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The Motorsport Brief | The long way down….to the Bathurst 12 hour · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  This one is about the long way down to the mountain from Europe for the Bathurst 12 Hour.
• 0:11
  G'day everybody, Rusty here.
• 0:13
  I recorded this interview at the end of an epic weekend.
• 0:16
  I'd been embedded with Tony Quinn's family and the Melbourne Performance Centre crew as TQ ticked a bucket list moment with three generations of his family sharing an Audi R8 in the big race.
• 0:29
  Cool story that one that I'm helping to make a documentary on which will be out in the months ahead.
• 0:33
  Anyway, while I was in the garage, a touring bike was parked outside all weekend in the paddock, right by the MPC doors, and it caught my eye.
• 0:42
  Bit of a story to it.
• 0:44
  The owner, the rider, Romulo Liebschen, who set off from Germany over six months ago and rode through some incredible countryside and terrain,
• 0:54
  to get to Mount Panorama.
• 0:55
  Now, he's no stranger to Bathurst and has been talking about this idea, in fact, since before the pandemic around 2015.
• 1:02
  He had a very senior job with Audi in its customer racing side and is regarded as a bit of a godfather of the racing program around its iconic R8 GT.
• 1:13
  So we'll talk a bit about that too and how he feels about the company's change of direction and their big focus now, their commitment to Formula One.
• 1:21
  That's later.
• 1:22
  Yeah.
• 1:22
  Adopted Aussie, Mauro Engel, finally won the 12-hour, but he did it for rivals Mercedes with MotoGP great Valentino Rossi third for BMW.
• 1:32
  While they were celebrating, I grabbed Romolo for a chat as the garage was being packed down by MPC, who he's had dealings with for over a decade.
• 1:39
  He's been familiar with the 12-hour since he came here with the Yost team way back in the 12-hour.
• 1:44
  Yesterday, he and some German colleagues were there supporting the three MPC cars.
• 1:48
  Will Brown hustled hard at the end in the R8 that he shared with Bathurst's own Brad Schumacher and Chris Harser.
• 1:55
  They just missed out on an outright podium, finishing in fourth.
• 2:01
  This is amazing.
• 2:02
  What prompted this and where has it taken you?
• 2:06
  Yeah, so exactly.
• 2:07
  I left in Munich the 17th of July, and then the trip began.
• 2:13
  So in the first stage of the trip, it was together with a group which split up in Cambodia.
• 2:20
  And from Cambodia on, I went on my own down to Malaysia, where I shipped the bike over to Melbourne.
• 2:26
  And then I went on to reach Bathurst, because this was the story.
• 2:32
  starting at home, which is not Munich, it's close to Munich, it's a small village in the Bavarian mountains, close to Austria, and reach Bathurst for the race.
• 2:41
  This was the plan.
• 2:42
  Amazing.
• 2:43
  Firstly, I didn't pronounce your surname correctly.
• 2:46
  You do that for me, and you tell me what it loosely translates to.
• 2:49
  What does it mean?
• 2:50
  So my surname is Liebchen, which means in English, darling.
• 2:55
  Very good.
• 2:55
  Well, it was a darling of a ride.
• 2:57
  Let's talk about the motorcycle firstly.
• 2:58
  You are kind of the godfather of the R8 GT machine, which we celebrate in the garage.
• 3:04
  We are outside at the moment with the Melbourne Performance Centre crew.
• 3:07
  But you've written a rival mark here, haven't you?
• 3:11
  Yeah, exactly.
• 3:11
  It's an old BMW GS model produced in 96 years.
• 3:18
  So, 30 years old now.
• 3:21
  Yeah, the reason why I choose this bike is I was looking for something without electronics.
• 3:28
  So, I could help myself somewhere in the middle of nowhere if there's a problem.
• 3:32
  So, then it might be easier to fix the problem than to struggle with electronic problems and sensors and CAN bus and I don't know what else.
• 3:43
  This is awesome.
• 3:43
  So many questions that I have here.
• 3:45
  Firstly, how long have you been riding two wheels for and you clearly enjoy it?
• 3:49
  Yeah, so riding two wheels started when the age of 15.
• 3:55
  And since that, I never stopped.
• 3:58
  And I really did a lot of mileage in my life.
• 4:01
  So it's far over one million kilometers.
• 4:04
  And I also did some...
• 4:06
  traveling trips before, for example, US and Mexico and North Cape and all over Europe.
• 4:14
  So yeah, it's not the first time I'm on the road, but it's the first time doing something in this extreme way.
• 4:24
  So as we did it now.
• 4:26
  What did you bring?
• 4:27
  There are panniers on the back here.
• 4:29
  Obviously, you need to pack some clothes and things like that.
• 4:31
  But what about, did you bring some spare parts?
• 4:33
  Did you bring a few things, Justin?
• 4:34
  What did you bring?
• 4:35
  I have quite a lot of tools with me and the most important spare parts.
• 4:40
  So I know this bike, this engine very well because I have this type of bike now for over 40 years.
• 4:47
  And so I know where are the sensible areas of the technique.
• 4:53
  And so I took these parts with me.
• 4:56
  So if you've done that many miles or kilometres on a motorcycle, you've been to some amazing places around the world.
• 5:01
  Can we focus on this trip to Mount Panorama?
• 5:04
  And if you're setting off close to Austria there, places that you perhaps may have been to along the way that you didn't or have not been to before?
• 5:13
  Did you go through the Himalayas, for example?
• 5:15
  Yeah.
• 5:16
  So maybe I give you the countries.
• 5:19
  Please, please.
• 5:19
  Okay.
• 5:20
  So I started in Germany, then went down to Turkey.
• 5:25
  So in between some other countries, then from Turkey to Georgia, from Georgia to Russia, then Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia.
• 5:41
  So this was the rough period.
• 5:43
  trip.
• 5:43
  Path to here, incredible.
• 5:45
  You would have seen some unreal sights along the way.
• 5:48
  How much planning was involved before you set off on this?
• 5:51
  I think it was the 17th of July you set off last year?
• 5:53
  Yeah.
• 5:54
  So yeah, there was a lot of planning because in the end it happened in a different way.
• 5:59
  I was looking for in the beginning of the idea.
• 6:03
  So finally I was forced to book an organized trip.
• 6:09
  from Germany down through China, because I was not able to get it organized to pass China, and mainly because of the reason in China there is an age limit to ride motorcycles for 60, but now I've become 66.
• 6:25
  Still young.
• 6:27
  But I was in the first moment, I was told for the Chinese people.
• 6:31
  And this organizer of the trip, I don't know how he's doing, but he found a way to get the permission so I could ride with 65 instead of 60 years.
• 6:41
  I love it.
• 6:42
  A good a good loophole.
• 6:44
  Were you challenged along the way?
• 6:46
  Did anything go wrong or has it gone faultlessly?
• 6:48
  No.
• 6:49
  I had some little problems with spokes on the rear wheel.
• 6:54
  So they broke because of, let's say, the heavy load.
• 7:00
  It was really rough for a certain stage.
• 7:04
  And at that time, I was accompanied by my wife, she said,
• 7:07
  So she came or joined us in Uzbekistan and went with me down to Vietnam.
• 7:13
  And when we went this Pamir Highway, this road was, this part of the trip, the roads have been really bad.
• 7:22
  So maybe it was too much load for the bike.
• 7:25
  So I had these failures.
• 7:28
  I was lucky, I had spokes, spare spokes with me, but I ran out of them.
• 7:33
  And finally in Vietnam there was an artist who fixed it by cutting other spokes, welding them together and fixed the wheel.
• 7:43
  And I can't tell you which spokes he had changed.
• 7:47
  So I don't know.
• 7:48
  I really had a close look.
• 7:51
  He was an artist.
• 7:52
  I love that.
• 7:53
  Does that mean that your incredible experience with Audi in a racing sense has taught you a bit of that ingenuity about how to deal with these things if you are confronted with something that's a little bit tricky?
• 8:04
  For sure.
• 8:04
  And so, yeah, one thing was I always was focused on motorcycles and I had a very detailed look.
• 8:13
  on them but for sure within my business time which started as a design engineer so later it was management but before I was very close to technical stuff and I learned a lot and so this helps of course.
• 8:29
  Amazing, amazing.
• 8:30
  Can we touch a bit on your career, if you don't mind?
• 8:32
  I mean, I referred to you, I've seen some articles, obviously, in the lead-up to this, and they talk about your deep connection to Audi and what you've done here.
• 8:40
  I know there's been a change from a customer racing perspective and what they're doing, and Formula One is now a very big thing for them.
• 8:47
  Tell me about your chapter with them, how long you were with them, and why, you know, I guess you're so proud of the...
• 8:52
  I mean, the R8, as one pulls up literally behind us, has done some incredible things globally, hasn't it?
• 8:57
  Yeah, of course.
• 8:59
  I was really lucky in the company.
• 9:04
  When the idea came up in the Audi top management, Audi will need a sports car, I was the one to be supporting the team from the motorsport side to give, because the board
• 9:22
  leader of the technical department, he said to Dr. Ulrich, please, Dr. Ulrich, send somebody to this team, otherwise maybe we will not get a real sports car.
• 9:34
  And from that moment on, I went deeper and deeper into the sports car topic and then very quickly it became clear we also need a race car, not only a road car.
• 9:48
  And finally I was able somehow to convince people, let's do it.
• 9:53
  And step by step we came to the decision and then I was the first person to start the R8 race car project.
• 10:05
  We'll sneak a quick break here on the short cast.
• 10:07
  More with Romulo in a moment.
• 10:08
  What a story, including some passion-fueled comments about Audi's shift away from its customer racing program to focus on Formula One.
• 10:20
  You're listening to The Motorsport Brief, a fantastic little-known story from the Bathurst 12-hour of the rider who spent a considerable portion of his work life with Audi and decided to fulfil a dream over the past year.
• 10:33
  He'd had it for over a decade and ride to Mount Panorama from Europe for the 12-hour.
• 10:39
  Back to Romulo Liebsham now.
• 10:41
  Australians in motor racing love this venue.
• 10:44
  And tell me what brings you back to it.
• 10:46
  I mean, you clearly liken this in some ways to like a Nürburgring or a spa in its classic essence.
• 10:52
  Yeah, so Bathurst is really a very, very special place.
• 10:57
  So in motorsports at all, I would say, because it's...
• 11:01
  You know, this is one of the few tracks which is left which has really character.
• 11:08
  So this is one thing, but maybe why for me there is such an emotional connection to betters is it was the first race under our own responsibility as an organization, Audi Sport Customer Racing.
• 11:23
  So we came here, first race.
• 11:26
  first win.
• 11:27
  So it was really a great start.
• 11:30
  And it was also the last race of my Audi Sport customer racing career.
• 11:36
  And within these years, I met a lot of nice people.
• 11:40
  We had exciting racing.
• 11:42
  I really love the spectators here in Australia because they are
• 11:47
  different to many other countries because they are real fans and I don't know any other country where so many people are interested in motorsport statistic wise in comparison to the total amount of people in the country than Australia.
• 12:04
  So you feel really good to be here and you know that it's very much appreciated and so that's really nice.
• 12:12
  In the same breath that you have this deep connection with R8, you've seen some great drivers come through this program in its time too.
• 12:22
  I mean, locally, with the Melbourne Performance Center squad here, Garth Tander did some things with them over time.
• 12:28
  Chris Meese, who was involved, unfortunately, in a very big crash this morning with the rival in Ford, he was part of them.
• 12:34
  There's been some good drivers through here.
• 12:36
  Yeah, we really have been lucky to build up a team which was really a team, you know.
• 12:42
  So this was always very important for me to hire drivers which are not egoistic, only to look on their own success.
• 12:52
  And the drivers we had for many years now, there was none.
• 12:58
  like this everybody was working for Audi customer racing for the team and so this was also really a great a great thing I must say is there one achievement that stands out or is it all of them
• 13:12
  there have been so many things so it's really difficult to judge this was let's say the most yeah maybe the first win at the 24 hours of Nürburgring was definitely very special also because my former boss at that time Werner Frohwein he was the
• 13:32
  He was winning, as an engineer, was winning the first race 24 hours of Nürburgring.
• 13:37
  So he always was really very focused on this.
• 13:41
  And this was his life dream to win one day again.
• 13:44
  And so finally we have been able.
• 13:46
  So it was not the first attempt, but finally we did it.
• 13:49
  And this was for him a big gift, I would say.
• 13:53
  And also for us, of course, because it was really hard.
• 13:56
  Of course, of course.
• 13:57
  We are lucky in Australia that at Bathurst we have a few races during the year at this venue and it's bookended with the kind of 1,000 for supercars in October and then this really starts our year here in February.
• 14:11
  When you think about GT racing globally now and what it's doing and what you've perhaps seen here at Bathurst over the years, is it healthy?
• 14:20
  Is it in a good state in your mind?
• 14:22
  I think so.
• 14:23
  So with the success of GT3, I always believed in this idea and so this was the reason why we really pushed for this, because it really makes sense to have one car for the whole world and it makes no sense to have a car.
• 14:42
  For every rule or every series a different car only costs money.
• 14:47
  So then there is no market.
• 14:49
  So for the customers it's much more difficult.
• 14:52
  And the GT3 series now really becomes a very strong series.
• 14:59
  And yeah, I think this was the right way.
• 15:01
  And I hope it will not...
• 15:04
  come too soon to an end because of course more and more prices are raising a lot.
• 15:10
  So this is again, as in other series in the past as well, this is a risk for the series.
• 15:16
  Marnie, keeping the cost contained.
• 15:19
  It would be wrong of me to ask you about the Formula One program.
• 15:22
  Can I ask more broadly, Audi, with what they have done over time, from World Rally, Super Touring, sports car racing especially, even this program here, now they're embarking on Formula One, I sense, Romulo, that this is not something they will do by halves.
• 15:39
  It's a big mission, obviously, and one I feel like they're determined to really see through on it.
• 15:46
  Yeah, so Formula One, yes, this is the top class you can make in motorsports.
• 15:55
  I personally don't like it, because for me there are two points.
• 15:59
  One thing is a race car should be somehow visible as a road car as well.
• 16:05
  And the next thing is...
• 16:07
  The racers or the people or the cars should be touchable for the fans.
• 16:12
  And this is something I don't like in Formula 1 because you will not have the chance to do this.
• 16:18
  So is there some sadness with you then for what's happening at the moment with the customer racing program?
• 16:22
  For sure.
• 16:23
  And I clearly say the decision was completely wrong.
• 16:27
  Okay.
• 16:27
  I cannot follow this decision because we didn't spend a lot of money.
• 16:32
  And so it's hard to understand.
• 16:34
  Of course, you need a follower car.
• 16:37
  So the road car is at the end of the life cycle.
• 16:42
  And there is no new car following.
• 16:46
  But okay, I think there could have been options to make it.
• 16:52
  continue with this program basically.
• 16:53
  Somehow so, yeah.
• 16:55
  Because it's really global and with the customer racing program you reach countries you will not reach directly with Formula 1 and you reach a different type of customer and spectator which is closer to the fan of the brand because Formula 1 is more a driver series not a brand series.
• 17:20
  To finish, let's come back to two wheels to finish this wonderful discussion.
• 17:23
  Thank you.
• 17:24
  Firstly, you look healthy and well.
• 17:26
  In the crazy amount of Ks that you did between here and Bathurst, did you fall?
• 17:31
  Did you hurt yourself?
• 17:31
  Were you okay?
• 17:33
  I had one little fall on a very muddy part of the construction work of the new Silk Road, but nothing happened.
• 17:43
  It was really slow and really even the bike, nothing.
• 17:47
  So this was...
• 17:49
  And I really felt healthy all the time.
• 17:51
  So I was really surprised because I thought it will be harder to do it because we really had hard things like we crossed 10 pass roads higher than 5,000 meters.
• 18:05
  So the air to breathe was not so good anymore.
• 18:09
  Yeah.
• 18:10
  You're almost at base camp height there, aren't you?
• 18:12
  That's crazy.
• 18:12
  We have been at the Mount Everest base camp.
• 18:15
  This was also part of the dream, but unfortunately it was snowing.
• 18:20
  We didn't see anything.
• 18:21
  Amazing.
• 18:23
  I have been there.
• 18:23
  I have trekked there with my wife a long, long time ago, and I have very vivid memories of it.
• 18:28
  To finish, you love your riding.
• 18:29
  We're packing up here at Bathurst.
• 18:31
  Where to next?
• 18:31
  Where are you going next?
• 18:33
  I try to look around the country, so I will head to the north,
• 18:38
  Then along the coast, maybe in the country as well, maybe I will reach Darwin and then I will come back through the country.
• 18:48
  Through the centre?
• 18:49
  Yeah, through the centre to Adelaide and back to Melbourne.
• 18:52
  So in Melbourne, then it's the end.
• 18:55
  And maybe I will have a short look to Tasmania.
• 18:58
  Great job, great job.
• 18:59
  In the million k's or whatever you've done on motorcycles, is there a place you haven't been that you would like to go to?
• 19:06
  Yes, maybe there's another project.
• 19:09
  So I would like to cross South America from the south to the north.
• 19:16
  But I don't know if there is enough time left.
• 19:21
  Because I have to feel...
• 19:24
  like at the moment so and I don't know how long it will stay like this I am now almost 66 so I'm I really have to be happy it's it's like this so I feel good but you know you don't know how long it will stay like this you have channeled your youth well you've done some amazing things and I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation what a ride Romulo enjoy the rest of it thank you for talking to us thank you yeah and thank you Australia it's really a great country so
• 19:54
  We hope that he has a safe ride and enjoys the rest of his time in Australia.
• 19:58
  I've used a pic of Romolo and the bike in the EPP description, so if by chance you see him on the rest of his Aussie travels, stop him and have a chat with him.
• 20:06
  That is it for today.
• 20:07
  Trying to catch up with Blanchard Racing Team's Aaron Cameron ahead of the Supercars season opener too.
• 20:12
  Bye for now.