Latest / Rusty's Garage / Owen Kelly - Part 1

Transcript

Owen Kelly - Part 1 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:10
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:23
  Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  I've come to realise with this podcast that lots of people in racing and automotive have good stories.
• 0:33
  It's not just about the headline makers.
• 0:36
  My guest for this episode is proof of that in so many ways, and he's got some ripper yarns, which he tells so well.
• 0:44
  Thank you.
• 0:44
  People in Australia and New Zealand will know Owen Kelly from his drives in supercars, particularly the Enduros, and more recently at the wheel of a Trans Am where he's a race winner and finished second in the title chase in 2022.
• 0:59
  What you may not know is that Owen has a deep love of NASCAR and its history.
• 1:04
  He knows the people.
• 1:06
  and many of them take his calls.
• 1:08
  That appreciation for the sport, together with an almost unrelenting persistence, saw him break into the club, one of a handful of Aussies to get a start.
• 1:20
  He went wheel to wheel with some big guns, as you'll hear, snuck a drive of the car raced by one of the all-time greats.
• 1:28
  He drove for a famous name and lived at his place for a time too.
• 1:33
  Even did some qualifying for his mate Marcus Ambrose when the schedule between Cup and what we now call the Xfinity Series or second tier was a crazy juggle for Marcus.
• 1:44
  Because it's the motorsport off-season, we have given you an extended listen here.
• 1:49
  Three parts to enjoy over the holiday break at your leisure.
• 1:53
  There is everything from early days in supercars, a massive crash that he rarely opens up on and how...
• 2:01
  It was seconds away from ending up brown bread, as Owen would say.
• 2:05
  Buying Brock's car.
• 2:07
  Getting Mark Scaife's help with a sponsorship proposal.
• 2:11
  The influence of Speedway.
• 2:13
  A driver that Days of Thunder based one of its characters round that he is still a big fan of to this day and much more.
• 2:22
  We decided...
• 2:23
  Actually, it didn't take much arm-twisting.
• 2:24
  To do this chat out the back of the Exchange Hotel in Port Melbourne over a couple of amber lemonades.
• 2:31
  We begin by chatting about early life in Tasmania, the conversations this...
• 2:36
  cheeky kid had with his mum and dad around things like nicknames for friends and colleagues in the transport business that he now works in with family.
• 2:45
  Motorsport was never far from his mind and the cogs began ticking over at age four on how he was going to stitch it all together.
• 2:58
  I think you loved, because your dad's had a great history in transport and things, you had a love for Bedford trade trucks back then.
• 3:04
  Is that right?
• 3:05
  Yeah.
• 3:06
  And you really workshopped with him about how he could earn enough money to do what you wanted to do in life, whatever that may have been.
• 3:13
  That's deep conversation for a four-year-old.
• 3:16
  Yeah, it is.
• 3:16
  Well, you've got to plan early, don't you?
• 3:20
  Yeah, no, that was the case.
• 3:22
  And I couldn't – I remember – I don't remember that four-year-old conversation, but I do remember, you know, trying to figure out – trying to get your head around how you are going to make enough dough to –
• 3:37
  to go and do anything, you know.
• 3:39
  Is the correct, if I'm right here, is the real motorsport thinking, if you like, when Joe Sullivan came to stay, he would have been about six.
• 3:54
  He worked, I think, for Murray Carter at the time, and he would come down, stay with you guys, wait for the truck to arrive on the boat, and you talked to him about being a racing driver.
• 4:06
  Yeah, that's right.
• 4:07
  And how am I going to get there and how do you do it?
• 4:12
  And Joe was great.
• 4:14
  I do remember that from way back then.
• 4:16
  And it was always a special time of year because the touring car championship come to town and Joe would come and stay and catch up with him on what had been happening.
• 4:27
  And then in later years, he was still coming to stay, but he was working for Glenn Seaton and people like that.
• 4:34
  And Joe's still there today.
• 4:37
  Amazing, isn't it?
• 4:39
  Yeah, a real feature of the paddock, good fella.
• 4:43
  Rookie cart, age 8.
• 4:46
  Your brother Christian tells me you seized a Victor engine at one point and your words were, but I only gave it two tunes.
• 4:54
  Two tunes.
• 4:54
  Two tunes.
• 4:55
  Sorry, two tunes.
• 4:56
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:56
  You used to have to tune those things quite a bit to get them just right.
• 5:01
  And yes, I only gave it two tunes and the thing seized over.
• 5:06
  I blame the engine builder.
• 5:07
  Did you?
• 5:09
  Your dad reckons 35 bucks probably would have fixed it and it was nothing compared to, because he was doing Speedway at the time, wasn't he?
• 5:14
  Yeah, that's right.
• 5:15
  The engines and those things.
• 5:17
  His Speedway racing must have had a profound effect on you, did it, mate?
• 5:23
  Yeah, it was because I don't remember when people say I was born into it, and I guess it's what it is because I don't remember there ever not being a race car in the garage because there was one since I was born.
• 5:38
  What were they?
• 5:39
  What cars?
• 5:40
  Can you remember?
• 5:42
  like what you'd call a dirt late model now, what they called Grand Nationals and the like.
• 5:48
  And so, you know, obviously V8s, methanol, and it was the way our house was built, our bedrooms were above the garage.
• 5:57
  Fantastic.
• 5:57
  And there was a set of stairs come up the back of the garage into a doorway halfway along the corridor, basically right outside my bedroom door.
• 6:06
  And mum was always blowing up because the methanol fumes are coming up and they're just trying to get the kids to bed and go to sleep.
• 6:14
  And there's this V8 engine running downstairs and so on.
• 6:20
  so yeah you'd uh i don't think i had much chance of avoiding motorsport you were around it with him at a very young age going to the races i mean you're doing this now with your son hudson in many ways so same same thing no 100 we went to all the races and um uh as as much as we could and i think you know that we were getting carted around to the races when we were babies as well you know and
• 6:42
  Obviously, all motor racing is a family sport, but particularly Speedway.
• 6:49
  So, yeah, they're my earliest memories being at the Speedway.
• 6:55
  I have vivid recollections, mate, of Liverpool Speedway in Sydney and going there with my folks.
• 7:00
  I'm a little bit older than you, but I can always remember the gate from the pit or the paddock would open.
• 7:06
  It was like a big barn gate.
• 7:08
  It would swing right open.
• 7:11
  And I gather from your dad, they kind of had to line it up from the back of the thing to enter the bowl.
• 7:16
  You had to do it like an angle and then drop it into the bowl.
• 7:20
  And I can still remember his – it was Ansett, wasn't it?
• 7:22
  It was Ansett backing on his car when it came into the – and was it – I mean, the number you run in Trans Am now is 73.
• 7:29
  He was 73.
• 7:29
  Is that right?
• 7:30
  Yeah, that's dad's number, so.
• 7:31
  What's the connection?
• 7:32
  What's the reasoning?
• 7:35
  I don't think when he ended up with, well, how he got the number, I actually need him to tell me again.
• 7:41
  He did tell me once.
• 7:42
  It wasn't anything.
• 7:43
  Super significant.
• 7:44
  No.
• 7:45
  And once he got that number, he stuck with it.
• 7:49
  And that's what we just grew up with.
• 7:50
  And then that style of number, the way he ran it for forever was, you know, became synonymous with him.
• 7:58
  And that's what everybody knew him as was that Orange 73.
• 8:01
  Yeah.
• 8:01
  Yeah.
• 8:02
  Um, then he, you know, went on to the sprint car as well.
• 8:04
  And, um, uh, you know, one point there towards the end of Grand Nationals before they stopped or sort of, you know, became extinct, I guess, um, he, he would run the Grand National and the sprint car on the same night.
• 8:18
  Amazing.
• 8:18
  And, uh, which, you know, when you're a, you know, nine or 10 year old, it was, um, or anytime really when you're a 45 year old, that was pretty cool.
• 8:26
  And, uh.
• 8:27
  He was doing Tony Stewart things before Tony Stewart, which I thought was pretty mega.
• 8:32
  Very cool.
• 8:34
  Take people on a little bit of a journey there, mate.
• 8:36
  Who were some of the drivers you were around then?
• 8:38
  Maybe some of the Americans that came to visit that you were enamoured with and so on?
• 8:41
  Because you've got this great...
• 8:43
  appreciation for American oval track racing the participants the community the history you you love that mate don't you yeah it's um and you know obviously from our upbringing and being around it every weekend and the um
• 8:58
  There used to be always a USA sedan team that you'd remember from the Liverpool days would come to Australia.
• 9:05
  There'd be generally those four of them.
• 9:07
  That changed a little bit from year to year on who they were.
• 9:12
  And they would tour around the country and come to Tasmania and so on.
• 9:15
  um, which was really, really cool.
• 9:17
  And, uh, the one guy that, that stands out that become a lifelong friend was, um, Jack Hewitt.
• 9:24
  Yep.
• 9:24
  And he come out racing, uh, sedans initially in the late seventies and then, uh, later on come out in sprint cars.
• 9:32
  And, you know, as you know, Jack races everything and it was good and everything.
• 9:35
  And, um, uh, so yeah, that come and, you know, sometimes stay and definitely go and hang out with them a lot.
• 9:42
  And, um,
• 9:44
  And, yeah, Jack still is my hero, but he was my hero from... A little age.
• 9:49
  Little, yeah.
• 9:50
  There's a great book called Hewitt's Law that people can go and find, a Speedway book, which is tremendous.
• 9:54
  Because it's just like you get this clear understanding of what he's like as a human, mate.
• 10:03
  And you like that...
• 10:04
  that style he's a no-nonsense kind of yeah straight to the point what you see is what you get he's the same all the time he doesn't put it on for the tv or anything he doesn't um uh you know there's plenty to you can go on youtube and find some pretty funny interviews with jack um worth doing for sure
• 10:24
  Amazing that he's ended up for you and for your dad.
• 10:28
  I mean, he came to a milestone birthday for your dad all the way to Tasmania and stuff.
• 10:32
  He's been a good friend, hasn't he?
• 10:34
  Yeah, he has.
• 10:36
  There's not many people like Huwett, that's for sure, him and Jodie.
• 10:41
  They're just great people.
• 10:42
  He's...
• 10:46
  he's got to go down as one of the best race car drivers in history.
• 10:51
  And what he did at Eldora at the Four Crown and, you know, running the Indy 500 and all those things he's done, it's pretty mega.
• 10:59
  Considering the upbringing that he had and where he came from, mate.
• 11:02
  Yeah, he came from nothing.
• 11:03
  It's a great story.
• 11:04
  It is a great story.
• 11:05
  People can go off and find that.
• 11:06
  Just quickly, domestically.
• 11:07
  You, the family, have a great association with Gary Rush, for example.
• 11:11
  On the domestic speedway scene too, there's some close ties, isn't there?
• 11:14
  Yeah, there is.
• 11:15
  And same thing, Gary's been a good friend for a long time.
• 11:20
  And obviously dad's known Gary too for a long time through speedway.
• 11:25
  And I was working a lot in Sydney actually.
• 11:30
  How old were you here?
• 11:31
  Tell me, what were you doing?
• 11:32
  It's not that long ago.
• 11:34
  It was probably, what are we now?
• 11:37
  Probably 13 or 14 years ago.
• 11:40
  I was doing a lot of work in Sydney, travelling a lot to Sydney for work.
• 11:47
  And often I'd go and stay with Gary and we'd go to Outback Steakhouse and I'd just get him to tell me old racing stories.
• 11:57
  They are the best those nights, mate, aren't they?
• 11:59
  Yeah.
• 12:00
  He's got a book coming out, which is going to be awesome.
• 12:03
  But some of the stories from America in the early days, the stuff he did over there that a lot of people here don't even know about.
• 12:13
  So, yeah, I could just sit there and listen all night to all that sort of stuff.
• 12:17
  As you know, Gary's our version of Steve Kinzer, isn't he?
• 12:21
  Exactly, exactly.
• 12:23
  Hey, we're darting all over the place here, but the theme I want to come back to is your dad's car for a moment, if I can.
• 12:29
  you and your brother Christian tracked that thing down and restored it for him for his 70th I think wasn't it that you did it for tell me where you found it what state it was in and I gather the peer of you have restored it period correct haven't you
• 12:45
  Yeah, so it was only a minute part of it because it was all in Tassie and Christian did most of it with some help from Steve Reynolds that used to work on it.
• 12:57
  Awesome.
• 12:58
  The car was actually sold to a guy by the name of Alan Jones, not the Alan Jones, but Alan Jones in Ballarat, and he ran it on the Thunderdome.
• 13:09
  when they were running late models on the Thunderdome, which, when you look at those cars now, it was a pretty sketchy exercise.
• 13:18
  They were going around three seconds, I think, faster than a NASCAR around there.
• 13:22
  Holy!
• 13:23
  And certainly not built to crash at those speeds.
• 13:25
  But that's what they were doing, though.
• 13:28
  So he hadn't changed the car much.
• 13:30
  They had to put a windshield in them and a few things like that.
• 13:33
  He finished with it and it was in a paddock under a tree.
• 13:37
  Unbelievable.
• 13:38
  Yeah, so original paint, the way Dad ran it on the chassis and everything, that was all still there.
• 13:45
  Obviously, that all got redone, but yeah, Christian managed to get that done right under his nose in Devonport.
• 13:53
  What were you two doing double stories about, you know, to put him off the scent?
• 13:57
  Yeah, exactly.
• 14:00
  You saying Christian?
• 14:01
  No.
• 14:01
  I'm not sure where he is.
• 14:03
  Out of service.
• 14:06
  But he was getting that done under the cover of darkness, basically.
• 14:12
  And we got an engine.
• 14:15
  Wayne Mankin used to do his engines.
• 14:17
  And so we got an engine.
• 14:20
  It was in Melbourne.
• 14:21
  So to keep it all as authentic as possible, I got Mank to...
• 14:28
  Look over that engine.
• 14:29
  We took it over to Gene Cook's and put it on the dyno.
• 14:33
  So it had Manx fingerprints on it, basically, before it went in the car and keep it all.
• 14:38
  So it's there in his collection and exactly how they used to run it.
• 14:44
  Awesome.
• 14:45
  I think he's a proud man, but I think you nearly got a tear in his eye that night when it came up the driver, which is amazing.
• 14:51
  We'll get to Mank too, because he's been a mentor and you've crossed paths with him during your career and still do to this day on more than one occasion.
• 15:00
  Can we, mate, just go with, because you've mentioned Thunderdome, right?
• 15:05
  Like legendary place.
• 15:06
  It's down the road, whatever it is, half an hour's drive from where we're sitting now to have this discussion.
• 15:12
  Kind of a real shame that it isn't,
• 15:14
  being used the way that that um bob would have intended but you got to in your mid-teens drive a nascar for the first time what was that like and tell me about it well i've got to correct you because i don't think i drove it it definitely drove me there's no doubt about that but um uh so dad had a small part in in a team with a bunch of guys and gene cook looked over ran this car and drove it and um
• 15:42
  He obviously raced against Gene a lot through his career and from home as well.
• 15:49
  So I got to be involved in the pit crew there.
• 15:52
  I was the catch can guy on pit road, which I can tell you when you're 15, 14, 15 was pretty sketchy when there was no pit road speed limit.
• 16:01
  It's like a scene out of days of thunder kind of thing.
• 16:03
  Yeah, yeah, standing there with your back to these things, ripping past you, waiting for the fuel to come out the back and cover you.
• 16:09
  But, yeah, I got to...
• 16:13
  They were practicing one day and Gene stuck me in.
• 16:17
  I remember I was 15 and I can't remember how many laps I did, but, yeah, it was a pretty awesome experience.
• 16:24
  How in...
• 16:28
  where you would ultimately go to the States and things.
• 16:30
  How pivotal was that moment, mate?
• 16:32
  Yeah, I was already... Hooked.
• 16:36
  I was already hooked on NASCAR because generally in our houses, even well before that, there'd be Stock Car Racing magazine laying around.
• 16:46
  Yeah.
• 16:46
  So you're reading about Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty and...
• 16:50
  These guys.
• 16:52
  And back then in the 80s particularly, they only ever showed the Daytona 500 on TV.
• 16:59
  You didn't get the rest of them.
• 17:01
  There was no Foxtel or anything like that.
• 17:03
  And so I religiously used to see that race.
• 17:06
  And then the rest of the year...
• 17:08
  All I had to rely on was Stock Car Racing magazine.
• 17:11
  Were you cover to cover on that?
• 17:12
  Would you read it?
• 17:13
  Oh, yeah.
• 17:15
  Later on when I got to go over there and race, it was one of the things that used to baffle those guys was my knowledge of...
• 17:23
  80s and 90s NASCAR stuff and naming who was driving what and what sponsor and, you know, just from my interest.
• 17:32
  And it wasn't, not that I didn't appreciate it or think that they were legends, but I didn't grow up necessarily a Peter Brock or Dick Johnson.
• 17:42
  or a touring car, it was all about NASCAR.
• 17:45
  Okay.
• 17:45
  That just to me was so much cooler on these big banked ovals.
• 17:49
  And then, you know, that early 90s, like Days of Thunder had come out, that really exposed NASCAR to everybody.
• 17:58
  And that was a real – it sounds cliche, but that was a real – Driver for you.
• 18:04
  Driver for me as well.
• 18:06
  Although it's Hollywood sort of driven –
• 18:10
  It, it, it, uh, the, the, the spinoff from that, the enthusiasm from that.
• 18:13
  Yeah, well, and when you learn about it, all the stories, storylines were all real stories of Tim Richmond, um, Rick Hendrick, you know, uh, Harry Hyde was, and they're all real people doing real things.
• 18:24
  Things, hmm.
• 18:25
  That's how they strung all that together.
• 18:27
  Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Bodine and their rivalry, that was all those storylines... Filtered through it, didn't it?
• 18:34
  ...came out in the movie.
• 18:38
  So all those things were real drivers.
• 18:40
  So certainly then the Thunderdome getting going and being able to actually go and drive one of those cars and just the noise of them was...
• 18:50
  Yeah, certainly that stuck with me.
• 18:52
  Awesome.
• 18:53
  You got to drive it again at some point too.
• 18:55
  Can we just go to – I'm glad you've brought up Tim Richmond here because in your thirst for knowledge around NASCAR and understanding the people and –
• 19:10
  All of that, it's not homework because it's a labour of love, right?
• 19:13
  You enjoy doing it.
• 19:14
  That would help you when you went to the States ultimately.
• 19:17
  But the thing with Tim Richmond is who's very sadly gone and left us now, you have been a very big fan of his, mate, haven't you?
• 19:27
  And chased memorabilia and you may have even met his sister, I think, at one point.
• 19:31
  Is that right?
• 19:31
  Yeah, so...
• 19:34
  It's a funny story.
• 19:37
  I think I'd already moved back to Australia, but I was back in Charlotte and there was a particular museum in Mooresville and I used to change it up in there and I knew the people and I'd just go in and check out anything different.
• 19:55
  Historically, you've never been able to get any Tim Richmond stuff.
• 19:58
  There's been no helmets, no fire suits, nothing.
• 20:02
  and um one day i walked in there and here's a tim richmond fire suit in a glass case and i said where did this come from you can't get any tim richmond stuff anywhere where's this come from and they said oh his sister sandy um she lives up the road at troutman which was you know 15 minutes up the road um
• 20:25
  She's the only one left in the family and getting into later stages of life, you know.
• 20:32
  She's got all this stuff.
• 20:32
  And decided that it's time to unbox this stuff and I'm going to start selling it to, you know, the right places and where this will get displayed and...
• 20:43
  Looked after.
• 20:44
  Looked after and to keep Tim's legacy alive.
• 20:48
  And then she said, oh, I've got her number here if you want to ring her.
• 20:50
  And I thought, oh, I don't know about that.
• 20:53
  And I said, oh, well, yeah, let's – and she rang her and Sandy said, oh, yeah, just send him up to the house.
• 21:02
  I couldn't believe it.
• 21:03
  So I went up there and she literally – she's by herself.
• 21:07
  So she's just moved into this house and, you know, I –
• 21:14
  respectfully older lady you know and so do you need a hand with something you want can i move some boxes and so here i am i think i spent the first couple hours changing light bulbs and and uh we're talking about tim and all the all the different stories and things and um and then she said oh you might as well help me unpack some of these boxes
• 21:35
  And she told me that when Tim passed away, his mum and dad moved into his lake house on Lake Norman and they didn't touch a thing.
• 21:45
  They boxed up all his stuff and didn't touch anything.
• 21:48
  His boots were at the door, his hat's on the hat stand.
• 21:51
  Wow.
• 21:51
  And basically left it.
• 21:55
  And she's got all these boxes and they hadn't been open since then.
• 21:58
  So we're talking 1989.
• 21:59
  Yeah.
• 21:59
  And...
• 22:02
  And I said, oh, no, you know, that's not really.
• 22:06
  You didn't feel right, is that what you're saying?
• 22:07
  Yeah, that's not really something I should, that's a family thing, you know, that didn't feel quite right about it.
• 22:14
  I said, oh, no, I mean, it's only me and I'd appreciate the help, you know.
• 22:18
  Don't worry about that.
• 22:19
  You can just give me a hand if you can.
• 22:21
  And I said, oh, well, okay.
• 22:22
  And it was unbelievable.
• 22:24
  She was literally unboxing Tim Richmond's house from 1989.
• 22:28
  And you were a big fan, mate.
• 22:30
  Yeah.
• 22:30
  And so, and it was good because there were some things in there where, you know, she's like, oh, what do you think this is worth?
• 22:39
  I was thinking $150 and I'm like, nah, that's $400 all day.
• 22:43
  And some things were the other way, you know, but...
• 22:46
  It was good to give her a hand and what have you.
• 22:50
  And I've stayed in touch with her.
• 22:51
  Lovely.
• 22:52
  Yeah, it was a pretty cool moment.
• 22:54
  So we've got some good memorabilia that I bought off her.
• 22:59
  Tim's first Winston Cup win at Riverside in 82.
• 23:03
  I've got the 76 flag.
• 23:05
  Awesome.
• 23:05
  From that race.
• 23:06
  Awesome.
• 23:07
  Take people on a little bit of a journey here, mate, that don't necessarily know him about Tim Richmond.
• 23:12
  You talked about him being a figure in the storyline of Days of Thunder before.
• 23:16
  He was a bit of a character, well-liked.
• 23:23
  had, I think if I'm right here, mate, there's a bit of a, like an Indy 500 sort of story and all sorts, isn't there, in his career?
• 23:31
  Yeah, so he came up, born in Ohio, right in sprint car territory, non-wing sprint car stuff.
• 23:38
  So he went USAC racing in sprint cars and dirt track for a while and then quickly landed in an Indy car.
• 23:47
  I think it was 1980.
• 23:51
  He'd run out of fuel near the end of the race, and Johnny Rutherford won and gave him a ride back on the side pod.
• 23:57
  There's a bit of cool footage from that in the Penzo car.
• 24:04
  And then he had a bad crash at, I think it was Michigan, and Sandy said, his sister told me that mum said to dad, that's it.
• 24:17
  Really?
• 24:17
  Get him out of that race car or we're getting divorced.
• 24:22
  Because it was pretty bad.
• 24:24
  It had tore the car in half and no wheels left.
• 24:26
  Okay.
• 24:27
  And he was pretty lucky, particularly back then.
• 24:30
  So that's when they went into NASCAR, and he just had this unbelievable natural talent.
• 24:36
  And he was the only guy that could take on Dale Earnhardt and...
• 24:42
  He really had Earnhardt's respect.
• 24:44
  Earnhardt could intimidate anybody except Tim Richmond.
• 24:49
  So a lot of those stories, so in the Days of Thunder movie.
• 24:54
  The tires are half as wide and the car was... All that stuff happened.
• 24:59
  Coming down pit lane in reverse because he...
• 25:02
  Busted the gearbox and they stuck it in fourth.
• 25:04
  And that happened at Pocono for real.
• 25:06
  You know, he couldn't get a gear except reverse.
• 25:09
  So he just reversed it around and backed down pit lane.
• 25:12
  Yeah.
• 25:13
  Respect to Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer for getting that level of connection rather than just writing some BS storyline.
• 25:22
  Well, it was more Tom Cruise because he'd been doing a bit of IMSA racing and become buddies with Rick Hendrick.
• 25:29
  And then they'd go testing with the NASCAR and Tom would jump in and do some laps and just for fun, you know.
• 25:35
  And so him and Rick were friends.
• 25:37
  And then he said, we're going to make a movie about this.
• 25:40
  Awesome.
• 25:41
  And then he's hearing all these stories about what Tim did and Earnhardt and all those different things.
• 25:47
  And obviously a bit of Hollywood got put around some of those things.
• 25:51
  But the crux of those stories were the real thing.
• 25:55
  Amazing.
• 25:56
  Come back to your own career now.
• 25:58
  We've talked about the two tunes, $35, your Victor engine.
• 26:04
  I think, is that right, mate?
• 26:05
  The first race may have been, is it Highclere up around Burnie Way?
• 26:08
  Yeah, Highclere and Burnie, yeah.
• 26:10
  What were your first... Maybe you're too young, mate, but did it have racing karts back then?
• 26:16
  Were you like, man, this is me.
• 26:18
  This is what I want to do.
• 26:19
  Well...
• 26:20
  I was shitting my pants and I was trying to get out of it when we got there.
• 26:24
  So I think Dad said something along the lines of, we're doing it today or we're not coming back.
• 26:31
  Really?
• 26:31
  There was something along those lines.
• 26:33
  It was like, oh, right, I guess we are doing it.
• 26:35
  Yeah.
• 26:37
  It got pretty real as you come over the railway lines into the gate into Highclere and all the noise and smoke and the smell.
• 26:45
  I suppose those things are pretty intimidating when you're an eight-year-old.
• 26:53
  I do remember that.
• 26:54
  I was pretty keen not to do it at the very beginning, but that went away at some point, thankfully.
• 27:01
  Yeah.
• 27:01
  How the hats change.
• 27:03
  Now you're walking that road with your son, Hudson, aren't you?
• 27:06
  He's literally just started a little bit of karting.
• 27:09
  Lex, Rick Kelly's son is doing some stuff too.
• 27:12
  That's happening, isn't it?
• 27:13
  Yeah, it is.
• 27:14
  And it's great fun.
• 27:15
  I said to Rick the other day, I said, this is way better than any of the racing we ever did.
• 27:20
  Really?
• 27:20
  It's way more fun going and watching those two go around and learning.
• 27:25
  And Hudson's only just turned seven.
• 27:27
  So he's just practising.
• 27:28
  We haven't gone racing or anything yet.
• 27:31
  Yeah, we're just getting laps on him and just see how he goes.
• 27:34
  If he wants to keep doing it, we'll keep doing it and see what happens.
• 27:37
  I'm going to inject a little bit of information here from mum and dad because I know you probably won't, so I'm going to do it for you.
• 27:47
  Your dad talked to me about the whole notion of sons of rich and famous fathers, right?
• 27:52
  Very early on in your time as a young fella –
• 27:56
  you had quite a frank conversation with him around the whole notion of, if we have to bankroll this the whole way, I'm out.
• 28:04
  I'm not interested.
• 28:06
  Didn't you?
• 28:08
  I'd seen some people we'd known through karting and what have you along the way that you see some people just writing the check for everything.
• 28:19
  Yep.
• 28:20
  And even the guys that have got talent.
• 28:22
  When it's, I feel like,
• 28:27
  The industry starts to know and just expects that dad to keep writing a check.
• 28:32
  And that's what... And despite...
• 28:33
  It doesn't matter how good that kid is, they just keep getting him to write a check.
• 28:38
  And if you're trying to become a professional, it's not about the money as in making the money.
• 28:44
  It's...
• 28:44
  If you want to become a professional, that means getting paid to do it, right?
• 28:49
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:49
  And we'd all do it for free, despite what they tell you.
• 28:53
  But...
• 28:53
  But setting the tone around...
• 28:55
  Setting the tone, knowing... Getting paid your worth and knowing where you sit on which side of the fence.
• 29:02
  And it was very clear to me early on that there's a fence there and you're on one side or the other.
• 29:08
  You're paying...
• 29:09
  Or you're getting paid.
• 29:10
  Paid, yeah.
• 29:11
  And I know which side I want to be on.
• 29:14
  Yeah.
• 29:15
  And like I say, that wasn't about the actual money in the end.
• 29:19
  It's about being on the correct side of the fence and being, you know...
• 29:28
  The respect out of that in the paddock that you get from that.
• 29:33
  And the setting the tone is a number of ways because it's also benefiting you because you have this ethic, mate, this work ethic of the way you hustled in America, the way you chased stuff here.
• 29:47
  I mean, you know, just riding the ticket wasn't your way.
• 29:53
  You just didn't want to do that, did you?
• 29:54
  No, and I might add he wasn't... Chas didn't have his checkbook out flapping it around under my nose either.
• 30:01
  He says maybe a little bit of help in Formula Ford and some tyres here and there, and that's about it, basically.
• 30:06
  Yeah, he did help in the start of it, get the Formula Ford thing going.
• 30:10
  You've got to get going somehow.
• 30:12
  Somehow, yeah.
• 30:15
  But yeah, it wasn't, you know, one, it wasn't really an option to just write a check anyway.
• 30:23
  But in my mind it was, well, if you can't get there on merit, then you shouldn't be there.
• 30:28
  Be there, yeah.
• 30:39
  This is a special three-part episode and he's only just getting started.
• 30:43
  I'll be here the whole way, but let's get back to Rusty for an emotion-filled part of the conversation.
• 30:50
  Can we talk, mate?
• 30:52
  In bouncing around ideas for this discussion, it's a difficult one, but we both agree we need to cover it.
• 30:59
  And that is the accident you had at Phillip Island as a young fella, right?
• 31:04
  I want you to, if you're comfortable, go back there.
• 31:08
  Tell us what happened that day.
• 31:11
  Your mum tells me she was super nervous, mate, because when you woke up, you were, you know, I still want to do this.
• 31:20
  What happened that day?
• 31:23
  Sorry.
• 31:33
  Alright.
• 31:36
  96.
• 31:37
  Yeah, 96.
• 31:37
  So it was...
• 31:43
  I was lucky to get an opportunity with Paul Little and his Porsche team and with Anthony Tratt.
• 31:53
  Was that you working relationships?
• 31:55
  Did you go and meet those guys?
• 31:56
  How did you get that opportunity?
• 31:58
  It was...
• 32:01
  I can't remember the very first...
• 32:03
  I can't remember how we got the ball rolling, to be honest.
• 32:08
  I knew that Paul was stepping out of the seat and they were going to put somebody in it.
• 32:14
  And I can't remember who we made the first contact with, but we managed to get a test at Calder.
• 32:20
  And I think it was myself, Warren Luff...
• 32:27
  and Gary Walden, I think.
• 32:31
  We're talking Porsche Cup back then too, aren't we?
• 32:33
  Because I was a green commentator.
• 32:35
  They were toll-backed cars, I can remember them.
• 32:37
  They were pretty handy, pretty quick things too, weren't they?
• 32:40
  Yeah, they were.
• 32:40
  They were serious race cars.
• 32:45
  So we went and did the test and we ended up with the gig.
• 32:50
  And we went to... And I had no idea what I was doing.
• 32:53
  How old were you?
• 32:53
  19.
• 32:54
  19, yeah.
• 32:55
  And so I hadn't driven anything.
• 32:57
  I'd done, obviously, the karting.
• 32:59
  And then I did one or two HQ races in Tassie.
• 33:07
  And then this.
• 33:09
  And so it wasn't that...
• 33:12
  I mean, they were pretty fast cars, but...
• 33:15
  none of that really the speed and all those things was okay it was and the power of it and all that was all all okay it was the but you know your race craft and all the
• 33:28
  Still coming.
• 33:28
  You're still learning all these things, aren't you, as you do?
• 33:31
  So we went to Winton and it was the last race of the old track before the extension.
• 33:40
  And had a good race there and we ran fourth.
• 33:43
  Had a good race with Lucio Cesario.
• 33:48
  Oh, yeah, Cesario.
• 33:49
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:51
  Yes, I do.
• 33:51
  So, you know, and they said he was pretty handy.
• 33:53
  I didn't know him personally, but...
• 33:57
  uh thought this is going all right and the next race was philip island um and then uh so we went to philip island and um i think it was the second race i can't remember exactly but um went down into honda out of honda into siberia and
• 34:22
  sort of memories a bit fuzzy from there, but, um, about where it stops.
• 34:26
  But I remember being hit in the left door and honestly can't remember whether I was on the outside or, you know, someone's, I don't know.
• 34:35
  I don't know exactly what's happened, but we've gone off and you look at it now and go, it's not that fast, that part of the tracks, certainly on that place, not one of the faster places, but the way we've hit, um,
• 34:51
  I've gone off the road fairly decent, and it's gone in backwards, and Phillip Island's a lot better now, but it was just earth-filled tyres, and there wasn't a lot of give there.
• 35:04
  And this is before wraparound seats and all those things.
• 35:09
  Harns.
• 35:10
  All the stuff was as good as what it was in the day, but it was pre-all that.
• 35:16
  So I've gone in backwards.
• 35:18
  The car...
• 35:19
  that was in it with me, he went in frontwards.
• 35:23
  My
• 35:27
  Coming back to Jack Hewitt, I actually had a Simpson helmet on that Jack Hewitt had sent over for my birthday that Dad organised.
• 35:33
  Wow.
• 35:34
  And Hewitt had had it painted.
• 35:36
  And I kept that paint scheme right through my career.
• 35:39
  Excellent.
• 35:40
  And so I was lucky I was wearing a good helmet.
• 35:50
  I've hit the, my head's hit the roll cage next to the seat, just straight on the bare cage and then they say, and then you come forward and you've hit the steering wheel as well on the rebound I guess and obviously I don't remember any of that but next thing I remember is just going through the doors at the Alfred Hospital after the helicopter ride.
• 36:16
  And waking up there and not knowing what had happened or, you know.
• 36:21
  And mum and dad's...
• 36:25
  I've spoken to them about this.
• 36:28
  So your mum says one of the first things you asked about was the helmet.
• 36:33
  Because Jack had given you that.
• 36:35
  And cutting your dad's race suit.
• 36:36
  You were in your dad's race suit too, weren't you?
• 36:38
  That's all right.
• 36:42
  Yeah, and it was...
• 36:46
  Yeah, I couldn't believe they cut his suit off.
• 36:49
  He said that's the last thing he was worried about.
• 36:52
  You were worried about it, and you were worried about the helmet, weren't you?
• 36:56
  Yeah, it was... And you don't know.
• 36:58
  You know, I was in...
• 37:01
  I was in this neck brace.
• 37:02
  I remember this neck brace up under your chin here that obviously keeps your neck and spine and keeping it all lined up.
• 37:11
  Initially, it thought it'd broken my back and my neck, and they didn't know, obviously, at that point.
• 37:16
  So you're in all these braces, and the pain up under the chin had this headache that I can't even imagine it now.
• 37:23
  Really?
• 37:25
  From the brace?
• 37:26
  From the brace?
• 37:27
  No, the headache was from the fractured skull and several other things and that was, I remember asking what happened and they saw you in a crash.
• 37:47
  yeah, from there it was, the next few days were, all of that got worse, because I guess, um, you know, brain swelling, and all these things, but, um, yeah, I couldn't, um, couldn't even stand somebody walking in the room, the noise of somebody just, just walking in the room was too much.
• 38:08
  Wow.
• 38:09
  With, um, with this headache, and this, yeah, obviously with this, you know, fractured skull and what have you, and, um,
• 38:19
  yeah it was I had some nerve damage to an eye and
• 38:24
  My left eyelid was shut.
• 38:25
  They weren't sure if it was going to open again, were they?
• 38:28
  Yeah.
• 38:29
  Or open properly anyway.
• 38:31
  Yeah, and that was a concern.
• 38:34
  And then, well, first of all, it was just, you know, you just wanted to, if you lay down long enough, all you want to do is get out of bed, you know.
• 38:46
  And...
• 38:50
  So initially in the Alfred there, I wasn't supposed to get up, but eventually after, I can't remember how long it was, but after a couple of days I'm like, right, I'm going to the toilet to take a slash.
• 39:01
  I don't care what anyone says.
• 39:03
  He's sick of this, you know.
• 39:05
  Peeing in the bucket in the bed and all that stuff that you've got to do.
• 39:11
  But I got up and had all these balance issues and all this... My inner ear was knocked around, which is all your balance and all these things, and immediately hit the deck and still got to the toilet and got that done.
• 39:24
  That was... Mission accomplished.
• 39:27
  Yeah, that was a big relief in more ways than one, you know.
• 39:31
  And then it was a matter of...
• 39:35
  a rehab hospital and... Yeah, well, and then it was, you know...
• 39:44
  In my mind, it was just a matter of, I just want to get out of this hospital.
• 39:47
  You just want to get as far away from it as you can, the whole thing.
• 39:50
  You don't want to talk about it.
• 39:51
  You don't want to think about it.
• 39:52
  You just want to get away from it.
• 39:55
  Because nobody plans that, do they?
• 39:57
  No.
• 39:59
  And you've got this plan in your head.
• 40:00
  Are you going to be a race car driver?
• 40:01
  And this is how you're going to do it.
• 40:02
  And you're going to do all these things.
• 40:04
  And you don't see that coming.
• 40:07
  And Anthony Tratt, his good mates with Glenn Seaton, he's a good guy.
• 40:14
  Trudy was obviously in the other car on the day and he brought Glenn into the hospital.
• 40:23
  You're right.
• 40:23
  It's okay, mate.
• 40:27
  You're right.
• 40:28
  You don't often talk about this, mate.
• 40:30
  You've been good enough to open up on it in the podcast, but I know as a rule you have fundamentally compartmentalised this and moved on.
• 40:37
  So this is a bit raw.
• 40:39
  So anyway, he brought Glenn into the hospital.
• 40:41
  Yeah.
• 40:43
  Yeah, which was, that was a big, big boost for me, you know, that someone of that stature would come in and see me.
• 40:54
  And prior to this, even when I was in carts, John Bower was... As a Tasmanian, as a...
• 41:01
  respected race for an Australian Touring Car Champion.
• 41:03
  Yeah, he was as big a help to me as anybody.
• 41:09
  I'm sure I used to pester him to death because I did my apprenticeship only about a kilometre up the road from his dad's BMW dealership.
• 41:19
  And he had this office with a big glass window so he couldn't escape me.
• 41:23
  But I knew he was there.
• 41:24
  And I would go in there and he would most times be on the phone politicking about Splitterlinks or something for Ford.
• 41:36
  which he was very good at.
• 41:37
  Good at, yeah.
• 41:38
  And just listening to those conversations were...
• 41:42
  Eye-opening.
• 41:43
  Were eye-opening and good learning.
• 41:45
  But he rang me in the hospital and said...
• 41:48
  He actually asked me, he said, are you going to keep racing?
• 41:51
  And I said...
• 41:52
  And at that point, whatever day that was, I hadn't actually thought about it.
• 41:57
  You know, all this other stuff going on.
• 41:58
  So I haven't even given it a thought.
• 42:02
  And he said, well, I think you should.
• 42:05
  I think you can do it.
• 42:06
  He was at Winton and at Phillip Island, actually.
• 42:10
  And he said, I think you should.
• 42:13
  And so that was it.
• 42:15
  That was mine made up on that then.
• 42:17
  And then it was a matter of...
• 42:20
  getting everything fixed so that I could go and jump back in something to see if I still had it or had the nerve or was it going to scare the daylights out of you you just don't know do you yeah and so actually um surprisingly they rebuilt that car and then um it was about uh it was about a year later I guess might have been 10 months but
• 42:47
  or it might have been 18 months, so I'd have to go back and have a look.
• 42:50
  But I know it took about a year for everything to come right with what I had going on.
• 42:57
  So my eyelid started fixing itself.
• 42:59
  Excellent.
• 43:00
  But then I had some toe issues.
• 43:03
  Were you wandering left or something or other?
• 43:09
  Blue eyes.
• 43:10
  One blue one way and one blue the other.
• 43:11
  So my left eye was...
• 43:17
  was out of whack so I had to get that right and um but that caused um a whole bunch of double vision and so on so I was running the pirate patch for I don't know probably six months and uh until once it started to open see and you know I could see out of it and then um all of that thankfully and they can't the biggest frustration is they can't tell you
• 43:46
  and you're not that patient when you're 19 and on a mission.
• 43:50
  And so all of that stuff came good.
• 43:56
  And then, yeah, so we went to Calder and they said, do you want to, we've got the car fixed, do you want to come and have a drive?
• 44:03
  And so I went and did that and drove it and it felt like I was doing it yesterday and everything just felt normal.
• 44:09
  I said, oh, well, keep going then.
• 44:12
  Couple to wrap this up.
• 44:14
  Firstly, in the wake of that John Bauer conversation, at some point you must have spoken to your mum and she was like, really?
• 44:24
  We're going to keep doing this kind of thing.
• 44:28
  Did you, for them, contemplate stopping or was it once Bauer had said that you were mind-made up?
• 44:35
  No, I... Well, see, I've never...
• 44:39
  I never...
• 44:41
  They asked me in the hospital, they were trying to work out how bad I was, and they said...
• 44:46
  The doctor said, who won the grand final or who won the football or something?
• 44:52
  And I said...
• 44:54
  I think I said, fuck the final.
• 44:58
  And Dad said...
• 45:00
  You might want to ask him something else because he wouldn't have known that last week either.
• 45:03
  Oh, okay, okay.
• 45:05
  I'm not into football.
• 45:06
  I'm not into anything else but racing cars and I've never been in anything else and there is nothing else for me.
• 45:12
  So there was never a doubt.
• 45:14
  I couldn't even start to think about what else I might do because there isn't anything else.
• 45:21
  And so I actually remember being in the...
• 45:27
  I was going to a doctor's appointment with Dad.
• 45:31
  I must have been out of the rehab hospital, but I think we're an outpatient at this point.
• 45:35
  And we're in Richmond somewhere having to go to... And he was sort of on the...
• 45:43
  I was trying to get my licence back, my CAMHS licence back.
• 45:47
  So, you know, obviously you've got to be fit and healthy and so on.
• 45:51
  I think I might have been going for a medical.
• 45:52
  I'm not sure.
• 45:53
  I remember he said something like...
• 45:58
  I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was along the lines of...
• 46:02
  At least you're still alive.
• 46:04
  You're still walking.
• 46:05
  You haven't got a broken neck, something like that, which is true, 100%.
• 46:10
  But 19-year-old me was – I remember I got quite upset.
• 46:14
  And I'm like, I don't care about any of that.
• 46:16
  I just want my license back.
• 46:18
  So until I had my racing license, I wasn't – Normal.
• 46:22
  Normal.
• 46:23
  Normal.
• 46:23
  That's exactly – that's the word.
• 46:24
  I wasn't normal.
• 46:26
  And this eye patch and all these things that you've got going on and –
• 46:31
  She wanted to be normal.
• 46:32
  And normal to me was having my racing license.
• 46:35
  Your mum says that with the whole uncertainty around the eye and what it might do, you very determinedly said, well, I don't care.
• 46:48
  If it doesn't come right, I don't care.
• 46:50
  I'll go and do what Jack Hewitt's father did.
• 46:52
  Was it Jack Hewitt's father that had an eye issue and he still went and did some...
• 46:55
  It was Jack.
• 46:56
  It was Jack himself.
• 46:57
  Jack himself.
• 46:57
  Wow, sorry, beg your pardon.
• 46:58
  Yeah, and I was about to bring that up, that I can't tell you how much of an inspiration Jack and Ernie Irvin in NASCAR, just a couple of years before Ernie had a really bad wreck at Michigan, and he was racing with an eye patch.
• 47:17
  They probably wouldn't let him now.
• 47:19
  But back then, yeah.
• 47:20
  Back then, he's racing with an eye patch.
• 47:22
  Well, if they can do it.
• 47:25
  And Hewitt had a torsion bar go through his visor and just missed his eye and did quite a few stitches and so on and broke his eye socket, I think.
• 47:37
  But there he was the next week at the track with an eye patch and still racing.
• 47:42
  Yeah.
• 47:44
  So that meant, so I had this feeling of, well, I'm like Ernie Irvin, but more so Jack Hewitt.
• 47:51
  And that was a, you didn't feel like you're all alone in this.
• 47:59
  In this process of could I go racing?
• 48:02
  Yeah, yeah.
• 48:03
  So it was, well, if they can do it, then.
• 48:08
  To finish this thing here, just to underscore how close you came, mate.
• 48:15
  Greg Hansford's gone now.
• 48:19
  A lot of work went on with safety around that joint after he left.
• 48:24
  You did benefit from that, didn't you?
• 48:28
  Yeah, so I wasn't fortunate enough to meet Greg Hansford, but after what happened to him at Phillip Island, they upgraded their medical equipment at the track, and one of the doctors told Dad that...
• 48:48
  I was lucky that day because they had the right stuff.
• 48:52
  And they had the right stuff because of what happened to Greg Hansford.
• 48:58
  How close are we talking, mate?
• 49:01
  One of them suggested 30 seconds.
• 49:03
  Far out.
• 49:05
  Probably as close as you want to get.
• 49:07
  Yeah, don't want to get any closer than that.
• 49:09
  Let's close that chat, mate.
• 49:10
  I don't recommend it.
• 49:11
  No, I don't.
• 49:12
  That's you to a T. Yeah.
• 49:21
  Can we unlock your memory about the first time you got the opportunity to drive a supercar?
• 49:28
  Where were you?
• 49:29
  How did that come about?
• 49:30
  How did you make that happen?
• 49:33
  We've just had some more beers arrive.
• 49:37
  That is much needed.
• 49:38
  Thank you very much.
• 49:39
  Well timed.
• 49:40
  Well timed.
• 49:40
  Should we state that it's not 9am?
• 49:42
  No, it's not 9am.
• 49:44
  It's 4.30 in the afternoon.
• 49:45
  Keep going.
• 49:46
  We're due this.
• 49:49
  It was at Calder.
• 49:51
  And so that crash happened at Phillip Island in 96.
• 49:57
  Basically wiped me out for all of 97.
• 49:59
  Yep.
• 50:01
  98, we got organized to run a formula forward.
• 50:06
  It was Simon Hardwich and he was running a Formula Holden for Scott Dixon that year and 97 was the first year of the Holden Young Lions and HRT ran that program and they were really serious about it and everyone remembers Bugs putting it on pole at Bathurst and then what happened in the warm-up, etc.
• 50:37
  Outfit.
• 50:37
  Outfit.
• 50:39
  And John Bauer pestered, well not pestered, had a word to, I was the pest, John Bauer had a word to Jeff Gretsch and said for the following year, they were doing it a bit different, they'd farmed it out to Gibson Motorsport, but.
• 50:56
  It was still within HRT and they were going to take on, went from four drivers to two.
• 51:03
  And I reckon I rang Jeff Gretsch 120 times.
• 51:11
  If he could have blocked my number, then he would have.
• 51:14
  I'm sure he was fobbing me off, but I just did not let up until he took my call and had the correct answer.
• 51:26
  I look back on it now and think, what a pain in the arse I must have been.
• 51:29
  Because I literally would ring him five, six times a week to get on that program.
• 51:36
  And with JB's help, that happened.
• 51:42
  And so the first test was in...
• 51:46
  I drove Scaife's VS. Far out.
• 51:49
  Yeah, and which...
• 51:52
  And I look back at it now and I sort of kicked myself because I went there going, you've got to remember, putting young blokes in supercars in 98 was only a new thing.
• 52:02
  So, you know, they tried it with McConville in 93.
• 52:05
  He had that crash.
• 52:07
  At Bathurst.
• 52:08
  At Bathurst.
• 52:10
  And then...
• 52:10
  So people are gun-shy in the pit lane again, are they?
• 52:12
  Yeah.
• 52:13
  Well, you know, probably didn't...
• 52:16
  Nothing against Cam.
• 52:17
  He went on to do awesome things.
• 52:20
  And then it was the Lowndes factor that got the ball rolling again.
• 52:23
  They'd been... And back then, there's no testing rules.
• 52:25
  And they're at Calder every Wednesday.
• 52:28
  Lowndes is wearing the place out.
• 52:30
  With a gazillion Bridgestone tyres.
• 52:31
  Yeah, all of that.
• 52:33
  And, you know, then the Young Lions thing in 97 was the next lot.
• 52:37
  And...
• 52:38
  So it was still early days and there was no development series.
• 52:42
  So trying to get laps in a supercar was incredibly difficult for anybody that wasn't in one full time.
• 52:48
  And getting used to that H-Pattern gearbox and that Hollinger box, you know, it was pretty tricky for new blokes.
• 52:57
  And I went there going, right, I'm not going to be a young hothead and do something silly.
• 53:02
  I'll just show how professional I am.
• 53:05
  Professional and sensible I am.
• 53:08
  And I think I could have driven it, gone a bit harder.
• 53:12
  Okay.
• 53:13
  But you don't know what to expect.
• 53:15
  But I remember it at Calder and it was...
• 53:19
  Yeah, obviously an eye-opener, like plenty of grunt.
• 53:22
  It was certainly the most grunt I'd experienced.
• 53:24
  Okay.
• 53:26
  But I just rocked up there by myself.
• 53:29
  And, you know, they just throw you in and don't really tell you anything.
• 53:33
  Just go and drive the car.
• 53:35
  Okay, you know, and it all went good.
• 53:39
  I don't think...
• 53:41
  They weren't as serious about the Young Lions thing then as they were the year before, but it was Todd Kelly and myself.
• 53:46
  So, but yeah, that was to, you know, to come into it and drive one of the best, if not the best car out there at the time in your first go was an eye-opener.
• 53:58
  Fast forward in life, you and Todd are good mates now and Rick as well.
• 54:04
  Did that give you, given everything that we've just spoken about, a sense of, right, I'm kind of back, I'm, you know, validation, you know?
• 54:15
  Yeah, it did.
• 54:17
  I'd say by then I was, it was still...
• 54:22
  All of this was still pretty fresh.
• 54:23
  I'm only a couple of years removed from Phillip Island, and it really wasn't...
• 54:29
  I was eyes forward, don't want to think about that, don't want to talk about it, don't even bring it up.
• 54:33
  Don't even want to know about it.
• 54:35
  It didn't even happen in my mind.
• 54:37
  And I don't know if that's a way... You know, smarter people than me probably say, well, that's how you deal with it, or a way of dealing with it or something, but...
• 54:47
  It wasn't until, I think it was 2000, we won there in the Australian Formula 4 Championship, that really, like, right, I've beat you now.
• 54:55
  And that was probably the bigger turning point as far as Phillip Island went.
• 55:01
  But certainly the young Lions stuff and being around HRT at the time, it was just eyes forward.
• 55:08
  The stuff with Bowie in your corner that you described before and things like that,
• 55:14
  That stuff's really important, mate, in the grand scheme of things because in your mind, your eyes forward, away you go, but it's a brutal game, mate.
• 55:25
  And some people can look at you like damaged goods.
• 55:28
  You've seen that with others in Formula One and all sorts of things.
• 55:31
  Mm-hmm.
• 55:33
  knowing what you were like, that A, that you could get in with the Holden Young Lions and cut some really solid laps and impress, and then that you had people like Bowie in your corner.
• 55:42
  That's important, isn't it?
• 55:44
  Yeah, no, 100%.
• 55:45
  And, yeah, JB was awesome the whole way through.
• 55:49
  I remember him telling him about it that night, about driving Scaife's car.
• 55:54
  He should have told me sooner because he said, I think I under drove it.
• 55:57
  I think I was too sensible.
• 56:00
  And he said, right, he said, what you do, you always drive 12 tents.
• 56:08
  And then you come in and you tell them you're only driving seven tents because you wanted to look after it.
• 56:17
  And since then, I used that forever.
• 56:19
  Do you?
• 56:22
  Yeah.
• 56:22
  I've obviously given that one away now, but... Yeah, yeah.
• 56:25
  So, anything you've ever seen was everything I had at the time, despite what I said.
• 56:29
  Along the way, in that early 2000 phase, you and I would cross paths on several occasions around what was known as Development Series, Fujitsu Series, Super 2, and so you got to drive for Dick Johnson and things like that, didn't you?
• 56:43
  Yeah, yeah, no, it's...
• 56:46
  So the development series started in 2000, which was obviously a great way for people like me to get in a supercar because you're trying to get an enduro ride.
• 57:00
  The goal.
• 57:02
  The goal initially, you know, to get laps and to go testing.
• 57:06
  And prior to that, you know, I would go with like the toll team.
• 57:12
  Paul Little was sponsoring my Formula Ford and he actually did a huge amount for me because...
• 57:19
  He gave me a job in Melbourne at Toll so I could move here and, you know, survive.
• 57:24
  And sponsored my race car as well.
• 57:28
  So he did that for several years.
• 57:31
  And so, yeah, it was the development series in 01.
• 57:37
  Wayne Mankin, who I mentioned earlier, used to build dad's engines.
• 57:41
  and manx a legend around um around circuit racing and and particularly engine building and um and so on and he's been a real mentor for me for from you know way back then and still is you know and um
• 57:57
  So he was good buddies with John Faulkner.
• 58:03
  Faulkner had just gone from here, the ex-HRT car, the ex-Brock car, the VS, and he'd just gone into his new VT, I guess it would have been.
• 58:12
  What did you guys call it?
• 58:14
  Milk crate racing or something, didn't you?
• 58:15
  Yeah, so the deal was, I remember standing there with Mank and Faulkner's there, sucking down a cigarette and probably polishing his coffee machine at the same time, which I learnt off him, that the car's sitting there.
• 58:31
  Ryan McLeod had used it in that first year of developments, or Konica series.
• 58:36
  Series of walls, yeah, yeah.
• 58:37
  And he basically said, well, there it is.
• 58:40
  You can use it.
• 58:41
  You've got to work on it, transport it, get your own guys.
• 58:44
  As long as you give it back to me like that.
• 58:47
  And if you can find a few bucks along the way to give me, then good.
• 58:50
  Okay.
• 58:50
  And that was the deal.
• 58:51
  That's the deal.
• 58:53
  Which is pretty unheard of.
• 58:55
  So of course I jumped at that and so actually through Mank, a guy that worked for him, Brian Blackwell, we got him on board to sort of run it on the weekends and then Troy Russell who owns the Audi outfit now.
• 59:14
  Melbourne Performance.
• 59:15
  Yeah, Melbourne Performance Centre.
• 59:17
  He was in the very early stages of getting that business going and one of his clients had a little rigid truck so we borrowed that.
• 59:24
  We had two milk crates, and we used to joke that it was milk crate racing because all we had was two milk crates, and there was like a brake rotor, an axle, and a taillight.
• 59:36
  That was it.
• 59:37
  That was it.
• 59:38
  And Faulkner said, don't touch anything.
• 59:39
  Don't move the wing.
• 59:40
  I've done everything, and it's back to where I started.
• 59:43
  So to save you the trouble, I thought, well, that makes it easy.
• 59:46
  We've just got to drive it.
• 59:46
  Drive it, yeah.
• 59:47
  And there was...
• 59:50
  There was four of us on the crew, or three crew, myself.
• 59:56
  Obviously, mum and dad would come along, and mum's lamingtons were a hit with those blokes.
• 1:00:00
  They still are.
• 1:00:01
  Still are, yeah.
• 1:00:03
  And that's what we did.
• 1:00:04
  And it was... John was right about the car.
• 1:00:08
  It was... Good car.
• 1:00:09
  Bloody good car.
• 1:00:11
  But we ran the crappy brake pads that didn't wear out the rotors.
• 1:00:16
  Okay.
• 1:00:16
  And then... Because I got some sponsorship off the anti-model cars, and...
• 1:00:21
  Trevor Young is sadly no longer with us, but great supporter of young guys and a lot of racing.
• 1:00:30
  It wasn't a huge budget, but we couldn't be throwing rotors at it and all these different things, so we had to make it all survive.
• 1:00:39
  But we were up against Gibson Motorsport running a two-car outfit, and they'd turn up there with 25 people like it was a supercar event.
• 1:00:48
  And we managed to win a couple and hold our own there, so that was a real...
• 1:00:56
  I'm still super proud of that, because it was literally me and a couple of mates.
• 1:01:06
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with Owen Kelly.
• 1:01:10
  We're enjoying the chat.
• 1:01:11
  Hope you are too.
• 1:01:12
  There's lots more to come on those early years of supercars, hustling to meet Dale Earnhardt Jr. and how that would help him make a move to America to pursue a childhood dream of driving a NASCAR.
• 1:01:25
  You'll get a sense of life in a beautiful part of the world considered the hub of this sport.
• 1:01:31
  Doing the hard yards, prepping a car and racing in the ultra-competitive late models, plus the monster car.
• 1:01:39
  And another, usually driven by an all-time great that he secretly cut some laps in.
• 1:01:45
  That is a cool story and not widely known.
• 1:01:48
  Part two and a third instalment are in the Rusty's Garage Library for you to enjoy right now.