Latest / Rusty's Garage / Josh Buchan - Part 1

Transcript

Josh Buchan - 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
  For this episode, I'm at Sydney Motorsport Park in the fantastic new Focus Driver Performance Facility.
• 0:33
  They've kindly loaned us the meeting room for this chat, which I did in the lead up to a Shannon Speed Series broadcast.
• 0:40
  While the TV team do pre-production, I had a window to interview reigning TCR Australia champion Josh Buchan, who drives the Hyundai Elantra for HMO Customer Racing.
• 0:51
  As we talk, he is top of the points ladder with one round to go and trying to become the first in this country to take back-to-back titles.
• 1:00
  HMO's won it before with Josh in a nail-biter last year and the inaugural series back in 2019 with none other than the current Supercars Championship leader, Will Brown.
• 1:11
  Josh grew up in Western Sydney.
• 1:13
  There is, as you'll hear, a...
• 1:15
  car connection for the family that clearly had a profound effect on him but he didn't have a money tree in the front yard and has literally literally rolled the dice as he backed himself to make a career around cars and motorsport one of his assets is that he's a good talker
• 1:31
  He has a great memory for history and significant people or machines and what makes them successful.
• 1:38
  His rise to win a national title and be entrusted with the keys to some seriously cool cars is also about having the courage to pick up the phone, to not be afraid of a knockback and to build a network that will help you when you're on the pathway.
• 1:54
  Some good takeaways in this for young racers.
• 1:57
  Worth a listen.
• 1:57
  Thank you.
• 1:58
  We talk TCR, the world tour, working with the legendary Rob Benson, the insane performance of the road and cars he's piloted, and his off-track work with manufacturers that taps into car culture, track days and more.
• 2:13
  Enjoy getting to know Josh Buchan, a name we'll hopefully hear more of in the years to come.
• 2:21
  Hello, Josh Bucken.
• 2:22
  How are you?
• 2:23
  Yeah, straight into it.
• 2:24
  How are you?
• 2:24
  Fittingly, we're at a racetrack, but worth sharing with people where we're recording this.
• 2:29
  We're above the pit lane at Sydney Motorsport Park, but you have been...
• 2:33
  in the venue we're now in doing a bit of training.
• 2:36
  Is that right?
• 2:36
  Tell us about that.
• 2:37
  Correct.
• 2:37
  Yeah, thank you for the timing.
• 2:38
  You got me out of helping both my teams set up, which is excellent.
• 2:43
  The flooring and the wall is the worst thing to set up.
• 2:46
  You hate yourself at the end of it.
• 2:48
  So, yeah, set up day here at SMSP for the –
• 2:52
  second last speed series round of the year.
• 2:53
  And yeah, focus driver performance is where we are.
• 2:55
  It's, it's a business that's based at Sydney and in Queensland, Queensland Raceway.
• 2:59
  And it's effectively really high level simulator coaching.
• 3:04
  Crossover with other sports too, or background or connection with other sports too.
• 3:07
  Yeah.
• 3:07
  So they've recently just put on ahead of human performance.
• 3:11
  So fancy way for saying someone who flogs you in the gym that we just have next to us here.
• 3:16
  Um,
• 3:16
  And, yeah, it's effectively a one-stop shop for taking someone from, you know, I guess, carding through to being a professional or professionals who want to, you know, tune it up a bit, which is, you know, what I'm after at this joint and what I do here, you know, just fine-tune little bits and pieces.
• 3:36
  And, yeah, it's a great place.
• 3:38
  We're in the boardroom.
• 3:39
  I mean, very fitting.
• 3:39
  Very fitting.
• 3:40
  When you first started out on this podcast,
• 3:42
  journey.
• 3:42
  I mean, did you ever imagine you would be in a place like this?
• 3:46
  I mean, I know that's an aspirational dream for a lot of kids, right?
• 3:49
  But you're not from a traditional kind of motorsport family.
• 3:52
  The pathway for you here is different to others, isn't it?
• 3:57
  Yeah, definitely.
• 3:58
  I mean, I consider myself extremely fortunate to be at a track, let alone be driving a car, let alone
• 4:08
  quite regularly.
• 4:09
  And then to, you know, have some success over the years too is beyond anything I ever would have dreamed of really.
• 4:16
  Go-karting was an achievement as it was.
• 4:17
  I thought I was in F1 when I first stepped in one really.
• 4:21
  And I had a clear visor motorbike helmet and looked like a full-on, you know, yeah, very, very fresh first timer.
• 4:28
  But yeah, to be in the position I'm in today is amazing.
• 4:31
  Take us there.
• 4:32
  How did the connection then come about?
• 4:35
  What made you gravitate towards it?
• 4:37
  What was the kind of first spark that made you go, that's a bit of me?
• 4:41
  Yeah, so my dad, when he was younger, did a bit of rally in the UK and then that fizzled away and then all of a sudden, when I'm growing up, he's selling cars.
• 4:53
  In Sydney at the time, in the early 2000s, the import scene, like Skyline, Supras, all those cool cars.
• 4:59
  So you were around cool things.
• 5:00
  I was around cool cars, yeah.
• 5:01
  Like he'd pick me up from school in like a 300ZX and GTR or whatever it might be.
• 5:07
  So I always loved going quickly and my old man was not –
• 5:11
  you know, against breaking multiple, you know, road rules on the way to, you know, trying to impress his kid.
• 5:18
  We're not endorsing that.
• 5:18
  We're talking history here, folks.
• 5:19
  Keep going.
• 5:20
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:21
  A long time ago.
• 5:22
  We're talking 20 years ago now.
• 5:23
  Rules were different back when cars were black and white.
• 5:26
  So, yeah, I mean, I was just addicted to going quickly and I wanted to do it
• 5:34
  I can't wait till I'm 16 to drive a car.
• 5:36
  That's outrageous.
• 5:38
  And, um, yeah, I, I just wanted to drive fast myself.
• 5:42
  Um, so tried to get into carding at a young age and, and realized the cost associated was quite high.
• 5:47
  Um, well beyond what my parents could, could afford.
• 5:51
  And certainly me at 12 or 13, I mean, I, you know, I was asking people in the canteen line for two bucks for, you know, chicken burger, right?
• 5:58
  Like scabbing off them.
• 6:00
  Um, so, uh,
• 6:03
  So yeah, to basically drive quickly, I needed to get into go-karting.
• 6:07
  So I started working on weekends with my uncle who was a tiler, still is, and chipped away with him for a little while, emptied the Dolomites account, like I said to you, which I think I had like $400 in there.
• 6:21
  And I remember my mom saying, are you sure?
• 6:22
  Like, that's a lot of money.
• 6:23
  Like, you sure you want to take it out to drive a go-kart?
• 6:26
  Are you serious?
• 6:27
  I'm like, yep, this is what I'm doing.
• 6:28
  I'm going to F1.
• 6:30
  Maxed out a credit card of Dad's and we bought a go-kart two and a bit years later.
• 6:37
  I stopped going out with all my mates on the weekends to try and work.
• 6:41
  I was pretty focused to try and do it.
• 6:45
  That was the entry.
• 6:45
  I was 15 and 363 days or however many you're in a year when I did my first race.
• 6:53
  That's how old I was, so very, very late in the piece.
• 6:55
  Where was that race?
• 6:56
  What was the karting?
• 6:57
  It was in Lisko, Lisko Kart Club, which, you know, was a real, at that time, was a real, like, you know, have fun first club.
• 7:08
  You know, you'd go there on a Friday to just hang out.
• 7:12
  You know, the parents would...
• 7:13
  stay up all night, drinking waters.
• 7:17
  And the kids would run around Lithgow Kart Club running amok.
• 7:22
  Great place, just off the highway there on the run towards Bathurst.
• 7:26
  Yeah, so good.
• 7:28
  Next to a golf course, you wouldn't know it was there if you drove past.
• 7:31
  So yeah, that was the first race.
• 7:33
  And that's kind of where I did most of my karting.
• 7:36
  Again, back to the point, I couldn't really afford to do much else.
• 7:38
  So I was at Lithgow quite
• 7:41
  And, yeah, that was the first race.
• 7:43
  I raced juniors on the Saturday, had my birthday overnight, and raced seniors on the Sunday, which I was told was a big deal.
• 7:51
  I didn't think anything of it.
• 7:53
  But, yeah, that was the first weekend of where we are now, and that was, yeah, fantastic.
• 7:58
  13 years ago or something.
• 8:00
  So how do you stitch it together then?
• 8:01
  Because I know there are yarns along the way where you have literally rolled the dice, literally, to kind of get to the next thing, haven't you?
• 8:12
  Yeah.
• 8:12
  I mean, look, honestly, when I got into karting, I thought that was it.
• 8:16
  That was the pinnacle for me.
• 8:18
  I certainly would have wanted to do more, but just to have a go-kart at my place, I didn't have any tools, didn't have a trailer, didn't have any spares.
• 8:30
  Were you good mechanically or were you learning on the run here?
• 8:32
  No, it was rubbish.
• 8:33
  I had that many wheels fall off the first year, engine mounts fall off.
• 8:38
  Like I was rubbish, mate.
• 8:39
  Like I did not belong on the tools.
• 8:43
  So, yeah, that first year was pretty rough.
• 8:45
  But back to the point, like for me, being in a go-kart was the dream.
• 8:52
  I was happy there.
• 8:53
  And really, unless there was a significant rule change to the four or five years after that, when the hierarchy changed with, you know, your McDoans and whatnot who came in,
• 9:02
  I would have stayed there forever.
• 9:04
  I would have been pumped, you know, just racing state titles, doing this, going out with mates, you know, that would have been me.
• 9:10
  So to be here racing a car is ridiculous.
• 9:15
  It's unfathomable.
• 9:16
  Okay.
• 9:17
  Did you kind of grow up not all that far from where we are here now at City Motorsport Park?
• 9:21
  Where was the early life?
• 9:22
  Yeah, so moved to Dundas Valley, which is about 20 minutes.
• 9:29
  I know exactly where it is.
• 9:30
  Oh, because you're all coming for it.
• 9:32
  I went to high school in Dundas.
• 9:33
  Yeah, there you go.
• 9:34
  Okay, so you know the area.
• 9:36
  So back then, you know, one street was really nice.
• 9:38
  The other was bulletproof vests.
• 9:40
  One street was nice, bulletproof vests.
• 9:42
  So, you know, it certainly wasn't a bad upbringing by any stretch.
• 9:45
  But yeah.
• 9:47
  But yeah, I grew up there.
• 9:48
  I'm only 20 minutes the other way now towards Penrith.
• 9:51
  And yeah, that's where I grew up.
• 9:53
  Mate, I didn't even know this place existed until 2010 or 11.
• 9:57
  So yeah, and now I'm here most days of the week.
• 10:01
  I've been here every day this week.
• 10:02
  We're Thursday.
• 10:04
  I've been here since Monday.
• 10:05
  Okay.
• 10:05
  We'll talk more about that because obviously we have a – the commentator in me wants to say the penultimate round of the –
• 10:12
  of the championship of which you are the defending champion.
• 10:15
  That's further into the story.
• 10:18
  I said before about rolling the dice, there have been moments where, am I right in saying you were nearly kind of out of dough at one point and you took a punt literally on something, even casino orientated or whatever, and you made a little bit of money and that got you to the next post or something?
• 10:32
  You can't be out of dough when you don't have any to start with.
• 10:36
  I was never really out of it.
• 10:37
  I just didn't have it.
• 10:44
  humble background in that respect.
• 10:48
  Like I, for me even now, like,
• 10:52
  My parents, they're not going to go and buy a Ferrari tomorrow or anything.
• 10:56
  And our sport is an elitist sport.
• 10:58
  There's no denying that.
• 10:59
  So when I started and when I was coming through, you're talking 50 grand go-kart trailers.
• 11:05
  Everyone's got a brand new sticker kit every other day.
• 11:07
  They've got this.
• 11:08
  They've got that.
• 11:09
  This guy built this.
• 11:10
  I had none of that, and I didn't really know any better.
• 11:15
  And I did.
• 11:15
  I did everything on the absolute shoestring, in karting at least anyway.
• 11:21
  Yeah.
• 11:22
  And, yeah, there was times when I turned 18, I was still racing karts, where I was between that year of school and finding something to do for work, which, you know, I'm not an academic person either, so I was very happy doing nothing.
• 11:37
  So, what would that potentially have been?
• 11:39
  What would you... Well, I worked at a go-kart shop for four, five years out of school.
• 11:44
  But in between that, yeah, this is what you were saying is, I remember one weekend in particular, I had to go to...
• 11:50
  Dubbo or Wagga, I can't remember one of the two.
• 11:55
  And I was hitching a lift with a mate.
• 11:58
  I had to lease an engine because I think I'd exploded mine or something like that.
• 12:05
  had to pay entry, had to borrow a transponder, never owned a transponder in carding, which is like an essential.
• 12:11
  I always borrowed or rented one.
• 12:13
  So I think I needed like $300 or $400 minimum to get going.
• 12:17
  And I think I had like $150 on me.
• 12:19
  And I'm not kidding.
• 12:20
  Like I didn't have like an account that had, you know, a couple of grand in it that, you know, don't touch that.
• 12:25
  I had my wallet.
• 12:26
  That was my bank account for a number of years.
• 12:29
  And, uh, yeah, I thought, you know what, I'm going to the casino.
• 12:33
  I used to go to the casino quite a bit just because you'd get free soda waters and it was a nice place to hang out.
• 12:38
  And I didn't want to hang around.
• 12:39
  Look cool.
• 12:40
  Yeah.
• 12:40
  Yeah.
• 12:40
  If I turned up with, you know, I'd look cool.
• 12:43
  So train in and, um, yeah, I did.
• 12:47
  I hit the roulette tables up and won my weekend of racing on the, on the Thursday night, leaving the Friday.
• 12:52
  Do you remember the number?
• 12:54
  No, I used to play Colours.
• 12:57
  Okay, red or black.
• 12:59
  Yeah, red or black.
• 13:00
  And there was a similar story around that same time where I caught the train into the casino and a friend of mine was due back from Melbourne testing Formula Ford.
• 13:10
  And he's like, oh, pick up on the way through, you know, just stay there.
• 13:12
  And this is like midnight train stop at, you know, 1130 midnight.
• 13:17
  I'm like, yeah, yeah, all good.
• 13:18
  He gets off the plane.
• 13:19
  My phone's flat.
• 13:20
  I've cashed in a $10 note for coins for a pay phone.
• 13:24
  I'm trying to ring him.
• 13:25
  What are you doing?
• 13:25
  What are you doing?
• 13:26
  He's like, oh, I can't come.
• 13:27
  Hang up.
• 13:28
  So I had like, I think I had $15 left and I basically thought, God, it's 1am or whatever it is.
• 13:36
  I can either wait for a train at 4, 4.30.
• 13:40
  I can maybe get a cab that will get me over the Anzac Bridge and then I'll be closer to home.
• 13:45
  That's a hell of a walk still.
• 13:47
  I could walk from Balmain to Dundas in maybe a couple of days.
• 13:50
  And I thought, no, that's it.
• 13:53
  I'm going to throw it on the table.
• 13:54
  So I threw $10 on, you know, you could bet thirds.
• 13:58
  I won $30.
• 13:58
  I'm like, oh, this will get me to ride.
• 14:01
  Like I'm nearly home.
• 14:02
  I thought, hang on, but if I'm looking at the numbers on the, there's a bit of a roll on here.
• 14:06
  So I bet again, made $90 this time, like tripled it up and then did that.
• 14:11
  Anyway, long story short, I got to like $400 or $500 from $10.
• 14:16
  And I thought that's it going home silver service taxi come over here.
• 14:20
  Don't worry about those rubbish white and yellow ones.
• 14:22
  Give me the silver service drive through Maccas on the way home and cab cabbed it back.
• 14:28
  But really like I had no intention of a motorsport career.
• 14:31
  The point being and and.
• 14:34
  I would go down to the casino, hang out.
• 14:39
  Back in those days, if you just put money onto the table and scanned your card, you would get points on this system.
• 14:44
  So I'd draw out every dollar I had, like a thousand bucks or something, scan it through.
• 14:50
  And that would accumulate points on my card.
• 14:52
  So I got to a silver membership at the casino, which these days is really hard to get.
• 14:57
  I'm told.
• 14:57
  I don't go anymore for good reason.
• 14:59
  And like I'd get free meals, free drinks.
• 15:03
  So it was actually economical for me to go to the casino to have a meal and a drink while I was 18, 19, 20 still racing cards.
• 15:12
  Because it was like, I'm not spending 20 bucks on a meal.
• 15:14
  That's like, that's half a tire.
• 15:16
  Yeah.
• 15:18
  Yeah, it was a crazy world, man.
• 15:19
  Different times.
• 15:20
  You got to, I think, a point there too where, and I think this hunger, mate, firstly, we're not endorsing gambling, so anyone- I don't do it anymore.
• 15:29
  There's a good reason for that.
• 15:30
  But I love the, you know, call it the hunger, right?
• 15:35
  What you had to go through to sort of stitch this together.
• 15:38
  There comes a point here too, obviously, where dad must have been focused on work and family and whatever, but you were fundamentally kind of pursuing this on your own too, weren't you?
• 15:47
  Yeah.
• 15:47
  So really the first year I had help from a dad mainly driving me to the events and helping me out there.
• 15:56
  I was only 16, as I say.
• 15:57
  Yeah.
• 15:59
  So I needed that help.
• 16:01
  But along the way, I met a few people already.
• 16:03
  Motorsport's a great community and big family, as you know.
• 16:07
  So within that year, I met some pretty important people in my early stages who, when I realized that respectfully,
• 16:16
  To my dad, he wasn't going to be able to push as hard as I wanted to push whatever this thing I was doing was.
• 16:22
  I had to reach out for help.
• 16:24
  And yeah, as I say, I would scab lifts to tracks.
• 16:29
  Like, you know, people would come around and grab me.
• 16:32
  take the go-kart, go to a track and I would race.
• 16:36
  And that continued on really until today.
• 16:39
  I had help from my nan and stuff like that, buying tires here or there when I was coming through.
• 16:45
  But really, up to this point, every decision and every kind of path has been based off what has happened
• 16:56
  presented itself and what I have gone and done.
• 16:59
  And don't get me wrong, it's not all me.
• 17:01
  I've got great support.
• 17:02
  My family obviously support me.
• 17:04
  My partner, Lauren, whatever I want to do, she's great.
• 17:07
  So there are people supporting me, but I don't have a family background in the sport, which I thought was fine.
• 17:13
  But you look up and down the lane and basically every team is some sort of family operation.
• 17:19
  That's foreign to me.
• 17:20
  You've done some work with us in the broadcast, and I've, you know, not pumping your tyres here, but I've been impressed with how quickly you have picked that up and adapted to it.
• 17:30
  You are the same bloke off camera as you are on camera.
• 17:33
  You can communicate very well.
• 17:35
  Was there a point early on in this where you thought maybe that's one of the, pardon the pun here, one of the aces in your pocket, is that, you know, I've got to be a good communicator in order to help get to the next post conversation.
• 17:50
  Yeah, I guess starting late in the sport for me was probably a benefit in that respect because by the time I got to 15, 16, I'm watching F1, I'm watching supercar.
• 17:59
  You watch who does well, you watch who, you know, it's a very commercial sport too.
• 18:03
  So you watch who the cameras constantly go to and it's a pretty simple formula.
• 18:07
  If you speak well, you act well, you present well, then people are going to want to talk to you.
• 18:10
  Correct.
• 18:11
  I mean, I really don't belong on this podcast based off credentials, but you're talking to me.
• 18:15
  So I've even fooled the best of us.
• 18:17
  Yeah.
• 18:19
  Yeah, I realized that was something early on.
• 18:21
  And I always thought to myself, if I got an opportunity where that was something that was important, I felt like I would do well.
• 18:27
  And you're constantly learning.
• 18:29
  I mean, God, the first time I did commentary was terrifying.
• 18:32
  Oh my God.
• 18:33
  For those listening, you don't- Where was that?
• 18:35
  It was at QR.
• 18:36
  Nolte sent me a message and it was like, hey mate, do you want to do comms in like 10 minutes?
• 18:40
  You'll be right.
• 18:40
  You'll be right.
• 18:43
  Righto, mate.
• 18:46
  But just having someone in your ear, count down to an ad 10, 9, this, that, and when the race is respectfully boring, thinking of things to say, I mean, I just don't know how you guys do it.
• 18:57
  It is incredible.
• 18:58
  But I did always think that I felt like I could answer a question or fill a gap with what I was saying.
• 19:07
  And again, I think because I started late, I was so invested in wanting to be good.
• 19:12
  I was looking at all those avenues before I started to go, all right, if I'm going to do this, how can I be the best version?
• 19:19
  And that was probably, that probably stemmed from that, I feel.
• 19:32
  The TCR field has a diverse mix of drivers including a sprinkling of supercars talent, like Michael Caruso who used to race the Alfa Romeo.
• 19:42
  Michael was affectionately known as Robbo, as in Robinson Crusoe, a nickname coined by Hall of Famer Gary Rogers.
• 19:50
  He was peaking because when he takes the piss on someone, obviously, when it's like, no, no, we're going to make this stick, and this is to my point of saying, no, no, when he makes sure it sticks, that's why he put it on the car because I was, like, pushing back on it and he's like, no, no, we're going to put it on the race car now.
• 20:08
  Well done, Robbo.
• 20:10
  You can find his feature episode in the Rusty's Garage Library.
• 20:13
  Now back to Buchan, Agent 001 in Aussie TCR.
• 20:19
  The Lithgow thing that you brought up before ignites a little bit of a memory for me.
• 20:24
  So early on when I was learning to do this, I would work on the PA at different places, including there, and I can vividly remember a little Dean Canto, a young Ryan Briscoe.
• 20:35
  A little Dean Canto could have been last week, mate.
• 20:37
  That's right, it could have.
• 20:39
  That'll get back.
• 20:39
  Hello, Dino.
• 20:41
  But it teaches you so much, right?
• 20:44
  Where I'm going now is that
• 20:46
  those memories are very clear in my mind.
• 20:49
  And no doubt for some of those young kids, they got to meet other people along the way that helped inspire them.
• 20:53
  Were there moments of that for you?
• 20:55
  Either a poster of someone that you thought, man, I want to be that person one day, or maybe even a chance meeting with someone where you –
• 21:02
  I maybe spent a minute or two with you and that gave you the whole impetus.
• 21:08
  That's me.
• 21:08
  That's what I'm looking for.
• 21:10
  Yeah, it's a good question.
• 21:11
  I actually remember you at one point.
• 21:13
  I think it was Picton Kart Club.
• 21:15
  Oh, wow.
• 21:16
  Came and made it was the talk of the town.
• 21:18
  I was with the Lansvale guys.
• 21:20
  Right, okay, there you go.
• 21:21
  I don't remember the exact moment, but I do remember that.
• 21:24
  And the Columbritters.
• 21:24
  I would have been with Belinda and Shane Columbritter probably.
• 21:27
  Yeah, yeah, there you go.
• 21:30
  So, yeah, probably who I used to look up to, it was never everyone says it's the centres, it's this, it's the that.
• 21:36
  Because my world at that time was so focused on karting, I would look at the older boys in karting and want to aspire to be them.
• 21:43
  So I remember guys like...
• 21:45
  Well, the guy who took care of me the most in the early days was a guy named Jason Varley.
• 21:49
  He was very, very important for me.
• 21:52
  Still probably one of the most naturally gifted drivers I've seen in a go-kart.
• 21:56
  So I wanted to emulate what he did.
• 21:59
  And then I'd look at all the guys like, you know, I remember Chris Walton.
• 22:04
  who was racing utes at the time, but he was really, really good in karting.
• 22:07
  And I'd look at these old boys who were racing at the time and want to be like them because, you know, I'm not looking at, you know, anyone in supercar because, again, that's just not possible.
• 22:19
  That doesn't exist.
• 22:20
  Mm-hmm.
• 22:21
  So I wanted to be who I was watching.
• 22:23
  Yeah, that seemed achievable or seemed close enough.
• 22:26
  Seemed somewhat achievable, yeah.
• 22:27
  Even moving up a class in karting was unattainable at that point.
• 22:31
  So, yeah, they were really sort of guys I would look to –
• 22:37
  for inspiration and whatnot.
• 22:38
  We didn't really have, because again, I didn't do the big events.
• 22:41
  We didn't really have any of the big dogs come because who goes to a club day at Lisko?
• 22:46
  Who goes to a club day at, you know, Eastern Creek?
• 22:48
  No one really came.
• 22:49
  So yeah, all my associated heroes, for lack of a better word, were localized.
• 22:54
  So yeah,
• 22:56
  Yeah, and just driving well was what I looked for.
• 22:59
  I didn't care who they were.
• 23:00
  It's like, oh, he's got a bit of technique about him.
• 23:02
  I want to watch.
• 23:03
  I want to see what he does.
• 23:04
  Why is he good?
• 23:06
  So they were who I would look to in those early days for sure.
• 23:09
  The transition from karting to cars, Formula Ford, I want to say, with Listec.
• 23:13
  Is that right?
• 23:14
  And it came about in a –
• 23:16
  and probably a bit like your career so far, not in a, not in a standard way.
• 23:20
  Did it, how did that sort of opportunity, uh, again, you're probably low on dough and things like that, but how did that come about?
• 23:25
  Yeah.
• 23:26
  So I was, I think I was about 20 when that happened.
• 23:31
  So, um, by this time I I'd done a few years in carding and I was kind of, you know, I was, I was known to be fast and reliable and quick and whatever.
• 23:39
  And you knocked on the door or they came to you?
• 23:42
  Both.
• 23:43
  So, I was under an umbrella where a gentleman named Mark Lowing who raced Ford in the 90s, Formula Ford.
• 23:51
  And I should preface by saying, in karting, if you raced Formula Ford or driven one, you'd completed motorsport.
• 23:58
  Like it was F1 for go-karters.
• 24:00
  So, like I vividly remember people coming back after Formula Ford and you're like, what?
• 24:04
  what, he raced for me?
• 24:05
  Oh, my God.
• 24:06
  Like, just sign my shirt.
• 24:09
  So, again, something unbelievable.
• 24:12
  So, Mark said, oh, look, give these guys a ring.
• 24:16
  They're after a driver.
• 24:17
  Like, what do you mean they're after a driver?
• 24:20
  That's not how this game works.
• 24:21
  Like, you need, at the time, 60 grand to do state series.
• 24:25
  Like, no one needs a driver.
• 24:28
  Listech were a bit different where they actually –
• 24:31
  They built and designed their own cars in Weatherill Park, about five minutes from where we are.
• 24:36
  And they were old school motorsport nuts who were a bit like me, didn't really have any cash, just enjoyed the game.
• 24:46
  And Mark said, give them a call.
• 24:48
  They might just give you a test.
• 24:50
  I was like, shit, you're joking.
• 24:52
  So I remember looking at the phone number on my phone of Paul's and just going, this is stupid.
• 24:57
  Why would I do this?
• 24:57
  Like, he's going to laugh at me, think I'm an idiot.
• 25:00
  How'd you pluck up the courage then?
• 25:01
  What made you change your mind?
• 25:04
  What did I have to lose?
• 25:05
  If he answers and says, no, haven't heard of you, piss off, then.
• 25:09
  Nothing, venture nothing game.
• 25:10
  Like the rest of them, right?
• 25:11
  So, yeah, I made the call.
• 25:13
  I said, hey, Paul, my name's Josh, blah, blah, blah, race go-karts.
• 25:17
  I think I'm shit hot or whatever.
• 25:18
  Give me a go.
• 25:20
  So he goes, all right, no problem.
• 25:21
  Come out to Eastern Creek and do a few laps in a session.
• 25:24
  I got off the phone going like.
• 25:26
  Shaking.
• 25:27
  Jesus.
• 25:27
  What's all this about?
• 25:28
  So I went out to Eastern Creek and did a session, drove the car.
• 25:33
  Can you remember that?
• 25:34
  How vividly can you remember that?
• 25:35
  Yeah, I remember going out of pit lane just being this is unbelievable.
• 25:37
  And it was at a crossover where I started doing some corporate driver training as well.
• 25:42
  So I knew the circuit relatively but had never been strapped in a race car before or anything like that.
• 25:50
  So I went out, drove.
• 25:51
  I went quick, quick enough anyway.
• 25:53
  Yeah.
• 25:54
  And he calls me back in and goes, all right, that was good.
• 25:56
  Do you want to do a test at Wakefield?
• 25:58
  I'm thinking, yeah.
• 26:01
  And I'm super sus knowing how sometimes this motorsport game works.
• 26:04
  You do some stuff, all of a sudden you get an email with an invoice.
• 26:07
  So I said, what do you need off me to do this?
• 26:12
  He goes, no, just turn up, pay the entry, and you can drive.
• 26:16
  What do you mean?
• 26:17
  Anyway, okay, did that and did the test.
• 26:20
  And Paul has been building cars since the 70s.
• 26:24
  Doesn't give much away.
• 26:25
  Real old school kind of operator.
• 26:27
  Called me into his office the week after and I hadn't heard anything.
• 26:30
  It didn't even say well done on the day.
• 26:32
  Like just did the day.
• 26:33
  I thought I went all right.
• 26:35
  And he goes, yeah, yeah, it's all good.
• 26:37
  We just, you know, we'll speak to you.
• 26:39
  And then a week later, he rings me and goes, come into the office, went in.
• 26:42
  And I'm going like, what's all this about?
• 26:45
  Sits down.
• 26:46
  And the first thing he said, I'll never forget it, was he said, well, mate, I can't pay you, but we'd like you to drive the car next year.
• 26:55
  We're building a new car.
• 26:57
  We've got some bits we need to test on the old car.
• 27:00
  Our driver at the moment isn't quite quick enough.
• 27:03
  You know, he's racing, but he's not quick enough.
• 27:05
  Would you like to drive?
• 27:07
  And I'm thinking, is this a GR?
• 27:10
  What's going on here?
• 27:12
  So anyway, that was what I did for the next nine months.
• 27:16
  I tested Formula Ford probably, yeah.
• 27:20
  How good, mate?
• 27:20
  Seven or eight times.
• 27:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 27:22
  I was getting new tires, and I'm like, this is ridiculous.
• 27:25
  And I'm looking at the lap times, and then I'd look at events that were racing, and I'm going like, oh, we're actually, like, I would have off time anyway.
• 27:33
  I would have won that.
• 27:34
  And okay.
• 27:35
  At the end of the year, Paul goes, we've got to throw you in a car.
• 27:38
  He put me in his old Kent for Island Magic.
• 27:40
  So Phillip Island was my first ever race at Island Magic.
• 27:43
  And yeah.
• 27:44
  Hooked.
• 27:46
  Yeah, I think we came sort of fourth or fifth out of sort of 20.
• 27:51
  And Paul had never run in the top 10 at a national event.
• 27:53
  And Isla Magic was big back then.
• 27:55
  So, yeah, after that, we were on.
• 27:58
  That's, I mean, and that class, as you alluded to before, I mean, the…
• 28:02
  the heritage that it has, the names that have come through it and so on, what it teaches you on the pathway.
• 28:08
  I mean, still an incredibly important thing on the ladder, basically, isn't it?
• 28:13
  Yeah, and I was very lucky because Paul, as I said, was always – it was his car.
• 28:17
  It wasn't like a Miguel or a Spectrum where you buy it, you run it, this is how it is.
• 28:21
  It was his own car.
• 28:22
  He was designing different arms and shock setups and different bits and pieces, and we would go and try them out.
• 28:28
  So unknowingly, I'm having this amazing –
• 28:33
  apprenticeship in a race car, not racing karts at this point anymore.
• 28:38
  I'm having this amazing apprenticeship where I'm learning about things I didn't even know existed.
• 28:43
  I'm doing stuff that, you know, people would kill to do.
• 28:49
  We had that many illegal bits on that car.
• 28:51
  It was crazy in the end.
• 28:54
  But learning what they do really helps me out now.
• 28:58
  when I test and drive cars, which is what work is now.
• 29:03
  I think back to those days and I remember things I felt learned that I was doing at that age.
• 29:09
  Serve you well even now.
• 29:10
  Yeah, and everyone says it's the great apprenticeship and it is.
• 29:13
  It really, really is.
• 29:15
  You've picked my interest on one thing here because it obviously becomes an important part of your life off track while complementing what you do on track.
• 29:25
  And that is the manufacturer involvement, the work you were talking about.
• 29:29
  How did that come about?
• 29:30
  What was it?
• 29:30
  I mean, obviously, Hyundai is a significant part of what you do there now.
• 29:34
  But what was that early stuff and how did it kick in?
• 29:36
  Yeah, again, it's a bit weird.
• 29:37
  It kind of, you know, the normal trajectory is you'll do your karting, you'll do your car racing and then once that fails, for lack of a better term, you'll go into driver training.
• 29:47
  That's just where we all end up and specifically corporate stuff.
• 29:51
  It pays relatively well and there's enough of it if you're in that sort of core group that you can do it full time.
• 29:58
  So it was World Time Attack 2014, so 10 years ago.
• 30:05
  JV rang me and said, look, do you want to do this event, putting cameras on cars?
• 30:10
  He goes, it's volunteer.
• 30:11
  I said, not really.
• 30:15
  And he goes, oh, like, you should do it.
• 30:18
  Like, you know, the dude running it is this guy named Liberto Renento or something.
• 30:26
  Renato Liberto.
• 30:27
  Renato Liberto.
• 30:29
  And he's got something to do with Ferrari.
• 30:30
  Like, you know, it could be a good in.
• 30:32
  I'm like 18, 19.
• 30:33
  And...
• 30:35
  I said, all right, fine, no problem.
• 30:37
  So I did that.
• 30:39
  And on that team of World Time Attack, you know, you had Renato, who has been sort of instrumental in my work life from then on.
• 30:47
  You had a heap of other dudes who, you know, were quite big locally, at least in car racing, like Ben Porter, Tim Brook.
• 30:56
  Rod Wilson, who I'm driving for this weekend as well.
• 30:59
  We're all kind of there.
• 31:00
  And that was a great networking event because I tried to work my ass off at the event, volunteering, 16-hour days.
• 31:07
  Thanks, Wren.
• 31:09
  And from there, Ben Porter basically said, hey, look, there's this day coming up at the farm, pretty basic stuff, passenger seat in some roadies.
• 31:21
  Do you want to do it?
• 31:22
  Farm, for people who don't know, is north of Sydney, kind of central coast, a private facility fundamentally, but out of this world, like what they have built there.
• 31:30
  Pretty cool, hey?
• 31:31
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:32
  Dean Wills in the 90s lost his license and built a road loop to flog his McLaren F1.
• 31:39
  And so that was my first ever corporate driver training gig off the back of Time Attack.
• 31:44
  There was a little bit in between, but I won't bore you with the detail.
• 31:48
  And that day was for Hyundai.
• 31:51
  at the farm and the core group there at Hyundai, Guido, Bill, Philip Rogers, Michelle Anderson, they're all the ones who effectively put me into the TCR car circa five, six years later.
• 32:02
  So that's where that started.
• 32:05
  And I focused on that work world for quite a while while I was racing Ford and then eventually F3 and whatever else I was doing.
• 32:13
  And it kind of all just...
• 32:14
  got to the point where I could do it full time and I'm like, shit, this is great, good work.
• 32:19
  I'm in the industry, I'm meeting people.
• 32:20
  I started working with all the supercar co-drivers who were doing the corporate stuff like your Cantos, hence why I can abuse him.
• 32:31
  Um, Lukey Yuldin, Stevie J's, um, all, all these older boys.
• 32:35
  Good crew.
• 32:36
  Good crew.
• 32:36
  And they became my mates.
• 32:38
  So it was real trippy.
• 32:39
  I'm, I'm racing cars.
• 32:41
  All these dudes I'm racing against like you, will Brown's and, um, you, you, uh, Delberto's like,
• 32:48
  established names kind of.
• 32:49
  I didn't know any of them.
• 32:51
  And I'm slapping five with Stevie J.
• 32:53
  And they're like, then you can see those boys going, who's this idiot?
• 32:57
  Like, how does he know that?
• 32:58
  Anyway, so yeah, the driver training world was very good to me.
• 33:01
  And it still is.
• 33:03
  I don't do as much now because I kind of can focus on the driving a bit more.
• 33:06
  But yeah, it started way back there with Hyundai.
• 33:10
  I want to keep charting your career here before we get to sort of TCR.
• 33:14
  But the...
• 33:15
  The World Time Attack stuff intrigues me.
• 33:17
  So the whole opportunity to camera car stuff and whatever you were discussing there before.
• 33:22
  In the weeks leading up to our conversation here, we have had World Time Attack at this venue.
• 33:29
  And you get to drive for road and cars.
• 33:32
  So for people that don't know, we're talking David Dicker.
• 33:34
  He has an incredible engineering and track facility on the South Island in New Zealand.
• 33:40
  He has an involvement in Formula 2, Formula 3 and more in Europe.
• 33:45
  He is helping young Kiwis like Louis Sharp coming through the ranks and so on.
• 33:50
  And you get to drive for him at this mega event.
• 33:53
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:55
  You know, World Time Attack being the first event I did,
• 33:59
  in this industry so long ago um i'd never raced it up until this year tell people what it's like i mean it's oh man well it's a car show that happens to have some driving yeah in between so you're talking the biggest event city motorsport park holds over the year bigger than supercar bigger than anything they do it's streaming numbers are off the charts streaming numbers are crazy um and you know and renato started that
• 34:22
  way back way back then um and it's kind of built from there but um yeah time attack is the fastest cars in the world that are built in sheds effectively much faster than any supercar any gt car that that exists you know you're talking that the lap record here is you know some two three seconds quicker than an a1 grand prix car crazy um
• 34:45
  Yeah, and the time attack scene the last few years has exploded, particularly in Sydney.
• 34:49
  Everyone's building a car for time attack.
• 34:51
  The culture around it is unreal, isn't it?
• 34:53
  The culture is exceptional.
• 34:54
  The tuna scene is massive because of it.
• 34:56
  It really is its total own segment in the market.
• 35:00
  And, yeah, it's such a cool event.
• 35:02
  I always wanted to do it.
• 35:04
  And, yeah, probably six or seven months ago, Rod Wilson from Zagami, which is the Australian distributor for Rodent,
• 35:12
  asks me at Phillip Island, he's like, hey, there's this project with Rodan.
• 35:18
  Who do you think would be suitable?
• 35:20
  And he didn't tell me what it was.
• 35:22
  And I actually didn't say myself because like I have that much respect for Rod that I didn't know what it was.
• 35:29
  I hadn't driven much downforcey stuff for a while.
• 35:33
  And I didn't say myself.
• 35:34
  I actually threw forward Timmy Macro and Garnet Patterson.
• 35:37
  I said, you should give them a ring.
• 35:39
  He goes, what about you?
• 35:40
  And I said, well, yeah, I'm always going to back myself in.
• 35:42
  But, you know, it depends what you want to do.
• 35:44
  He goes, no, no, no, I'm thinking of you.
• 35:46
  So I went over to New Zealand just as like a tour of the facility.
• 35:51
  Didn't meet David.
• 35:51
  He was in his office for two days.
• 35:53
  He didn't come down and see me.
• 35:55
  I'm not an intimidating bloke at all.
• 35:58
  But the rest of the team are amazing.
• 36:00
  And David is too.
• 36:01
  I should add David's an awesome guy.
• 36:02
  But I went over there.
• 36:04
  I saw their facility and drove their FZ race car, which is basically a 2010 Lotus F1 car, toned down a bit.
• 36:15
  and it's the only place I've ever been in recent years.
• 36:19
  I probably just haven't wanted to leave.
• 36:20
  I spent two days there, and I'm like...
• 36:23
  This is like heaven.
• 36:24
  I don't want to go anywhere.
• 36:25
  Like, this is it.
• 36:26
  This is Nirvana.
• 36:27
  Like, yeah, you just can't believe it.
• 36:29
  The location, you're in between the valley of mountains.
• 36:31
  There's snow on the top of the mountains.
• 36:33
  Like, the birds are chirping.
• 36:34
  The sun's shining.
• 36:34
  It's just ridiculous how good it is.
• 36:36
  You stay in this place that's...
• 36:39
  actually the first time they stitched me up, they put me in a cabin and it's up on the, up on a mountain.
• 36:45
  And I'm like, I'm pretty city slicked now.
• 36:47
  Like I'm not, I'm not a Bushman of any note.
• 36:50
  And, um, Claudia, who, who's sort of runs, um, the, the admin side of things there goes, Oh, you know, you're staying here, follow here, go up, do this, do that.
• 37:00
  Yeah.
• 37:00
  Okay.
• 37:01
  Checked in.
• 37:01
  And the lady at the counter goes, you know how to start a fire?
• 37:04
  Yeah.
• 37:06
  I'll give you the hot tip.
• 37:07
  I don't.
• 37:09
  And I just said, yeah, yeah, all good.
• 37:11
  She goes, oh, good.
• 37:12
  That's your heater.
• 37:13
  It's like minus two at night.
• 37:15
  I get in, get to the room.
• 37:16
  It's a cabin.
• 37:17
  No Wi-Fi.
• 37:18
  No nothing.
• 37:18
  No TV.
• 37:20
  Like full in the bush.
• 37:22
  I start the fire.
• 37:23
  Shit, that was an achievement.
• 37:25
  And then I just put it out straight away because I was worried I was going to burn the cabin down.
• 37:28
  So I just slept in the freezing cold all night.
• 37:30
  I think I went to bed at six o'clock in the evening, which is 4 p.m. Aussie time.
• 37:36
  And anyway, back to the preface of it was, yeah, I left after the next day and they were all really, really cool.
• 37:44
  I was just amazed and
• 37:46
  I emailed them back like a week later saying, so do you like me?
• 37:51
  Could this lead to something?
• 37:53
  What do you want to do?
• 37:54
  And they're like, yep, yep, you're on.
• 37:56
  This is what we're doing.
• 37:57
  World time attack.
• 37:58
  We're doing it in this car.
• 37:59
  We're building it from scratch, blah, blah, blah.
• 38:01
  When it's done, come back for a week, test it, and we're on.
• 38:03
  Yeah.
• 38:04
  And that was what I was driving.
• 38:05
  It was a Cintura S99, but remodeled by Rodin.
• 38:10
  So David bought the car in the early 2000s, which competed in British GT in 1999.
• 38:17
  It was a very good car for the time.
• 38:18
  It was highly dubious that it met regulation.
• 38:22
  Powered by what now?
• 38:23
  What's in it now?
• 38:24
  It previously had a Judd V10.
• 38:25
  It's powered by a Rodan V10 now.
• 38:27
  So fully manufactured in-house from block to head.
• 38:31
  Everything's in-house literally.
• 38:33
  Like they'll cast everything, machine everything, do everything in-house.
• 38:38
  It's absolutely incredible what they do.
• 38:41
  So many brilliant minds, so many brilliant people led by David who's just got this
• 38:47
  absolute drive to do the coolest shit possible in motorsport.
• 38:52
  And, um, yeah, I actually said to David at one point, I just said, mate,
• 38:58
  whether I do anything or not with you ever again, thank you for what you've done for motorsport because we need more people like you have screws loose and are willing to, you know, do stuff like this.
• 39:08
  So, so yeah, we rerun the road and we ran the FZ here.
• 39:13
  And yeah, like to have a suit that said road in and my name and you know, you, you associate his driver pool with, you know, like you said, Louis Sharp, Liam Lawson, you know, some, some amazing, amazing drivers, you know,
• 39:25
  And yeah, it was pretty phenomenal and certainly a career highlight at this point.
• 39:29
  And again, just going from where I started at Lithgow to half hour or an hour and a half back down, I'm driving the baddest car in the world.
• 39:39
  It was pretty crazy.
• 39:40
  Just to wrap up this chapter, I've spent a little bit of time with him.
• 39:42
  I haven't been to the facility on the South Island, but I spent a little bit of time with him at Leadfoot Festival and Murph ran FZ up the hill and so on.
• 39:50
  Just come back to the car that you've described and World Time Attack.
• 39:53
  What was it like to drive on the track that is just beyond the window where we are talking right now?
• 39:58
  What kind of lap time?
• 39:59
  What was that like?
• 40:01
  Yeah, well, we had two cars.
• 40:02
  So the Cintura was entered as a pro-class car.
• 40:05
  Makes nowhere near the horsepower or the downforce that the category should.
• 40:10
  You know, we only had 500, 550 horsepower.
• 40:13
  To win the category, you need 1,500 horsepower.
• 40:16
  We had very basic aero.
• 40:18
  You need F1 levels of aero.
• 40:22
  So we were there more as a demonstration of Roden's engineering.
• 40:26
  And for a car that, when we got here, did less than 10 laps at New Zealand, overheated basically every time it hit the track.
• 40:33
  We did every lap of the event.
• 40:37
  went faster every time we went out on the track and the car got better and better and the engine and driveline got better and better, which is effectively what we were there for to develop the powertrain.
• 40:47
  We ended up doing a 27-0, which, you know, you're talking three seconds quicker than supercar.
• 40:53
  So it's still a very fast car.
• 40:56
  But time attack regulations meant we had to run an extremely small rear tire, which compromised the entire setup.
• 41:02
  The car would do a 23, 24, no stress.
• 41:06
  If we were allowed to do what we could do very easily, open up some power, put some tire on it.
• 41:14
  And at that lap time, you know, you're talking F3 car.
• 41:17
  It's a very, very fast car.
• 41:19
  And then on the other side, we demoed the FZ, which again I said is that sort of F1 style car.
• 41:26
  Lotus T125 is the original project name of it.
• 41:29
  Roden took it over and refined it.
• 41:31
  And on the Thursday, I went out on a set of trolley tires that Rod gave me and said, just go and eyeball what the track looks like in this thing.
• 41:39
  Yeah, no worries.
• 41:40
  I did three laps and I did a 118, which makes it quicker than an A1 car.
• 41:48
  It was 270 through turn one, so pretty quick.
• 41:52
  You lift?
• 41:53
  I did have a lift to like sort of 80%.
• 41:56
  And as soon as I did it, I was like, oh, that was weak.
• 42:01
  epic, mate.
• 42:01
  That's unbelievable.
• 42:02
  Yeah.
• 42:03
  The only disappointing part is we didn't have another set of tyres to put on the car.
• 42:07
  The thing would do a 14 or a 15, no stress, which would make it very – I think you'd know better than me.
• 42:14
  I think Ricciardo or Weber maybe did a 114 in an actual F1 car.
• 42:20
  This is not an F1 car.
• 42:21
  It's F1 inspired, but it's not an F1 car.
• 42:25
  So it's a very, very, very fast car.
• 42:29
  So, yeah, we were desperately on the Friday evening ringing all our friends.
• 42:33
  Have you got any Pirelli F2 tires?
• 42:35
  No?
• 42:36
  Damn.
• 42:37
  Jack's tires up the road didn't have any stock.
• 42:39
  So, again, just crazy scenarios to be a part of.
• 42:52
  That's the end of part one of my feature episode with Hyundai TCR driver and 2023 Australian champion Josh Buchan.
• 42:59
  Little wonder that we have used him as an expert commentator at times on the telly because the conversation comes easy, doesn't it?
• 43:07
  So there's a part two in the Rusty's garage library, all set to jet.
• 43:11
  You can fire it up whenever suits you.
• 43:13
  From the nail biting TCR title win at Bathurst,
• 43:17
  and how close it came to slipping from his grasp.
• 43:20
  The coaching work he does and the new credentials there that put him in a select group worldwide, certainly in this part of the world anyway, taking on the best TCR races on the planet and much more.
• 43:32
  All right here on Rusty's Garage.