Latest / Rusty's Garage / Nathan Prendergast - Part 1

Transcript

Nathan Prendergast - Part 1 · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:12
I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
0:27
For this episode, I'm in Sydney, catching up with a friend and colleague I've known for over 20 years.
0:33
He has done some seriously impressive things around the TV coverage of motorsport in Australia and globally for that matter.
0:42
For a long time, Nathan Prendergast was referred to as Kevin's son.
0:46
Kevin is a very respected circuit manager and administrator who's worked at Sydney Motorsport Park, Phillip Island and more.
0:54
But Kevin has now become known as Nathan's dad.
0:57
Given the award-winning productions, his son has helped shape.
1:02
Nath has basically done it all.
1:04
He's raced...
1:05
Commentated, edited, produced.
1:08
His directing talents are freak level and he climbed through hands-on hard work to the very top in supercars TV, managing an important part of the business that showcases the sport in a manner that is the envy of many other countries and national motor racing championships around the world.
1:30
Nath has a great sense of humour and can tell a good story.
1:35
You'll enjoy some of the insights of what happens behind the scenes, the innovation and where the game is going in terms of the way we digest it.
1:44
Plus, working with legends like Mark Larkham, Neil Crompton...
1:49
and Mark Scaife, all of whom you can find in the Rusty's Garage Library.
1:53
This isn't just about supercars either.
1:56
Nath has covered drag racing and is a driving force in a new direction that the sport is taking in Australia, which you'll hear a little bit more about.
2:04
He's covered iconic events like Dakar, Formula One and more recently the World Supercross Championship.
2:12
He enjoys a bit of four-wheel driving and did some serious miles during COVID when supercars got back on the road despite the unpredictability around state borders.
2:23
And the coverage of supercars online racing during the pandemic, thanks in part to Naith, became an international benchmark.
2:32
More on that during our conversation as well.
2:36
A quick thanks to an old boss in Simon Fordham, to Crompo, Chad Nalon, Dean Neal and Matt Nolte for the backstories, which we'll get Nath to expand on.
2:46
We begin with some fun.
2:48
As I said, Nath loves a laugh and my voiceover style became the subject of some stirring when we hit record.
2:56
Hello, Nathan Prendergast.
2:58
Oh, hello, Greg Rust.
3:00
Yes, welcome back.
3:01
Listen to you.
3:02
Come on, do your impersonation of me.
3:04
How do I speak when I do my full voiceover thing?
3:06
What do I do?
3:07
It's time to do a podcast with Nathan and put the pauses in unusual places.
3:17
That's it, mate.
3:17
Oh, this is going to be golden.
3:18
It's your signature.
3:19
It's your signature read.
3:20
All right.
3:21
This is about you, not about me.
3:23
So can we get started with early life?
3:26
Because your dad, Kevin, who is outside here making chicken curry for dinner, you used to be...
3:33
Kevin's son.
3:35
Now he is Nathan's dad.
3:37
I know.
3:39
It's a funny change.
3:40
And I can't pinpoint exactly when it happened.
3:42
But, yeah, it was a transition.
3:44
And I think it was as big a move for him as it was for me.
3:48
Because I've obviously grown up in his shadow and he's taught me everything I know.
3:52
And I was forever, oh, you're Kevin's son.
3:55
That's Kevin's little guy.
3:56
And then there was a period of time in the, I don't know, decade or so ago, where all of a sudden it was, oh, my God, you're...
4:03
You're Nathan's dad.
4:05
And I remember the first time I heard it, I had a little bit of a snigger just to see his face.
4:10
But luckily, you know, dad and I still get to work together today.
4:13
Cool.
4:14
He has done some terrific things around administration, particularly around drag racing.
4:21
You grew up in...
4:23
in WA.
4:23
I love to kick these off with a bit of that kind of early life stuff.
4:27
And where you've ultimately ended up in a TV sense has a lot to do with the fact that you were just surrounded by it, mate, weren't you, from a very young age.
4:36
Tell us about growing up and the track he worked at and actually had a stake in and things like that, didn't he?
4:41
So...
4:41
Yes, so I was really lucky, Rusty.
4:43
I was motorsport before I was television.
4:45
And it's purely from Dad ran Ravenswood Raceway.
4:49
He was a part owner in Ravenswood Raceway in Western Australia, which was a drag strip in a place just outside of Mandarin, Perth.
4:57
In those days, it was a long way away from anything, like an hour drive.
5:00
And an hour drive in Perth is, wow, that's a long way.
5:03
Now, Perth's grown straight through it and more.
5:05
But I was surrounded.
5:07
I think I was three days old when I was taken to the...
5:11
Drag strip for the first time, which, you know, yes, some listeners are probably going to say that's child abuse.
5:17
But no, always immersed in it.
5:19
Grew up at the track.
5:21
Every weekend in summer, we had a race meeting there.
5:24
Was always down.
5:26
And of course, having access to a facility like that, I learned to ride motorbikes early.
5:32
I learned to drive cars early.
5:33
I could drive a manual car at eight years old.
5:36
Wow.
5:37
and just had a wonderful upbringing in a really cool place at a racetrack around race cars and didn't know a thing about turning corners but knew what a blower was by the time I was five years old.
5:51
Cool.
5:52
What about the influences of some of the stars in the scene at the time?
5:56
Can you remember being a young bloke and meeting someone or someone coming around for a barbecue and things like that?
6:02
Yeah, there was obviously a lot of the local heroes like John Zapier, for example, who still runs today.
6:06
I mean, he was around and coming through.
6:09
Gary Majosevic, who my father went on to work with at the Motorplex, you know, for a lot of his life and a lot of his time there.
6:17
But Dad also used to bring out what we call Zuax.
6:20
So...
6:21
for a summer series, we would import American races and they were either jet dragsters or wheel standers.
6:28
At one time we brought in a, uh, an American Camaro police car that ran against people and, and he'd put on these special three or four, uh, event race meetings and these zoo acts would, would race and it would always be well promoted.
6:43
But I remember Doug Brown, who was the jet car driver,
6:47
He was absolutely hilarious, crazy prankster, but he did a thing called a car burn.
6:53
And I don't think anyone's done it.
6:55
Roscoe McGlashan may have done it for a couple of years, but no one's done it for a long time, probably because it's illegal.
6:59
And literally chain a wreck car to the back of a jet dragster and do burner pops with it and, like, run this thing up and throw the afterburner and blow this car to pieces.
7:10
And I remember the first time watching this going, oh, I've got it pretty good.
7:15
You know, this isn't a bad way to grow up.
7:17
You would be kind of immersed with some of these teams and people.
7:20
Your dad's told me, I mean, you learned to pack chutes, you were around Top Fuel, Jet Drags, as you just talked about.
7:27
I mean, you really got hands-on into all of it, didn't you?
7:31
Well, the first time we had Top Fuel at...
7:35
Ravenswood, the Reeds came over.
7:37
So Bruce Reed, Jim Reed, obviously Jim was driving at the time.
7:40
I mean, I was 11 or 12 years of age and these guys came and literally stayed in my room, you know, and and legends.
7:48
It was just amazing.
7:49
They really looked after me.
7:50
I helped them sell, you know, t-shirts off the back of the trailer.
7:54
And, you know, I was involved with that.
7:56
Like you say, pack shoots.
7:57
I remember when they warmed the car up, they let me sit in the car.
8:01
And Jim at the time, I think the quickest DT in Australia was a 552.
8:08
Anyway, he went 546 or 548 at Ravenswood in the record.
8:13
And I was just absolutely awestruck.
8:15
And I remember Jim came back from the run and took his Winfield race shirt off and gave it to me and said, this is yours, Nate.
8:21
So I have a long history with dealing with those guys and, you know, grew up as a fan.
8:30
but almost family we've been around them so long.
8:34
And they were always really, really good to me.
8:35
And then obviously as I moved to the East Coast, that just association with more races expanded.
8:43
Take me there because your dad, because of his efforts in WA, is getting more and more recognised on a national basis for what he was doing there.
8:51
An opportunity comes up to go to what we now know as Sydney Motorsport Park.
8:56
What do you call it?
8:57
The artist formerly known as Eastern Creek.
8:58
The artist formerly known as Eastern Creek, yeah.
9:00
And back then, the main straight of the circuit that we now regularly use was the drag racing venue, wasn't it?
9:07
And he came, the family moved, and you lived pretty much at the track, didn't you?
9:13
Yeah, so middle of 91, I was halfway through year 11 at school, so I had to uproot all my friends and move to Sydney.
9:20
And I remember getting off the plane.
9:22
and never been to Sydney before prior to this move, driving through the city and on my first night, I saw a Ferrari and a Porsche and I was like, I like this place.
9:33
Because I was obviously a mad car guy.
9:35
Lived at the track.
9:36
So where the go-kart track is now and Peter Brock Drive, that used to be just giant paddock area.
9:42
The old Rean property.
9:44
So I lived on Rean Road.
9:46
Also famous, unfortunately, where Anita Cobby was found.
9:49
But another story.
9:51
Lived on the property.
9:52
Would go to school.
9:54
Was in Borkham Hills, so 30-odd minutes drive.
9:57
Come home, drop my bag, walk through the paddock.
10:00
And in those days at Eastern Creek,
10:02
There was supercar testing, MotoGP testing, Group C cars were testing.
10:07
Any day of the week, I could rock up and just stand on the hill or go to the pits and just get immersed in all this different type of motorsport.
10:16
And it was absolutely mind-blowing for me.
10:20
Even the paddock area behind my house, I came home one day and I could hear this banging and popping and it was Carlos Sainz testing the Celica Castrol rally cars on the gravel road around the back.
10:34
How good?
10:35
I'm not kidding you.
10:35
There was two of them.
10:37
So I'm sort of standing there.
10:39
It's my backyard.
10:40
So I wandered down and it was a corporate thing, like a ride corporate day.
10:44
And this guy goes...
10:45
where did you come from, kid?
10:46
And I'm like, I live just there.
10:48
My dad runs the track and he goes, do you want a ride?
10:52
You went for a ride with Carlos Sainz in the Celica?
10:54
No way.
10:55
Kid, do you not?
10:56
And so, I mean, that's one of many cool things that this world of motorsport has afforded me.
11:02
But yeah, that's one of them.
11:03
Dead set, got a ride.
11:05
And are there any stories on quieter days at the track of sneaking out in course cars and things like that?
11:13
Am I allowed to talk about this?
11:14
Well, you can talk to him.
11:16
Yeah, so the house we lived in had a course car parked underneath of it, a couple of motorbikes, and Dad also had an Eastern Creek-issued Suzuki Vitara.
11:28
So this is pre-licensed days.
11:31
I was 15 and a half-ish.
11:33
Mum and Dad would go out.
11:35
For a function or a dinner, I'd snake the keys, lap the Vitara, Carlos Sainz style around the gravel around the back.
11:44
My girlfriend at the time would come over with friends.
11:47
I'd teach them how to drive in it.
11:49
But one of the craziest things we did with my friends from Perth, and I don't try this at home, folks.
11:56
Home, correct.
11:56
We went for the World Rollerblade Land Speed Record.
12:01
So those that have been at Eastern Creek before would know that the pit lane is bitumen, but where the car stop is concrete.
12:09
Concrete, yeah.
12:10
So we had rollerblades on, window down on the passenger side of the Vitara, hang on to it, and...
12:17
our mates would drive and we'd hold on to the car and it was... What number?
12:21
What sort of number?
12:22
Whoever got to the fastest speed and when you got the death wobbles, you'd jump in the window of the Vitara so you didn't go under the back tyres.
12:28
So I hold the record at 86 kilometres an hour before I jumped in.
12:32
Holy...
12:33
Which isn't that fast, really.
12:34
Oh, you're kidding.
12:35
Rollerblades?
12:37
Your world is this kind of beautiful blend of things to where you've ultimately ended up, mate.
12:44
And what I wanna lead to here is that before the directing, the editing, the stuff you do so well, you actually commentated.
12:53
And it came about, am I right?
12:55
I may not have joined the dots properly here, but it came about because your dad would do some commentary, maybe at Ravenswood back in the day, and I think you did some scoring as a young bloke, and you would have to announce the scores.
13:05
Is that how it kind of got underway?
13:07
Yeah, so back in the Ravenswood days, so I'm talking very early, like 10, 11-year-old, there would be low-level street meets or race meetings, and...
13:18
No commentators would obviously turn up for it.
13:20
It wasn't really worthy of it.
13:22
But people would want to know...
13:23
The results.
13:24
The results.
13:25
What was the ET?
13:26
What was the speed?
13:28
And so one day Dad said, Nathan, can you just stand here when the time slips come out of the machine, pick it up, key on the microphone and just say left lane, read out the name, the ET and speed.
13:39
So I started doing that and then obviously...
13:43
I just couldn't help myself and I'd add some commentary on the last pass or I would talk about... Because you're such a shy type, aren't you?
13:49
Well, yes, I'm very shy and reserved.
13:53
And I just got kind of comfortable with, I guess, talking shit, really, which is, you know, what a colour commentator does.
13:59
It does.
14:01
So then when we moved to Sydney, I was already relatively au fait with the comfort of talking on a microphone.
14:08
Started commentating at the drag strip at Eastern Creek.
14:11
Because there was kind of a hole there, wasn't there?
14:13
I mean, I think Castle Ray had been closed for quite some time.
14:15
All of a sudden, drag racing was back in Sydney.
14:18
Was it you and Rob Oberg, I think?
14:19
Maybe what did some of the early stuff kick off with?
14:21
100% Rob Oberg was commentating.
14:23
I think it was...
14:25
an eight-and-a-half-year gap from the closure of Castle Ray before it opened up in Sydney.
14:29
And so when it came back, it was huge, right?
14:32
We had massive crowds.
14:34
And I remember the first ever Winfield Triple Challenge, which a lot of people may recall, which obviously was bikes, cars, drag racing.
14:42
That had 40,000 people at it and I was 16 and I was commentating it with Oberg.
14:48
But it was only venue commentary.
14:49
It wasn't anything to do with broadcast and, you know, I don't know, I was high-pitched and still had some growing to do.
14:57
And that's actually when I met Greg Sita.
14:59
So Greg Sita at the time...
15:02
was making a show called Pole Position.
15:04
And this is the show that was on Sky prior to the formation of Speed Week, which you and I had some love in.
15:13
Anyway, Greg had done a little bit with my father commentating some of these early shows that they were making covering drag racing.
15:21
And they needed someone to do an interview with someone.
15:24
And my dad said, well, my son knows all those guys.
15:27
He can do it.
15:29
So I grabbed a mic, cameraman went with me, went to do a couple of interviews and they went, oh, you seem to know what you're doing with this.
15:37
Can you do a piece to camera?
15:39
So I went, oh, sure.
15:40
So I did a piece to camera, my first ever thing.
15:42
Have you still got that?
15:44
I do have it on a VHS somewhere.
15:46
I, yeah, I'm about this height and about 55 kilos, but delivered a piece to camera on what this engine was powered, you know, what this car was powered by engine, blah, blah, blah, finished it.
15:59
And they're like, do you want to do more of this?
16:01
And so that was started my involvement with Greg Seder and AVE, which obviously...
16:05
spawned my entry into TV.
16:07
Yep, that little thing is something we have in common.
16:10
That triple challenge meeting is where it started for me.
16:13
You were go-cutting, right?
16:14
Correct, correct.
16:15
That's literally where it kicked off.
16:16
That's a story for another day.
16:17
You have done, mate, some crewing as well, and I think even around Formula Holden and stuff like that too, is that right?
16:23
Yeah, so one of the beauties, obviously, of living at the racetrack is I got to meet a lot of people that were regulars there.
16:30
So Tony Quinn, Phoenix Motorsport, had the last two garages, Garage 49 and 50, and he was preparing Formula Holdens there.
16:38
So when I got a Formula V, which for a very short-lived race career... We're getting to that, Nathan.
16:43
Yes.
16:44
We're getting to that.
16:46
He housed it and prepared it there, which was great.
16:49
And then I also got to know...
16:51
a guy called Morris from Thelgo Motorsport, Boris Rissman, and he was running a car for Mark McLaughlin and...
17:00
I'm sorry, I can't remember the other driver, but obviously that was the early days of Mark Scaife running Formula Holden and Mark was running around.
17:06
So I crewed on them.
17:08
I did a bunch of my summers, which was school holidays for me still, with Top Fuel team.
17:14
So I travelled all around the East Coast with Pommy Steve Reid, who was running an alcohol car, then with the Reid family and when they were running their Top Fuel car,
17:26
and just really had an amazing childhood immersed in, you know,
17:31
Drag racing, basically, and cars going fast.
17:34
Was there ever anything else?
17:35
Did Nathan go off and work at Mitre 10 or something or other as a part-time job?
17:38
Or this is only what you've known?
17:40
Oh, no.
17:41
I worked at McDonald's.
17:42
Did you?
17:42
Yeah, yeah.
17:43
I was... Actually, that's when I worked out I could direct.
17:46
Really?
17:46
Yeah.
17:47
And this is pre-directing, but I did a stint at the M4... Macca's?
17:55
Yeah, City Bound.
17:56
Yeah, McDonald's.
17:57
And...
17:58
Because I was a little bit older, I think I was just 19 when I was working there and I had a license, I did a lot of the night shifts and then did what they call walkers, which is packing the fridges and stuff at night.
18:09
But at one stage, most of the men in McDonald's were working on the grill and most of the women were in drive-thru.
18:16
They put me on drive-thru one day and I could work out that I could take an order –
18:21
and then talk to the person out the window, get their change whilst taking an order and input it so someone could talk in my ear at the same time as me talking out.
18:30
And the efficiency, they were like, oh, they kept me on it because it was really fast.
18:34
And it was just I had the ability to say, you know, good afternoon, Macdonald's M4 city bound, can I take your order please?
18:40
Yes.
18:41
And then they'd give me the order and I'd lean out the window, go mate, that's $8.95 and like still hear them tell the order but give the change.
18:48
And so I was like, oh, my brain's a bit weird.
18:51
That's a cool skill.
18:53
Yeah.
18:54
It's a bit of fun.
18:54
Bloody hell.
18:55
Formula V. Formula V. So you had, I want to, first of all, let's, let's, there's an incident at Amaru Park I want to, I want to ask you about.
19:03
How long did you, when did you first get it?
19:05
How did that all sort of start?
19:07
What type of chassis and so on?
19:09
Um, so it was called a night like K N I G H T. And it was literally, it was a homemade thing and it was called a night because when they were making it at the end of every evening, they said, let's just call it a night.
19:23
I can't remember how it was found, but I have a feeling that Ray Folletti was involved somehow.
19:27
Anyway, the very first day they brought it to the track and I was going to test it, I went out and started lapping around because I was just driving like Santa, setting all new lap records.
19:38
Came into the pits and the car was feeling sluggish and I remember putting my foot on the clutch and...
19:47
And the car, sorry, the car just stopped.
19:51
Anyway, I wasn't watching the temperature gauge.
19:53
Their air cooled.
19:54
It threw the belt off.
19:55
I cooked the motor, like destroyed it.
19:58
I remember getting out and my dad going, looks like we just bought it.
20:04
So literally I got this new race car and I'd killed the motor on its first test.
20:09
Just massive life lesson.
20:10
No one said, look at the temperature gauge.
20:12
I probably should have, didn't.
20:14
So rebuilt this thing.
20:16
It was a pig.
20:18
Went testing.
20:19
But the beauty of it was, as I mentioned earlier, Tony Quinn had it housed at the track.
20:24
And so when I came home from school, if there was nothing on, I'd get in and cut laps.
20:29
Because you could.
20:30
Because I could.
20:31
I don't know whether I was allowed, I don't know.
20:34
But I could.
20:35
So I did laps and it was a bit of fun.
20:37
And then, unfortunately, your reference to Amaru, that car had a very short life.
20:43
We were testing and we had brake problems.
20:47
And I was at Amaru, came in to stop, go, go,
20:51
And for those that may recall Stop Go, it was a right-hand turn, right against the wall, sort of second last corner.
20:57
At the end of a nice little straight.
20:59
Nice little straight.
21:00
And in a Formula V, it was top gear, fourth gear, come in, brake hard down to third turn right back on the gas.
21:06
Because, you know, they weren't going very fast, very light stop quickly.
21:10
Put my foot on the brake, pedal went to the floor.
21:12
By the time I looked up, I was in the wall.
21:15
But hit it flush right where the concrete ended and the tyres started.
21:20
And I remember dust settled looking up and I could see my feet.
21:25
And I'm like, ooh, that's not good.
21:29
The visor off my helmet, I hit that hard that it broke the visor off my helmet and it was sort of resting, coming to a rest on my feet.
21:36
Sugar.
21:37
The wing mirrors one was stuck in the tyre wall and I was about 10 metres back from the wall.
21:42
I'd hit and bounced back.
21:44
And I was like, whew, that was big.
21:46
Got up, went to stand up.
21:49
And it was like, oh, my leg hurts, fell out of the car.
21:51
It was so big that I think it was Stephen Butcher stopped behind me and went, are you all right?
21:56
I'm like, can you please help me take my helmet off?
21:58
My neck is sore.
21:59
Took my helmet off.
22:00
I had a cut around my neck because I was wearing a silver chain.
22:04
It cut my, slashed my neck.
22:06
And by this stage, the medicos had arrived, just, you know, the local Ambo that they have at the test days.
22:12
And they said, are you all right?
22:12
I'm like, yeah, I'm fine, but my leg's a bit sore.
22:16
and they said give us a look so I picked my knee up leant down and pulled my race suit up over my knee and my kneecap was missing
22:24
And they're like, oh, I could see their face.
22:26
They're like, this isn't good.
22:27
And I straightened my leg out and it all went pop.
22:30
Anyway, it turns out I broke my kneecap in seven pieces.
22:34
And so that was the end of the night.
22:35
We definitely called it a night after that.
22:37
It was gone.
22:38
Okay.
22:38
Was that the end of racing at all for you?
22:40
No, no.
22:40
I did buy another chassis.
22:42
I did do a couple of race meetings, not with much success.
22:46
At that point, sort of the 1200s were moving out and 1600s were coming in.
22:51
Anyway, I just...
22:53
I loved it.
22:54
You know, I'm the most competitive guy on an indoor go-kart track you've ever seen, but there's way better people at it than me.
23:01
So I had my stint in it.
23:03
It's allowed me to drive and learn and understand more things about covering motorsport, but I was never going to be Craig Lowndes or Mark Scaife.
23:11
Let's come back to the television stuff in a moment.
23:14
Can we just go down the path of how that...
23:18
and your work life has also afforded you the chance to, let's call it sample, other things.
23:25
So the first thing in recent years, I guess you could say, that comes to mind, I think you drove one of Crompo's 86s.
23:31
Did you go out and have a steer there at City Motorsport Park?
23:33
What'd you do?
23:33
Yeah, I've driven an 86.
23:35
So yeah, you're right.
23:36
I've been really lucky.
23:37
I've driven Formula Ford, which is actually the first thing I drove because Quinny had a ride day on.
23:42
And I drove Formula 4 at Eastern Creek.
23:44
I've driven Formula V, as we've discussed.
23:47
I've been lucky enough to lap a sprint car.
23:49
Excellent.
23:50
Where are you?
23:50
I did it in Newcastle before it shut down.
23:52
Okay.
23:53
And that was fun.
23:54
I didn't even come remotely close to getting anywhere near what I should do in that thing.
23:59
But it was awesome.
24:01
Commodore Cup car.
24:03
I've driven a supercar, one of the Brad Jones cars.
24:08
Where was that?
24:08
Winton?
24:09
At Winton, yeah.
24:10
It was so good.
24:12
I only got sort of six laps because someone oiled the track and it was a red flag and I was only probably going to get eight anyway.
24:18
But, man, that was an exciting experience.
24:22
But, yeah, I've been very lucky now.
24:23
to have been able to sample different bits and pieces.
24:25
They are moments of great perspective, mate, because then all of a sudden you appreciate what a supercar is.
24:29
Aussie racing cars.
24:30
Aussie racing cars, okay.
24:31
You and I know a lot about Aussie racing cars.
24:33
But, yeah, Warty, and actually they're the ones I love the most.
24:35
Most, yeah.
24:36
God, they were fun to drive.
24:47
Hi there.
24:48
Like racing, Nathan shows us that TV production definitely isn't for the faint-hearted.
24:53
Just like commentator Bill Woods found out on a promotional parachute jump,
24:58
But he's basically said to me, we're in an asylum.
25:01
This is a mental hospital.
25:03
And this lovely young lady walks up to us and says, who are you?
25:09
And I said, oh, my name's Bill.
25:10
I said, we just parachuted out of a plane.
25:12
She said, out of a helicopter.
25:15
She goes, out of a helicopter?
25:16
What, up there?
25:17
I said, yeah.
25:18
How high?
25:19
I said, oh, I don't know, eight or 10,000 feet.
25:21
I couldn't remember.
25:23
And she goes, and they think we're crazy.
25:31
There it is, that beautiful laugh of Rusty's.
25:34
Anyway, hear from Bill and Rusty in the Rusty's Garage Library.
25:38
Back to Nathan.
25:41
Coming back to the TV side of things, I couldn't find it on YouTube.
25:44
I did go bloody looking for it, but I'm nearly certain you did a story or they wired you up when you drove the Commodore Cup car at Orrin Park, did you not?
25:52
Did you not do a story for Speed Week on that?
25:54
Yeah, they did.
25:55
So...
25:56
Yeah, they wired me up and it was just like a bit of fun.
25:59
It was actually sort of more let's just record it, you know, because Nath's going out and we were covering the event the next day.
26:05
I think it was like a Friday practice.
26:07
But I was quick enough to qualify seventh.
26:09
Oh, fantastic.
26:09
Yeah, so they were like, oh, let's turn this into something.
26:11
So, yeah, it's in an old Speed Week archive from somewhere.
26:14
Great old category too that for people listening to the podcast, Lee Holtzworth came through, for example, Holtzworth family and so on.
26:21
So that's –
26:23
Great class.
26:24
Life's changed, obviously, since then.
26:25
Now, you talked about...
26:28
AVE, Greg Sita.
26:29
So Australian Video and Entertainment, people will know Speed Week, it's one of the longest running, it may be the longest running kind of motorsport show this country's ever had on SBS.
26:40
You talked about how the dots sort of joined.
26:42
At this stage, Greg is running it for memory out of Burwood, captured memories attached to a wedding photography slash video company, wasn't he?
26:49
I mean, he was branching out into motorsport.
26:52
Yeah.
26:53
It was raw, mate, wasn't it?
26:54
It was new to for all and sundry.
26:57
It was.
26:58
But you know what?
26:59
He was making a lot of content.
27:01
He was one of the first guys that went, you know what?
27:04
You don't need to have huge OB trucks and all these flash technology to go...
27:11
make motorsport television and I don't even know how he got the broadcast deals he did but he had Penrite funding I remember that and yeah he was making it out of um he made most of his money like you say out of Captured Memories which was a wedding video company initially and then departed from that to form um the motorsport side of it but when I first met Greg like I said I was young I was at the track um and funnily enough when I did my HSC um
27:38
The night before my geography exam, I was at AVE in Burwood until three in the morning doing voiceovers for the drag racing gala dinners the next day, you know.
27:48
And congratulations to your super sedan winner.
27:53
So G.S.
27:54
and I go back a long, long way, but he didn't give me my first shot in TV.
28:00
He certainly introduced me to what it was all about, but I was only there as a commentator.
28:06
Okay.
28:07
And that was how it started.
28:08
And then obviously I had a very big history with him after that.
28:11
So tell us the actual first start then, mate.
28:14
What was that?
28:15
So towards the end of Tobacco's sponsorship in drag racing, they were actually pouring a fair bit of money into the sport and doing a lot of television shows on Channel 9.
28:25
So Darrell Leeslake was calling them, Andrew Voss was calling them.
28:29
Your dad and Big Daz called some together, didn't they?
28:31
And he was trying to manage the track at the same time.
28:33
Yeah, and they were running what was called the Winfield Pro Series.
28:37
And it was lots of top fuel cars, lots of other great racing, all the other Group 1 categories.
28:42
And it was essentially Calder...
28:46
Eastern Creek at the time and Willowbank Raceway.
28:48
And they were making really high quality, bringing proper OB trucks.
28:52
Saul Stein did the coverage for the triple challenge for Channel 9.
28:56
And there was a guy called John Leahy, and he was running that side of the TV.
29:02
Anyway, at the time, we were taking that footage and Dad was making television commercials for the next events.
29:09
And I was going into Global, which was... At Ride there, wasn't it?
29:12
At Ride, yep.
29:13
It doesn't exist anymore.
29:14
And I was sitting in on the post-production of the TVCs.
29:18
And I remember saying to John at the time, because he knew me from the traps, I was around at all events commentating.
29:25
And I said, how do I get into TV?
29:27
Like, what do I got to do?
29:28
And he said, well, I've got a job at Horizon Learning Channel, which was Optus Vision, right?
29:36
Very infancy of Optus Vision.
29:39
It's yours if you want it.
29:40
It's a tape operator.
29:42
Now, what that meant was one-inch machines, which I had to lace, and I basically sat in the world's dodgiest MCR and rolled...
29:53
Shows and ads.
29:54
So it was a manual role like when the next astronomy show started into a couple of, you know, Clint's Crazy Bargain type adverts into the next how to grow your plants type thing.
30:07
But what it allowed me to do is it was right next door to the post house where all the drag racing shows were made.
30:13
And I said, I rang Jim Reid, who was sort of responsible for the TV at the time, funding wise.
30:18
And I rang John Leahy and I said, do you mind if I access the rushes and the masters?
30:22
I wanna cut my own music clips.
30:25
And on my own time, I taught myself how to edit and I cut a music clip to kickstart my heart.
30:33
And I was still commentating at Speed Week at the time.
30:36
Speed Week had just started.
30:38
maybe it was a couple of years in, and I'd go into CETA and the editor at the time, and I'd go, hey, hey, have a look at this clip I've cut.
30:46
And they'd play it and they're like, oh, how'd you do that?
30:47
And I explained them, it was really rudimentary.
30:50
Anyway, about a week after I showed them my latest edit, and I'd been at Horizon three, four months,
30:58
Greg Raymond said, do you want to be an editor?
30:59
And I'm like, yeah, I'd love to be an editor.
31:01
He goes, okay, when can you leave your job?
31:04
And I told him it was like very quickly.
31:06
And he said, okay, start Monday.
31:08
Anyway, I rock up thinking I'm going to be the junior editor under their existing editor.
31:14
You're in the deep end, mate, aren't you?
31:15
I'm the only guy.
31:17
And so this is not, you know, the old days of tape-to-tape machines.
31:21
Never dealt with that other than one one-inch machine to another in my whole life.
31:25
And I remember Greg sat me down and he said, OK, Nathan, this is an input.
31:30
This is an in point.
31:31
That's an out point.
31:32
Just line up your shots and let's just go with that there.
31:36
And just, like, let me go.
31:39
And it was the first ever event I did was Australian Superbike Championship from Lakeside.
31:44
I'd never been to Lakeside in my life.
31:46
I asked someone to draw me a map of the track and roughly mark where the cameras were.
31:50
And I had to go around with each shot and go, okay, that shot ends there.
31:54
Match it up.
31:54
Match it up and piece it together.
31:56
And my first week, I cut two Australian Superbike races, two 600 races and a sidecar race for a one-hour show.
32:04
I'd never done an edit in my entire life.
32:07
And it was a, you know, thrown in the deep end, but I was straight away, I love this.
32:11
That's cool.
32:12
Just for people that aren't necessarily TV types, when you say MCR, master control room, you're talking about tape when everything's bloody digital now.
32:18
So you're talking tape back then, big reels.
32:21
And you would, I would imagine, mate, you had to line everything up.
32:24
So you're going from one thing seamlessly transitioned to the next.
32:27
And you're doing that off big tape machines, weren't you?
32:30
Yeah, well, in the Horizon days, it was one inch.
32:32
So literally, the tape thickness was the width of a one inch and it came in a giant open spool, right?
32:38
Not captured in a plastic container or anything like you... Wow, that's later.
32:42
That's Betacam, you know what I mean?
32:44
And then when I went to AVE, that was SP Betacam.
32:48
And so, you know, these are...
32:51
analog big plastic closest thing you describe to VHS tapes that you put in giant machines expensive machines and you had to literally play the shot out and then join it with another shot and it was a real baptism of fire because I had to learn all the
33:09
not only the creative side of it, but the technical side of it, audio mix.
33:14
Now, right now, let's just have a little bit of a lesson for everyone at home.
33:18
Right now, when you have a nonlinear edit suite, you can put your vision in and it's a digital file and you can manipulate its speed and do whatever you want and you can cut all your shots and delete them and redo it.
33:29
You get one shot at this...
33:31
not only did you have to get the shots right, when you mastered it and when you came in and put your commentary on it, when you played it all out, you had to audio mix it, you had to add the music, you had to lay the graphics over it live, you had to prepare all of the graphics for the entire race when you did it.
33:48
And it really was an incredible foundation of television for me to sort of be a one-stop shop to have to figure out how to do everything.
33:56
So, you know, it was...
33:59
Low budget staff, but it was a magnificent foundation for me.
34:03
So were you going at night time to do some training somewhere?
34:07
So this is all hands on?
34:09
I reckon the only reason I was able to do it is because I knew motorsport so well in my heart and my head that...
34:17
The TV stuff is all I had to learn.
34:19
I just knew the product.
34:21
I knew how to put it together.
34:22
And at the time, Greg's core product was drag racing.
34:25
So he was really doing mostly drag racing.
34:28
So most of what I edited was drag racing.
34:30
So it was a no-brainer for me.
34:33
and then the rest of it, I just learnt the sports.
34:36
Do you know what I mean?
34:36
Because I had years of growing up at Eastern Creek and being immersed in that, I sort of just had an affinity of how to put the pieces together, the vision together to suit it.
34:47
The tracking that you've taken here intrigues me because it's very unique, mate.
34:51
Most people, when they pursue the path of broadcaster, commentator, whatever they are,
34:56
fixed on that they love that and off they go you in fact went another way and went you know what i actually love the creative process here i love i love the and and did i mean i think the i think the commentary still clearly helps you to this day because you understand what's going on in the in the commentary box how you can each complement each other but that's a very very different tack to have taken mate isn't it
35:19
I really am lucky that I've been able to sample a little bit of all parts of the industry because it's sort of given me an understanding to be able to not only analyze what I like and don't like out of it, but also work with people to advise them, hey, I think maybe we should go down this path or don't do that.
35:37
And I've been really lucky that...
35:39
even though I was not even 1% of you as a broadcaster, you'll at least respect my opinion.
35:46
More than respect.
35:47
Because you know I've sat in, put a headset on, sat in front of a mic and tried to do it.
35:52
And like I said, just like with the motor racing, I worked out that I was better at other things than driving race cars.
35:58
It was the same thing with being in front of the camera.
36:00
I was way better behind the camera than in front of the camera.
36:03
And there's still video floating around for me from 2003 with a weird haircut and a bad necklace doing pieces to camera.
36:09
And the other reason I did it is because at the time I was the most knowledgeable person on the product.
36:15
So the ability to do a 40-second piece to camera post-produce wasn't the end of the world.
36:19
But, I mean, I've edited, I've shot, I've directed, I've produced,
36:28
I've done talent.
36:29
There's an argument to say how good I did at any of them, but the point is I have done a little bit of everything, and you're right, I've been very lucky that that pathway, which I can attribute a lot to Speed Week and CEDA, the giving of those opportunities, has allowed me to have a holistic approach to what I want out of a television product.
36:50
And then the fact that I love motorsport so much and it was my history...
36:54
being able to put the two of them together, it's been very, very fortunate for me.
36:58
You are the sum of many great parts, mate.
37:00
Just on your point about one inch, I can recall going after Targa one year into Southern Cross in, I don't know whether it was Hobart or wherever it was, and we had to make our way through to the newsroom, and I walked past and there's this massive reel going...
37:13
And I said to the guy who was taking me to the newsroom, I said, what the hell's that?
37:16
He goes, oh, shit, mate, don't bump that.
37:18
That's the Sunday night movie.
37:21
So, can we wrap up the AVE chapter here for a second?
37:24
Just how long did you spend there?
37:27
Because you did spend quite a chunk of time there.
37:29
You were in the deep end, as you talked about before.
37:31
He has...
37:33
you know, cornered this section of the market in Australian motorsport and covers a lot of categories.
37:38
So you got to do a lot of things in that time you were there, didn't you?
37:42
Superbikes, you mentioned before, drag racing and more.
37:44
Yeah, so I started at show 89 and I left at 476.
37:49
And that was just the speed week numbers.
37:53
In the same time, we were doing speed machines on Channel 9.
37:56
We were doing full throttle.
37:59
We were doing a whole bunch of rebranded stuff.
38:02
In the peak of the final years I was there, we were making a two-hour speed week, a two-hour show for 48,
38:10
Fox, which was sort of in its infancy, a half an hour show for nine.
38:15
And so this is four and a half hours of television.
38:18
And there was me and another editor.
38:19
Crazy.
38:20
So we were pumping out a huge amount of stuff.
38:22
But yeah, it was just shy of 10 years.
38:24
In fact, I was three months shy of 10 years there.
38:26
Yeah.
38:29
And a lot of people were like, oh, why don't you stay and do your 10 years?
38:32
And the truth of the matter is it was time to go.
38:34
I think you and I had a conversation about this in an edit suite one day.
38:37
I'm not the only person to have spoken to you about that, but we knew you had great talent and it was time, mate.
38:42
It was time to spread your wings, wasn't it?
38:44
And, yeah, and there was a few things in the universe that lined up that sort of showed opportunity for me and I followed it.
38:50
And whilst it was really hard at the time and I had, you know,
38:54
It cost me a lot of things personally, and it proved to be professionally the right call for me.
39:00
But, you know, GS is still operating to this day.
39:03
Speed Week's still running around.
39:05
They still do a lot of stuff.
39:06
In fact, you know, I'm having a coffee with Greg tomorrow morning, funnily enough.
39:09
There you go.
39:10
So he was obviously very hurt when I left.
39:14
He was very upset.
39:17
And we took a little while, 12 or so months, to mend the bridge.
39:22
But I will always, regardless of all the funny stories about little weird things that happen at AVE and they're still ongoing, it was incredible ground for talent.
39:33
He gave people like you and me a chance.
39:35
And it's not just at every level, cameramen, editors...
39:39
producers there's a lot of really good people that have come out of that place and it's a lot it's all the opportunity that that that greg and speed week and all the other people that went through there has allowed you know me and others to grow and and develop that's a string to you that you haven't probably mentioned you can actually pick up a camera and shoot too mate can't you when you need to did you learn that there i learned that there did you yeah and it was because no one really wanted to get near top fuel cars on the start line and i was like yeah give me the camera i'll show you how it should be shot
40:08
And I did.
40:08
I shot a lot of drag racing start line.
40:11
So just a snapshot of the early days of AV.
40:13
Go.
40:14
When we were doing drag racing 97 in Queensland, I would drive the van up, run the cables out, drive the van up on the Friday night, run the cables out on a Saturday.
40:23
I would get on camera and shoot the start line.
40:27
I would do the interviews in the pits and some pieces to camera.
40:30
I would then pull the cables in Sunday night, drive through home Sunday night, get in, then edit the show and then commentate the show.
40:37
So at one point I was like, this is really embarrassing.
40:39
I was director, producer, editor, cameraman, commentator, host of the drag racing show.
40:46
So I was like, maybe I should just change that to just something more simple, holistic.
40:52
In leaving AVE before you start your supercars chapter, there is a little window in there where I think you were more or less operating on your own, were you not?
41:01
And that was tough, mate, wasn't it?
41:03
Yeah, it was really tough.
41:04
When I left Speedweek slash AVE, I remember getting a call from a bunch of people saying, why are you going?
41:11
I was relatively paid well at the time for my age.
41:16
I was running the joint essentially.
41:19
I got an opportunity to do some work with Murray Lomax, who was the executive producer of Supercars at the time and just really had a pathway to start my own business.
41:29
So I went out and started my own business.
41:31
And then in the period of time from when that happened, a lot of the work that I was promised for the following season, the following year, it went away for a whole bunch of reasons, no one's real fault.
41:43
And what it meant was a lot of the work and the income streams that I had disappeared.
41:50
And I basically lost my house.
41:52
Sure.
41:53
You know, I was really on Struggle Street there for a little bit.
41:57
But the lifeline I got thrown was Murray Lomax said, I don't have anything for you in 2006 as much.
42:06
End of the Channel 10 tenure.
42:07
Correct.
42:08
And it's one of the reasons why a lot of the editing work was disappearing.
42:13
But I can get you to every single supercar event, and I'd already started going to every single supercar event from the end of 2005, sort of, I think, August-ish onwards.
42:24
I can continue getting there, but you're going to have to work on the Big Pond live stream feed, which was an in-car channel, and you're the audio guy.
42:34
And I was like, okay, you know I don't know much about audio, Muzz.
42:39
He's like, well, mate, that's a pretty easy job, but you'll get to all events and...
42:43
and it'll allow you to travel with a series.
42:46
And it was the best thing I ever did.
42:47
So I started there.
42:49
Not a lot of money, but it allowed me to get inserted into the crew and the team.
42:56
And my first year, 2006, was basically travelling to all events and setting up the audio gear and working on that and the Big Pond channel.
43:03
Did you work on the panel beta show with Crompo and things like that too?
43:06
No, that was the big time, that show.
43:08
I wasn't working on that.
43:10
You've got to be kidding me.
43:12
But I was producing and editing a couple of sports shows.
43:16
So I think it was Crera Cup at the time and the Fujitsu series, which is now the development series.
43:23
I was producing those shows.
43:24
So there was enough work to get me through.
43:28
But what it really did is it injected me into –
43:32
the series, the crew, the people, the drivers, yourself.
43:34
I mean, you were there.
43:36
It was the last year of 10.
43:39
And then when the Channel 7 era started in 2007, Murray said, okay, I want you to be Pip producer.
43:45
It was the advent of basically Supercars TV, effectively, mate, wasn't it?
43:48
Yeah.
43:48
The very first year of Supercars TV.
43:51
So, sort of towards the end of 2006, Murray offered me that role for the year following.
43:57
That was really exciting.
43:58
And that's when I met Simon Fordham and I started my relationship with Fordham.
44:02
Yep.
44:02
You're great mates still to this day.
44:04
He's off doing some amazing things around sport generally, but especially rugby league at Channel 9.
44:11
You would both climb the ladder and ultimately have that job as...
44:14
as head of Supercars TV or general manager of Supercars TV, the top role.
44:19
But the pair of you when you started, I think you had this moment where you kind of looked at one another and like, do you know what you're doing?
44:24
Do you know what you're doing?
44:25
And like, let's just do our best here, more or less, wasn't it?
44:29
Mate, you're right.
44:31
It was Adelaide the very first year and...
44:34
It's funny because, you know, I was one of those 10-year overnight success stories, you know, like all of a sudden.
44:39
Who was this guy?
44:39
Yeah, who was this guy?
44:40
You know, I've been doing like a little bit of motorsport.
44:43
But the truth is everything I thought I knew was out the window when I went into that world because I hadn't done a lot of live.
44:50
I had directed so many races as live, but the proper word live, it was supercars was my real foray into it.
44:58
So sitting in the back row next to Fordo,
45:01
I knew everything about the category, the sport, like, you know, the rules, this and that, but not a huge amount of live experience.
45:08
Thought I knew everything about live experience, knew nothing about the cars and the sport.
45:12
And I remember he turned to me and he said, all right, all right, you help me with the car stuff, I'll help you with the TV stuff.
45:16
I'm like, deal.
45:19
Pip producing, did that come easily to you because you knew the sport, you'd worked on building all those programs before.
45:26
So the storytelling of that is naturally in your brain, mate.
45:30
Was it an easy thing to sort of to guide those that are commentating in the lane about what you wanted and so on?
45:36
What was that like?
45:37
It was from a storytelling perspective.
45:38
It's like bench racing because essentially you're reading the race, communicating with the pit reporters, of which you were one at the time, and you're allocating resources to go to the right place and then filtering might be too much of a tough word, but essentially helping the producer decide what's important to go into the broadcast.
45:56
And when to put it in.
45:56
When to splice it in.
45:57
And when to put it in.
45:58
So that actually wasn't that hard.
46:00
The hardest thing was actually trying to manage you guys like –
46:05
Yes, I know it's a great story, but hang on a second.
46:07
Come to me.
46:07
Come to me now.
46:08
I've got something.
46:09
I've got something.
46:10
You know, and like soon as there's an incident, like the comms light up and it's like, I'm on my way.
46:15
And I'm like, Rusty's already there.
46:16
And it's like, so you just, most of it was actually people management.
46:20
But the beauty is, you know, everyone that I've worked with in that role has been ultimate professionals.
46:25
And, you know,
46:27
And I use the word before respect.
46:28
I think they've always respected it.
46:30
I've gone, no, we can't do it now.
46:32
They haven't really pushed it.
46:33
And I think there's so much love in that supercars world, even back then and to this day, where everyone works so well with each other that if you have to push back on something, they generally just accept it because there's a real genuine reason.
46:47
In doing some research for this, I've spoken to our great mate, Dean Neal, who's doing some terrific things around AFL and other things now, to Fordo as well.
46:56
They both, without even talking to each other, used a similar choice of words about you, that you're directing, you are a freak in that role.
47:04
When was the first time that you did live directing?
47:07
Where was it?
47:08
Where did you get the chance?
47:09
What was the category?
47:13
In a supercars world, I don't recall anything really properly live in an AVE world, but in the supercars world, I remember that we were at Queensland Raceway and at those days, we went on air all day.
47:27
In the Channel 10 days, you essentially sort of did some highlights and some pre-records in the day and then you might have come on air at 12 or 1 o'clock.
47:34
And I remember saying to Gary Deans, if you want to break gas, I can direct some of these lower support categories.
47:40
And he said, yeah, fine, that's okay.
47:42
I jumped in, sort of got around it without being told too much.
47:47
And Murray's like, oh, you can direct.
47:48
And I was like, oh, I've done quite a few races prior to this time, but nothing live.
47:52
The first proper, proper live stuff I did was actually Bathurst in 2007 when the track was split in two with two directors and I did The Top of the Mountain.
48:03
And the Channel 7 guys had pushed for me, thought I'd pushed for me, and that was my first proper live directing gig.
48:12
And I remember just straight away going, yeah, this is what I was born to do.
48:18
Super.
48:19
I love it.
48:19
Super.
48:20
Absolutely loved it.
48:21
It was incredible.
48:22
Take people there.
48:22
So you talked about it being top of the mountain.
48:24
How many kind of cameras were you looking after?
48:26
And how did it work between you and Gary Deans and the crew at the bottom of the mountain?
48:30
So the track was essentially split in half from the cutting through to halfway down the chase.
48:35
I think my first camera was camera seven and my last one was like 21, right?
48:39
So what's that, 17, 18 cameras.
48:41
Gary at the bottom directed the cameras at the bottom of the track, but he also inserted the helicopters, the in-cars, the pit cameras, the host cameras, stuff like that.
48:51
So he was the main director.
48:53
All I had to worry about was making the track pictures look nice from the cutting to the halfway down the chase.
48:59
but that's where all the fun shots are rusty.
49:01
And that's where all the different overlays are.
49:03
And so I just remember really loving the, the storytelling I got to have all the assets.
49:11
Cause you've got to remember, even though I direct a lot of stuff, it was low budget stuff.
49:15
So, you know, there was one camera essentially to cover that part of the track at Bathurst.
49:20
You had alternate shots and different shots and speed shots.
49:22
So,
49:23
um working with Gary was really easy he was a real professional he was really clear with his instruction and and I just spent the three days just absolutely loving our time up there and all the camera guys and having set plays and set moves for all the different camera shots and yeah really enjoyed it but I do remember
49:42
the start of the race, because obviously every session is a practice session of qualifying leads up.
49:47
I'd never done a Bathurst race start.
49:49
I remember right before the race, my legs were sore because I was so tense.
49:54
I was so tense.
49:55
I was all tensed up on my legs.
49:56
All my calves were all locked up.
49:57
I was like, Nathan, you've got to chill out.
49:59
Chill out, yeah.
50:01
For people that aren't aware, I mean, Bathurst is, depending upon what year we're talking,
50:06
you know, high 200s in terms of staff that you have to look after there?
50:10
How many cameras and so on?
50:11
Paint a picture for people there and onboards and so on.
50:13
I think in the 10 days there was a bit more staff than we have now.
50:16
I think it was 300 plus in the early seven days.
50:20
Now, you know, I think it's around 250.
50:24
It's massive, mate.
50:25
It's enormous.
50:26
If you add up the ENG cameras, the onboard cameras, the specialty cameras, I think in my last year,
50:31
that I did Bathurst 21, I reckon there was 167 different cameras in the broadcast, you know, 30 kilometres of fibre.
50:41
It's an enormous technical challenge in itself just to cover 6.2 kilometres of track.
50:50
But it's highly satisfying as a broadcaster or as a television guy because the pictures just look so beautiful.
50:56
And, you know, it's such an incredible event where it brings the best out on everyone.
51:03
It's not the last race of the year, but it feels like the grand final.
51:07
Everyone rises.
51:08
I mean, I think we did 48 hours of television before the race even started.
51:14
you know, in the 21 year, which I think was the combined ARG year as well.
51:18
Remember we had the extra day?
51:19
Yeah.
51:19
It was like ridiculous on-air hours.
51:23
But from a technical perspective, with the exception to like maybe an Australian Open tennis, which has got, you know, eight or 16 courts, I don't think there's a bigger individual...
51:34
like one sporting field, one location coverage that's got more technical assets than Bathurst.
51:40
Fordo reminded me, you at some point in the great career that you had with him or the chapter that you had with him, you pioneered or you changed tack from the multi OB truck sort of integration.
51:54
So onboards came under your wing, the main cut came under your wing, you know, all these other
52:04
Well, the Bathurst was an interesting one because I did do a couple of years as the mains director with the split truck format and I always had my frustrations.
52:13
And I always kept saying to people, don't we have the technology now to put this through one truck?
52:19
Can't we make this a one director model?
52:22
And I remember a lot of people said to me, it's impossible.
52:24
One director can't do all.
52:25
It's too much for one person.
52:26
It's too much for one director.
52:27
And I'm like, no, I'm telling you, it's the opposite.
52:30
You know, Bathurst is one of those tracks with a couple of long shots where a director does have half a break.
52:36
I mean, Gold Coast is a harder track to direct than Bathurst, to be totally honest with you.
52:39
But it was a huge technical challenge.
52:43
And in the early years, it was not possible to have all of the cameras route back to one truck.
52:48
When that technology became available, I pushed for it.
52:51
I said, I want to do it.
52:52
Trust me, this will be the best outcome.
52:55
I'll direct the whole coverage.
52:57
And at first they were like, oh, well, you can just do the track cut, you can't do the onboards and you can't have the onboards or the pic cameras.
53:04
That didn't last long.
53:06
And I was like, just give me everything.
53:09
And now that's how it's run to this day.
53:11
It's how Brian Foreshaw does it right now.
53:13
It is the best possible outcome for the product.
53:15
It's one mind telling one story and I stand by it.
53:21
It's the best way to do the coverage.
53:23
As is your nature and the demands of such a premier sporting event like that, it means that you're constantly changing it up, mate.
53:30
And people don't probably realise, you guys will often go and do a full survey months beforehand just because the camera at the cutting was at this height before.
53:41
Why can't we change it so it's a bit lower or conveys a bit more speed or a bit more height or something?
53:45
You're always looking to change it up, weren't you?
53:48
Yeah, we are.
53:48
Every year you do at least one, possibly two surveys of Bathurst where you drive up, you will go drive the track, walk the track, have a look at different ways.
53:56
You might have had an idea that you head up there to check out.
53:59
One of the ones that really bore fruit was in 21 when Brian Foreshaw, myself and Neil Crompton went up and this was actually Crompo pushing this.
54:08
And before I get into the Bathurst chat, when I started directing supercars...
54:15
and we talked about those early years when you weren't on air all day, every day, every session, Krompo and I would walk the track together.
54:21
Wow.
54:21
And we would go during supercars practice sessions and we'd stand and look at shots and go, look at what the car does here.
54:28
I mean, a lot of what I am today is because of, particularly in the supercars universe, is with thanks to Krompo.
54:35
And I had a thirst to understand and capture what the cars did on track, convey the speed, convey the attitude.
54:43
And Krompo and I walked it,
54:45
But in the modern era, like we cover the first cars on track in every session, so that went away.
54:51
And Neil was like, you know what, let's go back and walk Bathurst.
54:54
So we walked Bathurst and it really allowed us to get back to have a look at how the tracks cambered here and look how you're blind into the cutting.
55:05
And not only are you blinded in the cutting, look where the track drops off of the wall here.
55:08
So if you're one wheel too wide, you're gonna hit the wall.
55:11
So how do we capture that?
55:14
we can't ever see that the inside wheels off the ground here.
55:16
So from that one survey, we ended up adding three extra specialty shots.
55:20
We added a super slow-mo inside the track at the top coming into McPhillamy and we added that high-speed whipper inside the chase at Conrod just to try to capture the speed or deliver something different.
55:33
And they were all fantastic new additions.
55:36
The one thing I will say about Bathurst is...
55:39
because of the history of it and the comfort that viewers get out of watching it and understanding the cut, I always was mindful to not mess with it too much.
55:48
Really?
55:49
I did not want viewers to get...
55:53
just to be too clever for viewers to not understand what part of the track they were looking at or do too much to mess with the historical significance of certain shots.
56:04
It was really mindful to honour that place and anything we did was an enhancement and we didn't remove any of the traditional shots that people have been watching for 40, 50 years.
56:21
That's the end of part one of my podcast with former GM of TV and content at Supercars, Nathan Prendergast.
56:28
We are not done with the behind-the-scenes yarns in broadcast land just yet.
56:34
Part two is in the garage, all loaded up and ready for you to fire up right now.
56:39
The freakish way that he captured one of the most played incidents in the modern history of touring car racing and Bathurst.
56:47
covering Dakar, Formula One, World Supercross, the craziness of the KL City Grand Prix, and spinning the discs in the desert.
56:58
Just go with me on that one, it'll all make sense.
57:00
Plus reflections of working with some of the legendary frontline people you know and love when you turn on the telly for each round of supercars.