Latest / Pit Talk / Verstappen wins in Malaysia, Marquez domiantes Japan + Chaz Mostert and Garth Tander preview the Bathurst 1000 | Shannons Round-up

Transcript

Verstappen wins in Malaysia, Marquez domiantes Japan + Chaz Mostert and Garth Tander preview the Bathurst 1000 | Shannons Round-up · Pit Talk

• 0:00
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• 0:16
  Speaker 4: Hello and welcome to Pit Talk, brought to you by Shadons.
• 0:20
  Speaker 5: On today's episode, Max Verstappen wins a bizarre race in
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: Malaysia amid thunderstorms and lightning, while George Russell suffers another
• 0:28
  Speaker 5: engine failure to put him on the brink of title defeat.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: Marc Marquez dominates in Japan to slash his championship deficit
• 0:34
  Speaker 5: to Jorge Martin to just two points. And ahead of
• 0:38
  Speaker 5: this weekend's Bathurst 1000, we'll catch up with reigning winner
• 0:42
  Speaker 5: Garth Tander and reigning champion and Enduro Cup leader Chas Mostert.
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: My name's Michael Lavanato. It's great to have your company
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: and the company of my co-host. Personally, he'd never have
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: guessed that scheduling a race at 3pm in Malaysia might
• 0:56
  Speaker 5: coincide with rain.
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  Speaker 4: It's Matt Clayton.
• 1:01
  Speaker 6: Well, this is the problem here, Michael. It's the Bahrain
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  Speaker 6: Grand Prix. You can schedule a race any time you
• 1:05
  Speaker 6: like in Bahrain because it never rains. It's completely fine.
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  Speaker 6: I don't know what everyone's getting upset about, but.
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  Speaker 2: there's been a fair bit going on in motorsport over
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: the course of the weekend. And because of the way
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  Speaker 2: that it's gone on and the fact that I'm here
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: in Japan, having been at Motegi for the Japanese GP
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  Speaker 2: this weekend, I don't know half of what's happened this
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  Speaker 2: weekend and you don't know the other half.
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  Speaker 6: So between the two of us, we.
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  Speaker 2: Won't be able to educate each other and then hopefully
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  Speaker 2: provide some insight for everybody else.
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  Speaker 6: But, uh, Yeah, there's a bit going on.
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  Speaker 2: My experience of the Bahrain slash Malaysian Grand Prix was
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: sitting in three hours of driving back to Tokyo, getting
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  Speaker 2: intermittent updates that it was raining and cars don't work
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  Speaker 2: in the rain. So there you go. It is Formula
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: One in 2026, but yeah, we've got a fair bit.
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  Speaker 6: To cover, haven't we?
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  Speaker 5: We do have a fair bit to cover. We'll cover
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  Speaker 5: it all and we'll look ahead, as I said, to
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: the Bathurst 1000 this weekend. But it's a great opportunity, Matt,
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: to bring forward one of our old favourite podcast segments,
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  Speaker 5: Expert vs Interested. Now, generally, you're at least a little
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: bit more interested in Formula One than this. But as
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: you said, the scheduling this weekend means for now you
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: are just interested in what happened at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
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  Speaker 5: I'll start us with Formula One. We'll get to MotoGP
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: a little bit later in the podcast. The Maximus Happens
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: first victory. Let me set you up and then if
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: you've got any questions, obviously, please feel free to chime in.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: Wins his first Grand Prix of the year after his
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  Speaker 5: first pole position of the year. His longest wait for
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  Speaker 5: his first win since he won his first race in 2016.
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  Speaker 5: And This wasn't just, despite this being in Malaysia where
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: it's raining, it was raining before the race and where
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  Speaker 5: the track is essentially new to drivers and teams, us
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  Speaker 5: having not been here for 10 years and really quite
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  Speaker 5: an extreme challenge it turned out by the time we
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  Speaker 5: got there. This wasn't really a fluke. He dominated the
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  Speaker 5: weekend pretty much from start to finish.
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  Speaker 4: It was quietly at first.
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  Speaker 5: He didn't lead all of the practice sessions, only one
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  Speaker 5: of them, but it was pretty clear the pace was
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  Speaker 5: there by his run plan and then led every segment
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: of qualifying. Both laps in Q3 were good enough for
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  Speaker 5: pole position. Started from pole, did lose the lead at
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  Speaker 5: the start, but this was quite a chaotic start to
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: the Grand Prix, but had no trouble getting it back
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  Speaker 5: from the Mercedes drivers. And then just controlled it from there.
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  Speaker 5: It felt very, pick any of the last couple of years,
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  Speaker 5: Max Verstappen's specification looked pretty straightforward. This is the race
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  Speaker 5: after Red Bull Racing brought that upgrade to Baku, where,
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  Speaker 5: I mean, at the end of the race, he certainly
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  Speaker 5: looked pretty competitive relative to George Russell, but didn't seem
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  Speaker 5: like it was right in its sweet spot.
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  Speaker 4: This weekend.
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  Speaker 5: The car was fast down the straights, it was fast
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  Speaker 5: in the high-speed corners, it was faster than all of
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  Speaker 5: the other front-running cars. It was a very interesting result
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  Speaker 5: from that perspective. Now, Malaysia isn't necessarily an outlier circuit.
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  Speaker 5: It's a very aggressive surface, literally the tarmac. The circuit
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  Speaker 5: is actually fairly well-rounded, but it has that unknown element
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  Speaker 5: that was playing into the entire weekend that everyone was
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  Speaker 5: constantly being taken by surprise at this track that maybe
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  Speaker 5: some of them thought they knew better than they did.
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  Speaker 5: But nonetheless, really quite an interesting result, particularly in the
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  Speaker 5: context of Mercedes thinking it had brought a really big
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  Speaker 5: effective upgrade to the car and they weren't.
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  Speaker 4: Really on it.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's almost the story, isn't it?
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, I think the record books, it
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  Speaker 2: would be a shame for someone of Max's caliber and
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  Speaker 2: particularly with what Red Bull's done this year with having
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  Speaker 2: their own engine program for the first time, if we
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  Speaker 2: were to get through this season without them having a victory.
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  Speaker 2: It's actually funny, like when you look at this classification
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  Speaker 2: here and you see Bahrain, we'll look back at this
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  Speaker 2: race in years to come and you'll see it on
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  Speaker 2: paper and go, oh yeah, Max Verstappen won in Bahrain, sure.
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  Speaker 2: There's a bit more going on than that, obviously. But look,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the upgrade that Red Bull brought him back,
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  Speaker 2: he didn't get the immediate dividend. But as you said,
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  Speaker 2: when you have a race that is chaotic as this
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  Speaker 2: one was, it would be kind of a shame for
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  Speaker 2: someone who it felt like had control over the entire
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  Speaker 2: weekend in the way that we know that Max can't.
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  Speaker 2: to not get the victory here. So it feels like
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  Speaker 2: a just result in a way, but I think there's
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  Speaker 2: probably two Mercedes stories here that I'm curious to pick
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  Speaker 2: your brain about because yes, the upgrades didn't bring perhaps
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the performance that they wanted, but then of course we
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: have another Mercedes failure and it's for the driver who
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  Speaker 2: can least afford it.
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  Speaker 6: And I'm sure one of the things you've written in the.
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  Speaker 2: Past five or six hours or however long it's been
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  Speaker 2: since this race finished, I think it went for about
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: five or six hours. How many times have you written
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  Speaker 2: in the past few hours, you know, mathematically, contention now,
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  Speaker 2: because George Russell is a championship contender by the maths only.
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  Speaker 2: I think we knew that anyway, but today's only confirmed that,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm sure you're now working out when Kimi Antonelli
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  Speaker 2: can win the championship, and two sets of figures there,
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  Speaker 2: if we're going to Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which it
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  Speaker 2: seems like we are, or if somehow we're not, but
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  Speaker 2: it is happening, isn't it?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it's going to happen now.
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  Speaker 5: It was really just about the timing of it, Antonelli's
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  Speaker 5: a bit of a dud resulting back who maybe pushed
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  Speaker 5: that out a little bit and certainly gave George Russell hope.
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  Speaker 5: You know, one of the stories coming into this weekend
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  Speaker 5: was that suddenly he was talking about, okay, not really
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  Speaker 5: being in strong title contingent, being in a position to
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  Speaker 5: apply some pressure, hope a bit of luck goes his
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  Speaker 5: way and maybe he can make something happen. I mean,
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  Speaker 5: this lasted not even an entire weekend. The engine failure,
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  Speaker 5: it's his third technical DNF of the season or non-scoring
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  Speaker 5: Grand Prix of the season following the Canada, wasn't it?
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  Speaker 4: And where was the other one?
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  Speaker 5: Or maybe I'm thinking of Monaco, where it wasn't a
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  Speaker 5: technical non-score, but it was the penalties.
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  Speaker 4: Regardless of the fact, he's had a lot of non-scoring
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  Speaker 4: Grand Prix this weekend.
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  Speaker 5: I think if you were to, you know, it's very
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  Speaker 5: tempting to bring the Union Jack down to half-mast for
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  Speaker 5: another lost result for him.
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  Speaker 4: And it is, you know, it is cruel luck.
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  Speaker 5: And there was genuine resignation, not just in his post-race
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  Speaker 5: press conferences, but even his body language as it happened
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  Speaker 5: in the car. If you watch the onboard, there's a
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  Speaker 5: real just like, oh, again, situation about the way he's behaving.
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  Speaker 5: But he had this failure when he was behind Antonelli
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  Speaker 5: and he'd started ahead of Antonelli after a great start.
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  Speaker 5: Antonelli again had the pace, that concept, that idea that
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  Speaker 5: Russell was back on the pace and was going to
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  Speaker 5: be competitive or racing for victories every weekend.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, he had a decent weekend overall. Let's take
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  Speaker 4: nothing away from it.
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  Speaker 5: Would have finished on the podium almost certainly, but was
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  Speaker 5: bossed again by the guys leading the championship.
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  Speaker 4: So really, to come back to your point, it's really
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  Speaker 4: about the timing.
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  Speaker 5: It's always been about the timing this last month or
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  Speaker 5: so as Russell's maybe got back to grips with things.
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  Speaker 5: It now seems, I think it's going to happen in
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  Speaker 5: the United States. Can't happen in Singapore. That was like
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  Speaker 5: a long shot idea a couple of weeks ago. almost certainly,
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  Speaker 5: unless there's another big twist in turn, which there have
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  Speaker 5: been this year, is going to happen in the United States.
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  Speaker 5: Probably Mercedes, the Constructors' Championship as well, despite Toyota being
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  Speaker 5: very unhappy that another failure had cost points to Ferrari.
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  Speaker 5: It cost nine points to Ferrari. Ferrari's not going to
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  Speaker 5: win the Constructors' title. I think that's pretty clear, but
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  Speaker 5: it was all about Antonelli having that pace. But not
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  Speaker 5: Max Verstappen's pace. Just to touch briefly on that upgrade,
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  Speaker 5: it is a little bit unclear because this track, again,
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  Speaker 5: it was an uncertain one.
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  Speaker 4: The degradation was really quite extremely high.
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  Speaker 5: I think we would have seen it even higher had
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  Speaker 5: this not been a wet race that meant that the
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  Speaker 5: track was cooler than expected and the conditions were cooler
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  Speaker 5: than expected. That didn't seem to work for Mercedes. But
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: the interesting thing I'm going to be watching for this
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  Speaker 5: or next weekend, depending on exactly when you're listening to
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: this podcast in Singapore, well, it's not a great test
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  Speaker 5: of it, but nonetheless, is the Mercedes car was slowed
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  Speaker 5: down the straights this weekend.
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  Speaker 4: First time that's happened all year.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Under steering through slow corners. First thing was first time
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  Speaker 5: that's happened all year. It was not a very Mercedes
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  Speaker 5: behaving Mercedes car, still clearly competitive enough to have a
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  Speaker 5: double podium this weekend, finishing ahead of the other Red
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: Bull racing car. But if it took some step forwards
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  Speaker 5: in some parts of the track, which the drivers were
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  Speaker 5: saying was the case, it's taken some steps backwards in
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  Speaker 5: the traditional strengths of this car.
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  Speaker 4: And that's interesting. Was it too quickly to bring this
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  Speaker 4: upgrade to the track?
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  Speaker 5: They didn't know that's, remains to be answered but there
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  Speaker 5: is a question being asked there yeah i.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Think it is a fair question because you know it
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: is you know it's such an unusual weekend because of
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: where we've raced this the thing for mercedes i don't
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: even know if we're necessarily going to see the true
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: extent of the quality of the upgrades and what they've
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: done for the performance even in the next round because
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: singapore is not really a great circuit for you know
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: it's not very representative is it there's no way really
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: like it so You know, it might take the weekend
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: that he wins the championship in Austin for us to
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: actually see how that works. But I did want to ask,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: you mentioned the old, you know, we're going nostalgic with
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Malaysia and everything else this week, the old interested versus expert.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: To let you in behind the curtain here, I'm driving
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: along in the most horrendous traffic imaginable trying to get
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: into Tokyo and my phone is going absolutely berserk when
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: the Formula One race is about to begin after the
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: rain delays. And I have no context with what's going
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: on here. And I have read a little bit of it.
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  Speaker 2: I haven't seen it yet. Can you explain to me
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  Speaker 2: and perhaps anyone who hasn't seen it or even someone
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: that has is wondering what the hell was going on?
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: What was going on at the start of this race?
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Because it sounded a bit sad and it sounded a
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: bit farcical. And I'm just wondering how it was presented
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: because it's not a situation that we've ever seen.
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: Thank goodness. And I hope we never see it again.
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: But what exactly happened?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, so this is the first race, first really wet
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: competitive session all season. There's been a little bit of
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: wet testing, but nothing like this. And it was as
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: we were going out, that 40 minutes rain delay, and
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: that was proper torrential melange. rain there was no way
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: to race in those conditions regardless of what people will
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: say on Twitter just put on the wet tires whatever
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: and now heading out preparing for the safety car as
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: usual then Max Verstappen puts his foot down gets no
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: power radios that then finds power again and the same
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: thing happens to Lewis Hamilton who was meant to start
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: second and he's holding up the whole pack now Verstappen
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  Speaker 5: ends up being halfway around the lap Some other cars
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  Speaker 5: are suddenly afflicted by the same thing Hamilton is, particularly
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: as they wait for him because that's sort of the process.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: Others think he's having a problem, which he kind of is.
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: They pass him. We have this bizarre situation. Every car
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: ended up figuring it out. I'll get to what it
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: is in just a second. But the bizarre situation that
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: caused a red flag that lasted, I think, was another
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: 50 minutes. And I wonder whether or not, and I
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: don't have an answer to this because we're recording it
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: just after the race finished, but I wonder if the
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: FIA just decided, let's not try to get in the wet.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: We had a situation where it was technically cars that
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: were a lap down before the race had even started,
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: like technically before the race had started. The safety car
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: appeared when the red flag was thrown to halt this
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: in the middle of the pack as well. Just really
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: bizarre and unusual scenes. I'm worth going to have a
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: look if people skipped past that or you've watched the highlights.
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: But the reason seems to have been that with these
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: very complex hybrid engines, another strike for the hybrid power
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: units that grow more contentious by the day, When you're
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: running it with too low revs, and this is part
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: of what we already know, the turbo doesn't spool up
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: because there's nothing electronically spooling the turbo like last year.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: It's been banned this year, these engines.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: So when the driver puts their foot on the throttle
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: and there's not enough spool in the turbo, the car says, oh,
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: you want a certain amount of torque? Let me dump
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: all of the battery into the power output now. So
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: all of a sudden your battery expires because you only
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: have at the best of times about 11 seconds of battery.
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: You've burned it all and you haven't recharged it because
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: you're not, you're going so slowly behind the safety car.
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: suddenly you're down to just the internal combustion engine, which
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: is less than half the nominal maximum 750 kilowatts, because
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: there's no turbo, there's no battery power. And this is
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: the complex part, and this is why all of a
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: sudden drivers are putting their foot on the throttle and
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: nothing was happening. If there's too big of a difference between,
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: let's say you're requesting full power, 100%, just for the
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: sake of argument, and the engine cannot give it to you,
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: There's a rule designed to prevent teams from surreptitiously developing
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: traction control that's saying you can't have a big gap
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: between what you're asking for and what the engine's giving
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: you because theoretically you might be able to turn that
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: into a kind of traction control. So the engine just
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: gives you nothing as a result. It just gives you
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: literally nothing. And so what all these drivers had to
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: do was kind of do like a start essentially. Get
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: those revs up high, get the turbo spooling and then
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: everything kind of starts working again. I haven't listened to
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: all the team radios, but it seemed like Red Bull
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: Racing was the quickest to twig to that, other than
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: some of the teams that seem to maybe have known that.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: But a lot of teams are affected. I think every
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: engine manufacturer is affected because it wasn't an engine-based thing.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: It was a sort of inherent software issue.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: But another little look behind the curtain, something that F1' s
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: managed to avoid for a lot of the year, but
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: just a look behind the curtain of how complex these
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: engines are. Too complex, clearly, for some of the teams
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: and drivers. Admittedly, it was the first wet session, like
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: I said.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: But if.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: We're discovering things as we go and they're not immediately obvious.
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's not, for me, that's not the way
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: it should be. I don't think anyone disagrees with that either,
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: which is why the sport's trying to move away from
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: these engines within the next four years at maximum. But
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: not a great moment for Formula 1.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: No.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And, you know, the complexity, I appreciate the explanation, very thorough,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: very detailed. I feel somewhat wiser from listening to you.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I also just feel like sighing a little bit because
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: you said, like, you know, this is beyond some of
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the teams. And it's beyond most people at this point. Like,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I'm just wondering how we got here, as I've just
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: managed to kick my camera.
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: So sorry about that. I'm just wondering how we got here.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I mean, it takes a pretty extreme set
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: of circumstances for something like this to come to light.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: But the very fact that this can come to light
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: and you've got the eyes of the world on you
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: and it just looks, frankly, a bit pathetic. It's not
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: what the pinnacle of the sport should be looking like. And, yeah,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: just a gigantic sigh about the whole thing. The way
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: you were describing it, which is a nice segue for
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: something we're going to do later, it reminds me of
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: when you're doing the go-karting and the guy controlling it
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: cuts everyone's power because someone's spun or, you know, it's
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: all got a bit sideways and they're trying to fix
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the grid up.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: So, yeah, it reminded me a little bit of that.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: But it's not very Formula One, is it? But, look,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: in the end, I mean, look, you've got to Verstappen win.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: We went back to Malaysia and Kimi Anginelli's going to
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: win the World Championships. Probably a decent outcome, all things considered,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: for 2026. But yeah, how we got there, this is
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: going to be one of those races that we'll look
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: back in years to come. And how on earth did
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: we get to that? Because it was absolutely bizarre, certainly
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: watching it in retrospect.
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: As I was.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: Especially when someone looks back in the history books and
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: says a wet race in Bahrain, that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: Cannot be right.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: There's, of course, plenty more to talk about the Malaysian
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: Grand Prix or Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: Caught myself out saying that.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: You can read more about it at the Fox Sports
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: website because we've got so much to get to in
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: this podcast. Let's move on now to this weekend's Bathurst 1000.
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: I caught up earlier in the week, or late last week, obviously.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: It's very early in the week still, with Chas Mostert,
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: who's not only, obviously, the reigning supercars champion, but he
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: goes into Bathurst as the Enduro Cup leader, having won
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: the Bend 500 a couple of weeks ago now. First
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: endurance win for Toyota, obviously. It's the first endurance race
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: of the season. But that suddenly puts this brand-new manufacturer
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: in its first season... on the cusp, thinking, dreaming of
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: perhaps walking away with the biggest race victory of the season.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: Chas, thanks so much for joining us on the Pit
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: Talk podcast.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me aboard and yeah, big week
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: coming up, but yeah, just excited to talk anything motorsport.
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: Well, before we get into Bathurst, which is obviously what
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: we're building up to, I want to take you actually
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: back to the start of the season. We sat down
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: in preview of this season during a media day and
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: I remember thinking you seemed really quite serene. Obviously, you
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: had your title in your pocket. Admittedly, a media day
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: is not exactly an adrenaline-pumping experience. But has this season
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: felt different for you, having that championship in your pocket now?
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, the years felt pretty different. You know,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: you spend so many years trying to achieve a championship. So,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: last year is still something pretty hard to completely reflect on,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: all that it's like in our seasons now. just come
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: around so quick. So off season, you know, we only
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: got about a month and a half before we're back
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: into doing all different things, supercars related. So some media
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: day rolls around, it's pretty hard to work out still
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: what you felt about the year before. So yeah, obviously super,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: super pumped to finally ticked off that championship last year.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: But saying that coming into this year has been a
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: whole different set of goals for us, you know, a
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: brand new manufacturer in the sport. with Toyota, which has
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: been super exciting to be working with the GR Supra.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: And it's almost like starting a little bit of square
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: one again and starting to learn all your new tools.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: So very, at that point at the start of the year,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: when we just kind of sat down, you're kind of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: trying to work out how this year is going to
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: kind of unpack. So at the moment it's been, it's
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: sitting where we are at this pilot season, you know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: so proud of all the guys and girls that walk
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: toward TWG racing and how much they've worked on this
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: brand new Supra coming in and to get some results
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: pretty early on is pretty spectacular.
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: Watching that Toyota journey has been an interesting part of
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: this season. It's been up and down, but there have
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: been podiums regularly on the way and a couple of
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: wins now as well, even if spaced apart. Is that
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: about how you expected this year to go if you
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: did have expectations for the first season for a new brand?
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: And should we read into the victory at the bend
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: that it's a sign that you've taken another step with
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: this package, just as obviously the most important part of
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: the season arrives?
• 17:41
  Speaker 8: I think this year has been so cutthroat.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: There's been so many heavy hitters this year and so
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: many teams that are able to strike, um, for race
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: wins at different places. So, um, for us, there's always
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: a focus this year is about trying to better ourselves
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and learn our.
• 17:56
  Speaker 8: New package and go from there.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Um, but then there's so tricky because, you know, it's
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: so weather affected and, um, it was the first level
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: of injury for us as a team as well. So, um,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: no doubt we've had our challenges this year, but the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: team's worked extremely hard. It was so good to get
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that result of Taylor Ben to reward all the guys
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and girls. Um, especially with some of those niggling things
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: we've had this year. So, yeah, I don't know. It's
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: still going to see how we go over the next
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: four rounds. Obviously, Bathurst is its own event.
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: Holy grail. We're just going to have to send it
• 18:26
  Speaker 8: and see.
• 18:27
  Speaker 7: What we do.
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: Well, the bend is the warm-up enduro, I guess. It's
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: worth the same points. We shouldn't talk it down in
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: that sense. But, obviously, it's building up to a race
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: that's double the length. It means you've got another reason, obviously,
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: to feel a little bit confident going into Bathurst, which
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: you've won before, because you've got that victory under your
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: belt with Fabianette.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: At the bend.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: That partnership isn't new, obviously, but the sort of component
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: of it is, particularly then when you add in the conditions,
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: as you mentioned. How much confidence do you take, given
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: the race was a bit unusual, but from the fact
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: everything could click on that occasion, and not only for you,
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: I guess, but for the team which got.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: A 1-3 finish as well?
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, we take a lot of confidence from it
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: because in the most chaotic day you've probably seen all
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: year so far in any race, you know, our team
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: stepped up and um you know fabs and our co-drivers
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: fabs and jackson drove unbelievably in those tricky conditions stayed
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: out of trouble and and the cars were very competitive
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: um in those wet conditions as well even when the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: track dried out towards the end of the race our
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: car was really really fast still so um we worked
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: extremely hard over that weekend to try and get ourselves
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: in the best position qualifying we didn't qualify where we
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: wanted to i think we were 11th and 14th but
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: it was still so tight i still think it was
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: like three tenths of a second and you're outside of
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the top 10 so Um, super cutthroat it was there,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: but we'll take a lot of confidence from it because
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: even in the chaotic part of the race, team was
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: able to make the right decisions at the right time
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and and get us in um get us in a
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: good position to stay out of trouble and also give
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: us a chance to to fight for a fantastic result
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day so enduro races are
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: so tricky because it's not just like some of the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: sprints where You get the car out, you do one
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: pit stop, you know, you've got multiple pit stops, you've
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: got multiple decisions to make for a long distance of time.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And I find that, you know, at Walker Short DWG Racing,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: we did everything that we did at Taylor and that's
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: what got us the first and the third. So we
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: take a lot of confidence from that and the things
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: that we can still also work on into Bathurst 1000.
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: I want to talk as well briefly about the engine,
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: which has been a talking point for the last, most
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: of the season, in fact, for the last month in particular,
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: since that upgrades arrived. The donuts at the end of
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: the race, apart from being fun, was it a relief
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: to know that the B-spec engine could be put through
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: that ahead of, of course, Bathurst, where the engine's going
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: to account for a great deal?
• 20:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, like I said, the team's worked extremely hard.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: You know, it hasn't been the easiest of years, but,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: you know, the way they've assessed those situations, the way
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: they've put plans moving forward and, And the way that
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: what they have been able to do this year in
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: such a short period of time with such a new
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: platform is super impressive to be involved in. So, yeah,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: you know, Taylor Bent was a real big first test, obviously,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: after QR. And, you know, everything, as far as I know,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: it sounds like it's all going really well. So, you know,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: saying that, any new car, it's the first time it's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: going to Bathurst. It's going to have probably the hardest
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: race ever. that the Toyota Supra's had all year. So,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: you know, it gives us great confidence going out of town. Ben,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: we ticked that box. Now we want to go to 1,000,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: tick that box. And sometimes in any racing thing, you
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: need those races under your belts to know that 100%
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you're confident in what you've got. So everything that I
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: can see so far has been unbelievable. Such a credit
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: to the team for how hard they've worked. And then
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: in the background, short timeframes between rounds. So it's so
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: nice to get that result with the first and third
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: at Talon to reward that.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: Now, no one needs an excuse to want to do
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: well at Bathurst, obviously. Last year didn't go the way
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: you wanted, though. It was good for the social media,
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: I guess, and good for the free drink as well,
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: which is something. But, you know, you're a two-time race
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: winner already. Does the DNF make you feel like you've
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: got to get one back at the mountain last year?
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: Is there any additional motivation when the previous year has
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: obviously ended on a bit of a down note?
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: No, it doesn't feel like I am owed one at Bathurst.
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: You never feel like you're owed one, you know.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: It's... it's a race you've got to earn and you've
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: got to be in that for a thousand kilometer sprint race.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: And I think you'd be pretty naive as a race
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: car driver to think that it's all going to be
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: kind of given to you or a certainty that you're
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: going to be in the fight.
• 22:30
  Speaker 8: So look, things happen around there.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: We've seen it on so many different people's stories at
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: different times throughout their careers. And I think that's what
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: makes Heritage of Bathurst so special because there is the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: part of the day of that glory of someone achieving
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and a team achieving something of greatness. And then you
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: also got also the heartbreak story. So unfortunately, last year
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: for me was one of my adding to a list
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of heartbreak stories around Bathurst. But like you said, I've
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: touched on, I've had some amazing days there as well.
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: So it just makes you hungry to come back.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: You know how much the race means to you, how
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: much that event means to all the people that come
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and support us there. And I was like saying to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: someone earlier today, you know, we're not just coming back
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: as race car drivers or, or, um, being lucky enough
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: to win it a couple of times. We're actually still
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: coming back to the mountain as fans of the place
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: because we get to race on this racetrack that has
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: amazing history and heritage. And, um, even when we rock
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: up and depending what day it is and you see
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: the Mount Panorama sign, get into town, you just, you
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: just get goosebumps.
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: So, um, yeah, that's what it means to us. So
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: what it, to try and achieve, you know, great things
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: on that day.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: We know that I always believe that the Bathurst gods
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: have already got the story written out for this year.
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: We've just got to go along the journey and.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: The story and see who it's chosen for the day.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But the day, you know, the way the script starts
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: is all on Thursday from practice one. And every practice session,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: it just builds intensity into the weekend for it to qualify.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: And then you have, you know, top 10 shootout on
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a different day. It's just the way it's anticipated. It's
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: just amazing.
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: As a two-time winner, obviously, plus with Fabian also having
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: a couple of podiums at Bathurst, what is it that
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: you've learned over your career there that makes the weekend
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: more likely to deliver success? Is there something that you
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: think you're doing other drivers aren't at the mountain that
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: you feel like builds you into the weekend better?
• 24:19
  Speaker 8: I don't know.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: For me, I've had such highs of highs and such
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: lows of lows. So I think probably the thing that
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: keeps me realistic about Bathurst is, that you can prepare
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the best and something can go wrong or you can
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: prepare how you would normally do and try to keep
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the pressure off and go along for the journey. So
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you know that between the 26 cars on the grid
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: this year, that every driver there is more than capable
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: to do the right job and get the win on
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: that day and the amount of teams we have.
• 24:49
  Speaker 8: You've seen multiple different teams over multiple different years win
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: that race as well.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: So you know you've got to respect your competition more
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: but also your biggest competition is yourself and making sure
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: you just try to do the best job you can,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: build into that weekend.
• 25:03
  Speaker 8: Made it pretty hard for myself last year.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Got a bit excited in practice one, which always seems
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: to come out at every stage with me at some point.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: But you just want to drive that track as fast
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: as you can and sometimes you've got to realistically put
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: it back in. So I probably look more at my
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: practice last year as things to learn off than what
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: it is actually from the race side of things.
• 25:23
  Speaker 8: And yeah, you just... We just enjoy it so much.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: So for me, structure and around that is probably the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: worst person to talk to about that. Probably need to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: talk to guys that have won it like seven, eight,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: you know, probably talking to Craig Lowndes, how did he
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: win it.
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: So many times?
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: And yeah, so may have been lucky enough to win
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: it twice and I'm absolutely honoured to do that. And,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: you know, we'll keep coming back, trying to win it
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: again because it's the best feeling in Australian motorsport.
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: Well, talking of someone who did an awful lot of
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: winning at Bathurst, this year we're celebrating Peter Brock's life,
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: 20 years since we lost him. Yeah, most drivers now
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: are too young to have had their careers coincide with his,
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: yours included. I think there's maybe only Lanzi left, perhaps,
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: who's out there racing this weekend. But what does his
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: legacy mean to you? Obviously, he was racing and winning
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: when I guess you were in karts. And how much
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: are his achievements present when you do rock up and
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: you see that Mount Panorama sign, as you were mentioning before?
• 26:18
  Speaker 8: Yeah, for me, I was lucky to meet him once.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: And I mean, as a fan, when I did come
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: to Bathurst when I was really young. So I remember
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: lining up and getting, you know, I think at that stage,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: that weekend, the number plates was a pretty popular thing
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to get signed. So you get a Brockie number plate
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and line up and meet him at his table. So
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: not that I really knew much of him. I was
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: pretty young, but people I was hanging out with was like, man,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you got to get a Brockie number plate.
• 26:43
  Speaker 8: He's an absolute legend.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And I think just what resonated me most was, which
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I think will never, ever be replicated from maybe any
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: other driver here. He was second to none in his
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: preparation of hanging out with fans and making them feel special. Like,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: you know, he'd have someone come and chat to you
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: before you actually got to the start of the line
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: to find out your name and possibly how old you are.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: And then you'd get to the front of the table
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and he'd spend a whole solid two minutes with you
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: just talking. And for me as a young guy, like
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: just as a young motorsport fan, you just go, wow, like,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: That was a genuine interaction and made you feel like
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the only person at Bathurst that whole day. And I
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: know any fans that were lucky enough to meet Rocky,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: that's how he was with everybody. And that's the value
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: he gave back to the sport. So this day and age,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: it's very tricky. You know, you've got a lot of
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: commitments here and there. But we love when we do
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the signing sessions and be able to showcase what we
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: can do on the gridwalks and all that kind of
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: stuff and get that interaction and people as close as
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: we can to the entertainment.
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: Um, but there will be never another Brocky. So yeah, obviously,
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: you know, when.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: You're fighting for the Peter Brock trophy, it's a very
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: special one, especially for me, because I was lucky enough
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: to meet him once. I know that he, how much
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: he gave to this sport and heritage to, to what
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: we day today race now.
• 28:02
  Speaker 8: So, um, yeah, forever greatly missed.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: It would be amazing if he was still here and,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: you know, and coming to this race every year. And
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: as a young driver, you got to rub shoulders with him. Um, then,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: you know, it's unfortunately not the case. So, yeah, we
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: race as hard as we can in honour of him and, yeah,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: we'll see who's lucky enough to win the trophy on Sunday.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: And finally, before we let you go, you've got two
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: cracks in some pretty important history here. The first overall
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: victory for Toyota at Bathurst and the first Toyota driver's title.
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: Now you're locked into the finals and that's still to
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: come a little bit later.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: In the year. Maybe it's something you don't want to think.
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: About, obviously, because it's one step at a time, particularly
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: with the final series, but How much would it mean
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: to tickle even one of those historic occasions in the
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: very first year of this brand in the sport?
• 28:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah, well, thanks, Michael, for keeping adding all the extra pressure. So, yeah.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Look, yeah, obviously, honoured to punch our finals ticket for
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the first year at Toyota GR Supra. And then the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: most priority at Bathurst is to get my teammate in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: there as well. I know we're very proud about trying
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: to do that. You know, obviously, any time you want
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to win at Bathurst is so special, but on debut
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: for Toyota would be something unbelievable, and obviously the championship
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: as well. So it's been a really tough year. We've
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: fought really hard. We've been getting better and better, and
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: I think I'm really proud of that. And hopefully we're
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: on the right trajectory now towards the end of the year.
• 29:26
  Speaker 8: So we'll try our absolute best.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Like we have every other year, me and Woody, and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: we'll see if we can shock some people.
• 29:35
  Speaker 8: That's the plan.
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: Well, the countdown is on to Bathurst. We better let
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: you get back to your preparations, but Chas, thanks so
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: much for joining us.
• 29:42
  Speaker 8: Thanks, mate. Appreciate it.
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: That was my chat with Chas Mostert ahead of this
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: weekend's Bathurst 1000. Of course, already a Bathurst winner. Could
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: he do it again, and could he do it for
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: Toyota to become Bathurst's first Toyota winner? Didn't like the
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: idea that I put the question to him, but I'm
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: sure some part of him is thinking about it. He's
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: got to be thinking about it. Everyone's thinking about it.
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: But before we move on, let's get to Move of
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: the Week, brought to you by Shannon's. We're in that
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: part of the year where there's non-stop motorsport every weekend,
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: so plenty to choose from.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: Where are you taking us?
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Well, I was actually going to do the sort of
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: gentlemanly thing and actually ask you to go first, simply
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: because I know you're going to pick something from the
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: F1 race, and I'm going to pick something from a
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: race with two fewer wheels, which we're going to talk
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: about in the future. So I don't know how many
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: official overtakes there were in the Bahrain slash Malaysia and
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: perhaps the safety car should have been doing a bit
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: more overtaking given where it ended up at the start
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: of the race but where are you going with this
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: because there's probably no shortage of it is there one
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: that really stood out for.
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: You there are quite a few that stood out to
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: me I think there was a I mean it was
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: pretty easy to choose I guess Antonelli getting one back
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: on George Russell because that felt really important this was
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: a moment after he'd asked for perhaps some team orders
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: or suggested he wanted team orders in that way all
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: drivers do by saying well I'm passing the guy ahead
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: and then just did the business anyway. But there was
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: a great move by Fernando Alonso I want to bring
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: up here. Because he scored points, scored four points for
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: Aston Martin in eight. This is a track that actually
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: ended up suiting the Aston Martin car engine package enough.
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: And they're excited now because Singapore should suit it a
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: lot more. Got there on pure pace, despite being one
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: of the drivers who started on stick. So it was
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: in that, you know, it was a minute behind the lead.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: Only a couple of laps into the race. Safety can't
• 31:21
  Speaker 5: change things, but still managed to recover from there. Similar
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: to Hamilton, I think it's no surprise that we're seeing
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: two of the greats who, such a great recovery job
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: after such a disappointing start for strategy reasons. This great
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: move on Arvid Lindblad, it was down from turn one
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: to two and there's that great sort of tightening turn
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: one and then it switches back into turn two and
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: it's downhill and the camber's a bit funny and it's
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: all about positioning and a little bit about bravery as
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: well because you're not 100% certain all the time what
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: the other car's going to do. And he switched back
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: from the inside to back in the inside to turn
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: two and just inserts his car down the inside of Lindblad. Now,
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: Lindblad did give him enough space, but also clearly didn't
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: expect him to get there because they got very close.
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: And it was just a great... And this happens from
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: time to time, doesn't it, Matt?
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: The last couple of years, obviously Alonso's not been in
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: a winning position. But every now and then he just
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: has this performance. Every now and then he has the
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: tools to have these performances where you just go, that's.
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: Why he's so good. It was just this great... And
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: it does sound... I was listening to the commentary with
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: Alex Jakes.
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: And he put it in a way that made it
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: sound quite unfair where, look, it's a 45-year-old overtaking a 19-year-old.
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: It makes it sound like it's not fair. But it
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: was just such a good move in cars that, in fact,
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: he was probably in the slower car on balance and
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: he got it done. And in a race full of
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: great moves and important moves, I think it's worth paying
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: a little bit of attention to Aston Martin getting a
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: great result thanks to him.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: It's also probably worth pointing out that Fernando Alonso was
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: racing in the Malaysian Grand Prix 25 years ago. In
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: 2001 in a Minardi, which is absolutely remarkable when you
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: think how many drivers on the grid were even born
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: in 2001.
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: But there you go. But there is something, there's an energy.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, you remember the season where he had all
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: those podiums at the beginning.
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: Of it for Aston Martin?
• 33:00
  Speaker 8: Was it 2003, if I remember correctly?
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: And there's just an energy to him being at the
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: front of Formula One races.
• 33:06
  Speaker 6: It's really fun.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: And part of it's the context of, oh, you know,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: the old dog's still got it sort of thing. But
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: he's just such a canny, wily racer that takes everything
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: to the absolute nine and a half cents all of
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: the time. And you know it's coming, but it's delightful
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: when it happens because you're thinking, oh, how many more times.
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: Are we going to see this?
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: You get a bit nostalgic for the glory days, but
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: it's certainly fun to watch. And yeah, a competitive and
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: feisty Alonso is one of my favorite things in Formula One.
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: So I'm pleased to see it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: Yes, it is good. I'm hopeful that maybe next year
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: he's a little bit closer to the front and we
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: see a few more of these moves that just aren't
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: him pulling into pits to retire the car. But what
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: caught your eye this week?
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: I'm going to couple move of the week with dishonorable
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: mention of the week, which is a new category that
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I've just invented. And I'm going to the sprint of
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: the MotoGP race at Motegi when, look, Alex Marquez is
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: the second best rider in his own family.
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: He wouldn't dispute that either.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: He's obviously good enough to be a MotoGP, but it's
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: just unfortunate that he's related to one of the greatest
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: riders ever to do it. He has a tendency occasionally
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: of being a bit Alex Marquez, which before last year
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: when he finished second in the World Championship, he can
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: do some reasonably boneheaded things at the beginning of races.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: And going into the Turn 3-4 hairpin at Metegi on
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: the first lap, He decided, I'm not sure whether he
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: didn't break at all or he just braked way too late,
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: but he managed to skittle Pedro Acosta and Fabio DiGianantonio
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: in one go. So a reminder that Acosta was the
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: rider that won the previous race in Austria and DiGianantonio
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: has been the second best Ducati rider all year and
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: was still within a shot of finishing in the top
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: three of the championship and just 10-pin bowling balled both
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: of them out of the way.
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: And managed to earn himself a double long lap.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Penalty for Sunday's full distance Grand Prix. which, of course,
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: he served the double long lap penalty and then crashed again.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: So not a great weekend for, if you're the other Marquez.
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: As he's often mentioned to us.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: It was a move, but to take out one of
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: the better Ducati riders and a guy who won the
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: previous race, neither was particularly impressed, as you can imagine.
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: But there's also a bit of, well, that's just Alex
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: Marquez business.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, dishonorable mention and dishonorable move of the week
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: in two categories I've just made up, but that's where I've.
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: Gone from here. I think we need a dishonorable move
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: of the week. Maybe we can make that segment. We're
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: willing to take sponsors. Any dishonorable sponsors out there who'd
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: like to join?
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: More than welcome.
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: We keep shut-ins for the honorable ones. Well, let's talk
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: not about O. Marquez, other Marquez, but about M. Marquez,
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: by which I mean main Marquez, who's now just down
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: two points behind Jorge Martin in the championship after clean
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: sweeping this weekend, victory in the main race.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: It is in Japan.
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: I mean, we've got very used to winning in Japan,
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: but just on a Japanese bike. He still does the
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: business on a Ducati. I mean, every race is important now,
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: isn't it? As we tick down to six to go,
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: I think there is in there, depending on Qatar, although,
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: as you said, it feels like it's inevitable at this
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: point that we see moving that way.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: What was the vibe of this weekend, obviously?
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: It feels like every round is shifting a little bit
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: between these two guys, but was this just Marquez... getting
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: that trajectory back on track and powering towards the finish
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: as we know he's so capable of doing?
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it's bizarre to think.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: So he's won six Grand Prix now this year. He's
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: only got six Grand Prix podiums.
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: They're all wins.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: And so it's been one of those seasons where he's
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: battled some injuries. We know that he's got the issues
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: with the right shoulder. He's actually missed two rounds altogether.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of remarkable when you look at the
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: fact he's won six Grands Prix. Martin's only won one.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Martin hasn't won since round time in France, but he's
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: still maintained the championship lead because he's just always there
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: and he's so consistent. And, you know, the great storyline
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: about these two, of course, is it's the two most
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: recent world champions, 24 in Martin, 25 in Marquez. And
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Martin is doing his very 2024 thing in that he's
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: in contention to win the world championship and then immediately
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: go to another manufacturer as he did when he left
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: Ducati to go to Aprilia.
• 37:02
  Speaker 7: So.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: I don't think anyone would dispute that Marquez is the
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: faster of the two. He's on the inferior of the
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: two bikes. I think that Aprilia, there were four Aprilia
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: riders in the top six today in their main race
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: at Motegi on Sunday, which is not unusual for 2026.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: That's happened more often than not. So you've got an
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: injury-compromised reigning champion on an inferior bike. You only have
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: to look at where the other Ducatis are. But there
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: are tracks where he can make a difference. And while
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: this is a clockwise track, it's not one of his
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: preferred tracks, the circuits that go left.
• 37:34
  Speaker 6: He's had a lot of big moments here in his career.
• 37:36
  Speaker 7: Four of his.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: Seven world championships in the premier class were sealed at
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: this track, bizarrely, at all different times of the season,
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: sometimes where he'd been completely dominant, like last year, for example.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: But this is a Ducati circuit. The last rider to
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: win this Grand Prix, not on a Ducati, was in 2009.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: His name was Marc Marquez on a Honda. So it
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: is one of those tracks where a rider can make
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: the difference. But it really did turn into one of
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: those events tense head-to-heads between clearly the two best guys
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: this season. And the way it played out was Marquez
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: just being really wily and cunning as he tends to
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: be in battle with these things. Because as you probably
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: would have seen over the course of the weekend, this
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: turned into a really.
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: Strange weekend from a tyre point of view.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Because we had a sprint race on Saturday where guys
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: were retiring with holes in their tyres and tyres getting
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: completely shredded. This track had been completely resurfaced since the
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: last time we were here in 25. And the performance
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: gain over the course of the year, I don't know
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: who laid the Japanese bitumen, but if they'd like.
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: To go to every racetrack around the world and draw
• 38:38
  Speaker 6: a contract.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Marco Bizzecchi was looking for the English word on Saturday
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: when we asked him what the surface was like.
• 38:43
  Speaker 6: And he said it in Italian and couldn't quite get
• 38:45
  Speaker 6: it out in English. And what he meant was, it's
• 38:46
  Speaker 6: like a pool table.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: And it was remarkable.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: You'd go out to the circuit and put your hand
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: on it. You're just looking for bumps and imperfections. It
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: was unbelievable. The problem with it was that there was
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: virtually no tyre wear. in the sprint when people were
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: running the soft tyre, but the tyres were getting so
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: hot because the performance was so high, they were blistering
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: from the inside of the tyre. They had this really
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: bizarre situation where there's no tyre where the lap times
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: were absolutely ferocious. They took half a second off the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: pole position record year on year, which is massive at
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: a place like this. And so the story of the
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Sunday race was that Michelin actually withdrew its soft tyre
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: from the allocation saying, you're not allowed to use this
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: for a full distance Grand Prix. And all of the
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: riders who ignored the hard tyre all weekend because they
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: didn't think it would have any performance in it, they
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: all went with the hard tyre in the 24 lap race.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: And the race was 37 seconds.
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: Faster than last year's Grand Prix.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: So that's 1.4 seconds a lap quicker than what we
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: had last year. So the pace was insane and the
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: level of performance. Fabio Quattrora finished 12th in the Grand
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: Prix on a Yamaha, which is about as quick as
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: a shopping trolley by MotoGP standards. And the time he
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: finished the race in on the Sunday would have won
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: last year's Grand Prix easily. So it does show you
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: the rate of progress that they're still pouring into these
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: 1,000cc bikes. So it was an interesting weekend tactically, but
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: it was also a thinking man's weekend. And Marquez can't
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: win these days like he used to when he was younger,
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: just by being outrightly faster than everyone and taking more risks.
• 40:20
  Speaker 6: He's morphed into Marquez 2.0, where he's.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Now just the smartest guy on the grid, as well
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: as when he needs to be the fastest. And it's
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: just the evolution of a guy who's injury compromised and
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: living on his wits as much as his speed these days.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: But proof that you can win a championship in more
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: than one of two ways. But, you know, you mentioned
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: it off the top here. The fascinating part about this
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: is that Martin still has the lead. He's still there.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: It feels that he's on a bit of a tightrope
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: in that I don't think he's going to be able
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: to make too many mistakes from here. But we've seen
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: him do this before because he won the 2024 championship
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: doing the same thing. What it boils down to, whether
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: we've got five or six rounds to go, it's the
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: closest ever world championship after 16 rounds in the history
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: of the sport, two points between first and second. I
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: don't know who wins from here. I mean, the head
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: says that Marquez should, but we know that one injury
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: or one slip-up from him could be pretty terminal. It's
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: going to be fascinating how it works out, because I
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: think you've got good champions either way, however it shakes out.
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it, that it's so close, and
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: it feels like a little bit of a different, if
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: you go back to Martin's original title campaigns, where it
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: felt a little bit more, not for the same reason,
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: but it felt more like Marquez's results, that it'd be
• 41:29
  Speaker 5: win or it'd be off the bike against Beko Vania.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: It's similar for Marquez now, but there's reasons behind it
• 41:35
  Speaker 5: that aren't just sort of hot-headedness, I guess. It's very different,
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: and it feels like a little bit of a flip
• 41:39
  Speaker 5: in the narrative, notwithstanding the fact that, as you say,
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: the outcome is going to be the same. He's going
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: to leave teams. Either he's going to be the champion
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: or not, but he's going to leave the team. I'm
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: going to be taking perhaps the number one or some
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: other number with him to elsewhere, away from Aprilia. And
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: just finally, I mean, this track, plenty of action on it.
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: There was some action on it before the race even started,
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: but on four wheels, wasn't there?
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: Actually, I don't know if that's a generous word. I'm
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: not sure. But what was going on with the go-kart race?
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: I love how MotoGP can still get a little bit
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: unhinged from time to time.
• 42:12
  Speaker 6: So, of course, they came up with the idea. We're
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: in Japan.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Let's do the Super Mario style go-kart race with all
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: the riders after the morning warm-up.
• 42:18
  Speaker 6: Bit of fun. Good social media content. The crowd will
• 42:21
  Speaker 6: love it. Of course, you let 22 lunatics.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Loose in go-karts on a MotoGP track, and you can
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: imagine how this turned out. So if you haven't seen
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: the highlights of it, go and find it on social media.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: It is genuinely ridiculous what this lot got up to
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: on the Sunday morning at Motegi. Jack Miller arrived at
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: the grid carrying bananas, as you do, because you're going
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: to throw them in the path of whoever's coming behind you,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: Mario Kart style.
• 42:43
  Speaker 6: Toprak Razgatlioglu did most.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Of the race in reverse, driving backwards in a go-kart,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: because he's pretty adept at doing all sorts of crazy
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: stunt things.
• 42:52
  Speaker 6: There were some.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Polystyrene barriers on the track that were meant to denote
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: the track, which most of the riders took great delight
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: in driving straight through them at certain points. What was
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: interesting about it, I mentioned 22 lunatics. There are actually
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: only 21 of them because this happened after the morning
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: warm-up on the Sunday. And Marc Marquez decided, eh, I've
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: got some physio to go and do and I've got
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: a world championship to go and win, so you can
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: take your go-kart race and do something else with it.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not participating. they actually sent someone out to the
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: grid wearing a Ducati jacket and Mark's helmet. And it
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: was interesting afterwards in that most of the riders weren't
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: really paying that much attention. But Jorge Martin apparently looked
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: over afterwards and said, hang on a minute, that's not Mark.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: And we sort of went over to have a look
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: at the helmet. And this guy was like, oh, I
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: didn't know who it was, just a Ducati staffer. And
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: so Mark was asked about it afterwards.
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: He's like, yeah, I didn't do it. I didn't want
• 43:42
  Speaker 6: to do it. The physio is more important.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: The organisers were not super thrilled by this, as you
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: can imagine, but he's the biggest wrestler in the head
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: house and he can do whatever he wants. But, yeah,
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: 21 of them rather enjoyed themselves and there's about 90
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: seconds of complete stupidity on social media if you'd like
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: to go and find it. But Marquez is like, you
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: can have your go-kart race win. I'd like to win
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: the other one, please.
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: And that is what he did. I think they should
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: have stuck with it. I think they should have pretended
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: the whole time, left some mystery out. He shouldn't have
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: admitted it.
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: Well, you remember what?
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: Well, you remember what happened when Formula One had the
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Lego cars in Miami that year and how completely unhinged
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: they've got. MotoGP's done two of these this year. They
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: had a tuk-tuk race in Thailand. You can imagine how
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: that was. There was a tandem tuk-tuk race at the
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: beginning of the season, which I thought most of them
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: were going to injure themselves in the Grand Prix because
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: you're letting a bunch of guys like that loose in Thailand.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: in equipment that's not MotoGP bikes, and you know what's
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: going to happen from there. So, yeah, I think we
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: need to think about the Australian Grand Prix, both two-wheel
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: and four, and what silliness we can get up to there.
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: But, yeah, consult your insurance policy beforehand, perhaps.
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: Yes, I think absolutely, in that case. Remarkable scenes in
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: Japan for MotoGP. Let's look ahead to this weekend now, though,
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: and the Bathurst 1000, the Great Race, is upon us.
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: And the reigning winner, well, one of the reigning winners, of.
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: Course, with Matt Payne, who we'll be recontesting this weekend
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: with Will Davison, But his Garth Tander, who called it
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: quits after winning at Bathurst, means he'll retire technically undefeated
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: at Bathurst, which must feel pretty nice to him. I
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: didn't ask him about that, but also more to the point,
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: filling in, not filling in, he's taking over, or has
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: been all year as a commentator on Fox Sports, as
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: he will be this weekend for the Bathurst 1000. His perspective,
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: not just on what it's like to not be racing
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: after almost 30 years of competing at Bathurst, but the
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: teammate pairings he thinks are the ones to watch this
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: weekend as they all pursue Bathurst glory. Well, Garth Dander,
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: thanks so much for joining us on the Pit Talk podcast.
• 45:38
  Speaker 7: No worries. Thanks for having me on.
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: Remarkable week, not.
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: Only for supercars, we build up to Bathurst, obviously, but
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: it's the first time in 28 years that you're not
• 45:46
  Speaker 5: in the final stages of preparing for the race.
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: How are you feeling about this?
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: And, you know, are you getting a kick from the
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: fact that technically you're going out undefeated at Bathurst?
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: Well, I am still preparing for the race. I've just
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: got a very different role this year than what.
• 46:01
  Speaker 7: I've had for the last 28 years, like you said. So, Uh, yeah.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: First time not driving at Bathurst for, for quite some
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: time since 98.
• 46:09
  Speaker 7: So, uh, it will be different feeling.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: Uh, certainly, um, I haven't missed driving all year, uh,
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: but I have a feeling that when it really matters
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: at Bathurst and the drivers are driving out and getting
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: to enjoy that incredible 6.214 kilometers of tarmac on the
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: side of Mount Panorama, I may miss driving a little
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: bit just.
• 46:29
  Speaker 7: Then, but, um, Yeah, look, looking forward to being part
• 46:32
  Speaker 7: of the broadcast for Fox Sports.
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: And, yeah, look, it's a very rewarding way, being.
• 46:40
  Speaker 7: Part of the broadcast, that is, to still be connected
• 46:43
  Speaker 7: to the sport.
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: I've always found it interesting, you know, to build up
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: this race, talking to some other drivers as well. You know,
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: if you've won Bathurst once and you ask them something like,
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: what's the key to a good weekend? They'll say, well,
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: you know, ask someone who's won it a few more times.
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: And then they'll tell you to ask someone who's won
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: it a few more times than them. You've won it
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: six times. That's equal third on the honor roll.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: So what is the key to getting a good weekend here?
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: And I guess I'll make it a bit easier for
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: you to being in the hunt at the finish rather
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: than the key to victory outright.
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's very much the key is putting yourself in
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: a position to be in the hunt and not getting
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: caught up with burning a whole lot of energy early
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: in the race week.
• 47:21
  Speaker 7: It's a long week.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, you often get to town Monday or Tuesday
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: before the event.
• 47:27
  Speaker 7: Start on track.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: And then obviously practice Thursday, practice and qualifying Friday, more
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: practice in the shootout Saturday. So it's very easy when
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: you wake up on Sunday morning to be fatigued before
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: you even actually start 1,000 kilometres of racing, which is
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: the most important 1,000 kilometres you do of the year.
• 47:42
  Speaker 7: So all the time I.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: Learned, early days I wanted to be fastest every lap,
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: every session, you know, every time you're in the car
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: you want to be fastest. But reality is, all you've
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: got to be is in the hunt with 30 or
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: 40 laps to go at the end of.
• 47:55
  Speaker 7: The race on Sunday afternoon.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: And look, even you look at our win last year
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: with Matt Payne in the Penrite Racing Mustang, we qualified 18th.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: We ran the first hour of the race around between
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: 10th and 15th. And all we needed to do was
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: get ourselves in the right position at the right time
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: throughout the race to give yourself a chance.
• 48:15
  Speaker 7: And that's all you can do at Bathurst.
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: You keep giving yourself a chance and keep putting yourself
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: in the right position. Then ultimately one day it might
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: go your way.
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: Well, since you've won on both sides of the equation
• 48:27
  Speaker 5: as well, three times apiece as a full-time driver and
• 48:29
  Speaker 5: a co-time driver, if you like, I'm interested, there are
• 48:32
  Speaker 5: obviously two very different roles, and in modern supercars in particular,
• 48:36
  Speaker 5: you're getting into a car of someone who might be
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: a title contender in the rest of the season. Is
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: there something different that makes a good main-game driver at
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: Bathurst compared to a co-driver?
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: Are they different skills?
• 48:47
  Speaker 7: Yeah, very different skills and very different mindsets, for sure.
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: The primary driver... It's your baby, so you just go
• 48:55
  Speaker 7: and get it. I feel like you've got a lot
• 48:58
  Speaker 7: more of a license to take a risk, whereas when
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: you're the co-driver, and particularly in.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: The modern era when you're thinking about other people's finals
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: campaigns now and also championship campaigns, I felt that I
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: didn't have as much of a license to take risk
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: as a co-driver. So you need to be really solid,
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: really dependable, and give your primary driver, like I certainly
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: found this when I was.
• 49:21
  Speaker 7: Co-driving with Shane Van.
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: Gisberg and Matt Payne, was to give them as much
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: confidence as you could by your performance.
• 49:29
  Speaker 7: So being as.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: Fast as you could, being as analytical as you could,
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: being as disciplined as you could all the way through
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: race week. So they had a whole huge amount of
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: confidence there. in the co-driver, in me, so that when
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: they got in the car, they were really focused on
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: just doing their job and doing their job well and
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: not worrying about whether their co-driver was fast enough or
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: up to the job.
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: And is it different to engage then with the teams
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: on that same level? Because the team for so much
• 49:54
  Speaker 5: of the year is so focused on getting the most
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: out of one particular driver. Is it hard to want
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: to make requests about things that you know make yourself
• 50:01
  Speaker 5: quick as a driver fundamentally when that might not necessarily
• 50:04
  Speaker 5: gel with what the main game driver wants?
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: Look, I think the benefit of having a co-driver like me,
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: and there's two types of co-drivers nowadays in supercars. There's
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: the young and up-and-coming drivers looking to make a name
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: for themselves, and then the oldest established drivers.
• 50:18
  Speaker 7: That have been there, done that, and are now.
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: Pretty much just getting three or four or five years
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: of co-driving at the back end of their career where
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: the teams are taking advantage of that experience. So for me,
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: having that experience, particularly at Bathurst, was that I knew
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: at certain stages I could have made the car better
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: for me, But it would have detracted from the speed
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: of the primary driver.
• 50:40
  Speaker 7: And I had the ability or.
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: The experience of knowing how to drive around the problem
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: that I needed to make better.
• 50:47
  Speaker 7: So, you know, there's some things where you go, hey, look,
• 50:50
  Speaker 7: I just need the car to be able to do X, Y, Z. Therefore,
• 50:52
  Speaker 7: I'm more comfortable in the car.
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: But as far as getting the ultimate speed out of
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: the car for me as a co-driver, that wasn't a
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: primary thing. It was about making the main driver comfortable
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: and making sure that I was close enough to them
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: lap time wise to that from a strategic point of
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: view in the race, it didn't matter which driver they
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: had in the car. If I was fast in the
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: race car, then you had so much more strategic.
• 51:16
  Speaker 7: Flexibility in the race.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: And certainly I know with Shane, we used that a
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: couple of times where I ended up doing much more
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: of the race than most co-drivers because I was pretty
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: close to him on lap speed. So we could keep
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: him fresh for the run to the Chega flag, which
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: was the most important 60 laps of the day.
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: And just before we run the rule over a couple
• 51:34
  Speaker 5: of pairings, perhaps to watch over the Bathurst weekend, we've
• 51:37
  Speaker 5: always had a little bit of a hint or a
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: look at them over the bend. Since you've been on
• 51:41
  Speaker 5: both side of the equations and you've sort of seen,
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: as you said, those two different types of drivers, there's
• 51:46
  Speaker 5: the younger kind and the more experienced kind. It feels
• 51:49
  Speaker 5: like in the last year or two, we've had a
• 51:51
  Speaker 5: bit more of an influx of experienced drivers entering the
• 51:53
  Speaker 5: co-driver field. And a lot of them with very recent
• 51:56
  Speaker 5: experience now. What's the balance feel like to you at
• 52:00
  Speaker 5: the moment? Is it more of an experienced co-drivers world,
• 52:03
  Speaker 5: if you like, at the time? Are they the drivers
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: who are going to be making the difference in this
• 52:07
  Speaker 5: and maybe the next couple of enduro campaigns?
• 52:10
  Speaker 7: No, I think it's very 50-50 at the moment.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: You know, we saw some really strong performances from young
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: co-drivers at tail and bend.
• 52:19
  Speaker 7: Lockie Dalton, Jared Hughes were very.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: Very fast for Erebus, particularly in the very wet conditions.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: And then you had guys like Tim Slade, and Will
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: Davison and Todd Hazelwood, Mark Winterbottom, that are such dependable,
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: reliable campaigners that you know when.
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: They're driving the car, they're not doing a job audition.
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: And that's the balance.
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: Particularly, I think, if you're a young co-driver, is it
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: is a job audition. You are putting yourself in the
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: shop window with all the teams up and down pit lane,
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: not just the team that you're driving for.
• 52:52
  Speaker 7: So you want to be fast, but you don't want
• 52:53
  Speaker 7: to make a mistake.
• 52:54
  Speaker 3: Right, because if you make a mistake, it's almost like
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: the black line comes through and through your name and
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: you're on the back burner for a couple of years
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: until you try and fight your way back in. Whereas
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: the established co-drivers, they've got nothing to prove. They've had
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: their careers. They've been there full-time. A lot of the time,
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: they've had success at the big races. So if they
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: make a small mistake, the teams are not more forgiving anymore.
• 53:20
  Speaker 7: But they're more understanding.
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: It's probably more brutal for the younger co-drivers, which is tough.
• 53:27
  Speaker 7: Absolutely tough. It's hard on them. Absolutely hard on them.
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: But I think at the moment, it's 50-50. Absolutely 50-50.
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: There's enough young co-drivers in the field to keep the
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: older co-drivers on us.
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: Let's have a look at some of those pairings then
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: and what better place to start than with the reigning champion.
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: And I guess you can tell me how relevant it
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: is considering the weekend we got there, but the reigning
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: band 500 winners in Chas Mostert and Fabian Coulthard. The
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: start of the year, I guess Toyota probably would have
• 53:52
  Speaker 5: been considered a pretty dark horse for any success at
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: this point in the season. But does it feel like
• 53:57
  Speaker 5: to you it's peaking at the right time and Chas
• 53:59
  Speaker 5: in particular, having had a bit of a quiet title
• 54:01
  Speaker 5: defense so far, he's hitting his straps.
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: Well, firstly on the Toyota aspect, um, you know, it
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: became pretty obvious pretty early in the year that they
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: were going to be more contenders than a lot of
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: people were expecting given their performance, you know, pole positions
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: and race wins in the first three or four race
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: weekends of the year. And everyone was like, oh, wow,
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: that's way ahead of schedule. So now they've gone on
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: and won the 500K race at Tail and Bend. That
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: will give certainly Toyota and the Toyota team some confidence
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: heading to Bathurst for sure. And for Chas and Fabian,
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: like Fabs, as a co-driver, really experienced being there, done that.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: It was great to see him get his first 500k
• 54:40
  Speaker 3: race win at Talon Bend. And we saw from Chas
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: last year that he timed his run to the championship
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: so spectacularly well. He came from sort of, you know,
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: not a lull in form, but he wasn't so spectacular
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: in the mid part of the year last year and
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: certainly got the run all the way.
• 54:55
  Speaker 7: To Adelaide really, really strong and potentially starting that run now.
• 55:00
  Speaker 7: And we know how.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: Good he is about first to seeing that before he's
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: won the race twice before. So, And yeah, there's no
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: better form than recent form. And they're the most recent
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: race winners.
• 55:10
  Speaker 5: There's always as well at this point, we'd normally talk
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: about the reigning winner. We do have Matt Payne obviously.
• 55:15
  Speaker 5: You're not in the car this year, but he's got
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: Will Davison who's also done it before a couple of
• 55:19
  Speaker 5: times at Bathurst. And he seems to have really taken
• 55:22
  Speaker 5: to his new life as a co-driver. Feels like he's
• 55:24
  Speaker 5: in good form and he's relishing that opportunity. Is that
• 55:27
  Speaker 5: the right pairing to go back to back?
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, certainly, you know, two-time Bathurst winners don't grow
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: on trees.
• 55:35
  Speaker 7: There's not a lot of them.
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: So when they become available and, you know, certainly I was,
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: I'd retired. So when Will became available at the end
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: of last year, it was a great signing by Penrite
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: Racing to get Will. And he's done the right thing.
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: You know, he's been racing all year in the GT Championship.
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: He's done plenty of race miles. And that's, I think, important.
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, I certainly found when I stopped racing full time,
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: it was important for me to keep myself busy.
• 56:00
  Speaker 7: Because it is pretty.
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: Heartbreaking when you sort of finish your full-time career and
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: you go, well, what do I do now? Well, you
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: keep yourself busy. You keep yourself busy by racing cars.
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: And that's what Will's done. And yeah, look, he was very,
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: very strong at tail and bend. He got taken out
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: in the first corner and fought back through the field
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: really well in really tricky conditions. So, you know, huge
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: amount of experience at Bathurst with Will Davison.
• 56:22
  Speaker 7: Obviously, Matt showed last year.
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: His ability in the last 30 laps in those really
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: tricky conditions, and realistically the last 10 laps when it
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: became quite a dogfight between those four cars for the
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: race win, just how calm he was under pressure, and
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: that's certainly what you need at Mount Panorama.
• 56:39
  Speaker 5: We've talked about one new co-driver line-up there, I suppose,
• 56:43
  Speaker 5: but stability and change is always part of this story.
• 56:46
  Speaker 5: No co-drivers are around for a really long term. How
• 56:49
  Speaker 5: much does stability make a difference? And in this, I
• 56:51
  Speaker 5: want to bring in Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood. They've
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: been together for a couple or three years now. Did
• 56:55
  Speaker 5: the business at Bathurst two years ago, albeit for a
• 56:57
  Speaker 5: different team, Erebus, but then won the 500 last year
• 57:00
  Speaker 5: with their new home at DJR. Didn't have, unfortunately, a
• 57:03
  Speaker 5: great outing at the Bend a couple of weeks ago,
• 57:06
  Speaker 5: but always feels threatening, particularly Brodie. Is that going to count,
• 57:09
  Speaker 5: considering they've both done it together only a couple of
• 57:12
  Speaker 5: years ago?
• 57:13
  Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely.
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: If you can create a level of stability between between
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: your primary driver and co-driver, like Brodie and Todd have,
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: then that's absolutely an advantage. And, like, Todd has turned
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: himself into what was a bit of a supercar journeyman
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: in his full-time career into the model co-driver. Like, he
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: is as pliable as Play-Doh. He just jumps in, does
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: the job, does all the stuff that Brodie doesn't like doing,
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: and Todd does it with a smile on his face.
• 57:45
  Speaker 7: And Todd's fast. He's fast in the car. He had
• 57:48
  Speaker 7: a tough tail on Ben.
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: It sounds like they didn't get the car right for
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: those wet conditions, and it was quite tricky to drive.
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: But he's got the runs on the board, Todd Hazelwood.
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: So as a combination, these two, from a driving perspective,
• 58:00
  Speaker 3: certainly the strongest because of that enduring relationship. And it's,
• 58:04
  Speaker 3: what is it, what did you say, three or four
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: years that they've been together? It's not a long time,
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: but it certainly makes a difference when you've got that
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: historical relationship there.
• 58:14
  Speaker 7: Brodie knows that.
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: Todd's got Todd's back. Todd knows that Brodie's got his back.
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: And that makes a massive difference.
• 58:20
  Speaker 5: And usually when we're forming a list of favorites to
• 58:22
  Speaker 5: win any race, there's normally a triple eight driver in
• 58:24
  Speaker 5: the mix. And I suppose we should at least talk
• 58:26
  Speaker 5: about them here, but it's been hard to know, you know,
• 58:28
  Speaker 5: what version of the team we've been going to get
• 58:30
  Speaker 5: in the last couple of weeks as they've gone up
• 58:32
  Speaker 5: and down with this switch to Ford. Brock Feeney feels
• 58:35
  Speaker 5: a little bit like the mountains nearly man for several
• 58:37
  Speaker 5: years now. But now Jamie Wincup's out of the car
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: and Nick Perkatt's in there. That's a new relationship. And,
• 58:43
  Speaker 5: Will Brown certainly on the up because they found that
• 58:45
  Speaker 5: problem with his car and he's got a year under
• 58:47
  Speaker 5: his belt working with Scott Pye. How do you see
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: them going, given this is, you know, the biggest stakes
• 58:52
  Speaker 5: weekend of the year? Do you feel like they've been
• 58:54
  Speaker 5: fumbling too much recently with that car to really have
• 58:57
  Speaker 5: a good challenge?
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: It's hard to get a read on Triple Eight this
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: year and the Red Bull cars because I certainly felt
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: like at Queensland Raceway, the event before Tail and Bend,
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: that they found their mojo and they were back where
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: they sort of deserved to be speed-wise, where they historically
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: have been for so long.
• 59:15
  Speaker 7: You know, Brock was super strong.
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: Will Brown was fast after they found that air-restrictor thing.
• 59:20
  Speaker 7: And you thought, oh, yeah, they're back. They're back. And
• 59:22
  Speaker 7: Tail and Bend, they were there, but sort of just, not,
• 59:26
  Speaker 7: you know, speed-wise.
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: And then they got involved with all sorts of, you know,
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: hijinks and chaos in what was a tricky race, certainly. But,
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: you know, you qualify deeper in the field, you expose
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: yourself to getting caught up in those sorts of things. So,
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: you know, I expected to go to Tail and Bend
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: and see at least one Red Bull car on the
• 59:45
  Speaker 3: front row for the 500k race.
• 59:47
  Speaker 7: And that didn't happen.
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: So hard to get a read of them, on them,
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: going into Bathurst. You know, I think Nick, look, as
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: awesome as Jamie is and his record is unmatched as
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: far as seven times champion and four-time Bathurst winner. You know,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: he wasn't doing a lot of other driving through the year.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: So I think actually bringing Nick Perkett in makes the
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: Feeney car a little bit stronger because Nick's just finished
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: full-time competing, still involved, and not the MD of the business.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: So Jamie, for 362 days of the year, his job
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: is to run 888 Race Engineering, and then he jumps
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: in for the endurance races. whereas Nick's sole focus this
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: year has been getting a result in Brock Feeney's race car.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: So I think that makes that car that little bit
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: stronger with a little bit more of a competitive edge
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: going to Bathurst.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 7: And for Will Brown and Scott Pye, who knows?
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, we all thought the qualifying dramas were fixed
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: after Queensland Raceway, and it sort of went back again
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: at tail and bend, and then Scott had to start
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: in the pack. He got involved in some dramas, got penalties, damage.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: So you said we don't know what, what we're going
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: to get from Red Bull at the moment.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 7: And I don't know yet either. So we'll wait and see.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 5: Okay, we've gone through a handful of possible contenders. It's
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: always a little bit of a tough question. We're going
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 5: to ask for your tip, but also perhaps more to
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: the point. Are there any pairings we've missed out? These
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 5: are the headline ones. We've got a lot of drivers
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 5: in the field. We can't mention all of them, but
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 5: who are you going to be keeping your eye on
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 5: for the victory?
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we also need to talk about Cam
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: Waters and Mark Winterbottom and the Monster Mustang.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 7: Those guys, you know, Frosty, huge amount of experience at Bathurst.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: And Cam is a label that he'll be starting to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: hate having as the perennial bridesmaid at Bathurst.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 7: He's had a lot of podiums without a race win.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: So I have no doubt that there's a lot of
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: motivation there for Cam to have success. And Frosty got
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: caught out from the conditions last year, so he'll be
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: looking for a bit of redemption.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 7: As far as a co-driver as well. So I think
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 7: that's another combination that we need to keep an eye on.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: And then, you know, Anton Di Pasquale, Lee Holdsworth, The
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 3: Erebus cars, I mean, we saw last year Cooper Murray
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: was in the mix at the end of the race. So, yeah, look,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: there will be someone that we have not spoken about
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: here that will.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 7: Be in the mix at some stage on Sunday, Bathurst Day.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: And that's the beauty of Bathurst is it always has
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: this ability to throw some unique storylines at you.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 5: Before I let you go, it would be remiss for
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 5: me not to talk about the fact that, of course,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 5: the trophy is the Peter Brock trophy and this season
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 5: the sport's paying special tribute to Brock on the 20th
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 5: anniversary of his death. you've been racing pretty much from
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 5: the moment he retired. So in that time and ongoing, obviously,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: how's his legacy changed, been enhanced, become embedded in the sport?
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 5: And how do you reflect on what he did for
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 5: the sport?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, the year I did the Australian Formula Ford
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: Championship was 1997, which was Brock's farewell tour, if you like.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: So all the races we went to that year, and
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: I was in the Formula Ford paddock, was out the
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: back in the boondocks. But it was bigger than Ben
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: Hur because everyone wanted a piece of Brock. And I
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: didn't know Peter at that stage. And I got to
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 3: know Peter through driving with Holden.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 7: And Peter's association with Holden.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: And I got to spend quite a lot of time
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: with him in the late 90s and early 2000s.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 7: And he was everything that everyone says. Like, you know,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 7: if there was a queue of people there, he would.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: Sign every single autograph until the last person had got
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: their autograph. And he would spend some time with them,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 3: making everyone feel genuinely like they were part of Peter's life.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 7: And he was incredibly good at that. So... What he
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 7: did in a race car was exceptional, but it was
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 7: a very different time.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: You know, there was probably five or six cars that
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 3: were capable of winning a race, and Peter always had
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: one of those.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 7: But he went up against Moffat. He went up against
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 7: Dick Johnson.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: He went up against all the greats, and he has
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: a track record, particularly at Mount Panorama, that is unparalleled. So, yeah, look,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: it's 20 years since his passing, and the sport will
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: absolutely celebrate Peter's success and his story at Mount Panorama.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: But I was, I feel incredibly fortunate to have got
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 3: to know him before his passing in those early 2000 years.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 7: And yeah, he was a, he was a great person
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 7: to have around.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 5: Well, Garth, it's going to be a poignant weekend, always
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 5: an exciting weekend as well at Bathurst. Very different perspective
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: from you. So I guess practice your meditation for when
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: the lights go out.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 4: We look forward to hearing the call and we'll talk
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: again soon.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 7: Cheers. Thank you.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 5: That was Garth Tander, who is the reigning, at least
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 5: for the next few days or about a week, the
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 5: reigning Bathurst 1000 winner. And then after that, it'll fully
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 5: be commentary. That'll be the way it is. And you
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: can just rest on those six Bathurst laurels, I guess.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: But you can hear him in action on commentary on
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 5: Fox Sports coverage of the Bathurst 1000, which is, of course,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 5: all weekend leading up to the great race on Sunday.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 5: But Matt, that's all the time we have for Pitt
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 5: Talk this week. You can subscribe to Pitt Talk wherever
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 5: you get your favorite podcasts, and you can leave us
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 5: a rating and a review as well.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: This weekend, there's a lot going on.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 5: It is the Bathurst 1000 with lights out at 11.30 a.m.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 5: Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday. That's followed by the Indonesian
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 5: Motorcycle Grand Prix at 6 p.m. And then it's the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: Formula One Singapore Grand Prix from 11 p.m. Do your
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: stretches before and then just occupy the place on the couch.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 5: You can keep up to date with all the latest
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 5: F1 supercars and MotoGP news at foxsports.com.au. From Matt Clayton
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 5: and me, Michael Laminato, thanks very much for your company.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 7: Catch you.