Latest / Rusty's Garage / Thomas Randle - Part 2

Transcript

Thomas Randle - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:20
  All set for part two of a convo that I thoroughly enjoyed.
• 0:23
  I'm in our Melbourne studios at Listener with Castrol Tickford Supercars star Thomas Randall.
• 0:30
  If you've landed here and not checked out part one, put it into park, head back to the library and grab a gear on that one first.
• 0:37
  From broadcasting recently, which he was a natural at, to his dad's sports sedan.
• 0:42
  What a weapon that thing is.
• 0:44
  Karting and the lessons he learned as a junior.
• 0:47
  Racing overseas and chasing the open-wheeler dream, which pitted him against some names that you will know now from Formula One, IndyCar and more.
• 0:56
  Before we continue the chat...
• 0:58
  I want to say thank you to Tom for the way that he opens up on his cancer battle from a few years ago.
• 1:04
  I'm always a believer that guests should only share what they're comfortable with, but he has framed it now in this way that gives you...
• 1:13
  a bit of a window into his engineering brain, the way that he wanted to really understand it, the best way to tackle it, but also, I guess, to ensure that something positive comes from it.
• 1:24
  Pretty impressive what the young man across the desk from me has stared down, and how he continues to be this incredibly positive source of energy.
• 1:34
  Many of us who have never confronted something like this could learn from that.
• 1:40
  Here's the second half.
• 1:43
  You hit a speed hump in 2020, and that is cancer.
• 1:46
  Big thing, right?
• 1:49
  I don't know whether you thought it might have been game over from a racing point of view.
• 1:54
  I don't know how you compartmentalise that now.
• 1:57
  I'm a big believer that...
• 1:59
  out of something like that comes positivity, right?
• 2:01
  Whether it's the way that you listen to your body, the way that you tackle things and so on.
• 2:06
  I can't profess to understand what that would have been like because I haven't been in your shoes.
• 2:11
  But if you are comfortable, how did you deal with that?
• 2:16
  How did you feel when you first found out and the process of coming through that, mate?
• 2:22
  Well, yeah, it's hard to put into words
• 2:27
  Greg, what it's like to be staring at your GP and them telling you that you've got cancer.
• 2:35
  It's, and at a point in my life where- You're a young man.
• 2:38
  You've got your world in front of you, your life in front of you, mate.
• 2:40
  Yeah.
• 2:41
  And I was 23 at the time.
• 2:46
  I'm in a point of my career where it's kind of like make or break.
• 2:51
  I've got, well, that year we were actually trying to get into supercars and it obviously didn't come to fruition, but that was like, okay, we've signed up for our last, our last go at super two.
• 3:02
  We need to win the, we've got to win it.
• 3:04
  Otherwise, you know, and, and we've always been, our family or my dad and myself have always been a big believer that if I'm going to make it, I want to get there on merit.
• 3:14
  I want to know that if I'm on that grid, I'm there because I deserve it.
• 3:18
  And that, you know, for the viewers that are watching at home, they go, oh, what's he done?
• 3:21
  Oh, he's actually, okay.
• 3:22
  He's actually won this championship and this, you know, he's done these things.
• 3:24
  He deserves to be there.
• 3:25
  Correct.
• 3:26
  And it's like watching any sport, any professional sport.
• 3:29
  You want to watch the best of the best.
• 3:31
  And, you know, hopefully I can be the one day, the best of the best.
• 3:34
  But at that point...
• 3:36
  It was actually at 2019, the last Supercars round.
• 3:39
  The way that our belts are, we have our five-point harness.
• 3:43
  We've got the two that go across.
• 3:44
  And then the crutch straps.
• 3:45
  The crutch strap, you've got your two shoulder straps.
• 3:47
  And sometimes for us men, the crutch strap can get caught in not a nice way and crush one of your little fellas down there.
• 3:57
  Yeah.
• 3:58
  And it was, yeah, it was quite painful.
• 4:00
  I've got to say, spent the whole session or, you know, a few laps trying to, you know, Adjust.
• 4:06
  Anyway, the pain went away.
• 4:07
  And then a few days later I felt this, this pain and I thought, that's a bit weird.
• 4:10
  I thought it must be from that, that belt.
• 4:14
  And I thought, I'll just leave it.
• 4:15
  And, and us, I guess all men have this same trait, Rusty, that, ah, she'll be right.
• 4:20
  You know?
• 4:22
  And you think, okay, I'm a young bloke, you know, I don't smoke, I don't drink, or, you know, I might have the occasional drink.
• 4:27
  Um, but you know.
• 4:29
  By and large healthy.
• 4:29
  Yeah, exactly.
• 4:30
  Uh, don't do drugs.
• 4:31
  I've never touched them.
• 4:32
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:33
  And, uh, I thought it would go away.
• 4:36
  Anyway, so that was at the end of November, 2019.
• 4:39
  Started January comes around and it hasn't gone away.
• 4:42
  And I'm thinking, you know, I'm just, I guess, having to, having a feel, if you like.
• 4:46
  Thinking this, this isn't right.
• 4:48
  My, I've got this gut feeling rusty that this doesn't just, this doesn't feel right.
• 4:52
  And you start Googling things, which I recommend not to do because Dr. Google will tell you you've got cancer, which I'm like, oh, there's no chance.
• 4:59
  Anyway, so I went and saw my GP.
• 5:02
  And I can't stress it enough that, you know, if, if you're at, you know, if for the guys or, you know, even women out there, if you feel like something's not right, just go and get it checked because it could be the difference.
• 5:13
  And I, um, anyway, I went to my GP and probably if it was anywhere else in my body, I would have just said, oh, can you have a look at this?
• 5:20
  I think cause it was, you know, down there private, I'm like, oh, you know, they probably don't want to hear about it, but.
• 5:26
  GPs have seen it all.
• 5:28
  That's something that everyone needs to know is that you could show them anything and they're not going to judge you for it.
• 5:33
  So anyway, they had a fill around and they said, you know, you should go get an ultrasound and when I got an ultrasound and well, it was that day I got the ultrasound done and they said, you need to go see your GP straight away.
• 5:44
  So I went back there and that's when they said, Hey, um, yeah, we think it's, you've got cancer.
• 5:49
  And then it was a bit of a whirlwind.
• 5:50
  I probably.
• 5:53
  Oh, well you grow up rusty in school thinking that if you get cancer, you know, you're most likely to not survive.
• 6:03
  And I didn't know that testicular cancer was the most common cancers for guys between the ages of 19 and 35.
• 6:08
  So yeah, I was freaking out and it was hard on me, but.
• 6:14
  I can't imagine what it was like on my parents.
• 6:16
  I think it was worse for them, if anything, than me, because they weren't experiencing it themselves.
• 6:24
  And the fact that it was their, their son, you know, they would think, oh, well, my, my, my, my, my children surely have to outlive me.
• 6:31
  And that's probably what every parent would say, you know, that my kids have to outlive me.
• 6:35
  That's just the way of life.
• 6:37
  So, uh, yeah, there was a lot of, uh, running around blood tests, scans, all these sorts of things within the week.
• 6:43
  I had the operation to remove my right testicle essentially.
• 6:48
  Um, yeah, it's four years on now.
• 6:51
  I'm pretty comfortable.
• 6:52
  Yeah.
• 6:52
  Yeah.
• 6:52
  I'm comfortable talking about it.
• 6:53
  Um, but I think it's important, you know, when I, I went public with it pretty quickly or when I, after I had the operation and it wasn't.
• 7:02
  because I wanted to cry for help.
• 7:04
  It was more to educate other men that, Hey, if I can get this and I'm a young guy, I race cars, you know, I eat well, then anyone can get it and, you know, get checked and all that stuff.
• 7:17
  And I was at a point where I was reaching for help from other men that have gone through it, trying to find people.
• 7:25
  It was actually a racing driver in Europe that reached out to me and said, Hey, have you looked at doing this?
• 7:29
  And...
• 7:30
  I got onto his, um, oncologist in the UK through the NHS who got me onto Peter Mack and it just so happened that that was probably the best decision I could have made, which was actually my second, uh, oncologist.
• 7:44
  So another thing I would recommend people is getting a second opinion.
• 7:47
  Couldn't agree more.
• 7:48
  Couldn't agree more.
• 7:48
  So the first oncologist I went to, I felt like I was treated like a number and, um,
• 7:55
  Uh, it was like, yep, you're going to start chemo on Monday, uh, pack a bag.
• 7:58
  That was it.
• 7:59
  I didn't know anything else.
• 8:00
  I went and did, um, I asked if I could do the Adelaide super two round first.
• 8:07
  And they said, yep, you know, we'll get a blood test done that week of the race, but
• 8:11
  But yeah, you're going to be starting basically on Monday.
• 8:13
  Anyway, I got a blood test done and, and we, we actually postponed the chemo.
• 8:19
  So I was able to do that race and I hadn't done like any fitness.
• 8:23
  I'd been on a hospital bed three weeks before.
• 8:25
  I actually modified like a cricket box to wear that.
• 8:29
  And, uh, which actually was really good.
• 8:30
  Anyway, we got pole and we won the last race and it was really special and
• 8:36
  And then, uh, yeah, I ended up, well, COVID hit all those sorts of things.
• 8:41
  And then from that point we were doing scan, you know, scans and blood tests, and we were just monitoring because the tumor markers that are used for this cancer, essentially they've got a range or every, every different cancer that, you know, someone may be diagnosed with, they get tumor markers.
• 8:58
  And we were basically monitoring that and monitoring my lymph nodes to see if it had spread and it got to a point where by the time I got to August, so that was in January.
• 9:06
  So throughout this period was a lot of surveillance, which is quite anxious because I'm thinking, am I in the clear or am I going to have to, you know, have more treatment, get to August.
• 9:19
  Now by this time I'd actually moved to Brisbane during COVID so I could keep doing some racing.
• 9:25
  And it was in August that I got the call from my oncologist saying, we're going to have to do more treatment because we believe you've still got it.
• 9:34
  So I did Bathurst that year with Nick.
• 9:37
  It wasn't the best Bathurst.
• 9:39
  We had a few dramas, but I knew at that point that...
• 9:42
  I was going to have to do more treatment.
• 9:44
  Came back to Melbourne, had my second operation, which was, it's called an RPL&D, which is a retro perennial lymph node dissection, robotic.
• 9:56
  The irony is, back to the second opinions, is that...
• 9:59
  That surgery was recommended to me by this racing car driver overseas.
• 10:03
  I asked my first oncologist, is this something we could do?
• 10:06
  And he was like, no, you wouldn't bother doing that.
• 10:08
  That's why you get a second opinion.
• 10:09
  Yeah.
• 10:09
  Got a second opinion.
• 10:11
  And, uh, that's the operation I ended up having post that operation, which so many complications.
• 10:17
  I think, you know, it was a seven hour operation, had a lot of, um, complications after it, but they said, no, like we found, we found more cancer.
• 10:25
  So.
• 10:26
  Now we've got to do chemotherapy.
• 10:28
  So, uh, basically said, how soon can I start it?
• 10:31
  Cause the sooner I can start it, the sooner I can finish it.
• 10:33
  Yep.
• 10:34
  So it was about three weeks after that operation that I started chemo.
• 10:39
  And basically started chemo at the start of December.
• 10:42
  I was in at, so I did the chemo at Peter Mac and I can't stress it enough how amazing they are at Peter Mac, how well they treat patients.
• 10:52
  Um, the doctors, the nurses, the staff are just amazing.
• 10:55
  They're beautiful.
• 10:57
  And I went in the Friday before and they basically showed me around, said what it's going to be about.
• 11:02
  Yeah.
• 11:03
  the, uh, the list of side effects that they listed out went for about, felt like about half an hour.
• 11:09
  If you get this, yep, that's, that's common.
• 11:11
  You know, if you have a fever for longer than this time, go to the emergency ward, you know, all these sorts of things.
• 11:15
  And it's pretty daunting.
• 11:17
  The first day was probably the hardest because.
• 11:21
  Yeah.
• 11:21
  When you grow up, you see people on the TV that are getting chemo and, you know, lose your hair and all these things.
• 11:26
  And yeah, being strapped into the chair, you've got the, uh.
• 11:30
  the line going in, you've got the black bag and you're thinking, shit, this is, uh, this is really happening.
• 11:36
  So, um, yeah, I got through that.
• 11:39
  We had, it was basically five days on two weeks off.
• 11:43
  seven hours a day in the chair.
• 11:45
  I could only have one person at a time.
• 11:47
  So I was there, it was just dad and mom rotating because it just still sort of COVID, you know, wearing masks, that sort of thing.
• 11:53
  Uh, injections in my stomach every day for, um, like blood thinners.
• 11:59
  Um, lots of anti-nausea tablets, all that sorts of things.
• 12:02
  So that went, well, my last day chemo was the 1st of January, 2021.
• 12:06
  Good stuff.
• 12:07
  Um, so yeah, but I, I,
• 12:11
  As hard of a time it was, Rusty, and as stressful as it was and the side effects and, you know, all those sorts of things, I still feel like I'm one of the lucky ones.
• 12:23
  And the reason that I feel like I'm lucky is because not only, I guess, was it such a life changing experience, but I feel like I appreciate life a lot more.
• 12:35
  I'm not saying I didn't appreciate life, but I feel like I appreciate life more now.
• 12:39
  that I, whether you could say I've been given another chance and the cancer that I was diagnosed with, I mean, it's one of the most curable cancers.
• 12:49
  And that's why I feel so lucky that I knew that when I was starting my treatment, that there was a very high remission rate.
• 12:58
  And I feel for those that, I mean, the wards are packed every day, the chemo wards, and this is just one hospital.
• 13:06
  There are, you know, hundreds of hospitals around, well, you know, Melbourne, around Victoria, around Australia, and just this one is full.
• 13:15
  So that must all be full.
• 13:17
  And to think that there's, unfortunately, there's people that are being treated for cancers that it might not work for them.
• 13:25
  You know, I couldn't imagine what they must be going through, let alone what I was going through.
• 13:29
  Yeah.
• 13:30
  You know, I got to do this chemo, which is not a pleasant experience.
• 13:33
  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, but the fact that.
• 13:36
  I know I'm going to be okay, you know, when there's people out there that they might not be.
• 13:41
  So I think that's, that's where I feel quite lucky.
• 13:44
  And, you know, now when I'm at the racetrack, a bad day, obviously it's not great, but it's still, I've had a lot worse days in my life.
• 13:53
  So I can really put things into perspective.
• 13:54
  And I feel like it's been a hell of a journey to get to supercars and to think that I'm now, you know, I'm a paid driver in supercars after that, that, um,
• 14:06
  experience, it could have easily been, it could have easily been that and that's it.
• 14:10
  You know, I could have finished that treatment and no one, maybe no one wouldn't want to touch me.
• 14:14
  They might've said, oh, you know, yeah, he's probably good now.
• 14:16
  Yeah, correct.
• 14:17
  So the first race meeting I did back from that was an S 5000 race.
• 14:21
  You were there, um, national championship.
• 14:25
  I'd done no practice.
• 14:27
  I hadn't, I hadn't driven that car since.
• 14:30
  uh, the grand Prix in April, the year before, uh, on the qualifying before the race got canceled.
• 14:36
  So we still had that seat, I think.
• 14:38
  And anyway, we did it with BRM and the week before or two weeks before I still couldn't even walk and, and anyway, we thought, oh, well, look, let's just commit to it and my trainer at the time, well, who's still, who's still trains me, Heath Meldrum, we were doing, you know, fitness throughout that period and.
• 14:53
  You know, I couldn't even go for it.
• 14:55
  Well, when I first, after my treatment, I couldn't even throw the ball to my dog, let alone go for a run.
• 15:01
  But anyway, we said, look, we'll commit to doing this, but if after practice, I'm no, you know, I'm feeling terrible, we'll just can it.
• 15:10
  Anyway, my heart rate was through the roof, but we got through it, qualified on pole, and then we won the feature race, which was...
• 15:18
  Yeah.
• 15:19
  Even though it was, I mean, it's not a supercar race, but, and it's not a championship, but it was like.
• 15:24
  Powerful exhilarating cars.
• 15:25
  You're back at a national race meeting and it's gone bloody well.
• 15:29
  Yeah.
• 15:29
  And I think that was like a bit of a, no, I can still do it.
• 15:33
  And then from that point it was like, yep, no, we're, we're good.
• 15:36
  So, um, even though the fitness was, was pretty bad, it wasn't great, but, um, yeah, so no, it's been a hell of a, hell of a journey and.
• 15:45
  Yeah, to think now in my third year supercars and, um, um, yeah, the, the, the expectations in a good way have, have shifted, but I still, yeah, that period has gone by that fast that I probably haven't really had a good chance to sit back, Rusty and look at
• 16:04
  shit, I, I went through cancer.
• 16:07
  I managed to beat it and I won a super two championship at the same time.
• 16:10
  I mean, a lot of.
• 16:12
  Not to mention the shit period called COVID and everything else.
• 16:14
  Which everyone went through.
• 16:16
  And, um, a really good friend of mine, uh, Tom Gretsch, you'd know his father quite well, Jeff Gretsch.
• 16:21
  He's doing some great things in America at the moment.
• 16:23
  He is.
• 16:24
  Um, the last, so he moved to America.
• 16:28
  I don't know how relevant this is, but 2019 mid-year was the last time I saw him before he moved to the US.
• 16:32
  And then during COVID, obviously he wasn't able to come back.
• 16:35
  And when I saw him for the first time in 2022, I said, you know, the last time I saw you since then.
• 16:41
  This is what's happened to me.
• 16:43
  I've gone through cancer and I've come to the other side and you know, now I'm in main game supercars and it was just funny cause him and I like we're best mates and I hadn't seen him in that period.
• 16:52
  And it was like, isn't it just, it's kind of funny, you know, that in that time, I mean, he's been doing some wonderful things at Cadillac now over in the design space.
• 17:01
  He's champion.
• 17:03
  Very, very good.
• 17:03
  So, um, it's just, yeah, just something funny like that.
• 17:06
  And, um.
• 17:07
  You know, I got, I got a dog, got a Labrador when I was in COVID.
• 17:10
  Uh, I was staying with the McAdams, Dave and Leanne McAdams, who we were, my, well, his son, Liam, I was teammates with him.
• 17:17
  And, um, I mean, they're the best.
• 17:19
  They're like my second family basically.
• 17:21
  And, uh, um, yeah, in regular contact with them and raised Harvey at their place, brought him back to Melbourne.
• 17:26
  You know, it was, um.
• 17:28
  Yeah, it's been a heck of a, well, heck of a last four or five years.
• 17:33
  Yes, that's very emotive what you just described and you're to be credited, mate, because you are this constant beacon of positivity that has come through that, right?
• 17:42
  How satisfying then to be in a main game drive, to be enjoying a bit of success.
• 17:48
  And I know there is more to come, right?
• 17:50
  But when you've been able to do that in the wake of that and to keep the dream alive, mate, how rewarding has that been?
• 17:59
  Oh, it is.
• 18:00
  And I don't think probably in motorsport, I mean, the reason we all do it is I think, I mean, there's more lows than highs, but the highs just feel so good when you're sharing it with your team.
• 18:10
  And I think that's like validation that you're obviously doing something right, whether it's the driving or, um, from a team point of view, it's all just culminating into that result.
• 18:21
  And I think to look back then at when I was diagnosed and if someone had a sort of
• 18:28
  you know, tapped me on the shoulder and said, Hey, look, it's going to be all right.
• 18:31
  You're going to make it to supercars and you're going to be getting podiums.
• 18:34
  You're going to be getting polls and well, hopefully we're going to be getting wins at some point.
• 18:38
  Um, yeah, I, I kind of, I wouldn't say I don't, I don't park that.
• 18:46
  and forget about that chapter, it's definitely still with me.
• 18:50
  And I have the cancer ribbon on my helmet and I've been doing, well, my tenure's up now, but I was on the Youth Cancer Action Board at Petermac for three years.
• 18:58
  And we've done some really cool things there.
• 19:01
  But I think it's important for...
• 19:05
  you know, kids growing up or people out there that might be going through a cancer diagnosis or their family, they might have a family member, like no matter who you speak to, someone's been touched one way or another by a cancer diagnosis.
• 19:18
  Might not be them or maybe their direct family, but it could be a close friend or relative.
• 19:24
  I guess one way to look at it is that it's not a life sentence, cancer.
• 19:29
  I think that
• 19:30
  Well, in some cases the worst world, there's probably not much you can do, but I'd like it to be a case of, you know, cancer shouldn't define you and that you can bounce back.
• 19:42
  And as cliche as it probably sounds rusty, having a really great support network and trying to be positive through that, it's only going to help the cause.
• 19:51
  And, um, as shit as it was, and you know, there was so many down and dark days through that period and,
• 20:00
  you know, I still managed to have jokes here and there.
• 20:03
  And, you know, I'm very technically minded as you touched on.
• 20:08
  And when I was going through that, I wanted to know exactly what was going on in my body, what amount, you know, all these sorts of things.
• 20:14
  Show me the data.
• 20:15
  Yeah, pretty much, pretty much.
• 20:16
  Whereas there's a lot of people that are like,
• 20:18
  Yeah, whatever you reckon, just, you know, just hit me with it and no worries.
• 20:21
  Well, I'm like, okay, okay.
• 20:22
  So you gave me that tablet at this time.
• 20:23
  And so how many mils of, you know, that chemo drugs going in and then what's next?
• 20:27
  And you know what I mean?
• 20:28
  I was very like wanting to know exactly what was happening, which probably pissed them off.
• 20:32
  But, um, same kind of deal, like a race team, you, you,
• 20:37
  you got to trust your doctors.
• 20:38
  You got to trust your oncologist, your team.
• 20:41
  It's no different to a race team in that regards.
• 20:43
  And you got to trust your team because everyone wants the same thing, you know, whether it be, you know, we want to cure your cancer or, you know, we want to go and win.
• 20:51
  So, um, I think, um,
• 20:52
  teamwork is a really important element of not only sport, but yeah, in terms of, you know, health challenges as well.
• 21:01
  Great takeaways for the audience there, mate.
• 21:02
  Well done, particularly for blokes.
• 21:04
  Don't ignore it.
• 21:05
  Secondly, don't be afraid to get a second opinion and the power of positivity.
• 21:09
  If you can keep a positive mindset through that somehow, however you draw on that from family, whatever else that can have, I think, immense, immense benefits.
• 21:18
  One thing I mentioned was that when I first was diagnosed, I was reaching out to guys and say, like, you know, there was stories of a few guys that had been through testicular cancer.
• 21:27
  Being on that side of the fence, I never thought I'd be on the other side of the fence.
• 21:31
  And I never thought I would be helping other guys.
• 21:36
  I've had a lot of guys reach out to me.
• 21:38
  and say, Hey, I've just gone and got checked because of you, or I've just been diagnosed, you know, what do I do?
• 21:44
  And so to think that I've been on that side of things, I probably didn't expect, you know, I've read Lance Armstrong's book.
• 21:50
  Um, it's not about the bike, great book.
• 21:53
  The fact that, you know, he was stage four testicular cancer and he came back and he didn't just come back.
• 22:00
  He went and won, you know, multiple tour de France's.
• 22:02
  And I mean, you
• 22:03
  Forget the result.
• 22:04
  Forget the result.
• 22:04
  That comeback.
• 22:05
  That comeback.
• 22:06
  That comeback was absolutely incredible.
• 22:08
  Obviously, forget the other things, but the fact that he was able to get through that
• 22:14
  Um, on the other side of that or get through the other side of that.
• 22:17
  Yeah.
• 22:17
  I never thought I would be on the side of offering advice to another guy or, you know, whoever it might be that could be going through it or even just to hear that, Hey, I felt like something wasn't right.
• 22:29
  I went and got checked, but I'm all good.
• 22:30
  Even just hearing that I think is pretty cool.
• 22:32
  Well done.
• 22:33
  Let's, let's go to a couple of other things here.
• 22:37
  I understand when you're in high school, the engineering brain, maybe from your dad and everything else, kicks in.
• 22:42
  And as a part of some of your studies, did you create some sort of dog feeding mechanism?
• 22:49
  And this thing got media attention around the country and all sorts.
• 22:54
  Tell me about this crazy device.
• 22:55
  Yeah, it did, yeah.
• 22:56
  What the heck was that?
• 22:57
  What do you mean?
• 22:58
  I think it's great.
• 22:59
  That's good.
• 22:59
  Yeah, me too.
• 23:00
  Yeah.
• 23:01
  So one of the classes in my school was systems engineering, which was my favorite.
• 23:06
  And essentially the end of year, it was like a year 12 project, your last year of school was you had to create something that was sort of both electronically and mechanically connected.
• 23:17
  So I, yeah, invented an automatic dog feeder, which... What's this thing look like?
• 23:21
  Describe it.
• 23:21
  We're an audio experience.
• 23:23
  It's like a bowl and it's flicking food in it.
• 23:25
  What's it doing?
• 23:26
  That's good.
• 23:27
  You've been fed.
• 23:28
  You've been fed.
• 23:29
  It's dinner time.
• 23:31
  Well, it's actually like a vertical...
• 23:35
  box.
• 23:35
  It's got a hopper.
• 23:36
  It's all Perspex.
• 23:38
  And the reason that I made it Perspex was that you could see how it worked.
• 23:42
  So it's got like a hopper and then it comes down on like an angle to like an auger screw, which is driven by a stepper motor.
• 23:49
  And then the food passes through that and then, you know, lands in the bowl.
• 23:53
  And the reason for that system is that by using a screw, an auger screw, we needed a motor that was powerful enough that if any food got caught, it would just break it.
• 24:02
  Mm-hmm.
• 24:02
  But the reason we'd use that was because then you could give an accurate reading of, okay, your dog weighs 30 kilos or 50 kilos.
• 24:10
  This is how much food the dog's going to need.
• 24:11
  And it had like an Arduino microcontroller on it, which was all coded.
• 24:16
  I didn't know how to do code and then basically learned it.
• 24:19
  Had a few people help me along the way with how to code these things and how to fail safe that if you took the lid off,
• 24:24
  the screw wouldn't run and, you know, chop your fingers off.
• 24:27
  Uh, had a touch screen on it and this is going back, you know, 2013.
• 24:29
  So, um, Did you patent that thing?
• 24:32
  I hope you did.
• 24:33
  I actually tried.
• 24:34
  Um, but yeah, with no, no luck, but it got in the Melbourne museum actually, um, received a government award.
• 24:40
  I was on, um, it actually got on a few television shows on channel 10.
• 24:45
  So, uh, yeah, it, it made a few headlines at the time, but it didn't actually go much further.
• 24:49
  It still sits at dad's work actually just sitting there.
• 24:52
  Yeah.
• 24:52
  It helped you get into Swinburne, is that correct?
• 24:54
  I've done two and a half years.
• 24:55
  Okay.
• 24:55
  Yeah.
• 24:56
  Engineering.
• 24:57
  Mechanical engineering, yeah.
• 24:57
  So that did help me because, you know, well, the way it works in Victoria, you get an ATAR score and each subject you do, you get a score.
• 25:06
  And I got quite a good score in systems engineering.
• 25:09
  And, yeah, got into Swinburne down in Hawthorne, mechanical engineering.
• 25:14
  So I did that.
• 25:17
  Yeah.
• 25:17
  I'm basically up to third year.
• 25:19
  I've done a couple of subjects in third year, but it's all on pause.
• 25:22
  Cause of racing.
• 25:23
  Cause of racing.
• 25:23
  Yeah.
• 25:24
  Yep.
• 25:25
  Um, so yeah, it's not an easy subject, a lot of, a lot of hours and a lot of study required, but to do something that cool, um, it was a lot of fun and, and actually one of the guys in the machine shop at Tickford, Tom Wentworth, and
• 25:39
  We were in the same class together and he, he built like a bionic arm and, and now he works for Tickford racing in the machine shop, you know, machining parts that go on, on the cars that we race.
• 25:49
  So it's cool to think that, you know, we're actually in the same team now, but, um, it was such a cool class and everyone made unique things.
• 25:56
  Some, some weren't maybe that special, but some things were really cool.
• 26:00
  And to make something like that was, was a lot of fun and the fact that it actually worked.
• 26:04
  Mm-hmm.
• 26:04
  It had a little webcam on it, so you could actually, like if you were somewhere else, you could watch and make sure your dog was eating the food.
• 26:10
  And it had a little, um, a little electronic actuator for the water.
• 26:15
  So have like a water bowl as well.
• 26:17
  So lots of things that we thought about there.
• 26:20
  Um, yeah, that was a fun project.
• 26:23
  I don't, I don't know if it would still work.
• 26:24
  Oh, I could try it and flick it on and see if it still works.
• 26:26
  That's good.
• 26:27
  So some of the stuff that you've learned here, like the coding aspect and so on, did that lend itself to simulation and what you've ultimately embarked on there?
• 26:36
  And for people that don't know, I would encourage them to go and go and do Dream Simulation, right?
• 26:40
  So this is a business that Tom has that both single-seater and call it effectively Tin Top or Touring Car based two sims.
• 26:51
  You have a data desk in the background where you'll often engineer people and so on.
• 26:57
  Correct me if I'm wrong, F2, F3 drivers might come by on the way to the Albert Park Grand Prix.
• 27:01
  You might get youngsters that are doing Super 2 or Carrera Cup and things like that that are trying to learn the circuits.
• 27:09
  Am I right in saying that you've done a lot of the design, build, et cetera, and used other components to bring it all together, but you've thought your way through this, just like you talked about with that damn dog feeding system a moment ago, but on steroids, right?
• 27:22
  And it's a constantly evolving thing.
• 27:23
  You're always looking at new ways to make it more realistic.
• 27:26
  And what can I incorporate here and so on?
• 27:29
  Well, I think, yeah, I mean, in terms of actually whether we make the tracks or whatever, I've got someone else who does that because that's definitely above me and I just don't have the time.
• 27:39
  But-
• 27:39
  Having the Sims, I feel, has been really good, not only for myself, but for others that, I guess, want to practice upcoming races, or even if it's just a punter that just wants to understand what it actually is like to drive maybe a supercar at Bathurst.
• 27:54
  That's pretty much what you get most of the requests, but to have the data analysis there as well, and we've got the MoTeX set up, which is pretty much what we have in the real car, and the models are...
• 28:06
  you know, quite close.
• 28:07
  So the closer the models can be that I guess the more that we're getting out of it from a driving point of view.
• 28:14
  And I think with the amount of, well, the amount of limited track time that we get now.
• 28:19
  It's so beneficial, mate, isn't it?
• 28:20
  Correct.
• 28:20
  It is.
• 28:20
  Yeah.
• 28:21
  And we get three test days a year in supercars and,
• 28:24
  You don't always have brand new tires and we don't get to test on, well, any of the tracks we race on.
• 28:30
  Our test track is Winton.
• 28:32
  That's not part of the calendar.
• 28:33
  So every track that we race at, the last time we saw that was the year before, or maybe in the case of Topor, never for supercars.
• 28:43
  I mean, I'd raced here before in TRS, but...
• 28:45
  to be able to go there and, and the way that supercars is, is you need to be on it straight away.
• 28:51
  You don't have time to learn the track or get up to speed or, you know, the first two outings, all right, no, I'm just getting the groove of it.
• 28:58
  Okay.
• 28:58
  No, I need to work on this or whatever you've got.
• 29:00
  You just got to be on it because.
• 29:03
  everyone's at that level.
• 29:04
  And I think that's where it's beneficial is that by the time I get there, I already know what I want to do.
• 29:09
  And there might be a few things I need to work on, but it's just a really good way of sort of fast tracking that process.
• 29:15
  And I think that's where it's helped.
• 29:17
  You've had some great names come through.
• 29:20
  One, call it media experience involved one, Greg Rusty.
• 29:25
  firing an F2 car into the pit lane.
• 29:27
  That was at Monaco, wasn't it?
• 29:28
  And I was Austria, right?
• 29:29
  Oh, Austria, yeah.
• 29:31
  And all I get is this little voice in the background, hmm, haven't seen that before.
• 29:36
  I've seen lots of things on the sim.
• 29:38
  Don't reveal.
• 29:38
  They're your clients.
• 29:39
  They're your clients.
• 29:40
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:40
  That was good.
• 29:41
  And we put you in the F2 at Monaco as well.
• 29:43
  It was awesome, yeah.
• 29:43
  I think it just gives people a really good understanding of, you know, what it's a lot harder than what it looks.
• 29:50
  Yeah.
• 29:50
  But it is a very, I think Chad Nalon's been in there as well.
• 29:54
  I mean, he talks about it being such an unbelievable.
• 29:57
  experience because you, so many aspects of it mimic what you imagine as a commentator to be reality.
• 30:03
  And then as a driver, the benefits, particularly for an emerging driver, to get that level of familiarity so you can exit pit lane and go and be on it straight away.
• 30:12
  That's a very, very cool business, mate.
• 30:14
  Well done.
• 30:15
  Thank you.
• 30:16
  Can we come to, if you're comfortable, Tassie this year?
• 30:22
  I think, firstly, you ought to be congratulated with the way that you handled it on social media.
• 30:28
  You made a statement.
• 30:30
  You went about it in a sportsmanlike fashion.
• 30:33
  Dutto's been given a reprimand.
• 30:35
  That's well documented.
• 30:36
  He...
• 30:39
  probably underscored the high stakes nature of the business that you are in, right?
• 30:45
  And in the heat of the moment with the push at the door there of the AAA team, you had put your hand up and said, you know, my blue on track.
• 30:56
  We've had a bit of time since then.
• 30:58
  How have you framed that in your mind?
• 31:00
  Have you made statement, moved on, let's just get to sand down?
• 31:03
  And, you know, in theory, if you saw Dutto in the paddock, would you go and have a conversation with him or is that
• 31:08
  Um, look, I've moved on.
• 31:10
  I think like you just touched on before, you know, we've had the hearing, what's been said has been said, you know, and obviously the appropriate penalties happened and I think that's it.
• 31:20
  You know, I mean, you can't do that stuff.
• 31:22
  I mean, for the benefit of those listening that might be going, oh, well, you know, it's not as bad as NASCAR and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 31:28
  under the rules, under the current rules, you can't do that stuff except in self-defense.
• 31:32
  And it wasn't that style of scenario, was it?
• 31:35
  I mean, yeah, I was going there to...
• 31:39
  Yeah.
• 31:39
  Apologize to Brock.
• 31:40
  I sat in my car for a really long time after that race, just thinking about essentially what I'd done and you forget, I guess I probably haven't been in that scenario before like that, but you, you're not thinking about other cameras watching me, which it turns out they were.
• 31:57
  Um, and you know, I guess.
• 31:59
  And unlike the Ambrose Murphy era, now everyone has a viewpoint on social media.
• 32:03
  So it's a bit of a different beast compared to something like that back then.
• 32:07
  something that I was actually thinking about, uh, not at the time, but post that I was thinking about something you said, I think it was 2016, 2015, 2015.
• 32:17
  Sorry.
• 32:17
  You made a statement on, um, it's after Garth and Fabian at Gold Coast.
• 32:20
  Correct.
• 32:20
  Yes.
• 32:21
  About our fan base.
• 32:22
  And obviously we have a super passionate fan base and we do have a great fan base.
• 32:27
  Um,
• 32:28
  But I think no matter what side you're on, whether it be on my side with what happened with Dutto or, you know, on Dutto's side, I think whether it's for me or Dutto, I don't think either of us should deserve to cop online abuse.
• 32:46
  Correct.
• 32:46
  You know, look, I understand what, what happened and I think Dutto's received what he's received, you know.
• 32:53
  It was high, high pressure.
• 32:55
  It's a high pressure environment.
• 32:56
  Professional sports, unique thing.
• 32:58
  You've got people all around Australia and effectively the world watching you do your job.
• 33:03
  You know, it'd be like.
• 33:05
  You're on stage.
• 33:06
  If you make a mistake, you're judged straight away.
• 33:07
  You don't get a chance to correct that.
• 33:09
  You don't get, you know, it's like me going on air here.
• 33:11
  If I say something that is bad, I can't reverse that.
• 33:14
  It's gone.
• 33:15
  Well, yeah, professional sport is, is its own beast in that, like you just said, you're live on TV, whatever you do or say is judged, whether that be in a positive way or a negative way.
• 33:27
  Um, you know, I wasn't, I was thinking about that at the time.
• 33:30
  I just wanted to apologize to Brock or at least I guess be given the opportunity to apologize to Brock and he didn't have to forgive me.
• 33:37
  Yeah.
• 33:38
  In fact, I have...
• 33:39
  The intention was a sportsman-like one.
• 33:40
  That's where you were going.
• 33:42
  That's where you were coming at it from.
• 33:43
  I just wanted to let him know that, yeah, that was my fault.
• 33:46
  And he shouldn't have...
• 33:48
  If I made a mistake and locked up and ran off, okay, yep.
• 33:50
  But the fact that I ruined his race, I didn't think that was good enough from my point of view.
• 33:57
  And I was disappointed in my performance because I feel like I'm better than that.
• 34:00
  And, you know...
• 34:02
  I know we had really good speed and it was a really positive weekend from, from that point of view.
• 34:06
  And I think Tickford and Cam, myself, you know, we're, we're getting stronger and I think really good results are not far away.
• 34:14
  But yeah, in terms of the reaction post-race, even with what happened on track, you know, we're all pushing really hard out there, Rusty.
• 34:22
  And, you know, I obviously pushed too hard.
• 34:25
  Um, and yeah, just made a mistake and you know, obviously that I can't change that.
• 34:32
  It happened.
• 34:33
  I can only own it and move on from that.
• 34:35
  But I think, yeah, some of the.
• 34:39
  some certain people online, um, some of the things that have been said, I've just, well, I try and avoid it, but there's certain things you can't avoid.
• 34:49
  And you just think, you know, it's not very nice to be saying that thing about whether it's me or, or even Duddo.
• 34:56
  We don't want it against either of you.
• 34:57
  No, no.
• 34:58
  And, you know, as much as, you know, what happened in the pit lane happened, I don't think, yeah, as I said, either side should cop the online abuse.
• 35:06
  Abuse.
• 35:06
  It's abuse.
• 35:07
  Let's just be frank about that, right?
• 35:09
  So let's come back to what I said in whatever it was, 2015.
• 35:12
  Wear your colours with pride.
• 35:14
  Follow your favourite driver or team.
• 35:16
  No problem with that whatsoever.
• 35:18
  Staunchly support them, right?
• 35:20
  But...
• 35:20
  But do it with a level of respect.
• 35:24
  You know, you've got to understand that someone might have a difference of opinion to you and going about responding to that in that environment in a way that isn't respectful is something I think as a sport that we should not entertain, right?
• 35:39
  There's, you know, people saying that,
• 35:41
  you know, oh, well, everyone's talking about it.
• 35:43
  And there is an element of truth to that, but it's the way we talk about it, the way we go about it.
• 35:49
  Where I want to naturally lead in this conversation is you have a beautiful nature.
• 35:55
  We can feel that in this conversation, your personality, right?
• 35:58
  But it is a game that does require you at times to get the elbows out.
• 36:01
  So you walk that line of...
• 36:03
  you know, Thomas Randall, who wants to be regular podium getter, wants to be enduro race winner, wants to be champion one day and so on.
• 36:11
  How do you juggle all that?
• 36:13
  Well, you know, if confronted with the same scenario again, how do you, how do you go about it?
• 36:18
  The old saying goes, once the helmet's on, you know, it's, it's a very different me relative to when the helmet's off and it's not hard to be a nice person.
• 36:26
  Well, I don't think it's not hard to be a nice person.
• 36:28
  And, um, you know, look,
• 36:31
  We're not, we're racing cars.
• 36:33
  We're not saving lives.
• 36:34
  We're not curing cancer.
• 36:35
  So I think, look, I guess there's an, people have egos and that's just, that's just a way of life.
• 36:42
  How, how much an ego is expressed publicly.
• 36:46
  I think, yeah, I try to.
• 36:50
  Confidence and ego are two different things.
• 36:51
  Yeah, correct.
• 36:52
  They're two different things.
• 36:52
  And I think, you know, I like to do my talking on the track and I just hopefully like to be a nice guy off the track.
• 36:59
  And I mean, even with the fans, you know, there's so many people that come far and wide for these races that it might be their first time at the track and I just want to be, you know, as nice as I can to them or hopefully give them a positive experience.
• 37:12
  I'm not sure what that'd be like with...
• 37:15
  Other people, I'm not in control of that, but I'm in control of what I can say and what I can do.
• 37:19
  But yeah, when the helmet's on, it's very much race car driver, Tom, um, which is very different and you know, I wouldn't say I'm going to race much differently than what I did.
• 37:28
  I've definitely learned a lot from what happened in that race.
• 37:34
  Uh, and, and, you know, I've worked closely with Anthony Clarica, who's out, well, he's our performance coach at Tickford and you know, we've had, we've spoken a lot about it and
• 37:42
  um, you know, things that I, I can do better in that scenario.
• 37:45
  And, you know, it's a, it's a, well, you, you just said it about walking a tightrope basically.
• 37:51
  And,
• 37:52
  the category cops it for having races that are too processional, but then it cops it for, well then, you know, I guess we cop it for when a race has a bit of action and unfortunately it led to what it did, but you know, you can't please everyone, but we are out there racing cars, you know, things like that happen and, um, you don't go for a gap.
• 38:14
  Correct.
• 38:14
  That's what Etten Centre once said.
• 38:16
  So, um, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a fine line, but I,
• 38:19
  I can't say when I'm out there, I'm, I'm not, I'm only thinking about the race.
• 38:24
  You know, I'm not thinking about anything else or whatever it might be.
• 38:27
  You, uh, not even thinking about that.
• 38:30
  You're on TV, any of that, that's, you're just thinking about racing the car at the best of your ability, you know, breaking points, all these sorts of things, racing the car.
• 38:38
  Yeah, so I guess when mistakes like that happen, you've just got to learn from it.
• 38:44
  So move on, own it, accept it.
• 38:46
  That was the point of the post that I put out, as you said.
• 38:49
  I went and saw Brock after the race, and he was fine.
• 38:53
  Obviously disappointed, but he really appreciated that I went up and apologized, and there's really not much more you can do.
• 39:09
  Is there anything Tom can't do?
• 39:11
  Drive, commentate, engineer, impersonate.
• 39:14
  Another racer with similar talents is Jack Perkins who's a proud custodian of the family's deep motorsport history.
• 39:22
  There's stories of the Perkins Special that he built, which was this open-wheeler kind of race car, I guess.
• 39:28
  Lancia Powered.
• 39:29
  Yeah, there's one that was Lancia Powered.
• 39:31
  I think one might have had like a Porsche 356 engine in it as well.
• 39:35
  And there's a story of him just rocking up to Philip Island in his car and qualifying on the front row of a race next to Stan Jones, who was in a factory Maserati.
• 39:44
  It's a two-parter with Jack.
• 39:46
  Just search for it in the garage library.
• 39:48
  The boys recorded it in the workshop.
• 39:51
  Jack wisely didn't let Rusty near any of the Perkins engineering tools.
• 39:55
  Back to Thomas Randall now.
• 39:57
  couple to finish here because we've gone over time but you've been awesome in this conversation, right?
• 40:01
  Firstly, you're not afraid to try and keep bettering yourself in a training sense.
• 40:05
  Am I right in saying that you've done some stuff with Rob Wilson and he is, Cam McHomble and I did a story with him many, many years ago when we went and saw him at the airfield and
• 40:17
  And, you know, um, it must've been at Bruntingthorpe.
• 40:20
  It was.
• 40:21
  And, you know, so, uh, a Kiwi who's been a race driver in his own right, he'll often have a dart or a cigarette and, and, you know, you get in a, a, uh, a road car and off you go and you learn from him.
• 40:33
  And he's had Kimi Räikkönen and all of them in the list of people that have gone through and worked with him.
• 40:38
  Um, and it's sort of like a kind of a dark art with him, isn't it?
• 40:41
  Oh yeah.
• 40:42
  But he's damn good, isn't he?
• 40:44
  He is.
• 40:44
  Well, he, he's worked with, as you said, a lot of the Formula One grid.
• 40:48
  And he told me a story about, he used to work with Nico Rosberg a lot.
• 40:52
  And he said after Nico Rosberg won the championship, he, he went up to Rob and all he said was flat car.
• 40:59
  And what he means by that.
• 41:00
  And one thing that Rob teaches is about the weight transfer in cars or in the car you're driving and, um,
• 41:08
  When I first heard about what Rob, when I first heard about, hey, you should go to Rob Wilson because Cam was going over and this was back in 2019 when I first saw him.
• 41:16
  That's right.
• 41:16
  Yeah.
• 41:16
  Cam, your teammate Cam always uses him too, doesn't he?
• 41:19
  That's right.
• 41:19
  Yeah.
• 41:19
  And you first are thinking, oh yeah, okay.
• 41:22
  You must be in like a race car or something.
• 41:24
  No, no, no.
• 41:24
  You're just in a, you're just in a road car.
• 41:26
  What is it?
• 41:27
  Like a Ford Puma or something?
• 41:28
  It is now.
• 41:29
  Yeah.
• 41:29
  Ford Puma.
• 41:30
  Yeah.
• 41:30
  Just a road car.
• 41:31
  You don't know what tires are on it.
• 41:32
  No.
• 41:33
  you have no idea.
• 41:34
  God knows what pressures are in the tires.
• 41:36
  He couldn't, he couldn't care less.
• 41:38
  But, um, I think what he teaches you is quite universal for whatever car you drive.
• 41:46
  And that is about the weight transfer of the car.
• 41:48
  And when he, what he means by flat car is, is essentially getting the weight out of the car, getting the lateral loading out of the car to, to free the car up and let it accelerate.
• 41:58
  But,
• 41:59
  I think the really cool thing is that he's in the car with you and he's basically giving you instant feedback on how you're driving.
• 42:07
  He doesn't need any data or any of that stuff because he can feel it.
• 42:11
  And it gets to a point where, well, you can feel the difference and you can obviously see it in the lap time as well.
• 42:17
  I mean, he's bloody fast behind the wheel of the car too.
• 42:19
  That's half the reason why everyone goes to him.
• 42:21
  I mean, he's just in normal, you know, you just casual clothes and he's just chucks his briefcase in the back.
• 42:25
  He's still got a stopwatch.
• 42:26
  He's got an old Nokia phone.
• 42:29
  which is pretty cool.
• 42:30
  I love it.
• 42:30
  Old school.
• 42:31
  So old school.
• 42:33
  He's had that for probably 30 years or something.
• 42:35
  One of his drivers finally gave him an iPad a few years ago, which he can now do emails, which is handy.
• 42:41
  We actually can hear from him every now and then.
• 42:44
  But it's all about the rate at which you move your body, you know, how you introduce inputs, whether it be the throttle, the braking, the steering.
• 42:52
  And that is really what helps in terms of essentially whether it's giving the tire more grip or how you're taking the weight out of it to get off the corner or whatever it might be.
• 43:04
  And it just...
• 43:06
  is an element that probably... Coming back to some fundamentals and getting a bit of polish in that again, huh?
• 43:12
  And that feel is something that the data doesn't show, which is such a cool thing about our sport, is that, I mean, it's a combination of, well, the old saying, man and machine, right?
• 43:24
  And that, you know, I mean, to be fast, yeah, you can look at data all day long.
• 43:29
  You've got brake traces, you know, how you're steering.
• 43:32
  And that's so important with finding lap time.
• 43:35
  But at the end of the day, it comes down to feel.
• 43:38
  Feeling the tyres in the road, feeling the grip that you have with the car.
• 43:42
  And that's why I think it doesn't really matter that he's in a, you know, Ford Puma road car because essentially it's still, you're going by the seat of your pants, you're going by the feel.
• 43:54
  this year for the Grand Prix.
• 43:57
  I don't know who came up with it.
• 43:58
  I'm not sure who the brainchild was.
• 43:59
  Was it Jess Yates that came up with this?
• 44:01
  If it's where I think you're talking about, yeah, Jess Yates.
• 44:04
  So she's host of Fox Sports coverage of supercars, does a great job on lots of different sports for that matter.
• 44:10
  And the idea was for you,
• 44:13
  The piano man.
• 44:14
  Another skill, another bloody...
• 44:16
  Wait till I do track announcements.
• 44:17
  Mate, mate, you, exactly.
• 44:19
  I'm going to put you out of the job.
• 44:20
  You are.
• 44:21
  You are a quadruple threat in that regard, right?
• 44:23
  So to basically do your version of the Formula One theme song and use it for the broadcast.
• 44:33
  That had some crazy hits, mate, didn't it?
• 44:35
  It was insane.
• 44:36
  Insane.
• 44:37
  I...
• 44:38
  I was actually, I can't remember who I was talking to.
• 44:40
  How long have you done piano for?
• 44:41
  When did it start?
• 44:42
  So I think I started piano when I was maybe seven and I did it for a year and, you know, lost interest.
• 44:47
  And then I restarted it in about, when I was 10.
• 44:50
  And then I did it up until I was about 16 or 17.
• 44:53
  I got up to grade six classical piano.
• 44:55
  So I did exams and, you know, I did exams at the Australian Music Educational Board in Hawthorne.
• 45:02
  had lessons, all that sorts of things.
• 45:03
  And then it got to a point where, I mean, I loved my motor racing and piano more just became a thing to just jump on and have a bit of fun every now and then.
• 45:11
  And it's probably one of those things that.
• 45:13
  I've lost my skill of playing it at the level I could play it at, but I can still play it at an adequate level.
• 45:22
  Tick for Christmas parties, things like that.
• 45:23
  That's it, tick for Christmas parties.
• 45:25
  I've played the piano at the Castrol National Conference.
• 45:27
  That was quite funny.
• 45:28
  I rolled in, and this was when they were announcing me as their driver, and I was on the piano in my suit and helmet.
• 45:34
  just playing songs and everyone sat down and then they said, Oh, can you all look at the piano?
• 45:37
  And I got up, took my helmet off and everyone, well, unless those that knew, but everyone was like, Holy shit.
• 45:43
  That's the driver.
• 45:45
  But yeah, Jess Yates, I actually said to, I think I might've said to Nathan.
• 45:50
  Nathan Prenigas, boss of Supercars.
• 45:52
  He's in our library.
• 45:53
  You can find him.
• 45:54
  I think I might've said to him or to someone at Supercars the year before, Hey, you know, it'd be funny, like at the start of the year, when you all roll up on the grid on the red carpet and you've got whoever it may be singing the national anthem, you've got a piano there too.
• 46:08
  And as we all stand next to each other, I just keep walking and I jump on the piano and play it with whoever's singing.
• 46:15
  Anyway, that hasn't happened, but Jess Yates and Brian Ingersen, she's part of the team as well.
• 46:23
  They contacted me maybe a week before and said, hey, we've got this idea.
• 46:27
  And I said, oh yeah, what's your idea?
• 46:29
  Do you reckon you can do this?
• 46:31
  Yeah, do you reckon you can do this?
• 46:32
  And I'm like, well, I don't actually know it, but I'm sure I could try and learn it.
• 46:38
  So anyway, I learned a version of it and I mean, there are many versions.
• 46:43
  There is like expert level.
• 46:45
  There's super simple.
• 46:46
  Mine's probably somewhere in the middle.
• 46:48
  And, uh, yeah, we went in, uh, Bryony found this piano in, I think in Hampton, which one of the strings was actually, one of the springs was broken, but anyway.
• 46:57
  We filmed it and it was really cool.
• 47:00
  The way that Nathan and his team edited it and directed it.
• 47:04
  I mean, we had a drone flying around inside getting shots too, but even the way the audio was picked up, all those sorts of things, it culminated into a really cool intro.
• 47:13
  And the fact that Formula One actually collaborated on the Instagram post.
• 47:18
  Got reaction in the panic too, mate.
• 47:20
  It was excellent.
• 47:21
  And it got played multiple times.
• 47:22
  And I think it was just cool that it was a way of...
• 47:27
  helps people to see that, you know, I not only race cars, but I can, I can, I guess, play piano as well.
• 47:34
  And it was cool for all our brands and all that sort of stuff.
• 47:36
  It got like, yeah, 5 million or something views on Instagram, on the F1 Instagram.
• 47:41
  And they loved it.
• 47:42
  And, um, unfortunately it hasn't got me an F1 drive.
• 47:46
  Hey, I can play the piano though.
• 47:49
  Yes.
• 47:49
  So yeah, it was really cool.
• 47:52
  Finally.
• 47:53
  You have this knack of doing impersonations.
• 47:56
  Now, we don't need people to be subjected to Greg Ross because you do that very, very well.
• 48:03
  As you said before, safety announcements at the Grand Prix.
• 48:06
  Can you do anyone else?
• 48:07
  Is there anyone else in the team or in the paddock?
• 48:10
  Is there any?
• 48:11
  Do you impersonate Cam?
• 48:13
  Do you?
• 48:13
  Cam Waters?
• 48:14
  No?
• 48:14
  Cam's hard.
• 48:15
  He's hard.
• 48:15
  Well, I've been getting Cam to do...
• 48:18
  impersonate you.
• 48:19
  I've been getting messages, you maniacs.
• 48:22
  I don't know where it started.
• 48:24
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 48:25
  You were with Andrew Van Leeuwen from Speed Cafe.
• 48:28
  He was at MotoGP.
• 48:28
  He was at MotoGP.
• 48:30
  And I walked past, we'd had dinner one night, and I walked past this cafe or bar or whatever it was, and then I get this, ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.
• 48:38
  I'm like, who's that?
• 48:39
  You're like, is that?
• 48:41
  Who was that?
• 48:41
  Is that me?
• 48:42
  That's right.
• 48:43
  AI has stolen my voice.
• 48:44
  Yeah.
• 48:45
  I said AI Randall.
• 48:47
  That's right.
• 48:48
  I don't know.
• 48:49
  Have you always had a thing about impersonating people or the odd impersonation?
• 48:54
  I think there's just something about your voice.
• 48:58
  The funny thing was I went for the Grand Prix this year when we were on the Wednesday night at Glamour on the Grid and your daughters were there.
• 49:04
  And you interviewed us.
• 49:04
  And I interviewed them and I said, does your dad at nighttime say...
• 49:09
  Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for dinner or it's bedtime.
• 49:16
  Please head to your respective bedrooms at this instance.
• 49:21
  I could go on.
• 49:22
  I've been horse racing.
• 49:24
  I feel like.
• 49:25
  I could, you know.
• 49:26
  You could have a crack at that.
• 49:26
  You could have a crack at that.
• 49:27
  Lane number four is Rusty's Garage.
• 49:30
  Lane number five.
• 49:32
  The Howie Games.
• 49:33
  Yeah, the Howie Games.
• 49:35
  Lane number six, the Drivers Only Podcast.
• 49:37
  That's right, a 10 to 1.
• 49:41
  What about Barry Sheen's...
• 49:43
  He's had a major sausage.
• 49:45
  A major, major that is.
• 49:47
  Major, major that is.
• 49:48
  Major sausage.
• 49:50
  Great, great to, A, to do this face-to-face.
• 49:54
  B, to get a window for people to see into your excellent personality.
• 49:59
  What you've come through as a racer and personally, what you're doing on the sim side, go chase.
• 50:07
  some wins and podiums and so on, some good sugar there at the moment in the Tickford camp.
• 50:13
  And it's been awesome to chat with you.
• 50:15
  Thank you so much for coming in today.
• 50:16
  Thanks, Rusty.
• 50:17
  It's been a blast.
• 50:25
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 50:29
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 50:33
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 50:35
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 50:40
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.