trans Am series.
• 10:35
  It's awesome.
• 10:36
  It's going to be very, very competitive.
• 10:40
  There's something for everyone.
• 10:41
  There's this historic touring car field.
• 10:42
  The Australian Prototype Series is here with their sort of open-top sports cars, Radicals and Wolves and things like that.
• 10:51
  And then some one-make racing from the Hyundai Excels, which are always three and a half wide down Conrod Strait and sort of you look away from the television and hope they come out the other side and a bunch of other fascinating broad categories as well.
• 11:03
  So like I said, it's the Bathurst that lets everybody come and play when they might not otherwise have the opportunity.
• 11:10
  Brilliant.
• 11:10
  Broadcast is yourself, Aaron Noonan, Matt Nolte, our good mate.
• 11:13
  Brian Vanderwacker is with you too.
• 11:15
  He did a very good job and has done in recent years.
• 11:17
  Plus, a flock of barguanas.
• 11:20
  Your best promo for the broadcast and times, please.
• 11:25
  saw Jason last night at the bar, I might add, and he was having a non-alcoholic beverage.
• 11:31
  He's on team manager duties this weekend.
• 11:34
  And we couldn't get his attention.
• 11:35
  Jason, Jason.
• 11:36
  And then to get his attention all we did was, how good's this?
• 11:39
  And he wandered over straight away.
• 11:41
  So he answers to his little catchphrase.
• 11:43
  No, it's great.
• 11:43
  Jason's a very good
• 11:45
  motorsport broadcaster and an analyst to tell you what's going on and his son Ben we we chucked him in the darp uh deep end at this event last year in pit lane and with all the challenges that go around being in pit lane for a motor race and he did an outstanding job and it was fun to see him go and target some of his mates in the paddock as well and and I think that he's a great team
• 12:06
  gets a little bit more out of them perhaps when one of your buddies that you race against week in week out is coming and asking you the question so he's another annoyingly talented rusty young racing car driver who's going to put you and I out of a job at some point but um yeah it's a it's a great broadcast to be a part of it's it's fun and nine and a half hours on free to air tv in Australia across SBS plus
• 12:27
  Fox and KO, and then there's an international stream as well on YouTube, which fans will be able to access through the Bathurst 6-Hour website to watch around the world, because there is genuine overseas interest in this race as well.
• 12:38
  A quick break here on Rusty's Garage.
• 12:40
  We'll get Richard Crail to stick around with us and talk about a few other things happening in the world of motorsport right after this.
• 12:49
  You're listening to the Motorsport Brief, the 300th episode of everything we've ever published on the short cast.
• 12:54
  And fittingly, a mate has come on to be a part of it.
• 12:58
  Let's get back to chatting with the unofficial mayor of Mount Panorama, Richard Crail now.
• 13:05
  Stumpy, who's the Mathis mayor, I think, who's the actually elected mayor, might disagree with that statement, but I'll take it.
• 13:12
  It'd be a role I would be proud to serve.
• 13:14
  Very good.
• 13:14
  Reluctant to get too excited here because there's a long way to go in Formula One.
• 13:18
  But Oscar Piastri might end up costing a few people a bit of money given the pre-season bets on Lando Norris.
• 13:24
  Yeah, what a performance.
• 13:26
  The dominant.
• 13:27
  I was trying to think the last time we had an Aussie dominated Grand Prix that comprehensively across the weekend –
• 13:35
  Pole position, drove away, safety car closed the field up, drove away again.
• 13:40
  It was imperious in the way that he pulled that field apart to the point where the TV director forgot to show him crossing the line because he was so far up the road.
• 13:50
  outstanding and I think we all questioned going into the season that what would this version of Oscar Piastri be like we know he had the smarts in racecraft land but I think we were all wondering if he could get his qualifying act together which was the weak point last season and that's a big tick and then he's just completely at this point he's completely unbreakable it seems there's no
• 14:13
  pressure that he gets put under that seems to change his approach or his attitude or the way he attacks the Grand Prix it's cool it's calm um it's understated almost but they're the kind of performances that over the years the Sebastian Vettels of the world and the Lewis Hamiltons of the world have put in and won the world championships so
• 14:36
  For all the spectacular moments, you just need a race where you drive up the road, disappear, do nothing spectacular at all and dominate.
• 14:42
  And that's what we got from Oscar.
• 14:43
  And, you know, he's a couple of points away from leading the world championship.
• 14:46
  Could be leading it after another track that I think will suit him this weekend in Saudi.
• 14:51
  And five races in, who knows?
• 14:53
  We could have an Aussie on top, which is hugely exciting for the sport.
• 14:57
  Massive.
• 14:57
  Now, probably shouldn't throw stones because it's a very difficult job.
• 15:01
  The TV director has come in for a bit of a pasting on the Bahrain coverage too, a bit ordinary, focusing on the battle for second and third toward the end when the winner crosses the line.
• 15:10
  It'd be a bit like doing that at the Melbourne Cup, wouldn't it?
• 15:12
  You'd always give the winner their rightful moment in the sun.
• 15:15
  This is wrong.
• 15:16
  Yeah, I agree with you totally.
• 15:18
  And I'd sort of liken it to the Masters, which were on at the same time.
• 15:22
  And imagine them not showing Rory McIlray sink that putt to win the Masters and show the guy in second place losing the race or losing the competition.
• 15:32
  It was a strange choice.
• 15:33
  And I don't know if just got caught up in the moment of that battle between Lando Norris and George Russell.
• 15:40
  Yeah, it was a strange one, mate.
• 15:42
  TV is hard, as you know better than most, and directing especially, so when you've got so many options about what you can take and what you can show, but I'm a big believer that you need to give the person...
• 15:55
  that's won the race their moment in the sun.
• 15:57
  Because for all the great battles that might happen down the field, ultimately the objective is to win the car race.
• 16:03
  So you need to give that just desert to the person that's done it.
• 16:06
  And I don't buy into all the stuff about it being a conspiracy against Australian drivers and the Bricks are dominating the sport and all that stuff.
• 16:14
  But I think it's important that you do get to see the winner across the line.
• 16:19
  And they missed a trick there, which is rare in Formula 1's very, very impressive world feed broadcast that they put out.
• 16:25
  Couple to finish here.
• 16:26
  Liam.
• 16:27
  Can Liam Lawson get out of this funk?
• 16:29
  And how you've seen him race over the years.
• 16:31
  I really thought he was going to be strong here.
• 16:33
  Yeah, it's been tough.
• 16:35
  It's been one of the hardest things to watch all season.
• 16:37
  I think the other challenge as well is that I don't know if anyone particularly expected Isaac Hadjar to be as good as he is.
• 16:44
  And with all the respect in the world to Isaac, who had a really solid junior career in the progression through Formula 3 and Formula 2.
• 16:52
  But he's come in and he has been the rookie, I think, of the year so far in terms of his career.
• 16:58
  his performance.
• 17:00
  So that's a tough ask for Liam to line up against as well.
• 17:03
  And as a result, Hadjar's getting all the plaudits there.
• 17:07
  Man, it's a tough ask.
• 17:08
  But you and I have seen enough of Liam over the journey.
• 17:12
  We know that he's a talented enough racing car driver to do the job.
• 17:15
  I'm not worried about that.
• 17:16
  I think he can.
• 17:17
  I think he just needs a couple of races where he just goes about his business, banks some confidence, and then builds up to it.
• 17:24
  And
• 17:25
  I hope he gets there, Rusty.
• 17:26
  We know he's good enough to get there.
• 17:28
  And for me, that's good enough.
• 17:30
  And for you, that's probably good enough.
• 17:31
  But ultimately, you need to get the results.
• 17:34
  And I hope that level of talent that we know he's got can be demonstrated to everyone else that's watching on.
• 17:40
  Yep, he did such a super job in recent years.
• 17:43
  Just got to get that confidence back.
• 17:44
  Couple on supercars.
• 17:45
  Towport crowds were down a bit.
• 17:47
  Lots of positives.
• 17:48
  And I reckon the variety of winners that we continue to get in supercars, we could get even more as the year goes on.
• 17:53
  Oh, totally.
• 17:54
  There are very strong guys in that field who are yet to win a race.
• 17:57
  And I think we'll, this season, a couple of takeaways.
• 18:00
  The crowd thing's interesting for mine.
• 18:02
  I think it's probably settling now, Topor, as to the balance of that event.
• 18:07
  And I think that is a more realistic indicator of how many people will go to that event than year one was.
• 18:13
  There was this massive sugar rush of that first event.
• 18:16
  Oh, supercars are back in New Zealand.
• 18:18
  New location, lots of tourists.
• 18:20
  It was an extraordinary weekend.
• 18:22
  Yeah.
• 18:22
  This is probably just it finding its point, and there'll be some adjustment required to that.
• 18:28
  I don't think it's a black mark on Topor or supercars for that matter.
• 18:32
  I think it'll level itself out, and you need to keep in mind that it is three hours south of Auckland and 90 minutes south of Hamilton, so it is a tough event to...
• 18:41
  to go to and to stay at for the three days.
• 18:43
  So I think that's an element, but I'm not worried about the passion for supercars in New Zealand.
• 18:49
  And the other fact you raise is how competitive it is.
• 18:52
  And I think the performance on the weekend showed that this new final system is going to work, Rusty, because...
• 18:57
  Matt Payne went out and smoked everyone in two of the three races.
• 19:00
  What if he does that at the Adelaide 500 or the BP Adelaide Grand Finale as it is now?
• 19:06
  What if he does that there and he's in that top four in the championship?
• 19:09
  He could win the show.
• 19:10
  There is no doubt in my mind that he could be a contender.
• 19:14
  And it's now...
• 19:16
  and on any given weekend kind of philosophy in supercars, and I love it.
• 19:21
  I'm here for that.
• 19:22
  I think it's going to make a great show as this year builds and builds.
• 19:25
  But the racing product is great, Rusty, and that's the main thing.
• 19:28
  They've got the racing product where it needs to be, and it's box office now most times they get the racetrack, so that's a massive tick for the sport, I think.
• 19:37
  Brodie Kostecki, Will Davison, our good buddy, Thomas Randall, they're all competitive.
• 19:41
  We could conceivably have 10 different race winners going into those playoffs, which would be huge.
• 19:47
  Bit of chat about Berto.
• 19:48
  I still think he's doing a good job.
• 19:50
  We will always blue about umpires in any sport, right?
• 19:54
  You love your AFL, your cricket and so on.
• 19:57
  I'm a fan of the play on thing.
• 20:00
  It's a difficult thing to police.
• 20:01
  I get that.
• 20:02
  But play on is my exact words here, I reckon.
• 20:07
  I think they've got the balance right.
• 20:08
  I genuinely do.
• 20:10
  I'm very much on Team Beardo with this in how the sport is being policed.
• 20:15
  And, you know, it's so easy to default to having a crack at the umpires.
• 20:21
  And, you know, there are crowd reactions in AFL that are famous for when an umpire refuses to pay holding the ball or something along those lines.
• 20:29
  But...
• 20:31
  I think the approach has been great.
• 20:32
  The sport needed it, honestly.
• 20:34
  And a good sport needs the umpiring to match the show side of things.
• 20:40
  And it's up to the umpire to officiate the game, if you will, to allow it to be entertaining.
• 20:47
  And Beardoke could clamp down on all of this stuff and we'd end up with a 24-car procession and nothing would happen and everyone would be bored and the sport would suffer.
• 20:54
  And not just supercars, everyone, because people would turn off.
• 20:58
  So, there has to be a balance.
• 21:01
  Maybe they swung a little bit too far one way, but I think the product on the weekend was genuinely very good.
• 21:08
  Of all of it, there was one call that raised some question marks, which was that Ryan Wood side-by-side moment through turn seven.
• 21:16
  he ran him out of road and probably deserved a five-second penalty.
• 21:19
  In the end, it didn't cost him much at all.
• 21:20
  So I think it's great.
• 21:22
  I think it's good for the show, and I think Craig's doing a super job in the way that they're managing the sport this year for sure.
• 21:28
  As always, you are awesome with your time.
• 21:30
  Have a fantastic weekend at Bathurst.
• 21:32
  You have used the word imperious.
• 21:34
  You have used other words in this podcast today.
• 21:38
  Is there a word we should keep an eye out for that you will weave into the call this weekend?
• 21:43
  Ambidextrous, perhaps.
• 21:44
  Ambidextrous is something I am not.
• 21:49
  Yes.
• 21:50
  Well, there's some that I can't bring up, but we did do a little bit of important planning, Rusty, yesterday in the Bathurst Six Hour Paddock, which was looking for an end-of-season cricket trip.
• 22:01
  So there may be a reference to the Ashes and the MCG at some point in the broadcast on Sunday to some of the members of said cricket team.
• 22:10
  So maybe that's something to look out for.
• 22:13
  Love it, mate.
• 22:13
  Have a fantastic call.
• 22:14
  Thanks again.
• 22:15
  Thanks, brother.
• 22:17
  That is it for today.
• 22:18
  Bit of motorsport around to enjoy this weekend, including F1 in Saudi, as Richard said there, the Bathurst six-hour that he'll be front and centre of.
• 22:26
  Hope you and your families all have a really nice Easter break.
• 22:29
  Take care on the roads, and we'll catch you next week.
• 22:32
  Bye for now.