Latest / Rusty's Garage / Molly Taylor - The Next Chapter - Part 1

Transcript

Molly Taylor - The Next Chapter - Part 1 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:14
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  This is our 99th feature or long form episode.
• 0:31
  Crazy where this project has gone.
• 0:33
  Thanks to all of you for your support, feedback, reviews and suggestions along the way.
• 0:38
  I may not reply to all the messages, but I see each and every one, I promise.
• 0:44
  Needless to say, we have lots of ideas.
• 0:47
  Thanks in part to you guys for our next 100 guests.
• 0:50
  For this one, I thought it was time that we did a much needed follow up ep with Molly Taylor.
• 0:56
  Kind of does my head in that mainstream press and even some of our industry media don't give her more airtime or column space given the world-leading stuff she is doing with Extreme E. More on that series and those cars during the convo.
• 1:11
  A lot has happened since we first spoke for the podcast.
• 1:14
  I really owe Molly a debt of sorts for that one.
• 1:17
  She's a colleague and a friend who didn't hesitate when I asked for help setting out on this journey.
• 1:22
  Well,
• 1:23
  We must have recorded for nearly three hours at the listener studios in Sydney for the pilot.
• 1:29
  And then after I dissected it with the producers and did a bit of tuning, I asked her if we could do it all again.
• 1:35
  But for that one, we went to the family shed and chatted around some very cool project cars.
• 1:41
  It's an ep I cherish and you can find it at the very beginning of the library.
• 1:45
  To know Molly is to know that she is a serious can-do person.
• 1:50
  She has this ability to find another gear.
• 1:53
  And she took a gritty, tenacious approach to her time on the SAS Australia TV series that saw her through to the finale and a top five finish.
• 2:04
  It was brutal to watch at times.
• 2:06
  But people beyond our sport got a real sense of her determination.
• 2:11
  That rise in popularity from the program saw her take on some TV roles.
• 2:16
  I now work with her on things like the Speed Series coverage, for example.
• 2:21
  Her easy co-hosting style and rapport with the drivers, especially in TCR, where she's raced before, made Molly a perfect fit.
• 2:30
  We'll talk about the challenges of COVID.
• 2:33
  She has done more quarantine stays than anybody I know, something I hope she never has to do again, and that has to have been mentally taxing.
• 2:42
  And yet, she continued to find and create opportunities internationally around Dakar.
• 2:48
  And as I said before, Molly's been a bit of a benchmark racer in the all-electric Extreme eSuv series, plus...
• 2:55
  She and partner Daniel Gartner, a highly respected motoring journalist, have embarked on a new content series in a purpose-built garage.
• 3:05
  We'll get to that.
• 3:06
  It's a fantastic concept.
• 3:08
  We recorded this convo at a racetrack.
• 3:11
  What a surprise, trying to stay out of the cold weather and somehow look like we were actually working.
• 3:19
  We look like a pair of pelicans.
• 3:21
  We're sitting in a car at Winton.
• 3:23
  They've had so much rain here.
• 3:25
  There are actually frogs chirping in the grass.
• 3:28
  There are race cars on track.
• 3:30
  This has turned into a little mobile studio.
• 3:32
  But it's really fitting that we catch up because it's been a long time since we spoke on this podcast.
• 3:38
  Firstly, you've been tackling things at a global level since then.
• 3:45
  And you're back in the winner's circle there in Extreme E. How good.
• 3:48
  Yeah, it's great to be back in the extreme paddock and I mean, quite a few years since we've had a chat on this podcast.
• 3:54
  Oh, no.
• 3:55
  Congratulations to you as well on how much the podcast has grown.
• 3:58
  It was at the very beginning, so it's been, I'm an avid follower, very, very proud of everything that's been happening.
• 4:03
  I'm indebted to you because I think we shared this, we did this pilot and then I rang you and said, hey, we've pulled it apart and we really like it, but we want to change a few things.
• 4:13
  Can we do it all again?
• 4:14
  Yeah.
• 4:15
  So we went to your folks' place and in the workshop there, your dad will get to one of the cars he's worked on since we recorded.
• 4:21
  But he's always got projects on the go and cars and, you know, he always grits me with this amazing smile.
• 4:28
  Like, hey, come on, look at this.
• 4:29
  Look what I've got.
• 4:29
  Look what I'm doing now, you know, kind of thing.
• 4:32
  So let's focus on the whole extreme thing.
• 4:35
  That part of your journey, how did that opportunity come about?
• 4:38
  A new thing for –
• 4:40
  motorsport, relatively speaking, with an environmental flavour, electric orientated, and from the get-go, it seemed to suit you, didn't it?
• 4:50
  Yeah, it's an amazing series.
• 4:52
  It's kind of, you know, in many ways, it's just thrown the traditional rulebook of how we set up motorsport, thrown that out and just said, well, what if we do this and why can't we do it like that?
• 5:01
  So we, I mean, to summarise it, we essentially take
• 5:05
  big horsepower, electric SUVs to remote parts of the world that particularly have been impacted by climate change on the ground.
• 5:13
  And we set up, it's pretty much like rallycross cross off-road racing.
• 5:19
  So we race head to head with five cars at a time on a relatively short track, but it's not really a track.
• 5:26
  It's wherever we are, whatever terrain we find ourselves in, whether that's
• 5:30
  the deserts of Saudi Arabia are on, um, next to glaciers in Greenland, wherever we are, we kind of make a, make our own track.
• 5:37
  Um, and each, each team has two drivers, one male, one female.
• 5:42
  So the first time anything in motorsport has been done with that
• 5:45
  gender split.
• 5:47
  And so as well as the racing, the idea is to highlight what climate change is doing on the ground and really show what's happening.
• 5:54
  But also, and I think more importantly, it's not just doom and gloom.
• 5:58
  It's about these are the projects that are happening.
• 5:59
  This is how we can...
• 6:01
  bring our resources to help locally on the ground but also spread that message to to our audience as well about what's been done and what we can do and and also how motorsport can be part of a more sustainable future as well because we have massive opportunity there too and some big names both both teams i mean mclaren for example and um drivers i mean lewis hamilton there there are all these names that have jumped on board haven't they
• 6:25
  Yeah, it's been a real testament to the series.
• 6:27
  I think they really have got the who's who of every discipline of motorsport.
• 6:31
  You've got three Formula One world champions on the grid, world rallycross champions, world rally champions, Dakar champions.
• 6:39
  I mean, you kind of name it.
• 6:40
  We've got it on the grid.
• 6:42
  So very special and a testament, I think, to what they're trying to do, that all these people, either as team owners or as drivers themselves, have put their hand in and said, let's be part of building this into the future.
• 6:54
  Cool.
• 6:55
  Yeah.
• 6:55
  Take people, if you can, a little bit inside the car in that world.
• 7:00
  Amazing torque, I think, haven't they?
• 7:02
  Not crazy top speeds, and you have to be judicious about how you use the power.
• 7:08
  Is that right?
• 7:08
  Yeah, I think, I mean, it depends on what location we go and how much power we run.
• 7:12
  We basically have the ability to generate hydrogen power on site to charge the cars.
• 7:19
  So basically, however that works and what temperatures we're wasting in will determine what power levels we run.
• 7:25
  But within that, you've got a lot of opportunity and flexibility in terms of how you set your power maps because it's not like an ICE engine where you've got what you've got in the electric space.
• 7:37
  You can...
• 7:38
  behind a computer to adjust what your power ratio is going to be, front motor to rear motor, how you want that to play, depending on what speeds you're doing, what steering inputs you have, all these kind of cool things.
• 7:49
  So there's a lot you can play with kind of within that realm.
• 7:53
  And so they are quite different.
• 7:55
  Different to drive, I think, firstly, because they're just so big.
• 7:57
  There are, you know, just under two ton of this big SUV.
• 8:01
  So it's a big car that you're driving around and then you have the EV side and I think just all the sensory inputs are different.
• 8:09
  You're so used to driving cars and listening to revs and gears and that's kind of your feedback, whereas here it's just –
• 8:15
  you hear the engine noise, the sort of electric spooling up, but then you also hear so much more of the external, like the rocks hitting the car and all these other things.
• 8:26
  So it's just a matter of kind of recalibrating to that rather than it being difficult or, you know, really hard to get used to.
• 8:34
  And then, I mean, it's still mechanically with all the suspension and that stuff, it's still just a car.
• 8:40
  And as Neil Bates, who you recently interviewed, would ring up and say to me,
• 8:45
  it's just a car with four wheels and a steering wheel.
• 8:48
  Just like drive it really fast to the corner, uh, break as late as you can and then accelerate again.
• 8:52
  It's not that hard.
• 8:53
  I love it.
• 8:53
  I mean, you know, in the, in the early part of your, your international journey, um, he's been in your corner, hasn't he?
• 9:01
  He's been a great, um, mentor.
• 9:03
  And even now he's still been very good from a, an advice standpoint, hasn't he?
• 9:09
  And helping you.
• 9:10
  Yeah, he's been my mentor and one of my idols, I guess, growing up, being able to really see closely with that team and how it operates and what Neil does.
• 9:22
  He can just hop into anything and figure it out so incredibly quickly and to have that sort of person to learn from has been incredible.
• 9:29
  And also he'll tell you exactly how it is.
• 9:33
  So he's one of those people that you want to know what he thinks because –
• 9:36
  If it's crap, he will tell you.
• 9:38
  That's good.
• 9:38
  You don't need that sugar coating in your world.
• 9:41
  Yeah, so he's a very harsh critic, but you want that.
• 9:46
  You want to be better all the time.
• 9:48
  So to have someone that you implicitly trust that can be brutally honest with you as well, I think it's a very, very good combination to have.
• 9:56
  So Molly Taylor, who went to private school in country New South Wales and grew up in Sydney's northwest, is going to some of these amazing remote parts of the world.
• 10:07
  How good has that been?
• 10:08
  How eye-opening has that been?
• 10:09
  And I mean, did you ever – some of these countries, you probably never imagined you'd go there.
• 10:13
  Yeah, it's just, it's incredible.
• 10:15
  I think the beginning of this year, by sort of mid-Feb, I think I'd spend more time in Saudi Arabia than I had back home in Australia, which I would never have imagined a few years ago that I would be saying that.
• 10:26
  But yeah, to go to places like that, to go to Greenland was incredible.
• 10:31
  I mean, there was more people coming from Xtreme than lived in the town where we landed.
• 10:36
  There was, you know, we all had to stay on the ship because there was only a couple of spare rooms at the airports.
• 10:41
  the little airport that was just there to bring in supplies.
• 10:45
  So to go to some of those places, you just never have the opportunity to otherwise.
• 10:49
  It's just been really eye-opening.
• 10:53
  swept away in the competition and the pressure and the focus you have on that.
• 10:57
  But there's definitely some moments, particularly with this series, where you just have to kind of sit back and go like, wow, we're doing something pretty cool.
• 11:04
  Yeah, exactly.
• 11:05
  So in the early part of that adventure, I don't know how much you can talk about how things ended, but let's talk about the beginning.
• 11:12
  When you got to drive for Nico Rosberg, you know,
• 11:15
  He literally reached out via your website or something.
• 11:20
  And I think, as often happens in motor racing, the radar went up and you thought, is this a gag?
• 11:24
  Is this real?
• 11:25
  Is this, you know, a fake?
• 11:26
  Like, you didn't necessarily believe it to begin with, did you?
• 11:29
  Oh, yeah.
• 11:29
  A hundred percent.
• 11:30
  I thought it was someone having a laugh or someone...
• 11:32
  you know, just a spam message or something like that because it just, it seems so surreal that that would happen in that way.
• 11:40
  But no, it turns out it was Nico.
• 11:42
  It became pretty obvious when he FaceTimed me and then good seeing that.
• 11:46
  It really is you.
• 11:47
  It really is you.
• 11:47
  All right.
• 11:48
  Okay.
• 11:48
  Yeah, so I mean an incredible opportunity to be involved and, yeah,
• 11:54
  learn from someone with so much experience and success.
• 11:57
  And then also having Johan Christophersen as the teammate who's five-time World Rallycross champion.
• 12:02
  And just, I mean, some of the moves that he can pull are just, you could watch it again and again and again and still not completely understand how he pulled it off.
• 12:13
  You had done a little bit of circuit racing here.
• 12:14
  We're literally recording this at a round of TCR, and you did drive some Subarus.
• 12:20
  They were WRXs that I think Todd Kelly ran and stuff, or the Kelly Racing team ran in the early part of this series.
• 12:25
  So being around other cars and things wasn't necessarily a newer deal.
• 12:30
  But doing it on the dirt where people have got elbows out and stuff, what's that like?
• 12:34
  Yeah, it's really exciting.
• 12:36
  As you said, I'd done a little bit, but really, you know, I was so green at that sort of stuff.
• 12:40
  And I remember in the second, sorry, the third round of the series, we just started doing five, I think it was the first time we were going to do a five car.
• 12:50
  final.
• 12:50
  They wanted to see what it was like with five cars and I was starting.
• 12:54
  So I was pretty nervous.
• 12:55
  And then I pulled up at the start line and looked to my right and it was Sebastian Loeb.
• 13:02
  And I was just at this moment where I was like, holy, what, what am I doing?
• 13:05
  And then I just had to kind of not look and just not think about it and just go like, oh, cause it was just, it was too overwhelming to think that like, what the hell am I doing?
• 13:13
  Like you can see the, one of the
• 13:18
  And a legend to your side.
• 13:19
  On the outside of the world.
• 13:20
  I'm like, what?
• 13:21
  What is happening?
• 13:22
  But, yeah, I mean, there's still so much to learn and it's so nuanced.
• 13:27
  And as you say, particularly on gravel as well because, you know, you have the fundamentals of race craft and what you can and can't do.
• 13:33
  But you put it on gravel and it all changes a little bit because everything's a bit more wild and everyone's sliding around.
• 13:48
  I don't know what the right word is, but it's just, everything's just, yeah, a little more nuanced.
• 13:53
  Everything's moving around and the kind of what is on and what's not on is just all kind of changes depending on,
• 13:59
  You know, what angle if you're sliding, what, you know, the visibility is terrible if you're behind.
• 14:06
  So all these things, you're driving blind sometimes.
• 14:09
  And, yeah, it's very exciting.
• 14:10
  It's just a completely different whirlwind.
• 14:12
  But I'm actually, I'm surprised how much I enjoy it, having not much experience of it.
• 14:17
  I was pretty daunted at the start.
• 14:19
  But then once you get into it, it's, yeah, it's an amazing experience.
• 14:22
  amazing adrenaline rush as has always been your way i've known you since you were quite young that you have this determination so when you got to this thing you're playing at world level in something new but but a chance to really um make a name for yourself again if you like at a at an international or a global level did you just cast off all that stuff like like lobe and big and just like like i just i've got to do this what was the approach from you going into that
• 14:51
  Yeah, I mean, I think it's definitely hard to remove yourself from that gravity of it and all the people in the paddock.
• 14:57
  And because it was so new too, like unknown or, yeah, sorry, keep going.
• 15:00
  Yeah, I think that was exactly the thing.
• 15:02
  Like no one really knows what.
• 15:04
  is the best way to run these teams or cars.
• 15:07
  We're all trying to figure it out because it is all so new.
• 15:09
  So I think there's so much going on outside.
• 15:12
  And even at Xtreme, they have this command center, which is this tent with all the sort of computer screens where the engineers and teams all go into.
• 15:21
  But it's all got lighting and dramatic music, and you have to be in there up until the time you jump into the car.
• 15:26
  Okay.
• 15:26
  It's part of the show.
• 15:27
  It's part of the show, which is awesome.
• 15:28
  But man, like to be in this room with all this dramatic music and lights and it's all dark and you're like, Jesus.
• 15:34
  I just want to sit in a corner with a little bit of music and get focused.
• 15:38
  Yeah.
• 15:38
  I remember the very first round in 2021 in Saudi and like sort of the first time.
• 15:44
  we were going into our first quali session and we had one practice run and we had a power steering issue.
• 15:49
  So I hadn't done like a fast lap around the track at all.
• 15:53
  And I was in that room and all the music was playing and I was just absolutely peaking.
• 15:58
  Like what am I doing?
• 15:59
  And then anyway, Johan did his lap, came in and I came out and jumped in the car and then took off.
• 16:04
  And then there was this moment where we were in the middle of the desert.
• 16:07
  It was just such stunning terrain with these big sort of rock faces all coming out.
• 16:11
  almost like these rock icebergs in the middle of the sand.
• 16:15
  And it was a really long straight to start the lap.
• 16:18
  And I remember hopping and taking off and it was just like serenity because the car was so quiet.
• 16:22
  It was so beautiful and peaceful.
• 16:24
  And it was the most relaxed I'd actually been, ironically, up until that point.
• 16:28
  So I think there's all of that, but then there's still, you know, like any racing, you want to do well and you've just got to get on and do the job when you're in the car.
• 16:37
  There is, as we continue this conversation, because –
• 16:41
  and you get moments away from all of the activity that Xtreme does, you no doubt get a chance to have a conversation with someone like Sebastian Loeb.
• 16:52
  What is that like for someone who is driver but also serious fan?
• 16:55
  I mean, he's done some amazing things in the record books of world rallying and beyond that.
• 16:59
  To actually have a combo that is not like this where we've got a microphone or a camera stuck in his face or anything, what's he like?
• 17:06
  Yeah.
• 17:07
  He's just, he's so chilled.
• 17:08
  Is he?
• 17:08
  So chilled.
• 17:09
  Like nothing's a drama.
• 17:11
  He's not like sort of hugely talkative, but he just wants to chill and he just wants to chat about his helicopter or, you know, some adventure.
• 17:19
  You know, it's not necessarily even talking about racing.
• 17:21
  You know, he's lived that and just wants to chat about the family and all that sort of stuff.
• 17:27
  But very cool.
• 17:28
  And I mean, I'm still, we were just having the conversation earlier about, you know, some of those people that.
• 17:33
  no matter how many opportunities you get to sort of be racing alongside or working in the same area as you still like cannot play it cool around them.
• 17:42
  Because it's surreal, isn't it?
• 17:44
  It's sort of like, what the hell?
• 17:46
  I'm here talking with one of the all-time greats.
• 17:48
  Yeah, yeah.
• 17:48
  And I think Carlos Sainz is the same for me.
• 17:50
  And I mean, even this year, he's…
• 17:53
  He's in the paddock.
• 17:53
  He's not driving, but he's sort of managing his team.
• 17:56
  So we actually sort of speak a lot more than we had previously.
• 18:00
  And he's loving that.
• 18:01
  And he's always in a great mood and super friendly.
• 18:04
  But I also just find it so hard to play.
• 18:07
  Like, cool, because he's such an idol.
• 18:09
  And another legend.
• 18:10
  I have a Carlos Saints edition GT4 at home, you know, with a little plate with his signature.
• 18:15
  Like, I'm not cool.
• 18:18
  So the year there in 21 goes unbelievably well for you.
• 18:24
  You are top of the world at the end of it.
• 18:28
  What the hell did that feel like?
• 18:30
  And did you ever imagine?
• 18:31
  I mean, so new for everyone and so on.
• 18:33
  But to think that...
• 18:35
  um, this Aussie girl could go and do that, I think is a remarkable feat.
• 18:40
  What did it feel like for you?
• 18:41
  Oh, thank you.
• 18:41
  Um, oh, you know, it's one of those things.
• 18:44
  And I think a lot of sports people say it as well when, when you've been working so hard and, and it's been, I mean, that year was just, you know, so intense with all the races and, and, you know, everything we've spoken about, but then also was during COVID.
• 18:56
  So I,
• 18:57
  trying to juggle planes and figure out a way and borders.
• 19:00
  Yeah, it was just a crazy year in terms of living out of a suitcase and hopping from someone's couch to a hotel.
• 19:06
  Like, it was just such a massive year.
• 19:09
  And, yeah, to get to the end and it all sort of pay off and have that win was amazing, but it was also a bit of a relief.
• 19:16
  You're like, oh, thank God that worked out because, man, we put so much into it.
• 19:21
  I can remember talking to you along the way and you would do stuff like, I think I can get to there.
• 19:25
  And then I'll stay there for a little bit.
• 19:28
  And then that enables me to then get into here.
• 19:30
  And it was a full, Tetris is not the right word, but it was a mission, wasn't it?
• 19:35
  It was a serious mission to try and figure a way.
• 19:38
  And you made it work.
• 19:39
  You made it work.
• 19:40
  Yeah, it was a lot.
• 19:41
  I spent so much time planning the logistics in which, as you say, countries and all the sort of COVID testing and where you could stay.
• 19:47
  And I was lucky.
• 19:48
  How much quarantine did you do?
• 19:50
  Um, I've, I did two hotel quarantines.
• 19:53
  Um, I actually had one in a camper van in Neil Bates driveway in Canberra because the Canberra government let me do that.
• 20:00
  Like that was, you know, early on.
• 20:01
  Um, and then, you know, quite a lot of home ones and, and in the UK I spent some time and.
• 20:06
  Did you do, what's the total days?
• 20:07
  Did you tell me about that?
• 20:08
  Oh, that's a good question.
• 20:10
  Give me a rough number.
• 20:10
  Like a month.
• 20:11
  It'd be a couple of months, I reckon, if you added it up.
• 20:13
  That is insane, don't you reckon?
• 20:14
  Yeah.
• 20:15
  Yeah, it's hard to fathom.
• 20:16
  How hard was that?
• 20:17
  Now.
• 20:18
  Yeah, it wasn't easy.
• 20:20
  I mean, you look at it in the perspective of the opportunity that I had, so it was never a question of, is it worth it or not?
• 20:25
  But yeah, it was very, very hard and you just tried to find...
• 20:31
  You got creative.
• 20:32
  You brought your bike in and your training and all sorts, didn't you?
• 20:36
  Yeah, they kind of kept me distracted or focused or gave me something to be able to do rather than just sort of sitting there and feeling sorry for yourself because it's very easy to go into that place when you're sitting on your own and you're stuck somewhere and you're on the other side of the world and you don't know where you need to get to next week.
• 20:55
  But on the flip side, I mean…
• 20:57
  I still had to be pretty grateful for the fact that I was able to do all this.
• 21:01
  I just feel like I went through, I went through a lot of, you know, back in Australia, everyone in lockdown and struggling.
• 21:06
  I was kind of like had the locked out struggle.
• 21:10
  That's a great set of words for it.
• 21:12
  It was just like the complete opposite.
• 21:14
  Yeah.
• 21:14
  End of the spectrum.
• 21:15
  So during this time, do you get a little bit creative as well?
• 21:18
  Because you've got thinking time when that happens.
• 21:20
  So you and your partner, Dan, now have started this thing, which we'll get to later in the conversation, called the Mad Garage, which I think is super cool.
• 21:28
  Did you come up with stuff like that in these moments?
• 21:30
  Were you thinking about or, you know?
• 21:32
  I found the unit in hotel quarantine.
• 21:35
  What did you do?
• 21:37
  We went to see it, I think, the day I got out of hotel quarantine.
• 21:39
  And I was like, yep, let's get it.
• 21:41
  That's it.
• 21:42
  On a whim.
• 21:42
  On a whim.
• 21:43
  Yeah.
• 21:43
  I mean, on a whim, but also, you know, like a few days of just on realestate.com.
• 21:48
  Yeah, that's how it happened.
• 21:51
  Awesome.
• 21:52
  Awesome.
• 22:01
  Alrighty.
• 22:02
  Did you know that way back in March 2018, we released the first series of Rusty's Garage.
• 22:08
  And guess what?
• 22:09
  Molly didn't hesitate to be involved, as you can probably already tell she's not one to take shortcuts and even lived in a barn during her early years in the UK.
• 22:19
  Yeah, when I first went over, some of the guys that I was working with, with the Suzuki team, they had a friend who had a farm and a barn, you know, sort of a corner of the barn had been converted into some living quarters.
• 22:32
  And so I lived there for a long time, which was, yeah, a bit agricultural, but cheap and an experience, I guess.
• 22:42
  That episode was recorded in a barn too, not Rusty's barn, that's so CD great clean.
• 22:48
  Now back to Molly's latest chapter.
• 22:51
  So within, I don't know what it was, days or weeks, very sadly, it comes to a grinding halt with Nico Rosberg.
• 22:58
  Don't tell me stuff you can or can't say or that you would prefer not to say.
• 23:03
  I'm very, very mindful of that and we're totally comfortable with that.
• 23:08
  Share what you can, but importantly, how wild that felt from being on top of the world to suddenly being out of a gig.
• 23:17
  Yeah, it was a surprise.
• 23:19
  And yeah, something that especially after how the year had gone.
• 23:22
  Had gone, yeah.
• 23:23
  Was not, you know, and the next season kind of started quite soon into the year as well.
• 23:28
  And I was heading into the Dakar Rally, which is, you know, a lifetime dream of mine.
• 23:35
  So something that I wanted to be able to focus on and enjoy.
• 23:38
  So were you finding out about this in Saudi or something?
• 23:40
  Where did you find out?
• 23:40
  Where did you learn that it was not going ahead?
• 23:42
  Yeah, it was after the final round, which was late December.
• 23:46
  And then, yeah, straight into the Dakar.
• 23:49
  So it was a very conflicting time in terms of emotions.
• 23:54
  Yeah, and a big surprise to me.
• 23:58
  Yeah, it was an interesting one to deal with.
• 24:02
  But yeah, the Dakar thing, that's a great distraction and get into that.
• 24:07
  But then in terms of the following year, trying to sort of figure out what the next best step was, there was definitely a period of time not knowing what that was or what I wanted it to be.
• 24:18
  I'm fast forwarding or going backwards and forwards a little bit here.
• 24:20
  You're now with Veloce.
• 24:22
  You're winning again, which I freaking love.
• 24:25
  So you were back in that game.
• 24:28
  You're ultra professional.
• 24:29
  So you would never do this.
• 24:31
  So I'm going to kind of put the words in my mouth, not yours.
• 24:34
  But there must be some satisfaction in that going, okay, you know, whatever transpired there, you're not in that gig with them anymore.
• 24:42
  But you've reminded them what they lost, I think.
• 24:46
  It's been great for my confidence to, you know, sort of come back into it and, you know, sort of – and also find that love for it and really, you know, just really enjoy it and I think appreciate every moment and, you know, kind of have this awareness of –
• 25:02
  you're always trying to win, you're always trying to do your best, but ultimately there's things you can control and there's things you can't control.
• 25:08
  So you have to kind of take everything with a grain of salt, whatever you're doing, and then nothing's ever given.
• 25:14
  And it's only as good as the last race.
• 25:16
  That's the thing we all, I mean, it's the same for me in a broadcast sense.
• 25:18
  It's sad, but that is the reality of what happened, isn't it?
• 25:22
  Yeah.
• 25:22
  So just with that sort of, that real enjoyment and love and yes, focus and we want to win, but that appreciation of everything we do.
• 25:30
  And I mean, I think it's a,
• 25:31
  It's the cliche, you know, if you're enjoying what you do and you're just focusing on the job you need to do, then those things that you're aiming for, those wins, that they'll be the byproduct of that.
• 25:40
  And something to sweetly savour too.
• 25:42
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:43
  So it's been a really fun year so far.
• 25:46
  And, I mean, it's all going well so far.
• 25:48
  Touch wood.
• 25:49
  But, you know, we've still got a massive challenge.
• 25:51
  The field is so close and competitive and everyone's just stepping up and up on a level all the time.
• 25:58
  So it's great to be with a team together.
• 26:00
  that you know we're fighting at the front and we have some some incredible people involved and driving with Kevin Hansen is it's so much fun and he's um you know he's just a fantastic person as well as a driver and our team as well um really clever and a good fun to be around so you know full faith in them and and we're you know ready for the challenge how tough was the gap in between
• 26:23
  Yeah, pretty tough.
• 26:25
  I'll bet.
• 26:25
  Pretty tough.
• 26:26
  My question is a little bit loaded because Neil Bates shared with me in a recent episode that he spent some time with you.
• 26:35
  He got Harry and yourself and you did a few things to prep again for this year.
• 26:42
  I think the key thing to sort of say here is it's very understandable in a, in a human sense to go through that.
• 26:50
  Where am I at?
• 26:50
  I've just been top of the world, blah, blah, blah.
• 26:52
  And, and not, not doubt yourself.
• 26:54
  That is not the necessarily the right word, but to question what is next, that stuff's hard, isn't it?
• 26:59
  Yeah.
• 27:00
  Yeah.
• 27:00
  And I think, I mean, it's, it's hard not to doubt yourself no matter how much you can kind of look at things pragmatically.
• 27:06
  You know, you still, you want to be out there, you want to be out there and want to be racing.
• 27:10
  So I think, you know, then it,
• 27:12
  Yeah, it becomes particularly after, you know, I'd been away for so much that year.
• 27:15
  Like I was, I think physically and mentally a bit wrecked by the time I got home and then sort of trying to work out, you know, what I wanted to do.
• 27:25
  And, yeah, it was an interesting time.
• 27:29
  I would say, like, it was pretty tough at some points.
• 27:34
  And there were, you know, a few months particularly that, you know, there were moments where I was like, well, this is, you know, I'm done.
• 27:40
  Really?
• 27:42
  But, you know, I think there's always that part of you that's, you know, you still want to be out there and particularly with Extreme E because it's such a cool series.
• 27:49
  And I believe so much in what we're doing and having that opportunity to kind of be part of the future of what motorsport is going to look like.
• 27:58
  It is an amazing opportunity.
• 27:59
  So I was kind of like, well…
• 28:01
  don't want to walk away from, from all of that.
• 28:03
  And, um, when I had the first conversations with the team at Veloce, um, like it was pretty clear after that first meeting, I was like, this is, I want to, I want in, I want in on this.
• 28:15
  Good stuff.
• 28:16
  Helping to stay behind the wheel in, in, uh, the gap is great sugar.
• 28:21
  And one of those things was Dakar.
• 28:23
  I mean, you go and do it in a side by side.
• 28:26
  I mean, it's, you know, whether it's Toby Price, whether it's
• 28:29
  whoever, I mean, he's two wheels, but to go and do an event that just about everybody else in motorsport, I mean, if you talk to a Formula One driver, they look at Dakar and they go, those guys are proper, or guys and girls, that's a properly challenging human thing.
• 28:47
  That must have been awesome, was it, to go and do that?
• 28:48
  It's completely nuts.
• 28:50
  Is it?
• 28:51
  It's just, it's wild and it's so hard to even fathom until you're in there doing it.
• 28:56
  But that, yeah, that whole world, it's just, I mean, the bivouac and all the people, it's just, everyone's there.
• 29:02
  Yes, you know, it's driving and competition, but it's just like this massive adventure and, you know, a test against yourself as well as everyone else.
• 29:10
  So it's just such a cool vibe.
• 29:11
  Yeah.
• 29:13
  in the paddock and then you're going out into these incredible locations and such a mix of trying to drive as fast as you can, trying to work out where you're going to go, trying to figure out what's the best line to be there.
• 29:22
  You're just like immersed in another planet for a couple of weeks where suddenly the rest of the world is like it doesn't exist.
• 29:30
  Logistically, it is an incredible challenge for the whole deal to come together.
• 29:34
  It is a physically exhausting thing for you as a driver.
• 29:38
  Take us to some of those points where you've had to either
• 29:40
  cope with something going wrong with the car or maybe something goes wrong in a navigational sense or whatever.
• 29:47
  I mean, grueling is actually not a good enough word, is it?
• 29:52
  Yeah, it's quite intense.
• 29:53
  I mean, like last year it was, we had actually, you think of Saudi as being really hot, but we had
• 30:00
  flooding and it was, it was actually pretty cold.
• 30:03
  It was their winter.
• 30:04
  Um, but it was particularly cold and we were sort of up in the north of the country where, um, there's not, you know, as many, uh, dunes and things like that.
• 30:11
  So it was more really tough, rocky terrain.
• 30:13
  And, um, I mean, you're in the, you're probably doing, I think there was some days we did over a thousand kilometers in terms of road section and, and stage.
• 30:21
  And it was, it was flooding.
• 30:23
  We're in a Can-Am, so we have windscreen, but there's nothing in the sides.
• 30:26
  It's absolutely, uh, freezing, um,
• 30:30
  And yeah, you're getting back to the bivouac at, you know, 10pm, 10pm at night, just absolutely frozen to the bone.
• 30:37
  And, and sometimes if you have, I mean, we had one day a mechanical drama and we, we couldn't fix it ourselves.
• 30:43
  And we have some support trucks that.
• 30:45
  that come along and they have a mechanic in it as well with some more spares.
• 30:49
  So that's kind of like your last ditch attempt, but it's like three hours behind you.
• 30:54
  So you were sitting in the desert for three hours waiting for the truck to come.
• 30:58
  The truck comes.
• 30:59
  By that time, it's going dark and we had about 120 kilometers of really technical sand dunes to go in the dark, which, I mean, we kind of have lights on the car, but it's not really...
• 31:12
  Not full like spotlights on your rally car kind of thing?
• 31:15
  No, not at all.
• 31:15
  So you're just driving up these dunes just kind of hoping.
• 31:21
  Hoping and trying not to get stuck.
• 31:24
  And, yeah, it was just like you just sort of –
• 31:27
  Yeah, you think about all the other situations you've put yourself in and there's no one, like you have to figure out a way to get through.
• 31:33
  There's no other option.
• 31:35
  So it's just this, you know, desperation and just these, yeah, incredible moments where you're like, where am I?
• 31:41
  What am I doing?
• 31:41
  And then you have other days where it just all goes so well and you're on top of the world and, you know, it's just amazing.
• 31:47
  It is, from a machine standpoint, the ultimate test, whether it's truck, bike, car, side-by-side, whatever.
• 31:53
  But people probably don't realise those side-by-sides now, how far they have come, how good they are.
• 31:59
  I mean, they're a cool bit of kit, but you are really testing it on something like that, aren't you?
• 32:04
  Yeah, they're so impressive.
• 32:06
  But it is, I mean, some of the size of the rocks and stuff that we go over and the punishment we put them through is just incredible.
• 32:13
  But then you get these things also into the sand dunes and...
• 32:16
  I mean, when I first started doing it and drove in the dunes, I had no idea what I was doing and it was actually terrifying.
• 32:22
  Really?
• 32:23
  Yeah, because some of these dunes, it's like driving up a mountain that's got a peak at the top and you don't know what's on the other side.
• 32:28
  And if you stop to look, you'll get stuck.
• 32:31
  And if you go too fast, you'll just roll over the other side and then, you know, you'll, like, be endowing down there.
• 32:38
  So you've got to find this balance and, you know, these ways of kind of turning the car as you get to the top.
• 32:43
  So, you know, you've got an opportunity to bail or an opportunity to get the right line.
• 32:48
  it's just yeah it's all so much and and i looked at some of these dunes and was like well there's like i'm not even going to try and go up there like how can i go up there but the the can-ams the the stuff they can climb in the dunes they're just incredible and and in some sections some of the rear wheel drive t1 sort of like more outright cars but just the rear wheel drive ones um you know in some sections we can you know be do it better than them yeah yeah because they just
• 33:23
  That's the end of part one of my follow-up pod with Extreme E and Aussie rally star Molly Taylor.
• 33:29
  But there's more for you to enjoy.
• 33:31
  Powered up and parked in the Rusty's Garage library right now.
• 33:35
  All set for you to hit the gas on whenever you're ready.
• 33:38
  From Dakar co-driver Motivational Quotes, her observations of the Australian Rally Championship and a strong desire to get back into it...
• 33:47
  working on the telly and using those new skills, which he's very good at, at a passion project with big potential called the Mad Garage and a test in a supercar that you may not have heard about until now.