Latest / Rusty's Garage / Robbie Farr Part 2 - Circuit racing & rivals

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Robbie Farr Part 2 - Circuit racing & rivals · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:20
  All set for part two of my podcast with Robbie Farr, a sprint car racer who's carved a unique space in the Australian Speedway record books, winning in all sorts of classes.
• 0:31
  If you've arrived here and you've not done the packing or the heats, as they say in Speedway, part one I mean, jump back to the library and start that one up first.
• 0:40
  The influence of family to harnessing a bit of a wild approach to become the complete package.
• 0:46
  The financial toll that racing took in those early years and how karts nearly led to Formula Ford and a potential circuit racing path.
• 0:55
  Plus the story of driving a speed car or midget in those early years and learning that his team owner had saved his mum's life decades earlier.
• 1:05
  We've got a coffee.
• 1:06
  We're sitting at the entrance of a conference room.
• 1:08
  The pool is just outside over our shoulder.
• 1:11
  You can see the surface paradise sand and waves breaking in the distance.
• 1:15
  But none of that is a distraction from this ripper conversation.
• 1:20
  Back to it now.
• 1:24
  Among the different teams that you brought up, I reckon the last time you and I caught up face-to-face was Parramatta here with East Coast Pipelines.
• 1:32
  Tell me about that chapter because Barry Waldron went on this thing and he bought a number of tracks, didn't he?
• 1:36
  And you were the feature act for those venues and so on.
• 1:39
  Yeah.
• 1:42
  Barry come into the sport through, he was a pipeline thing and through Mutual Friend, he got involved in Speedway.
• 1:49
  Initially, he sponsored Kerry Madsen on his wing and then...
• 1:55
  Barry, Ben Barry, he's all in or he's not half in the door or anything.
• 1:59
  He's in or he's out.
• 2:02
  And decided he wanted to have his own race team.
• 2:03
  But what he wanted to do was race the full season where Kerry was kind of living in America and come over for a month and go back.
• 2:11
  So that's kind of how it got to the, you know, I was, I think I was with Todd Monlessy before that and Todd was going back to a one-car deal and it just sort of.
• 2:21
  Worked out.
• 2:21
  We met, yeah, we crossed paths and yeah, and that was for, I don't even know, probably.
• 2:29
  13 years, maybe 12, 13 years.
• 2:31
  It's a long time to be with one race team, you know, in a competitive environment, as you know, in any sort of motorsport, normally relationships like that don't, you know, drivers and teams don't last that long.
• 2:43
  So that was a cool, that was a big part.
• 2:45
  It's a big part of my career.
• 2:46
  You know, we won a Classic together, we won World Series together.
• 2:49
  You know, I've been a big part of my career.
• 2:53
  I was doing drive schools.
• 2:55
  I was running the late model, like doing double duty at Parramatta, which was so cool, running a late model and a spring car on the same night.
• 3:01
  Yeah, so there's a lot of things I've got to do.
• 3:04
  And, you know, the two-seater, I've got to do through that opportunity, which I cherish, yeah.
• 3:09
  Awesome.
• 3:10
  Can I come to a little bit of fun here, if you don't mind?
• 3:14
  Sonia says I should ask you about Max Dumsney and posty bikes after the Cricky Boys race.
• 3:22
  Yeah, we've, um... You could share what you're comfortable sharing.
• 3:25
  Yeah, I guess be a Max.
• 3:26
  I don't think it worked out well for Max.
• 3:28
  No, no, yeah.
• 3:29
  He worked out I am not good on two wheels.
• 3:32
  So, yeah, the old Kriki, you know, Max was close with the Kriki family too.
• 3:37
  Of course, yeah.
• 3:37
  We always, me and Max would always go and do that Kriki race and head over and...
• 3:43
  Yeah, Ronnie's a bit of a character and obviously Max is a character and we're all past a little beer after the race meetings.
• 3:50
  And, yeah, they had a Turn 5.
• 3:53
  It was a Turn 5 corporate boxing thing there.
• 3:56
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:57
  It was called Turn 5 and that's where the party was after Griggy Boys every year when I was at Bunbury.
• 4:02
  And, yeah, we're not finishing racing until 11.
• 4:04
  So, you know, by the time everyone started to get a bit loosened up, it was, you know, it's 3, 4, 5 o'clock in the morning.
• 4:11
  And, yeah, you got the water truck on the track cutting some laps.
• 4:17
  Doing all silly stuff that we shouldn't do.
• 4:18
  Don't try this at home, kids.
• 4:20
  Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 4:21
  But that was a joy, going to some of those regional tracks and that.
• 4:24
  They were pretty laid back and pure.
• 4:27
  And, yeah, Max, I tried, I don't know, I think I was trying to drive Max down the spectator's hill on a posty bike and that didn't work out too good.
• 4:37
  Yeah, I mean, I'm not good on two wheels when I'm sober, let alone when I'm not.
• 4:41
  Yeah, Max, he doesn't complain about much.
• 4:45
  He just, he sort of brushed it off, but yeah, it was a broken wrist.
• 4:48
  Wrist, broken wrist.
• 4:48
  Yeah, I think he had to miss the Australian titles that year, actually, from that.
• 4:52
  Crazy.
• 4:52
  And I was going to drive, I was going to drive his car there, I was going to drive with a V5 at, um...
• 4:56
  an Australian title, but it didn't work out in the end.
• 4:58
  But that would have been so cool to run that Valvoline iconic car.
• 5:02
  Yeah.
• 5:03
  You brought up a moment ago when we were talking about East Coast pipelines, about being on double duty and stuff.
• 5:07
  That naturally leads me to the diversity in some of the results on your CV, which is massively impressive, right?
• 5:14
  But, you know, you could argue around,
• 5:17
  the box set here okay and and would it be fair to say that the brutal low leading the australian late model title blowing a tire six laps out tell me about that yeah definitely um that's you know spring cars have always been my thing and you know i love i love doing a bit of speed cars and i love doing a bit of late models
• 5:37
  Sprink is my thing, but it's actually probably the one of the things that stick in my throat the most.
• 5:41
  Does it?
• 5:41
  Yeah.
• 5:43
  I don't know.
• 5:43
  We'd probably done six or eight races or something, and it was a crazy weekend.
• 5:48
  It was the car didn't run the first night.
• 5:51
  It was at Parramatta too, which obviously makes it a little bit more special.
• 5:54
  And we had to come through.
• 5:56
  We changed cars because we couldn't get the first car to run, and then we come from the – on the Saturday night, we come from the back of the B.
• 6:04
  We won the B, come from the back of the A.
• 6:07
  It was a fair bit of carnage through that race that we weren't involved in, but we got to the front and started to hit my marks, hit my grooves.
• 6:15
  Car was good.
• 6:16
  Everything was great.
• 6:16
  I had that moment.
• 6:18
  Had no expectation to win that race.
• 6:21
  Didn't think I would, didn't think I could type thing.
• 6:25
  And then you just start to have that thought, you're leading, you're in clean air, green with six to go.
• 6:30
  It feels good.
• 6:31
  Yeah.
• 6:33
  And then cut a tie down, come down the back straight.
• 6:36
  Yeah, and the reason, look, that's motor racing.
• 6:40
  You don't get to pick which race you get a flat tyre in and which ones you don't.
• 6:44
  I just think that would have been so cool for the, you know, with the...
• 6:47
  Australian title and the speed car title.
• 6:49
  And if you had the late model.
• 6:51
  Benny Bishop reminded me here.
• 6:52
  What is it?
• 6:53
  So you're one of only three people to win the sprint car, speed car, Australian titles.
• 6:58
  You're the only person to win the speed car and the open sprint car and 360 sprint car titles.
• 7:05
  I mean, this would have been an unbelievable.
• 7:06
  If we had to put the late model with that, that would have been, I would have sailed off in the sunset, happy man, but not to be, that's, you know, that's motor racing.
• 7:14
  But yeah.
• 7:16
  I think that's why that just sticks.
• 7:17
  I just think that would be so cool because no one, I don't think that's a repeatable thing.
• 7:21
  I've rattled off a couple of stats there.
• 7:23
  Can we spend a moment doing that?
• 7:24
  Benny's, I'm indebted to Benny Bishop here for some of the numbers, right?
• 7:27
  So sixth most winningest driver in World Series sprint cars with 23 wins.
• 7:33
  You're actually ranked the third most successful World Series sprint car campaigner, 16 quick times, 33 podiums, 113 top fives.
• 7:40
  That's mighty, mate.
• 7:45
  Yeah, I don't know where Benny's got all that from.
• 7:46
  He's done well, hasn't he?
• 7:48
  He's done well.
• 7:48
  He's got more.
• 7:50
  He's got more for me.
• 7:51
  Yeah, that's sort of probably stuff you don't think about, but it's funny to hear later on.
• 7:57
  Here's the rest of the collection as we finish this part of it, right?
• 8:00
  14 state titles.
• 8:02
  That's the fourth most of any driver behind Max, Rushy, Brazier.
• 8:08
  Seven Crookie Boys shootout wins across four different decades, I think.
• 8:12
  three sprint car Grand Prix wins, six Queensland titles, three New South Wales titles.
• 8:17
  There are four kings of wings, four kings challenge, five presidents cup, three sprint car masters.
• 8:23
  Far out, mate.
• 8:24
  And the classic that you brought up before, the 2019 win, is the one that I want to kind of highlight here for a moment.
• 8:31
  Because for those that are listening that may not be Speedway fans, that is iconic in the Australian sprint car landscape.
• 8:39
  And that's a huge thing and very special thing to win.
• 8:43
  Yeah, I don't know how you compare it to.
• 8:46
  It's our Bathurst, I guess.
• 8:47
  It's our Bathurst 1000 or it's our Indy 500 or whatever.
• 8:51
  If it's spring cars in Australia, it's the marquee event.
• 8:55
  For me, always the Australian title, I think, is also a very important race in Australian Speedway.
• 9:03
  But the classic just has that, has got that aura about it.
• 9:08
  I love the Indy and Bathurst parallel there because of that whole weekend or that whole meeting collective that feels like that, doesn't it?
• 9:15
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:17
  It's just different.
• 9:18
  It's just got a different feel about it.
• 9:19
  It's a different weekend.
• 9:20
  Yeah, a lot of Americans, I think where the, a lot of Americans come out for that race where they can't run their Australian title.
• 9:27
  So I think that adds to the.
• 9:29
  quality of the field, obviously, when you're bringing seven, eight, 10, 15 Americans in for that one race, it makes it harder.
• 9:36
  It makes it harder to win, and a lot of Americans have won it.
• 9:41
  for me that, although it's the biggest race in the country, I'd probably resigned myself to that.
• 9:47
  Potentially it's not going to happen because that just had been my baggy track for, so when it did, how'd that feel?
• 9:53
  It did.
• 9:54
  It just, I just thought, you know, it's going to have to start getting your head around that.
• 9:57
  It's maybe not going to happen.
• 10:01
  You know, maybe just soften the blow in case it didn't happen.
• 10:04
  But yeah, just, we, as I said, it always been a really bad track for me.
• 10:08
  You know, we'd, we'd go to,
• 10:11
  The Classic, so the Classic weekend, you've got the President's Cup.
• 10:15
  It's a big race on the Wednesday night prior to, and then you've got the King's Challenge, which is a big race.
• 10:19
  And as you said, we've won more President's Cups and King's Challenge than anyone else, but zero Classics.
• 10:25
  It's all in a five- or six-day period.
• 10:27
  This Warrnambool was, yeah, just they didn't like me.
• 10:30
  I didn't like it.
• 10:32
  And then, yeah, Warrnambool started to get on just a couple of years before that.
• 10:36
  I think we'd ran third in the Classic, and then we'd ran second.
• 10:38
  second or something like our form was just, we're just starting to, to break it.
• 10:43
  Now to look back at it, you could sort of see that it was coming a little bit.
• 10:46
  Not, not, you know, you can never, but our form was getting better every year or my form or whatever it was.
• 10:52
  Um, there was a lead up to that race and it took years to, to really get, get a handle on that place.
• 10:58
  I mean, there's, I didn't have any other bogey tracks.
• 11:01
  It was just Warrnambool.
• 11:02
  Um, so that was so special, you know, with, you know, with Abby and Colton and Son and that there and mum and.
• 11:08
  everything, your family that have been through this massive journey with you to get to this point.
• 11:13
  Lovely.
• 11:14
  Yeah, and, you know, I've led that race and...
• 11:18
  things gone wrong and just it was just that race, it was a weird one and to finally tick that off, that was probably one of the most emotional nights for me in Speedway that I've been through and you don't forget them ones Well done, well done.
• 11:31
  Invariably it's a game when you get to the pointy end where rivalries happen, right?
• 11:36
  If you had to think about a rival maybe one that still makes you bristle now and maybe in later life how you feel about it what would that be?
• 11:44
  Um...
• 11:46
  I think, you know, rivalries make you tick.
• 11:49
  You know, that's part of competing and competition.
• 11:52
  You almost need them, is that what you think?
• 11:55
  Yeah, I think so.
• 11:55
  I think that makes you go harder, work harder.
• 11:59
  Yeah, had a few over the years.
• 12:00
  Me and Max always had a healthy one.
• 12:03
  Me and Brooke always had a healthy rivalry and…
• 12:07
  Yeah, I mean, Kerry, you know, if you're running 40, 50 times a year, you're going to run into people or they're going to run into you.
• 12:14
  So Speedway, I think Speedway is good in that respect that it makes you, you're generally staying in the same motels and you're generally racing the next night.
• 12:22
  You've just got to get on with it.
• 12:24
  You don't fester on them in Speedway, I don't think.
• 12:27
  There's a few, sure.
• 12:29
  You know, I've met some fantastic people through Speedway, but I've met some
• 12:33
  You know, people that aren't so fantastic too.
• 12:35
  So I think I don't want to mention names overly.
• 12:38
  I mean, I will mention names obviously on the healthy side.
• 12:43
  That's a great outlook you've got, I reckon.
• 12:44
  I think the – I don't know.
• 12:48
  If I've got a problem with someone, I'll say it to their face.
• 12:51
  I don't like – which seems to happen more and more now that these guys –
• 12:56
  have a persona through their social media or they put their opinions across on social media.
• 13:02
  I really think that's probably the downside of social media these days.
• 13:06
  You'd rather just have a face-to-face.
• 13:07
  Yeah, just talk it out.
• 13:08
  Do what you could do, get on with it, get on down the road.
• 13:12
  Where now people, I think, have a very...
• 13:17
  There's a lot of drivers out there now that are making out to be someone that they're not.
• 13:21
  And I think that's, you know, as you know, social media, it's not policed.
• 13:26
  No.
• 13:26
  So it allows that platform for people to make out to the crowd or the fans that they're this person.
• 13:33
  you know that behind the scenes they're not even close to that.
• 13:36
  To that person, yeah.
• 13:37
  I got to work in the early part of my television career with the late, great Barry Shane, right?
• 13:41
  Legendary motorcycle racer, two-time world champion.
• 13:43
  That would have been awesome.
• 13:44
  Yeah, it was.
• 13:45
  But seven was his number, mate.
• 13:47
  You sit here in front of me today and you've got the necklace on, the number seven.
• 13:50
  Tell me about the connection to that.
• 13:52
  Yeah, it's just...
• 13:55
  Seven just was so iconic through my career.
• 13:59
  They just always seemed to be in the seven and that.
• 14:01
  And then as the seven was – my helmets, paint jobs, always sort of something that's –
• 14:08
  been known and the seven like people just tie those two things together and yeah so I try and keep the seven yeah everywhere I go and yeah it's just lucky seven I guess okay cool I've been told to ask you about uh the Titan car the Titan garages car and it had an interesting sticker at the top of the frame I think it said petite fam what does that mean p-e-t-i-t fam f-a-double m can you remember what that meant was there anything significant to that
• 14:35
  No, no, no, no, no.
• 14:37
  He sent you that one, Benny.
• 14:38
  That's Benny.
• 14:39
  Benny's all over it.
• 14:39
  He's like, what does that mean?
• 14:41
  Could have been Pappet Fam, I reckon.
• 14:43
  Oh, okay, okay.
• 14:44
  Sorry, maybe I got it wrong.
• 14:45
  Sorry.
• 14:45
  What would that mean?
• 14:47
  I don't remember it being on the back of the Titan card, but yeah, it was, I'm a lefty.
• 14:50
  I'm a lefty and my handwriting is flat out unreadable.
• 14:54
  So I remember Jamie Cobby were in America and he seen my signature on something.
• 14:59
  He goes, Pappet Fam.
• 15:00
  Because that's what it looked like.
• 15:04
  So that's it.
• 15:04
  He still calls me Jamie Colley, still calls me Pappet fan.
• 15:06
  And that's where it's come from.
• 15:08
  I love it.
• 15:08
  I got the spelling wrong.
• 15:09
  Sorry, that's a good story.
• 15:11
  I imagine that's what it would have been because it sounds similar.
• 15:15
  But I bet you that's what it is.
• 15:16
  It's, yeah, my handwriting.
• 15:19
  No two signatures are the same.
• 15:20
  Yeah, it's pretty wild.
• 15:32
  If we gave out appearance awards on Rusty's Garage, James McFadden would be top of the leaderboard.
• 15:38
  The natural rule of thumb is to chase the rubber in a sprint car, and I chased the rubber, and Sheldon Horton Trial drove around me on the last lap.
• 15:44
  It was a $70,000 last lap.
• 15:48
  From short casts to a rapport-filled feature episode, Jay Mack flies the flag proudly for sprint car racing.
• 15:55
  Robbie Farr does too, but he's found a new four-wheel project that he's enjoying a lot, as you'll hear as the Convo continues with Rusty.
• 16:04
  Can we come to sharing the knowledge?
• 16:06
  Ultimate driving school, you mentioned two-seater before and so on.
• 16:08
  When did you start to sort of venture down that path and why did it become important to you?
• 16:12
  I just, I think the problem with our sport, our speedway, is that a lot of people come in to the sport, but they get no help or they get, it's such, as we discussed earlier, it's not like anything else.
• 16:25
  And the problem is people come into the sport or bring their kids into the sport, and they get a thousand different opinions.
• 16:31
  Everyone's got an opinion.
• 16:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 16:33
  but there's no guidance.
• 16:33
  Everyone just gives them little snippets and that person, do this, do that, do this.
• 16:38
  And there was no way to... Guide somebody.
• 16:41
  Guide someone to keep them into the sport, to grow the numbers.
• 16:45
  We don't want people coming into Speedway and they're there for five minutes and they're gone because they're unsupported.
• 16:51
  They were...
• 16:52
  It was too hard.
• 16:53
  They couldn't get their head around it.
• 16:54
  Like, there was just nowhere.
• 16:57
  So I spoke to Speedway Australia a lot back in the day saying, we should be doing this in every state.
• 17:03
  you know, not just me, like have David Murcott in Victoria and, you know, have someone in Perth that does these driving schools.
• 17:11
  So that's actually, it should be to me, part of your license.
• 17:14
  Gotcha.
• 17:15
  Um, where they've got to do a day with someone that's been around the sport and show them how a sprint car should feel, act, what you should do inside the car.
• 17:23
  Um, yeah.
• 17:26
  An induction almost.
• 17:28
  Yeah.
• 17:28
  Yeah, right.
• 17:29
  Yeah, which I think Speedway is missing.
• 17:31
  Okay.
• 17:32
  I mean, you've got to remember, you know, we're up to like 930 horsepower in a car that weighs 650-odd kilos.
• 17:38
  It's unlike anything else.
• 17:40
  Unlike, no flywheel, big, you know, nine pound in the right rear, soft sidewall tyres.
• 17:44
  Like, there's no driving school for that.
• 17:46
  There's no way in it.
• 17:48
  It's just...
• 17:49
  you know, as I did when I was 15 to nine months, just get in there and work it out yourself.
• 17:53
  So that was kind of the attraction for me with that too.
• 17:56
  And there was a lot of interest in it.
• 17:57
  And I actually got a fair kick out of doing it.
• 18:00
  It was good and built some relationships with people I still talk to now and that have become friends out just doing the drive schools.
• 18:05
  And a lot of them were younger kids and their parents had put them through the driving school, but some of them were people my age too that just wanted, you know, we helped with set up and squaring the car up and what you do.
• 18:15
  Yeah.
• 18:16
  prior to getting the racetrack, you know, if the car's not right in the garage, it's not going to be right on the racetrack.
• 18:20
  And go through the whole process on how to maintenance the car and do that.
• 18:24
  So it's second nature.
• 18:26
  It's easy to talk about stuff that you love.
• 18:29
  But my old man, who is now nearly 85, mate, and he's the reason I love motor racing.
• 18:34
  He would take me to the Sydney showground, along with mum and even Liverpool and so on.
• 18:38
  He's been in the two-seater at Parramatta, and he talks a bit like it just makes him light up even now because it gives...
• 18:45
  Even a lifelong lover of the sport like that who's watched in the stands, he wasn't a racer or a driver per se, but suddenly it gave him perspective, mate.
• 18:53
  It suddenly helps you understand, doesn't it?
• 18:56
  I think there's spring cars on TV, which is one thing.
• 19:01
  Then there's spring cars live.
• 19:03
  And then there's...
• 19:04
  The experience.
• 19:05
  Actually, yeah, that's the next step, yeah.
• 19:08
  Sitting in the back, because where you sit, you sit over the...
• 19:11
  over the rear and over the differential, like in those two-seaters, you see where the driver actually sits, we're actually further forward.
• 19:18
  So you're with that right rear, you know, in the corner, you see this right rear up and down and like it's as close as you can get in those two-seaters to doing it yourself.
• 19:27
  But the problem is when you put people in the spring car, a single-seater, they're not going to drive it.
• 19:32
  initially at that pace.
• 19:33
  So it's the perfect solution to that.
• 19:35
  To it.
• 19:35
  Yeah.
• 19:36
  Yeah.
• 19:36
  Brilliant.
• 19:37
  Can I come to, before we come to sort of TA2 and Trans Am, because I've had a bit in a commentary sense to do with that in recent years, and I know that is a new pursuit for you, a new chapter, which I think is super exciting.
• 19:48
  And I want to tackle that in a moment.
• 19:50
  But naturally, you get asked a lot, I think, on social media, just around sprint car racing, how do you think?
• 19:56
  When are you going to race another one again?
• 19:57
  How do you feel about all that stuff?
• 19:59
  I mean, 50 race program that you talked about before, I mean, it is a huge undertaking, isn't it?
• 20:05
  Yeah, look, I don't want to do 50 nights a year.
• 20:09
  I don't want to live at the airports.
• 20:11
  I don't want to live in motels like I did for nine months a year.
• 20:15
  After 30-odd years, that does get a bit old.
• 20:17
  You've got kids, you've got businesses and stuff.
• 20:20
  Your life changes.
• 20:21
  I still love spring cars.
• 20:24
  The problem I've got, I think, at the moment is you've got to do it...
• 20:28
  It's at a level now.
• 20:29
  There's so many good young guys and good race teams around.
• 20:33
  You've got to do it a lot to be good at it, but I don't want to do it a lot.
• 20:37
  Okay.
• 20:37
  So you're kind of in that little, you know, I think.
• 20:39
  But you haven't stopped though, have you?
• 20:40
  I mean, that's worth it.
• 20:41
  No, I'm not a retire swan song, you know.
• 20:44
  Kind of guy.
• 20:44
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:45
  Yeah, look at me, look at me.
• 20:46
  That's not what I'm about.
• 20:49
  So I think the right opportunity, I'd definitely go do a little bit of racing, but I just don't want to.
• 20:54
  I just don't have the interest to do it.
• 20:56
  at the level or the commitment that it was over that timeframe, you know, nine months a year and stuff.
• 21:05
  So, yeah, you probably – I think really COVID stopped me with that.
• 21:09
  I think COVID – Yeah, because it's a lot ever done and, you know, all the weddings you'd missed.
• 21:14
  So suddenly you're at home and you have a moment of realisation of, oh, right, okay.
• 21:18
  This – me being away in hotels for nine months of the year, this is what –
• 21:22
  I've missed a bit.
• 21:23
  It was a false, you know, it made you stop and go, okay, what am I going to do with my weekends now that we can't race because COVID and that's been cancelled, that's been cancelled, which I didn't like initially.
• 21:35
  And then after a while, I'm like, that's not so bad.
• 21:37
  Like there is, you know.
• 21:40
  So, yeah, and then Parramatta closed in that timeframe too.
• 21:44
  And that took the wind out of my sails a little bit because I really –
• 21:47
  enjoyed that place so much.
• 21:50
  And then Archerfield closed as well and, you know, living in Queensland, the closest track there for a little bit for me was Victoria.
• 21:57
  And, you know, when you're trying to cut down the travel, that wasn't really making sense.
• 22:01
  So I'm like, well, I'll just, you know, just do it when it suits sort of thing and done a little bit in Perth with Jason Pride and stuff.
• 22:08
  But that wasn't, you know, we're still flying to Perth and back and, you know, there was no...
• 22:12
  no real easy little fix there.
• 22:15
  So I still love the sprint cars.
• 22:17
  I'll still do some more of it, I think.
• 22:20
  But it'll just be with the people I like or people I want to race with.
• 22:24
  When it suits.
• 22:25
  When it suits.
• 22:25
  Yeah.
• 22:26
  Cool.
• 22:26
  We'll come to some broad views, I think, of Speedway in Australia in a moment.
• 22:30
  But I want to tackle TA2, right?
• 22:31
  So...
• 22:32
  Give me a sense of how this opportunity came about.
• 22:35
  George Gambino, the high-tech team, they're good people, right, aren't they?
• 22:38
  And you've got a Camaro.
• 22:41
  Tell me about that.
• 22:42
  I mean, at age whatever it was, 12 to 15, you race karts.
• 22:46
  That's probably the limit of your circuit racing.
• 22:48
  You have come full circle, mate, haven't you?
• 22:51
  Yeah, it was – look, I'd had some interest in the TA2 Trans Am, so I just think they're great bang for buck.
• 22:57
  They just look like fun.
• 22:58
  They get sideways.
• 22:59
  They're grabbing gears.
• 23:01
  They just look like they're a cool thing.
• 23:04
  So I'd sort of been bunging on a little bit about it, and I'd spoke to Pridy about it and Reedy, and they actually – I got them excited about it.
• 23:12
  They got into it.
• 23:13
  But the problem I had, I didn't have the –
• 23:17
  the funds or the, you know, I couldn't just make a race team appear and go racing.
• 23:21
  It wasn't, I'm not in that situation.
• 23:24
  So I actually went to Morgan Park to see a couple of good mates, Domaine Ramsey and Danny Reedy, run their first or second race, I think it was.
• 23:34
  It was only a couple of hours up the road there at Warwick and went in there and I hadn't seen George for a few years.
• 23:40
  But George, I've been with George from high-tech halls for a long time through my speedway career.
• 23:46
  And George was doing the fuel and stuff there.
• 23:49
  And we got talking and I hadn't been in the track literally for 15 minutes.
• 23:53
  And he's like, do you like these?
• 23:54
  I've been banging on about these things for ages.
• 23:57
  He goes, well, you know, he's got Brad Gardner in a car and he goes, I want to go to a two-car team.
• 24:02
  I'll get you one.
• 24:03
  I'm like, uh, like literally had him flat out putting car keys in the pocket from, but being there 10 minutes, I reckon it was crazy.
• 24:10
  Suddenly you go on circuit racing.
• 24:12
  And all of a sudden then your brain's ticking, you know, but he's got to keep it on the low down until we get things sorted and this and that.
• 24:16
  And we're like, you know, we're out, you know, catching up with people on a Saturday night.
• 24:20
  And we're like, me and Sonia were just so excited that, you know, potentially this would happen because we just had no, uh, you can, you can have something you like or an idea, but it, you know, we didn't think it would come to, uh,
• 24:32
  what it did or what it did so quickly.
• 24:34
  So, you know, and that comes through what we talked about earlier, and that's, you know, when high-tech oils at the end of the ECP deal, you know, I rang George and said, mate, I thank you for everything you've done for me and this and that.
• 24:47
  And, you know, that was, and then two, three years later where I'm driving for high-tech oils in a Camaro on pavement trying to work out how to change gears.
• 24:56
  So good.
• 24:58
  But, yeah, it's been such a...
• 25:00
  I wouldn't say I was getting stale with Speedway.
• 25:02
  I'd just done it for so long and I didn't want to do it as much.
• 25:04
  It's reinvigorated you, huh?
• 25:05
  Yeah, 100%.
• 25:06
  I'm like a kid again.
• 25:09
  Is there an argument here that maybe it's one of the closer ways for a Speedway person to transition?
• 25:16
  You know, that style of car, that style of machine?
• 25:19
  Is there maybe a little bit of an argument?
• 25:21
  That was my thought process is that, you know, if you're going to – for me, if you're going to try road racing –
• 25:26
  the TA2, if you're coming from Speedway, that kind of looks like the class.
• 25:29
  You know, that kind of looks like that would be... That would appeal to me.
• 25:35
  It's been an exciting journey to date.
• 25:38
  I've only done two races.
• 25:39
  We haven't done a lot of testing.
• 25:41
  Like, we're still very new to it.
• 25:45
  But there's not a lot of crossover.
• 25:48
  I thought there'd be... Well, I think your bum, the feeling in your bum doesn't change.
• 25:53
  And that's what Speedway is.
• 25:56
  So that crosses over somewhat, but you're going on a car that's twice as heavy.
• 26:03
  In a spring car, you've got a light car.
• 26:07
  predominantly left side brakes because we're only turning left.
• 26:09
  So titanium brakes that work good.
• 26:12
  But you don't brake for a 90-degree corner and stop and turn.
• 26:16
  And these things are big, heavy.
• 26:18
  Yeah.
• 26:19
  So the whole – what we do in spring car, you lay on the brake a little bit just to balance the car.
• 26:24
  Like it's a bit of a setup how you want the car to react and stuff.
• 26:28
  Where this, you're trying to go from, I don't know,
• 26:31
  180 down to six kilometer an hour.
• 26:33
  So the whole brake trailing thing is so foreign for us speedway guys.
• 26:36
  And I think that's, you know, talking to Domain and Jason Pride and all them guys and Danny Reedy that have making that transition, that's the braking side seems to be the biggest thing that we're trying to get ahead around.
• 26:47
  Yeah, I mean, putting your foot down and going forwards easy.
• 26:51
  In these things, it's pulling it up and going blipping throttles and going through the gears.
• 26:55
  So it's been, yeah, it's just cool to learn something new.
• 26:58
  As you and I sit and talk here, Race Tasmania, I think, is next month.
• 27:02
  You must be excited about Bathurst, too.
• 27:05
  Shit myself about Bathurst, I think, is a better word, which is why we're doing Tasmania.
• 27:10
  Look, I don't need to be playing with the Trans Am boys.
• 27:13
  Like, you know, some of them guys, you know, Moffat and all them guys, you know, they do a million lap tram Bathurst and that.
• 27:18
  But...
• 27:19
  My take on this is...
• 27:21
  They'll welcome you, and that'll be an awesome conversation for you.
• 27:24
  Yeah, I've known some of them guys and that, but I don't expect to be beating them up on the racetrack.
• 27:29
  I mean, they're lifelong road racers, you know, half my age, most of them, and, you know, we're two racers in.
• 27:36
  But...
• 27:38
  You may only ever get one opportunity to go to Bathurst.
• 27:40
  And as an Aussie kid growing up to say that you drove a V8-type car around Bathurst, I just think that's a massive bucket list.
• 27:48
  It's an opportunity you don't want to leave on the table.
• 27:50
  Definitely.
• 27:51
  Brooke Tattnall did a little bit of super touring there for a while.
• 27:54
  Gary Rush drove.
• 27:55
  I can vividly recall him in a Sierra at Bathurst and things like that.
• 28:00
  Max ran with John Sidney as a privateer team back in the day.
• 28:04
  Exactly.
• 28:05
  Yeah, well, what an opportunity.
• 28:06
  Why not?
• 28:06
  Exactly.
• 28:06
  Go do it.
• 28:07
  I mean, who cares?
• 28:08
  Just go do your best.
• 28:10
  Go and enjoy it.
• 28:10
  Have a crack, yeah.
• 28:11
  That's good.
• 28:12
  Okay.
• 28:13
  Can we come to just State of Australian Speedway?
• 28:17
  You're somebody who's very passionate about it.
• 28:21
  Firstly, things like Perth Motorplex and the incredible venue that we have there, the
• 28:28
  events that they've run over summer and telecasts are successfully and even the, you know, the high limit aspect and so on.
• 28:34
  So give me, give me, you know, how you feel about the state of play.
• 28:37
  I really think you've got to probably look at that two ways.
• 28:41
  There's an East coast and there's a West coast and, and think,
• 28:45
  The West Coast are doing an amazing job at the moment.
• 28:47
  Gavin Migrow and his team there at the Motorplex have just continued to build, build, build, build.
• 28:54
  You've got a state government that supports Speedway and owns that venue and backs it and improves it and stuff.
• 29:01
  Where you've got the East Coast where we probably don't have that state government support in some of those states.
• 29:08
  As we mentioned earlier, the Warrnambool Classic is always healthy.
• 29:11
  It's in great shape.
• 29:14
  Toowoomba Speedway is doing a good job.
• 29:15
  But we also have lost a couple of tracks on the East Coast.
• 29:19
  Sydney's had its challenges with the new venue and so on, hasn't it?
• 29:22
  Yeah, it's always been that the East Coast was the place to be.
• 29:24
  And at the moment, I kind of think the West Coast is the place to be with Speedway.
• 29:29
  to see guys like Cole Larson come out Rico and Brad Sweet and rip around that joint it's a pleasure to watch someone like Cole Larson, we're not going to see another guy like him in our lifetime I don't think, he's that generational I think anyone that's into motorsport would
• 29:49
  not argue with that assessment of him.
• 29:50
  He just needs freakishly good in everything.
• 29:53
  If you could change one thing about the game for the betterment, because you talked before about maybe an induction for someone coming into the sports, we keep them and put our arm around them and so on.
• 30:03
  If there was one thing you could recommend that we could do and maybe do better?
• 30:09
  I don't like the splintered-off classes.
• 30:12
  I think we should have a sprint car class.
• 30:14
  a speed car class and a sedan type class.
• 30:17
  But when you travel a lot around Australia, you'll go to, I don't know, you'll go to Victoria and there's a different type of sedan that you've never heard of or there's a lot of spring cars now that...
• 30:28
  So call it a bit more uniformity.
• 30:29
  They're limited spring cars or they're a 360 or an LS spring car or a V6 spring car and they use, I think it waters down the name of spring car.
• 30:39
  There should be one.
• 30:40
  You know, we don't have...
• 30:42
  V8 supercars, but there's 10 different versions of it.
• 30:45
  That's their name.
• 30:46
  They use it.
• 30:46
  That's that class.
• 30:47
  No one else can go near it.
• 30:49
  Where I think we water down our categories a lot through different states having it should be more national.
• 30:59
  And I think that promoters should work better together with the travel from track to track and that.
• 31:05
  So you also have a fan base that follows the series because it makes sense on a map.
• 31:09
  So just things like that.
• 31:11
  I think Speedway can fight against itself at times, which doesn't need to.
• 31:16
  There's enough competing against other sports and that we need to all be rowing in the same direction.
• 31:21
  Well done.
• 31:22
  How much has the game changed you, do you reckon, from Robbie Farr, who set out at age 15 on Friday night, jumping behind the wheel straight out of the school uniform?
• 31:30
  How different are you as you and I sit here today?
• 31:32
  A lot.
• 31:33
  Yeah, a lot, which I think everyone probably is.
• 31:36
  Yeah, your journey changes you, I guess.
• 31:40
  Yeah, look, I care deeply about the sport.
• 31:43
  It's been so good to me over the years and, you know, a lot of my best friends have come through Speedway and stuff.
• 31:48
  So I am protective of the sport and always will be.
• 31:54
  But yeah, I think I've learned a lot with sponsors and, you know, car owners, all stuff that we've sort of touched on.
• 32:02
  Like, I think just going through that and
• 32:05
  have to think about it and learn from it and stuff, I think that probably does change and avolge you as a person, definitely.
• 32:11
  I often say in the podcast when I have guests on, I'm not a believer in regret in life, right?
• 32:16
  I think you...
• 32:17
  you do the best with the hand of cards you have and the opportunities you create.
• 32:22
  That's, that's kind of on you.
• 32:23
  Is there anything you look back on and you go, Hey, I really wish I'd done that, you know, and, and you weren't, I was really surprised before when you, when you popped up about America about how much you love racing here and stuff.
• 32:33
  I mean, was that a, um, you know, was that ever a thing for you avoid or, or, um, no, not at all.
• 32:40
  No, I don't, I never wanted to do it where it wasn't something I'd,
• 32:46
  love doing, which, you know, and I just think
• 32:49
  it's a long season here to go do another 100 shows or something over there.
• 32:54
  How does that not become a grind over time?
• 32:56
  Like it's, you know, I take my hat off to guys like, you know, Donny Schott and, you know, even Brooke and guys.
• 33:01
  They've just done it for so long and so many times.
• 33:05
  That's what makes them tick and that's what they enjoy.
• 33:08
  That wasn't for me.
• 33:09
  I've always had a life in Speedway and a life out of Speedway.
• 33:13
  Gotcha.
• 33:14
  You know, in two weeks' time there's...
• 33:17
  Me and eight of my mates I grew up with at school, you know, we just go away for a weekend every year.
• 33:21
  Like, I've always kept that, the two things separate.
• 33:23
  Gotcha.
• 33:25
  To me, that's worked, I think.
• 33:28
  But, yeah, some people just...
• 33:29
  immerse themselves 100% in the sport and they don't have an outside world.
• 33:33
  And I think that's probably not healthy.
• 33:35
  So share a little bit about what life is like for Robbie Farr beyond Speedway.
• 33:40
  Then as you came here today for this interview, you had to bolt to Bunnings for something.
• 33:45
  Yeah.
• 33:46
  So what does life entail?
• 33:48
  Sonia wanted a new shed out the back, so I'm building some new shed.
• 33:53
  So, yeah, we've got –
• 33:55
  We're on a little bit of property and we're just, yeah, doing a bit of works at home.
• 33:57
  And we've also, over the recent years, fired up a few businesses and stuff.
• 34:02
  So are you enjoying that?
• 34:03
  Are you enjoying that challenge?
• 34:04
  And does some of the motor racing learnings apply in all of that?
• 34:07
  It does.
• 34:08
  It does.
• 34:08
  And I think it's healthy to have some, you know, I chase that.
• 34:12
  business side with the same passion as motorsport and i think because you get that from motorsport that very good grounding i think yeah you make you make sure i'm competitive in business you want to you want to be good you want to be the best you can be and all that stuff so it has probably helped with that void of not racing as much to have something to focus on and um and go after and then with obviously the the the ta2 thing um
• 34:36
  that's going to be great, six or eight shows a year.
• 34:38
  So they're spread out enough, one a month, that's perfect.
• 34:41
  That's a nice new challenge for you too.
• 34:43
  Yeah, a nice new challenge and you still get to go get your fix.
• 34:45
  You get to go get your motorsport fix.
• 34:47
  I don't care what you're driving, there's nothing...
• 34:50
  Nothing better for me than motorsport.
• 34:52
  I'm incredibly grateful to Sonia, who's sitting off to your right here as you and I record this on the Gold Coast.
• 34:58
  I'm thrilled that you have found a new outlet, if you like, in TA2 and Trans Am.
• 35:03
  I hope that goes super well.
• 35:04
  We got to rattle off some very cool achievements and memories over multiple decades in a sport that you truly love.
• 35:11
  Congratulations on what you've done there.
• 35:13
  And I look forward...
• 35:14
  to seeing you have a drive of another one again somewhere because I've got fond memories of you doing that, mate.
• 35:19
  So thank you for coming on and talking about it today.
• 35:21
  No, I appreciate it, mate.
• 35:22
  Thanks for having me.
• 35:22
  It's a lovely podcast and great to be on it.
• 35:33
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 35:37
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 35:41
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fueled stories.