Latest / Rusty's Garage / Nathan Prendergast - Part 2

Transcript

Nathan Prendergast - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:20
G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with acclaimed motorsport TV director, producer and editor, Nathan Prennegast.
0:28
Now, if you've hit the start button on part two here and not heard part one, you are missing out on some funny, very cool yarns.
0:36
From growing up basically at the Eastern Creek Circuit...
0:40
and sneaking out in the odd course car, to grabbing a ride with World Rally Championship hero, Carlos Saints.
0:46
Getting into TV through drag racing and working in front of the mic, in front of the camera first, before shifting up a gear behind the scenes.
0:56
The self-taught lessons that still serve him well and making a break to join the newly formed Supercars TV that would be a major part of his work life.
1:07
We begin part two by reflecting on one of the most watched moments in the history of the Great Race, certainly the modern chapter anyway, an incident you can hear more about in our episode with Fabian Coulthard, which is in the Rusty's Library.
1:21
Here, Nath talks about capturing it perfectly for viewers watching Baffist all over the world.
1:30
Forto says for me to ask you about Fabian Coulthard 2010, the crash at the chase, which has been replayed countless times.
1:39
It's been diagnosed countless times.
1:41
How in the hell did you nail that?
1:43
Because I gather there's a little backstory here, mate.
1:47
So Channel 7 days, Saul Stein, very big on sounds of the game, kerb shots, speed shots, stuff like that.
1:54
First lap of the race, coming down Conrod, and I've taken kerb at the chase, standby kerb.
2:02
Take it, and I'm watching the cars come over, and I'm always waiting, but I'm glancing at the monitor wall to see what the next shot I'm going to take.
2:09
And I'd actually planned to take a low-angle shot, not the one that actually went to air.
2:14
Anyway...
2:16
Just as I'm about to make my call, I see this flash and I've just glanced up and gone, 23 take, bang, and I push in.
2:24
And obviously Fabian's spun out of control and gone straight across the top of the kerb can and I've just flashed it.
2:31
I mean, there's nothing any other director wouldn't do, but I've gone to the right camera at the right time and just called the right instruction and he's just gone and got this massive barrel roll.
2:41
Famous shot, it was awesome.
2:44
And then I remember what I do remember is photos like, he's dead.
2:47
He's dead.
2:48
Zoom out.
2:48
He's dead.
2:49
I'm like, mate, he's okay.
2:50
I can see him moving because I can see it on the other cameras.
2:53
He was tight.
2:53
And, you know, you do have to be mindful of that.
2:56
Loosen off the shot.
2:57
But I was like, he's okay, mate.
2:59
When they roll like that, a lot of the energy comes out of it.
3:02
It's always the big hard stops like Radisic at the top of the mountain.
3:05
I knew, oh, that would have hurt.
3:06
Yeah.
3:07
But, mate, it's exciting.
3:08
There's been a couple of moments in my directing time where I'm like, you know, it's good to be good, but it's better to be lucky.
3:16
You've gone to the right shot.
3:17
You've grabbed the right thing.
3:18
But I've always sort of credited...
3:23
or appreciated my ability and my motorsport history to read a race.
3:27
So generally I'll be able to get to the right shot because I kind of see the attitude in the car or what it's going to do.
3:34
Fordo reckons he had to half-bollicue at 2013 when you were watching Frosty and J-Dub, Jamie Wincup, going at it.
3:42
Oh, Gold Coast?
3:42
No, no, no.
3:43
Was it Bathurst?
3:45
I'm trying to remember where this was.
3:46
No, it was Gold Coast.
3:47
Jamie and Shane...
3:49
Now, he reckons Frosty versus J-Dub.
3:52
Jamie's running out of fuel.
3:53
You turn around.
3:54
You're laughing and howling about how damn good this is.
3:56
You were playing more or less race fan.
3:58
And he shouted at you and said, turn around and get back on the job.
4:03
See, that's funny.
4:04
I thought that was the Gold Coast race, but I definitely did that.
4:06
He sat directly behind me.
4:08
I was in the front row and I was having such a good time cutting this race.
4:12
And I turned around.
4:13
I said, how good is this?
4:14
And he's like, watch the race, mate.
4:19
I'm glad you bring up Gold Coast.
4:20
We've done it a couple of times in the last few minutes.
4:21
People do not realise how intense it is to direct.
4:26
You half touched on it before.
4:27
I think Fordo reminded me that it's got almost as many cameras at Bathurst, but it's half the length, mate.
4:33
It's insane, isn't it?
4:35
Yeah, well, the shortened version is 2.6 or 2.8Ks, and it's got 24 cameras.
4:40
Bathurst is 6.2Ks and has 28 cameras.
4:43
So the longest shot at the Gold Coast is like a second to second and a half.
4:47
You never get a break and it's so intense.
4:50
And in the Gold Coast 600 days, there was 300 k's of racing.
4:54
It was like a lot of seat time.
4:56
And I know you talk to Mish Wilden and Margie who are just superstars, Vision Switcher and DA who sit beside me.
5:03
Even for them, it's one of the toughest races to do because it's just relentless and such fast cuts.
5:10
But super cool pictures from that place too.
5:13
Chad Nalon is another one who's been helpful here.
5:16
He says, ask Nath about the Coke 600 cable cam fail.
5:20
What's that story?
5:22
When we did our race in 2013 at Circuit of the Americas, the weekend after I went to the Coke 600, I was really fortunate to meet an American director by the name of Artie Kempner, who was directing the NASCAR racing there.
5:35
We got on like a house on fire.
5:36
Anyway, he invited me out to dinner on the Saturday night and the Coke race was on the Sunday, the next day, after the Indy 500, funnily enough.
5:44
Anyway, we were at dinner and we were talking old television war stories.
5:46
He's like, oh, what's the worst thing that's ever happened to you?
5:49
What's the craziest thing?
5:50
Anyway, I retold the 2008 story of when BatCam, which was a cable cam at Bathurst, fell.
5:58
And it fell on the track.
6:00
And we did a very good job in broadcast of really sort of ducking and weaving.
6:04
No one really knew what happened.
6:05
But the camera...
6:08
actually fell down and luckily landed not on the track, but a bit of cable got wrapped up.
6:13
Anyway, it was a pretty risky, pretty scary moment, but luckily no one was okay.
6:18
Well, I was telling him that story.
6:20
Anyway, come the next day, we go to the Coke 600.
6:24
I'm in the OB truck, and I was fascinated with this cable camera they had because it was so fast.
6:29
It could do like 130, 150 kilometres an hour.
6:33
We ended up actually having it at Bathurst in 2007.
6:37
Anyway, I'm watching this camera and the monitor for this camera really intently and I hear it's a restart after a safety car and the director goes, standby cable cam, go, go, go, go.
6:47
Anyway, I watch this cable camera shoot across, stops funny, has this massive shake and then goes black.
6:55
And I'm like, I'm waiting.
6:57
Someone's going to notice.
6:57
Someone's going to notice.
6:58
No one's saying anything.
6:59
And then I lean over to the pit producer and said, have a look at cable cam.
7:04
And then you hear the director go, it's what?
7:08
It's what?
7:09
The cable camera?
7:11
Anyway, he's like, it's fallen.
7:14
Anyway, he turns.
7:16
He turns.
7:17
like over his shoulder and just glares at me like, dude, we just talked about this last night.
7:23
What the hell?
7:25
And I was like, it's time I leave the truck now.
7:30
So crazy, crazy coincidence.
7:32
I mean, I know those sort of things from a safety perspective, but you're always innovating in your game, mate.
7:38
You've got to try new things, some of these, you know, cable cam and stuff.
7:41
You've got to bleed that stuff in and have a crack at it, don't you?
7:44
Yeah, you do.
7:45
You always try to make the cars or anything you cover, because obviously I haven't just done motorsport, and that's a lot of the other stuff I've done has really helped me with my motorsport coverage.
7:55
But it's always about trying to find a new way to make it look as good as it possibly can.
8:00
And in motor racing, it's always about speed, right?
8:03
How do we make them look fast or how do we...
8:06
tell the story better.
8:07
So yeah, we're always looking at new tech.
8:09
Obviously, new tech comes at a cost, but there's some things that have developed, like drones are crazy how quickly they've come on in recent years.
8:16
They're a little harder in our game, but always trying to find...
8:22
new ways to tell the story better and new technologies, definitely.
8:25
And some of that is about show too, not just tech or cars.
8:30
The Eastern Creek, NASCAR style kind of grand opening, the ceremony and things that you did with the race that was under lights there, how immersed in that, how much of that was you?
8:40
And tell us a bit about that.
8:42
I'm really proud of the night race because it was my first year as GM of television, so out of the director role from 2017 into that role 2018, that announced the night race.
8:55
Because it was so important that the lighting was at a level that TV could operate, I sort of got handed the project with the events guys
9:03
to deliver it and it was all temporary towers.
9:06
So we did a huge amount of testing out there and put towers.
9:10
And then because it was a night race, I saw the immediate opportunity to be able to do more of a showbiz intro with pyro and lasers and smoke machines.
9:20
And I love all that stuff.
9:22
And Sean Seymour was his first year as CEO and he was really good to me in the fact that he was mental and everyone knows it.
9:28
I love him.
9:29
He gave him the latitude, mate, didn't he?
9:30
He gave him the latitude.
9:31
He was like, Nath, whatever you want, go do it.
9:34
And so I was really fortunate to have a really intimate involvement in that event and then have the free reign to sort of, not free from a budgetary perspective but from a creative perspective, to sort of take that and do something different.
9:49
And I really wanted it to be a showcase for the sport.
9:52
Primetime viewing, cars under lights,
9:55
you know, flames, brakes, sparks, you name it.
9:59
And, you know, it was a really exciting thing for me.
10:02
And I'm really proud of the way that came together.
10:05
And it worked really well as an event.
10:07
It had huge attendance and really good viewership on TV.
10:11
So it was an exciting time, that one.
10:12
The role of being in that top position was one you had to take, mate.
10:16
It was great for your growth, for what you're doing now and so on.
10:20
Was it hard to stop the directing, though, at that stage of the game?
10:23
Really hard.
10:23
Just ask Brian Foreshaw.
10:25
How did you deal with it?
10:26
Not very well at first.
10:27
I definitely micromanaged Brian too much, and I was up in his grill far too much, but
10:38
because I kept seeing it the way I was seeing it.
10:41
And I had to realise that just because you were seeing it differently doesn't mean it was bad, you know what I mean?
10:47
So I found it really challenging to detach from that control.
10:52
In one sense, I had more, say, more control as higher up the food chain in the business, but I had less control of the storytelling of the race because I wasn't calling the cameras.
11:02
And it took me a little while to adjust to it.
11:05
And there were times where I really had to,
11:08
you know, tell myself, mate, this is still fantastic.
11:12
Brian's a brilliant director.
11:14
He's got a way better temperament than me.
11:17
Let him go, let him learn.
11:19
Do you know what I mean?
11:19
So I did find it hard, mate, to be honest with you.
11:22
And, you know, it was only, it took a good 18 months for me to completely chill out.
11:28
And even, I mean, even Brian, you ask him, he'll probably say there are moments where I don't.
11:32
but that's just my passion.
11:34
It's not because I don't trust the way it's being sold.
11:38
You just love the game, mate.
11:39
I love it so much, mate.
11:40
And if I see something and there's like a move or an overtake, I'll call for it or I'll get on the comms or I'll interject my input where, you know, in places like that.
11:50
So your role then, mate, goes from, you know, you know,
11:55
the cut of the race, the immersion in the TV side of it to people because you're running the business side of it.
12:03
The television arm is an important but a big part of the supercars business.
12:09
What were the early learnings like in that stuff?
12:11
Were there people that sort of mentored or even helped on?
12:13
Because this is – it's not to say that you weren't experienced in managing people.
12:16
I mean, even Dino has reminded me.
12:18
He says the thing about Nath, he's a great enabler.
12:22
He's terrific at identifying talent –
12:24
and production people that are around him that he can elevate to go on the journey with him, mate.
12:29
So, you know, that's a great endorsement.
12:32
But all of a sudden, you're managing friends.
12:35
You know, you're managing people that you've had this long relationship with, aren't you?
12:39
Yeah, there was some learnings for me in that.
12:42
Obviously, the dynamic changed because people treat you differently when you go from... To boss.
12:48
When you go to the boss role, and even though I wasn't boss, boss like CEO, but I definitely, my dynamic was that people changed.
12:55
you know, and there was some relearnings from both sides of the fence on communication and how to deal.
13:01
I had some really good mentors.
13:02
Fordo was fantastic.
13:03
Obviously, I replaced him in that role.
13:06
Fordo was line producer, then replaced Scott Young as GM, and then I replaced Fordo as GM.
13:10
So I remember saying to him, mate, what's the hardest bit about this?
13:14
And he said, people.
13:15
That's it.
13:16
He said, people don't like the word no, and they're going to be coming to you, and you're going to have to be using the word no.
13:23
And it's funny because I know it happened to tonners too when I left.
13:26
As soon as there's a new management, people come and they ask for more money.
13:29
There's always, oh, mate, I've been doing this for this many years and, you know, like I work really hard.
13:34
So managing the people side was the hardest bit about it.
13:39
The other bit was learning to let go of I'm not directing anymore and trying to find another way that I could have my input and my creativity.
13:46
And I found that pretty easy.
13:48
I loved having...
13:50
a real direct line to the business and more input.
13:53
Like I said before, Sean really enabled me.
13:56
Everyone in supercars was just brilliant at the leadership level to deal with.
13:59
They were absolutely so welcoming and embracing of me.
14:03
Just really let me be me.
14:05
And I remember saying to Warbo, because as you know, Russell, you've known me a long time, I'm not the most politically correct, sort of gentle, quiet soul.
14:15
And I remember saying to Warbo, mate, how much do I have to change?
14:18
Like...
14:19
James Warden we're talking about.
14:20
To be more politically savvy and be more, yeah.
14:23
And James was the CEO departing same year.
14:26
How much do I have to change to take on this role?
14:29
And I remember he said to me, Nathan, if you weren't who you were, we wouldn't want you.
14:35
And he basically endorsed me to stay true to myself and then obviously people like Neil Crompton have been a big influence in sort of advising me on things.
14:45
on council, but, you know, Neil used to call me ready, fire, aim, right?
14:50
He used to say, oh, you're ready, fire, aim, because I'd always be jumping the gun and, you know, Nathan, it's ready, aim, fire.
14:59
He's got such a great way, Crumpet, doesn't he?
15:02
And so that's what I sort of had to adapt.
15:05
I had to go ready, aim, fire, calm down, get a bit more process, be less off the cuff, and I've grown a lot from the time I spent there doing that.
15:14
You've mentioned a few people, Margie and Mish and Brian and so on.
15:19
There's plenty of people in the framework.
15:21
So I won't get from you an impression of each of them, but can we spend a moment on a handful that people listening at home will know?
15:34
You've already talked about Crompo.
15:35
What is it?
15:37
about him, mate, working with him.
15:39
I mean, he's been on the pod.
15:41
He's an unbelievably good communicator.
15:46
And people don't realise, you've told the little story there a moment ago about walking the track and so on.
15:50
People don't realise the contribution he makes away from the microphone too, mate, do they?
15:55
Oh, he's hugely involved at every level.
15:59
You know, it's his whole life.
16:01
Do you know what I mean?
16:01
Like Neil has committed his entire existence to making supercars what it is today.
16:09
Most people, like you say, only see him as the voice of the sport.
16:12
He is immersed at every level.
16:14
He was doing the commission.
16:15
He's not now, but he's heavily involved in the business.
16:18
He's from a financial perspective, from an advice perspective, he's obviously politically connected with every team.
16:25
You know, his role is probably reduced a little bit in the last 12 months, but he still carries so much sway and knowledge.
16:35
And so from my side, when Neil and I got on very well,
16:40
was he really had a good way of communicating to me
16:46
the car side of it to help me understand what we needed to capture in television.
16:51
He had a fantastic read on what mattered like editorially, like just cut to the chase.
16:58
This is the focus here.
17:00
And we formed a really good relationship as friends.
17:03
I actually cut his wedding video.
17:05
That's really, I edited his wedding video and that's sort of my first connection with him.
17:12
And just together we, we dreamt up crazy ideas on how to make,
17:16
television like outside of supercars we did the legends of motorsport series and pike's peak documentary and and we did a whole bunch of other television projects together where we sort of uh one half of the same brain you know finish each other's sentences he's ultra detail super anal kind of process driven i'm very big picture helicopter mental you know creative type and together we were complementary in those worlds
17:43
A word on Mark Larkin, the emergence of Larko.
17:47
Finding him, shaping him, and in TV land I'm talking about.
17:52
I didn't find Larko.
17:54
I was lucky enough to work with him as pit producer when he first did his first gig at Winton, and I remember that... Krompo pushed hard for him, I think, didn't he?
18:02
Yeah.
18:02
Yeah, he did, and it was just another genius read, right?
18:06
I mean, Larco is such an incredible part of the telecast, his passion.
18:11
Larco has this innate ability to speak to the everyday person, take a technical subject, a lot like Neil, but more in a down-to-earth Aussie way, and translate it with a level of passion and a vocabulary that just speaks to the everyday person.
18:29
Exactly.
18:29
He is just absolutely...
18:32
brilliant to work with high maintenance don't get me wrong oh my god wants everything this way and everything's last minute and oh my god he's like nath i need to go get these pictures for this and i haven't planned it and and i know you said i've got three minutes for this cross but i've done a dummy read and it's actually 12
18:52
Right?
18:53
But that's all right, right?
18:54
And you're like, no, Larco.
18:57
It's not okay, mate.
18:59
Oh, well, mate, I don't want to drop this.
19:01
But anyway, you always find the middle ground with Larco and it's worth sometimes giving him a bit of extra airtime because the stuff's great.
19:08
But he immediately dropped into this universe and just...
19:12
you know added something brought a fresh take um and you know obviously there was all the controversy over his exit i was very anti that um but as we all saw it didn't last long correct scafee hugely driven uh sports person um you know has formed that that that on air uh that's almost something that fans expect when they turn on now he's obviously involved in the business nowadays as well what about scafee
19:39
M.A.R.S., he used to be so intimidating to me.
19:42
So if we go back to the days of doing Big Pond, one of the things I had to do was interview a couple of drivers when he was still driving.
19:49
And then my first year of directing was his first year in the broadcast.
19:52
And he came to me and he said, Mate...
19:54
You know, anything you think I should do, you know, anything I need to improve, please let me know.
19:59
And, you know, he's always been open to change.
20:02
Mark is a perfectionist, right?
20:04
The things that make him great as a race car driver make him great as a businessman and as a broadcaster.
20:10
You know, he works very, very hard at his craft.
20:13
It's his trait.
20:14
He's uncompromising.
20:15
He doesn't care if he pisses people off.
20:18
That's great if you're on his side.
20:20
Right.
20:20
It's not great if you're downstream, which I haven't been, fortunately, and I hope to stay that way, MS.
20:25
But, mate, really incredibly diligent, hard worker.
20:29
I honestly think he cops a really raw end of the deal with the general public on some of his commentary.
20:36
I think he's brilliant.
20:37
Mm-hmm.
20:38
I think him and Neil work really well together.
20:41
There are times where I've had to talk to Neil and Mark in my supercars role about things that I didn't like about the way they were doing and it didn't go well.
20:52
But then...
20:53
they had the respect to come back later and go, okay, point taken.
20:57
I understand what you're doing.
20:59
I think, you know, he's really, really good.
21:01
And his passion for the sport, a lot like Neil's, in a different channeled in a different way, is, you know, second to none.
21:08
He's obviously a big driving force behind the current, you know, leadership and management.
21:12
And, yeah, I've got all the time in the world for him.
21:14
A couple, while we're talking people to finish here, giving younger people a go as well.
21:21
I mean, Chad Nalon, most recent winner of the Supercars Media Award and so on.
21:25
A guy that's come out of WA has really applied himself, and it's great to see him kind of flying now, mate, isn't it?
21:31
So...
21:32
Yeah, Chad's fantastic story.
21:34
He basically got involved with me as a drag racing commentator where he applied for a competition where we were looking for someone in the early pro series days in 2008 or 2009.
21:45
I haven't heard this.
21:46
A competition.
21:47
Yeah, so I think it was Andra at the time.
21:49
Tell us in 25 words or less.
21:51
Why should you be the next face of drag racing?
21:55
No, Chad applied for this role, this talent search thing.
21:59
And, you know, he was this young, skinny-looking kid.
22:02
Still is a skinny-looking kid.
22:03
But real talent.
22:06
And I worked with him.
22:08
And a funny story about Chad is my first year directing 2009, the very first Townsville race, Chad was working with me on the drag racing coverage at the time I was making it for 1HD.
22:19
And he asked to come to Townsville and he slept on the floor of my room.
22:24
Crazy.
22:24
Just to hang out and watch.
22:26
Such is the commitment of the bloke.
22:27
Yeah.
22:28
And on the Sunday night, he came to dinner with me, Scafie, MS, and just was like a wide-eyed kid, like, what's going on here?
22:37
But he showed commitment, worked hard.
22:40
So when an opportunity came up,
22:42
for him to do something, I think it was New Zealand Utes, I was waving his flag.
22:47
I was like, this is Guy Chad.
22:48
He's really good.
22:49
He's a hard worker.
22:51
I think he's worth a shot.
22:52
And he's taken every opportunity that's been offered to him and he's really made his most of it.
22:56
And there's a couple of guys like Peter McDonald in the pits is another guy that used to work, ex-AVE, Speed Week guy.
23:03
Great shooter.
23:04
Just terrific.
23:04
Incredible.
23:06
And I will always...
23:08
I'm really, really hard on people as a director and as a producer, but I'm hardest on myself and I lead by that example.
23:15
And there are a few people that have seen that,
23:19
And I've seen it in them and they've thrived from that environment.
23:22
And I'm always trying to push the next people through.
23:24
Because if I get all these great people around me, they make me look good too.
23:28
Good too.
23:29
Final one when we're talking people.
23:30
There's a story about Matt Nolte.
23:32
You said you were in this kind of quiet conversation, maybe in one of the production huts or something.
23:36
And you said, man, he's super talented, but he looks like a bloke who could eat an apple through a tennis racket.
23:42
And then he walks in and everyone goes, and you were sort of like, oh, far out, there he is.
23:45
And someone said, oh, hey, Nolts, how are you?
23:48
And he goes, not bad for a bloke who can eat an apple through a tennis racket.
23:52
Oh, poor Knuckles.
23:53
Another one I'm proud of.
23:54
You should be, yeah.
23:55
Another extra aggressive guy.
23:56
Yes, I might have been a bit tough about his dental hygiene at the time.
24:10
Only me again.
24:11
Now, do I have an episode for you?
24:13
He has been mentioned in this chat, but the boy from the bush, turned legendary motorsport broadcaster was actually reluctant to get into TV at first.
24:23
I literally pushed him away.
24:24
No, not him.
24:24
Mate, I'm not a TV guy.
24:25
Forget it.
24:26
Look at me.
24:27
I'm a bloke from the bush.
24:28
I can't do TV.
24:29
No, no, not me.
24:31
Anyway, and he kept at me for a while because I guess it was probably that time in television where ex-swimmers, ex-football players, ex-drivers, you know, they'd probably make appropriate commentary support people.
24:43
So he kept at me.
24:43
And I just said, no, look, that's just not me.
24:45
Not interested.
24:46
Long story short, remember Grant Denyer broke his back in the jumping truck?
24:51
Yeah, jump truck.
24:51
So now Murray rang me and said, mate, now, can you help us?
24:57
Larco, he connects so well with the average punter to this day, and his chat with Rusty is unmissable.
25:04
All right, speaking of TV, back to Nathan and Rusty.
25:10
What sort of advice would you give to young people trying to get into television full stop?
25:14
Doesn't matter whether it's because you've done it all, commentary to editing, producing, whatever.
25:19
I mean, when I'm asked about this stuff now, I think diversity is the key thing, mate.
25:24
You've got to have many skills in your bow, mate, don't you?
25:27
That's the bottom line.
25:28
I think that's it.
25:29
Be willing to do anything.
25:31
And that includes like running and getting coffees.
25:33
Like just be in the environment.
25:35
Like my point with Murray getting me on the championship in 2006, wasn't ever going to be an audio guy.
25:41
And the money certainly barely made it worthwhile, but it got me in the series and it got me around.
25:47
I think be available for anything, try anything, and just be easy to deal with.
25:53
Like there's a lot of people that –
25:57
I mean, I've got a 20-year-old son, right, so I'm associated with different levels and age groups, but there is certainly a level of entitlement and preciousness that I'm sort of seeing in certain traits of people.
26:07
Drop that, work hard, long hours, all that stuff, you know.
26:10
Do as you're told, no matter what you're asked.
26:12
I don't necessarily need you to be the best at what you do, but if you're there hardworking, I'll take a hardworking young person that just says yes over an expert any day.
26:22
Do you know what I mean?
26:23
Yeah, 100%.
26:24
That's my opinion.
26:25
You have done work on other sports too.
26:27
I think you brought up tennis before.
26:28
Am I right?
26:29
My memory mightn't serve me perfectly here.
26:30
Did you do a bit of Melbourne Cup too and stuff?
26:32
What did you do?
26:33
Yeah, I've directed two Melbourne Cups.
26:35
I did 2014, 2015 Melbourne Cup for seven.
26:38
I did the 2014 AFL Grand Final sort of pre-show and halftime show and Ed Sheeran at the end, a little bit of that.
26:46
I did 10 years of Australian Open tennis.
26:49
I've done the last 11 Sydney Hobarts.
26:53
Mega.
26:54
I haven't done any cricket.
26:57
I've done some rugby union, a little bit of soccer.
27:00
Yeah, a lot of other sports.
27:02
And like I said...
27:04
I have Sol Stein, Cole Southie to thank a lot for those opportunities.
27:08
Channels.
27:09
When Channel 7 took on supercar rights, I started directing supercars.
27:13
They gave me a lot of opportunity to do their other sports.
27:16
Olympics.
27:17
I did a couple of Olympics.
27:18
Um...
27:20
And I really can thank them for giving me the opportunity to learn stuff.
27:24
And every time I did another sport, I learnt a little trick or a little something or a little way to use it.
27:29
That you could bring back.
27:29
And I could bring it back and inject it back into supercars.
27:32
And I loved that.
27:33
I'm forever grateful for what they afforded me.
27:36
Not bad for that kid-cutting brush videos to, what was it, Kickstart My Heart or whatever the tune was.
27:42
A few other passion projects to talk about here as we sort of near the end.
27:47
Summonats.
27:48
I mean, you've often used the words, I think in another interview I heard with you, it is a rite of passage for car lovers, mate, basically, isn't it?
27:55
I think so.
27:56
It's an incredible event and I've made an incredible mate out of it, Andy Lopez.
28:02
Andy, when he purchased Summonats, I think it was Summonats 23, I was engaged through Dale Britton to do the broadcast and I did like 10 years of Summonats.
28:12
And I absolutely love the event.
28:14
Yes, it's wild.
28:15
Yes, it's crazy.
28:15
Yes, it's burnouts.
28:17
Yes, it's like to some people Bogan Central, but it's an absolute...
28:25
celebration of the car game it is like-minded people out having a good time you know i won't say controlled let's say relatively controlled environment and i reckon if you're a 18 year old with some sort of interesting cars you must attend the summonats because it is off the charts awesome everything show cars burnout cars you know dinos horsepower tattoos concerts it's awesome
28:53
You mentioned Pikes Peak before.
28:55
I mean, Red Centered Ants is another thing that you've done.
28:57
I think that's on in early September this year.
28:59
Before we get to Dakar, mate, I don't know how much you can tell us.
29:03
There is a little bit of chat about you and Andy and what you might do from a drag racing standpoint.
29:08
Just share what you are able to there.
29:10
It does sound like there's potentially good things in the pipeline.
29:13
Yeah.
29:14
Yeah, so Andy and I, I convinced Andy towards the end of 2020 to help me out with the Burson Australian Top Fuel Championship.
29:23
So we formed our own series essentially because at the time I was a little bit disillusioned about what was going on with the sport.
29:31
I have a lot of close friends in Top Fuel as you're aware.
29:33
It was fragmented, mate, wasn't it?
29:35
It was.
29:35
It was fragmented.
29:36
And so we just went, let's control our own destiny.
29:39
The racers wanted to control our own destiny.
29:42
And we formed the Burson Top Fuel Championship.
29:44
And the weekend just passed at the Nitro Champs was our 12th race meeting in 15 months.
29:50
In that time...
29:52
I feel we've proven ourselves as good organisers of drag racing.
29:56
I feel like we've delivered an incredible television package.
29:59
And I think we've actually put to bed a lot of the animosity that was around at the time when we first formed it.
30:08
And Annie and I, in consultation with other parties and partners and stakeholders in the sport, have formed the National Drag Racing Championship, which is a unification of the sport.
30:22
One championship...
30:24
One management group, 11 major events, a lot of focus on a whole of sport model, sportsman all the way up to Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car.
30:35
And I think it's a really exciting time for the sport, Rusty.
30:39
It's in its infancy.
30:40
It hasn't been announced yet.
30:41
It will be announced probably by the time this comes out.
30:44
And we see it as the first time, well, it is the first time in the history of Australian drag racing that it's not been run by a sanctioning body or any of the tracks.
30:54
We are going to work very closely with the sanctioning bodies and the tracks to ensure that their needs are met.
30:57
But it's about delivering to the races, unifying to a single championship for all championship categories, and just being able to get the sport back on the path and going in the right direction.
31:08
I'm really proud of the work that's gone into it.
31:10
I'm really proud of what we've done with Top Fuel, and this is an extension of that capturing the entire sport of drag racing.
31:16
Well done.
31:17
It's great for that game, mate, and it's crying out for it.
31:19
I think that's the main thing.
31:21
Dakar, you've done iterations in both South America and Saudi Arabia, working for Red Bull, mate.
31:28
I mean, you've been there for Signature Moments for Toby Price.
31:31
What the hell is that event like?
31:33
Dakar is one of the best things I've ever done in my life.
31:36
In fact, the 2018 Dakar probably goes down as my greatest work trip I've ever done in my entire life.
31:42
Insane hours, mate, isn't it?
31:44
Oh, yeah, forget sleep.
31:46
Here's a fun fact.
31:46
I could never sleep on planes, right?
31:49
You go to Dakar.
31:50
No problem.
31:51
As soon as something even remotely sounds like an engine and I'm sitting down, I fall asleep.
31:55
You just have to because...
31:57
you know, some, some of the transport legs in South America was 17 hours, right.
32:03
To get from one venue to the other.
32:05
So,
32:06
You know, it was a lot of really hard work.
32:09
South America by far was my favorite.
32:11
Saudi was cool.
32:12
I did two years of Saudi.
32:13
Paraguay, Bolivia, all that sort of stuff, wasn't it?
32:15
Yeah, first year was Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia.
32:21
The next year was Peru, Bolivia, Argentina.
32:24
And the final year was Peru only.
32:26
And then the future years were Saudi only.
32:29
Every event was special.
32:31
Every event was different.
32:32
Like I said, South America was particularly challenging.
32:36
We were in Argentina on day one.
32:38
It was 48 degrees centigrade, right?
32:41
Absolutely crazy.
32:43
The next day, we went to 4,600 metres of elevation.
32:47
It was eight degrees, pouring rain and mud up to your knees.
32:49
That's silly base camp high, mate.
32:50
I think base camp's 5'5".
32:51
What did you say, 4,600?
32:52
4,600 metres, right?
32:54
Because Bolivia is like – I think the whole of Bolivia is above an average of 3,500 metres or something.
33:00
I mean, it's- Half the oxygen at sea level or nearly, you know.
33:03
And it's funny because I'm like, I'm not the fittest bloke, but I worked out I'm okay on- Altitude.
33:08
Low altitude.
33:08
I never got unwell, whereas other people, like the fittest people- Yeah.
33:12
Really struggled in altitude.
33:15
So, just those changes of conditions were awesome.
33:18
And I just made some great friends, Mike Chen-
33:21
You know, obviously, Peter McDonald from the supercars I talked about, he did every single one of the Dakars with me, Richie Rowley.
33:28
Just an incredible, incredible countryside to see and the toughest races on the planet.
33:36
You know, with respect...
33:38
To think, right, which is a cool race.
33:41
What is it?
33:41
It's like 200 and something k's?
33:42
Down the 200.
33:43
Yep, yep.
33:44
230, I think, yeah.
33:45
Yeah, they're doing, in some stages, they're doing 800 kilometers in a day.
33:51
And they're doing these for two weeks.
33:53
There's nothing like it.
33:54
absolutely amazing Toby's a unique breed and he's built for built for that isn't he on Toby he is underrated in Australia for his what an athlete and superstar he is I mean everywhere in Dakar wherever he goes people they love him he's an incredible guy and when he won in 2019 with a broken wrist
34:12
And to see the pain he was going through every night, obviously I was there working for Red Bull, making Dakar daily.
34:18
So we had access to the Red Bull athletes and being Aussie and Mike Chen got on really well with him.
34:24
We did spend a lot of time with Toby.
34:27
Hmm.
34:27
And to see the pain he was in at the end of every stage and then to get up the next morning and fight through the pain and to hang on and win that, mate, one of the best superstar performances I've ever seen in any sport.
34:37
I think he told you on the quiet, did he not?
34:39
Like, I can't do this, mate.
34:40
I don't know if I can do this.
34:41
And he would get up and go again.
34:42
For the last couple of nights, he would come in, he'd go into the camper and he'd say, I can't keep going.
34:47
You know, it hurts too much.
34:49
I don't know how I'm going to do it.
34:50
And then.
34:51
He fought through it and he did it and it's bloody impressive.
34:55
Well, we're talking Dakar here.
34:57
At the end of one of the Saudi events in the midst of COVID, you guys got trapped basically, didn't you?
35:03
And you were pulling out all sorts of contacts and whatever to try and find.
35:07
I think were you in Dubai?
35:08
Where were you?
35:08
And you had to get back, didn't you?
35:09
It was nigh on impossible.
35:11
Yeah, so halfway through Dakar, the Australian government, in their wisdom, decided to halve the amount of intakes returning to Australia.
35:18
So our flight just got cancelled.
35:20
And I remember I woke to a missed call from a travel guy, Brad, and I rang him.
35:23
He goes, your flight's been cancelled.
35:25
And I'm like, okay, when am I going?
35:27
He goes, no, your flight's been cancelled.
35:28
I'm like...
35:29
Yeah, so when I'm going, he goes, mate, it's cancelled.
35:31
There's not another booking.
35:32
You can't get back.
35:34
And I'm like, come on, mate.
35:36
Like, realistically, and he goes, the first one I can find is in March.
35:41
And this is January.
35:41
It's like January 8 or 10 or something like that.
35:45
Anyway, we...
35:48
We had to really – I think I booked like three or four different trips home and the first one was like middle of February.
35:56
And I remember the supercar season was starting like two weeks after that and I was like – had a few phone calls short.
36:02
Hey, buddy.
36:04
I might be stuck in the Middle East a bit longer.
36:06
But –
36:08
What we ended up doing is Red Bull flew us into Dubai.
36:10
We could get into Dubai and we spent a week there.
36:13
And we were meant to be there for another week.
36:15
And all of a sudden we were out having a beer with Daniel Sanders, Chucky Sanders.
36:19
And he took a phone call and went, what?
36:22
What?
36:23
Tonight?
36:25
Okay, we'll see if we make it.
36:26
And I went, wait, wait, wait.
36:28
Ask if there's any more seats.
36:29
As it turns out, eight seats had popped up on a flight to Melbourne.
36:34
We had to get to Sydney, but we were like, we'll take whatever we can.
36:38
So we ended up getting three of the four of us onto that flight to Melbourne.
36:44
The one without kids, well, the youngest and the one without kids is the one that ended up staying.
36:49
And so we came into Melbourne right in the middle of the Australian Open Tennis when all that furor was on about how tennis players shouldn't get treated differently.
36:57
Go to the Park Royal Airport and it was a nightmare.
37:01
I ended up staying 20 days.
37:02
Yeah, yeah, I remember.
37:04
And so the irony of it is that Andrew Mel, who came three days after me, he ended up leaving quarantine a day before me.
37:11
Crazy.
37:12
Yeah.
37:12
Crazy.
37:13
Couple to finish here.
37:14
You, myself, Chad, Rihanna and others, we went to Malaysia for a one-off.
37:19
The KL City Grand Prix, I think is what it was called.
37:22
It was the chance to showcase supercars.
37:25
There was one of each, Mark, a Ford, a Holden, a Merck, a Volvo.
37:29
I think it was seven cars, yeah.
37:31
Yeah, it was four, maybe five, I can't remember.
37:32
But it was a small contingent of us.
37:34
Up we went with the view to the following year being the real deal.
37:38
And it was all around the main, you know, by the Petronas Towers and all that sort of stuff.
37:41
It was huge.
37:43
I can vividly remember walking from the hotel station
37:46
to the outside broadcast truck and things like that.
37:50
And as I was crossing the track, there are blokes welding down manhole covers.
37:53
This is on Friday when practice is meant to be starting and gates being put in place.
37:57
And Tim Schenken was sweating, man, was he sweating about ensuring it was all safe and signed off.
38:03
That was a really cool but a crazy experience, and it required this small group of TV people to integrate with the Malaysians.
38:12
You had to learn a bit of Malaysian, didn't you, to tell them how to pan left?
38:15
Oh, yeah.
38:16
Licky, licky, licky.
38:17
Kiri, kiri, kiri.
38:18
Chapatsikit, which means hurry up, I think, or hurry up a little bit.
38:22
Mate, that was one of the wildest things, one of the coolest things I've ever done, and you're right, I remember...
38:28
every day, I think we arrived on the Wednesday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and I was like asking for a man, like a camera hole to be cut.
38:35
In the end I had to go borrow an angle grinder off Tickford.
38:37
You cut one?
38:37
And we had to cut our own camera slot.
38:40
Right?
38:40
And, you know, because just nothing was happening.
38:42
There was an old mate with a cigarette and no welding goggles, like zzzzzz, welding manholes, like you said.
38:48
And do you remember the dead rat?
38:49
It was like you gave someone instructions how to get to the TV compound.
38:52
You'd like, cross the road, go pass the bar, turn left at the dead rat.
38:56
because there was a dead rat the size of a possum that no one moved for like four days.
39:01
But that was a crazy thing.
39:03
But we were meant to be on air at 8 o'clock on Friday morning.
39:07
We didn't go on air till 1, and the very first car around was Craig Lowndes.
39:13
Craig comes out of pit lane and it's like, all right, stand by camera one, camera one, take, that's it.
39:17
There's one car to follow, right?
39:18
So not a lot of confusion here.
39:20
All right, that's the car.
39:21
The car drives out of frame.
39:22
Okay, mate.
39:23
No worries.
39:23
Stand by two, take two.
39:24
All right, mate.
39:25
Pan right, pan right, pan right.
39:27
Car just drives in.
39:28
Okay, take three.
39:29
By the time I get about camera four and these guys are just letting the cars drive through the shop.
39:32
No panning.
39:33
No panning.
39:33
No panning.
39:34
And they're all Malaysian camera guys, really great guys.
39:36
Wow.
39:37
I turned to someone in the truck that spoke Bahasa and I said, you know, what's Bahasa for left?
39:43
And they're like, Kiri, and it could be right.
39:45
And I just went, Kiri, Kiri, Kiri.
39:47
Every single camera on the monitor wall panned.
39:51
All of them panned at once.
39:53
It was so hilarious.
39:54
And then to make a comedy of errors worse, the world's biggest storm rolled in halfway through the lap.
40:01
That's right.
40:01
That's right.
40:02
And the heavens opened and dropped swimming pools.
40:05
And I remember just watching the monitor wall, the cameras just go blink, blink, blink, blink, blink.
40:09
They just all started to disappear because in the five days they built the track,
40:14
They'd been putting concrete blocks on all these camera cables.
40:17
I had all holes in them.
40:18
The moment it rained, all the cameras shorted out.
40:21
I reckon I had one camera by the end of the lap and were like, okay, I guess we're off air.
40:25
The humidity was insane.
40:27
And I can remember one of the sports car drivers, I think he drove a Lambo.
40:30
He pulled his helmet off and his hair was like Elvis perfect.
40:34
That was his name.
40:35
He had an incredible name.
40:36
He did.
40:36
I can't remember it.
40:37
Chad will know it.
40:38
Chad will know it.
40:39
Yeah, he had an incredible name.
40:40
And I think he ended up crashing at high speed right on the main straight, had that huge tear up.
40:44
That would have been a great supercar race, though, you've got to admit.
40:47
Definitely.
40:47
Definitely.
40:48
We'd love to have gone back there.
40:50
Now, you are, just before we get to World Supercross and a few things, you did something during the pandemic, which I hated and tested all of us, mate.
41:00
And everyone talked about that word pivot, right?
41:02
You took all the broadcasting stuff that you did so well and you integrated it with iRacing.
41:07
You guys went eRacing that was absolutely world-class to the point where Lando Norris came and played.
41:14
Max Verstappen wanted to do stuff with you guys.
41:16
Obviously, he's a mate of...
41:18
shanes and so on it was made it was tremendous wasn't it yeah and it was actually really exciting to be able to do something when other sports couldn't you know we're really lucky we had this platform that had our cars in it um and we we did you know a really cool thing i mean it was making the news rusty i mean that's how starving people were for sport but actually tad naylon was the first person to ring me and said mate we should go i racing on the monday morning when or the sunday morning it might have been when we got on the plane at the grand prix and
41:47
And by the time I got into the office Monday, Sean had had the same idea.
41:50
He said, let's go.
41:51
Let's do iRacing.
41:53
And it was really – I didn't know anything really about the product.
41:57
I had some indication because we'd had our local series.
42:01
But the philosophy for me was take all the same broadcast and production values that we do in our main coverage and just overlay it with the game because the game looks so good.
42:11
Good.
42:12
It's so realistic.
42:13
So same graphics package, same commentary, same values of boxing.
42:19
But the key for me...
42:21
for people to truly connect with this was they had to see the real people doing it.
42:27
So we basically got all of the drivers to get a camera.
42:33
It could have been their phone, their iPad, some had webcams.
42:36
The rule was we had to see you actually doing it live so we could integrate you and we used a giant Zoom call.
42:42
We used iRacing and we used the Gravity studio and we put it together and I'm really proud of it.
42:47
Gee, Krompo loved it, didn't he?
42:50
Yeah, Crumpo and Jess, it was their best time in supercars broadcasting.
42:54
Loved it.
42:55
You are now doing, among when we talk about the drag racing side of things, but FIM World Supercross Championship.
43:02
It's not all that long before you head to the UK, Birmingham, and you've done a couple of rounds last year and so on.
43:07
Yeah, so 18 seasons, Rusty, of supercars.
43:12
Like I said, started in 2005, left in the middle of last year, 22.
43:16
Was that hard?
43:18
Yeah, it was really hard.
43:20
What was the T-shirts?
43:22
They gave you T-shirts.
43:23
Prenderfest.
43:23
Yeah, Prenderfest.
43:24
Let's blow shit up, wasn't it?
43:25
Yeah, because that's born from, you know, we talked about me with a show in Sydney.
43:29
I love pyro.
43:30
I love anything where I get to throw flames or do fireworks.
43:34
What was the reason you decided to call time?
43:36
I just felt that I'd done everything I could do in the sport.
43:40
I felt that I had... To grow, you had to step away.
43:43
Yeah.
43:44
And I had just...
43:46
I love it.
43:47
To this day, I haven't missed a race.
43:49
I still talk to the people.
43:51
I love it.
43:52
I'm still passionate about it.
43:53
I didn't leave because I was disillusioned by the product.
43:56
I felt that I was not growing.
44:00
There was not much more I felt I could offer the product or change it.
44:05
Yes, I could continue to deliver a good broadcast and make sure that the ship was steady.
44:09
But...
44:10
But I felt like what else could I really give them and more what could I give myself?
44:15
Like what was I learning?
44:17
So the opportunity with World Supercross came along.
44:19
I was approached by Tony Cochran, who is a big name being on your podcast, Ex Supercars, really rate Tony.
44:27
He rates you too.
44:28
Thank you.
44:28
And there was Adam Bailey and Ryan Sanderson who had had a previous relationship through the AusX Open coverage, which you were also involved with.
44:37
And they just painted a picture that,
44:41
It was all the things I wanted.
44:42
It was global.
44:44
It was a proper world championship, an FIM world championship.
44:48
They wanted to deliver incredible events and incredible broadcasts.
44:53
They wanted to innovate.
44:55
And it did appeal to me...
44:58
that it wasn't just a straight race coverage.
45:00
It was a new product that was out of my comfort zone.
45:02
And there's a big showbiz element to the Supercross side of things as opposed to like a traditional starchy kind of cars go around in circles type of thing, which I also love.
45:12
So it just ticked my box.
45:13
We did last year, which was fantastic.
45:15
I'm doing this year again, which is brilliant.
45:18
You know, we've got six events this year.
45:20
Birmingham, which I go to in July, then on to Lyon and France in July, going to Singapore in the end of September, then we go to Dusseldorf in Germany in the middle of October, Vancouver, Canada, end of October, and then finish in Melbourne at Marvel in late November, actually same weekend as Adelaide.
45:38
So it really gave me the opportunity to still use my motorsport TV skills on a global scale and it –
45:48
It's really been a fantastic opportunity for me to try new things and to change and get out of my comfort zone.
45:55
And it's also served a purpose because it's got me on the global scale.
45:58
And then now I'm also lucky enough to be doing some light contract work for Formula One.
46:03
So you popped up, I think it was Saudi Arabia there, but there's opportunities for a bit more of that within the schedule that you've just talked about there this year, isn't there?
46:09
Yeah, so five this year.
46:12
Excellent.
46:13
I've done Saudi, Australia, obviously, because it was in my backyard.
46:17
I'm going to do Silverstone and Spa and then Vegas in November.
46:21
How good.
46:21
Vegas.
46:22
Oh, Vegas will be exciting.
46:23
It's going to be very, very good.
46:25
Fordo says to ask you about red wine night.
46:31
Oh, wow.
46:31
So in the Scott Young era, Scott used to have this saying, membership has its privileges.
46:37
And Scott was a red wine... What's his title now?
46:38
He's off in the UK.
46:39
I can't remember what it is now.
46:40
I don't know.
46:41
It's vice president of something.
46:43
Big swinging dick of Eurosport.
46:44
He's kind of a big deal.
46:45
People know him.
46:47
No, Scott, yeah, Scott's gone on to do bigger and better things.
46:50
But SY really loved his red wine and always chose great restaurants and therefore always chose great red wine.
46:58
And we always did it on Thursday night.
47:01
I love red wine, but it smashes me up.
47:03
But we used to do red wine night and it was always their common joke that to see the state I was in Friday morning because generally it wasn't much chop.
47:12
Any yarns about fishing with Larco and the gang in the top end?
47:16
Did you do some of that?
47:18
We did, yes.
47:18
So we went because it was on the Crompey boat tours, the croc tours, and I'm surprised Ford has brought this up because the only memory I have is him completely panicking when we chased down a crocodile and it turned and came at the boat.
47:33
all right stop you guys he completely freaked out i was like dude like we're in a giant aluminium cage it's not getting in ford i literally ran from the front of the boat to the back all right guys back it up stop back up the boat what is um without giving away your your secrets because you're in a game of of you know looking at new innovations and things all the time what do you think the future of motorsport tv coverage is fast forward five or ten years about generally how we will digest it do you reckon
48:02
Well, I think it's digitally.
48:03
I think I don't have to be a rocket surgeon to say that.
48:05
I mean, one of the things that really surprised me because we don't have it from a rights perspective in Australia is even how Formula One is doing it, you know, with their own app and their own extended coverage.
48:16
I think people nowadays, I mean, you've got kids, I've got kids, they don't watch linear traditional television.
48:23
Correct.
48:23
They don't digest it that way.
48:25
They'll watch it on VOD or they'll stream it through a device and whilst, you know, it's...
48:32
It's not uncommon for us to consume stuff like that.
48:35
We are at the end of the scale on television viewership, so everyone's going to watch everything through a device.
48:42
We are in that crazy middle phase at the moment where there's still traditional elements, isn't there?
48:46
Yeah, we are, but even the broadcasters get it.
48:48
I mean, James Warden now is the... You know, he runs Channel 7.
48:51
I mean...
48:53
as of 12 months ago, I think 7 Plus had 12.5 million downloads.
48:57
They're already setting themselves up when the call gets cut.
49:00
It's what everyone will do.
49:02
That's why your Chromecast, you've got an app on your smart TV, that's how everyone watches it.
49:07
But what the digital side is doing is, if you're going to watch it digitally, they don't just want to see your traditional, you know, race coverage.
49:16
They want the additional complimentary information.
49:18
So second screen, you know,
49:21
other picture-in-picture, other data, other information, complementary information, because it's sort of expected now.
49:28
If you're going to watch it digitally, they don't just want to see the raw pictures.
49:33
They want timing.
49:34
They want an in-car angle.
49:35
They want a chopper shot.
49:37
Data, stats or whatever it might be.
49:38
That's it.
49:39
And that's what digital is delivering to everyone.
49:42
It's, you know, we're all getting, you know, shorter of our attention span.
49:48
So the way to keep them engaged is give them more shit to look at.
49:51
There's a really cool photo that I think Kimi Raikkonen shared not long ago of his F1 experience.
49:55
And it was like screen on screen on screen of stuff he wanted to see and know about when he was watching the broadcast.
50:03
It was on steroids.
50:04
It was, you know...
50:05
Yeah.
50:05
Yeah.
50:06
You had a cool Commodore with some very good bits on it.
50:10
Very sadly, it was stolen.
50:12
They had to move another car that was in your garage to get it.
50:16
Yeah.
50:16
Tell us a little bit about that thing.
50:18
It was close to your heart at the time.
50:19
Did you ever find it?
50:20
What became of all that?
50:22
Yeah, so it was April 21.
50:24
It's an HSV?
50:26
What was it?
50:26
It was a HSV Club Sport LSA with a Walkinshaw 557 kit on it.
50:31
So it made about 720 horsepower.
50:35
Did you take it out to Eastern Creek a few times?
50:36
I think you did, didn't you?
50:37
I took it to the drag strip.
50:38
It ran, what did it run?
50:41
Yeah.
50:42
11.4 or something at 127 mile an hour.
50:47
Beautiful car.
50:50
You know, when you started it, the Saudis would start clapping like you could watch the fuel gauge empty, you know, but it was just, did the best burnouts.
50:58
It was completely impractical, but I loved it.
51:00
Luckily through Oscar Firinotto at Super Shock, I managed to get some, some really good suspension on it.
51:05
It's just a beautiful car and unfortunately, yeah, it got stolen.
51:10
They lifted the front gate off my house.
51:11
They,
51:12
moved um a mercedes which was in the driveway and just left it in the street with the keys in crazy and they did some pretty ingenious stuff to get into the house and get the keys and and get rid of it so it was gone for about three months and in the middle of the second covid lockdown and 21 i i got a call late at night from a number i didn't know punted it listened to the message and it was a police officer out near richmond in uh western sydney and they'd found it and it was uh
51:37
It was crashed.
51:38
They were doing burnouts in a back street.
51:40
It got crashed into a paddock, landed in long grass, caught fire and burnt to the ground basically.
51:45
So yeah, it was a complete waste.
51:48
But I guess the only happy ending to that story is I – it got held and impound because I actually caught the people and it got held and impound until all the process had to go through and then it got bought by someone in South Australia and I had this guy reach out to me on –
52:04
social media and say hey did you have a black club sport did it get stolen and i was like pretty cautious like you know anyway long story short this kid has bought it this guy in south australia has bought this car and he's restoring it and he's building it up and he sends me progress photos and he's like if you want to go to south australia anytime come and come and see it and i kind of like that it's living on and then someone is actually revived it reviving it because i
52:28
really loved that car and I didn't have the resources or the skill set to buy it back and turn it into something.
52:36
So the fact that someone is and breathing love back into it, that makes me happy.
52:40
Excellent.
52:41
You have now built something for off-road travels, which you love.
52:47
And have I even seen photos of you spinning the discs in the desert and playing some music?
52:52
Tell me about the four-wheel driving.
52:53
Where have you been?
52:54
And tell us about the beast that you've created for this.
52:57
So my best mate, Scotty, has had four-wheel drives for a while and he sort of – I did a couple of trips with him and I was like, I really, really love this.
53:04
So I bought this piece of shit 200-series Land Cruiser from Graze Online, sight unseen.
53:10
I bid like I was the only bidder and I actually bought it when we did the Fink Desert Race in 2007.
53:15
You were on the phone, were you?
53:16
Yeah, I was on the phone.
53:17
I was like, oh, I won that bid.
53:19
Oh, shit, I better go pick it up.
53:20
Anyway, this thing had been flooded.
53:22
It was a pig.
53:23
But I have loved this car.
53:26
I built it up, put all ARB kits on it.
53:30
Anyway, I designed it to do the telegraph track up Cape York, the ATT.
53:35
And I've done it twice in the car.
53:36
I've done a lot of trips to Darwin.
53:39
And then during COVID, when supercars had to go on the road, we did six race meetings in seven weeks.
53:47
And, of course, we had to have two weeks prior in Queensland as a series before we landed to Northern Territory.
53:53
So for me, I sort of read the writing on the wall and I said to Sean, rather than fly me everywhere...
53:58
I'm going to drive.
53:59
I'm going to drive.
54:00
I'm going to take the land cruise, I'm going to hit the road and I will drive to all these locations.
54:05
I'm not expecting fuel or miles or anything, but I just don't want to fly.
54:08
You don't have to accommodate me.
54:10
It worked for them.
54:11
I did 20,000 Ks in 10 weeks on that trip.
54:14
And I love that car.
54:16
But, yeah, I've been down Gunshot Creek in it a couple of times, which is a famous drop-off on the Telegraph track.
54:23
I've had it bogged up to the sills.
54:26
I've had it through water up over the bonnet.
54:29
And, yeah, my fiancée calls the rooftop tent the treehouse.
54:33
She goes, oh, when are we going to have another night in the treehouse?
54:36
So I love it.
54:36
It's just my escape.
54:37
Get off the beaten track.
54:38
Yeah.
54:39
And to your point about the decks, we all love our dance music.
54:42
And when I got to the end of the Telegraph track, we set up a little session and had a little, played the decks at Nolan's Brook and, yeah, entertained all the four-wheel drive cars coming through and had a good time.
54:52
Your smile says it all.
54:53
Terrific.
54:54
Two to finish.
54:55
Is there anything else, event or sport-wise, that you would like to have a crack at that you haven't done yet?
55:02
Is there anything on the wish list?
55:03
I'd love to do IndyCar from a broadcast perspective.
55:06
Yeah, broadcast perspective.
55:06
I really would love to do IndyCar.
55:08
I watch that product.
55:09
I'm passionate about it.
55:10
Obviously, it's got Emax in it.
55:12
I really think I could do some cool things if I was allowed to get my hands on that.
55:20
I've just started doing some F1 stuff.
55:21
I really would like to...
55:23
Explore that?
55:24
Expand and explore that.
55:26
You know, that's an incredible product.
55:29
And they're growing.
55:30
They're doing some great things at the moment.
55:31
Yeah, and you know what?
55:31
What they've done with it is amazing.
55:33
And whilst I'd love to do more, I feel like they're already killing it.
55:39
And from another sport perspective outside of motorsport, no, I don't sit there.
55:46
You've done so much, mate.
55:47
I don't sit there and go, oh, you know, I really want to do Rugby World Cup or...
55:53
do a Premier League game.
55:54
I'd love to be involved in the broadcast because of the scale they're at.
55:58
But I've got to say, my love has got to have an engine in it.
56:02
You know?
56:03
So...
56:04
I really would love to do IndyCar and Ascar.
56:07
Cool.
56:07
I would really like to do that.
56:08
Hard one to finish on because it's probably very difficult to choose.
56:13
Is there a moment, a moment where you were perhaps directing, where you were doing something in TV land that just was like this spine-tingling thing where you nailed what you were doing, what the offering in a sports sense was,
56:30
delivered was huge and incredibly memorable it could be sad it could be uh you know filled with with energy because it's a win or something is there a moment for you there's an equal first how's that go go 2014 bathurst gotta be yeah that that uh that whole race i was really proud of and it just delivered just so much craziness but that last lap and i remember i don't stand up when i direct and i remember the cars coming in the lane at the end of the race and
56:59
And I was talking to Greville on the jib and I'm like, standby jib, swing back.
57:03
And Chase stood on the roof and threw his hands up and I got the shot and it was just...
57:08
I just loved it and I was standing up and I was just yelling cameras and I could just see the whole monitor wall and I really felt like I did a good job that day.
57:15
And the other one was, funnily enough, the last ever race I ever directed as the Superguards director, which was Newcastle 2017,
57:24
with the Scotty McLaughlin, Craig Lownd stuff, the way that was told, Jamie Winkup winning the championship.
57:30
And being told as he crossed the line over the radio.
57:31
Yeah, and just I really felt we did a really good job as a unit and I felt like I did a good job as a director and to finish it, like it was like a mic drop.
57:40
Okay, I'm done.
57:41
This is good.
57:43
So those two massive standouts for me is incredible time in the seat as a director.
57:48
Yeah, they were pretty special.
57:50
Congratulations on the contribution you've made.
57:52
Keep kicking ass, mate.
57:53
It sounds clichéd, but it's unreal to think that someone who is properly passionate about something has made a career out of it and continues to enjoy it immensely.
58:02
Great story.
58:02
Thank you, bud.
58:03
Thanks, Rusty, and thanks for thinking of me for this because I love it, and you've got some superstars on this, and I'm not really...
58:09
worthy in this company, but I really appreciate the time.
58:11
You are worthy of it, but you've just done it wrong, though.
58:13
You have some great talent.
58:15
That's it.
58:16
I'm Greg Rust, and it's time to end the podcast here.
58:22
Goodbye, Nathan.
58:22
Thank you.
58:23
Thank you.
58:30
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
58:34
Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
58:37
Audio production by Link Kelly.
58:40
If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
58:44
The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fueled stories.