Latest / Rusty's Garage / Alex Briggs (Part 2)

Transcript

Alex Briggs (Part 2) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:19
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with long-time MotoGP mechanic Alex Briggs.
• 0:26
  If you haven't done lap one yet, part one, make sure you head back to the library and give it a listen.
• 0:32
  From his early years in Canberra on buses to working with Aussie motocross legend Craig Dack, a nightclub incident in Europe after one of the 500cc races and how the hell they got out of there –
• 0:45
  McDoan versus his countryman and friend, Darryl Beattie, and much, much more.
• 0:50
  We begin part two with the pre-race ritual for McDoan and being around him as he got in the zone before the start of a GP.
• 1:01
  My memories of Mick are more focused, like, you know, just could drill a hole through you with his eyes just before, you know, like...
• 1:11
  He was more like a, it felt to me like a boxer getting ready for a fight with Nick.
• 1:16
  Yeah.
• 1:16
  Like he was kind of pumped up.
• 1:18
  And sometimes he wouldn't go so good and I think...
• 1:22
  whether he knows he did it or doesn't know it, I think he'd pick a fight with Dickie often.
• 1:26
  Really?
• 1:27
  Crazy.
• 1:28
  Dickie now works for him.
• 1:29
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:29
  No, and they'd probably still fight, you know.
• 1:32
  They're mates, you know.
• 1:32
  But, I mean, I'm talking just a fight as in, I don't know, just something stupid, you know.
• 1:37
  Like argue about something.
• 1:38
  Something.
• 1:38
  What would you know?
• 1:39
  Yeah, kind of, you know, just something.
• 1:41
  And I think some, because Dickie would bite back because he's his mate and he wasn't scared, you know, like so.
• 1:46
  And so they'd have it, and I think it would get Mick,
• 1:49
  almost G'd up, you know, sometimes when Mick didn't sort of have the feeling for it.
• 1:53
  But mostly Mick, he could, you know, motivate himself and would motivate all of us because his desire to win is something.
• 1:59
  Yeah.
• 2:00
  He carries a lot of that into business today, I think.
• 2:03
  His life has healed a bit more.
• 2:05
  But I think, you know, that...
• 2:07
  that trait in him is, you know, he still has that deep down.
• 2:12
  MotoGP at the, you know, on race day and things like that, as you talked before, it's a show.
• 2:18
  So it attracts all these people.
• 2:20
  It wasn't uncommon at Laguna Seca to see a Brad Pitt, a Matt LeBlanc or any of those guys rock up.
• 2:26
  And no doubt you got to meet a few in your time.
• 2:29
  Were there...
• 2:31
  They don't have to be Hollywood people.
• 2:32
  They could be industry people.
• 2:33
  I don't know.
• 2:34
  But were there a couple that came to the garage that you were really impressed with that you thought were, you know, proper enthusiasts or right into it?
• 2:42
  Who were some of them that sort of stood out when they came by that were good to hear?
• 2:45
  All the people that pretty much have come in like that, like you're talking about, like, like.
• 2:51
  Brad Pitt and Matt and all.
• 2:53
  I remember calling him Joey by mistake one time.
• 2:55
  Did you?
• 2:55
  Don't worry.
• 2:56
  Because even my mum doesn't.
• 2:58
  That's awesome.
• 2:59
  I don't know.
• 3:00
  You've probably taken the piss.
• 3:01
  But anyway, yeah, we sort of got on.
• 3:03
  I saw him over several years, you know, and he was always just –
• 3:08
  They're always keen on the bike, you know, and I think because we had been used to working for somebody famous, it wasn't we weren't in their face like that.
• 3:18
  They were interested in the motorbike and we were interested in helping them learn about it.
• 3:21
  Yeah.
• 3:22
  Almost all the famous people that have come in have been really, they'd almost stand off a bit and go, oh, I don't want to get in your way and go, no, it's fine, you know.
• 3:30
  Yeah.
• 3:31
  Roger Federer, I remember him coming in and just going, oh, I don't want to get in the way.
• 3:34
  I mean, he was like a super nice guy, you know, like in –
• 3:38
  I remember, what's the fellow from Dire Straits?
• 3:42
  Mark Knopfler.
• 3:43
  Yeah, so Mark, someone will just be swearing at me now going, you idiot.
• 3:47
  Anyway, so Mark Knopfler comes in the garage in Silverstone, not Silverstone, Donington Park, and he's talking with Valentino and he's talking with him.
• 3:54
  And Valentino's a big fan, you know, and they're talking and talking.
• 3:58
  I think Mark Knopfler had broken his arm or something, maybe.
• 4:01
  That sounds right.
• 4:02
  Fell off a ladder or something like that.
• 4:03
  I don't know.
• 4:03
  He couldn't play and they were talking about it.
• 4:05
  There were sorts.
• 4:06
  But Valentino nearly missed the light to go out to the race.
• 4:09
  Oh, wow.
• 4:10
  Because they were just talking and we were like, come on, mate, you can't go there, you know.
• 4:13
  Like, yeah.
• 4:14
  Yeah, but I've also, I'm hopeless too.
• 4:16
  I've sat next to the famous people I don't know who they are.
• 4:20
  My wife goes, you idiot, you know, like, and I've asked them the dumbest questions, you know, some of these people.
• 4:25
  But it's great, you know, but mainly, I mean, they come into the garage because of the famous people that I've worked for, you know.
• 4:31
  So you get to meet them and nearly like everyone else, they're just the same as, they just like motorbikes and stuff.
• 4:37
  We'll get to Valentino shortly.
• 4:39
  But you've brought up your lovely wife, Ellen.
• 4:41
  Yeah.
• 4:42
  Very talented, stand-up comedian.
• 4:44
  As you and I talk, she's about to venture off to the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
• 4:47
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:48
  How did you guys meet?
• 4:50
  Did she always have that comedy sort of streak in her?
• 4:55
  And you have been a bit of subject matter for some of her routines, have you not?
• 5:00
  Has she done stuff about you?
• 5:01
  I think she has.
• 5:01
  I joke, if it wasn't for me, she...
• 5:04
  She'd have no material.
• 5:04
  She'd have no material.
• 5:06
  I mean, that's just me joking and it's one of my jokes and it's crap.
• 5:10
  I'm not the guy that makes money out of telling a funny story.
• 5:12
  Anyway, so we'd been to this party, we're driving home and I was feeling a little bit tired and I said to him, hey, tonight I want to try something a little bit kinky.
• 5:22
  And don't you blokes love it when we say kinky?
• 5:24
  Or in his case, a bit even different, right?
• 5:27
  I'll give you the tip.
• 5:28
  We like same and quick.
• 5:31
  Surely.
• 5:32
  I see those banners, you know, do you want longer lasting sex?
• 5:36
  No.
• 5:37
  I've got things to do.
• 5:43
  School lunches to make, you know.
• 5:45
  I've been doing that all day.
• 5:49
  So I met her actually the first time I ever laid eyes on her, I think was at a party and she was telling a story in the party.
• 5:58
  In Australia, in Canberra?
• 6:00
  In Canberra, yeah.
• 6:01
  So it was at a friend's birthday and she was just surrounded by people telling a story.
• 6:06
  She worked at the government at that time for- Kim Beasley, I think, didn't she at one point?
• 6:10
  I think she might have worked in that department for a while, yeah.
• 6:14
  And then she worked for the Department of Education or CES, I think it was back then.
• 6:18
  Okay.
• 6:19
  And one of her jobs had evolved into, I think this is kind of what gave her the first inkling, really, or she didn't realise it at the time, but her job was to go out later on and talk to groups of people about a new system they've implemented into, like a computer system at the time had come in and she had to go out to all the regional areas and sit in front of all the people that had come in and teach them the new system, the computer system.
• 6:45
  But, you know, I'm talking boring whiteboard stuff and all that sort of stuff.
• 6:48
  And I think...
• 6:50
  The public speaking then and soon realising that being funny helps people learn is probably what kicked it off before she really knew it, you know.
• 7:02
  And then we moved up here because she had a payout from the government.
• 7:05
  We had friends up here.
• 7:07
  This is northern New South Wales and near Byron Bay.
• 7:11
  We'd come and visit friends and we said we should go up there and live and it didn't matter where I lived.
• 7:16
  So yeah.
• 7:18
  We did.
• 7:18
  We moved up here, bought a block of land, built a house.
• 7:22
  So you made it work in a way that I think is super impressive, mate, because you would spend a lot of your life in Europe or on planes and things like that.
• 7:33
  I mean, you had...
• 7:35
  Young kids when you first moved here, I think they were about five.
• 7:37
  They're now 20, the boys, or thereabouts, aren't they?
• 7:39
  Yeah, 20, yeah, twins.
• 7:40
  So, you know, how did you guys do that?
• 7:44
  Because that's not an easy done when you're miles apart.
• 7:48
  You're constantly – how many plane flights do you reckon you've done over your years?
• 7:50
  Do you reckon you know?
• 7:51
  Hundreds, you know.
• 7:52
  I mean, it was over in hours the last – not last year, but the previous year was the highest we'd done.
• 8:01
  2019, yeah?
• 8:01
  What's your chalk up?
• 8:03
  Is it 2019?
• 8:03
  Yeah.
• 8:05
  Yeah, last year, no, because we were just there and back, right?
• 8:08
  Yep.
• 8:09
  But the year before that, yeah, so it was over 500 and I think 560 hours.
• 8:14
  Unbelievable.
• 8:15
  That's plane flight hours and not- In the air, basically.
• 8:18
  Yeah, not at the airports and stuff.
• 8:20
  So that's a lot.
• 8:21
  Yeah.
• 8:21
  So you can see why they flicked me.
• 8:22
  Yeah.
• 8:23
  Oh, no, they didn't.
• 8:24
  Expensive.
• 8:25
  But, yeah, so that was just the nature of racing, how it became, you know.
• 8:29
  She clearly understood that and, you know.
• 8:32
  We've talked about it before.
• 8:33
  I think had in the last sort of ten years, had we met then, I don't think we would have ended up being together because the amount of time away and the racing just was different.
• 8:44
  But when I first started, you kind of had these blocks of –
• 8:48
  you know, five months almost at home.
• 8:50
  Crazy.
• 8:51
  We had 13 Grands Prixs, 13 or 14 the first few years.
• 8:56
  A few tests and I'd come back in the middle of it.
• 8:58
  You'd sort of do like a two-month and a three-month stint and then you're home.
• 9:03
  It wasn't, you know, it was pretty cruisy, you know, and we'd send letters, you know.
• 9:09
  And I used to break into phone boxes because it was too expensive.
• 9:13
  We used to have phone cards and all that, but then I figured out how to break into phone boxes.
• 9:17
  Hot water.
• 9:18
  Pretty much, yeah.
• 9:19
  I had the whole kit.
• 9:20
  I had this whole thing, you know.
• 9:22
  You are MacGyver.
• 9:23
  Well, the money part, then the phone boxes are like Fort Knox, right?
• 9:26
  Because everyone wants to go and steal the money.
• 9:28
  But the electrics underneath it were just like basically a screwdriver and you're in, a couple of clips and off you go.
• 9:35
  I'll just sit in the bottom of these phone boxes.
• 9:36
  Because it was also early stages of our relationship.
• 9:39
  So that would be like an hour, two-hour phone calls.
• 9:42
  From Europe somewhere.
• 9:43
  From Europe.
• 9:44
  Awesome.
• 9:44
  Nothing, man.
• 9:45
  I'm sure someone at Belgian Telecom were just like freaking out.
• 9:48
  What is going on here?
• 9:49
  How is this happening?
• 9:50
  I don't know, but yeah.
• 9:52
  The story's there too, but there's no point now.
• 9:54
  How did the move for everybody, you, Jeremy Burgess and co, to Valentino Rossi happen?
• 10:03
  Because at the point of Mick's career-ending injury here, Valentino's already a 125 world champion, already a 250 world champion, already this emerging star character of the sport, isn't he?
• 10:14
  And this is the next big step to the top of the league, to 500cc.
• 10:20
  How did it come about for you?
• 10:23
  Well, basically we were just, I remember being told that next year we're going to have this young kid, Valentino Rossi, going to be riding for us.
• 10:29
  I know I knew him, but I didn't know of him really.
• 10:31
  I knew what he'd done.
• 10:33
  You know, it's almost arrogant of us.
• 10:34
  Like we were just like 500 GPs were the thing.
• 10:37
  The other classes didn't care that much about, you know.
• 10:40
  I just was only worried about my thing, my rider, you know, who's in front of my rider, who's behind my rider.
• 10:45
  So, you know, again, when he came, he was just, to me, was just another rider.
• 10:49
  I didn't really have the, I don't know, I didn't.
• 10:54
  I didn't really know him, you know, like I knew he was riding well and I'd seen a few good races with him and stuff like that, but I wasn't in awe or anything like that.
• 11:02
  So I think he kind of liked that, you know.
• 11:05
  I think he liked it from all of us.
• 11:07
  He was just him and we were us and there was no, you know, we started from zero.
• 11:11
  You've talked as, you've talked Mick in personality styles.
• 11:14
  What was he like?
• 11:15
  Because he was a different athlete again, wasn't he?
• 11:19
  Yeah, he was and he...
• 11:23
  He was and still is just great with us.
• 11:26
  Like he's got a like infectious kind of personality.
• 11:30
  I think most people when they meet him sort of go, what is it, you know?
• 11:34
  I think he really captures you somehow, you know.
• 11:39
  He's smart and he's a nice guy, you know, like.
• 11:43
  Did you polish up on a bit of Italian?
• 11:44
  He can speak English anyway, but did you?
• 11:46
  No?
• 11:46
  You didn't try and do any of this stuff?
• 11:49
  He'll tell you the story too.
• 11:50
  So almost early on I bought one of those little Oxford Italian to English books and I remember going to him like in the back of the Honda truck and saying, mate, mate, I'm going to learn Italian, don't worry, you know, and he's like, yeah, okay, and he still gives me shit today.
• 12:05
  LAUGHTER
• 12:07
  No joke, he still just goes, yeah, I remember.
• 12:09
  Okay, so I never learnt.
• 12:10
  I mean, everyone always asks me, because you work in basically an English-speaking team, there was no need.
• 12:17
  If I worked...
• 12:19
  If I was the only English speaker in an Italian team, because I know guys that have had to do that and they all speak Italian perfectly and I wish in some regards I did because it would.
• 12:30
  But people ask me, do you speak any other languages?
• 12:32
  And the answer is always the same.
• 12:35
  I speak enough to get into a fight and not enough to get out of it.
• 12:39
  So I can get a beer, I can get a hotel, I can get a feed in most countries
• 12:44
  But, you know, no, no, not fluent.
• 12:46
  How different was he to Mick in the way that he went about his racing, perhaps the way that he rode the bike when you looked back on things?
• 12:52
  Was he massively different?
• 12:54
  Was there...?
• 12:55
  His burning desire to win is the same.
• 12:58
  All of them have been the same.
• 13:00
  But his external, the way he shows it is different.
• 13:04
  Like Mick, you could see it, but he wanted to win.
• 13:07
  Valentino, in my opinion, you know, he seemed...
• 13:13
  Winning was part of it and the most important part, but the enjoying of winning was different and the enjoyment of the racing.
• 13:22
  Yep.
• 13:22
  Yeah.
• 13:23
  Even, I mean, I've seen him get off the bike in his second or third place after an unbelievable race and just beaming from ear to ear.
• 13:33
  Because he loved the race.
• 13:34
  He didn't win it.
• 13:35
  And I think some of the people in the garage were all, like, shitting themselves going, oh, no, he's going to be mad, you know, and he gets off and he goes, whoa.
• 13:40
  Whoa.
• 13:41
  you know, and you just go, wow, you know, like that's great.
• 13:44
  You know, he loved that race.
• 13:45
  I mean, another lap later he might have been winning it and I think he knew that, you know, but it just didn't work out then, but the race was great.
• 13:54
  The celebrations that he did at the height of things post-race or post-title wins were famous.
• 13:59
  There was always something different and it...
• 14:02
  sucked you in from the story, the humour, whatever it may have been.
• 14:06
  Did you get a sense before the race they were going to do something?
• 14:09
  Did you ever know what it was?
• 14:10
  Never knew, never asked.
• 14:11
  No way.
• 14:12
  Never, ever.
• 14:12
  Never knew, never, ever asked.
• 14:14
  Not once.
• 14:14
  The best.
• 14:15
  Sometimes towards the end people would say, this is going to be a good one, and I'd go, okay.
• 14:19
  Never asked, never knew.
• 14:21
  I remember hearing one that went wrong for them.
• 14:25
  I think it was – I've said it before to an interview with –
• 14:30
  Susie one time, she asked me about it.
• 14:35
  It was in Germany and they got the, I don't know, the vicar, you know, so they got him there and they built this fake, I never saw it, but they built this fake bell tower with a bell in it and they got him like and they were going to wheel it out on the track and he was going to ring because when Valentino wins apparently they ring the bell in Tavulia.
• 14:55
  Yep.
• 14:55
  Like, you know.
• 14:56
  His hometown in Italy.
• 14:57
  Yeah, so they ring this bell and so they're going, we're going to do that at the track.
• 15:01
  So they built this, I don't know what it's out of, probably paper mache, right?
• 15:04
  Yeah.
• 15:05
  And they're wheeling this thing across a gravel trap apparently and they're ushering the old fella across like, come on, mate, you know.
• 15:11
  I can kind of see it like an old Pope type.
• 15:13
  I don't know the guy, right?
• 15:14
  Yeah, yeah.
• 15:14
  But I can imagine what it's like.
• 15:15
  They're trying to get this guy out there.
• 15:18
  And Valentino had been playing the whole race, to be honest, with Sete.
• 15:22
  Like he had the race one but he kind of played with him a bit and let him dice with him and I think he cocked it up because I think he missed a gear out of the last corner.
• 15:30
  Yeah.
• 15:31
  Yeah.
• 15:32
  and Sete beat him, you know.
• 15:34
  I can't remember exactly, like it was a while ago, but I think that's what happened.
• 15:36
  He missed the gear, got beaten on the line by Sete.
• 15:40
  And so then this poor old dude's getting, the boys are going, no, he hasn't won, you know, and they're wheeling him back, like, come on, mate, mate.
• 15:46
  And this guy's just got no idea.
• 15:48
  So that's kind of the loose story.
• 15:49
  I never saw the thing, but I would have been.
• 15:51
  I love it.
• 15:52
  Yeah, and I think.
• 15:53
  Yeah, there was a couple of others that I knew of afterwards and that never happened and it would have been just fantastic, but they didn't happen.
• 16:01
  But, yeah.
• 16:02
  Two-stroke or four-stroke?
• 16:04
  What floats your boat more?
• 16:05
  Two-stroke.
• 16:05
  Two-stroke every day.
• 16:06
  Yeah.
• 16:07
  They were amazing, those things.
• 16:08
  I mean, I know the world's in racing, the shows evolve, manufacturers have gone down a certain path and so on.
• 16:15
  I kind of love the fact that people like KTM and others have kept the
• 16:19
  developing two strokes and there still is a love in that space.
• 16:21
  But the 500s were an amazing special machine, weren't they?
• 16:26
  I just like them because they're so simple and so much power from such something so simple.
• 16:30
  Although they used to burn a lot of fuel, which is probably, I mean, we were lifting 32-litre fuel tanks onto these by 32 litres for the race.
• 16:41
  It was like 25-lap race, you know.
• 16:43
  We've got 32 litres going on there.
• 16:45
  Amazing.
• 16:45
  A lot there.
• 16:46
  And now we've got like 20-litre tanks.
• 16:48
  Yep.
• 16:48
  Yeah.
• 16:49
  So from the move with Valentino goes, well, he's successful with Honda.
• 16:58
  And then around the end of 2003, 2004, comes the chance to jump ship, to go to Yamaha.
• 17:06
  I know that first race for you is immensely special.
• 17:09
  We'll get to that in a second.
• 17:11
  But I want to understand the mechanics of what plays out perhaps politically behind the scenes.
• 17:15
  The rider, you guys always call them the rider.
• 17:17
  The rider moves first.
• 17:18
  The press know about the fact that Valentino is off to Yamaha.
• 17:22
  He wants to keep the core group together.
• 17:24
  And I think you were, were you individually kind of called in?
• 17:27
  I think JB went first or something or other.
• 17:30
  What unfolded there?
• 17:31
  Yeah, so...
• 17:33
  We knew he was going and he'd asked if we want to go.
• 17:36
  Yep.
• 17:36
  So you had like a quiet little meeting or kind of thing?
• 17:39
  Yeah, but it sort of also got a little bit muddy towards the end.
• 17:42
  We weren't really sure who we should be talking to.
• 17:44
  And Bernie had had a relationship with Lynn Jarvis in the past because he'd worked for Mulberry Yamaha.
• 17:49
  Yep.
• 17:50
  So he was on the phone.
• 17:51
  I remember being at the exit gate in Japan.
• 17:55
  on the phone, Bernie was on the phone, we're trying to tee up what's going on, you know, because we'd all decided we want to go.
• 18:00
  So this must be Matigy 2003 kind of thing.
• 18:03
  Would that be right?
• 18:04
  Yeah, and then I think the next race was maybe Phillip Island, I think.
• 18:09
  I don't have to look at the calendar.
• 18:10
  But anyway, so it was only like a few weeks before we actually signed on the dotted line kind of thing.
• 18:15
  But it kind of went a bit quiet and we weren't really sure, but we'd all decided we were going.
• 18:19
  Yep.
• 18:21
  And we wanted to go, you know.
• 18:23
  So at that time, Valentino had sort of got a bit disillusioned with Honda a little bit.
• 18:29
  I think he wanted to prove to other people that he could win on something else because the press was probably, you know, on him saying, you know, you're winning because of the bike, you know.
• 18:39
  And I think Honda, some of the engineers at Honda believed that, you know.
• 18:42
  They also thought that the bike was so good that anyone could win on it.
• 18:46
  You know, I think they thought that and Valentino could feel it.
• 18:50
  And, you know, to a certain degree I think we all started to feel that way, that they, we became too easy for them, you know.
• 18:57
  But they sort of forget some of the, well, they change engineers quite quickly, you know, all the time at the Japanese companies.
• 19:03
  But anyway, the rider develops the bike that becomes this bike that they think can win, you know.
• 19:10
  So basically it's a big, it's a group that makes this bike that they think is now so good that anyone can win on.
• 19:16
  So I think, you know, he wanted to move.
• 19:19
  We said we're going to and then it all happened at, it finally happened at Phillip Island, JB.
• 19:28
  Was it Philip Ironman?
• 19:29
  Did he?
• 19:29
  I think he, I mean, you'll figure out which round it is, but something happened.
• 19:33
  He went first and met with them, and I think they were hopeful that you guys would stay.
• 19:37
  Oh, no, okay, so I remember what happened.
• 19:39
  Basically, Honda had said, okay, it's contract time, come into the office and have a meeting.
• 19:43
  I think it was a bus or something.
• 19:44
  Anyway, come into the bus and have a meeting.
• 19:47
  And so JB generally would go first.
• 19:49
  That's how it's happened for years, right?
• 19:51
  So JB goes first.
• 19:52
  They come out and JB has contract under his arm normally and goes, okay, and Alex, you've got to go in there now too.
• 19:59
  You negotiate every single year.
• 20:01
  You argue about value.
• 20:02
  You might not sign there or then you might argue for a few months about this or that or hotels or something, right?
• 20:07
  Always try to squeeze something out of them.
• 20:09
  And anyway, JB goes and tells them, no, sorry, I'm off.
• 20:13
  I'm not going to be here next year for you guys.
• 20:16
  Okay.
• 20:16
  So they've just gone a bit of a shock, you know.
• 20:19
  Okay.
• 20:20
  Can you tell Alex to come in?
• 20:21
  I go in there.
• 20:23
  And I tell them the same thing and they've just gone, oh, shit, Bernie, you know, and he goes in and same thing.
• 20:31
  And so, right, we're all off, you know.
• 20:35
  You're off to Yamaha and what I want to try and blend in here.
• 20:39
  Actually, you know what?
• 20:40
  I'm starting to think now.
• 20:42
  I'm hopeless, right, because it's just so long ago.
• 20:44
  But we'd actually signed in Phillip Island, I think, and then the last race, I think, was Valencia.
• 20:49
  Is that right, mate?
• 20:50
  Could be.
• 20:50
  Jesus Christ, I can't remember.
• 20:51
  Yeah.
• 20:52
  I think that's how – so we'd already signed.
• 20:54
  So when we – To stay with, you know, to go to Yamaha.
• 20:56
  To go to Yamaha.
• 20:57
  That happened in Phillip Island.
• 20:58
  I remember there's the – what was the name of the hotel?
• 21:03
  In Cales.
• 21:04
  Yeah, in Cales.
• 21:04
  Yeah, so basically we went from the track and unfortunately Dickie wasn't involved in going and we didn't want to – we were signing these contracts and we didn't
• 21:16
  We didn't want anyone to know.
• 21:18
  We didn't want Dickie to know at the time and it was just always a bit, it was a bit awful that, to be honest, that little part.
• 21:24
  And so somehow we had, we were going to meet at the pub like always and then decide we'd have dinner, right?
• 21:30
  So anyway, on the way back, Dickie's gone with somebody else and then we've all pulled into the hotel and,
• 21:38
  and switched off the lights in the car park and then went one by one into Lynn's room.
• 21:43
  He was there with David Privia.
• 21:46
  Yeah.
• 21:47
  And we individually discussed our contracts and what we wanted and –
• 21:53
  And agreed to terms and then went, okay, you're going next, Gary.
• 21:56
  And Gary went and then Bernie and JB.
• 21:58
  Oh, JB was first.
• 21:59
  And that's how it worked.
• 22:00
  All playing out in little Phillip Island, which I love.
• 22:04
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:04
  Meantime.
• 22:06
  We just didn't want any journalists to know.
• 22:07
  No, of course.
• 22:09
  So nobody had any idea.
• 22:10
  That's life.
• 22:11
  Meantime, your good Kiwi mate, Brent Stephens, is at Yamaha, at a different team.
• 22:18
  He's kind of weighing up options.
• 22:19
  I think, did you guys also tell him, just stay, don't move?
• 22:22
  Yeah, so he was thinking about leaving and he wanted to work with our team because he liked our, you know, arse.
• 22:27
  And we'd shared a couple of, well, maybe –
• 22:31
  one or two trips to the airport.
• 22:32
  I remember one from Mugello.
• 22:34
  Like we're getting the flight out tonight from Rome, you know, jump in the car with us, me, JB and Brent.
• 22:40
  So we sort of, we knew each other and we said, you know, if we need a mechanic, you know, Brent would be great for us.
• 22:49
  So we'd sort of always kept that rapport, I guess, me, JB and everyone in the team.
• 22:54
  But it never really came up.
• 22:56
  But then we were going there and he wanted to leave and he was talking to us and we said, mate, stay where you are, you know, just stay where you are.
• 23:03
  And we can't say too much, you know.
• 23:04
  Okay, okay, okay.
• 23:05
  And then so what happened was we went there and he was our manual.
• 23:11
  So when we went there, we switched teams.
• 23:14
  So we had to tell Carlos, who we were quite good friends with, that he wasn't going to work with him anymore, this Carlos Cheka, and then.
• 23:20
  He's going to work for Valentino the following year.
• 23:22
  Manual meaning his understanding of the bike.
• 23:24
  Yeah, so like when you're the quickest way to learn a bike, there is no actual manual.
• 23:29
  Honda's got the closest thing to a manual.
• 23:30
  It's really just an exploded parts book.
• 23:33
  But on the four-stroke they didn't even have that.
• 23:34
  But anyway, so you basically learn from another guy, you know, so...
• 23:41
  And he was our manual and he was a perfect fit for us.
• 23:43
  So heading into 04, the general feeling is bike is not perfect.
• 23:48
  It'll maybe take a little bit of time.
• 23:50
  Fundamentally, it's good.
• 23:51
  Maybe, you know, in a media sense, I think most of the media thought, oh, you know, you're good.
• 23:56
  It'll hopefully work, but it won't happen straight away.
• 23:59
  He wins on debut in South Africa with you boys.
• 24:03
  How good was that?
• 24:04
  Just amazing.
• 24:06
  And I think you rate that among some of the highest things.
• 24:08
  For me, that was the highest.
• 24:10
  That was the best race for me.
• 24:13
  Yeah.
• 24:15
  Yeah, I mean, everything about that and that whole year, those few years there, the initial years with Yamaha are probably the ones I remember, I guess, the most fondly.
• 24:25
  And you're back with Yamaha in a circle, more or less, of life.
• 24:29
  Yeah, I ended up going back to that factory that I paid to go to almost, you know, paid for a flight on Garuda Air.
• 24:36
  I promise.
• 24:37
  Yeah, so there I was.
• 24:39
  Amazing.
• 24:39
  Weird.
• 24:40
  You have success with Yamaha there.
• 24:43
  There are, you know, in Valentino's record books, there are nine world titles, seven of them in the premier class with, you know, in a very unique position in the record books with different manufacturers, Honda and Yamaha.
• 24:57
  There were moments where stuff...
• 24:59
  got away from you guys, which would have been tough.
• 25:01
  And I immediately think of the year Nicky Hayden, the late Nicky Hayden won the championship and what went down at the final race and things like that.
• 25:08
  Were you in those, you know, for all the success in those competitive moments when it got away from the rider like that, what went through your minds?
• 25:18
  I mean, afterwards I just felt so horribly sorry for him, you know.
• 25:25
  You know, Nicky won that championship, but in my mind it was a championship where we lost, you know.
• 25:29
  I think we could have won that, you know.
• 25:31
  I think there was mistakes further in the beginning of the season that, you know, should have won us that championship.
• 25:38
  It's racing, you know.
• 25:39
  But I always feel it's like, I don't know, I don't know what it is.
• 25:44
  I feel for the ride and not so much for me.
• 25:47
  I mean, it's not that I care if we win the championship or not, but,
• 25:52
  I don't, I just want to do that race that day as good as I can for them, you know.
• 25:58
  I don't want them to win the championship.
• 25:59
  It's not my championship to win.
• 26:02
  I mean, I'm involved, sure, but I always feel for them, you know, like,
• 26:07
  The following day I wake up, I'm still getting the same money, no one's talking to me any different.
• 26:11
  But for them, it's the whole like, I mean, I think we had to do some crock of shit testing the next day when you think that, yeah, well, the Japanese just want to test or something and you just go, man, he doesn't want to test.
• 26:23
  You know, I think he kind of went into a bit of a depression almost after that.
• 26:26
  Really?
• 26:27
  Yeah, I think he'll say he like slept, I think it was that year, just like stayed in bed for like three days, you know.
• 26:34
  Really?
• 26:35
  It just does.
• 26:36
  Is he different like that?
• 26:37
  Like, you know, part of me, when I've seen him over the years at Phillip Island, I don't know him well enough, but I wonder, is he a little bit superstitious?
• 26:45
  What's he like as a person, you know?
• 26:47
  mate.
• 26:48
  I mean, people used to ask me when I first started working, what's he like, what's he like, what's he like?
• 26:51
  I mean, actually, that's the thing people have asked me my whole life.
• 26:55
  That's almost the first thing people...
• 26:56
  But he's a demigod, mate.
• 26:57
  You can understand why.
• 26:57
  Yeah, but I mean, it happened with Daryl, it happened with Mick, it happened with Craig.
• 27:00
  What's he like?
• 27:01
  What's he like?
• 27:02
  No, actually, what they say is, what's he really like?
• 27:04
  Because they just want you to tell them, I don't know what they want.
• 27:07
  They want you to think he's just a normal bloke.
• 27:09
  They want that or they want the opposite.
• 27:12
  They want, oh, he's a real prick.
• 27:13
  They want that or they want, oh, mate, he's the best guy ever.
• 27:15
  You'd love him.
• 27:16
  You
• 27:17
  And all the guys I've worked with, I've been really lucky.
• 27:20
  They are those sorts of guys.
• 27:22
  You'd love talking to them.
• 27:23
  And when you get Mick talking about racing short circuit in the old days with a couple of beers or something, some of the stories are so funny.
• 27:30
  And, you know, Daz has got some great stories.
• 27:33
  And Valentino, he's got the same.
• 27:35
  You know, so much fun just listening to it.
• 27:38
  And some of the stories we've made together, you know, when you talk about them, remember when we did this?
• 27:43
  And it's great that we've worked that long.
• 27:45
  So, like, you know.
• 27:47
  Yeah, so he's, Valentino is one of those guys that you would enjoy going to dinner with, you know, if you saw the real side.
• 27:58
  But what he's really like to me is very similar to what you see.
• 28:02
  It's just, you know.
• 28:03
  Authentic.
• 28:04
  Yeah, what you see on TV is pretty close to him most of the time, you know, but he's funnier when he's not on TV and, yeah.
• 28:12
  Yeah, and you see more joy from it.
• 28:15
  You're like the joy from watching, riding at the ranch and that sort of stuff.
• 28:19
  You've been there?
• 28:20
  What's that like?
• 28:21
  I mean, for people that don't know what we're talking about here in two world terms, Valentino has a dirt track at home.
• 28:27
  Really cool.
• 28:27
  I think they call it the ranch, don't they?
• 28:29
  Yeah, exactly, yeah.
• 28:29
  And...
• 28:31
  It looks like enormous fun.
• 28:33
  Oh, mate, it's mega.
• 28:34
  Have you ridden there?
• 28:35
  Yeah, a few times.
• 28:36
  He loves it.
• 28:37
  He encourages it.
• 28:38
  He's always saying, come, come, come, come, you know.
• 28:40
  Excellent.
• 28:40
  So, yeah, so the last few years we've done it around the Mizano race.
• 28:46
  Well, Stavuglia's not all that far from Mizano.
• 28:49
  Oh, no, no.
• 28:49
  We're talking 10Ks or something.
• 28:50
  Yeah, it's like half an hour drive from the hotel at the beach to that track, you know, to his sort of place.
• 28:57
  And the last few years, we used to sort of ride there and then we'd go to Valentino, had built a new house and we went there for dinner and it was kind of all really set up.
• 29:07
  But then the last few years he'd had...
• 29:10
  pizzas at the ranch because he owns a pizza shop.
• 29:14
  So we have all these pizzas and actually pizzas and we've also had like barbecues and stuff.
• 29:19
  Anyway, it's just great.
• 29:20
  He really puts on a good show for pretty much all of the Yamahape.
• 29:23
  We started inviting not just us, everyone in the team.
• 29:26
  So both sides of the garage, both riders.
• 29:29
  you know, and whether they take him up or not.
• 29:31
  But most people turned up because it became a thing, you know.
• 29:34
  You had to, if you got the opportunity, you should be driving this place, mate.
• 29:38
  Very cool.
• 29:38
  So it's great.
• 29:39
  But to see him there is funny, man, because he's...
• 29:43
  He's, especially with us, he's, I don't know what you, like he's really him, you know, like he's, and he just loves it.
• 29:54
  He loves watching us cock up and crash.
• 29:56
  Does he?
• 29:56
  Yeah, he just gets off on it.
• 29:58
  He thinks it's the greatest thing.
• 29:59
  And he tells us a hotline and I'm always going, mate, because last year you told me this and I forgot what is it.
• 30:04
  You know, he goes, you've got to drag the rear brake here and you're going to gas it here and all right, okay, right, right.
• 30:08
  So then he has a race, you know, and he commentates the race.
• 30:11
  Like he gets a microphone kind of like what we've got here
• 30:13
  No way.
• 30:14
  Yeah, and they record it.
• 30:15
  Yeah.
• 30:15
  And then we watch it while we're having dinner.
• 30:18
  That's awesome.
• 30:18
  So he's like goes, okay, and because he knows everyone on the team, it's really funny.
• 30:22
  We've got our Japanese spare parts guy, Sujan, he's a good writer and he's fun, you know, and so he'll be on there, Sujan, Sujan, attack, attack.
• 30:30
  So he's a commentator, full commentator with comedic,
• 30:34
  Comedic timing, oh, yeah, like it's gold, man.
• 30:37
  Excellent.
• 30:37
  It's gold.
• 30:38
  So he commentates because he normally has a bit of a ride around with somebody to show everyone how you really do it.
• 30:43
  Yeah.
• 30:44
  And then we have this race with us and there's just a bunch of just wood ducks riding around like we think we're just great, you know.
• 30:49
  So, yeah, I've made the podium a couple of times, which has been good.
• 30:53
  Brent's quite good.
• 30:54
  Brent's very aggressive.
• 30:55
  Suchan, me and Brent and Luca Catalora one year.
• 30:59
  But we figure Luca shouldn't really have been in our race because he's an actual racer.
• 31:03
  Different class, hey?
• 31:04
  Yeah, well, I think...
• 31:05
  I think him and Brent went at it that year.
• 31:07
  Did they?
• 31:08
  And Mayo Marigali is quite good and so we're rugby almost.
• 31:12
  Lin's out there.
• 31:13
  He has a bit of fun.
• 31:15
  Great pace.
• 31:16
  But you think you're like, honestly, you think you're 45 degrees or flat when you go around the corner like big drift.
• 31:22
  You think that.
• 31:23
  You watch them, those guys do it and they're just unbelievable, right?
• 31:26
  Mm-hmm.
• 31:27
  They go from corner to corner, like full flip to the other side sliding, and I put a straight in between those two corners, you know, and I'm leaning over and I see the photos afterwards and go, oh, God, that's embarrassing, you know.
• 31:39
  But, you know, in my racing background, it still comes back to you and you just want to win.
• 31:43
  You just don't care.
• 31:44
  The first corner is just all on, you know.
• 31:46
  Anyway.
• 31:47
  Something.
• 31:47
  So then we watch that over dinner and we just relive it, you know, while we're all having our dinner.
• 31:51
  And everyone's there by then, you know, his mum and his dad and, you know,
• 31:55
  Not always his dad.
• 31:56
  His dad's out there sometimes, but he's a crazy rider.
• 31:58
  Love it.
• 31:59
  And anyway, it was great fun, really good.
• 32:01
  Really cool.
• 32:01
  And he gets a big kick out of it.
• 32:02
  Thank you for sharing that.
• 32:04
  That's awesome.
• 32:05
  Somewhere here, social media starts to take off.
• 32:10
  Your friend, Susie Perry, who works in the media around motorcycle racing and other things, suggests to you you should get on Twitter.
• 32:19
  Yeah.
• 32:20
  And this thing called the wrench racer starts.
• 32:25
  Were you green when you started this thing?
• 32:28
  What were you thinking?
• 32:28
  Because it's become a thing.
• 32:30
  You took people into the world in simple ways.
• 32:33
  The road trip to the track every day, what the topics of conversation were, and people loved it.
• 32:37
  So you've developed this following and a kind of brand around it, which is super cool as well.
• 32:42
  But when you first started, because not everyone takes to social media, what were you like?
• 32:47
  I'm just as shit as I am now.
• 32:49
  I still can't spell, you know, but that's my trademark, you know, the poor spelling.
• 32:54
  Yeah, so Susie was on Twitter because it was a new thing and she tries to explain it to me and I go, I don't really get it, you know.
• 33:00
  So I sign up an account just on my name.
• 33:04
  Rents Racer thing comes later on social media.
• 33:08
  Oh, no, sorry, on Instagram.
• 33:09
  Right, yeah.
• 33:10
  But anyway, it all starts from there.
• 33:12
  So I just start an account and follow Susie and follow two or three other people and
• 33:18
  And that's it, you know, start.
• 33:20
  And what did you think?
• 33:21
  Did you think I'll do something different to so-and-so or you just did what you enjoyed?
• 33:25
  No, I had zero plan.
• 33:27
  It was just to understand and to see what Susie was doing.
• 33:29
  Like I had no idea, right?
• 33:31
  And then once I started to understand what it was, I really enjoyed, I had only half a dozen followers, you know, like.
• 33:38
  Was it ever tense though?
• 33:39
  Like did the team sort of say, oh, hey, mate, don't give too much away?
• 33:41
  Yeah, that happened a few times.
• 33:43
  I think mostly because they didn't really understand it.
• 33:46
  Okay.
• 33:46
  It was more like they felt.
• 33:49
  threatened in a way of, I don't know, I don't know what, it was a lack of understanding.
• 33:53
  And I still think to some degree they don't really get it.
• 33:56
  Anyway, so, yeah, I can explain that, but anyway.
• 34:00
  So it just started, it started snowballing a bit and I kind of,
• 34:09
  I just didn't have any plan at all.
• 34:11
  But basically I just started answering questions and showing people what it was like behind the scenes.
• 34:16
  Simple stuff.
• 34:17
  I mean, real simple stuff, you know.
• 34:19
  Garages and... And they lapped it up, mate.
• 34:21
  They loved it.
• 34:22
  But I loved showing it to them.
• 34:24
  But I remember thinking to myself, because...
• 34:27
  When I was a young motocross rider, when I'd read these magazines, the motocross action, I would love learning about stuff, you know.
• 34:37
  Maybe it was all bullshit, I don't know, but this is how Ricky Johnson trains.
• 34:40
  This is what John Amara's truck he drives.
• 34:42
  This is how such and such lock wires, the grips on the handlebars.
• 34:46
  This is how they cut holes and, you know, just little stuff and I'd lap it up and I just thought, man.
• 34:52
  There's going to be people out there just like I was.
• 34:54
  Totally, totally.
• 34:55
  Now waiting for something and this is, they can be in the garage with us, you know, and they can, you know, and also because we were winning, we were popular, you know, it became very easy.
• 35:07
  It wasn't, I didn't have to explain why we lost mostly.
• 35:09
  Most of it was just, hey, we won and this is where we are now and,
• 35:14
  And it was all travel.
• 35:15
  Travel was a big thing for people.
• 35:16
  Like a lot of them, I got a big following from the UK and Europe, so I'd show them Australia, you know.
• 35:21
  I'd show them the farm, you know, animals.
• 35:26
  And then I started, invented games for them and I just loved it.
• 35:29
  It was great.
• 35:30
  Anyway, it just spiralled.
• 35:32
  So for a mechanic, you ended up with like 50-something, you know, 1,000 people, you know.
• 35:37
  And merchandise and stuff like that.
• 35:38
  Yeah, well, the merchandise, yeah, that too, kind of, well, that was good fun and it still is, still goes.
• 35:42
  And...
• 35:44
  I don't know, it's just great.
• 35:56
  Okay, I'll try another joke.
• 35:59
  What's the fastest car in the world?
• 36:02
  A rental car, because you can drive it the way you want to without having to pay the mechanics bill.
• 36:08
  When I arrived here today, you guys, you and Ellen kindly made me a coffee and you had yours in a little Ducati cup.
• 36:14
  Yeah.
• 36:15
  So Ducati is a part of this story as well.
• 36:17
  And we all, for whatever reason, maybe it was, you know, how well Casey had gone there.
• 36:23
  I mean, Troy was obviously so, Troy Bayless was obviously so successful in World Superbike for them and so on.
• 36:29
  we thought that chapter for you guys, for Valentino, would yield more.
• 36:35
  And sadly, it didn't.
• 36:37
  When you look back on that now, I mean, it wasn't for lack of trying on everyone's part there.
• 36:43
  How do you sort of frame that and compartmentalise?
• 36:45
  What do you think about that time now that you spent with them?
• 36:50
  Well, I look at it in two ways.
• 36:51
  I look at it.
• 36:53
  As me, the mechanic.
• 36:54
  Yep.
• 36:55
  And then I look at it as Valentino, the rider.
• 36:57
  So from the rider's point of view, it was horrible.
• 37:00
  Yep.
• 37:00
  It was so disappointing because we all thought we were going to do what we did at Yamaha.
• 37:04
  Hmm.
• 37:05
  And we didn't.
• 37:06
  Everyone did.
• 37:06
  Yeah.
• 37:07
  And we didn't because we had that little bit of track record and so we thought that would happen again.
• 37:11
  We all expected it.
• 37:13
  Didn't happen.
• 37:16
  And so I just felt horribly sorry for him.
• 37:19
  He was at the point at one stage of just throwing the towel completely in and sitting out a whole year.
• 37:24
  Really?
• 37:24
  Yeah.
• 37:25
  So he was like, well, what are we going to do, you know?
• 37:27
  Yeah.
• 37:28
  because contracts, he was trying to get out of things, and he was just tied up in stuff that he couldn't get out of.
• 37:34
  So there was the thought of, well, you know.
• 37:36
  I'll sit it out.
• 37:37
  I'll just sit it out.
• 37:38
  Wow.
• 37:39
  So it got pretty depressing for him.
• 37:41
  From a mechanics point of view, I learnt a great deal.
• 37:44
  I learnt a lot, you know.
• 37:45
  I learnt.
• 37:45
  Like what?
• 37:46
  Well, you know, what not to do maybe.
• 37:49
  But, you know, it was great to go from a Japanese team to a European team and see the whole way, the mentality, the way things worked.
• 37:57
  what was great about Japanese teams, what was poor in the team I was working for.
• 38:03
  And, you know, when I look back on it, I think, you know, why did we lose and why didn't it get better?
• 38:07
  And I still look at it now and I think some of those problems we had are still there, still exist for that company.
• 38:13
  But they did really well with Casey and they did grow, you know, but...
• 38:17
  You know, even Casey towards the end of his time there, I mean, he left there, you know, so I don't think it was ideal towards him.
• 38:24
  I don't know.
• 38:24
  I mean, I only know Casey loosely.
• 38:26
  But, you know, he stopped winning on it and moved to Honda and won sort of like immediately, you know, like so.
• 38:36
  the bike had sort of perhaps deteriorated from its peak, but Casey had grown used to it and had rode well.
• 38:42
  He's a great rider and did well.
• 38:44
  But it wasn't for us and definitely that bike was not for everyone else.
• 38:47
  I think Valentino was more of, I mean, we built bikes at Yamaha and Honda that were capable for anyone to jump on.
• 38:55
  So once Valentino loved that bike, pretty much anyone could jump on it and go, hey, this is a good bike.
• 38:59
  Yeah.
• 39:00
  You know, Casey built a bike that he could ride well because of his skill, but other people jumped on it and went, yuck, you know.
• 39:09
  I don't know why that is.
• 39:10
  That's just sport.
• 39:12
  When they had that moment, we touched on it a little bit before at Laguna Seca.
• 39:16
  I mean, from a fan point of view, from a television broadcast point of view, epic battle where they're, you know,
• 39:24
  Tucking underneath one another at the corkscrew and, you know, Valentino even goes onto the dirt briefly kind of thing.
• 39:31
  It was a magic, magic memories from that.
• 39:33
  Casey was pretty fired up that day and he's spoken about it.
• 39:35
  JB's spoken about it in the podcast.
• 39:38
  I'm intrigued on, you know, your memory of the day.
• 39:40
  And the reason I ask about it is not to inflame old wounds, but you're all Aussies.
• 39:44
  You know, okay, you're playing in different teams and it's world championship, it's serious stuff.
• 39:49
  But as you described before, you're there...
• 39:53
  you know, to support your rider.
• 39:55
  Yeah.
• 39:55
  And that's Valentino.
• 39:56
  Yeah.
• 39:56
  So I only just spoke about this, like, last week to Troy Herfoss.
• 40:02
  Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 40:03
  Who I've sort of been involved with a little bit now.
• 40:05
  In the Australian Superbike Championship.
• 40:07
  Yeah.
• 40:07
  So it's kind of, he was talking about it too because it's one of those moments, you know, like in racing that it was that race, it was one of the races, you know, that people all remember.
• 40:19
  And you still see replays of just that moment, you know.
• 40:24
  Yeah, so I remember that weekend basically Casey was going to wipe the floor with us and everybody else.
• 40:28
  He was like killing it.
• 40:30
  He was miles ahead.
• 40:31
  Like it was just Casey's got this thing in the bag.
• 40:34
  He's so much faster.
• 40:36
  And he knew it.
• 40:37
  We all knew it.
• 40:39
  And I remember...
• 40:41
  I mean, I think the discussion's gone a little bit, I've heard a few different sides, but I'm only going to tell you what I... Yeah, I'm only asking you.
• 40:47
  Yeah, so what I remember is come race day, JV and Valentino had figured out a plan because there's no way we can beat him on outright speed in case he's faster.
• 40:58
  His lap times are faster by like a lot, you know.
• 41:00
  We're talking, I can't remember, mate.
• 41:02
  You know, it was like 0.3, 0.4 a second a lap.
• 41:05
  You know, that's a lot on that little track, right?
• 41:07
  Yep.
• 41:08
  So he was going to kill us.
• 41:10
  And...
• 41:11
  So JB said he thinks he's going to win.
• 41:14
  Everybody else thinks he's going to win.
• 41:17
  We have to be in front of him because he's not planned for that.
• 41:22
  He doesn't think that's going to happen.
• 41:23
  Nobody thinks that's going to happen.
• 41:24
  He thinks he's going to win from the front, which if you were betting man, you would have put a lot of money on that, you know, and probably somebody did.
• 41:32
  So JB and Valentino, his plan was get in front of him at all costs so he cannot do one complete lap alone because if he does a complete lap alone, you'll never catch him, right?
• 41:42
  So it's all over.
• 41:44
  So the plan was don't let him do a complete lap.
• 41:47
  You've just got to get in front at all costs.
• 41:49
  It's not about getting a good lap time.
• 41:51
  It's just being in his way, getting in front.
• 41:53
  That was all it was.
• 41:55
  And if you watch the race, that's all Valentino's doing, getting in front of him.
• 41:57
  He's not trying to race him as in...
• 42:00
  be a, do a better lap time and pull ahead.
• 42:02
  Just get in front of him, get in front of him, get in front.
• 42:04
  Just keep doing that.
• 42:05
  Just keep doing that because he's not ready for that.
• 42:07
  And that was probably some of the desperate moves Valentino did, which are famous, but it was just got to get in front.
• 42:14
  If he gets that whole main straight ahead of me and another couple of corners, we're toast.
• 42:18
  So that was just get in front, get in front, get in front.
• 42:20
  Was it awkward with Casey afterwards?
• 42:22
  I mean, I think he came to the garage from the red station.
• 42:24
  I think he was going off his head a little bit in Park Firm, but I mean that just always happens.
• 42:29
  There's always somebody happy and somebody unhappy.
• 42:31
  It's just racing, you know.
• 42:32
  Like I don't really care too much.
• 42:35
  I mean it was a great race.
• 42:37
  I liked the plan and we did well.
• 42:40
  Casey lost.
• 42:41
  Casey was still a great rider, but he just didn't win that race, you know.
• 42:46
  I don't get that.
• 42:48
  Yeah.
• 42:49
  upset or excited or whatever.
• 42:51
  You know, I always back your rider, especially in front of them, because that's part of your job.
• 42:55
  Job, yep.
• 42:56
  But, you know, I can see why Casey would be pissed off.
• 42:58
  Why wouldn't you be pissed off?
• 42:59
  You were going to win that race.
• 43:00
  People have been betting on you.
• 43:02
  It was a shoo-in, you know, but he didn't.
• 43:04
  And I almost feel disappointed that it ended like kind of he, you know, almost fizzled off into the dirt there, and I thought, oh, man, I would have liked him to.
• 43:12
  I would have loved him to come back on the track, like, just run wide instead of end up in the gravel and, you know, I think if he had an awkward fall that was just shitty.
• 43:20
  You know, he would have been great.
• 43:21
  Imagine how good that race would have been if he, like, was... Wheel to wheel for... Well, no, let's say he had to chase the rabbit.
• 43:28
  How good would that have been?
• 43:29
  You know, like, that would have been great.
• 43:31
  And I miss that.
• 43:33
  We didn't see that.
• 43:33
  You know, the battle to make him make a mistake effectively or he'll probably say...
• 43:39
  different, you know, shoved, pushed, I don't know, can't really remember.
• 43:42
  But anyway, it was just a race.
• 43:44
  He's run off.
• 43:45
  I would like to see him get back on and chase him down and see what happened, you know, because that was great.
• 43:49
  But anyway, that's what my, and we loved it.
• 43:52
  I loved going to Laguna Seca.
• 43:53
  It was one of my favourite races.
• 43:54
  Great, great, great place.
• 43:57
  Valentino would move back to Yamaha.
• 43:59
  You guys would go with him.
• 44:01
  He's in his early 40s now.
• 44:04
  We sort of crave the memories.
• 44:06
  We'd love him to be winning races on a regular basis.
• 44:09
  My question is...
• 44:13
  he's still so passionate about riding.
• 44:15
  I mean, clearly you described that before with the ranch, right?
• 44:20
  Should he stop?
• 44:21
  Should he keep going?
• 44:22
  I mean, you know, people often say, oh, mate, he's holding on too long.
• 44:25
  But I think at the same time, often you meet athletes like him that are incredibly good at what they do and are still loving what they do.
• 44:32
  So why not?
• 44:34
  I've heard this argument for a hundred.
• 44:36
  I've heard it a hundred times, you know, people talk about it in every sport.
• 44:39
  I don't know what it is about people, what they want.
• 44:43
  from their sports people.
• 44:44
  Sometimes I'll say, in any sport, they'll say, he should quit at the top, you know, just walk out of the top.
• 44:49
  I'm like, are you crazy?
• 44:51
  Like why would you leave when you're at the top of the sport and you love it?
• 44:57
  Why would you even leave?
• 44:57
  Like why do you, okay, so this is the peak.
• 45:00
  why won't next year be peakier?
• 45:03
  Do you know what I mean?
• 45:03
  Like why would you do that?
• 45:04
  It's like this is the thing you love the most in the world.
• 45:07
  You're the best at it on the whole planet.
• 45:09
  You're the best.
• 45:10
  And then they go, well, you should walk out now because it would be great.
• 45:13
  Great for what?
• 45:14
  Two days later those same people will be going, oh, man, I wish he was still around, you know.
• 45:19
  So I just don't get it, you know.
• 45:21
  And then they say, well, he's taken somebody else's seat.
• 45:24
  Is he?
• 45:25
  I mean, yeah, people say that about, you know, everybody.
• 45:30
  I mean, in golf, the golfers they play, you know, they're the peak of their career.
• 45:35
  And then they go, well, we still love this, they go on to the seniors tour.
• 45:39
  And that could be the peak of the seniors tour.
• 45:41
  And there's people that have been playing golf or motorcycles or any other sport that, you know, what people call the journeymen, you know.
• 45:47
  So they've been there for 20 years or 10 years, never really made it, but people don't get upset about them.
• 45:52
  They don't go, man, he should have left at his peak when he came 10th.
• 45:56
  You know, he loves it.
• 45:58
  He races.
• 45:59
  Go race.
• 45:59
  Good on him.
• 45:59
  If you're better than him, go.
• 46:01
  You have a crack at him, you know.
• 46:03
  Yeah.
• 46:04
  So, you know, I don't get it.
• 46:06
  He's taken somebody else's seat.
• 46:07
  So what does that mean?
• 46:08
  You know, okay, at the end of this year we're just going to get rid of them all and all those rookies in the Rookie Cup can just race from next year.
• 46:14
  No, this is not how it works.
• 46:16
  Yeah.
• 46:17
  Nah.
• 46:18
  If you love it, people will give you a ride or give you a tennis record or give you a thing and you've got the money, go ride, do what you want.
• 46:25
  Who cares?
• 46:25
  I couldn't care less.
• 46:27
  Your ride in the World Championship, very sadly, has come to an end.
• 46:32
  You're on a new chapter now.
• 46:33
  Oh, I wouldn't say very sadly.
• 46:34
  No, but I'm interested in the way that you have parked that or dealt with that because it's not all you know, but it's a massive, it's the biggest part of your life, your adult life that you've spent there.
• 46:50
  Now, Valentino's gone to a private, or not a, but a,
• 46:55
  It's not the factory Yamaha that he's riding this year.
• 46:58
  As a part of that change, you, Brenton, and a lot of the core group that were there, JB, you know, finished up a few years ago.
• 47:05
  You're not part of that now.
• 47:06
  So when did you know that you wouldn't be continuing on the tour?
• 47:11
  And was there an opportunity to go and work for someone else that you explored at all?
• 47:16
  Yeah, so.
• 47:17
  And how hard was that to come to terms with?
• 47:20
  It's not as hard as you think for me.
• 47:22
  Really?
• 47:23
  I can't say for sure weren't the other guys, but for me it wasn't.
• 47:28
  wasn't horrible or anything like that.
• 47:30
  So I was disappointed in some regard, but it wasn't like a... Because you wanted to finish with Valentino?
• 47:38
  Well, I mean, I would have liked to finish over there, I'm not sure, but I would have liked to finish Valentino's career with him because, you know, I feel that it's, you know, two, three years sort of and probably max, you know, I don't really know.
• 47:52
  So another two years would have been nice and...
• 47:56
  Why would it have been nice?
• 47:57
  Perhaps just because it would have been a nice story, even for me.
• 48:01
  You know, I would have enjoyed, okay, he stopped and I stopped.
• 48:04
  You know, great.
• 48:04
  But it doesn't really matter.
• 48:07
  You know, it's racing.
• 48:08
  It's a strange game.
• 48:09
  You know, I stopped working for, I didn't stop when Mick stopped.
• 48:13
  Do you know what I mean?
• 48:15
  But did others pick up the phone?
• 48:16
  Have you had a?
• 48:17
  I've had a couple of offers from other people, but.
• 48:22
  none of them were ones that I wanted to take.
• 48:25
  So some are quite good, but it just wasn't what I wanted to do.
• 48:31
  I kind of, yeah, I've been offered jobs in Australia as a mechanic, again, for race teams, a couple in Europe.
• 48:40
  Some for quite good money and conditions weren't quite as good.
• 48:44
  So the things that, like, you know, make a big difference now that I'm older and, you know, I've got a family and you come home and you've got to,
• 48:51
  you know, you want to see your family and your wife and stuff.
• 48:53
  So, you know, I didn't want to stay in Europe forever, but it wasn't really what I wanted.
• 48:59
  I just did.
• 48:59
  None of the jobs came up.
• 49:00
  I went, yep, that'd be great.
• 49:02
  It's just not what I wanted.
• 49:03
  So I just went, no, it's not for me.
• 49:05
  So you are out on the clothesline.
• 49:06
  There are some now Aussie race-based shirts that have gone through.
• 49:12
  I didn't even notice.
• 49:14
  So just tell everyone what you're doing back here now because it,
• 49:17
  Probably has happened a little quicker.
• 49:19
  I think you half thought you might have a year around the farm in some ways, didn't you?
• 49:23
  Oh, I was more than happy to.
• 49:25
  So basically, Jerez, Yamaha had called me into the motorhome and told me that I wasn't working.
• 49:32
  So from Jerez, pandemic Jerez, from there I stayed in Europe for five months to think about it.
• 49:40
  It was five months from door to door, from when I left here to when I got home.
• 49:45
  And I knew about it, you know, after, well, so four and a half months, I knew that I wasn't going to be working for the factory team.
• 49:55
  That's what I knew for sure.
• 49:56
  Did you stop and take pictures or look around racetracks and think, you know?
• 49:59
  We joked about that for every year since JB.
• 50:02
  When JB took a photo of anything, or we saw us for years, he would just say, last year, mate.
• 50:07
  We'd always talk about that.
• 50:08
  And I did think about it lots of times, you know, like a lot of places we'd pass or, you know,
• 50:15
  it's interesting, you know, the drive from Jerez, you know, like across the farm, the fields, you just go, man, I'm not going to see that again, you know.
• 50:22
  I mean, maybe.
• 50:23
  Maybe.
• 50:23
  But highly unlikely, you know.
• 50:25
  So, and that doesn't bother me.
• 50:27
  It means the fact that.
• 50:29
  I don't know, the fact that I kind of miss it means I like it, do you know what I mean?
• 50:34
  So it doesn't really bother me.
• 50:36
  So a phone call obviously comes.
• 50:37
  What are you doing here in Australia now?
• 50:39
  Oh, okay.
• 50:39
  So, yeah, so basically lots of people asked me to work and I didn't really want to do anything.
• 50:43
  I was happy to do nothing.
• 50:44
  In fact, the very beginning of the year where we did nothing because of the pandemic, like I've just gone, I kind of like this, you know, I was happy.
• 50:53
  Anyway, so end of the season.
• 50:57
  I'm happy to do nothing and we've talked about money and stuff.
• 51:00
  We should be okay.
• 51:01
  Yep, okay, fine, me and Ellen.
• 51:04
  But Ellen's business had sort of dried up a lot because of stage time.
• 51:07
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 51:08
  So anyway, we'll be okay.
• 51:09
  We're fine.
• 51:11
  And then my mate Dougie rings me.
• 51:14
  Now, Dougie is the mechanic I worked for with Darryl Beattie in 93.
• 51:20
  No way.
• 51:22
  I know him, but I didn't know that connection.
• 51:23
  That's amazing.
• 51:24
  So in 93, Dougie was already in Europe working for WG, I think.
• 51:30
  Okay.
• 51:31
  And...
• 51:33
  And almost he was in anticipation of a Daryl coming because Daryl in Australia, Dougie was Daryl's mechanic in Australia.
• 51:42
  Locally.
• 51:42
  Locally, yeah, right.
• 51:43
  So, I mean, I don't know all the details of that.
• 51:45
  I should ask Daryl a bit more.
• 51:46
  But anyway, so, yeah, he was working and he was in Europe and then Daryl came to Europe to Rothmans Honda.
• 51:52
  They wanted to expand the team.
• 51:53
  That's how I got the job.
• 51:54
  And Daryl was the guy.
• 51:56
  He was...
• 51:57
  He was my manual.
• 51:58
  So I was his boy.
• 52:00
  So I'm the young guy and he's showing me how to do this, how me do that.
• 52:04
  And we shared rooms, you know, because you share a hotel room.
• 52:08
  So we shared room for the first year with Doug.
• 52:13
  So that was kind of, I think, yeah, Dougie, well, not all the time.
• 52:16
  But anyway, we shared rooms a lot of time.
• 52:18
  And...
• 52:21
  So Dougie rings me.
• 52:22
  Now, Dougie, in the meantime, with another guy called Sean Gallagher who was a racer back in the day, they have built a business in Australia whilst Dougie was away and now a successful business importing motorcycle parts.
• 52:35
  And they're the importer for motorcycle tyres from Michelin.
• 52:38
  It's gas, isn't it?
• 52:38
  Yeah.
• 52:39
  Gas imports.
• 52:41
  Or lots of cool stuff, you know, like acropovic exhaust pipes.
• 52:44
  So they're a big deal and they've got warehouses in Australia
• 52:47
  I think Sydney and Brisbane and Melbourne.
• 52:50
  It's a big show.
• 52:52
  Anyway, Dougie's rung me up and said, hey, look, JB helped me last year.
• 52:57
  We're introducing Michelin tyres to the Australian super bikes.
• 52:59
  JB's going to sort of step away from it.
• 53:01
  He'd sort of hurt his back and he wasn't really sure if he wants to continue.
• 53:04
  Do you want to do that?
• 53:08
  I go, what is it?
• 53:09
  And Dougie explains it.
• 53:11
  I said, look, okay, give me the weekend and I'll think about it.
• 53:14
  I talked to Alan, talked to a few friends and I said, yeah.
• 53:17
  Yeah, all right, I'll do it.
• 53:18
  So it's like seven races, a few tests, and I've never been to any of the racetracks in Australia other than Phillip Island and Eastern Creek, you know.
• 53:26
  Crazy.
• 53:26
  So Winton was the first time for you.
• 53:28
  Yeah, so off I go to Winton for a test and I'm just going, oh, where's Winton?
• 53:31
  Isn't Winton in Queensland?
• 53:33
  No, no, Winton's in, right, near Ned Kelly country.
• 53:35
  So off we go down to Winton.
• 53:37
  And it's just like taking me back to like my motocross days.
• 53:41
  The feeling is kind of like a motocross race.
• 53:43
  But it's road races.
• 53:44
  And I meet all these people and I see some of them, they look at me like, oh, man, that guy is, you know, and they want to talk to me about it and you can tell.
• 53:53
  And I'm clearly more than happy to, but there's a little, there's a slight barrier, you know, you can feel it.
• 53:57
  And so when I say hello to them and say, oh, yeah, and they tell them, they all just want to know what it was like over there, really.
• 54:03
  Anyway, so that's great.
• 54:04
  So I'm helping Dougie, but Dougie says to me, okay, don't worry, there won't be really any manual labour.
• 54:09
  We're going to get a guy to fit the team.
• 54:11
  So basically the job is to.
• 54:12
  You are hands on.
• 54:13
  Yeah, so the job is tyres, Michelin tyres, we're going to introduce them in the Superbike Series and we're going to see if we can get a bit of a foothold and get some more riders.
• 54:21
  So we've got Troy Herfoss, which is one of the premier riders in Australia.
• 54:28
  And he's riding.
• 54:29
  And then we've got three other guys in superbikes now.
• 54:32
  At the time we only had that one when Dougie rings me.
• 54:35
  And we've got somebody riding in the Supersport.
• 54:38
  Anyway, so he says, yeah, look, we're going to get somebody to change the tyres and your job is to sort of...
• 54:43
  collate the information, help with the riders, make the choices, see if we can get them to work properly because we haven't been to all the tracks.
• 54:49
  We don't even know all the tracks, what they're going to behave like.
• 54:53
  And then we've got to send that information back to France and they're going to help them with the tyres in the future.
• 54:58
  Right.
• 54:58
  So there we are.
• 54:59
  There I am changing tyres straight first day.
• 55:01
  I go, Dougie, I haven't used a tyre machine like my whole life.
• 55:04
  What the hell?
• 55:06
  He goes, no, it's like this, righto.
• 55:07
  So chucking tyres on there and, like, soaping them up and banging them on and getting stuck and jamming my fingers.
• 55:12
  Anyway, I'm a professional now.
• 55:14
  Good stuff.
• 55:14
  Yeah, but anyway, so me and Dougie are slinging tyres on the tyre machines, balancing them the old school way, you know, like spinning them and then putting weights on them and cutting them off.
• 55:23
  And anyway, so we've kind of been at the ground level and already we're buying things and we're changing this and changing that and I've explained to some of the riders how it gets done.
• 55:35
  overseas because we have a bit more information.
• 55:37
  So we know these things.
• 55:38
  We've got to start, if we want to win, we want to do some of these things.
• 55:41
  Yeah.
• 55:41
  So we're starting to do that and I'm enjoying that, you know.
• 55:44
  Good.
• 55:44
  And I get home like Monday, no jet lag at the Gold Coast Airport and it's like an hour drive to my house and I'm good to go.
• 55:51
  Happy days.
• 55:52
  And Brent has ended up in that paddock too in a different role with a different team.
• 55:56
  Yeah, so it's good to run into Brent and just have stories and stuff.
• 55:59
  Yeah, it's good.
• 56:00
  And here you do, you love golf.
• 56:02
  Mm-hmm.
• 56:04
  you are applying some of your mechanical strengths to golf clubs.
• 56:11
  Just explain that.
• 56:11
  And typical you, there is, you know, real cool ways that you are helping not only to repair clubs for people that you know, but improve them as well.
• 56:23
  Almost-
• 56:24
  Kind of like a little bit of development like a bike ride.
• 56:26
  Yeah, yeah.
• 56:28
  So golf has become a thing for me.
• 56:30
  I mean, I would always play golf, right?
• 56:33
  But it's real.
• 56:34
  If you're a golfer, it's a real addiction.
• 56:37
  And I loved it because it's the opposite to everything else I did.
• 56:41
  You know, you're by yourself.
• 56:43
  It's not a team sport.
• 56:44
  You're by yourself.
• 56:45
  It's quiet, essentially, except for the swearing.
• 56:49
  And it's on grass.
• 56:50
  Does that happen a lot?
• 56:51
  Hell yeah.
• 56:52
  Especially the bikes I play with.
• 56:54
  So anyway, and it's on grass, you know.
• 56:56
  Like it's a world away from racing motorcycles around in circles.
• 57:00
  So...
• 57:01
  So I loved it.
• 57:02
  I just love it.
• 57:03
  But I like the technical side of it and I like all the angles and, you know, there's a lot in it.
• 57:09
  But from the outside, I don't know if you talk to Ellen, she just goes, it's the worst sport in the world.
• 57:13
  She hates it.
• 57:14
  Hates everything about it.
• 57:16
  The only good thing, she said, was when the kids were used to go and play golf, you know, it's not like soccer where you always sit on the sidelines for half an hour and watch them and pretend you're watching.
• 57:23
  She said, if the golf is four hours and they're gone, you can go and do the shopping and come back.
• 57:27
  It's great.
• 57:28
  So that's our only positive.
• 57:29
  Anyway, so I'm addicted to it and like everything, it turns out I'm better at fixing them than I am at playing.
• 57:38
  Like it's exactly the same thing that happened to me with motorcycles.
• 57:41
  Crazy.
• 57:42
  Exactly.
• 57:43
  And I just got right into it, you know, and so now I kind of did it on the side myself for myself and now I've really, I've just started a business on the side.
• 57:52
  On the side, I don't know what you call it.
• 57:53
  on the side.
• 57:54
  It's just another thing I'm doing, fixing people's golf clubs and building them and modifying them, and I've got all the gear.
• 58:01
  Yes.
• 58:02
  Maybe a little bit of an idea.
• 58:03
  Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, all the gear.
• 58:05
  Yes.
• 58:05
  So I've got all the gear in the workshop.
• 58:07
  I've built a nice new bench and got everything going in there, and so most evenings at the moment are spent tinkering on golf clubs for people.
• 58:14
  So, you know, as everything from just putting grips on to fixing broken bits and pieces and changing things.
• 58:19
  I've got, yeah, it's great fun.
• 58:21
  There's a lot in it when you're into it, you know, so it's hard to explain to somebody.
• 58:25
  Anyway, I love that and that'll be a little, that'll be a business for me shortly.
• 58:29
  I'll probably have the website.
• 58:31
  It'll be, I've got to change the logo to one spanner and one golf club.
• 58:35
  I've already done that.
• 58:36
  I love it.
• 58:37
  It's going to look pretty cool.
• 58:38
  Couple to finish.
• 58:39
  Firstly, the boys are old enough, more than old enough to drive and are driving.
• 58:45
  As I came in here today, you told me about,
• 58:49
  there's been a couple of circle work models that one of them might even be buried in the paddock at the front or something.
• 58:54
  And if they hit you up for the dough to buy them, how did that all come to pass?
• 58:57
  What were they?
• 58:58
  Well, they're always rear-wheel drive, right?
• 59:01
  So they're Falcons or Commodores.
• 59:02
  So that's basically it.
• 59:04
  But mostly they can get Falcons because I don't know what happens to Commodores.
• 59:07
  $500 or something.
• 59:07
  Pretty much.
• 59:08
  So they scour Gumtree and there's about five mates, right?
• 59:12
  Yeah.
• 59:13
  And half of the fun for them is haggling with these people because they don't care.
• 59:16
  They couldn't care with rats, right?
• 59:18
  So they buy these heaps of junk and they drive them here.
• 59:21
  with maybe one month's rego or maybe just in the dead of night, you know.
• 59:24
  Yeah.
• 59:25
  So they get these cars here and then they drive them around in circles and paddock until they blow something.
• 59:29
  And nearly always they blow the gearbox up.
• 59:30
  Classic.
• 59:31
  Or the engine.
• 59:31
  Yeah.
• 59:31
  But there's an engine down there and they cut mufflers.
• 59:34
  They cut the mufflers straight off on.
• 59:36
  I don't know why.
• 59:37
  I mean, I do know why, right?
• 59:38
  Yeah.
• 59:38
  Okay, so it sounds cool.
• 59:39
  But the whole valley can hear it.
• 59:40
  Even in town, people go, those bloody Briggs kids.
• 59:44
  They can hear them, you know, like their mum with one of the kids goes, oh, you're right, you're driving the cars around today.
• 59:48
  Yeah, they're just basically driving circles.
• 59:50
  It's like...
• 59:52
  Oh, I don't know.
• 59:53
  Remember Happy Days when I used to drive around in circles and smash up Derby and the Malachi Crunch?
• 59:57
  It's like these guys down there just smashing into each other.
• 59:59
  You know what I love?
• 1:00:00
  It's all on private property and they're getting a lot of it out of their system.
• 1:00:03
  That's actually a good thing.
• 1:00:05
  One of the boys has got a Corona that he's done up and loves.
• 1:00:09
  Right into that.
• 1:00:10
  But you have a couple of things in the garage that we should finish on.
• 1:00:13
  Right.
• 1:00:13
  Firstly, one of them was, I think, a birthday present for Ellen.
• 1:00:17
  It might have been a milestone birthday present.
• 1:00:19
  Tell us about that.
• 1:00:21
  I'm pretty sure it was a...
• 1:00:23
  This is bad.
• 1:00:24
  I couldn't remember if it's the 30th or 40th.
• 1:00:26
  I think it's a 40th birthday present.
• 1:00:30
  And it's a 1960 Holden FB.
• 1:00:33
  Awesome.
• 1:00:34
  And every now and then you see it in some of her clips.
• 1:00:36
  They use it now.
• 1:00:37
  Sometimes it's promos that, hey, like we're driving to such and such.
• 1:00:40
  And, you know, they'll film in.
• 1:00:42
  They've done a few things like Ellen's done a few interviews driving in a bit like those sorts of Seinfeld style.
• 1:00:47
  Awesome.
• 1:00:48
  Using that old car, it's a great old car, you know.
• 1:00:51
  Very original, whitewall tyres.
• 1:00:52
  Have you done much to it?
• 1:00:54
  Done really almost nothing to it.
• 1:00:55
  I fixed a couple of things like got it running a little bit better and manifold leak and uni joints and just basic stuff.
• 1:01:04
  It's essentially how I bought it.
• 1:01:06
  Yeah.
• 1:01:07
  It's good.
• 1:01:07
  It's a good car.
• 1:01:08
  And you have, in two-wheel terms, there are some two-wheels.
• 1:01:11
  I mean, you talked about riding before at the ranch and things, but one thing that caught my eye was a Triumph.
• 1:01:16
  Tell us about that.
• 1:01:17
  Yeah, so it's a 1969 Triumph Bonneville.
• 1:01:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:01:21
  So we were driving across Europe, me and Rog, in the truck, the Honda truck one day, and we're reading the magazines and the new Triumph Bonnevilles had just come out.
• 1:01:29
  Like Triumph had just started reading and they'd made these new things.
• 1:01:32
  And they were similar sort of money and we're talking about it.
• 1:01:34
  I said, you know, it'd be good to just buy the original, you know.
• 1:01:37
  And 1969 is when I was born and I've gone, oh, it'd be great to buy one of them.
• 1:01:41
  So I was looking through these old magazines, Just Bikes magazines.
• 1:01:47
  I'm looking, I'm looking, and the final one there,
• 1:01:50
  And I ring the guy.
• 1:01:51
  This is at the workshop in Belgium, right, in Alstice.
• 1:01:53
  We've got some old magazines and there's one in there.
• 1:01:55
  And I ring the guy.
• 1:01:57
  It's like, you know, maybe a year old.
• 1:01:59
  And he goes, oh, the guy never came and picked it up.
• 1:02:01
  He paid me 500 buck deposit and never picked it up.
• 1:02:03
  It's still there and I haven't really advertised it again.
• 1:02:05
  I said, right, well, I'm coming there for Phillip Island because it was in Melbourne.
• 1:02:09
  When I come to Phillip Island, we'll swing by.
• 1:02:11
  So I swung by and...
• 1:02:14
  Yeah, perfect.
• 1:02:15
  I think I organised Dougie to get it up here with a shipment of tyres or something up to Brisbane.
• 1:02:22
  Drop it off?
• 1:02:23
  Yeah, I think so.
• 1:02:24
  I think it was Dougie actually.
• 1:02:25
  It was a long time ago anyway.
• 1:02:27
  What states it in?
• 1:02:28
  Do you ride it?
• 1:02:29
  Tell me a bit more there.
• 1:02:31
  I hardly ride it, but I need to.
• 1:02:32
  Now that I'm going to be home more often, although... Like JB, you can get your teeth into a project.
• 1:02:37
  Well, except I'm busier than I ever have been.
• 1:02:39
  I don't know what's going on.
• 1:02:40
  But anyway, so, yeah, I want to get there going and go for Sunday.
• 1:02:44
  Me and Ellen have been for a ride a few times, but I've just got like a little jet black helmet, but Ellen doesn't have one, so we still have got like three Valentino helmets that he signed.
• 1:02:52
  So the last time we drove it, Ellen just...
• 1:02:54
  I said, well, just use one of them.
• 1:02:55
  It's got chair-offs and everything on it.
• 1:02:57
  I said, take that.
• 1:02:59
  The one with a little bit of pink in it, I think, was the one we chose.
• 1:03:02
  But, yeah, so it's one of the helmets that Valentino had given us as a present.
• 1:03:05
  Wouldn't be a fun sign.
• 1:03:07
  So we're driving around.
• 1:03:08
  Yeah, it's all autographed and, like, you know, thanks, Alex.
• 1:03:11
  And Ellen's got that on and she's on the back.
• 1:03:13
  So it's kind of fun.
• 1:03:13
  Right.
• 1:03:14
  Wouldn't be a farm without ride-on mowers and quad bikes and things.
• 1:03:18
  You also have a Mahindra tractor.
• 1:03:20
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:21
  And proudly adorned on the back of the seat is the 46, the Valentino Rossi.
• 1:03:26
  Yeah, well, it just fits perfect, doesn't it?
• 1:03:28
  Yeah, it does.
• 1:03:28
  It's like a race play.
• 1:03:30
  So, yeah, I've got on the back of the mower and the tractor and a couple of spots in the carriage I've got old stickers that were, you know, that didn't fit something or I've stolen from work or whatever, you know, I've got them plastered around.
• 1:03:41
  a real McCoy stickers on the back of the tractor, which got used today, which you know about.
• 1:03:44
  Yeah, I do.
• 1:03:44
  I do.
• 1:03:45
  Mate, it's been super to talk to you, to walk down memory lane.
• 1:03:47
  We spent two hours doing that, and I'm sure we could spend another two hours.
• 1:03:49
  Mate, we have to scratch this.
• 1:03:51
  Oh, mate.
• 1:03:51
  You're going to have to edit this down.
• 1:03:52
  I don't know how you're going to do that.
• 1:03:53
  No, we'll be right.
• 1:03:54
  It'll be a couple of parts that people will thoroughly enjoy.
• 1:03:57
  Can I encourage you to finish this with maybe a tip for youngsters, men and women, that are perhaps –
• 1:04:07
  you know, into racing, maybe they're not ever going to be a world champion carter or motorcycle racer, but they might want to follow a path like yours.
• 1:04:14
  What would be the tip when you've spoken about this to those people?
• 1:04:18
  What would you tell them?
• 1:04:20
  Yeah, lots of kids sometimes, well, I've been to a few talks and people have asked, you know, well, how do I get into that?
• 1:04:26
  What's the path, you know?
• 1:04:29
  I don't know that there's a particular way to get into it.
• 1:04:33
  I mean, a lot now is...
• 1:04:36
  I think the first thing to do is just go to your local race with a friend, you know, find somebody that you can help because essentially as a mechanic what you're doing is helping.
• 1:04:46
  You're helping his racer go racing.
• 1:04:47
  You're helping the bike.
• 1:04:49
  You want to give him a bike that's, you know, stuck together okay.
• 1:04:52
  So that's what your job is helping.
• 1:04:53
  So just go and help somebody.
• 1:04:55
  That's the way to do it.
• 1:04:56
  And don't listen to a careers advisor.
• 1:04:58
  I wouldn't advise that.
• 1:05:00
  Don't worry about your spelling.
• 1:05:02
  Most important thing is...
• 1:05:04
  is getting on with people, listen to your writer and the people just listen and do your work, you know.
• 1:05:12
  If you enjoy it, it's not hard.
• 1:05:15
  Particularly if you're passionate about it, if you're into it, yeah.
• 1:05:17
  Yeah, I would say I was never like...
• 1:05:20
  It's hard to – I'm not a fanatic, you know.
• 1:05:23
  I actually think people that are fanatical aren't the best at being a race mechanic.
• 1:05:29
  If you're fanatical, I think you – Overthink it or overthink it?
• 1:05:32
  Yeah, overthink it also can be a bit dangerous, you know, because you think you know everything.
• 1:05:36
  You definitely don't know everything and you're never going to.
• 1:05:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:05:39
  And I think to get away from racing is really good too.
• 1:05:43
  So you have to be involved.
• 1:05:46
  You should, in my opinion, be involved in as many things as you can because lots of ideas come from other people.
• 1:05:53
  other avenues.
• 1:05:54
  Like say you'd be thinking about something or you have another problem and it triggers your idea for racing or for the idea to fix something.
• 1:06:02
  So if you just got your head buried in the one thing, you won't see enough to be able to fix it.
• 1:06:07
  Anyway, so I would say don't listen to your careers advisor.
• 1:06:11
  Help a friend, and if you enjoy it, just keep helping, and it'll take care of itself.
• 1:06:16
  And use those skills to hot rod golf clubs.
• 1:06:18
  Go well with the game, mate.
• 1:06:20
  We are immensely proud of the time that you've spent overseas, and you sort of...
• 1:06:25
  just quietly compartmentalise that.
• 1:06:28
  But, I mean, to be a part of all that, to play, to be a cog in the machine and to contribute to that is just amazing.
• 1:06:34
  The longevity that you've had with it and the fact that you're still, you know, even though you've come full circle, that you still love it as much now I think is tremendous.
• 1:06:41
  So thank you for talking to us.
• 1:06:42
  Awesome.
• 1:06:42
  It's been a pleasure.
• 1:06:43
  It's good.
• 1:06:43
  It's actually good because I've kind of gone down memory lane.
• 1:06:46
  It's only when you look back that you really realise what you've done.
• 1:06:50
  So this is good.
• 1:06:50
  Thanks.
• 1:06:51
  Awesome.
• 1:06:57
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 1:07:01
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 1:07:05
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 1:07:14
  Listener.