Latest / Rusty's Garage / Josh Buchan - Part 2

Transcript

Josh Buchan - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my feature episode with Josh Buck.
• 0:23
  And as we always say, if you've arrived here and somehow skipped the first part, do yourself a favour and give it a listen.
• 0:30
  It'll inspire and shed some light on the road that Josh has walked with the support of family
• 0:35
  but no blank checks.
• 0:37
  Far from it.
• 0:38
  From karting at the Lithgow track on the way to Bathurst to learning to be fearless on the phone as you try and open doors.
• 0:45
  Plus being entrusted with the keys to some real weapons at World Time Attack and the game of roulette he played to get to the next race meeting.
• 0:55
  This second chapter covers some of his more recent success, getting a break in TCR and much more.
• 1:01
  Let's get back into it now.
• 1:05
  So what happens next in the timeline between Formula Ford and you talked before about Formula Three and so on?
• 1:11
  Is there elements of doubt about where this, will it go any further and how could I make this full time?
• 1:18
  You're doing some stuff with drive days and so on.
• 1:21
  Where are you at at that point?
• 1:22
  No, mate, I was pretty happy.
• 1:23
  Like I said, I'd never thought I'd be driving a go-kart.
• 1:25
  So I'm in Formula Ford.
• 1:27
  I'm living the dream.
• 1:29
  I now have some ounce of credibility in the driver training world.
• 1:32
  Like, you know, before people would say, oh, what do you race?
• 1:35
  Bits and pieces.
• 1:37
  Apex is over there, Ace.
• 1:40
  So I was happy doing Ford.
• 1:41
  Paul had aspirations of going to the U.S. with his new build car.
• 1:45
  So for me, I was like, oh, I'm going to the U.S.
• 1:47
  I'll race USF 2000 or 1600.
• 1:50
  Scott Andrews did it at the time.
• 1:52
  Aussie guy doing amazing things now and a friend of mine.
• 1:56
  So I was speaking to Scott a bit like, hey, you know,
• 1:58
  what's the go um so yeah that was the path um then i go to my mate's wedding john collins who won the f3 title in 2015 i think it was and i go to his wedding and bloke named errol gilmore was there and um i was introduced to errol and um i said oh hey mate my name's josh blah blah just chatting to him and he goes well what are you doing next year and i said oh just formula four
• 2:28
  He goes, here's my card.
• 2:30
  Give me a ring.
• 2:32
  Shit.
• 2:34
  I know this scenario.
• 2:34
  I've been here before.
• 2:35
  I just ring the call, I'll get a drive.
• 2:37
  How easy is that?
• 2:38
  Ring the number, I'll get a gig.
• 2:40
  So to cut out some in between, I ring Errol and- Great man.
• 2:47
  Great man.
• 2:48
  Yeah, no longer with us unfortunately.
• 2:49
  Yes, certainly.
• 2:51
  But I ring Errol and I said, hey, I'm going to
• 2:54
  Do you remember me?
• 2:55
  Like I met you at the wedding and in his big Queensland sort of tone, like, righto, mate, come up here for a test.
• 3:02
  We'll see how you go.
• 3:02
  I was like, oh, okay.
• 3:04
  So I flew up to Morgan Park and drove the car and I was woeful.
• 3:08
  I could not believe how physical this thing was to drive.
• 3:12
  Because it had more grip and aero than a Formula Ford.
• 3:15
  Is that what you mean?
• 3:15
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:16
  Or just more power, obviously.
• 3:17
  The seat position was horrible for someone who's six foot.
• 3:20
  The steering is ridiculously heavy.
• 3:23
  And I hadn't done anything other than Ford for like three years now.
• 3:26
  So coming from karting, I would have been pretty fit.
• 3:29
  But I'd done no physical training.
• 3:31
  I was not the most astute person with my exercise or anything.
• 3:35
  So I'm just driving off the back of, for lack of a better word, my ability.
• 3:41
  getting through, having a good time.
• 3:42
  And I was winning a lot in Ford, drove the F3.
• 3:46
  And I got humbled, to be honest.
• 3:48
  I did a few laps.
• 3:49
  I was quick, but my body just gave up.
• 3:52
  Errol had McDonald's sponsorship from the local proprietor up there, Mark Ward's his name.
• 3:58
  He helped out guys like Cameron Shields.
• 4:03
  I don't know if he helped out Will Brown at all, but from that region.
• 4:05
  Yeah.
• 4:06
  And he basically would give Errol a set amount each year and Errol would decide how to disperse that.
• 4:13
  And for the 2019 season, that was to let me drive.
• 4:17
  Only problem was there was no testing, no nothing.
• 4:19
  It was six rounds, just turn up and drive.
• 4:21
  I'm not going to say no, but I was severely underprepared the entire year until basically the last two or three rounds.
• 4:28
  I got a pole and could finally complete an event without feeling tired.
• 4:34
  But it was a wake-up call.
• 4:35
  Absolute wake-up call.
• 4:36
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:38
  And there was a crossroads where through the year I was thinking, God, do I even bother continuing with this?
• 4:43
  Like, I'm getting smoked.
• 4:46
  That must be disheartening.
• 4:47
  You've come out of Formula Ford.
• 4:49
  You've shown you've got, you know, level of skill to win and things like that.
• 4:54
  Then this is happening.
• 4:55
  Yeah, it was humbling certainly.
• 4:59
  At this point I'd won a massive event at Bathurst in Formula 4.
• 5:03
  Jayden O'Jayda was racing, Paul Morris was racing, a few blokes like I remember Matthias Beck was racing.
• 5:10
  He was there for the 12-hour and he was LMP1 podium placer at Le Mans.
• 5:17
  So I won that event outright.
• 5:18
  So here I am thinking I've got the keys to the city.
• 5:21
  I do.
• 5:22
  I jump in the F3 car and get smoked.
• 5:24
  So I did, I had to kind of think, well, if I'm going to take this seriously, if I'm worth an ounce of salt, I've got to dig in here.
• 5:30
  So I started training a lot more and watching what I ate and all sorts of stuff and experimenting with what works to make me better.
• 5:37
  And yeah, I learned a lot.
• 5:40
  I became...
• 5:42
  useful at the end of the year.
• 5:44
  I was quick.
• 5:46
  But yeah, that year was excellent for me.
• 5:48
  And Errol was, you know, he wasn't a hard taskmaster, but he expected a certain level of, I guess, effort.
• 5:56
  And so I didn't want to let him down with how much he'd put into me.
• 5:59
  So yeah, I pushed pretty hard through the year and got better as I got towards the back end of the year.
• 6:06
  And really that was probably...
• 6:08
  the biggest single step in terms of realizing what it takes to compete when you run out of talent.
• 6:16
  The stuff you've got to do to be the complete race driver, not just the raw speed.
• 6:20
  Because I ran out of talent well and truly and I didn't have answers, so I had to go and find them.
• 6:27
  I'm intrigued by the Paul, the Errol, give these blokes a call scenario because that's actually been those handful of moments in your career here.
• 6:40
  That situation's been pivotal, hasn't it?
• 6:42
  Yeah.
• 6:42
  They're very much sliding doors moments where there's a fork in the road.
• 6:46
  Barry Morecambe too.
• 6:48
  Barry was the same.
• 6:49
  Yep.
• 6:49
  Barry was another phone call and he was the worst out of the lot of them.
• 6:52
  He didn't give me anything.
• 6:54
  How did that go?
• 6:56
  Hey, Barry, my name's Josh.
• 6:57
  Philip's given me a number about driving a car.
• 7:00
  What do you reckon?
• 7:01
  Righto.
• 7:02
  Yep.
• 7:02
  If you've got the money, we'll run you.
• 7:04
  No problem.
• 7:04
  Just give me a ring when you get it.
• 7:06
  And then hung up.
• 7:07
  It was like a two-minute call.
• 7:09
  It was horrible.
• 7:11
  So Barry's a lovely bloke.
• 7:12
  I know.
• 7:13
  You drive for him now.
• 7:14
  I drive for him, yeah.
• 7:16
  So that was funny.
• 7:17
  But yeah, I guess the story is...
• 7:22
  Really, if there's half a sniff, like you got to just take it.
• 7:25
  Like I felt uncomfortable every time I rang those numbers.
• 7:29
  And there's been a few times since where it's been similar.
• 7:32
  And the worst you can do is just take a punt, have a go, ring.
• 7:36
  Don't be afraid of that knockback.
• 7:37
  It doesn't matter.
• 7:38
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:38
  Mate, it's like trying to, you know.
• 7:40
  chat to girls when you're a teenager you're gonna get rejected most most often just just go for it so um so yeah those the the phone call moments i always have in my mind of like if i what if i didn't make them yeah it's pretty pretty incredible where would you have ended up so the the formula three stuff you detailed before is pre-covid right how much did covid impact you the pandemic
• 8:03
  Yeah.
• 8:03
  So interesting, right?
• 8:05
  So I finish F3 and I get to the end of the year and, you know, I knew I wasn't going again because Errol had become sick and, you know, he was scaling back and the McDonald's money wasn't there.
• 8:16
  So I knew I wasn't going to run.
• 8:21
  And then weirdly enough, a bloke named Albert Callagher had put this ELI out on Facebook for a
• 8:29
  oh yeah, buying an S5000, this is when they're coming into the country or being built.
• 8:34
  And he goes, I'm looking for a Formula 4 driver between the ages of this, no money, I'd like to help you out.
• 8:41
  I'm like, this is literally, this bloke knows me.
• 8:45
  So, again, I reach out and I say, hey, such and such, this is me.
• 8:53
  What are your plans?
• 8:55
  And long story short, I go, I'm in Melbourne for something and I meet him at his office and he talks me through what his plans are and it was all cool.
• 9:04
  And about a week later, he rings and he offers me a drive at the Grand Prix for S5000.
• 9:11
  The issue was is that, arrogantly or not, I'm not sure, but at that point I'm thinking I've done Ford now, I've done F3, I was decent in that, I'm working enough.
• 9:22
  I don't want to do something that I don't think is ready yet and I didn't think him and his team were ready to compete and I didn't want to turn up and not compete because I've been there before, right?
• 9:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 9:33
  But you've done this off gut feel.
• 9:34
  You've just sort of gone, I'm not… Yeah, I didn't feel it.
• 9:36
  Infancy of kind of… Yeah, okay.
• 9:38
  And look, he's gone on to… Correct.
• 9:41
  And he's done really well in 5000.
• 9:43
  But at the time, I didn't feel like it was the right thing to do for me.
• 9:46
  For you.
• 9:46
  So, I knocked it back and I decided to work at the Grand Prix.
• 9:52
  with Jaguar for their driving events.
• 9:54
  And I thought, well, I may as well go and make a little bit of money rather than maybe drive a shitbox and run last and look like an idiot.
• 10:00
  So, then that was the COVID.
• 10:04
  Rubens Barrichello was a part of the grid, I think.
• 10:06
  That's right.
• 10:07
  Rubens was there.
• 10:08
  Was Fisichello there as well?
• 10:09
  Can't remember.
• 10:10
  Anyway, but it was a good field, right?
• 10:11
  Yeah.
• 10:13
  Um, so, and the plan, like I stayed in touch with Albert for throughout the year anyway, and there was always like a look to put me in a car, but COVID happened, right?
• 10:23
  But yeah, COVID happened at the Grand Prix.
• 10:26
  We got locked in the venue.
• 10:27
  I don't know if you were.
• 10:28
  there.
• 10:28
  I was.
• 10:29
  Yeah, it got locked in the venue until what was it?
• 10:31
  Midday when they had the press conference and things.
• 10:34
  So Thursday had normal kind of track activity.
• 10:37
  But there was rumors.
• 10:38
  There was, correct.
• 10:38
  So I heard, did you hear Vettel and Hamilton had left?
• 10:41
  Had split at midnight or something or other.
• 10:43
  That was the rumor.
• 10:44
  And then the cameras went inside the Red Bull garage and you could see Christian Horner on Friday morning addressing the troops and you sort of knew that it was that press conference.
• 10:53
  They held that out the back of the paddock area there just beyond the turnstiles.
• 10:57
  at Albert Park.
• 10:58
  And that's the biggest press conference I've ever been to in my life.
• 11:01
  So they had executive from Australian Grand Prix Corporation, from Formula One management, from the FIA and more.
• 11:09
  And everyone sort of gathered in this almost sort of semicircle around them.
• 11:13
  There were choppers flying overhead.
• 11:14
  It was the most surreal thing to think that you could have such a major sporting event like that and that it would be cancelled before an F1 car even turned a wheel was crazy, mate.
• 11:25
  So.
• 11:26
  What does this do to you?
• 11:27
  Jaguar would have done their track day stuff probably on the Wednesday and a lot of their activation stuff around it.
• 11:34
  Our activation was in a car park.
• 11:36
  We were doing drifting through a car park, which was a great event, really, really good event.
• 11:42
  Yeah.
• 11:43
  And that morning it was dead quiet.
• 11:45
  So we started taking like the ambos for spins and like all the volunteers and everyone knew something was up.
• 11:50
  So we're getting like the paramedics in the cars and we're saying, oh, what's this COVID thing all about?
• 11:55
  It's just the flu, yeah?
• 11:56
  And they're like, yeah, yeah, nothing to worry about, blah, blah, blah.
• 11:58
  And...
• 11:59
  We eventually got told it was off.
• 12:03
  And like God, I remember asking Tim Jones who ran the show when he gathered us because I was getting messages through the day, event canceled, event canceled, event canceled.
• 12:15
  So my whole work year that's planned in January is basically dead.
• 12:18
  So I'm losing like tens of thousands of dollars of income.
• 12:22
  Because eventing comes to a standstill.
• 12:24
  Yeah, I'm thinking this must be serious.
• 12:26
  So I actually asked Tim when he rounded us up, I'm like, are we still getting paid?
• 12:30
  Like what's the go here?
• 12:31
  Because I'm thinking, damn, like we're going to be out of a gig.
• 12:34
  So we left and then ironically, Melbourne that night, we all went out and that was the last time we went out for six months.
• 12:44
  So yeah, that was a crazy time and it did.
• 12:47
  It put everyone's career on hold.
• 12:49
  What did it do to you?
• 12:51
  To be honest, it was not horrible for me.
• 12:53
  I probably felt more for the younger people who were transitioning from one class to the other, had a bit more of a path set out in front of them.
• 13:00
  That put a stop.
• 13:02
  I never really had a path.
• 13:03
  So for me, it didn't make much difference.
• 13:05
  I did a few races here or there because Sydney opened up.
• 13:08
  I did a Formula Ford race.
• 13:09
  I did a production car race.
• 13:11
  And I was still doing like I was doing a lot of driving for film and ads and stuff like that.
• 13:17
  So...
• 13:19
  I was actually in a really good spot work-wise.
• 13:21
  I was busy as, you know, income wasn't affected at all, which was amazing for the first part anyway.
• 13:26
  But are you rethinking race career and where you might go and what you might do?
• 13:30
  Well, I don't think anyone was because no one knew.
• 13:33
  Yeah, exactly.
• 13:34
  So even supercar, like they had to go to their bubble and whatnot.
• 13:39
  And then it was at the back end of 2020 when I got a phone call from Philip Rogers to say,
• 13:46
  You know, Will Brown has signed for Erebus.
• 13:48
  He's no longer in TCR.
• 13:50
  There's a seat that's opened up.
• 13:52
  Communication with Hyundai Australia and HMO has, you know, opened up because it was a little bit sour at the start.
• 14:00
  And...
• 14:03
  Yeah, he goes, you should give Barry a call and we'll try and set something up.
• 14:06
  So that's when I rang Barry.
• 14:08
  And yeah, the end of 2020, I drove the car for the first time at Wakefield Park.
• 14:14
  And a month later, I was racing in Tasmania.
• 14:17
  And, you know, it was quite amazing how all that happened.
• 14:20
  It was, you know, really Barry giving me a shot.
• 14:23
  Yeah.
• 14:24
  What got it over the line, do you reckon?
• 14:26
  Well, there was a test and there was five of us.
• 14:28
  So I tested separately to four, the other four.
• 14:33
  I won't name who was there.
• 14:34
  That's just the way that it worked out.
• 14:35
  It wasn't by design per se.
• 14:36
  Is that what you're saying?
• 14:37
  No, no, no.
• 14:38
  So Hyundai covered a test for me.
• 14:39
  I think it was a couple of grand or whatever it might be.
• 14:42
  But Hyundai paid for me to do a test.
• 14:43
  I went quicker than anyone else had gone in the car.
• 14:46
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:46
  And I came with the potential of Hyundai backing.
• 14:49
  Not the car you're in now, to make the point to.
• 14:51
  So it was the i30N?
• 14:52
  What were you in?
• 14:53
  It was Will Brown's i30N that he won the championship in.
• 14:56
  So that was 2019.
• 14:56
  So it was only the year before.
• 14:58
  It was still very fresh.
• 15:00
  They were still a hot team.
• 15:03
  So, yeah, I did the test.
• 15:05
  And then, yeah, because I was the quickest out of those who tested,
• 15:11
  Rob Benson, who has become very instrumental in where I am now, pushed pretty hard for me because he had come from Hyundai Motorsport in Germany with the WIC team.
• 15:20
  So he wanted that sort of factory manufacturer connection out here.
• 15:26
  And I know Barry wanted it too.
• 15:28
  respectfully, Barry can afford to run the cars.
• 15:31
  He wanted that tie with the manufacturer for credibility.
• 15:34
  So that first year, he basically floated me for most of it.
• 15:39
  I think Hyundai tipped a little bit in.
• 15:41
  And then from there, it's kind of swung and Hyundai have very much come to the party.
• 15:47
  So it's worked out well in that respect.
• 15:50
  But that's how I got the gig.
• 15:52
  And again, it was just, yeah, time and place and perform when you need to perform.
• 15:57
  And away we went.
• 15:59
  This makes me think of several questions.
• 16:00
  So first of all, Philip Rogers.
• 16:03
  For people that don't know, a guy with, from memory, good background with Subaru in rallying and things like that.
• 16:09
  He's sort of immersed on the engineering or technical side for Hyundai as a car company now, isn't he?
• 16:14
  Yeah.
• 16:15
  Absolutely, yeah.
• 16:16
  So at the time, Philip, so I met Philip on that very first drive day, what was that?
• 16:23
  I think six, five years prior at that point.
• 16:26
  And I had done… At the farm, when you were at the farm.
• 16:29
  At the farm, yeah.
• 16:30
  At the farm.
• 16:30
  Guido Schenken, Tim's young bloke.
• 16:33
  Bill Thomas, that core group, I met them there and they are the ones who brokered the deal evidently to get me in the car.
• 16:42
  But Philip, amazing man, he's quite unwell at the moment, unfortunately.
• 16:46
  But he was instrumental in terms of joining the dots and putting me forward and believing in me to represent the brands for motorsport and for what they were doing.
• 17:01
  And the end scene and product had landed in Australia a few years prior and they had this crazy vision to take it to where it is now, which was never going to happen.
• 17:11
  But yeah, Philip was instrumental in that.
• 17:14
  And I did work for him running cars in.
• 17:19
  I did work for him with some suspension stuff.
• 17:21
  He was working with… Lovely man, just lovely-natured man and great technically too.
• 17:26
  Yeah, yeah.
• 17:27
  So all the suspension for road cars locally was redesigned out here for each model and he was the lead of that basically.
• 17:34
  So yeah, never had anything to do with the racing program, not for Hyundai anyway, but was certainly a very good connector of dots.
• 17:43
  Yeah.
• 17:43
  Thinking of him, and you mentioned Renato Liberto earlier in the chat, so he's been a little unwell, so thinking of Ren as well.
• 17:49
  Quickly, mate, let's come to Rob Benson, who you said's been in your corner.
• 17:53
  I mean, there is a guy in a motorsport CV sense between what he's done domestically here, what he's done in the United States with Hyundai.
• 18:03
  NASCAR.
• 18:04
  NASCAR, I mean, Hyundai in Europe and stuff.
• 18:06
  I mean…
• 18:07
  Awesome to have that talent, A, in the HMO crew and spearheading that, if you like, and also in this sport, in this paddock, hey?
• 18:16
  You don't realize when world-class operators are in front of you sometimes.
• 18:24
  And Rob really is probably the most, like you say, understated person in the paddock, but started his career out of New Zealand and went to the UK to work with Tom Walkinshaw and TWR with Redfield.
• 18:39
  Rovers, Group C, Silk Cut Jags, came to Australia with HRT for 1990, built the engine that won, primarily an engine builder, built the engine that won the 1,000, did NASCAR with Hendrick, came back, did his own thing, went to Dale Earnhardt's, came back.
• 19:01
  went to WRC, did everything in between.
• 19:05
  And yeah, somehow landed back in Australia with HMO in the COVID period.
• 19:11
  And for whatever reason, me and him kind of gelled.
• 19:14
  We're really good mates now.
• 19:15
  And yeah, he's just absolutely amazing at what he does.
• 19:20
  He's been such a supporter of mine.
• 19:22
  He's a battler himself.
• 19:23
  So I feel like he probably just feels sorry for me.
• 19:27
  But he's a great guy and, yeah, I've been into places with him that he goes, oh, I know these blokes.
• 19:33
  We'll go and visit them.
• 19:34
  Like we went to Dandy Engines in Melbourne.
• 19:37
  We walked in.
• 19:37
  It was like Jesus had walked in.
• 19:39
  Like I've never seen.
• 19:40
  The respect he commands.
• 19:41
  The respect, yeah, exactly.
• 19:42
  And even in the paddock you see people who know him and like, oh,
• 19:46
  Robbie, I've never seen anyone dislike him.
• 19:49
  But he's not high-fiving, making a big scene out there.
• 19:51
  He just kind of quietly walks in and then you realise that's what you're doing.
• 19:55
  No, and he deserves to whip the hog out.
• 19:57
  He's a big dog.
• 20:00
  So, yeah, Rob's been fantastic and has engineered me the last couple of years.
• 20:05
  Yeah, won the TCR title within last year.
• 20:08
  And I know that meant a lot to him.
• 20:11
  And yeah, he's been such a supporter of mine.
• 20:15
  And I'm just so thankful that I've got someone like him in my corner.
• 20:18
  And again, back to what I was mentioning with Paul in the Formula Ford days, like the last couple of years with Rob, understanding what it takes to win, not just from...
• 20:27
  What it takes to win, but what it really takes to win consistently.
• 20:31
  Because he's a consistent winner.
• 20:33
  Mentally, physically, your application, all of those things, not just the driving.
• 20:36
  The application is the biggest part.
• 20:39
  Like...
• 20:40
  Yeah, it puts it in perspective.
• 20:41
  It makes me want to work harder.
• 20:43
  Like I'll always ring him stupid o'clock.
• 20:46
  Hey, what are you doing?
• 20:47
  I'm working on your car.
• 20:47
  What are you doing?
• 20:48
  I've just finished at the gym.
• 20:49
  Like I'm doing this and do it like, you know, we kind of push each other to squeeze as much as we can out of what we're doing.
• 20:57
  Yeah, it's been very, very cool.
• 20:59
  I want to drill down to the HMO chapter in a bit more detail here.
• 21:02
  But first, what is immediately obvious to everyone listening to this podcast today, and to me especially, is that you are a student of the game.
• 21:09
  You remembered great things about Rob Benson's career there.
• 21:12
  You've remembered significant things back to Formula Ford and so on.
• 21:18
  Is it just this kid who has had this thirst for knowing as much as you possibly can?
• 21:25
  What is that?
• 21:25
  Why have you...
• 21:27
  I, if I'm going to be good at something and really driving is the only thing I'm good at, that's not one of those humble things.
• 21:35
  Like I made, I'm rubbish at everything.
• 21:39
  I want to know everything, every detail, every ounce of information I can soak.
• 21:43
  So like when I raced karts, I knew every Australian champion from every year going back 20 years.
• 21:50
  And for whatever reason, just knowing who did well was interesting.
• 21:54
  Why they did well was interesting.
• 21:56
  What they did well in, why they didn't go well in other things was always interesting to me.
• 22:00
  It still is.
• 22:01
  And someone like Rob, his history is interesting to me.
• 22:05
  Like, you know, how did you get from one to the other?
• 22:08
  What were the steps taken?
• 22:09
  Why was that?
• 22:10
  What were the learnings?
• 22:11
  Yeah, just all that general stuff.
• 22:13
  I mean, this is my world.
• 22:14
  I don't do anything else.
• 22:15
  This is all I care about.
• 22:17
  This is, you know, for lack of a better term, there's nothing else I will do with more intensity than this.
• 22:25
  And I'm pretty, like, you know, jovial and always having a laugh.
• 22:29
  But there's no sun unturned beneath all that.
• 22:31
  No, no.
• 22:33
  There's nothing extra I can do to squeeze everything out of myself for what I do.
• 22:39
  And I take it very, very seriously.
• 22:41
  And even just knowing what they do, what they've done, I feel like is important.
• 22:46
  Because if they're going to put effort into me and I'm going to be a part of their chapter, then I want to know what their books look like.
• 22:53
  Yeah, I guess I'm a student of the game, but I'm just, you know, intense in knowing everything I can.
• 22:58
  I'm a nosy prick.
• 22:59
  Okay.
• 23:00
  Okay, nosy prick.
• 23:01
  Let's go driving a TCR car for the first time.
• 23:03
  Did you say before that was Wakefield Park?
• 23:05
  Wakefield, yeah, yeah.
• 23:06
  So what's the immediate sort of visceral reaction?
• 23:09
  And I asked that.
• 23:10
  It's a little bit loaded, right?
• 23:11
  So I've been lucky to go for rides on a couple of occasions in them, and they are –
• 23:17
  Some people might go, yeah, but it's not a V8.
• 23:20
  It's just a turbo four and it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:24
  They are a cost-effective but a way cooler race car than people realize, aren't they?
• 23:28
  Yeah.
• 23:28
  So I came from F3, obviously, as I said before, and I was used to open wheelers, really stiff, quick cars.
• 23:35
  When I drove it for the first time, I couldn't believe – that was the first car I'd ever driven with a roof that was a race car.
• 23:40
  So I couldn't believe how much they moved around.
• 23:45
  I'm like, this thing's like –
• 23:47
  It's meant to just stick to the road like it's sliding everywhere.
• 23:50
  It's like it was really hard to drive.
• 23:53
  It's probably the most difficult race car I've ever had to drive.
• 23:57
  Not from a fear point of view because the speed isn't ridiculous.
• 24:00
  Like, you know, we're probably two seconds off a supercar at Sydney or something like that.
• 24:04
  But just the technique required, I couldn't believe how hard it was.
• 24:08
  And that was the immediate impression.
• 24:11
  Luckily for me, coming from F3, the speed was so much reduced that I was happy sliding a car at 200 into a corner because it's like, well, I would have been doing 250 and something else.
• 24:20
  So driving it from a mental standpoint wasn't stimulating, like it wasn't an overload, sorry, but certainly from a dynamics point of view, I'd never driven anything like it and still to this day.
• 24:33
  So, yeah, they are an extremely difficult car to get your head around.
• 24:37
  The front wheel drive thing is one thing.
• 24:39
  That's one element.
• 24:40
  But to set them up quickly, they need to be nearly uncontrollable.
• 24:44
  Really?
• 24:44
  And that's the difficult part is having them on that edge where you're about to crash nearly every corner.
• 24:49
  Did you feel like there was, once you started that path, did you feel like there was a round where you went, okay, right now I feel a bit more at home?
• 24:57
  Did it take a little bit of time?
• 24:58
  Yeah, yeah.
• 24:59
  So, yeah.
• 25:01
  So the first round I did was Tasmania, Race Tassie.
• 25:05
  And I'd never been to this track or any of them really.
• 25:07
  I'd raced at several.
• 25:08
  Cool little joints.
• 25:09
  Yeah, super cool.
• 25:11
  And thanks to Jay Hansen crashing off Chas Mostert at the hairpin, I came third in my first ever race.
• 25:19
  I'm thinking, how easy is this?
• 25:21
  Another gimme.
• 25:24
  And then I think I finished fifth and fifth.
• 25:26
  And so I left the first round.
• 25:30
  I was fourth in the championship.
• 25:31
  I'm ahead of Mossett.
• 25:32
  I'm ahead of like Caruso, Moffat.
• 25:34
  I'm going, this is like, told you.
• 25:39
  And then I get to the second round at PI and I get absolutely hammered in the first couple of sessions because I was just using the incorrect technique.
• 25:47
  And I learned a lot that day that I've taken with me.
• 25:50
  So it rained, so the rest of the weekend was a bit funny.
• 25:54
  Third round was – where was the third round?
• 25:58
  We went PI and then we went to – oh, testing my memory.
• 26:03
  I can't remember.
• 26:04
  Was it Sydney or was it somewhere else?
• 26:06
  Anyway.
• 26:07
  Went to the third round and it wasn't Winton.
• 26:08
  I'm trying to, I'm tracking my brain too, but anyway, I can't remember.
• 26:11
  I can't remember.
• 26:12
  It's that's going to annoy me now.
• 26:14
  Anyway, um, got to the Sydney rounds and, uh, qualified second, won two races, finished second in the third race behind Caruso, which was effectively a safety car race.
• 26:24
  He got me off the start.
• 26:25
  I probably would have won that if it went the distance.
• 26:27
  We have super fast car.
• 26:28
  Um, um,
• 26:30
  And it was really only then when I'm in the lead, looking in my mirrors, watching.
• 26:35
  I remember Moffat finished second to me in race one.
• 26:37
  Mostert finished second to me in race two.
• 26:40
  And I remember watching them in my mirrors.
• 26:42
  I only wanted to win by a certain amount because you get BOP and stuff like that.
• 26:46
  Balancing performance.
• 26:48
  I was constantly just looking, making sure I wouldn't push too hard to pull away and look bad.
• 26:55
  And I remember during those races understanding, oh, this is why it's quick.
• 27:01
  That's why.
• 27:02
  So it wasn't until I won and won easy that I understood what it took to drive the car properly.
• 27:09
  And I learned a lot of both those guys in those races because I remember Moffat pushing really, really hard.
• 27:15
  and then blew his tires off with like three or four to go.
• 27:17
  And then Chas was the opposite, kind of just cruised around at half pace.
• 27:21
  And I was driving really slow to keep my sort of one, one and a half second gap.
• 27:26
  And I was saying on the radio, like, just let me know when the sectors light up.
• 27:31
  And it was literally with like five to go, he started pushing.
• 27:34
  I was like, cheeky.
• 27:36
  So then I went as well.
• 27:38
  And it was interesting.
• 27:40
  It was just another day where you have a light bulb of, you know, there's a guy at the top of his game planning a stint.
• 27:46
  What can I learn from him?
• 27:47
  Yeah, yeah.
• 27:48
  What can I learn from him?
• 27:49
  So, and it was funny after the race, he kind of said, oh, you're only messing with me, weren't you?
• 27:54
  I said, no, mate, I was 10 tenths the whole time.
• 27:56
  I don't know what you're talking about.
• 27:58
  So, yeah, it wasn't until I did well in the car I understood.
• 28:01
  I was just ragging it until that point.
• 28:03
  Whereas now I feel like...
• 28:04
  I'm very much in that zone where I know what it takes in those cars to be quick and I do what I need to be quick.
• 28:10
  And how to stitch it together across a weekend and things like that.
• 28:12
  Across a year, yeah.
• 28:14
  Like Thursday in Tassie when you do that practice day, you think of Sunday at Bathurst really.
• 28:18
  Okay, this is all happening in parallel with an explosion of passion for the N brand, for Hyundai, right?
• 28:28
  I mean, people will fondly remember that.
• 28:30
  the 90s period for Subaru and rallying and the passion that existed around that.
• 28:36
  Toyota has it around 86 and stuff now.
• 28:37
  But for these guys, this was relatively sort of new turf.
• 28:42
  We've had club members coming out doing stuff in conjunction with these events.
• 28:46
  It's in parallel with what you've done.
• 28:49
  It's really grown.
• 28:50
  Yeah.
• 28:50
  And that core group who I mentioned, Bill Guido, Philip Michelle, that's all their brainchild.
• 28:56
  There's some other important people at the brand now who very much are with that too, like Ted, the CEO, and Andrew, who's head of marketing.
• 29:05
  They're all on board with that.
• 29:06
  Really great team.
• 29:08
  To me, that is so important because there's all these new brands that people have never heard of coming into the marketplace.
• 29:13
  There's...
• 29:16
  You've got Jeremy Clarkson talking about that cars now don't have the soul like the old ones do.
• 29:21
  So for me, and I'm talking like a purist here, it has to have some sort of connection, some sort of performance, gravitation, whatever you want to call it.
• 29:31
  I think that stuff is vital to have young people going, man, that's cool.
• 29:35
  I want one of those things or I want my thing to sound or look like that or I want to modify that to look like this.
• 29:41
  That stuff is so key, I think, for me.
• 29:44
  Yeah, well, in 1617 when the M product launched, Golf GCI was really top of the pile.
• 29:49
  You know, any P-plater worth his salt had financed himself.
• 29:54
  I had one.
• 29:55
  There you go.
• 29:56
  Mark?
• 29:57
  And I wasn't even a P-plater by then.
• 29:59
  Oh, there you go.
• 30:00
  My kids hated it.
• 30:00
  I had a chip in it and a pipe.
• 30:02
  You were one of them.
• 30:03
  It was the best car that I've ever owned at that stage.
• 30:06
  But then, sorry, keep going.
• 30:07
  You'd look better in an M. Yeah, okay.
• 30:10
  Your water pump wouldn't fail.
• 30:12
  Okay.
• 30:13
  Anyway, so yeah, the progression of the brand from effectively car meets and stuff like that has been exceptional and it starts with a good product like anything.
• 30:27
  It's not going to do well unless the product's good.
• 30:29
  The product is genuinely excellent.
• 30:31
  When I started with Hyundai circa 2015.
• 30:34
  It was a Veloster Turbo.
• 30:36
  That car was pretty good.
• 30:37
  But everything before that really, for lack of a better word, was a shitbox.
• 30:40
  And they openly say that.
• 30:43
  They say, we had a bad image.
• 30:45
  We had okay cars, although the XLs have never died.
• 30:50
  They wanted to change that image.
• 30:52
  And Albert Bierman, who came from BMW, was a significant part of that, employing the right people, getting the right team.
• 30:59
  It's all people, mate.
• 31:00
  It's the same in our game.
• 31:01
  It's just all the people.
• 31:03
  So the product was good.
• 31:05
  It was different.
• 31:07
  It was cool.
• 31:08
  Made lots of the right noises.
• 31:09
  And it was pushed properly.
• 31:10
  Yeah, I mean, it is where it is today because it's a good product.
• 31:15
  And that's at the core of it, the driving aspect.
• 31:18
  the driving enthusiast resonates with the car.
• 31:21
  It came out only in a manual in a time when everything was auto.
• 31:25
  They've released i20N, which is lightweight, tiny hatch, manual.
• 31:31
  It's the last that's ever going to be like that.
• 31:34
  So I feel like people gravitated towards it because…
• 31:37
  The people who cared about cars, suddenly people who cared about cars were making cars again.
• 31:41
  So very much like a Porsche sort of mindset where let's make the best thing possible.
• 31:46
  Let's not worry about numbers.
• 31:47
  Let's make the best thing possible.
• 31:59
  Earlier in this episode Josh talked about World Time Attack.
• 32:02
  Every year it attracts drivers from all over the world like legendary Kiwi Mad Mike Whitted who brought one of his fire breathing rotaries with him, and he knows the cars inside out.
• 32:13
  A lot of it I'm able to do hands-on, but as it went from a hobby into an actual business of this racing, it was when we started needing to employ actual experienced people.
• 32:26
  But those early years, I learned so much, you know, life skills in general.
• 32:34
  Fans of Mike's from all over the world still talk about his Rusty's Garage episode.
• 32:38
  I'd love to do one for my people, but still I wait by the phone for Gregory to call.
• 32:43
  Back to his conversation with Josh Buchan now.
• 32:48
  Josh Buchan has his name in the Australian record books as a champion.
• 32:55
  2023 TCR champion and an unbelievable season where the world tour came and visited and competed right where we are here on the lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.
• 33:04
  I want to talk about stitching together that title because you effectively battled your teammate who you affectionately called the ginger ninja that year for the title.
• 33:13
  And it did not get, there wasn't,
• 33:17
  an element of, let's not call it certainty, but it came down to the final round, right?
• 33:21
  So what did you go into 2023 thinking?
• 33:24
  What was your approach?
• 33:26
  Were you eyes on the title and you were prepared to maybe on occasion not go for a win because the points were more important in a short championship like this?
• 33:35
  Like what did you do?
• 33:37
  Well, you know the saying like you got to lose one to win one.
• 33:40
  22, I felt like I lost that one.
• 33:43
  Like 22, I finished third behind Tony and Will Brown.
• 33:48
  I had a couple of DNFs and just some dumb stuff that happened and I kind of looked at it and went, you know what?
• 33:58
  I probably should have won that.
• 34:00
  And I know Brownie feels the same.
• 34:03
  And Tony was the slowest out of all of us and he won.
• 34:05
  So I look at that and I go, well, hang on.
• 34:07
  You don't have to be the quickest.
• 34:09
  You just need to be the smartest.
• 34:11
  So I went into 23 with an idea of, like I said just before, Thursday practice session, I'm thinking about Bathurst in whenever it is.
• 34:19
  November.
• 34:20
  I don't care about anything else.
• 34:23
  And I told everyone that I didn't think about the championship.
• 34:26
  I'm going to go out and bulldoze everyone.
• 34:27
  I don't pay for damage.
• 34:28
  Like, I don't care.
• 34:30
  But that was absolutely incorrect.
• 34:31
  180 of what you were really... Yeah, yeah.
• 34:33
  I thought about, like, I'm saving a tie here and there so I can use it at a different event.
• 34:38
  Me and Rob, this is where we kind of got pretty crazy.
• 34:42
  We started, you know, really thinking about how we can do this.
• 34:45
  Because it was evident early on to us, we had a very slow car.
• 34:48
  With respect to my lovely i30 incident.
• 34:51
  We didn't have a fast car.
• 34:54
  Many factors in that.
• 34:55
  Many factors, no, no, no.
• 34:56
  Not the car's problem.
• 34:57
  BOP was unfavorable for us for that year.
• 35:01
  Whereas my teammate's car was absolutely the quickest car.
• 35:05
  So I've got the guy next to me in the garage.
• 35:07
  In the older gen car.
• 35:08
  In the older gen car, yeah, yeah.
• 35:11
  And we ended up learning a little bit about that later in the year when the Euros came out.
• 35:15
  But I had a car that was good at two circuits throughout the year.
• 35:20
  The rest it was rubbish.
• 35:22
  And so we just had to extract every point we could.
• 35:25
  I remember I had a really good round at Phillip Island where I won the round.
• 35:29
  And then round after Winton didn't suit my car at all.
• 35:32
  I had maximum weight penalty, but I finished second and scored a lot of points.
• 35:35
  And that was really pivotal.
• 35:38
  I started the year off.
• 35:40
  We had a turbo that failed.
• 35:42
  We went over boost and then we had a boost pipe explode in all three races.
• 35:47
  So the first round was a disaster.
• 35:49
  And I'm just going like, how are we ever going to chase this?
• 35:53
  Ironically, at the last round, I come in and Bailey has similar problems to what I had in the first round.
• 35:58
  The Ninja Ninja we're talking about is Bailey Sweeney, by the way.
• 36:01
  The Ninja.
• 36:01
  So, Bailey.
• 36:02
  And look, we got along well the whole year because it was weird.
• 36:05
  We're teammates, but we weren't in the same cast.
• 36:07
  And nothing I did was relevant to him.
• 36:09
  So, we never really crossed paths on the track.
• 36:13
  So, although there is footage of me spearing him off at Corporate Hill here.
• 36:17
  unrelated so we never really crossed paths we were in our own race, he was doing his I was doing mine and yeah it came down to the last morning at Bathurst, it was the worst night's sleep I've ever had and it's the worst day I've ever had of the track so I hope not to replicate that this year
• 36:34
  It was wild for all sorts of reasons.
• 36:36
  Heartbreak for him, but you have to be there on the day.
• 36:38
  You know now what it takes and the method that you went about stitching this together.
• 36:44
  What in that craziness when it unfolded, when you finally got it done, what did that mean to this kid who'd grown up in Dundas, living not far from where we are now, rolled the dice at a casino to make enough money to go to a go-kart event, and here you are with a global formula,
• 37:03
  Still relatively new in Australia, but your name is on the Australian title.
• 37:06
  What'd that mean?
• 37:07
  Yeah.
• 37:08
  It's phenomenal, really.
• 37:09
  I mean, it's your life's work, isn't it?
• 37:12
  I guess the title means more now as time goes on because it can't be taken away.
• 37:18
  You've always got it.
• 37:20
  You enter a...
• 37:23
  Like now when I do comms, it'll pop up.
• 37:24
  It won't say TCR driver.
• 37:26
  It won't say TCR winner.
• 37:27
  It's a TCR champion.
• 37:30
  So those little things is when it reminds you of what you did.
• 37:35
  At the time, we finished on the safety car, so I was just terrified because my exhaust manifold had a hole in it, so I had no power and hot air was blowing straight onto the fuel pressure regulator.
• 37:46
  So if you went green again, you were nervous.
• 37:47
  No, I wouldn't have finished.
• 37:48
  Wow.
• 37:48
  Wow.
• 37:49
  Yeah, yeah.
• 37:49
  So I wouldn't have finished and Tony would have won the title.
• 37:53
  So yeah, I didn't want it to go green again.
• 37:55
  I didn't know what the problem was but I went from being in fifth in race one cruising with the factory Audis being second to the Aussies like, hang on, this is all right, I'll wrap this up.
• 38:08
  All of a sudden, I'm like 12th or 13th battling, blocking like Michael Clemente going, please don't pass me.
• 38:14
  I can't afford to lose any more spots.
• 38:17
  What's going on on the radio?
• 38:19
  So yeah, it was very close.
• 38:23
  Even give you a funny one.
• 38:25
  Once I came in and they pointed and said, you're the champion, you sit there.
• 38:30
  Okay, sure.
• 38:31
  We all sat on the bonnet of the car celebrating.
• 38:36
  I went under ride height in the scrutineers.
• 38:40
  So I went under ride height because I had my whole team sitting on the front bar crushing it down.
• 38:47
  Crushing it and crushing the bar and splitter.
• 38:50
  So I went under ride height.
• 38:52
  So they're about to pin me and I'm going to lose the title again.
• 38:54
  Yeah.
• 38:55
  I looked at, I can't remember his name, whoever the tech was, I was going to kill him.
• 38:58
  But you had to explain that, hey, be this and be this.
• 39:01
  So because it had been sort of 30, 40 minutes since the track, your tire pressure has to be a certain pressure to do the test as well.
• 39:13
  So mine had gone way under pressure.
• 39:15
  They pumped them up and I passed.
• 39:17
  But man, I was about to kill a dude.
• 39:19
  I'm like, if you take this off me, I will find you.
• 39:23
  Talk about tested the whole way to the line, mate.
• 39:25
  I didn't get to enjoy it.
• 39:26
  I really didn't get to enjoy it.
• 39:28
  And once I had the trophy, I just wanted to get out of Dodge.
• 39:31
  I went to the celebration.
• 39:32
  No one's taken this from me now.
• 39:33
  Thank you.
• 39:34
  I'm leaving.
• 39:34
  If I'm asleep and it's still with me tomorrow, it's mine.
• 39:37
  So yeah, I really didn't even celebrate.
• 39:40
  It was just such a...
• 39:42
  Such a comedown of everything that had happened and such effort that was put in by everyone that, yeah, it was just relief.
• 39:50
  I said many times the feeling, overwhelming feeling was relief.
• 39:54
  One relief that the year's over, relief that it's yours, the relief that you know you can do it and the relief that you kind of belong, I guess.
• 40:04
  That was what the feeling was.
• 40:05
  It wasn't joy.
• 40:07
  It actually wasn't like a celebrationary moment.
• 40:09
  How did you enjoy going up against the Euros for two rounds?
• 40:12
  As you and I sit here, a lot of talk that they'll be back next year.
• 40:16
  They're not with us this year.
• 40:18
  Australia's not a stop on the tour.
• 40:20
  Hopefully, that happens.
• 40:22
  Did you enjoy that and benchmarking yourself against them?
• 40:25
  Has that maybe, if down the track, the right opportunity opened, would you go and do a bit of that stuff?
• 40:31
  yeah first and foremost certainly I would absolutely go and drive with those guys over there no question I'm not privy to trying something new but yeah to race against those those guys there was such a build up coming into it of us versus them mega here at Sydney Motorsport Park under the lights the best racing I've ever been involved with absolutely and you know
• 40:54
  we're out here and we're in the same cars and you see Carrera Cup sometimes where someone will come out from overseas and smoke the locals, right?
• 41:03
  See it with GT3, come out, smoke the locals.
• 41:06
  So we're all thinking, well, we reckon we're pretty good at this.
• 41:10
  Surely there's, they can't have some secret spice that we don't.
• 41:14
  I was a little bit skeptical because I thought, well, I know the budget that they have.
• 41:18
  There's no chance it's the same car as us.
• 41:21
  They get out here, Sydney,
• 41:23
  And it was on.
• 41:26
  Like we all wanted to annihilate them.
• 41:28
  Like we really did.
• 41:30
  And by and large, we showed really good form against them based on what you've just prefaced there, right?
• 41:36
  The difference in budget and all that sort of stuff.
• 41:38
  That overused old line about punching above your weight was so true.
• 41:42
  Yeah, yeah.
• 41:44
  And you're right.
• 41:44
  Like…
• 41:45
  They openly said after the practice day, like, this is the toughest region we go to.
• 41:49
  Like, we've never had anyone compete with us.
• 41:51
  Okay.
• 41:52
  Because the first session, like, I was on top in the first practice session.
• 41:57
  And I think there was, I think it was like 50-50 in the top 10 of Aussies and Euros.
• 42:02
  all of a sudden, like the pits were different.
• 42:05
  You know, no longer it was like the year, oh yeah, the Aussie guy, oh, so funny.
• 42:09
  I was like, oh shit, these boys are here, like they play for keeps.
• 42:13
  So yeah, the top 10 was a litter of us and them.
• 42:18
  Brownie obviously couldn't put a foot wrong.
• 42:22
  Race one, I was quickest car before the rain.
• 42:25
  We got some dodgy tire pressure info and went backwards.
• 42:28
  I finished like 16th.
• 42:29
  Then race two came through.
• 42:31
  I finished fifth from 16th.
• 42:33
  Quickest lap again.
• 42:34
  Race three was a similar thing.
• 42:35
  And I was battling with mainly Norbert Mischelis, who won the title that year.
• 42:41
  Me and him had a big race in race two.
• 42:44
  And then race three was me and Freddy Vavish, who factory Audi driver.
• 42:48
  And I remember driving just going...
• 42:50
  I can't believe this is happening.
• 42:51
  I've just passed current world champion, done him.
• 42:55
  Now I'm trying to punch on with this bloke.
• 42:57
  Like, this is nuts.
• 42:58
  I came out of the turn eight hairpin and hit him, tried to give him a bit of hip and shoulder, and he's just fully turned across me.
• 43:06
  And so I've gone...
• 43:07
  So we're smacking wheels and I instantly thought, again, hang on, championship.
• 43:12
  Don't get carried away.
• 43:14
  But at the same time, this is how they play.
• 43:16
  This is how they play.
• 43:17
  It was great.
• 43:17
  It was like old karting days at Lithgow.
• 43:20
  It was punch on, questions later.
• 43:22
  And the best part was that Pedro Lamy, the driving standards advisor, just fully must not have watched the race, fully put the whistle away and just went, boys, play on.
• 43:33
  We are guilty out here of being a little bit over-policing.
• 43:38
  That was just, if you come back and you're not dead, all good.
• 43:43
  And that was great.
• 43:44
  And some of the guys who we race against in that field, like Jan Elishe, who two-time world champion, Rob Huff, I still speak to those boys now.
• 43:52
  I spoke to Jan last week.
• 43:53
  Excellent.
• 43:54
  And yeah, this pod shouldn't be out by the time people know anything, but yeah, it'd be good to see them.
• 44:00
  Awesome.
• 44:01
  Some production cars are out on track at the moment.
• 44:04
  That's the noise you can hear in the background.
• 44:05
  You have to pull your helmet on a little later.
• 44:06
  GT4 actually.
• 44:08
  Yeah.
• 44:08
  Couple to finish.
• 44:09
  Let's talk GT4.
• 44:10
  You've been toying and not toying.
• 44:11
  You've been running around in a McLaren.
• 44:13
  Are you enjoying all that?
• 44:14
  Yeah, I love it.
• 44:14
  Yeah, yeah.
• 44:15
  I mean, I'm a driving nerd, if you haven't already guessed any form of steering wheel.
• 44:21
  and tires I'm keen for.
• 44:24
  So yeah, the opportunity with GT4 came up through some track day coaching I was doing with a client, I guess.
• 44:32
  He's a good friend really, but I helped him out.
• 44:35
  He bought a car.
• 44:37
  I introduced him to Rod from Zagami, which is where the Roden thing happened from.
• 44:42
  So, yeah, we're racing a McLaren.
• 44:43
  We've done two rounds.
• 44:45
  And the funny thing is with the McLaren is that Mostat has a team with Method with McLaren.
• 44:50
  So the eyeball is very much on them.
• 44:52
  We're a single car outfit, you know.
• 44:54
  Quietly chipping away.
• 44:55
  Quietly chipping away.
• 44:56
  And, yeah, we've done well.
• 44:58
  We'll pull out right at the bend.
• 45:01
  It's cool.
• 45:02
  It's the same as TCR.
• 45:03
  It's the same car they race overseas.
• 45:04
  You speak to the technicians from England and you congratulate them for their car not rusting and dripping oil everywhere and actually being a good bit of gear.
• 45:14
  It's awesome.
• 45:15
  The GT4 category is amazing and I think we've got 22 cars here this weekend or something outstanding.
• 45:20
  Fantastic category.
• 45:21
  Okay.
• 45:23
  What is in the pipeline for you for the future?
• 45:26
  What's next?
• 45:26
  What's, you know, either on the connections that you have on the manufacturer and drive day side, the racing side, what's in the pipeline for Josh Buckner?
• 45:37
  It's a good question.
• 45:38
  I mean, sometimes I usually get to the end of the year.
• 45:41
  I don't know.
• 45:41
  The last year was the first time I'd signed a deal that was worth more than 12 months.
• 45:46
  So I have next year in TCR.
• 45:49
  When the calendar is announced, that'll be cool.
• 45:55
  I'll be doing GT4 again, it seems, but the full season this time.
• 45:59
  And then, yeah, hopefully floating in that space later.
• 46:04
  throughout the year.
• 46:05
  There's Ferrari Challenge, which is starting up.
• 46:08
  throughout the year as well, which is Renato heading up that.
• 46:12
  So I'll be – I don't know if – I'll say it anyway.
• 46:16
  We're going to get – we're due to go over to Fiorano to get certified as Ferrari instructors by the head of Corsa Cliente, which is their track program.
• 46:26
  They're coming out here instead.
• 46:27
  We'll get certified and then we'll be the official coaches for the Ferrari Challenge program.
• 46:32
  There will only be a few of us, which is quite –
• 46:34
  Quite a feather.
• 46:35
  Quite an honor, yeah.
• 46:36
  So, yeah, between all those, hopefully I can avoid a real job for another 12 months and life will be good.
• 46:42
  This has been awesome.
• 46:43
  You have proven to people you can avoid a real job.
• 46:47
  You can go on and do some great things in motor racing, but you've underscored the work required.
• 46:54
  to do that.
• 46:55
  And I reckon that's a great lesson for some that might be competing up at Lithgow in the weeks to come young carters that are aspiring.
• 47:01
  I love the fact that you've done it differently to others and the fact that you've achieved in a, in a sport that I quite enjoy TCR and Australian title, I think you to be congratulated.
• 47:10
  That's just, just mega well done.
• 47:12
  Oh, thank you, mate.
• 47:12
  Yeah.
• 47:13
  Like I, I,
• 47:14
  I do.
• 47:14
  I like the fact that it's a different path because, you know, when I was with all my mates at a similar age up at Lithgow, we all wondered how it worked if you didn't have a big bag of cash.
• 47:24
  And, yeah, if anyone listens and can maybe think I might do it too, you certainly can.
• 47:30
  Cool.
• 47:31
  Keep powering.
• 47:32
  And, kids, don't go putting all your money on the roulette table, please.
• 47:35
  No, but if you do, make sure that you follow whatever's running.
• 47:38
  Just keep hitting whatever's running.
• 47:40
  Thank you, mate.
• 47:41
  Cheers.
• 47:41
  See you, mate.
• 47:42
  Thank you.
• 47:51
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 47:54
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 47:58
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 48:00
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• 48:05
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