Latest / Rusty's Garage / Ryan Walkinshaw (Part 2)

Transcript

Ryan Walkinshaw (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:21
  All set for part two of my podcast with Ryan Walkinshaw.
• 0:25
  Like racing, this one is a bit of a sprint compared to other reps, so we will do another catch-up with him further down the track.
• 0:32
  There is some great stuff in part one, so if you haven't checked it out yet, jump back to the Rusty's Garage Library and hit the start button.
• 0:41
  Why Monaco isn't quite ready for his crazy Bathurst hair, the different approach he takes to management compared to his famous father, and we reminisce about a cool car from the 80s that he has a soft spot for.
• 0:53
  There's even some audio from the Channel 7 archive in there that they kindly gave us.
• 0:58
  We begin part two by talking about star driver Chas Mostert and the mission to lure him to the Walkinshaw and Dready United outfit.
• 1:10
  His character and his focus on what he wants to achieve is really what drove us towards Chas.
• 1:14
  I've known Chas ever since he was in Super 2.
• 1:17
  I've known him for a long time.
• 1:18
  I've seen him develop.
• 1:20
  I've always liked him.
• 1:21
  I've always thought he was a good driver.
• 1:22
  I always thought he was a very quick driver that made too many mistakes.
• 1:25
  But as he's got older, he's really refined himself into a real potential championship winning driver.
• 1:33
  And it was actually a couple of years before we ended up getting Chaz.
• 1:36
  I was with Dave Ellis, who was his manager, I think at the time.
• 1:39
  And I sort of, I was at Gold Coast and I asked him, I said, when's Chaz off contract?
• 1:44
  He's like, oh, what are you guys interested in?
• 1:47
  You've got another two years with your drivers.
• 1:48
  I'm like, yeah, yeah, but I just want to know.
• 1:50
  He's like, oh, he's still got a couple of years left.
• 1:52
  I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to make sure that you understand that Chaz is going to drive for my team in two years time.
• 1:58
  He's like, oh yeah, we'll see, we'll see, and all that sort of stuff.
• 2:00
  No, no, no, we're going to get him in our team.
• 2:03
  It took a little bit of convincing.
• 2:04
  I mean, you know, we still weren't where we are today back then.
• 2:10
  And, you know, there was still a lot of work that we needed to do.
• 2:12
  But, you know, I met with Chaz a couple of times and explained to him what the vision was.
• 2:18
  And, you know, we got Michael and Zach to meet with him as well.
• 2:21
  And, you know, they managed to sell the dream as well and, you know, explain what our hopes and dreams were and what our ambitions were.
• 2:29
  And more importantly, I think how we were going to do it.
• 2:32
  And Chas got it.
• 2:33
  And, you know, we were under some pretty stiff competition.
• 2:36
  There was another very successful outfit at the time that had some big Shell logos on their cars that were chasing Chas as well quite aggressively.
• 2:46
  And, you know,
• 2:47
  it was definitely not easy convincing a driver to come to our team when you've got at the time the number one team in pit lane having a big crack at him as well um but you know chas uh you know the demonstration of his character which is exactly one of the reasons we wanted him was um you know he didn't want to just go and sit in a car that was already winning and everyone just sits there and says oh you know he's in uh he's in the he's in the championship winning car of course he's going to be fast he wants to come to a team and build a story um because he thinks there's
• 3:16
  And that's what he's doing.
• 3:17
  He's a great, great leader in the team.
• 3:20
  He's a good character.
• 3:21
  He doesn't take life too seriously.
• 3:24
  And he's a great role model for kids.
• 3:27
  And that's exactly what we want our team to be.
• 3:29
  We don't want to be the serious, boring, antiseptic team.
• 3:33
  We want to be the team that people realize is a team that people actually enjoy going racing in.
• 3:40
  I think that's quite important.
• 3:41
  I think that there's some longevity in that, which will hopefully stand the test of time.
• 3:46
  And as a character, what he demonstrates, what he is on the outside to the fans, I think is a pretty good demonstration of what we feel we are as a team on the inside.
• 3:56
  How did it feel, though, to lose Lee Holdsworth?
• 3:59
  Because he's done an amazing job.
• 4:02
  In all the pieces of the puzzle that we've just covered, he did an amazing job during Bathurst Week for you guys, didn't he?
• 4:09
  I mean, he's obviously gone for an opportunity to get back in a full-time sense now.
• 4:14
  But was that a hard one to swallow or did you go with your blessing?
• 4:19
  No, to be honest, it wasn't hard at all.
• 4:21
  Lee's a great guy.
• 4:22
  He's been on our team as a main game driver before and he did a fantastic job for us and helped us win Bathurst.
• 4:29
  Co-drivers do matter at Bathurst quite a lot and Lee demonstrated just how important it is to get a good co-driver and he did an absolutely good job.
• 4:39
  incredible job to be honest so when he got the opportunity to go back into the main game we weren't annoyed at all we're actually very happy for him um so we we had a contract for another year but we just let him out of it and said um you know well done dude you deserve it go and have another crack at the main game and you know that's what you should be doing so we're happy for
• 4:55
  I respect on the release, mate.
• 4:56
  That's cool.
• 4:57
  In the rebuild that you've talked about, I mean, the likes of Adam DeBore has come in.
• 5:00
  There are other people as well.
• 5:02
  You've ticked Bathurst.
• 5:03
  You've targeted other things you want to achieve.
• 5:06
  What other elements do you need still to bring to the table?
• 5:11
  Or do you feel like in the war chest you have all the things now and it's just to continue the finesse in all of that, the gelling in all of that?
• 5:21
  Yeah, I think we're nearly there.
• 5:23
  I mean, you never know.
• 5:24
  And it's, you know, we came third in the driver's championship.
• 5:28
  We came, was it fourth in the team's championship.
• 5:31
  So there's still work to do.
• 5:35
  But I think we're nearly there.
• 5:37
  And I think this year our big focus is going to be on team's championship.
• 5:40
  Obviously, we're going to be fighting for driver's championship as well.
• 5:42
  But, you know, we do know how incredibly consistent and impressive Shane is as a driver.
• 5:47
  And Anton will probably.
• 5:50
  in this new season as well.
• 5:53
  But in Teams Championship, I think we've really got an opportunity.
• 5:55
  And that was one of the key drivers for us getting Nick Perkat in and Slater in as well.
• 6:01
  You know, getting another car there.
• 6:02
  You know, Bryce has been fantastic, but, you know, we felt that we really needed a driver that was...
• 6:08
  hitting his peak as a driver to come in as a second driver alongside Chas.
• 6:14
  And we want Chas and Nick to push each other.
• 6:17
  And we went getting that from having a young driver with an older driver.
• 6:21
  And we felt that making that change was going to be quite important.
• 6:23
  So I think we've got most of the ingredients there to bake our cake, if that makes sense.
• 6:29
  But...
• 6:31
  you know, there's still a lot of hard work that goes into it.
• 6:32
  And it's an incredibly competitive championship.
• 6:35
  So just because we've now got all the ingredients we've been working towards, you know, there's still a lot of work that goes in the background to be able to try and accomplish what we want to do.
• 6:43
  And other teams will also be, you know, doing a lot of work in the background to try and leapfrog other teams.
• 6:48
  You know, you've also got teams like Erebus that were already, you know, hitting their bootstraps towards the end of the season.
• 6:53
  You know, Cam Waters of Tickford will be a threat for sure.
• 6:58
  And by the end of the season, you'll probably see Brock Feeney in and around fighting for the podiums as well.
• 7:04
  Because there's no doubt that him jumping in that car is going to have a pretty good set of wheels underneath him to have a crack at a few races with.
• 7:14
  So the competition is still going to be really, really high.
• 7:17
  But we've just got to keep focusing on ourselves and trying to do what we can do as best as we can.
• 7:22
  Hope that going in with two strong drivers and a really strong engineering team is going to reap rewards.
• 7:31
  And pray for a bit of luck because it doesn't matter how good you are.
• 7:36
  It's like there's always an element of luck in sport, and that's one of the reasons we love it.
• 7:39
  Will that take a little bit of management, the two strong drivers, or do you feel like it won't necessarily be a fireworks scenario?
• 7:47
  Yeah, everyone keeps saying that, but I mean, we...
• 7:51
  Yeah, Chas is a pretty good professional.
• 7:56
  And Nick has shown himself to be quite a good leader over at BJR as well.
• 7:59
  I mean, they were allegedly quite upset to have lost him.
• 8:03
  And you're not really generally upset with losing a driver if he's a complete dickhead.
• 8:07
  So I think Nick was quite fiery when he was young, should we say.
• 8:14
  And he'll be the first to admit that was one of the reasons why
• 8:17
  He didn't continue his journey with us, but he's really matured as a driver since then.
• 8:22
  He's become much more of a leader, he's mellowed out a lot, and he's very, very motivated to give this a proper crack.
• 8:30
  He probably knows that this is one of his last opportunities to really show everyone else what he feels he's capable of.
• 8:37
  And I think a lot of people think he's always been capable of, but hasn't been able to show it with the machinery or teams that he's been in.
• 8:43
  So I think he's going to surprise a lot of people.
• 8:45
  He may not, it's motorsport and all sorts of things happen, but I believe that he's really going to put some of the doubters into bed and show people what he's capable of.
• 8:56
  And I think if he does that, he's going to push Chas as well.
• 8:59
  And Chas is in the absolute peak of his career.
• 9:02
  We already know that he's a great driver.
• 9:03
  And hopefully having Nick and Chas together will...
• 9:09
  um you know we'll push chas to become a champion and uh you know who knows maybe nick will be fighting fighting with him for that title as well sport's gone through a significant change in the last um couple of months obviously from the the sale of the business side of things and the way that it is um the way that it is you know uh the way that it operates now what's your immediate impression of the the new leadership group what do you what do you think and what are you what are you looking forward to as we move into to this next phase as as an owner as a team owner
• 9:36
  I think some reinvigoration and just a new a new plan and a new a new goal that we want to try to achieve as a championship I think you know with the previous ownership structure I think you know got to a point where we've
• 9:52
  sort of felt a little bit in limbo with what the sport wanted to be going forward.
• 9:57
  You know, with the exception of a few things like Gen 3, which, you know, still probably wasn't as done as best as it could have been.
• 10:02
  And, you know, it was delayed several times and partly COVID-related, partly related to a few other different challenges.
• 10:09
  But I'm excited to see a new vision for what we want the sport to become.
• 10:12
  I think it's interesting that there's going to be a more natural alignment with some other motorsport categories in Australia, trying to essentially create a super category for supercars, alongside Seven as a supporting partner in Fox.
• 10:26
  And I think there's some potential there for Stun Wright.
• 10:29
  It could be very, very, very impressive, and it could add additional value to the events and to the TV product that we sell to the customers.
• 10:38
  This morning there was news that Shane Howard's going to be the new CEO from Supercars, which I think is a great move.
• 10:43
  I was really gunning for Shane, and I made my thoughts to the new ownership group very clear a few weeks ago, or even more than that, that I felt that if they were going to be making a change with Sean, that Shane should be the guy that should run it.
• 10:58
  And I believe that Shane's the most obvious candidate to lead that role.
• 11:02
  And, you know, he's got all the runs on the board.
• 11:06
  He's got all the knowledge of the sport.
• 11:08
  I would have been more concerned if they come in and put someone from ARG in charge or put someone from outside of motorsport with a category in charge, because we've done that several times.
• 11:21
  And it hasn't really always worked.
• 11:23
  I think Sean did a really, really good job.
• 11:25
  good job through very challenging conditions.
• 11:29
  And I think James Warburton was very, very good as well.
• 11:32
  Before that, you know, we had a few duds and, you know, it's hard when you've got something which is as complex as supercars is and it's not just complex because it's a motorsport category, which is always a little bit complicated anyway, but, you know, you're dealing with all the political complexity of having events in all the different states and so on.
• 11:52
  It's not something you can do.
• 11:53
  to learn and pick up very, very quickly.
• 11:55
  So having someone like Shane, he's already got that experience.
• 11:57
  He's already been in all the meetings, already knows all the people in the sport and all the different stakeholders of supercars across Australia, knows all the premiers, all the different states and everything.
• 12:07
  You know, I think that's a really, really good move.
• 12:08
  So I'm quite excited about that.
• 12:11
  I'm excited to see what happens with Gen 3.
• 12:14
  We've been racing these old donkeys around for quite a while, so I'm quite excited to see what happens next.
• 12:21
  I think the Camaro and the Mustang look really, really good.
• 12:25
  The Mustang is an obvious improvement on what the current Mustang looks like aesthetically.
• 12:30
  And, you know, bringing the Camaro in, you know, walking short with a group that brought Camaro into Australia on the road car side of things.
• 12:38
  So, you know, it's very nice to be able to see that, you know, all that effort that went in the background over those years of selling them here has resulted in, you know, that being the first choice for GM to race in supercars as well.
• 12:51
  So, yeah.
• 12:53
  I think that's going to be exciting to just have a nice refresh of the products of the cars that are actually racing around.
• 12:59
  And who knows, maybe there'll be a couple more manufacturers that will be able to jump in now, you know, with the new structure that we have in place with Gen 3 and the clarity that we now have over those regulations going forward.
• 13:20
  If anyone would like to see Ryan's hair, which, as a computer-generated program, I must say has dazzled me, head to Rusty Socials, or Listener Socials.
• 13:30
  Be warned though, it's extremely blonde.
• 13:33
  And just for the record, I'm saying EXTREMELY in all caps.
• 13:38
  That leads me to a couple of questions that I asked from listeners via social media.
• 13:43
  And we've tackled a number of them in this conversation here.
• 13:45
  But one of them, Aaron Ivory, I think it is, has asked which manufacturers have expressed interest.
• 13:53
  Are there any?
• 13:53
  I mean, there's been talk about that Jaguar story and so on.
• 13:57
  But can you see more manufacturers wanting to get involved based on what we saw unveiled at Bathurst?
• 14:03
  And what's the likelihood?
• 14:04
  It's hard because we've spoken to probably six manufacturers and we've got NDAs with all of them, so I can't tell you who they are.
• 14:12
  That's fair enough.
• 14:14
  But, you know, there's speculation out there and there's generally not speculation with the detail that there has been without a bit of smoke without fire.
• 14:24
  So...
• 14:25
  I can't talk about anything that we're doing, but the big feedback we've had from a, if I take a step back and I'm not specific about anything, I can probably say that the key feedback that we had previously was a lack of clarity on the Gen 3 guidelines and what that was going to look like.
• 14:45
  We know what Gen 3 is.
• 14:46
  We know what that's going to look like.
• 14:48
  We've now got two Gen 3 car prototypes zooming around.
• 14:51
  So, you know, that concern from a manufacturer perspective is now gone or at least massively diminished.
• 14:58
  And the second one, which is actually what killed one program, which we were 95% of the way to accomplishing was COVID.
• 15:05
  So, you know, we had all the OKs.
• 15:09
  from pretty much everyone in that business.
• 15:11
  It was going to the board to get signed off internationally.
• 15:14
  And a week before that was going to get signed off, COVID was exploding.
• 15:20
  And like a lot of manufacturers, not just from a motorsport perspective, mostly from their own product,
• 15:29
  and didn't want to go and take any additional risk whilst COVID was in its early days and the world didn't know what it was going to look like.
• 15:37
  And there was some pretty
• 15:40
  There was some pretty big concerns about how COVID was going to impact the world at that time.
• 15:47
  And understandably, they decided to get risk off.
• 15:50
  And to be honest, I would have probably done the same if I was them.
• 15:53
  There's no need to spending millions of dollars on something, unless it's absolutely critical, especially when you're concerned if you're going to be able to keep your manufacturing plants open.
• 16:00
  So that was disappointing.
• 16:03
  I think for us, we're going to have to make a decision on...
• 16:06
  who we go with pretty quickly.
• 16:08
  We've got a pretty fair idea on what we're going to do.
• 16:10
  But we probably need to commit because, you know, the longer that we wait, you know, the longer that, you know, the less time you really have to try and understand what car you've got and what engine you've got and the development work that's going to go into 2023.
• 16:26
  And, you know, there's some big changes there in what we're going to be racing in Gen 3.
• 16:32
  So getting on the front foot and knowing what product you're going to race and start doing the background work on how you're going to race it is pretty important that we understand what that is in the next few months, really.
• 16:42
  How have you gone through the whole adaption phase, mate?
• 16:48
  I'm not talking in a racing sense here.
• 16:50
  You've talked about COVID, but, I mean, in the last few years, we've seen the demise of Holden.
• 16:56
  There's the way you've...
• 17:00
  shifted the business in many respects.
• 17:01
  Just talk us through that very briefly and how satisfying that has been and yet at the same time how challenging that has been.
• 17:09
  Oh, it's been hugely challenging.
• 17:10
  I mean, I remember when we got told that Holden was going to stop manufacturing here.
• 17:16
  Yeah, so we've got a great relationship with GM and Holden, but naturally how these big corporates work is when there's a big, you know,
• 17:23
  world-changing decisions like that for them.
• 17:25
  They don't even tell their close partners until quite late in the day, even though all the writing was on the wall when we'd been warmed up to it.
• 17:33
  sort of half an hour before the press conference, just courtesy call, letting you guys know that this is what the press conference is.
• 17:38
  And we're like, that's okay, that's cool.
• 17:39
  We've already been told by six journalists already about four hours ago this was gonna happen.
• 17:43
  But thank you for letting us know.
• 17:47
  And then afterwards you have the information that goes into how that's gonna happen and what that means to your business.
• 17:56
  Quite honestly, the discussion was very much around, okay, well, how are you guys gonna close down your business because we've got no product for you?
• 18:02
  I was like, well, I'd rather not do that, to be honest.
• 18:05
  I was trying to find a solution to continue, and fortunately we did.
• 18:08
  And full credit to Mark Royce and to Mark Bernard in particular from Holden at the time.
• 18:16
  There's a lot of work that went into
• 18:19
  giving us the opportunity to continue our business doing SportsCat and doing the conversion work.
• 18:26
  And we'd already managed to demonstrate our capability there by already having done three years under our belt with Ram and Ram already being a big success with our partnership with Tico and Neville Cryson.
• 18:39
  Because we already had the runs on the board, I think it gave GM the confidence to let us do something to their cars that they've never let anyone do before.
• 18:45
  And from there, it's just continued growing.
• 18:49
  And now we've got VW as another partner.
• 18:52
  We'll have several more partnership announcements over the course of the next 18 months, which hopefully will surprise a few people.
• 18:59
  And the business has grown through a period of time when, to be honest, I think most people thought we were gonna fall over.
• 19:08
  So we've grown from about 200 employees to over a thousand employees now.
• 19:13
  And we've gone from doing sort of 2,500 HSVs a year to this year doing nearly 10,000.
• 19:19
  And then that will continue to increase.
• 19:20
  I can't say what our numbers are going forward, but you'd be wise to bet on those going up significantly over the next couple of years, which is pretty exciting.
• 19:32
  So we're now the largest automotive company in Australia.
• 19:35
  And a few years ago, we were saying that we were doing sort of 4,000.
• 19:39
  It was a bit of a spurious claim because it was just because we didn't have GM and Ford and Toyota building cars here anymore.
• 19:45
  But, you know, the volumes that we're going to be doing going forward, you know, across the group, especially the caravans as well, you know, will be quite significant, which is great.
• 19:54
  And, you know, just keeping jobs that we already have whilst continuing to be searching for more and more employees is a great position to be in, you know, considering where we've come from.
• 20:04
  Most definitely.
• 20:05
  Some of that stuff might go hand in hand, but just give us a broad brush for a moment then in terms of how much time for you is automotive and how much time is racing?
• 20:14
  And what's the staffing that you must look after in total terms now?
• 20:19
  In total terms, we've got over 1,000 employees nearly.
• 20:23
  By the end of the year, they'll probably be closer to 1,100, 1,200 employees.
• 20:28
  and uh my time is spelt wherever i'm needed if things are running smoothly um my time i spend on a business uh becomes less and i normally get pulled in when things are going wrong as opposed to when things are going right because when things are going right you know it's all gravy and it's it's nice and not relaxed but you know it's everything's under control you know you it's uh things are you know relatively comfortable and um and uh you know my time normally comes into things when you know when there's challenges that needs to be accomplished and there's uh
• 20:58
  but the one thing that bends the roller a little bit there is obviously motorsport and like any sport when there's an additional level of passion and competition that comes into things and especially when you've got things like motorsport where there's all sorts of little challenges that come into play which you weren't expecting especially over the last couple of years
• 21:17
  I do end up spending probably an unfair amount of my time considering the size of the business in the motorsport team.
• 21:25
  But even in saying that, considering the amount of time that you used to spend previously because of the...
• 21:33
  the way that it was managed or the lack of management that we had at times.
• 21:40
  The way that Bruce is running the race team has been a revelation because there's a huge amount of work that goes into it with me and Bruce and we work very closely together and we're personally friends as well.
• 21:51
  So we do spend a lot of time together even outside of the race team.
• 21:54
  He's running such a good ship there at the moment.
• 21:58
  It's becoming less and less of a requirement for me to be in there day in, day out, which is really, really good.
• 22:03
  It's how it should be because that's how the other businesses run as well.
• 22:07
  So, you know, testament to what a good job Bruce is doing.
• 22:10
  in that race team because it's the most comfortable and relaxed and organised and there's always challenges and shit going wrong because that's just the nature of the beast but there's a lot of confidence that we've got the right people there to make the right decisions well I do at least so yeah yeah
• 22:32
  I hope that answered the question.
• 22:33
  No, you did.
• 22:34
  Couple to finish here because you need to go for a cycle with some friends.
• 22:38
  You mentioned in your last answer there about the importance of people, right?
• 22:40
  People in the right place and so on.
• 22:42
  And, you know, clearly the way you look after those relationships.
• 22:45
  And even earlier in the podcast about how you perhaps do things differently to your dad, for example.
• 22:52
  Even for me, Ryan, you know, losing James Courtney, for example, as a driver from the squad, but you've kept
• 23:00
  a good relationship with him away from the track it would seem.
• 23:04
  Did that go through a difficult period and, you know, you kind of worked it out or was it that something that you just, you amicably walked away from the pair of you?
• 23:14
  It was pretty amicable.
• 23:14
  I mean, James was pretty good about it.
• 23:18
  I mean, like always, you're going to have a little bit of friction when those sort of situations occur, when it really happens.
• 23:24
  But by the end of the season, you know, we were all hugging, crying and grabbing each other in the last race in Newcastle and all that sort of thing.
• 23:31
  So, you know, I've known James ever since I've been, ever since I took over the business.
• 23:34
  So...
• 23:36
  I've been pretty close to him for a while and will continue to stay friends.
• 23:39
  And he's a good guy, but I think we both knew that we needed a change.
• 23:43
  It wasn't working.
• 23:45
  He just said the same thing and he's gone and done some good stuff at Tickford since he's left.
• 23:50
  And we've obviously made a lot of changes at our place and have gone a different direction, have had some good success as well.
• 23:55
  So I think we both knew it was the right decision, but it doesn't change how you can remain and have a good relationship away from that.
• 24:03
  And, you know, he's obviously one of the guys that was, you know, the first to sort of message us when we were in Bathurst and say he was happy to see us win and stuff like that.
• 24:09
  So, you know, the relationship is still good there.
• 24:11
  To be honest, I think most people in supercars get on with each other.
• 24:14
  There's only a few dickheads that people don't like, but most people are actually quite friendly with each other.
• 24:18
  So true, so true.
• 24:20
  A great family.
• 24:20
  Hey, a documentary series is something that fans can now see and have been looking forward to.
• 24:27
  What can you tell us about Inside Line?
• 24:29
  Tell us about that.
• 24:30
  It was one of those things we wanted to do inside line.
• 24:32
  And we actually did a documentary series on our team back, I think, 2013.
• 24:38
  with the guys from AME.
• 24:41
  And that was okay.
• 24:43
  And it was, I don't think it got very good ratings because I don't think, you know, we didn't have the support of Fox and Supercast fully behind it, whereas this obviously did.
• 24:53
  And I think the great thing about our season of Inside Line is it's not just about a racing team going racing and having a season.
• 25:03
  it turned into a story about how a racing team survives through the chaos of COVID.
• 25:08
  Because we started filming, you know, four weeks before COVID started smashing the world.
• 25:12
  And, you know, the whole story is about how the team went through all the chaos and carnage that happened in that 2020 season and part of 2021.
• 25:19
  So...
• 25:23
  It's a very, very cool documentary.
• 25:24
  It's now on YouTube, I think, as well.
• 25:26
  It's on the Superstars YouTube, I think.
• 25:28
  So anyone can watch all six episodes for free and on demand.
• 25:33
  So, yeah, I'd say it's worth watching.
• 25:35
  We've tried...
• 25:36
  When we went into it, we had a decision, and the decision we made was it's got to be authentic, it's got to be real, and we've got to actually show people the bad sides of what goes on in the team.
• 25:46
  Because I think when you have that authenticity, people...
• 25:49
  They respect and they understand what you're trying to achieve a lot better.
• 25:55
  It's when you try and cut things out that maybe put what you're saying, what you're doing in the background in a potentially negative light.
• 26:04
  I think people see right through that these days.
• 26:06
  People want to have authentic experience.
• 26:09
  They want to see true fly on the wall, warts and all.
• 26:12
  And I think Drive to Survive does that quite well in Netflix, even if it's a little bit over-dramaticized sometimes.
• 26:19
  But you still see, when shit goes wrong, you still see firsthand what the response is.
• 26:23
  And sometimes it's not pretty, but that's what people want to see.
• 26:25
  They don't want to have the antiseptic view of the world.
• 26:28
  They want to have the real warts and all version of the world.
• 26:31
  And I think that's what we accomplished in Inside Line.
• 26:34
  We've given people exactly what you see is exactly what happens behind the scenes.
• 26:41
  And I think that's why it's been quite successful.
• 26:43
  There was some good feedback because I think people appreciate the honesty and they respect that.
• 26:48
  Finally, do you have a little emotional attachment to that car that won Bathurst?
• 26:53
  You've talked about the business side of it, about pre-selling it and so on.
• 26:56
  But will you always look back with this sense of fondness about the machine now, knowing all the work that went into it by that group of people and what has been for you the biggest driver
• 27:09
  in the fight back?
• 27:11
  Was it losing HRT to Triple Eight?
• 27:13
  What was it that has driven this comeback?
• 27:17
  Well, for me, it's always been that I wanted to accomplish the same feats that my father has, and he was a competitive bastard, and so am I.
• 27:26
  And he would be happy to know that I want to beat him as much as he would have wanted to beat me if I was in his position.
• 27:33
  So I've still got a long way to go to do that, because he was phenomenally successful in things, but
• 27:38
  I don't want to be second best in anything that I do.
• 27:41
  So I've always wanted to do that to make him proud, but also to show people that I'm capable and can achieve some pretty cool things.
• 27:50
  But yeah, the car itself is obviously very special.
• 27:55
  And, but at the same time, I don't fall in love with objects.
• 28:00
  I'm focused on running the business.
• 28:02
  You always have an emotional attachment to it, but it's still just a car.
• 28:07
  the emotional attachment and what I feel that went into that car is all the people in the team that you know created it and turned it into a machine that won that weekend it's not just Chas and Lee and Debore but it's you know it's all the mechanics it's all the guys in the PR team it's everyone around it it's even people who are ancillary to the race team um
• 28:30
  You know, there's a lot of human beings that go into turning that car into what it managed to accomplish.
• 28:37
  So I think the emotional attachment and, you know, the way that I feel is more of a pride in what they did to turn that car into what it was, as opposed to the machine itself, if that makes sense.
• 28:47
  The machine's only one part of the story, but the real story is the human beings behind it.
• 28:52
  Congratulations, mate.
• 28:53
  The win was mighty.
• 28:55
  It's been super to catch up with you.
• 28:56
  We could talk for a lot longer.
• 28:59
  Best wishes for 2022 for you and the team.
• 29:02
  Keep up the fun stuff on socials.
• 29:04
  We love the jibes with Pete Addison and all that stuff.
• 29:07
  Please promise us no Mohawks, right?
• 29:09
  No Mohawks.
• 29:10
  No, no, no.
• 29:10
  Don't worry.
• 29:11
  Let us know that.
• 29:13
  Cool.
• 29:13
  Take care.
• 29:13
  Thanks again.
• 29:14
  Thank you very much.
• 29:21
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 29:25
  Series editor and producer is Ed Gooden.
• 29:28
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 29:31
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 29:35
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• 29:36
  It's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fueled stories.
• 29:50
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