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The Motorsport Brief | Bathurst review & Joel Kelso's Moto GP preview · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  This one covers Bathurst to the bike GP, and we did it all at the mountain.
• 0:12
  Hi everybody, Rusty with you after a huge weekend on Triple M, covering the great race.
• 0:17
  It was awesome.
• 0:18
  Coming up, Joel Kelso, the young Aussie on the path to MotoGP ahead of his home race at the island this weekend.
• 0:25
  We actually spotted him in the Triple Eight garage at the 1000 with his good mate Brock Feeney, and we're grateful for his time.
• 0:32
  And you'll hear from the top three combos after...
• 0:35
  That unforgettable race at Bathurst in front of a weekend crowd of almost 200,000 fans.
• 0:42
  From big names bowing out to the decent rain and the cloud cover that made it almost impossible to see toward the end.
• 0:49
  Chas Mostert retiring at the chase with engine trouble and heading straight for a beer.
• 0:54
  That was very funny.
• 0:55
  To his young teammate, the heartbreak for Ryan Wood being in the mix right near the end with Jadon Ojeda before an engine gremlin.
• 1:03
  And then,
• 1:03
  saw that Mustang limp back to pit lane and a whole lot more.
• 1:06
  I actually can't debrief it all here because so much happened.
• 1:10
  Let's start with the headline.
• 1:11
  Garth Tander won a six-bathist, putting him in a special club with Larry Perkins.
• 1:16
  His 23-year-old almost protege in Matt Payne came of age with a mighty drive at the end for the Kiwis' first Bathurst win.
• 1:25
  All the talk of parody didn't really enter their garage as they battled from 18th on the grid to score Grove Racing's first Bathurst victory and the first for Ford since before the pandemic.
• 1:36
  Here they are post-race after the podium.
• 1:40
  Yeah, it's pretty special for myself and obviously Garth here.
• 1:44
  And the whole team at Penroth Racing, they've done an unbelievable job and they really stayed cool today and made some really good decisions for us.
• 1:51
  So, yeah, it's super cool to be able to get the win here and, yeah, celebrate it with them tonight.
• 1:58
  You guys were certainly disappointed on Friday after qualifying down in 18th, but the word this morning after warm-up was the car felt pretty good.
• 2:05
  Did you think when you were sitting on the grid here today that you'd be sitting up here tonight?
• 2:09
  Yeah.
• 2:10
  Um, yeah, I thought that would be pretty optimistic.
• 2:12
  Um, yeah, not going to lie.
• 2:14
  It was a really hard day for us on Friday.
• 2:16
  We just didn't have the pace.
• 2:18
  Um, you know, and, and I think we did a good job turning the car around.
• 2:21
  It looked pretty speedy in the dry as well.
• 2:24
  Um, but yeah, the whole race was basically wet.
• 2:26
  So that was, uh, that was what you had to be quick in.
• 2:29
  And, uh, yeah, we, uh, we managed to make some good changes in the, in the fit stops and, um, yeah, put us in the right direction.
• 2:35
  so much wet running today.
• 2:36
  Can you just tell us what the conditions were like and the mental challenge of keeping it on the black stuff?
• 2:41
  It certainly was not easy.
• 2:42
  Yeah, it actually got really tough there when the rain was probably coming down at its most.
• 2:47
  There was a lot of aquaplaning on the straights, a lot of rivers, so you had to drive around them a lot.
• 2:53
  It sort of got better at the end there.
• 2:55
  It actually dried out a bit.
• 2:56
  I didn't think our car was probably as good when it was a bit drier.
• 3:00
  I thought we were pretty good when it was wet.
• 3:01
  So yeah, those conditions made it tricky, but...
• 3:05
  Yeah, around here, it's ultimately probably one of the toughest places to race around and in the wit.
• 3:11
  Certainly with all the pressure on the top three and us to do the job.
• 3:15
  But it was pretty cool at the end there.
• 3:17
  It was getting really foggy over skyline and that.
• 3:20
  So it was pretty hard to see.
• 3:23
  Well, I thought it was pretty cool.
• 3:25
  It would have made for some cool cameras.
• 3:26
  But, yeah, it was pretty amazing.
• 3:29
  We can tell you from watching from the outside, it was definitely pretty darn cool.
• 3:32
  An epic battle to the end between you, Jimmy, and Cooper.
• 3:36
  You had a crack yourself.
• 3:37
  Takes you that one going down on the chase, and you got a little bit wet there yourself for a minute.
• 3:41
  Yeah, it was a pretty cool move.
• 3:43
  I was probably going down the straight and I thought, this is it.
• 3:47
  I just have to stick here and go for it.
• 3:49
  Yeah, just hung around the outside and just caught the left rear on the grass, which sort of didn't make – I couldn't pull it up in time.
• 3:57
  But I felt like I had a pretty good crack.
• 3:59
  It was a pretty wild moment.
• 4:00
  I thought after that I was probably done.
• 4:02
  So it's pretty cool to come back from that.
• 4:05
  You certainly weren't done.
• 4:06
  Not too long later, the seas parted at Griffin's Bend.
• 4:08
  What was going through your mind when the doors opened for you?
• 4:11
  Yeah, I saw Jimmy had a really good run going up to turn two, and I sort of knew he was going to go, and I knew it was going to be pretty tricky passing there.
• 4:18
  It was pretty greasy on the inside.
• 4:20
  So, yeah, those two made contact, and luckily I could just sweep through on the inside.
• 4:25
  Yeah, Cooper was putting up a pretty good fight, but I think he just lost a little bit of car speed ultimately at the end there.
• 4:31
  2017 winner David Reynolds and 2021 Victor Lee Holdsworth thought they had a car capable of making the shootout early in the week, but they missed out there.
• 4:41
  The Camaro didn't feel all that nice to drive on Saturday morning, but they tuned it back up for the race and then they used their collective...
• 4:48
  experience in those crazy conditions to get into podium contention almost pulling off a winning move in the closing stages reynolds repaying team owner charlie schwerkholz faith following that recent re-signing another great story for today david reynolds uh you guys seem to come from nowhere in those late stages and all of a sudden you're right there in the battle for the win tell us about your day who's out there um yeah day went pretty well
• 5:14
  I'm actually pretty exhausted, accelerated, proud of everyone.
• 5:19
  I'm also a little bit pissed off that Matt tried to put me in the fence on the last lap.
• 5:23
  What an arsehole I am.
• 5:26
  You wanker.
• 5:27
  To be honest, I would have done the same anyway.
• 5:30
  Oh, I can't see in my mirrors.
• 5:32
  Yeah, bullshit.
• 5:34
  No, I had a mega day.
• 5:36
  So, you know, to share my car with my mate of mine that lives around the corner, we've had, honestly, the best week ever.
• 5:44
  We've just had laughs and just carry on.
• 5:46
  We're just trying to make our car as best we can.
• 5:48
  But, you know, it was okay in the dry.
• 5:50
  But I knew, I've been saying it all day, like if it's in the wet, we're in for a chance, 100%.
• 5:54
  I love those like drying conditions where there's always a bit of intermittent shit going on.
• 6:00
  That was just, that was me to a T. So I thrive in those conditions.
• 6:04
  And yeah, my car was unbelievable in the sort of semi-dry conditions.
• 6:08
  Well, not semi-dry, but semi-wet, semi-dry.
• 6:10
  But in the wet, it was the scariest piece of shit I've ever had in my life.
• 6:14
  And I feared for my life at many, many times in that race.
• 6:17
  I dead set.
• 6:17
  I'll tell you that.
• 6:19
  Now, James Golding was actually the first car to greet the chequered flag, but a five-second penalty for contact with Cooper Murray in the final laps left he and David Russell on adjusted third.
• 6:31
  Still a podium, though.
• 6:32
  Pretty special result for Pete Gibberish and the Premier squad.
• 6:35
  Russell might be in his early 40s, but he has again shown his class in helping to set things up during his stints, while Golding...
• 6:43
  kind of made no apologies for having a crack at trying to win the big prize before he heads to Blanchard Racing next season.
• 6:51
  Jimmy, you had a crack at glory.
• 6:54
  Can't ask for anything less, can you?
• 6:56
  Yeah, I had to have a go, that's for sure.
• 6:59
  Yeah, just really credit to the whole team.
• 7:02
  Premier, I was usually trucks racing.
• 7:03
  It's been an incredible day.
• 7:06
  From DRUS to our race engineer, Simon Hodge, we put the hard work in through practice.
• 7:13
  When we knew the weather was coming, we dialed the car in as close to a wet weather car as we could get away with in the drive without affecting it.
• 7:19
  We knew we had good pace in both conditions and we really decided to let the race come to us.
• 7:25
  DRUS did a faultless job.
• 7:26
  The whole crew, all the mechanics, everyone down to the physios, it's been an unreal day, so I can't thank them all enough.
• 7:34
  And yeah, the one that got away, I suppose.
• 7:37
  But yeah, pretty cool to get a P3 as well at Bathurst.
• 7:40
  Just takes you that whole battle.
• 7:41
  The whole sequence all the way down to the finish was white knuckle stuff.
• 7:44
  It had to be even crazier behind the wheel, I imagine.
• 7:47
  Yeah, it was.
• 7:49
  I mean, my car was so fast, but...
• 7:51
  It really just took a little bit to get going every time the tyres cooled off.
• 7:54
  Every safety car, I was working hard to keep the temp up and the couple of laps after it took a bit to get going.
• 8:00
  So I was trying to hold off as best I could and then I knew it would come back to me and I had the pace later on.
• 8:06
  And I was probably best, I think, into turn two under brakes, down the hill under brakes and also the chase under brakes, which is where I made a lot of passes.
• 8:16
  But Cooper was really strong off the elbow.
• 8:19
  So when I had that run out of turn one, I knew that I had to go for it and have a go.
• 8:24
  I knew I'd regret it if I didn't have a go.
• 8:26
  So unfortunately it didn't work out.
• 8:28
  I'm sorry to him.
• 8:28
  It didn't work out for their team, but that's racing.
• 8:31
  I had to have a go.
• 8:33
  Hindsight's 2020.
• 8:34
  Would you have done anything different?
• 8:36
  No.
• 8:37
  We'll grab a break here and switch from four wheels to two in a moment with a young racer who was actually here at the mountain taking in the great race before a big week of his own at Phillip Island.
• 8:51
  You're listening to the Motorsport Brief.
• 8:52
  The other Australian Grand Prix is on this weekend.
• 8:55
  Moto GP at Phillip Island.
• 8:57
  We spotted a young Aussie in the Bathurst pit lane who was doing the hard yards and trying to one day make it to the Premier Class.
• 9:04
  It was nice to catch up with Joel Kelso before he tackles his home race.
• 9:08
  Here it is.
• 9:09
  The people you meet at the mountain.
• 9:11
  Hello, Joel Kelso.
• 9:12
  G'day, mate.
• 9:13
  G'day.
• 9:13
  You have literally, just before we started recording this, gone for a tour of Brock Feeney's car.
• 9:20
  How was that?
• 9:21
  Yeah, it's pretty cool, mate.
• 9:22
  Honestly, I've never been able to go see up close a VA supercar.
• 9:26
  It wasn't me at Brock Show Me Around.
• 9:28
  Obviously, I know Brock from when I was younger, so it's...
• 9:31
  Also great to see him.
• 9:31
  I haven't seen him in a few years.
• 9:33
  Tell us a little bit more about that.
• 9:34
  I'm glad you've had a chance to stop and catch up with him.
• 9:37
  You're from Darwin.
• 9:38
  He's a Queenslander.
• 9:39
  How did that kind of friendship come about?
• 9:41
  Well, I'm originally from Queensland.
• 9:42
  I grew up in Gympie, and then he was in the Gold Coast, but we both raced bikes together.
• 9:46
  Before V8s, Brock was racing dirt bikes as well, and his old man as well was really involved in my career as a young guy, especially in the flat track, and then also in the first road bike I ever got.
• 9:59
  And, yeah, I used to live with Brock for a bit, like, just to go training and stuff.
• 10:03
  We'd stay up there, get our way from school a bit, go up on the Gold Coast and muck around with Brock.
• 10:07
  So, yeah, I knew him ever since I was a kid, and then I've been following him along the whole time in his car career so far.
• 10:13
  And we just kept in touch as much as possible, but it's not easy, that's for sure.
• 10:16
  I love that, though.
• 10:17
  There's a bit of a sense of loyalty in you, perhaps what the Feeneys and others have done to help you on this big mission.
• 10:23
  Yeah.
• 10:23
  Oh, 100%.
• 10:24
  I definitely wouldn't be standing here today, speaking to you, if I wasn't involved with the Feeneys back in the day.
• 10:30
  Yeah, I mean, Paul is the one that brang me up, and then all the training with Brock, and yeah, every time was just a good time.
• 10:37
  And he kept the motivation, the fun there as well, because me and Brock were best mates, and then same time riding bikes on the weekends were fun.
• 10:43
  What's your impressions of Bathurst?
• 10:45
  I mean, we want to talk Phillip Island.
• 10:46
  Obviously, that's the main reason we're catching up.
• 10:48
  But I think you're also hooking up with some of the team at Erebus, perhaps?
• 10:51
  Yeah, exactly.
• 10:52
  I'll go see them boys in a bit.
• 10:54
  We're keeping quite a good touch because he obviously follows the motorbike as well.
• 10:58
  But Bathurst, I've never been here before.
• 11:00
  I'm keen.
• 11:00
  I'll be doing a lap tomorrow on the track to go check that out.
• 11:02
  So that'll be super cool.
• 11:03
  I can't wait.
• 11:05
  And apparently the hill doesn't do justice on camera.
• 11:07
  So I'm looking forward to that.
• 11:09
  Nice for you to sort of start what is a big week this way, mate, isn't it?
• 11:13
  Yeah, 100%.
• 11:14
  I love getting out and doing this sort of stuff.
• 11:16
  Like, speaking the other day to my manager, I love the Asia races and, you know, coming back to Oz for these sort of rounds because...
• 11:24
  You just do so much cool things.
• 11:25
  Like, who thought I'd come into Bathurst this weekend to come watch the V8s and then head down, go race Phillip Island next weekend.
• 11:31
  It keeps your mind off things.
• 11:33
  And so, yeah, you enjoy it a bit more.
• 11:34
  You're travelling the world, doing something you love.
• 11:37
  I mean, you can't complain.
• 11:38
  How's the season been for you?
• 11:39
  Give us that sort of report card.
• 11:40
  I know we'll talk about it in a minute.
• 11:42
  You're off to a new team next year, but let's talk about 2025.
• 11:45
  Yeah, well, it's been a great year.
• 11:47
  It's definitely been our most successful year of my world championship campaign, let's say.
• 11:52
  Now, we're currently fifth in the championship.
• 11:53
  I believe we'll be able to get fourth in the championship by the end of the year.
• 11:56
  I'm quite confident about that.
• 11:57
  I'm really hoping to get third, but we're a little bit stretched away.
• 12:00
  But we'll see if we can.
• 12:02
  If we can, that'll be great.
• 12:03
  It'll be a good little bonus to the end of the year.
• 12:06
  But, yeah, it's been overall a really great season.
• 12:09
  We had a little bit of a drop when we broke our foot in the middle of the season.
• 12:13
  If not, I think we definitely would have been in a contempt for the top three in the championship for sure.
• 12:17
  But overall, this is motorcycle racing.
• 12:19
  You know, break one foot is actually a good season.
• 12:21
  You know, you don't break too many bones.
• 12:23
  So, yeah.
• 12:24
  Yeah, it's been overall a really good season.
• 12:26
  The team's been great.
• 12:27
  I've been really gelling with the new bike.
• 12:29
  And, yeah, next year we're off to new adventures onto a Honda.
• 12:32
  That was just purely for something different.
• 12:34
  Your motivation is two-year.
• 12:36
  Contra is something I go develop within the team as well, bring up the team, bring the right people in as well.
• 12:42
  A lot more, let's say, I have a lot more say and a lot more charge to bring the people in that I think will work for the Honda.
• 12:49
  um and then yeah obviously if i get the opportunity to step in motor two that's what we'll do i'm excited for you how are you feeling heading into your home race i mean you're healthy and well that's clear um what about your chances at the island oh i think my chances are great obviously we've been um really strong there in the past it's always one of our best races of the year uh we're coming from a really really strong time at the moment last three three four races every single time fighting in our podium and
• 13:13
  just missing out, but we've been there and already had three podiums this year, so I think we can be back on that box.
• 13:18
  I think that's what all Aussies fans want.
• 13:20
  That's what I want for sure, so I think it'll be spectacular if we can be standing on the top.
• 13:24
  The end goal is clearly MotoGP and to progress, but it is a tough road, Joel.
• 13:33
  How's all that been?
• 13:34
  Yeah, it's bloody difficult.
• 13:37
  A lot of politics go into it, it's not easy, that's for sure.
• 13:39
  I mean, like I said, it shouldn't be normal that we're fighting for the top three in the championship.
• 13:45
  Being one of the only non-Spanish riders inside the top ten by not being able to step to motor two.
• 13:52
  It's obviously not the greatest thing in the world, but at the end of the day, if you're doing the results, you go up.
• 13:57
  So I'm just going to keep pushing on, focus on getting result after result, and eventually they can't tell me no.
• 14:02
  So, yeah, the goal is to go MotoGP still.
• 14:04
  Definitely next year we'll be fighting as hard as we can on the Honda and then see if we can get a Moto2 opportunity.
• 14:10
  I think we can really shine in Moto2.
• 14:12
  I think it'll just suit our style a little bit more, a bit bigger bike, a bit more power, I can slide around.
• 14:16
  Get it turning with the rear wheel will be a bit more fun as well, I think.
• 14:20
  I think we can really do well there.
• 14:21
  So, yeah, hopefully we can make that happen in the near future.
• 14:24
  Finally, before we let you go, what is life like?
• 14:26
  I mean, it's so great to come home.
• 14:28
  That must re-energise you.
• 14:30
  That's got to be good.
• 14:31
  What is life like in Europe?
• 14:32
  Are you good with other languages and so on?
• 14:35
  Yeah, I mean, I'm not bad.
• 14:36
  After living there for three years, let's say, I can speak enough Spanish to get around, that's for sure.
• 14:41
  But nothing's like home in Australia.
• 14:43
  I love being here.
• 14:44
  And this year is the year that I come back the most to Australia.
• 14:47
  I try to come back and forward between every flyway race.
• 14:50
  Only the European rounds, I stay there.
• 14:52
  So I'm about three months based out there, and the rest I try to spend in Australia.
• 14:55
  So, yeah.
• 14:56
  Yeah, I mean, I love it over there, but nothing beats home, mate.
• 14:59
  Like, honestly, I absolutely love coming home and just doing this stuff, being out here today is incredible for me.
• 15:04
  Final question for you.
• 15:05
  The secret to Phillip Island on your bike is, I mean, that's not a question maybe that's easy answer because it depends on weather and all sorts that are thrown at you.
• 15:15
  But ideally, by the time you get through practice, what do you want underneath you, you know, heading into Saturday and Sunday next week?
• 15:20
  Honestly, I think it's quite easy to answer.
• 15:22
  There's a lot of confidence out at all, and you've just got to absolutely send it every moment you can, and you've got to really believe in yourself, trust in it, and just, yeah, have a crack.
• 15:31
  You can't hold back there.
• 15:32
  You hold back, you lose a lot of time.
• 15:34
  But I think in all conditions, you've just got to go for it because, like, turn one example is almost full gas.
• 15:39
  Last quarter, almost full gas.
• 15:41
  But it's not easy to do, I promise you that much.
• 15:43
  Old set of tyres is pretty hectic and pretty scary around there going 250k an hour, full gas around a corner is not easy, that's for sure.
• 15:50
  So it's a lot of courage, let's say, Philippine.
• 15:53
  I reckon that's the biggest secret to it is just fully belief in what you've got underneath you and absolutely have a crack.
• 15:58
  Thanks for a bit of time to chat here.
• 16:00
  Bathurst is, you know, I'm grateful because Bathurst is something to take your mind off everything next week.
• 16:06
  I know it's going to be massive for you.
• 16:08
  We wish you well there.
• 16:09
  We love the hard graft that you're doing, mate, and you're off to new passes next year.
• 16:12
  Hope it goes well.
• 16:13
  Thank you.
• 16:13
  Appreciate it, mate.
• 16:14
  Cheers.
• 16:15
  That is it for this edition.
• 16:16
  Hope you enjoyed it.
• 16:17
  Something for two and four-wheel fans in this brief.
• 16:21
  I'm heading to the island, actually, and on the way we will release a new feature ep with respected commentator, author and PR executive John Smales.
• 16:30
  From working at the ABC with a young Neil Crompton to reporting on the London to Sydney...
• 16:35
  in dangerous destinations, putting a deal together for Murray Walker to do Targa and the Streaker in the back of an interview with Wayne Gardner.
• 16:43
  It's very funny, that story.
• 16:45
  Plus his brilliant new book on Colin Bond called Full Tilt.
• 16:49
  JS is a good storyteller, whether it's the spoken or the written word.
• 16:53
  Keep an eye out for that one when it drops.
• 16:55
  Catch you next week, everybody.
• 16:56
  Bye for now.