Latest / Rusty's Garage / James McFadden - Part 2

Transcript

James McFadden - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with Aussie sprint car racer James McFadden, who's home for the summer and getting ready for the grand annual sprint car classic.
• 0:31
  He's among a seriously impressive list of drivers tackling that 50th anniversary meeting in Warrnambool.
• 0:37
  Now, if you've landed here and missed the first part of our chat in the podcast, jump back to the library and give it a listen.
• 0:44
  From early life in Alice Springs to learning to drive a go-kart in the motor registry car park there, waiting for the moment his dad would throw him the keys and let him loose in the style of cars that would dominate his life and thinking.
• 0:59
  the impact that moment had on him, and the raw beauty in driving those addictive machines.
• 1:04
  Plus engine building with one of the best in this part of the world and will immerse you in the American sprint car scene too.
• 1:12
  A quick thank you to my producer, Tom Dullard, and my TV colleagues, Speedway Tragics, Bryony Ingersen, Chad Nalon, Dean Neal, Benny Bishop and Matt Nolte for their input before we recorded.
• 1:24
  It helped me end conversation immensely.
• 1:26
  We begin part two with James' biggest fans, who are with him every lap of the way.
• 1:34
  How important is Zoe on this ride, mate?
• 1:38
  And you mentioned Mav before, right, and the kind of energy he already has in the sport.
• 1:46
  Is there going to be another generation McFadden racer, do you think?
• 1:49
  Because that stuff rubs off when they're that age, mate, doesn't it?
• 1:52
  It's inevitable right now.
• 1:53
  I thought he was going to pick up a golf club or something.
• 1:56
  He says hoping.
• 1:57
  Yeah.
• 1:57
  Every day he wakes up and he brings two spring cars in and goes, Dad, race, Dad, race.
• 2:01
  Love it.
• 2:01
  So we've got to sit on the ground and race cars.
• 2:03
  Yeah.
• 2:04
  Um, but yeah, Zoe's been instrumental in, in my career.
• 2:08
  She's, you know, it was a, it was a funny time.
• 2:12
  I'd actually given up racing in America basically.
• 2:14
  Um, after my last ride in Pennsylvania in the Matt Highlands car, I was like, all right, I've had my time.
• 2:16
  I'm done.
• 2:16
  I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,
• 2:21
  I'm just not going to make it unless I bring money or I do that.
• 2:26
  And I just didn't want to do that.
• 2:29
  You know, and that time I was quite successful at home and I said, you know, I can race 40 races at home and make a decent living doing it here and it'll be all good.
• 2:39
  So Zoe had started a physical therapy business and we'd –
• 2:45
  you know, gone down that road and, you know, Where was she here, mate?
• 2:47
  In Warrnambool.
• 2:48
  Warrnambool, yeah.
• 2:49
  And I'd started my engine shop.
• 2:51
  I had a little engine shop and we'd, you know, 10 customers doing, building spring car engines and a couple of hot rod stuff.
• 2:57
  And...
• 2:58
  Yeah, I was pretty content that I was disappointed.
• 3:02
  But at the same time, I was content that, you know, we had a good crack at it and, you know, didn't pay.
• 3:10
  I didn't want to have to do that.
• 3:11
  I just felt like I wanted to do it because once you start doing that, I think you're stuck, you know, in the spring car world.
• 3:19
  So I was like, right, we're done doing that stuff.
• 3:23
  And then, yeah, then Casey got hurt.
• 3:27
  racing a sprint car and he rang me and was like, oh, I got 10 races for you to do if you're keen.
• 3:33
  And I thought, well, Casey Kane wants you to drive.
• 3:35
  I'm going to do that for sure.
• 3:36
  And just thought it was a 10 race deal, which ended up turning into the World of Outlaws Tour and what, 150 races for him or 200 races for him.
• 3:44
  So yeah, Zoe shut her business and moved over to America with me for my dream.
• 3:49
  So she's been a huge part of it.
• 3:51
  And
• 3:53
  huge supporter, also a big critic if I haven't done...
• 3:58
  But sometimes you need a partner like that, mate, don't you?
• 4:00
  Absolutely.
• 4:00
  And she knows enough that when she does say something, I know it's... Worth listening to.
• 4:06
  If I'm not driving right or something, she can pick that up and figure out if that's me or the car or something like that.
• 4:13
  So huge part of it.
• 4:15
  And obviously life changes when you have a kid.
• 4:17
  It's pretty special.
• 4:18
  Yeah.
• 4:19
  yeah, we get to live my dream.
• 4:21
  And one day I hope, you know, in the next few years we can turn around and do the same for Zoe.
• 4:25
  Good stuff.
• 4:26
  Let's talk some career stuff now.
• 4:27
  We want to certainly get to the immediate stuff on the horizon.
• 4:31
  This is going to be long-winded, okay, but it comes from a good buddy in Benny Bishop, who you will know, okay.
• 4:35
  So he reminded me, you know, two-time Aussie champion, 09, 10 and 12, 13, two-time classic champion, 17, 20.
• 4:43
  I think, was it three-time Cricket Boy Shootout champ, 17, 19, 20, 17.
• 4:48
  chariots a thunder champ 18 19 some very cool stuff there five time wss champion 11 12 12 13 16 17 17 18 19 20 14 quick times 55 podiums 78 top fives that's pretty impressive mate when you sit and take that in here
• 5:11
  Yeah, we've had a good time doing it.
• 5:14
  Like I said, I think for me, World Series was the pinnacle of Australian Speedway.
• 5:21
  Disappointing that we don't have it anymore.
• 5:24
  But I'm not a stat guy.
• 5:28
  Certain races mean certain things of importance in different levels.
• 5:32
  My first Australian title was with my dad as a crew chief.
• 5:35
  So that's special.
• 5:37
  But then you can go to a...
• 5:39
  you know, a local race in WA, I drove for Cricky Motorsport, which was Shane's last race and we won, you know, like, so there's little things that are, are, um, more important than other things, but yeah, when you read it out like that, it's pretty cool.
• 5:54
  He goes on to reflect on your most recent World Series sprint car win at the Motorplex Grand Final.
• 6:01
  I think that was in early 2020, pre-COVID.
• 6:05
  We'll get to the impact COVID had shortly.
• 6:08
  That was your 25th WSS win, which equaled you with the late Jason Johnson, who you had actually raced against throughout your career.
• 6:17
  And he, I think, died 18 months earlier.
• 6:19
  And James, your father-in-law, Gary Douglas, was actually a major sponsor of Jason with GT Bobcat too, wasn't he?
• 6:27
  Yeah, that was a pretty rough time.
• 6:31
  You know, that made you really question what you're doing.
• 6:33
  You know, he had a young boy.
• 6:34
  He has a young boy with Jax and a wife and Bobby.
• 6:38
  And yeah, so Zoe's dad sponsored Jason.
• 6:42
  uh, Jason for a long time.
• 6:43
  It was a big influencer on Jason starting his own race team, which is just run third in the world of Outlaws championship.
• 6:49
  Um, so yeah, it was, uh, it was a rough, rough time.
• 6:54
  Hey, uh, it,
• 6:57
  I probably didn't show the emotion that I should have, you know, because I was just trying to erase a thing.
• 7:04
  You turn a blind eye to it.
• 7:05
  But it was definitely made you question what you're doing.
• 7:08
  And he was a great guy.
• 7:10
  And, you know, he wasn't in it for the next 10 years.
• 7:12
  You know, he was going to own cars and had this grand plan of, you know, you know, sort of slowing it down.
• 7:18
  Yeah.
• 7:20
  Yeah, it's rough, rough, rough.
• 7:22
  But he's, you know, he's been remembered as a grade.
• 7:25
  He won the Knoxville Nationals and it's cool to be on that list, you know, with him for sure.
• 7:30
  Definitely.
• 7:30
  Okay, one sort of final one here.
• 7:32
  And this is, again, a little long in career terms, but I think it sort of harks back to what you were talking about before on...
• 7:39
  you know, coping with a tough season as you've done recently and how you draw from that and go again.
• 7:47
  Benny says 2011-2012 was your breakout season, winning the first round, five more that season, beating shots, Donny shots in Brisbane on January 5, 2013, an epic, epic race.
• 8:03
  And then going on to win the series and the Australian title that year,
• 8:07
  And then, crazily, you would go winless in World Series sprint cars for just over two years.
• 8:14
  Not a win in a single blue ribbon sprint car event in 2013-14 or 14-15 was a 27-round drought, mate.
• 8:25
  How difficult is it to bounce from that stuff?
• 8:27
  Thanks for reminding me.
• 8:28
  Sorry, no.
• 8:29
  But to his credit, he's like, what do you do there?
• 8:32
  Yeah, and I think if you actually look at those stats there, we were solid.
• 8:37
  We just didn't win a race.
• 8:37
  Race, yeah.
• 8:38
  You know, we were second, third, fourth, and that year I struggled a lot qualifying.
• 8:43
  Okay.
• 8:44
  That was when they bought in the top eight shootout style and I would always qualify terribly and have to start eights or sevenths and we'd run third or fourth, but you just couldn't.
• 8:56
  You couldn't do that.
• 8:57
  You can't do that anymore.
• 9:00
  But, yeah, they were some tough – they were tough.
• 9:02
  I remember I had some big crashes that year.
• 9:06
  Yeah, I just don't think – I don't think my head was right, you know, from some of those crashes.
• 9:14
  In what way?
• 9:14
  In what way?
• 9:16
  Oh, just a little bit of concussion stuff, I would say.
• 9:19
  And reading that Dale Jr. book, I was like, man, I've probably had a few of them over the time.
• 9:26
  You know, between that and then obviously when you crash, then you start second-guessing a lot of what you're doing.
• 9:31
  And I struggled with my car stuff there for a while.
• 9:38
  Yeah, I think it was...
• 9:40
  It was the point in your career where I think a lot of racers have that, where they come out swinging and have this, you know, this attitude about you, this aura about you where it's easy.
• 9:53
  And then...
• 9:55
  and then I think that the pressure of winning all the time, that the expectation of wanting to win every race gets, you let it get to you too much, maybe without knowing at the time, but sitting here and talking about it now, I probably think, you know, I expected myself to win every race and that's just not going to happen.
• 10:13
  So you try too hard, you crash or you make too many mistakes.
• 10:16
  And,
• 10:17
  The older I've gotten, the more I've learned I just race at 70% or 80% now because then I can keep that 20% in reserve for when I need it.
• 10:25
  When I was younger, it was like, right, 110% every time I hit the track.
• 10:28
  And, you know, you'd burn the tires off it or you'd wreck your car or you'd do silly things.
• 10:34
  So, yeah, I think I just went through a stage where I just wasn't,
• 10:39
  Good.
• 10:40
  Good in the mind.
• 10:42
  And the mind is everything in this game.
• 10:45
  Great takeaway there for young racers, the next generation coming through, about that 80%.
• 10:51
  I love that.
• 10:52
  How are you with living in the States?
• 10:54
  And I'm asking this from a food point of view, from a music point of view.
• 10:58
  Are you full country music when you're in the motorhome?
• 11:01
  What do you like?
• 11:01
  Come on.
• 11:02
  Oh, actually, I'm not playing...
• 11:04
  smoke up your butt, but I listen to your podcast a lot.
• 11:08
  It gets me up and down the road a lot.
• 11:09
  It blows me away.
• 11:10
  Thank you very much.
• 11:11
  No, I actually find the non-race car ones really interesting.
• 11:16
  Oh, really?
• 11:17
  Come on, man.
• 11:18
  Pick a couple that stand there for you.
• 11:19
  I really like the VIP Pet Foods.
• 11:21
  Tony Quinn.
• 11:21
  Tony Quinn.
• 11:22
  Awesome.
• 11:22
  And I like the Tony Cochran.
• 11:24
  Yeah, Tony Cochran.
• 11:25
  Yeah, I thought that was really cool, and I really wish we could grab him for spring car racing.
• 11:30
  I think he'd do great things.
• 11:32
  But I also enjoyed the Isla Man.
• 11:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 11:35
  That one was unreal.
• 11:36
  I'd see a big speedway nut and motorsport nut, but didn't realize there were so many great people.
• 11:42
  You know, Jason Crumps was really cool.
• 11:44
  I've hung out with him a couple of times and to hear some of their stories and then your Will Power stories and stuff.
• 11:49
  So I said I think I've listened to about all of them.
• 11:53
  That's awesome.
• 11:54
  So it got me up and down the road.
• 11:55
  It definitely...
• 11:56
  So not a huge amount of Keith Urban then?
• 11:58
  Way better than listening to country music.
• 12:02
  I love Keith Urban, by the way, but keep going anyway.
• 12:05
  It's good for a Sunday beer and that's about all outside of that.
• 12:09
  But yeah, the food sucks, obviously, over there.
• 12:13
  But Zoe and I have a car.
• 12:14
  We tow behind the motorhome.
• 12:16
  We try our hardest at 90% of the places we go to to go and...
• 12:21
  like seek out good coffee and and food so uh but we do a lot of cooking in the in the bus and have a uh have a coffee machine in there so we're somewhat trying to be like home does exhaustion or fatigue kind of kick in i mean whatever you said before 90 race season um against the best of the best you're backing up every couple of days during the week i mean that that's gotta it's gotta be hard mate
• 12:44
  Yeah, it's tough.
• 12:46
  I think the travel's what's brutal.
• 12:49
  You know, we race, for example, the...
• 12:53
  We race, I'm pretty sure it's Pennsylvania.
• 12:55
  We race out there for the three or four days, and then we have five days to get to Seattle.
• 13:01
  So, you know, you drive.
• 13:03
  It's four days of driving that whole time to go and race another four races out there.
• 13:08
  So the motorhome life is tough.
• 13:12
  The actual racing part of it is the easy part to me.
• 13:15
  Obviously, when you're having a rough time, like I did the mid part of this season, it's draining because it's just a draining thing.
• 13:22
  environment to be around because everyone's not happy we're not winning whether that's the car owners the the crew guys me you yeah you know zoe um so the only person that's still pumped is mav but um yeah it's you know servicing i service the motorhome and the generators and when the slide outs don't work you're out there fixing that and
• 13:44
  I think that's the more draining part of it.
• 13:47
  You know, we do a lot of traveling and, you know, we'll leave the racetrack at midnight and drive till 3 o'clock in the morning and sleep in a Walmart car park and get back up at 8 o'clock to get to the track by 1 o'clock and in the car by 5 o'clock.
• 14:01
  So it's...
• 14:03
  It's a different lifestyle.
• 14:05
  But I think when you're on the go through summer there, it's easy because you just go, go, go, and you don't have a chance, whereas towards the end of the year is more driving, less racing, and that wears me out way more than that.
• 14:15
  Because you're thinking about it, aren't you?
• 14:17
  Yeah, yeah, and you're sitting in a car park somewhere in the motorhome, like, man, what am I doing with my life?
• 14:21
  I could be doing so much more.
• 14:24
  But, yeah, you get to the races and you forget about that stuff for sure.
• 14:28
  How sweet was Kansas after everything that you went through during the year to win there?
• 14:35
  Yeah.
• 14:37
  You talked about those years we had in Australia and they were tough, but this has been the toughest year of my career by far.
• 14:44
  Why?
• 14:45
  I feel like I just couldn't ever do anything right.
• 14:48
  And then when I did, something went wrong with the car.
• 14:50
  We led six races this year and had mechanical failures.
• 14:56
  And that's nothing to do with my guys doing the wrong thing on the car either.
• 15:00
  It was like a circlip broke on the shifter cable leading it with five laps to go.
• 15:04
  Or I led that $100,000 win race at Hewsetz.
• 15:08
  And the natural rule of thumb is to chase the rubber in a sprint car.
• 15:12
  And I chased the rubber and Sheldon Horton Trial drove around me on the last lap.
• 15:15
  It was a $70,000 last lap.
• 15:19
  just a lot of things.
• 15:21
  I just felt like I just didn't get right or I couldn't get right restarts.
• 15:25
  I'd get one really good one and pass five cars the next one and we'd get a yellow straight away and I'd lose five at the next.
• 15:31
  It was tough.
• 15:35
  Kansas to me was unreal, but we'd been really fast up until that point too.
• 15:41
  We had some personnel changes in the team and
• 15:46
  That just brought a little bit more pep in the step for everybody, I think, and it wasn't anything that the other guy was doing wrong or we just weren't getting the results and we weren't clicking well as a team.
• 15:59
  Still really good friends with him.
• 16:02
  Yeah, and still talk a lot, but it just wasn't working.
• 16:06
  You've got to change it up sometimes, don't you?
• 16:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 16:08
  And this young fellow, he's 27, and come in, and we ran third the first night, second the next night.
• 16:15
  So we were building towards winning that race.
• 16:18
  And to win it on the same night as Dennis, so Dennis Roth is my car in America, and he promoted a race in California that night.
• 16:27
  So we won it on his night.
• 16:28
  Fantastic.
• 16:30
  there to, to, um, to do that was really good.
• 16:33
  So yeah, just, man, it was a tough year, like brutal, brutal year.
• 16:39
  So to win that race meant, meant a lot.
• 16:42
  Good news is that you've just in the weeks leading up to our chat here for the podcast, you've, you've re-signed, you're back with Roth for, for next year.
• 16:50
  Chad Nylon, he says, I'm a bit of a, uh, a Toyota racing nerd.
• 16:54
  TRD power plants as well, mate.
• 16:56
  Yeah, big news.
• 16:57
  Obviously, getting the TRD factory backing for next year.
• 17:03
  So we ran one of those, the last Toyota Motor, for the last part of the season, just getting the development stuff right and trying to get the longevity, you know, trying to build something from scratch.
• 17:13
  You know, it's a completely new block and heads and...
• 17:16
  the whole deal is very foreign to, to spring car racing.
• 17:19
  So it's, uh, it's been fun.
• 17:21
  They don't do things by halves.
• 17:22
  Absolutely.
• 17:23
  They're, uh, you know, working with them for the short time we've had has been, I've been a lot of fun.
• 17:28
  So pumped for that.
• 17:30
  I think right now there's only five of them in existence.
• 17:33
  So, um, we'll have a full inventory ready for Volusia and, um,
• 17:37
  We're working with two engine builders.
• 17:39
  So between Speedway engine developments, which were big in the Indy cars back in the day, which did our Chevrolet engines, and Ryder from Pennsylvania, which builds some great engines too.
• 17:49
  So, yeah, looking forward to that.
• 17:52
  Obviously, there's a few things you're nervous about.
• 17:56
  Motors throttle differently and have different characteristics.
• 17:59
  So we've got to get our head around that pretty quick.
• 18:02
  But outside of that, I'm excited to partner with TRD and...
• 18:06
  Previously, Dennis Roth has been known to hire and fire drivers quite quickly, you know.
• 18:13
  So for him to have the faith in putting us back on for a year after, to me, my worst year that I've had is good.
• 18:21
  They've got a lot of faith and I'm hoping we can turn around and repay them with...
• 18:25
  a lot smaller than a 70 race winless streak for sure.
• 18:30
  We hope it is, you know, everything that you dreamed it would be, mate.
• 18:33
  Some great, great ingredients, as you rightly point out there.
• 18:35
  Just incidentally, too, digressing for a second, you, Chad, and I hosted a function once many years ago for the start of a season, I think for World Series Sprint Cars.
• 18:44
  You might be proud to know, mate, he's gone on and won the Supercars Media Award just in recent days.
• 18:49
  He's doing some super stuff in the broadcasting space there.
• 18:51
  So thank you, Chad, for the reminder.
• 18:54
  Yeah.
• 18:55
  The championship and what you do, maybe it becomes normalised for you, but for me and for lots of fans that are listening, I mean, to steal yourself against the likes of Donny Schott, Brad Sweet, all these names, mate, and you are going wheel to wheel with them, that's pretty damn special.
• 19:16
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:18
  Like we've talked about a lot, the dream was to make it there and be a part of that series.
• 19:24
  And now you're in it and you're a big part of it.
• 19:27
  It's pretty crazy.
• 19:29
  You know, I don't see him as Donny Schott's the 10-time champion and Brad Sweet the four-time champion.
• 19:35
  I just see him as another car you've got to pass.
• 19:37
  Pass, yeah.
• 19:37
  Yeah.
• 19:39
  Um, it's pretty humbling.
• 19:40
  It's a, it's a humbling experience.
• 19:42
  And, um, you know, the, the grind up and down the road's all worth it in the end when you line up against these guys at the Knoxville Nationals and you've just got to put the time in, you know, those guys have been doing it for so long.
• 19:55
  You know, I think Brad's on his 10th, 10th Outlaw tour, Donnie's on his 20th, like it's.
• 20:02
  I have the outright pace with them.
• 20:04
  I just don't have the, I've been doing the Outlaw Tour for 10 years pace, you know, where you can back it up night after night after night and been to these tracks 50 times.
• 20:14
  And the little intricacies.
• 20:16
  Yeah.
• 20:17
  Yeah, which when they come to Australia, I have that.
• 20:20
  Yes.
• 20:20
  You know, so it's...
• 20:22
  Yeah, it's just a different world.
• 20:24
  Like I said, I wish I was a little bit younger so I could go and do 10 years on the road and really have a crack at it.
• 20:31
  But it's, man, it's brutal.
• 20:33
  It's a brutal championship, but I love it.
• 20:36
  I couldn't see myself doing it in any other championship for sure.
• 20:39
  Good stuff.
• 20:40
  You're home for Christmas.
• 20:40
  I want to get to what you are doing, a really cool project here.
• 20:43
  But firstly, do you get to have a bit of downtime?
• 20:46
  What is the escape for you?
• 20:48
  Is it as simple as just...
• 20:50
  going to Warrnambool or wherever and just turning the phone off?
• 20:52
  What do you do?
• 20:53
  Yeah, so normally I would go to my house and I was renovating, but we sold our house to go to America there.
• 20:59
  And so we're living back at the parents' house.
• 21:02
  It's a mad house there at the moment.
• 21:03
  There's four dogs and my sister and her partner are building a house, so they're home and it's just not relaxing.
• 21:10
  Yeah.
• 21:11
  For sure.
• 21:11
  But between the parents' house, Zoe's mum and dad live in Mount Gambier.
• 21:16
  So Zoe's brother has two babies as well.
• 21:20
  So Mav gets to hang out with them and see his cousins.
• 21:26
  So that's great.
• 21:27
  But Zoe and I just spent three days in Melbourne here hanging out without Maverick, which has been the first time in...
• 21:33
  nine months which has been unreal that we've actually been able to do stuff so yeah just chilling out with family hanging out um unfortunately i can't get away from racing because it's always it's always around it's in dad's shop and you go out and tinker and um i yeah i love it too much to to be too far away from it
• 22:01
  If you're enjoying this episode with James McFadden, you can also find Gary Rush in the Rusty's Garage Library, an Aussie motorsport icon and one of our greatest sprint car drivers of all time.
• 22:12
  I remember getting in the race car to do a couple of laps after I retired, and I'd done a few laps and I sat there.
• 22:23
  And this might sound silly, and I hope people don't think how stupid it sounds.
• 22:29
  I think I was put on Earth to drive Sprinker.
• 22:33
  Yeah.
• 22:34
  You know, I just loved it so much.
• 22:37
  Rushy won 10 Australian titles.
• 22:39
  Not to be confused with Rusty, who dreamt of winning one title.
• 22:43
  Lucky he likes talking.
• 22:44
  Now it's to his episode with another Sprint car star, James McFadden.
• 22:49
  you are spearheading a brand new team for the Aussie summer, driving for a very well-known group of owners, kind of crazy group that has all kind of come together here.
• 23:00
  So let's bounce through them.
• 23:01
  Triple Premiership winning Tiger, that's Jack Riewoldt.
• 23:05
  Triple Supercars champion, current IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin, my old colleague.
• 23:10
  Tim Hodges, who I work with at 10.
• 23:12
  You may not know this.
• 23:13
  He actually pit reported on the Queensland 500 one year with me.
• 23:16
  He and I worked the lane together, but he's gone on to do some tremendous things in sport producing, particularly around the AFL 360 show.
• 23:24
  And SEN's Gerard Waitley, who is a hugely respected broadcasting figure.
• 23:30
  He's a part of this too.
• 23:31
  How the hell did that deal come about?
• 23:33
  What was the first phone call?
• 23:35
  And what did you think?
• 23:36
  Were you in straight away?
• 23:38
  I think Tim's the reason it's all got together.
• 23:41
  Yeah, wild.
• 23:42
  Wild situation.
• 23:43
  Obviously, I don't really say it out loud, but I have no idea about AFL at all, to be honest with you.
• 23:50
  No, I wouldn't even know.
• 23:51
  You're brushing up here.
• 23:52
  I wouldn't even know all the teams and how to kick a football.
• 23:55
  He loves his motorsport though, doesn't he?
• 23:57
  Yeah, so to have two really big influences in football and then I think it correlates really well with motorsport.
• 24:05
  You know, a lot of the fans are fans of both.
• 24:08
  So it's great, yeah, great crossover and I think having those extra eyes is great for our sport.
• 24:15
  You know, things like coming on this show and going on the SEN show and stuff like that is great for our sport.
• 24:21
  I think if we can get...
• 24:23
  X amount of listeners to go out and go to the races and see how cool Spreeway really is or, you know, rekindle that.
• 24:31
  I went there as a kid.
• 24:32
  I might just go back there as now I'm a 40-year-old.
• 24:34
  Like my kids.
• 24:35
  Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 24:36
  So I hope that's what it does.
• 24:38
  And then obviously followed Scott a lot in America.
• 24:42
  with what he's doing in IndyCars, that's unreal.
• 24:44
  And we lived in the same town.
• 24:46
  We, you know, bounced backwards and forwards a couple of times and just with the schedules never really met up.
• 24:52
  So, yeah, it's just great having those guys.
• 24:56
  And then Tim being from Warrnambool, he knows how much Classic means.
• 24:59
  Very proud of it, isn't he?
• 25:00
  Yeah.
• 25:01
  I guess it blows people's minds when I tell them that the Warrnambool Classic is one of the biggest races in the world for spring guy racing.
• 25:07
  You can race the Knoxville Nationals, the Kings Royal, the Summer Nationals, Williams Grove, and then I think it's a Classic.
• 25:20
  It's an event that everyone in America knows that's around the speedway scene.
• 25:25
  You're going to get, what, 20 Americans here this year, Brad Sweet.
• 25:28
  You know, you've had your Donny Schotzes race it.
• 25:30
  So it's a world-class event in a little town called Warrnambool.
• 25:36
  Did it take much arm-twisting?
• 25:38
  Uh, nah, nah, not really.
• 25:39
  I was in a, I was in a weird position where I, I wanted to come home and relax.
• 25:45
  Um, I didn't want to race a 20, 30 race schedule and travel a lot.
• 25:49
  Um, and then at the time I really didn't have much going ride wise because, you know, Luchamonte and that, and that team had, we'd had a lot of success and, and great people and, and been, been with them for five years, but they just wanted to race a lot, you know, and I, and I just wasn't.
• 26:07
  ready to do that.
• 26:08
  Last year I didn't enjoy racing back home.
• 26:11
  It was more of a chore than it was a fun, if that makes sense, which was sad.
• 26:17
  It's the first time in my career I ever felt like that, and I think it's because of the brutal schedule in America.
• 26:23
  So when this popped up, I thought, well, that'll work perfect.
• 26:26
  There's zero travel.
• 26:28
  It's five minutes from my house, and we get to race with some really cool people and showcase everything
• 26:35
  what we do and, and the sport that we have in Australia to some people that, you know, have got a great reach, um, beyond it, beyond it, which, you know, obviously Tim's bought Napa auto parts on board and car looks great.
• 26:49
  Yeah.
• 26:50
  Yeah.
• 26:50
  And I, you know, and he's, he's come from a,
• 26:54
  a promotional background so he knows, he understands it.
• 26:57
  So I think it's great.
• 26:59
  It's going to be great for the sport.
• 27:01
  The pressure's there to win the race.
• 27:02
  I hope they realise how hard this race is to win.
• 27:06
  But, yeah, it's going to be cool to showcase what we do and hopefully we can get them, you know, dirty and hopefully we can get...
• 27:13
  some people in the car, show them what it's like.
• 27:16
  You've been in one.
• 27:18
  It's a different world.
• 27:19
  Very special experience.
• 27:20
  Yeah, so I'm excited for the opportunity to, yeah, show them what we've got, show them what we have in our sport, and hopefully it promotes our sport in a good way and we get something really cool out of it.
• 27:33
  just on Scott McLaughlin, because you live there and because you weren't all that, that far away from, as you just described before, what's been the reaction to him in the States?
• 27:41
  I mean, a couple of years into IndyCar now, he's had a successful year, I think with three wins driving for the, the icon and Roger Penske.
• 27:47
  I mean, he's making a real mark, made a real impact, isn't he?
• 27:50
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:51
  Um, you know, and he's a, he's a great character too.
• 27:53
  So that helps.
• 27:55
  Um, Americans love a, a good character and, um, he's done a really good job.
• 28:00
  It's, uh, it's,
• 28:01
  I really like watching the IndyCar stuff.
• 28:03
  I think it's incredible to watch and those cars are really cool.
• 28:07
  So for him to jump over there and adapt as quick as he has and be as successful as he has been is really cool.
• 28:14
  And, you know, I know when we posted out that Scott was going to be a part of it, a lot of...
• 28:19
  my American fans were, were pumped about that.
• 28:22
  A lot of people in the motorsport, the sprint car, um, side of things were, were excited that he was, he was in on it.
• 28:29
  Um, you know, and he's in, in, in on it too.
• 28:31
  Like he's, he's pumped about it.
• 28:33
  So yeah, I, I think he's doing some great things over there and, um, we'll have to get him to a world of Outlaws race and, and see what he thinks of that for sure.
• 28:42
  To that point, he's been a guest on the podcast before.
• 28:44
  He has very kindly sent me a couple of questions for you.
• 28:47
  So here you go from Scott McLaughlin.
• 28:49
  G'day, J-Mac.
• 28:50
  Scott McLaughlin here.
• 28:52
  I'm actually your boss, but no, I'm not.
• 28:55
  I'm not.
• 28:56
  Look, I just wanted to ask...
• 28:59
  What is, obviously like racing the Classic, what's bigger for you to win, the Knoxville Nationals or the Classic?
• 29:06
  For me, winning at Pukkowi was almost as big as winning Bathurst, so I know what a home race is like.
• 29:13
  And then probably my next follow-up for that is, what the hell are we going to do if we do win the Classic?
• 29:18
  I mean, we have to go on, don't we?
• 29:21
  Great questions.
• 29:22
  Go.
• 29:24
  Uh, well, for the people that don't know what the Knoxville Nationals is, that's the race of spring car racing.
• 29:32
  Um, I think it's a $200,000 to win race and, uh, tough, tough race to race.
• 29:41
  But man, the classic means as much to me as that race does.
• 29:45
  Does it?
• 29:46
  Um...
• 29:48
  I struggled to win it took me to 2017 to win that race.
• 29:52
  And I'd won four or five prelim races to that and being just in the hunt and never won that race.
• 29:58
  Like I don't think I'd ever been on the podium before I won that race.
• 30:01
  So it was a race that I grew up watching sitting on the hill every year, like pumped, pumped about being getting sunburned.
• 30:10
  Um, so I think,
• 30:14
  It's tough.
• 30:14
  I've won the 360 Knoxville Nationals over there, and that was a big moment in my career.
• 30:20
  It really propelled me a lot.
• 30:25
  Yeah, it's tough, man.
• 30:28
  You know, to even make the A-main at the 410 Knoxville Nationals is brutal, and it's tough.
• 30:36
  But like you said, I think your heart, like we talked about it before too, when your heart's set on certain things, you know, you can –
• 30:44
  certain races mean certain things in different ways.
• 30:47
  And for me, the classic, the event, the way it's done is the coolest race that I'm a part of.
• 30:55
  I don't know.
• 30:56
  If I win the Knoxville Nationals, I'll let you know, Scott, which one's the best.
• 31:00
  But I'd like to win both.
• 31:03
  But, yeah, the Knoxville Nationals is a special race.
• 31:05
  It's a brutal race.
• 31:08
  The biggest race, it's, you know, the Indianapolis 500 for him.
• 31:10
  So...
• 31:12
  Um, I'm sure that race on his list would be, you know, pretty crazy to, to win too.
• 31:19
  So, oh, that's a tough question.
• 31:21
  Really tough question.
• 31:23
  Um, and if we do win the classic, well, maybe we can just go and win the Knoxville Nationals as a car owner.
• 31:29
  I know his pockets are going to have to be a little deeper than the Australian, the Australian season, but yeah, like I said, he's, he's pumped, pumped to be a part of it.
• 31:37
  And, uh, I'm pumped to be a part of that operation.
• 31:41
  What I think in telling a bit of the story about this event, firstly, I mean, Premier Speedway and its stature within Speedway venues around the country, you've kind of talked about that.
• 31:54
  Each night sounds like it's going to be a sellout because it is –
• 31:58
  an anniversary edition.
• 32:00
  I mean, we probably haven't touched on that.
• 32:02
  It's 50th anniversary, I think, isn't it?
• 32:03
  Which is, you know, so very...
• 32:05
  Huge.
• 32:05
  Yeah, very, very special thing.
• 32:07
  15,000 people there a night.
• 32:08
  I mean, that adds to it, mate, doesn't it?
• 32:10
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:12
  And the whole natural empathy theatre of Speedway, to me, is the coolest thing.
• 32:16
  So all of those people get to watch.
• 32:18
  They're all standing on the fence.
• 32:20
  You know, you've got the tent city people there in their little tents with the mesh over the front of them, so they're not...
• 32:26
  They're mad.
• 32:26
  They're sitting right into turn one.
• 32:28
  They get sprayed with mud.
• 32:29
  But they love it.
• 32:30
  Love it.
• 32:31
  You know, and the fan day that they have where we sell all our merchandise and get to hang out with people, you know, there'd be 10,000, 15,000 people at that.
• 32:39
  And the whole town just gets behind it.
• 32:42
  So it's more than just a race.
• 32:44
  It's an event.
• 32:46
  It's something that if you haven't seen it, I believe, you know, it's one of the best motorsport events that I've been to in Australia.
• 32:53
  I am biased, but...
• 32:56
  You know, I feel that this year is going to be huge.
• 32:59
  There'll be 20 Americans.
• 33:01
  I bet you there'll be 120 cars over three nights.
• 33:05
  It's intense racing.
• 33:06
  Like the way the point structure is in the heat races is brutal.
• 33:09
  Like it's...
• 33:11
  It's a, it's a race.
• 33:12
  Like you, it's a, you have to put it all together to be able to win that race and, um, pressures on to do it this year, isn't it?
• 33:19
  And it's back after COVID too, we've, we've missed it.
• 33:23
  I mean, I hate bringing up that damn subject.
• 33:25
  How much, um, I mean, that certainly adds to it.
• 33:28
  How much did COVID impact you and your plans and everything that you were, you were, you were doing?
• 33:34
  Uh, just made it difficult.
• 33:37
  Um, didn't really affect my racing.
• 33:39
  You found ways, didn't you?
• 33:40
  Yeah, yeah.
• 33:41
  Um, so my rookie season on the What About La Tour, I signed onto that deal.
• 33:47
  Um, it was all going to be great.
• 33:48
  Uh, COVID sort of came around and, um, you know, getting permission to leave the country was hard.
• 33:56
  So I had to leave the country and I was on a plane.
• 34:00
  I had to actually fly to Dubai because we couldn't go any other way.
• 34:04
  There was eight people on the airplane and the Dubai airport was shut.
• 34:09
  There was like the eight people and that was it.
• 34:11
  It was crazy.
• 34:11
  It was wild.
• 34:12
  Then fly into America and it's wide open.
• 34:14
  You just go straight to the restaurant and the pub and off we go.
• 34:17
  And off we go.
• 34:18
  So, yeah, that sort of thing was tough.
• 34:21
  And then obviously having Maverick in between there.
• 34:26
  six races of the season because I couldn't fly backwards and forwards and there was no guaranteed seats home.
• 34:33
  So, um, yeah, had to miss, had to miss.
• 34:37
  Yeah.
• 34:38
  A lot of, I missed a lot of races at the end of the year thinking, you know, I don't want to miss the birth of my first kid.
• 34:46
  So, um, so I left America early.
• 34:48
  Casey was great.
• 34:50
  Let me do that.
• 34:51
  And he filled in for the, for the last part of the year.
• 34:54
  And,
• 34:55
  And then obviously flying back was near on impossible at that stage.
• 34:58
  So just trying to get a flight and, yeah, brutal.
• 35:02
  But we made it work.
• 35:05
  At times I was thinking, what am I doing?
• 35:07
  Like, is this, how bad is this?
• 35:09
  Or like, is he just, you don't know.
• 35:11
  And then I literally said, I'm in America, it's wide open.
• 35:14
  Like I'm not even...
• 35:15
  I've just had to wear a mask, a face shield, go through the army to get into the airport and I land, I'm sitting at the pub having a beer at the bar.
• 35:23
  Like this isn't, this is, it's insane.
• 35:26
  And different states were different obviously in America.
• 35:29
  And at that time they were sort of just, outlaws were just racing wherever they could get.
• 35:33
  Racism fans were allowed to be at.
• 35:35
  So yeah, the getting back, we'd won the 360 nationals the year before and then, yeah,
• 35:41
  I got on a plane the day before the races basically here and flew straight in and, and raced the nationals that day were terrible.
• 35:50
  Um, so I wouldn't recommend flying that far around the world and, and jumping straight into a race car.
• 35:54
  But yeah, we, we had some tough, tough times, obviously being away from the family for as long as we were.
• 36:01
  Um, cause Zoe couldn't come, um, and Maverick couldn't come for the first probably three months, um, of the tour.
• 36:08
  So that was, yeah, that was pretty brutal for sure.
• 36:10
  But,
• 36:11
  We got through it.
• 36:12
  You got through it, exactly.
• 36:13
  And we've all learned a lot somehow or other.
• 36:15
  There are, I don't like it, but there are a couple of positives we can draw from.
• 36:18
  Absolutely.
• 36:19
  Let's couple to finish here because you've been super with your time, mate.
• 36:21
  Thank you.
• 36:23
  Firstly, let's run through for fans.
• 36:24
  We're going to release this in the lead up to it.
• 36:27
  Australia Day week's going to be massive.
• 36:29
  What are we talking here from a Speedway perspective?
• 36:30
  Wednesday night, Geelong, President's Cup at Avalon.
• 36:33
  Thursday, Australia Day, King's Challenge, Borderline Speedway, Mount Gambier.
• 36:37
  And then Friday through to Sunday, which we've just kind of detailed, the 50th edition of the Grand Annual Sprint Car Classic at Premier Speedway.
• 36:45
  Good damn week of racing.
• 36:47
  What a week, isn't it?
• 36:48
  Yeah.
• 36:49
  And even leading up to that, there's some really good races in Sydney and Toowoomba and...
• 36:54
  Yeah, this to me is my favorite part of the year.
• 36:58
  I think you jump in your caravan and go to some of those races.
• 37:01
  It'd be good fun.
• 37:02
  But you're going to see the best drivers in the world in a sprint car.
• 37:08
  You're going to see a lot of cars.
• 37:11
  You're going to see some really cool racetracks.
• 37:13
  And then obviously the classic, which is the...
• 37:16
  the pinnacle of what we do here in Australia.
• 37:18
  It's our Bathurst.
• 37:19
  It's our AFL grand final.
• 37:21
  And, you know, you've got guys like Tim that set up a race team because he wants to be a part of it, you know, just from the passion.
• 37:29
  So, yeah, get out there and have a look at it.
• 37:32
  There's nothing to me, there's nothing in the world of motorsport in Australia that compares to this week we're doing for sure.
• 37:40
  To finish, you've earned a place in the record books.
• 37:45
  We've talked about that special club of Aussies before that you're a part of that have done good things in the US.
• 37:52
  Invariably, that means you get to a stage or a stature and you're kind of a bit of a custodian, if you like, of the sport.
• 37:59
  And you have a want to see it flourish, hence the reason why you're talking about doing this project with Tim and Scotty McLaughlin and Jack and so on.
• 38:08
  Politics, I think, for all of us is something we would prefer to avoid, but it is naturally around us.
• 38:15
  If you could sit down and pick a handful of things that you'd love to see our sports, Speedway, do better, what would those things be, mate?
• 38:25
  It's funny, Zoe asked me this question last night at dinner and said, how are you going to answer it?
• 38:30
  Politically correct, I guess, is the...
• 38:33
  I feel and I think people are going to disagree or not disagree.
• 38:39
  This has come from, I'll tell you where this has come from, mate, because...
• 38:42
  In addition to the thing that you're doing, I mean, Shane Van Gisbergen's just announced this week he's going to do some sprint car races in New Zealand.
• 38:49
  Cam Waters loves it, mate.
• 38:51
  He, you know, when I talked to him at an event recently, he talked very glowingly about his supercar stuff, but man, did he light up when we talked sprint cars.
• 38:58
  Yeah.
• 38:58
  So, I mean, these, all these things, we need to leverage that, don't we?
• 39:03
  Yeah.
• 39:03
  You know, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman in America.
• 39:09
  Speedway's in a tough spot in Australia right now.
• 39:12
  We talk about World Series and that was the pinnacle to me.
• 39:15
  Well, there isn't a World Series at the moment, which I find is the most disappointing thing out there because that's what I grew up wanting to do.
• 39:24
  So what are these young kids that are doing a great job right now winning local races, what are they striving to go and race right now?
• 39:31
  There's no national series for them to...
• 39:34
  to strive for.
• 39:36
  You know, that's what I did as a kid that then stepping stones you to America.
• 39:41
  But there is no...
• 39:44
  promotion if that's um i think i think that there's too much backgate promotion there's not enough you know cohesive yeah yeah and i think it's it's a it's in a tough spot the car owners have stepped up the the way that the teams are presented have stepped up the amount of cars is huge the young talent's great um
• 40:10
  90% of the tracks are still very rough.
• 40:14
  There's really no promotion, you know, to help the sport.
• 40:18
  You know, what Tim and our team have done already is three times more than what any national series does or things like that.
• 40:26
  And then there's too much politics.
• 40:28
  There's too many chiefs and not enough, you know, people that are in it for the, I don't want to say the right reasons, but...
• 40:37
  you know, time evolves, um, things change.
• 40:40
  So the way you race changes, the way I've had to, to race from the moment I started to now is completely different.
• 40:46
  Well, that's the same as promoting.
• 40:48
  That's the same as doing anything in any sport, everything.
• 40:50
  You evolve.
• 40:51
  There's progression.
• 40:51
  So, so I think we're in a really bad spot, to be honest with you.
• 40:55
  Um, our prize money is lower than it's ever been.
• 40:59
  Um, um,
• 41:00
  the cost of doing everything's higher than what it's ever been.
• 41:05
  So I just hope, I hope it's just a runoff of the COVID excuse right now.
• 41:11
  And in the next few years we get World Series kicking.
• 41:16
  You know, there's no way for,
• 41:19
  Americans say, which for us is our biggest market, if you want to be a driver, you need an American car owner to see you to make it over.
• 41:28
  They can't watch it.
• 41:30
  They can't.
• 41:33
  Man, like me being in America, I couldn't, like I had to look to find results to see.
• 41:41
  So to me, we're really missing something.
• 41:44
  And I go back to the podcast you did with Tony Cochran about with his Supercross stuff, how he was like, man, we are a sport where you can see everything.
• 41:53
  Everything's in front of you.
• 41:54
  You have that.
• 41:55
  Speedway has that.
• 41:56
  Absolutely.
• 41:56
  But we just don't have that next level.
• 41:59
  Yeah.
• 42:00
  I don't know.
• 42:01
  Maybe when I retire, I can do something like that.
• 42:03
  But, um, yeah, it's disappointing as a, as a, you know, as a driver, you know, if I was just to race off of prize money, there's not enough prize money here to make a living out of it.
• 42:14
  So you need a car owner or a good sponsor that's going to, you know, chip in to pay you a wage.
• 42:19
  Um, because we don't get paid wages generally, you, you race off percentage of prize money.
• 42:24
  So, um,
• 42:25
  It's disappointing.
• 42:26
  When I was younger, growing up, there was way more money in the sport.
• 42:30
  You had Speedway, Adelaide Speedway.
• 42:33
  They had five races that all paid $10,000, $15,000.
• 42:37
  You had Speedweek that paid $10,000.
• 42:38
  Well, it doesn't anymore.
• 42:41
  So there's no World Series sprint cars.
• 42:44
  So I hope the sport realizes how good we could have it.
• 42:50
  because of the talent pool, the car owners, the way it is.
• 42:55
  And then, you know, if everything else steps up, that becomes your corporate sponsors and your partners that are going to build the sport better.
• 43:02
  So as much as it needs to say a grassroots, you know, accessible motorsport, which I think is great, you know, fans can come in the pits and hang out and high five and do everything.
• 43:13
  There still needs to be a level of professionalism that hasn't been reached yet, I don't think so.
• 43:19
  Zoe would be proud, mate, because you handled that superbly, I reckon, because your answer, you know, at the end of the day, we hope they listen.
• 43:26
  But your answer comes from a place of wanting the best for your game more than it.
• 43:31
  And you've got a lot of things that you can, that experience and what they're doing in the States and so on that you can bring to the table.
• 43:38
  Hopefully that'll start some conversations.
• 43:40
  Good luck with Australia Day Week here, mate.
• 43:42
  We hope it's an immensely successful time for you.
• 43:45
  Enjoy a bit of family time over the Christmas period.
• 43:48
  And importantly, when you're back doing the grind next year and all those big Ks that you do in America, we hope that...
• 43:56
  um kansas was just the beginning and that that the year with roth in in 23 is a really good one for you mate thank you for coming on the podcast i appreciate it i like i told you this gets me up and down the road so hopefully we uh taught some things to some people that didn't probably know as much about speedway as what they did at the end of this so yeah come out and watch some races support your local track good stuff well done thank you
• 44:25
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 44:29
  Series editor and producer is Ed Gooden.
• 44:33
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 44:35
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 44:39
  The Garage.
• 44:40
  It's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.