Latest / Rusty's Garage / Casey Stoner (Part 2)

Transcript

Casey Stoner (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:21
  This is the second part of my chat with Casey Stoner.
• 0:25
  When he raced, he always set it straight, and that hasn't changed, but you sense his recent battle with chronic fatigue has been taxing.
• 0:33
  You'll hear a bit more about that, as well as the incredible winning streak that he enjoyed at Phillip Island in MotoGP, and how he mastered a corner there that now bears his name.
• 0:43
  You'll enjoy those insights.
• 0:45
  There's been time to look back on things in post-competitive life, as invariably all athletes do, but you have to admire the conviction.
• 0:53
  It's one of the things that often sets winners apart from champions.
• 1:00
  It almost sounds like you're a little bit philosophical in later life.
• 1:05
  I'm not a believer, right, in regret.
• 1:09
  You make the best decision that you can at the time with what's in front of you and if you go into that with confidence, you've made the right call.
• 1:17
  But have you sat back and thought about some of this stuff in post-race life?
• 1:20
  Is that what you sort of say?
• 1:23
  A lot of people always sort of look back and, you know, there's without a doubt, I can go back and do things differently.
• 1:28
  The way I handled sometimes with the press and the media, the way I handled certain situations, I'm still embarrassed about now, especially as I grew a bit older.
• 1:38
  You're always making mistakes.
• 1:40
  but I still wouldn't change it because it led me to where I am today.
• 1:44
  I'm still in a position in life that I'm incredibly pleased with and could not be more grateful for.
• 1:49
  You know, the results I managed to get, the family and everything that I have now, the situation we're in, it's fantastic.
• 1:55
  You know, I personally can't ask for more.
• 1:57
  I never dreamed of this.
• 1:58
  So therefore, I may be dreamt of better results, but of course I'm a realist as well, so I know what's attainable.
• 2:07
  But, yeah, I mean, I don't sit back and go, oh, if this happened, I would have been this.
• 2:11
  If that happened, this would have happened.
• 2:14
  Things would have been better.
• 2:15
  I just think you have to go through these learning stages.
• 2:18
  You know, there's a lot of life left, and I'd rather...
• 2:23
  be ready for the rest of life than have things all come easily to me on a plate and not have those experiences for later in life.
• 2:32
  I sense in you, because I've known you for some time, that you would almost have preferred to have just ridden, raced, done the competitive thing and hopefully chalk up the results that you did but not have to worry about all the other stuff that came with it.
• 2:45
  That is a by-product of the place that you were playing.
• 2:53
  that if he had a trusted group of a couple of journos you could always go to he was he was fine but it was tough wasn't it mate because the press were um you know i could sense some of the yarns that were written at times you were acutely aware of what was said weren't you and and the either inaccuracy or or the imbalance in some of that stuff
• 3:16
  Yeah, it was, like I said, people take me the wrong way sometimes because I'm more quiet and holdoffish rather than, you know, happy to, let's say, play the game and tell good stories.
• 3:29
  I'm not a storyteller.
• 3:30
  I'll tell you straight down the line how it is or how I see it.
• 3:34
  It's my opinion.
• 3:35
  But, yeah, I'm not a storyteller, and unfortunately it doesn't sit well.
• 3:39
  You've got to be a showman.
• 3:40
  You've got to be a storyteller.
• 3:41
  You've got to play this whole game that I just wasn't willing to do.
• 3:45
  And I think the same thing.
• 3:47
  If I had a few more people in my corner in the early years that helped me –
• 3:54
  be ready for some of those moments, then I'd say my career might have even been longer.
• 3:59
  I wouldn't have been so worn out and put off by the scene of it, basically.
• 4:07
  But yeah, this is the way it is and the way it went.
• 4:10
  So, you know, we made those mistakes.
• 4:12
  It's maybe things that I'd like to go back and do again is, you know, have the right people in your corner and...
• 4:20
  learn in the early years because we went from literally a nobody and nobody ever considered us in one year world champion and being pulled in every direction so i wasn't ready for that and that uh that took a little bit too much and i didn't get a lot of the right advice through that so i think um in the early years it would have been nice just to just have the right people in
• 4:43
  in MotoGP that you have a soft spot for in your heart?
• 4:48
  Which bike, why?
• 4:49
  And tell the audience a bit more about it.
• 4:52
  I'd say it was my 2012 Honda with the tires that we started the first test with.
• 5:02
  That was without a doubt the most beautiful bike I've ever ridden.
• 5:05
  It sort of didn't really have a weak point.
• 5:07
  It was great in the corner speed, great grip, great turning.
• 5:10
  I had feel with it.
• 5:11
  Everything was working well.
• 5:14
  but I don't think the rest of the championship liked that.
• 5:16
  So they went and changed the allocation of the tyres before the start of the season, and it gave us the worst chatter I've ever experienced in my life.
• 5:25
  You know, we've got footage where the tyres coming three, four inches off the ground, bouncing along, and we can't get grip when that's happening.
• 5:33
  So that sends the electronic system all in a haywire as well, and the guys won't let me run without it.
• 5:39
  So, yeah, it was just...
• 5:42
  When that bike was nice, yeah, it was fantastic to ride.
• 5:47
  Around left-hand corners, it was all good.
• 5:49
  It was only right-hand corners that we had the problem, but most of the tracks in the world are right-hand corners, so we had nothing but issues with it, and it was, yeah, it was disappointing because that was, without a doubt, the best bike I ever rode.
• 6:01
  The listeners from Australia will fondly remember an unbelievable chapter at Phillip Island for you, that string of wins that you enjoyed there.
• 6:12
  Is there one at the island that stands out for you?
• 6:14
  And why was it such a – was it the fact that you were at home, you were happy to be home?
• 6:19
  Was it the venue because it's a bit of a classic old-school joint?
• 6:23
  What was it that, you know, resonated so much with you there?
• 6:28
  Um...
• 6:30
  The only reason I like the track so much, I think, because I didn't race it as much as all my competitors had been there more times than me.
• 6:37
  I never raced it in Australia before I left.
• 6:39
  I never saw the place.
• 6:42
  I love high-speed corners.
• 6:45
  I love corners that generally scare most other people.
• 6:47
  They give me a lot more confidence, especially when I can set the rear out a little bit.
• 6:52
  I know I can't lose the front then, and I can control the rear through dirt tracks.
• 6:55
  So...
• 6:57
  Phillip Island was just a great fast-flowing track with natural falls in it, whereas all the tracks these days seem to be very much computer-generated and they just do not sit with the land.
• 7:10
  They don't make the corners in the right spot.
• 7:13
  They just sort of go, yep, yep, we'll design that, plonk, and they don't feel natural.
• 7:17
  They don't feel like a fast-flowing track.
• 7:20
  They make some unique little designs, let's say.
• 7:23
  But Phillip Island, Mugello, Bruneau, even Catalonia, but they've kind of ruined that with that, you know, two new tighter sections.
• 7:31
  They're really tracks that just flow with the land and have a uniqueness that nobody can ever sort of copy.
• 7:39
  But Phillip Island was just something special for me.
• 7:41
  It was nothing to do about being home.
• 7:44
  I didn't like the added pressure of being home, to be honest.
• 7:46
  I...
• 7:47
  It's one of my most dreaded weekends of the year because the weather plays such a part.
• 7:51
  It's windy.
• 7:52
  It's so easy to make a mistake there.
• 7:53
  It's cold.
• 7:54
  So you don't get everything right.
• 7:56
  You can easily crash and hurt yourself.
• 7:59
  It's a bit of a dreaded place, you know, especially when the later years, you know, that tarmac had been there for a long time and there wasn't a lot of grip there.
• 8:06
  Nowadays, it's a bit better.
• 8:10
  But yeah, it just sat well with me because, like I said, I like the bike moving.
• 8:14
  I like those faster corners.
• 8:16
  I like, in some ways, dealing with the wind, especially on those fast corners where it can make you a little bit nervous.
• 8:22
  Like I said, I could set that rear out.
• 8:24
  As soon as you set the rear out, the front turns the other way.
• 8:26
  Therefore, you cannot close the front if it's facing that way.
• 8:30
  And, yeah, we're always able to find a little bit of advantage there.
• 8:33
  So it was a pleasure to ride in the end.
• 8:35
  In post-race life, they named Turn 3 after you.
• 8:40
  For people that don't know, it is a super fast left-hander before you come down on the picks to the tight right that people affectionately call Honda Corner.
• 8:50
  That's probably a really fitting corner for you to be named after then, is it?
• 8:54
  Yeah, it is actually.
• 8:55
  How fast were you going through there?
• 8:57
  Do you remember?
• 8:59
  So the quickest I ever went through there was qualifying, so with a heap of grip, which is actually harder to get through there because it just wants to push the front.
• 9:06
  You go downhill.
• 9:08
  There's a little flag marshals post there with a tyre wall on the inside, and that blocks a little bit of wind on the entry.
• 9:15
  So you go down through this dip, which basically you lose front end tyre contact when you're going through there.
• 9:21
  It's fifth gear.
• 9:24
  As soon as you come out from the other side of the flag marshals post, the wind's always coming across, and that's what hits you and wants you to lose the front.
• 9:30
  So it's always a little nerve-wracking through there.
• 9:33
  So I always made sure as soon as I got down that little dip, I would try and break the rear straight away so that I couldn't lose the front when the wind hits me.
• 9:41
  Bit of slide.
• 9:42
  Bit of slide.
• 9:43
  Sounds easier than doing it because you've got to slide before the corner.
• 9:46
  You've got to break it a little bit before you get to the corner.
• 9:49
  Not just most people only see the part where you're sliding out.
• 9:52
  I was actually sliding already before we got to the curb and slide through.
• 9:56
  Induced, yeah.
• 9:57
  It was the same in Valencia turn three.
• 10:00
  Another reason is I don't like braking on the side of a tyre.
• 10:04
  So when you're going down into Honda Corner, it's always a little bit nerve-wracking because you don't have a lot of temperature on the right-hand side of the tyre.
• 10:10
  So you can be going down through turn three, and if you run too wide, you've got to brake on the edge of the tyre, bring it back, and then brake with more lean angle again going into the right.
• 10:19
  So by doing what I did sliding out, I could slide through and get a nice straight line breaking going into turn four.
• 10:25
  No risk, nowhere running wide, not as much risk of losing the front end because you're on the side of the tyre.
• 10:34
  So it was all about keeping it safe to me.
• 10:37
  Um, but we did it in 2011.
• 10:40
  We entered the corner at two 65 and the slowest point of the corner, I cracked the throttle and open it again was 258 K an hour.
• 10:49
  Um, we were breaking the rear end to, to get it out.
• 10:51
  So that's the quickest we ever went through there.
• 10:53
  I'd say through a race because I never wanted to spin the tire too hard.
• 10:57
  I wanted to save it throughout the race.
• 10:59
  Uh, we're probably sitting at about two 50, I suppose, every lap.
• 11:02
  That is amazing.
• 11:04
  And it's, it's a really cool description too, of how one corner feeds into another, how you had to, you were already thinking, placing, doing for turn four before you even kind of got to turn three more or less.
• 11:16
  Yeah.
• 11:17
  Yeah.
• 11:17
  It's something that I've, I've never really enjoyed other riders, especially, um, Europeans, they sort of more flowing style sometimes and they're a lot better at, uh, uh, uh, uh,
• 11:25
  coming out of one corner and then braking and then keeping that sort of brake or getting that bike to turn through that, whereas I used to like to trail brake and I never liked coming from one side up and over into the other side of the corner.
• 11:38
  So it was the same for me with Turn 3 in Valencia actually, funnily enough, it was Turn 3.
• 11:42
  I used to brake the rear end way before I got to that corner and slide it through.
• 11:47
  So when I went into the right-hand corner, which had a cold tyre on the right-hand side, I was braking straight so I was more progressive going in.
• 11:56
  which means I had less risk of losing the front end with a cold tyre.
• 11:59
  So it was for the exact same reasons.
• 12:01
  It's not necessarily just for speed.
• 12:02
  It helps, but it was to make it safer on the right-hand side when I went in the corner.
• 12:07
  Technical, but an art at the same time.
• 12:09
  I love it.
• 12:11
  Now, you've said Phillip Island has this sort of mixed emotions for you because you've had such great success there and yet lots of challenges at the place, let alone all the interest from Aussies at the time.
• 12:22
  But it was also where you met...
• 12:25
  now wife too didn't you because family's important to you I I know that and you you met her there didn't you yes actually in um in 2003 we met there the first time so um her brother was um racing in the support classes and um yeah we saw her around the paddock and we we met up over the weekend uh got to know each other a bit and then in uh the middle of 2005 we got together so uh it was nice but um her being from Adelaide and
• 12:51
  When I came back to Oz, I was normally around the Hunter Valley in Port Stephens.
• 12:55
  It was a little difficult to spend any time.
• 12:59
  But, yeah, eventually managed to win her over and, yeah, haven't looked back.
• 13:03
  So it's been great.
• 13:04
  Great stuff.
• 13:05
  The championship for you, you won one with Ducati, you won with Honda.
• 13:10
  Obviously, I know you said before you would love to have won more, but is there...
• 13:14
  the one that was either more hard fought or one that you savor a bit more or are they good for different reasons because of the fact that you're on two different bikes um i think i enjoyed a lot more 11 um mainly for the fact in 2007 there was a lot happening it was just everything all at once i was getting pulled in every different direction uh i
• 13:37
  certainly never been the hero of an Italian manufacturer.
• 13:40
  So that was a lot to take in.
• 13:43
  People didn't like me beating Valentino, so I was getting a lot of abuse.
• 13:48
  So there was a lot happening from both ends that year.
• 13:51
  And like I said, I didn't know how to deal with all the media attention coming to me and I don't think I dealt with that that well.
• 13:58
  So that championship was more of a relief.
• 14:02
  going into that season, I only had goals of getting podiums and maybe winning a race if I could, just to kind of show Honda that I was worth more than they thought because I felt like I was under-considered, let's say.
• 14:17
  And so race one, podium, race and won the race.
• 14:21
  I was like, well, that goal's done.
• 14:24
  So let's set some higher ones now.
• 14:26
  So I set myself realistic goals for that season.
• 14:28
  Like I said, if I could get two or three podiums and fight for a race win, I'd be happy.
• 14:34
  But when I came out race one and won the thing, I was like, right, let's change these goals.
• 14:39
  Let's aim a little higher.
• 14:41
  um so then we went out to try and win every race and so um we we won i think 10 that season um yeah we had a fantastic year i mean i just couldn't be more thankful i suppose for um for the year we had with the team
• 14:56
  Your sacrifices we talked about before were big along the way, mate.
• 15:00
  And you were acutely aware of how tough it was for the family.
• 15:03
  I know you've come to really appreciate life now and what you have, but there were stories, mate, of I think your mum recounted one of you looking through the cereal boxes and preferring to use the older ones first to ensure that you didn't sort of waste the newer boxes of cereal.
• 15:19
  There were awards nights that you went to where you had to hurriedly go out and get,
• 15:24
  a suit of some kind because you didn't have one.
• 15:25
  I mean, it was really touch and go along the way, wasn't it?
• 15:29
  Yeah, we, I mean, we survived on bare minimum.
• 15:33
  And I think there's not enough people willing to do that these days.
• 15:37
  Would that be the lesson you would, you know, perhaps instill in some of the other young riders or maybe even your own kids, for example, about making that kind of commitment?
• 15:46
  If there's one thing I strongly believe in is that it's not that you don't deserve to be successful, but...
• 15:55
  You need to go through the hard yards.
• 15:58
  There needs to be sacrifice.
• 16:01
  I think not enough people sacrifice their party time.
• 16:05
  They love drinking or they love something and they love some aspect.
• 16:11
  There's some sport that they love that's dangerous for the one they're paid to do.
• 16:17
  I don't see enough people sacrificing those things.
• 16:22
  to further their careers.
• 16:23
  And too many people sit there and go, like, I'm unlucky.
• 16:27
  You know, I keep getting injured or this happens.
• 16:29
  It's like, well, you're not putting all the focus into it.
• 16:32
  I never drank.
• 16:33
  I never did anything while I was racing.
• 16:36
  Now I'm more than happy to have one.
• 16:37
  I did my hard yards, but...
• 16:40
  I made sure that when we were racing through my career, I never did.
• 16:43
  Anywhere near a race weekend, I never had fish, anything like that, because I saw too many people get food poisoning, especially when you're in a location that's nowhere near the bloody ocean.
• 16:53
  It's still had to travel a long way to get there.
• 16:54
  So it's just not worth those things, and people aren't willing to sacrifice it.
• 16:59
  I see a lot of guys still doing motocross, and I think that's...
• 17:03
  Really silly, in my opinion, to be doing motocross during a MotoGP season when you're road racing and things.
• 17:10
  It's so easy for something to mess up in motocross.
• 17:13
  Even another rider bump you or catch the wrong rut going over a jump, you've fallen from a long way.
• 17:18
  So easy to mess up and hurt yourself in motocross.
• 17:21
  It's just not worth it.
• 17:22
  So do your training elsewhere.
• 17:24
  You can do dirt track to keep the feel, which is better than motocross anyway.
• 17:27
  I just, too many people want to keep doing this sort of stuff and they get injured doing it and kind of go, I'm unlucky.
• 17:34
  But it's like, no, this won't happen if you're not doing it.
• 17:37
  So I don't see enough people sacrificing and that may be what holds them back from finding that last little bit.
• 17:46
  Even when you're training on a mountain bike or a bicycle,
• 17:49
  Reign yourself in.
• 17:50
  You don't have to go flat out down the hill.
• 17:52
  You don't have to beat everyone down the hill when you're mountain biking and show off and do a whip and a trick and all this sort of stuff.
• 17:59
  It's those little slip-ups that could cost you a championship or cost you a shot at a better ride to then further your career.
• 18:06
  There's so many little steps along the way that people don't realise the sacrifice you've got to make.
• 18:11
  And we didn't have any money.
• 18:13
  So, yeah, basically we always used to go for the oldest cereal, the oldest food that we had in the pantry first so that the other stuff would last us and you didn't have to throw away old stuff.
• 18:22
  So, you know, you do things like that.
• 18:26
  You make the little...
• 18:28
  The small details all add up in the end.
• 18:31
  And I think a few more people need to look at that these days.
• 18:34
  What about injury?
• 18:35
  What's the worst injury in your time that you can look back on and kind of wince a little bit?
• 18:40
  Which one and where?
• 18:41
  Yeah.
• 18:43
  I would say the worst one was after I already announced my retirement, which was both ankles, one in 2012, one in 2015.
• 18:50
  They kind of screw my everyday life up now.
• 18:54
  Really?
• 18:55
  I can't run anymore.
• 18:57
  I can't do...
• 18:59
  really any um sports that involve my feet and ankles can't ski snowboard anything like that there's just literally no power they're just they're destroyed my ankles so um that gets a little frustrating but they are good um weather barometers so yeah it's it's fancy what does it do a good eight hours out if there's a storm coming i'll feel it
• 19:22
  I'll wake up in the morning and I can't walk on one of my ankles.
• 19:26
  And it used to just fly me by like, oh, why is it playing up?
• 19:29
  And then the afternoon it'd piss down with rain.
• 19:31
  I'm like, eh, okay.
• 19:33
  So, yeah, they're my little weather channels at the moment.
• 19:37
  So they'll always let me know if there's weather coming.
• 19:39
  Crazy.
• 19:52
  Two-stroke engines do not have an internal oil reservoir and require the owner to mix oil into the fuel at a predetermined ratio.
• 20:01
  A ratio that no one can ever remember and usually just guesses.
• 20:06
  If I had a dollar for every time someone at a race meeting or a function or whatever stopped me and said, why did Casey stop?
• 20:17
  I try and answer it, and I don't know the answer, but I try and answer it on the basis of the young bloke I knew kind of didn't have an adolescence in many respects.
• 20:27
  He worked so hard from, you know, whatever it was, age 13, and did some great things.
• 20:31
  But I felt as though it was a bit of, you know, time to enjoy a better life in some respects.
• 20:35
  But what is the real answer to that?
• 20:37
  Because people savour the thought of you being back on a bike, you know, maybe going wheel-to-wheel with a Marquez or something like that.
• 20:43
  Why did you stop?
• 20:45
  It's accumulation of several things.
• 20:48
  Like I said, it all started in 2009.
• 20:50
  I had no interest in stopping until my career was that close to being over.
• 20:57
  If we didn't find it, that's it.
• 20:59
  I was going to have to call it quits.
• 21:00
  I couldn't hold onto the bike.
• 21:02
  I couldn't ride.
• 21:03
  I was 23 looking at the end of my career that it only lasted a couple of years.
• 21:07
  So describe that.
• 21:07
  So you're on the bike either in testing or in racing and you knew you could only hold it for X amount of laps.
• 21:12
  Is that what was happening?
• 21:12
  I was racing.
• 21:13
  So for the previous five races, I was barely holding onto the bike.
• 21:18
  Like I could only do a few laps before I was wrecked.
• 21:20
  And I'm literally just riding around using whatever speed I kind of had.
• 21:25
  I couldn't brake late.
• 21:26
  I was cramping.
• 21:27
  I was throwing up in my helmet.
• 21:29
  I just – I could not ride.
• 21:32
  So, again, all the criticising started pretty early inside the team and things like that.
• 21:40
  I didn't really appreciate it, you know, considering I'm still to this day their only world champion and we kind of got...
• 21:49
  not abused, but, um, yeah, very, very harshly criticised for the decisions we were making by taking that few months off to figure out what was wrong.
• 21:58
  But that was the only way.
• 21:59
  You almost welled up a little bit then.
• 22:01
  Like, is it, does it still hurt you kind of thing?
• 22:03
  Oh, a hundred percent.
• 22:04
  And not so much hurts me, but, um,
• 22:07
  It keeps me real on, let's say, trusting people less.
• 22:14
  I'm a little bit critical of everyone now because of that situation and that time.
• 22:19
  Like I said, I was very close and felt part of the family and then within such a short time, you literally, everything's flipped up upside down and things are very, very different after that.
• 22:30
  So...
• 22:32
  From that moment on, I went, okay, I'm doing things my way.
• 22:37
  You know, 2010 didn't work out.
• 22:39
  We missed the boat with new suspension that came out that was night and day better, but it didn't work with our bike.
• 22:46
  So we really struggled through that year.
• 22:49
  We were fast, we were easy podium getters, but we weren't there to win any races.
• 22:53
  We just didn't have it until later on in that season.
• 22:56
  Yeah.
• 22:58
  And from that I said, right, I'm going to try and get my passion back.
• 23:00
  I'm going to go after the bike that I've always wanted to ride, which was after Mick to race for Repsol Honda team.
• 23:07
  I had the option to go there and I thought, yeah, why the hell not?
• 23:11
  You know, I'll get my passion back.
• 23:12
  Well, less media events, something that at Ducati was always very, very hard.
• 23:18
  One time I think I did 11 races.
• 23:20
  It was either 8 or 11.
• 23:21
  In a day?
• 23:22
  No, between warm-up and race at Mugello.
• 23:27
  I had to go and do, I don't remember if it was 8 or 11 VIP villages.
• 23:33
  I'm wrecked.
• 23:34
  It's a stinking hot day.
• 23:35
  We're trying to figure out everything with the engineers.
• 23:38
  I'm trying to spend as much time with them to get everything done, and we were just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, for ages trying to do that and then try and go out and race.
• 23:47
  And it was just like, right, the ratio's wrong here.
• 23:50
  And going back to why I retired, it's another reason.
• 23:53
  My ratio just, the ratio was wrong.
• 23:55
  5% of my job was actually riding and on the bike.
• 23:59
  95% of my job was off the bike.
• 24:01
  So for me, it's like, well, am I here to ride bikes or am I here to do the rest?
• 24:05
  And for me, it just, it made no sense.
• 24:07
  I didn't have any time to ride.
• 24:11
  Didn't have any time to really enjoy bikes.
• 24:13
  So it became such a job.
• 24:16
  um that yeah really really made my mouth sour basically and even going to honda it never really got my passion back um yeah just accumulative of several different things it's like well i'm not here for the money i'm here to enjoy racing i'm only doing that five percent of the time what the hell am i doing here
• 24:35
  So there was no point in me continuing.
• 24:37
  You know, it's just, it's a long slog, especially now that I think the championship's up to me, 20 races.
• 24:43
  Between that, you're going, you're getting flown here, flown there for appearances, all that kind of stuff.
• 24:48
  You're living out of a suitcase all year long.
• 24:52
  You never truly get the holiday because you've got to go training.
• 24:55
  In between every little gap you get, you've got to be training to get your fitness levels back up for the next race.
• 25:02
  It's just the ratio was just all out of whack for me.
• 25:05
  And considering, like I said, I don't enjoy that aspect and that's all it had become, you know, the racing was the smallest part of it.
• 25:14
  So it just really left a sour taste in my mouth and there was no reason for me to keep going.
• 25:19
  You would keep...
• 25:19
  a testing role.
• 25:20
  I mean, you had so much experience to bring to the table, but obviously a lot of the competitive element is removed then that you're so strong at.
• 25:28
  So did the testing give you the little bit of sugar, you know, just nice to go and ride again?
• 25:33
  Was that part of it post-racing enjoyable?
• 25:37
  What was that like?
• 25:38
  I definitely enjoyed aspects of it.
• 25:42
  I was a little frustrated when I was testing with Honda at the beginning because probably my least favourite circuit on the calendar between Portugal and Metegui.
• 25:52
  And we would go to Metegui, testing all the time with Honda.
• 25:57
  There's no flag marshals out there.
• 25:59
  There was maybe five marshals on the whole track.
• 26:01
  So if something goes wrong, and in testing it does, because of different parts and things like that, you can have a failure.
• 26:07
  Yeah.
• 26:08
  Um, there was no one there to, to come pick you up or sort it out if something does go wrong and these bikes ain't slow, uh, on a slippery, dirty track that didn't have any rubber down.
• 26:20
  So realistically you get no good data because there's no rubber down from other bikes going around the track.
• 26:25
  Uh, it's slippery.
• 26:26
  So you're not able to get the bike to even feel remotely what it would be on a race weekend.
• 26:29
  Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,
• 26:33
  It just felt a little bit monotonous after a while.
• 26:35
  So we eventually got them to take us to the, to Sepane, which is a lot better, which gave us a bit more of a feel for real time.
• 26:49
  Even if it's after the test, it doesn't matter.
• 26:51
  As long as you're riding a track that's got rubber down, that actually gives you the right feedback.
• 26:57
  Then I felt like I was contributing a little bit more.
• 27:00
  But I do love working with the engineers.
• 27:02
  I love that aspect.
• 27:03
  I love being behind the scenes, and especially without the pressure, it was really nice.
• 27:09
  But track selection would have been a little better to ride some of my favourites, let's say.
• 27:14
  Sports built on rivalries, right?
• 27:17
  You had an unbelievable one with Valentino.
• 27:20
  People still talk about Laguna Seca 08 and things like that.
• 27:24
  But that's 10 years ago.
• 27:26
  Does time...
• 27:28
  soften or simmer things or is he still a guy that just for you you know that rivalry will always remain a strong thing does it change it for you
• 27:38
  I think the rivalry disappeared in my last years of racing anyway.
• 27:42
  So a couple of years after that, there wasn't really any rivalry there.
• 27:50
  The rivalry shouldn't have ever started.
• 27:52
  Valentino's the guy who started the rivalry.
• 27:55
  He starts it between anyone who's competitive against him.
• 27:58
  They can be best mates.
• 28:00
  He can be friendly as hell with you.
• 28:02
  But as soon as you start beating him, he will just try and rock your world, basically, because he knows he's got the media and everyone in his back pocket, and he can just use whoever he wants to create problems.
• 28:12
  So he's very, very clever with that.
• 28:15
  And I think in my later years, I learned a lot from Valentino, and I think I learned a lot from 2008.
• 28:24
  I don't think I would go back and change anything.
• 28:26
  I certainly would never change that moment because that gave me such a drive and so much more power for the rest of my career that if that didn't happen, I might not have.
• 28:36
  It might have weakened me mentally, but instead that built such a wall for me.
• 28:41
  It hardened me so much after that.
• 28:43
  I learned how to deal with everything.
• 28:45
  And that really helped me for the next few years.
• 28:49
  nothing could really affect me like it did then.
• 28:52
  And then from that moment on, I really had sort of more respect for the riders around me.
• 28:59
  And I had a steeliness that if I got beaten, it's like, hey, I got beaten that day.
• 29:03
  They were the better riders.
• 29:04
  They did a better job than me.
• 29:05
  There's nothing else I could have done.
• 29:08
  I was only ever upset with myself, not really anybody else around me, except some of the practice sessions when some of the riders are getting in your way.
• 29:16
  um i'd always have a a bit to say about that it's uh it's not nice when you're doing nearly 300 k's an hour and someone's tickling along at 60 in the racing line you don't really know where they're going to go so um yeah it's why i kind of not say overreacted why i reacted like i did but um i think that rivalry really just built me for the rest of the life like i said i would never go back and change that moment um
• 29:42
  Yeah, it's quite enjoyable, I suppose, now to go back and watch all the fans just keep going on about that moment.
• 29:50
  That's the last moment they had.
• 29:51
  Mm-hmm.
• 29:53
  from that moment on, it was never going to happen again.
• 29:56
  And I tried to make damn sure of it.
• 29:59
  So, you know, that was the best thing that could have ever happened to me in my career.
• 30:03
  Everyone's got their own reasons.
• 30:05
  You've just talked about why you ultimately, you know, stopped at the end of your chapter there at Honda.
• 30:11
  He's still going.
• 30:12
  Are you surprised by that?
• 30:17
  I am and I'm not.
• 30:19
  I'm not surprised he's continuing.
• 30:22
  I'm surprised he's continuing with the effort that he's doing.
• 30:26
  Okay.
• 30:26
  I have no doubt he could be running at the front, but I don't see the effort that's coming out.
• 30:31
  I mean...
• 30:33
  not only is he getting beaten by just about everyone else, he's getting beaten by everyone else on the same bike and even lesser bikes.
• 30:39
  So I would like to see him, I don't know, if he needs to take a different approach or what it is.
• 30:47
  Something Valentino's always kind of been clear on is that he won't push a bike that he's not happy with.
• 30:52
  I mean, he's said that, you know, like, oh, the bike's not doing what I want, I'm not going to push, you know.
• 30:57
  That was where him and I are different is that I'll always get the most out of the bike I can and that's what helps us move further forward.
• 31:04
  And I think he needs to – he's got some quick kids that he's bringing up now.
• 31:10
  He really needs to start learning from those guys because –
• 31:13
  They're starting to surpass him.
• 31:15
  And I don't believe he's too old.
• 31:17
  I still think he can run at the front.
• 31:18
  I still think he can be a competitor.
• 31:21
  But I think he needs to do things a little bit differently.
• 31:23
  And, you know, I'd like to see that.
• 31:25
  I'd like to see more people at the front challenging Mark because at the moment...
• 31:30
  No one's even close to giving Mark a run for his money.
• 31:33
  There is a selfish part of me that would love to have seen you regularly in October each year at the Bathurst 1000.
• 31:40
  You did dabble with a supercar for a bit, which was cool.
• 31:44
  But it came off the back of all of that stuff you were talking about, that immensely exhausting MotoGP schedule and stuff.
• 31:52
  Kind of, you know, in hindsight, was it a tough time to embark on a mission like that?
• 31:57
  Or was it, you know, how do you feel about that little chapter you had there?
• 32:03
  Believe it or not, I didn't actually want to race at all in 2013.
• 32:06
  I didn't want to do anything.
• 32:07
  I wanted to have the whole year off to myself, just do the testing program, drive some cars to get used to them, and then do the development series in 2014.
• 32:20
  But I was forced into doing it in 2013.
• 32:24
  I wasn't ready for it.
• 32:26
  I was worn out, I was burnt out.
• 32:29
  I had a very, very close friend of mine, James Strong, passed away at the start of that year.
• 32:34
  He was very influential on you, mate, wasn't he?
• 32:37
  We were talking about the former boss of Qantas and an enormously successful business person, wasn't he?
• 32:43
  And he'd just taken over Viet Supercars as well.
• 32:45
  So a big part of why I went there was because he had taken the main role there.
• 32:51
  Him passing away, everybody just saw an opportunity to use me to help build the VH supercars.
• 33:00
  And it was...
• 33:02
  quite frustrating to be honest um we didn't get any time in the car before the first race in adelaide which is straight onto a street circuit with other cars like i'd barely been on a track with other cars around me let alone on a street circuit on a track i'd never seen so it was all a little bit to take in to be honest and um i would have liked to have done a little differently um
• 33:23
  They televised the championship because I was in it and knocked back all the race laps.
• 33:28
  So it was nearly half the amount of race laps that there were the year before that people don't realise.
• 33:34
  And that's why there were so many crashes.
• 33:35
  There were so many safety cars and all that sort of thing.
• 33:38
  The guys had no time to make moves through the field.
• 33:42
  So if you didn't qualify well, people knew that they should be further up.
• 33:45
  Then everyone would just start trying to make up time because the race was a show short.
• 33:51
  It just ended up a crash fest.
• 33:52
  So the whole year, I mean, I probably spent over half of it behind a safety car.
• 33:57
  And, yeah, that was rather frustrating.
• 34:00
  I made a couple of mistakes.
• 34:01
  I got driven into a few times.
• 34:04
  Yeah, things just didn't go our way.
• 34:06
  I was busy as hell on and off the track.
• 34:09
  It was just a very, very stressful year that I just wanted to get away from and couldn't, unfortunately.
• 34:15
  Once you sign the contract to go into it, that was us.
• 34:18
  We were stuck.
• 34:20
  So I would have liked to have done things differently, but I met some really good people in that championship as well.
• 34:26
  I enjoyed immensely watching the main game play out from inside the garage and watching how things were done.
• 34:33
  So, yeah, it was really good, but, yeah, I needed that year off.
• 34:38
  There are some friends that have continued from that.
• 34:40
  You know, I often see that you head out for a bit of go-karting and things like that.
• 34:44
  You enjoy that stuff now.
• 34:46
  I suppose it's mates, not super competitive, but you still are all kind of competitive when you're doing it, aren't you?
• 34:52
  It's strange.
• 34:54
  It's competitive, but it's not.
• 34:57
  because everybody's out there training.
• 34:59
  It's like if you're all cycling together or if you're all mountain biking together or running or whatever, there's a slight bit of competitiveness, but at the same time, we're just there to do a job.
• 35:07
  They're all, you know, they're there throwing some laps down.
• 35:12
  These KZ karts are, you know, they're tricky to drive and they keep you on your toes.
• 35:16
  So when you get back in a V8, I suppose everything feels a little slower and just sort of almost slow motion.
• 35:23
  Um, so yeah, we were actually the ones who kind of started, uh, the, the go-kart thing because I'd spent no time behind a wheel.
• 35:30
  Um, I needed as much time as I could.
• 35:31
  So we were getting out in the go-kart every now and then to just get a bit of, of seat time.
• 35:36
  And I had two carts, um, through Burrell because they'd sponsored me from, from when I was over in MotoGP.
• 35:43
  And so people would come out and borrow my second cart and I'd share them around with everyone.
• 35:47
  And then Michael Patrizzi became the importer there.
• 35:53
  So, yeah, everybody ended up with a cart and they'd all go out.
• 35:57
  So I think they get out once every couple of months.
• 36:00
  I haven't been out, God, in over a year now probably.
• 36:06
  because chronic fatigue, I just, I don't have the energy to get out there anymore.
• 36:08
  So there was another one, I think this week or last week that I missed.
• 36:12
  I just, I don't have the energy to go out there and do that for the day.
• 36:15
  It'll, it'll put me on the couch for another week.
• 36:17
  So yeah, haven't, haven't done the things that I enjoy a lot these days.
• 36:21
  So it's been a little frustrating.
• 36:23
  Has that impacted on your other great loves, mate?
• 36:26
  I mean, you are a bit of an outback jack.
• 36:27
  I've always known that about you from fishing to, I can recall you being pretty handy as an archer as well.
• 36:34
  Do you still get to do that or is the chronic fatigue impacting on that as well?
• 36:38
  I haven't pulled a bow back in... Yeah, probably 10 months now, 10 months or more.
• 36:50
  Basically what happens is because...
• 36:53
  chronic fatigue, I'm not able to keep myself fit and healthy.
• 36:57
  I've got a problem where my ribs go out often.
• 37:00
  So they're connected to your vertebrae and everything like that.
• 37:02
  It just pop.
• 37:03
  Yeah, they'll go out of place.
• 37:05
  That puts my back out of place.
• 37:07
  And I've already got leaking discs.
• 37:08
  So then that puts pressure on my disc.
• 37:10
  Then that will spray a little bit of liquid out.
• 37:12
  And that puts pressure on your nerve.
• 37:14
  And then you have a spasm.
• 37:15
  And, you know, that's a good week or so before you can properly start to put some weight on it again.
• 37:21
  So...
• 37:22
  When I do archery, because I'd only just come back from a shoulder reconstruction, it wasn't fully established again.
• 37:30
  I haven't been able to do any gym, any working out to strengthen my body again.
• 37:35
  So when I was pulling it back, it was popping my ribs out.
• 37:38
  So I've had to stop doing any and all archery just to keep my body a little bit more in shape.
• 37:44
  So, yeah, between that, motorbikes, everything.
• 37:48
  First time I've been on a road-based bike since...
• 37:51
  January last year, which was testing, was only a couple of weeks ago when I was in the US on my birthday for an Alpine Stars event.
• 38:00
  We just did a little bit riding around with a few guys, and, yeah, we didn't push or anything, but that took it out of me enough.
• 38:07
  So, yeah, it's been nearly a year and a half since being on a road bike and a motorbike full stop over a year, so, yeah.
• 38:14
  Crazy.
• 38:15
  Do you enjoy getting away for a bit of fishing and a road trip somewhere and, you know...
• 38:21
  finding parts of Australia that you perhaps haven't been to before?
• 38:24
  Yeah, well, I managed to do a bucket list trip last year, which was after Cape York.
• 38:29
  So we got a lot of good advice from Darrell Beattie on where to go and who to stop and some good contacts, which made for one hell of a good trip.
• 38:38
  And we took everything on the motorbikes, our fishing rods, everything, tents, you name it, so we could be completely self-sustainable when we were travelling.
• 38:47
  We didn't always stop in the roadhouses and things.
• 38:50
  And, yeah, that was fantastic.
• 38:51
  So we did that last September.
• 38:53
  It was actually that trip that I knew something was starting to be wrong with me.
• 38:56
  I just couldn't recover each day and I was getting far too tired for what I normally would.
• 39:02
  And that was just awesome.
• 39:03
  But since then, yeah, quite honestly, I've done nothing.
• 39:08
  So, yeah, I don't think I've fished since then.
• 39:10
  Yeah, I really haven't done anything.
• 39:14
  anything.
• 39:16
  So these last few months have been improving with some new medication I'm on, but I'm still nowhere near training and getting out and doing things.
• 39:27
  Otherwise it just puts me puts me on the couch for a good week or so, or at least four or five days.
• 39:35
  And that, that makes it hard on the wife.
• 39:37
  So I'd rather take it a little easier and make sure I'm there for him.
• 39:41
  You're a real family guy.
• 39:42
  I've always known that about you.
• 39:43
  Hey, on that basis, thank you for talking to us.
• 39:47
  Get on top of that.
• 39:47
  I'm sure there's lots of work in, you know, analysing it and getting to the bottom of it.
• 39:53
  I hope you do.
• 39:54
  And congratulations on an amazing career, mate, to watch this.
• 39:59
  tenacious i know you sound like you've beaten yourself up a bit at times with with your performance you know at various points but be proud mate i mean to have come through all that and to have achieved what you have is is remarkable and people still talk about it today it is in the same way that that wayne and and mick uh did your contribution is an inspiration to the next lot coming through so well done thank you very much mate
• 40:30
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 40:34
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 40:37
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 40:47
  Listener.