Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief: Craig Lowndes counts down to the enduros

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief: Craig Lowndes counts down to the enduros · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Monday, the 4th of September, 2023.
• 0:09
  We are counting down to the first of the supercars endurance events.
• 0:13
  The Sandown 500 is just a couple of weeks away now.
• 0:16
  And today, we'll speak to a modern-day legend who recently inked a new deal and is raring to go for more wildcard drives with one of the sport's most successful teams.
• 0:29
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:33
  We have topped up the tank with more long-form episodes for you.
• 0:38
  We went green with Michael Caruso in recent weeks.
• 0:41
  Some fantastic stories in that one, from being entrusted with the keys to his dad's race car, to testing an F2C.
• 0:48
  3000 machine in Europe during a great era for that class and the price tag that went with it if he wanted to race a full season and how Michael dressed to impress Gary Rogers for a meeting about that drive with GRM in supercars.
• 1:04
  In recent days, we also released another two-parter, this time with my colleague Louise Goodman.
• 1:10
  And you'll know her from the Formula One coverage in the 90s, obviously, on the TV there, where she worked with Murray Walker, James Allen and more.
• 1:18
  There are some very funny stories around working with Eddie Jordan.
• 1:22
  water skiing with Neil Crompton and Eddie Irvine before the Australian Grand Prix one year, riding in a two-seater F1 car when it crashed, and interviewing the Ocean's 11 stars on the grid in Monaco.
• 1:36
  At the weekend, I was in Cromwell near Queenstown on New Zealand's South Island for a function, where I worked with Greg Murphy, who we have...
• 1:43
  a couple of Epswith in our library now, you can go and search for those when you're ready, and Craig Lowndes.
• 1:49
  CL has re-signed with 888 for the Enduros.
• 1:52
  It means he'll continue to be a part of their wildcard program and during this new deal he will chalk up more than two decades with this famous outfit.
• 2:03
  We talk about all that and more.
• 2:05
  I hope you enjoy it.
• 2:08
  Hello, mate.
• 2:08
  It is nice to catch up.
• 2:09
  We are sitting here literally in the Pit Paddock building at Highlands.
• 2:13
  They're celebrating 10 years of this place.
• 2:17
  Amazing, amazing joint.
• 2:18
  And you get to work with the boss, Tony Quinn, on occasions.
• 2:22
  What's that like?
• 2:23
  He is mad and good fun at the same time, isn't he?
• 2:25
  Well, he is a Scotchman.
• 2:27
  No, it's actually been really good.
• 2:28
  I can't believe it's been 10 years since we've been here.
• 2:30
  Like, it was really – it was almost like yesterday that I remember that Tony was talking about, you know, trying to acquire this area and then construct, create, whatever you want to call it, this awesome racetrack of now what we call, you know, Highlands.
• 2:44
  And it really is – it's amazing.
• 2:46
  I remember running from almost over near the museum when I raced here with Inky and I was –
• 2:50
  in a Camaro and Le Mans start.
• 2:53
  And I'm thinking, oh, that's not a problem.
• 2:54
  We'll just run across, you know, pit lane.
• 2:55
  But I didn't realize it was like a 300-meter race.
• 2:58
  How'd you go with that?
• 3:00
  I actually passed McConville.
• 3:02
  Richo, Steve Richards and I were pretty much even, dead even.
• 3:06
  And then there was this young kid, I can't even remember who it was.
• 3:09
  He passed both of us like we were standing still.
• 3:10
  And I'm thinking, I'm not a bad runner.
• 3:12
  Like what?
• 3:12
  And then I worked out he was like a 200-meter sprint champion in school.
• 3:16
  So I think we didn't disgrace ourselves.
• 3:19
  Before we move on here very quickly, it would be remiss of us not to have a little laugh about Josie Spillane as well, who does an incredible job here and for all of the tracks in New Zealand.
• 3:29
  She, for a while, has called you Scott Lowndes, hasn't she?
• 3:35
  Well, she has, because when I first were coming over here, Lara and Josie were having email correspondence and she had no idea who I was.
• 3:44
  So she thought I was Craig McLaughlin.
• 3:47
  And then it was Scott McLachlan, and then it was just basically Scott Lowndes.
• 3:53
  So it went back and forth.
• 3:55
  And so they've actually created an award that they hand out over here.
• 4:00
  And this is the first time that we've been able to work in with the dates that obviously go with their awards night.
• 4:06
  And so that's why we're here.
• 4:07
  But every year we've actually been handing out a Scott Lowndes Award.
• 4:11
  Now, the Scott Lowndes Award represents someone that's done something stupid, had a crash...
• 4:16
  Idiotic, just basically, you know, taking basically the piss out of someone that's made their absolutely stupidity.
• 4:25
  And Josie's actually claimed it one year because I think she absolutely shit herself on a hot lap and didn't want to get anyway.
• 4:33
  So, yeah, so the Scott Lowndes Awards now are real.
• 4:37
  And, yeah, Josie has never lived it down.
• 4:39
  Good on you.
• 4:40
  We're on the eve of the Enduros.
• 4:42
  You've got a bit of testing coming up this week.
• 4:44
  Firstly, as you and I talk, you have put pen to paper another two years with Triple Eight.
• 4:49
  That'll take you through to 2025, 20 years plus with that race team.
• 4:56
  That is remarkable, mate.
• 4:57
  Yeah, thank you.
• 4:58
  It's great.
• 4:59
  I think that's, um, to know that we've been in this one team for such a long time, like, uh, and I'm pretty sort of lucky.
• 5:05
  I think over my career, I could almost say three teams, um, you know, with HRT, then I went to, uh, Ford, but it's, uh, actually four teams when I think about it, cause it was sort of zero, zero, then Gibson, zero, zero, same team, but renamed, uh, obviously FPR and then now triple eight.
• 5:23
  So it's, uh, you know, I've had a great journey.
• 5:25
  I, uh,
• 5:26
  I still remember the day that Roland Dane come and spoke to us about coming and joining the AAA regime.
• 5:33
  And now, obviously, Jamie's running it.
• 5:34
  And it's hopefully a good legacy.
• 5:36
  And I'm really looking forward to it because my role has changed over the time, obviously, being a primary driver, now a co-driver.
• 5:42
  And I'm sort of almost, again, back a primary driver with the wild card, now helping the younger youth coming through with Declan Fraser and now with Zane Goddard this year.
• 5:51
  We'll talk about Zane as we go here.
• 5:53
  Just quickly, was it an easy re-signing?
• 5:57
  Was there a lot of thought on your side?
• 5:58
  I mean, you'll be 51 at the end of this contract, I think.
• 6:02
  You know, you've obviously been part of the fabric of that team.
• 6:04
  Was it straightforward or was there a bit of, you know, should I, shouldn't I keep going and so on?
• 6:09
  No, it was pretty easy to once.
• 6:12
  I think the biggest question was whether Jamie was going to present a 12-month or a two-year, and that was really something.
• 6:18
  I still think that we've got something to contribute in a race car.
• 6:22
  So when he actually offered up a two-year program, it was easy to jump at.
• 6:26
  And for both, I think, Triple Eight and ourselves, yeah, we've been very much part of the furniture there for such a long time.
• 6:33
  And, again, you see the evolvement.
• 6:36
  and the evolution of the race team, you know, as I said, with, with Roland taking on now with Jamie and Jess taking on, even the team members, you know, there's still, I reckon, probably half a dozen to a dozen of, of the originals still there, which, which shows the, you know, the loyalty within the team.
• 6:52
  And I think that, you know, from day dot, again, going back to Roland, the, the, the infrastructure and the philosophy that he installed in all of us at that one time.
• 7:02
  team is really i think it is is shown like i think it's really what the fabric still holds us all together are you enjoying the gen 3 cars do they evoke any memories i mean we we think back to um when you kind of started on this whole supercars journey which is nearly 30 years ago now and the evolutions of the cars in those you know in that time frame what's the gen 3 like and is there anything you can draw from in terms of the memory bank
• 7:27
  Yeah, I think there is a lot.
• 7:28
  I've openly said these cars remind me of the old VT, VSVT days, the old sort of late 90s, and where the cars move around more, they don't have the aerodynamics, they don't have what we've evolved into our previous cars, you know, almost like a GD3, like, you know...
• 7:43
  Last year's cars, you know, I remember going across the top of the mountain and you all just lift.
• 7:48
  You don't brake anymore.
• 7:49
  With these cars, you're going to have to go back to old school.
• 7:51
  You're going to have to brake.
• 7:52
  You're going to have to think about looking after tyres, your brake markers, all that side of it.
• 7:56
  So for me, I'm really enjoying the challenge.
• 7:58
  A lot of the drivers have commented over this year that they didn't like the cars because they moved around.
• 8:04
  They're unstable under brakes.
• 8:05
  You know, we know Shane's been very hypersensitive of steering issues and other things.
• 8:10
  But for me, that's just the character of the car.
• 8:12
  And...
• 8:14
  I've never driven or never raced a car without an anti-roll bar adjustment inside the cabin.
• 8:18
  So that's a little bit of a difference for me.
• 8:19
  But I really thrive on it.
• 8:21
  I love the style of the car.
• 8:22
  Every time I drive them, I'm really fascinated.
• 8:24
  And I did a lot of laps last year with a demo car with the Camaro just doing display laps.
• 8:30
  And I actually remember Oscar Flarinotto asking me all the time, every time I drive it, what do they like?
• 8:34
  What do you need out of them?
• 8:35
  Because obviously he was a creation of the Supershock.
• 8:38
  So...
• 8:39
  There's a lot of things behind the scenes still going on about the evolution of changing things, making them nicer to drive or trying to fix them up and everything else.
• 8:47
  So I think next year will be a very much telling factor of drivers will be more comfortable in the cars because this year you're a pioneer.
• 8:54
  The Erebus team come out fighting, had all guns blazing at the start of the season.
• 8:58
  Then they sort of had a bit of a lull in the middle.
• 9:00
  Now they're starting to find their feet again.
• 9:02
  Red Bull are getting on top of the cars.
• 9:04
  You know, DJR have had their ups and downs.
• 9:07
  You know, you look at Walkshore, Andretti United, again, have ups and downs.
• 9:10
  Like, there really hasn't been a consistent team throughout this season, which shows that teams are still struggling with these cars, which is great.
• 9:17
  You're venturing there a little bit into the broadcast, Gerard, which I love, and you've...
• 9:21
  spent a lot of time focusing on that.
• 9:23
  My question sort of involves both, really.
• 9:25
  The observations you've had while prepping with the super cheap autocar and then also from a broadcast perspective.
• 9:31
  What are fans going to be in for, do you reckon, with the 500 and with the 1,000?
• 9:36
  Because there's a lot of unknowns here still, Craig.
• 9:39
  Absolutely.
• 9:39
  There's, again, question marks over brakes.
• 9:42
  Are we going to have to change them?
• 9:43
  Are they going to have to last?
• 9:44
  Are they going to last?
• 9:45
  Because, again, when we designed these cars, we enlarged the rims, we made bigger brakes, bigger calipers, bigger discs in the forecast of hopefully not being able to change brakes.
• 9:56
  But then what we've also seen over the season, with more of the 500km, the two 250km races, the brakes pads are tapering, so they are wearing.
• 10:06
  So there's a few question marks over that.
• 10:08
  But, yeah,
• 10:08
  Really, that's just a challenge we're going to have to face.
• 10:12
  So again, for my commentary hat, I think it's going to be great for viewers, for fans, because of the unknown.
• 10:19
  Again, where we've structured the fuel coupling, which is in the little quarter window behind the back of the door.
• 10:25
  So you've got to think of Sandown.
• 10:26
  It's an anti-clockwise circuit.
• 10:28
  Everything's going to happen on the driver's side.
• 10:30
  The fuel coupling, the spike, I believe now has been moved to still the passenger side to free up a little bit of the room.
• 10:36
  But.
• 10:37
  By the time you have a driver coming out, a driver getting in, do you have a driver helper?
• 10:40
  You're going to have four people crammed in a very small area.
• 10:43
  So again, you're going to see teams trip up.
• 10:46
  So that's the commentary side of me.
• 10:48
  As the wildcard driver side of it, we're practicing all that.
• 10:52
  Again, you've got to think back of yesteryear where drivers had to get in and out of a car within about sort of anywhere between a realm of 13 to 16, 17 seconds.
• 11:01
  You know, that's sort of your time window because you knew the fuel was going to take 24 seconds.
• 11:07
  The brake pads were going to be about 18 seconds.
• 11:09
  We don't know, question mark over brakes right now, but fuel these days because it's a dry coupling, it's a one system, so we've changed that.
• 11:16
  That's going to be up where somewhere near 30 seconds.
• 11:19
  So again, you've blown that out of the window.
• 11:21
  Driver changes, which we've done some static, not active ones, they're around the 99.5 seconds.
• 11:27
  So everything's blown out now.
• 11:29
  And that's a good thing for me in the sense of, I think, viewing.
• 11:34
  But again, you've got to take it in perspective.
• 11:36
  So by the time you take fuel, driver and question mark over brakes, it's all going to still happen forever on the same time, but it's just going to take longer.
• 11:42
  And I think that they're all the things that drivers, teams are going to have to get their head around come 500, which I think everyone will perfect.
• 11:50
  The disadvantage for us being a wild card is at Sandown, we'll be one of the first garages off the racetrack.
• 11:55
  So we want to have a lot of time to prep inside the car, loosen belts, get air hoses out and all that sort of stuff.
• 12:01
  So I think for us, we're going to struggle a little bit.
• 12:03
  Bathurst will be a bit easier.
• 12:05
  But yeah, I think it's going to be fascinating.
• 12:06
  I'm really enjoying it.
• 12:07
  Well, Compo often uses that line about buy a ticket to the last kind of part of the show.
• 12:12
  Do you reckon there's a lot of truth in that for this year?
• 12:15
  100%.
• 12:16
  I've already asked Wes McDougall, which is our engineer, what the strategy at Sandown's going to be because we've got to not worry about Bathurst right now.
• 12:23
  But, again, I'm talking about last year.
• 12:25
  It was a two-stop, three-stint race because we knew the tyres were going to last.
• 12:30
  The fuel, you had to do a minimum of 54 laps, which got you those two windows.
• 12:35
  Current car.
• 12:36
  Fuel load is less.
• 12:40
  We believe it's going to be about a 50-lap fuel load.
• 12:42
  So you're four laps away from a perfect window.
• 12:46
  We're running a super soft tyre.
• 12:47
  You're going to get 50 laps out of a super soft tyre.
• 12:49
  You're probably only going to get 25 laps out of a super soft tyre.
• 12:52
  So, again, these are all the ingredients that are going to make it very interesting.
• 12:56
  Teams are going to have to play some alternative strategies.
• 12:59
  And, again, I think...
• 13:00
  Crompton's going to be right.
• 13:01
  You're going to have to nurture, nurse the car at the beginning, like we've always done, to be in that right place, right time, at that last stint.
• 13:10
  A quick break on this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 13:13
  More with Super Cheap Auto Racing's Craig Lowndes in just a few moments.
• 13:17
  Music.
• 13:20
  You're listening to the Rusty's Garage Motorsport Brief.
• 13:23
  Some news coming up from the world of F1, IndyCar and more.
• 13:26
  But first, the convo continues with Craig Lowndes after re-signing with Triple Eight to continue his work on their wildcard program.
• 13:36
  You had, in the early part of your career, you were very fortunate to be mentored by Brock.
• 13:41
  You clearly enjoy that mentoring capacity now.
• 13:43
  You did a bit of that with Declan Fraser, who's off and away now.
• 13:47
  You have Zane Goddard with you this year.
• 13:50
  What's it like working with him?
• 13:51
  How are you enjoying that mentoring process?
• 13:53
  And the question is a little bit loaded, Craig, because...
• 13:55
  You know, he was obviously involved in that big crash very early in last year's race, which he put his hand up for.
• 14:02
  And a lot of drivers have come to his defence in the way that he was kind of smashed up about that.
• 14:06
  How is he?
• 14:07
  And is he looking forward to kind of redemption part two?
• 14:10
  I think so.
• 14:12
  The easy part is to knock off the incident.
• 14:14
  Yeah, he's over it.
• 14:15
  He's dealt with it.
• 14:17
  He knows it was just an honest mistake.
• 14:18
  And I've had to talk to him about it.
• 14:19
  And we've joked about it because that could have quite easily been me.
• 14:22
  It could have easily been Murph.
• 14:24
  Could have been anyone.
• 14:25
  And it's just one of those things that, yeah, the problem was he was a rookie, a keen rookie, and we've all made mistakes.
• 14:33
  Go back.
• 14:33
  Fast forward back to me going off at Sandown, 500, when I was going for the lead of the race, trying to pass Glenn's seat and end up in the gravel trap.
• 14:41
  We ended up going laps down.
• 14:43
  We've all made mistakes.
• 14:44
  It's just how you recover.
• 14:45
  And, yeah, Zane's, as I said, well over it.
• 14:48
  It's interesting.
• 14:50
  The difference between Declan and Zane, Declan was really green.
• 14:54
  He was a rookie in a lot of areas of, you know, not only just the driving phase, but, you know, mentoring and nurturing him through the week of Bathurst, you know, making sure that he got the Sunday and he wasn't burnt out, making sure that he had rest times.
• 15:06
  Zane's a bit sort of...
• 15:08
  progressed on that side of it.
• 15:09
  He's been thrust into the media side of supercars as a main driver.
• 15:13
  So he's a little bit more advanced in that area.
• 15:16
  Driving side, he's fantastic.
• 15:19
  The way we read the car is the same.
• 15:21
  It is quite interesting.
• 15:22
  Both Declan and Zane are the same height, which is the same height as me, but they've both got to have little dicky seats together.
• 15:29
  In the race car, because they're like a scape.
• 15:32
  They've got long legs but short torso.
• 15:34
  So I don't know whether I'm the odd one out or whether now they're the odd ones out.
• 15:38
  But the last two, Zane and Declan, they both had to have almost like a four-inch dicky seat inside my insert to be able to see over the dash.
• 15:45
  But anyway, that's thereby.
• 15:48
  I think that Zane's going to be really keen this year.
• 15:50
  I think there's no doubt.
• 15:51
  And I've said to him, like I did Declan and Wes, like I did Declan last year, I don't care who qualifies the car, who finishes the race.
• 16:00
  That for me is not...
• 16:01
  I don't have that ego problem anymore.
• 16:03
  I just want to be on the podium.
• 16:05
  And Wes knows that.
• 16:07
  And I'm down as the prime driver for Sandown.
• 16:09
  But again, as I said to Wes, if he's faster than me in the car at Sandown at that time, put him in.
• 16:15
  Like...
• 16:16
  Give him that experience.
• 16:17
  As I said, I'm not out to try and renew or reclaim my career.
• 16:22
  I'm at the other end.
• 16:23
  I want to give him the opportunity to be able to hopefully stand on a podium.
• 16:26
  The re-signing with them, which I think is phenomenal, is there scope beyond the car where you'll be doing mentoring and other things around this relationship with Triple Eight on goal?
• 16:37
  Well, I hope so.
• 16:37
  I think that it was a bit of a shame not to have a Super 2 program within our family.
• 16:45
  We did last year, and it was really good to be part of that.
• 16:47
  And it also actually was good for me because you go to test days, you do your token 10 laps to help set up the baseline, but it gave us time inside of the seat of a race car.
• 16:56
  So for me, I'm hoping that Jamie's forecast forward, going forward, would be a Super 2 program because I think it's really beneficial to have that.
• 17:04
  I know we run a GT program for the princes here in Australia and in Asia.
• 17:08
  I hope that still continues.
• 17:09
  But I really do hope that, you know, Jamie sort of opens up the door a little bit to look at a Super 2 program.
• 17:16
  Because it's a great way to help, you know, even newcomers from New Zealand.
• 17:20
  We've had some fantastic drivers come from this side of the pond.
• 17:24
  And, you know, I was watching IndyCars this morning before I came out to this circuit.
• 17:27
  And Scotty McLaughlin was, I think, fourth or fifth.
• 17:31
  Scotty Dixon was actually leading the race and then we've got our wheel power.
• 17:36
  I think it was second.
• 17:37
  So we've got some great ability of drivers this side, New Zealand, Australia, that have got a great ability to do abroad.
• 17:46
  And Zane's been there.
• 17:47
  He's been to Europe.
• 17:48
  He's raced in and rubbed shoulders with other drivers.
• 17:51
  It's unfortunate we just don't have a platform to show them the way through.
• 17:56
  A couple of days testing coming up.
• 17:58
  Probably can't tell us everything that you're doing, but give us a little snapshot of what you'll be up to.
• 18:02
  I'm imagining QR two days, Monday, Tuesday.
• 18:04
  Is that right?
• 18:04
  Yeah, it is.
• 18:05
  I'm really excited about it.
• 18:06
  I actually thought we were only doing the one day, but I got some... Maybe I should have read my emails more, but...
• 18:12
  Yeah, we've got a two-day program, and I think for us, the two days is really good.
• 18:16
  One of it's a wild card.
• 18:17
  Well, both of them are wild card test days that we tried to do one early on, but we couldn't get it done.
• 18:21
  So we've got two days.
• 18:22
  But the second day, we're going to have the full field.
• 18:24
  We're going to have the two Red Bull cars, our car, I think, DJR out there.
• 18:27
  So Tuesday is going to be a big day.
• 18:29
  And that really is going to be probably the day for us to evaluate where we're at time-wise.
• 18:35
  But the Monday is going to be the fundamentals, pit stops,
• 18:38
  driver changes, all those little detail things we talked about earlier on, just make sure that we don't trip over ourselves.
• 18:45
  The other thing that we're going to have, which is going to be really good and hope Simona makes it, is we are joining forces with the Shell team wildcard at Bathurst, not Sandown, but at Bathurst.
• 18:55
  So I believe DJ are going to bring out young Kai, their car, and we're actually going to simulate some pit stop practice with them.
• 19:04
  Under the boon.
• 19:05
  Under the boom.
• 19:06
  And again, you can't underestimate how much difference it is.
• 19:09
  You can do it statically, under the pressure, under the pump, there and then, like that's a completely different world.
• 19:15
  So it's going to be great to have DJR on board and I'm really looking forward to sharing the boom at Bathurst with them.
• 19:20
  Will you do a bit of broadcasting or are you just going to focus on the driving in the industry?
• 19:24
  Well, you can't stop me shutting up.
• 19:25
  So I'm going to do some broadcasting somewhere along the line.
• 19:28
  There's no doubt about that.
• 19:28
  And it's really good, I think, that hopefully we can show a bit of insight of what actually goes on within teams.
• 19:33
  I know we try to do that when I'm in pit lane, but when you're actually behind the seat, behind the steering wheel, you can throw across what the car's feeling like, what we're chasing, what the weather and conditions of the car, or sorry, the conditions of the day is, what the tyre life's going to be like.
• 19:47
  Give some people some better insights of what we're hopefully going to predict.
• 19:51
  When you came through, mate, it was a significant moment for the sport in terms of a changing of the guard.
• 19:56
  The way you helped really push through the acceptance of younger drivers, breaking down that barrier, if you will.
• 20:03
  Now it's kind of commonplace.
• 20:05
  Now you've got Will Brown joining 888 next year.
• 20:08
  Shane's off to NASCAR, obviously.
• 20:10
  We've got this kind of wave of youngsters in the game.
• 20:12
  That's sort of more commonplace in our thinking, isn't it?
• 20:16
  Well, it is, and I actually look back at some old history videos, and, like, yeah, I was lucky enough.
• 20:21
  Like, Cameron McConville was before me with DJR, and unfortunately he had the incident at the top of the mountain.
• 20:28
  And really that sort of, I think for Dick, sort of closed the door on the youth.
• 20:33
  And then I popped along, and I think then from that point, like even Gary Rogers, the Valvoline team, was really instrumental.
• 20:39
  They were probably more of the pioneer than us.
• 20:42
  You know, they had Jason Barguana.
• 20:44
  They had Jamie Winkup and thought he was a dud.
• 20:46
  That was a bad mistake.
• 20:47
  They had Gar Tanda.
• 20:48
  They had a lot of youth guys coming through their team.
• 20:51
  And now, yeah, it's a given.
• 20:53
  Like you've got to basically...
• 20:56
  groom them from Super 3, Super 2.
• 20:58
  And again, our program pathway is much more structured.
• 21:02
  So, yeah, go from Toyota 86, even from this side of the world.
• 21:06
  You know, you go to Australia, do Toyota 86.
• 21:08
  Now you've got Super 3, Super 2.
• 21:11
  And from that point on, you've got Dale Wood, a young Kiwi that's coming now into the main game next year with Walkshaw and Jretti.
• 21:17
  So...
• 21:18
  I think the team owners now in the main game really look closely on the Super 2, Super 3 program, and that's really instrumental now to have that pathway through.
• 21:28
  And it's great to have it because it gives everyone an opportunity to showcase, but not only drivers, engineers, team owners, how they operate, how they run things.
• 21:35
  Like, my personal opinion would be great if you, at the end of a season, you could drop off two of the backmarkers of the main game and bring up, promote Super 2 teams
• 21:45
  Teams.
• 21:46
  And teams.
• 21:47
  But, of course, that's never going to happen with the commercial world.
• 21:49
  But, you know, just something like that, throw the carrot out there and it's great to see.
• 21:53
  Great to catch up, mate.
• 21:54
  Have a fantastic time here at Highlands.
• 21:56
  Congratulations on re-signing.
• 21:59
  Incredible to think that the big chunk...
• 22:01
  of your Bathurst success is with the AAA team.
• 22:04
  Same, I think it's around 50% of your race wins in supercars are with that organisation.
• 22:08
  You're going to chalk up 20 years with them, which I reckon is just unreal.
• 22:13
  Enjoy it, and hopefully there's more podiums and success to come.
• 22:15
  Yeah, thank you very much.
• 22:16
  Look, I'm really looking forward to it, and hopefully that Jamie recognises that and gives me a damn good present, because I know Roland would have.
• 22:24
  Just for the record, Josie, who we spoke about at the beginning of the convo, may have had a funny moment mixing up Craig's name and calling him Scott.
• 22:32
  That was in her early days.
• 22:34
  She has gone on to have a very impressive career as a leader of Tony Quinn's world-class venues in NZ.
• 22:41
  Now, their annual gala...
• 22:43
  To celebrate 10 years of Highlands Motorsport Park was something else on Saturday night.
• 22:48
  Its membership model is thriving.
• 22:50
  The place looks incredible with the museum and much, much more on offer.
• 22:55
  You must visit it if ever you're over there.
• 22:57
  Beautiful part of the world.
• 22:59
  Not surprisingly, they are very excited about supercars coming back to New Zealand and to one of their other venues, the Topor Circuit, which has hosted A1GP and more over time.
• 23:10
  That's an adventure destination in the centre of the North Island.
• 23:14
  The drivers and teams will enjoy that stop, I reckon, on the tour.
• 23:18
  Some other headlines for you now.
• 23:19
  Lewis Hamilton has apologised for the contact with Oscar Piastri at the Italian Grand Prix, saying it wasn't intentional.
• 23:27
  Oscar seems OK with that, but it did cost him a points-paying finish at Monza.
• 23:31
  Having said that, it was a day where not a lot went right for the Aussie, including teammate Lando Norris appearing to get pit priority and undercutting Oscar when Piastri was McLaren's lead car on track at the time.
• 23:45
  Ferrari might have had pole, but Carlos Sainz could only manage third as their rear tyres seem to have a harder time than their rivals.
• 23:52
  Max Verstappen won again.
• 23:54
  The victory in Italy gives the Dutchman a special place or a special piece of F1 history, becoming the first person to score 10 consecutive wins.
• 24:05
  Very cool.
• 24:06
  Daniel Ricciardo is recovering well and undergoing rehab following surgery on his injured hand from that crash in Zandvoort.
• 24:13
  It's unlikely he'll be back, though, for Singapore in a fortnight or Suzuka in Japan the week after that.
• 24:19
  Qatar in October seems to be the new target.
• 24:22
  Meanwhile, Liam Lawson is set to continue to fill in for him at AlphaTauri.
• 24:27
  He'll be looking forward to Suzuka, which he's familiar with from running in the Japanese Super Formula Series this year.
• 24:33
  The youngster is doing a good job, isn't he?
• 24:35
  He only just missed out on the top ten at Monza.
• 24:38
  Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palo wrapped up the IndyCar title this morning with a win at Portland.
• 24:44
  It's the Spaniards' second IndyCar crown.
• 24:47
  And it's safely tucked away now with one round remaining this weekend at Laguna Seca.
• 24:52
  Scott Dixon was third at Portland.
• 24:54
  Scott McLaughlin, ninth.
• 24:55
  And outgoing champion, Aussie Will Power, 25th.
• 24:58
  In MotoGP, Ducati's Peko Bagnia incredibly escaped without serious injury following a frightening crash in the Catalan Grand Prix.
• 25:08
  He high-sided and then was collected by Brad Binder,
• 25:11
  who really couldn't avoid him.
• 25:13
  Pecco is headed for Italy for attention to a separate ankle and hand injury.
• 25:19
  And finally, wishing Aaron Cameron all the very best.
• 25:22
  He was a star rookie in his first season of TCR and has continued to impress in that series in a Peugeot while also racing in S5000.
• 25:30
  He'll be at Sandown two weeks in a row for the Shannon Speed Series next week.
• 25:36
  before making his Super 2 debut the following weekend in an ex-Grove racing Mustang.
• 25:41
  Now, it's only meant to be a one-off appearance at this stage, but hopefully it leads to something more.
• 25:48
  That's it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 25:50
  We'll catch you next week, everybody.
• 25:51
  Bye for now.