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The Motorsport Brief: with MotoGP Star Jack Miller · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Monday, the 2nd of October, 2023.
• 0:09
  It's Bathurst Week, and we will have a special edition of this shortcast in the days ahead dedicated to the 1,000.
• 0:17
  But with the footy grand finals out of the way, October also means we are getting excited about MotoGP.
• 0:24
  And our guests today will be going all out in front of his home crowd at Phillip Island.
• 0:30
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this ep of Rusty's Garage, our sprint or short form version of the podcast.
• 0:37
  Don't forget, Charlie Schwerko, Team 18 owner, is our latest feature guest.
• 0:42
  It's a two-parter, around 40 minutes each, from the early days of his family business, Waverley Forklifts, to building it to a point where he could indulge a passion for cars and racing.
• 0:53
  and ultimately establish what we now know as Team 18, with Mark Winterbottom in Supercast there and David Reynolds joining them next year too.
• 1:02
  Plus the time Charlie went fishing with an American president, George Bush Sr., and how close he went to...
• 1:10
  to signing Marcus Ambrose.
• 1:12
  That's a good story.
• 1:13
  And we recently did something a little different too, an ep with one of the emerging characters of the Super Ute class, Dave Casey.
• 1:20
  That is a two-parter as well.
• 1:22
  You'll learn about the role that he's played in helping to build one of the biggest four-wheel drive shows in the country that's been huge for North Queensland and how a cheap little Toyota started it all.
• 1:34
  Lots of nice feedback on that one.
• 1:36
  Mud Flap, they call him because of his trademark mullet or mullet.
• 1:40
  Now, for this edition of The Brief, we have MotoGP in the spotlight with the sport back in our part of the world and gearing up for the Aussie round in Victoria in the coming weeks.
• 1:50
  Been a challenging year so far for Jack Miller on the KTM after switching from Ducati.
• 1:56
  It's our first chance to catch up with him here on the garage.
• 1:59
  And as always, he's a straight talker with a positive outlook on the future, both short and longer term.
• 2:05
  As you'll hear, there's some good ingredients coming too that he believes will turn his year around.
• 2:14
  Jack, welcome to the pod.
• 2:15
  Thank you.
• 2:15
  Thank you for having me.
• 2:16
  It's great to catch up with you.
• 2:18
  Can we start with something a little different from Two Wheels for a moment?
• 2:22
  14th of September, your beautiful life changed forever for you and Ruby with the arrival of Pip.
• 2:30
  How much are you enjoying being a dad?
• 2:32
  How are the grandparents, your folks?
• 2:34
  And are you a world champion nappy changer now?
• 2:37
  How's all that?
• 2:38
  Yeah, going good, mate.
• 2:40
  As you said, I mean, no one can ever prepare you.
• 2:44
  I mean, people try and tell you and, you know...
• 2:47
  what to expect and so on and so forth.
• 2:49
  But, I mean, the amount of emotions and everything that you go through is just endless world.
• 2:56
  It was something definitely really special.
• 2:58
  As you said, you know, we squeezed it in there.
• 3:01
  I've only been on the clock for about six days.
• 3:07
  But, no, I mean, really looking forward to getting back to them.
• 3:10
  But, no, I'm doing all right.
• 3:11
  Honestly, I had to have a strong word with myself there.
• 3:15
  about day two in the hospital because the swallows I was doing were terrible.
• 3:20
  So I really, really, really had to take note of what the nurses were doing and get that down.
• 3:24
  But I got it down pretty quick.
• 3:26
  And I was working pretty well at it at the end there.
• 3:29
  And getting back to the nappies pretty soon on my children.
• 3:32
  The wife's pretty tired of doing them all by herself.
• 3:36
  Lovely stuff, mate.
• 3:37
  Lovely stuff.
• 3:37
  Give us a report card on the season so far, given that we're in the back end of the championship and how you feel about 2023 on balance.
• 3:45
  Fine.
• 3:46
  Fine at the moment.
• 3:47
  It started out a little bit higher, but it's gone down the last couple of weeks.
• 3:50
  Just been struggling a little bit, trying to find my way a little bit.
• 3:54
  I feel like we kind of hit like a ceiling.
• 3:56
  That's how I hope it's a false ceiling.
• 3:58
  I hope we can blow through it.
• 4:00
  You know, it's just one of those things when you take on a new project, you know, we hit the ground running really well and then we kind of plateaued a little bit and right at the point when everyone seems to be getting faster and faster every weekend.
• 4:14
  So we're working really, really hard trying to understand what I need to do both with my riding and what I need from the bike.
• 4:21
  And we're getting there and I'm assuming in the next couple of races we'll be able to...
• 4:27
  So start working our way back up to the pointy end, if not getting back up in that pointy end.
• 4:32
  We've got some clear headway on where we're going and also some decent stuff in the pipeline.
• 4:38
  So looking forward to it.
• 4:40
  Excellent.
• 4:40
  That could be encouraging for Phillip Island.
• 4:42
  How much are you looking forward to getting back down there and given what you've just said, the possibility of a strong result at home perhaps?
• 4:51
  No, definitely.
• 4:52
  That's the main goal, obviously, is to do well at home.
• 4:56
  Obviously, going there on the last couple of results hasn't been ideal, but no, with the... You know, ever since I hopped on this bike, the feeling is it would work unreal at a place like Dillipot where you're kind of carrying high corner speed.
• 5:09
  You need to have those fast change of directions and you're under power doing so.
• 5:15
  The bike's really agile, but then also handles the wind really well, and...
• 5:20
  So, which is generally a big factor down at the island.
• 5:23
  So, I'm looking forward to getting there.
• 5:26
  I'm looking forward to getting there after some solid results here and in Indo as well.
• 5:32
  When you arrived at KTM from Ducati, what's the biggest difference you noticed in the bikes?
• 5:36
  And my question is twofold there, Jack, not just the machine, but also the people and the way they go about the business of motorcycle racing.
• 5:45
  The differences were obviously, you know, very big in terms of bike and stuff like that, but it's just a different way of –
• 5:56
  There's a lot of things different and a lot of things the same, I guess you can say, because, I mean, if we look at the outright pace and the outright lap times, I mean, we're all, you know, within, you know, a second, let's say.
• 6:07
  So, I mean, the bikes are all absolute rocket ships nowadays, and but they go about the lap maybe in a different, you know, way.
• 6:19
  And it's been a really awesome experience learning the bike and developing the bike to where we have it now and continuing on that.
• 6:30
  And working with these guys, you know, I've never worked with a bunch of people that are so hungry and so motivated to try and achieve greatness.
• 6:40
  You know, it's been really refreshing.
• 6:42
  Yeah.
• 6:43
  Not to say obviously Ducati were pushing for mega results always, but these guys are so young in this championship still and they're pushing like never before to try and achieve the pinnacle, the top of it.
• 7:00
  And I don't think they'll let up until they get it.
• 7:02
  And it's so awesome to be a part of that.
• 7:04
  And my own worst critic or my own worst, let's say,
• 7:13
  most toughest critic, I guess you could say, when it comes to results and stuff like that, and I can see how much these guys are pushing, and I'm doing the same, trying to take the maximum out for them while they're on the track.
• 7:28
  So it's an awesome environment to be in.
• 7:30
  It's a very productive environment in terms of working, so that makes the driver's job all that much easier.
• 7:36
  How have you dealt with that, mate?
• 7:38
  Because clearly you're being a part of the ingredients here, helping them develop.
• 7:43
  I think even Brad's made comment about the kind of input you've had and the effect that you have had.
• 7:49
  Is it nice to be playing that sort of role, some of the learnings that you brought from Ducati to this environment?
• 7:54
  And how do you compartmentalize that stuff when it is a bit challenging?
• 7:58
  Yeah, it's awesome to first of all be in the position where you can have that knowledge where you've been able to build up a library and people want that knowledge and that experience.
• 8:10
  So it's awesome to be in that position but then also to be able to translate it and give the clearest feedback that we possibly can towards the guys is another thing.
• 8:19
  And just doing that has been a lot of fun and...
• 8:24
  you know, a refreshing experience and it's almost like starting over again.
• 8:28
  It's kind of cool.
• 8:29
  And, you know, I think with these guys, we can really do it right.
• 8:34
  We can really take the maximum out of it.
• 8:38
  We'll keep plugging away at it.
• 8:40
  As I said, it's still so new, not only for them, but also me and them together, us all together.
• 8:48
  So it's such a new project.
• 8:51
  In racing, you're always going to have your ups and your downs.
• 8:53
  And you can't let your downs get you down too far, and you can't let your ups get your feet off the ground too much.
• 9:00
  So we're just trying to put in the work now and finish the season out strong.
• 9:07
  We've got some, like I said, some really, really, really cool stuff in the pipeline and some really revolutionary stuff in the pipeline.
• 9:15
  So I think these guys are pushing hard and they're not lifting their foot off the gas and they want to achieve the top.
• 9:23
  So to try and just give them the clearest feedback so that we don't get lost, so that we don't lose track of where we are and how far we've come is the most important thing at this point in time.
• 9:34
  We have seen how disciplined, how committed they are in other kinds of racing, from Dakar to, you know, motocross and more.
• 9:44
  So I'm not surprised about that, mate.
• 9:46
  You rode that carbon fibre chassis that Danny Pedrosa raced as a wild card in a test after the Mizano round.
• 9:52
  What did you think?
• 9:52
  And maybe you can't share it at this stage, but is that some of the stuff in the pipeline perhaps that you're talking about, maybe venturing down that path?
• 9:59
  Yeah, we can't really talk about it all that much.
• 10:03
  Our garage is pretty much open to whoever wants it all the time, as you'll see down at the island.
• 10:11
  I mean, we have the doors open all the time.
• 10:15
  So anybody who wants to come past and have a look, I mean, we're not going to specifically go and tell everybody what we're doing, but anybody who wants to come and have a look, I'm all the welcome to come and have a look.
• 10:24
  But, yeah, we've got some pretty impressive stuff in the pipeline that we may or may not see in the near future.
• 10:31
  Okay.
• 10:32
  Michael Heaton, who you have worked with over time, great Aussie television producer, kind of reminded me a bit, you know, Daniel Ricciardo took the shoeie mainstream in Formula One and sport.
• 10:44
  You've kind of pioneered the stoppie and now it looks like everyone's more or less doing it, mate, aren't they?
• 10:49
  I was also the first one to do the Shoei as well.
• 10:51
  Shoei, yeah.
• 10:53
  And then, yeah, the stoppie's taken off simply because these guys put too many electronics on these bikes now and you can't really get away with too many wheelies.
• 11:03
  You can try and trick the system as much as possible, but you can't really do a good old wheelie anymore, so...
• 11:09
  stoppies it is, but no, it's been awesome to see, you know, people enjoy seeing people, you know, us having fun on the bikes as well as, you know, obviously riding them to the best of our ability, but no, it's been an awesome journey thus far.
• 11:24
  It's a competitive game, such a competitive game at the moment.
• 11:28
  Give people listening a sense of that, Jack, because as you're developing, hoping to get KTM to that point where you can fight the podiums on a regular basis, so your rivals are pushing the envelope too, aren't they?
• 11:40
  Yeah, and that's the thing.
• 11:41
  I mean, not one of these guys is on the grid.
• 11:45
  That doesn't deserve a spot.
• 11:47
  You know, they're...
• 11:49
  all done some pretty amazing things throughout their careers to get to this point.
• 11:54
  And same again with all the manufacturers.
• 11:57
  I mean, they're all pushing, spending, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars developing these motorcycles.
• 12:03
  You know, the championships, I don't think, has ever been this healthy in its entirety.
• 12:11
  in terms of bikes, riders and let's say backing from manufacturers.
• 12:16
  So it's an awesome, awesome time to be a part of motorcycle racing, but it's also a bloody stressful time to be a part of motorcycle racing because a bad day, three tenths, means you're out of the top 15.
• 12:32
  And, you know, that can really make a weekend tough.
• 12:35
  So it's extremely stressful, but it's also an amazing time.
• 12:40
  And, you know, you look back and when you sit back at the end of the year and take stock of what's actually going on throughout the year, you can...
• 12:48
  really work it out, then you've got a pretty awesome season to be involved in and to have your name sort of mentioned alongside those guys because the racing's been unreal.
• 13:00
  The level of the competition is unreal.
• 13:02
  Every week, somebody knew, somebody not knew, but somebody you didn't maybe expect who wasn't there the week before who's just...
• 13:10
  found something a little bit more that weekend than they're on it.
• 13:12
  So it's one of those ones.
• 13:15
  It's stressful, but it's awesome at the same time.
• 13:17
  But no, I mean, it's a big deal.
• 13:19
  I guess that makes the peaks even more satisfying and the lows, as you quite rightly point out, they're a bit tougher to deal with there.
• 13:28
  And then in some cases, I mean, I look back to India, for example, it was both on the same weekend.
• 13:33
  I mean, you had an awesome one-lap pace, the sprint was mega, and then the race, I think just the...
• 13:38
  heat around the front tyre was killer, wasn't it?
• 13:41
  Yeah, to a degree.
• 13:43
  You know, I started the weekend off really well, as we have done in a few rounds now, and again, just –
• 13:51
  kind of hit our mark straight away and then that was it.
• 13:55
  We never seemed to improve as the weekend went on.
• 13:58
  Like, yeah, you dropped some tenths here and there, throwing tyres at it.
• 14:02
  But I wasn't like – I've always been in my career somebody who can jump on something and go relatively quick.
• 14:10
  pretty quick.
• 14:12
  Um, you know, it doesn't take a lot of time.
• 14:14
  And, um, then, then we just weren't able to, to really improve on that.
• 14:17
  And the other guys were all improving session by session, run by run.
• 14:21
  And, um,
• 14:23
  And, yeah, the sprint was good.
• 14:26
  You know, I was able to get away to a clean start, make up a few spots, and then really just sink my teeth into the back of those guys and just hang on for dear life, just trying to stay there over the duration of it.
• 14:37
  But then, yeah, in the main race, kind of got nudged to the first corner and ran wide and then...
• 14:43
  Again, because it's so bloody stressful, you know, you're trying to make up as many positions as possible.
• 14:48
  I took another big lunge the next lap.
• 14:49
  I turned one and threw myself wide again out into the paint and then come back on the track.
• 14:55
  The tyres are covered in paint, nearly crash the next three corners trying to get the paint off the tyres.
• 15:00
  And then you sort of settle into your pace and you're trying to push.
• 15:03
  But again, like you say...
• 15:05
  The grip was super low.
• 15:07
  The temperature of the front tyre went through the roof straightaway as soon as I caught up to the back of the first guy I was passing.
• 15:12
  You're kind of just chasing your tail from there on out.
• 15:16
  It can become a pretty lonely sort of a race where you're just sort of riding to the tyre more than racing your rivals.
• 15:24
  It was one of those ones that you say you've got a bit of mixed emotion from the weekend when you walk away from it.
• 15:30
  wanting more because obviously the main race didn't go to plan, but you do have to understand and try to take the positives out.
• 15:40
  Okay, well, the sprint was better than it has been, you know, let's say in the last three, four weeks.
• 15:45
  So it was, you know, one of those ones.
• 15:47
  And what do we need in the race?
• 15:49
  What did we need on Sunday to go better?
• 15:51
  What were you missing?
• 15:52
  And that's what we mean.
• 15:53
  Fortunately enough, when we got these...
• 15:56
  flyaway races and you've got, you know, the week in between pretty much hanging out with the team, you're getting a lot of the information a lot quicker.
• 16:06
  You're sitting down, you're chatting, and we've been able to have some decent little meetings this week and just some little brainstorming sort of activities constantly, you know, from the guys firing questions to coming, you know, what do you think about this and so on.
• 16:21
  So it makes that quick turnaround a bit better.
• 16:25
  A quick break now on this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 16:28
  More from KTM's Jack Miller right after this.
• 16:33
  You're listening to the Rusty's Garage Shortcast, what we like to call the Motorsport Brief.
• 16:39
  Time to click up a gear and continue the convo with Jack Miller ahead of the Aussie Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island in a couple of weeks' time.
• 16:48
  Are you a little closer to Brad in what you're wanting out of the bike right now, or are you still kind of doing your own thing to ensure you've got a level of comfort and confidence?
• 16:57
  The bikes aren't too far away from each other, obviously.
• 17:00
  No two rider, I don't think, on the bridge riding on the same bike, obviously.
• 17:05
  But we're not too far away now.
• 17:10
  But, no, we're both very clear, especially more so after the race in India, I think more than ever.
• 17:18
  We're both very clear on what we're chasing from the bike and what we both think we need to go faster.
• 17:24
  And it's good when you've kind of got the two guys there that are saying, hey, this is the issue.
• 17:29
  We need to try and resolve this.
• 17:31
  What do we do to try and go about this?
• 17:33
  Yeah.
• 17:35
  And, you know, it's one of those things that it helps me when I've been pushing for this kind of improvement.
• 17:45
  It makes you, let's say...
• 17:49
  I wouldn't say that they don't trust or anything like that, but obviously, you know, it helps them or you to get more support in what you're saying, hey, this is what we need.
• 17:58
  You know, it's not, I'm not just complaining for the sake of complaining.
• 18:03
  Like these are the injuries that we have.
• 18:06
  And just having us both on the same page that we're working towards the same goal, I guess you say, of having the benefits that we need.
• 18:15
  it is good because you're not working, let's say, in two different directions and trying to come to the same result.
• 18:21
  Some of my journo colleagues have obviously talked about KTM having five contracted riders, four spots for 24.
• 18:27
  They're sort of spoiled for choice in that regard.
• 18:30
  Moving here was great for us, knowing that you were stable, great opportunity to build with this whole outfit.
• 18:36
  Are things all okay for next year and beyond?
• 18:38
  Yeah.
• 18:39
  Yeah, mate.
• 18:39
  Yeah, everything's good.
• 18:41
  Good.
• 18:41
  You know, I mean, I'm doing my job the best of my abilities.
• 18:45
  And if I continue to do that and I continue to bring, you know, what I need to to the plate, then I should be stable.
• 18:52
  That's the way it should be.
• 18:54
  And that's what I'm doing.
• 18:54
  Exactly.
• 18:55
  So, no, I'm not.
• 18:58
  all good.
• 19:00
  It is still our only first season in this team and we've already had some really good results.
• 19:07
  I'm the first guy that wants to get back there and I don't feel like I'm done winning in this championship just yet.
• 19:13
  I'd like to win a few more races and potentially try and fight for a championship before I'm done here.
• 19:20
  The first step to that is trying to get back on that podium.
• 19:23
  We know that, and our listeners that follow the podcast are yearning for that, mate, so we hope that is just around the corner for you.
• 19:29
  Finally, I love a bit of history in this sport, and within a kind of 10-year window, you've come full circle.
• 19:35
  You are back in orange, and KTM recognised that recently with a special bite from your history, didn't they?
• 19:42
  Yeah, no, it was a big surprise for me, an amazing surprise.
• 19:48
  I didn't really expect that or I didn't expect that at all.
• 19:51
  I kind of put the feelers out because, you know, obviously Aki, my team manager in 2014 and has been my personal manager for the last, ever since that year, so nearly 10 years.
• 20:04
  I think he started in 2013.
• 20:05
  So we've been together that long.
• 20:08
  But yeah.
• 20:09
  He obviously runs the Moto3 team and had a lot of spare engines and stuff like that kicking around.
• 20:14
  And he's got one of the bikes from that season at his workshop.
• 20:18
  So every time I go down there, whether it's to grab some chain lubes or whatever that I need for my training bikes, I always see it there.
• 20:25
  And, you know, the original plan was always to build one.
• 20:28
  And I kind of threw the feelers out because I knew I needed to buy a chassis from that year.
• 20:32
  I was looking for one, basically, because they all got tagged in the Spanish Championship and moved around, you know, so they kind of all got lost.
• 20:41
  And I hit the guys up at KDM like, you know, do you know where these chassis kind of went or who we could look at trying to get one off?
• 20:49
  And then...
• 20:51
  They said, oh, yeah, we'll get back to you.
• 20:52
  And didn't think anything of it.
• 20:55
  I had a real one.
• 20:56
  So it's a numbers matching bike.
• 20:59
  Yeah.
• 21:01
  I think it's exactly the one that I want in Phillip Island.
• 21:03
  It's got the no guards on the swing arm and all that.
• 21:07
  There's just little things on the bike that you remember.
• 21:09
  I remember having that.
• 21:10
  I remember putting that on the bike and stuff like that.
• 21:13
  It's so cool.
• 21:14
  I mean, it was something that I dreamed of for a long time, having that bike.
• 21:18
  And it'll be even better when I put it in a little box and send it back to a little pub in Australia.
• 21:25
  Good stuff.
• 21:26
  Clearly, they were working away in the background on that project, which we reckon is just unreal.
• 21:30
  You've been great with your time, mate.
• 21:31
  We're very grateful of that.
• 21:34
  It sounds like there is some good stuff in the pipeline, and we hope that we see you on that podium at Phillip Island.
• 21:40
  Nothing would make us more proud, mate.
• 21:42
  Go get them.
• 21:43
  Thank you.
• 21:43
  Yeah, definitely.
• 21:44
  Don't lose faith, Pete.
• 21:45
  We'll get there.
• 21:45
  It's one of those things.
• 21:47
  It's amazing.
• 21:48
  moving us way up, I will get there.
• 21:50
  And for sure, by the time Phillip Island rolls around, I'll be hopefully turning on some Island magic.
• 21:58
  How good that KTM tracked that bike down and gifted it to him.
• 22:02
  I think he talks about the 2014 Moto3 bike changing his life.
• 22:07
  Six race wins that year, including very memorably at Phillip Island.
• 22:12
  That was on the way to second in the Moto3 title fight before he moved to MotoGP.
• 22:18
  Now, we recorded that interview on the eve of the Motigi round in Japan.
• 22:22
  Jack just missed out on the podium in the sprint race on Saturday.
• 22:27
  He finished sixth best KTM in the range shortened Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.
• 22:32
  He said it felt good to be more of a competitive force again, to be closer to the podium.
• 22:38
  Fingers crossed all those good ingredients he talked about.
• 22:41
  will be spot on by the time the island rolls around.
• 22:45
  Jorge Martin was declared the winner of that race at Matigui, and in doing so, he's trimmed Peko Bagnia's lead in the MotoGP World Championship from 14 to three points.
• 22:57
  The back end of this season is going to be epic.
• 23:00
  The Ducati rider finished the race second, with Marc Marquez back on the podium for the first time since October 2022.
• 23:10
  In the World Rally Championship, M Sport Ford's Oik Tanak has won Rally Chile for a second time with some clever Friday tyre tactics helping.
• 23:19
  Toyota Gazoo Racing sealed the 2023 Manufacturers Championship in South America there.
• 23:25
  The series returns to Europe for the Central European Rally at the end of the month.
• 23:30
  And that's something a little different.
• 23:32
  an all-tarmack event that's going to take in three countries, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
• 23:39
  The support acts at Bathurst are going to top off the 60th anniversary show superbly.
• 23:45
  There are 30 cars for Porsche Carrera Cup with six champions from around the world all coming, four Aussie champions.
• 23:53
  2022 series winner Harry Jones is back after competing in Europe this year, including Renault,
• 23:59
  in Super Cup, and the Kiwi Chris Vanderdrift has been called in to sub for Callum Hedge, who has racing commitments in the United States.
• 24:07
  I am spending today with young Ben Stewart in Wellington in New Zealand as he packs his bags and gets ready to go to the mountain.
• 24:16
  The 18-year-old won over the judges and scored a fully funded drive in the Toyota 86 series at the mountain, taking out the evaluation or shootout,
• 24:27
  at Sydney Motorsport Park recently.
• 24:29
  He says, it is like a dream come true.
• 24:32
  Now, it seems like only yesterday that I emceed a sim race at Bathurst where a young Ben Stewart took it out.
• 24:40
  We wish him well.
• 24:42
  Happy Bathurst week, everybody.
• 24:44
  We will be back with another edition of the Shortcast on Wednesday.
• 24:47
  We will be talking to the GOAT, Jamie Winker, following his win at the recent Sandown 500 with Brock Feeney.
• 24:55
  And we are going to be talking to J-Dub, fittingly, as he drives to the mountain.
• 25:00
  Keep an eye out for notifications when that one drops.
• 25:03
  We will catch you then, everybody.
• 25:05
  Bye for now.