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The Motorsport Brief: 2024 Supercars Season Preview · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Tuesday, the 20th of February, 2024.
• 0:09
  It's race week for supercars.
• 0:11
  And for this episode, we're going to preview round one and the season ahead.
• 0:16
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for another edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:21
  Before we get into Bathurst this weekend, a quick reminder that our latest feature ep is out now, recorded in the listener studios and with a guest that we should have had on the pod ages ago.
• 0:32
  David Reynolds was in fantastic form too.
• 0:35
  I hope you had...
• 0:36
  A laugh or two with us.
• 0:38
  Forgive my hyena laugh along the way.
• 0:40
  And if you haven't listened yet, I'm sure you'll find the conversation a really nice way to complement a road trip, a commute to work, or maybe even a workout.
• 0:49
  From restoring his first car, a rotary, to defending his 2017 Bathurst win and what went wrong that day.
• 0:56
  Plus, working with Grove Racing during the team's rise to a now serious supercars powerhouse and his new lease on life...
• 1:06
  Team 18.
• 1:07
  We'll bounce through a bit of news at the end of today's conversation.
• 1:10
  I thought we'd preview the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship with a broad look at the season ahead, the work done during the break to try and achieve parity between the cars and kind of go team by team and consider their chances.
• 1:24
  To do that, I'm joined by a respected writer and an award-winning journo who's been on the mic from time to time too.
• 1:32
  He formerly worked with Motorsport News Magazine for many years and now is the Supercars Correspondent for Motorsport.com.
• 1:39
  It is good to get Phil Branigan on the show for the first time.
• 1:43
  Hello, mate, and welcome.
• 1:45
  Thanks, Rusty.
• 1:45
  Nice to be here.
• 1:46
  Thanks for remembering me.
• 1:48
  We always remember you.
• 1:49
  How can we forget you?
• 1:49
  I hate to think how many years it's been in this business.
• 1:52
  It's been a lot, but that's why we've got you on, because we know how closely connected you are to it and so on.
• 1:58
  Are we a little bit gutted that there's not more rounds in 2024?
• 2:03
  Kind of a few years on from the pandemic, I was hoping we might see the series expand its offering again.
• 2:11
  That's part of the plan.
• 2:12
  It hasn't happened yet.
• 2:14
  We do remember wee grey hairs going to China.
• 2:17
  Some of us made it to Texas as well back in the day.
• 2:20
  Middle East was a regular port of call for supercars, and there is a desire to take it back there.
• 2:25
  There was a lot of talk there was going to be 13 rounds in 24, but we're at 12 as long as it's a good 12.
• 2:33
  I'm happy.
• 2:33
  And we get to go to Bathurst twice, so that's good.
• 2:35
  Exactly.
• 2:36
  And New Zealand is also on the calendar.
• 2:38
  I think most people think Topo will be good.
• 2:41
  Sandown is important in the offering too.
• 2:45
  You're a Melbourner.
• 2:46
  Is there a feeling that the reason it's got added importance, not just because it's an endurance event, but it could potentially be one of the last times that we go there?
• 2:58
  Yeah, it could well be there's been talk about,
• 3:02
  I don't want to tell you how many years I've been going to Sandown.
• 3:03
  I first went there, I think, as a 13 or 14-year-old, but there's been talk for the last 20 years that this is going to be the last Sandown.
• 3:10
  You better go now because it's going to be the last Sandown.
• 3:13
  There was a redevelopment done some years ago.
• 3:15
  If you drive to the place, you'll see there's houses almost on the doorstep now.
• 3:18
  I hate to think what that land's worth.
• 3:20
  There'll be a lot of people living there sometime, maybe in a few years' time, but it's worth going to see the Sandown 500, I think.
• 3:28
  It's always a great race, and it's a great venue, a lot of history.
• 3:30
  I agree.
• 3:31
  I love the history of the place.
• 3:32
  Big mission over summer for the sport, sending some cars to the United States to kind of really take the parity process to the next level.
• 3:42
  World's best practice, I think, as the sport has been saying.
• 3:44
  Is there a feeling on both sides that things will be closer, in your opinion, between Camaro and Mustang this year?
• 3:52
  There does and there has to be because supercars hasn't put in all this effort.
• 3:57
  They haven't spent all this money on making sure that things stay the way they are.
• 4:02
  The wind shear, wind tunnel tests in the US were very public or rather they were publicised by supercars.
• 4:08
  because they want to be seen to be doing the right thing.
• 4:10
  There's been a massive technical shake-up on the supercar side.
• 4:13
  Tim Edwards is now the general manager of motorsport, former boss of Tickford, of course, for 20 years.
• 4:18
  Scott Harmon's come in as a performance engineer and Hugh Malia as a technical projects manager.
• 4:23
  So they've actually gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that the verification of these cars is as close as they can make it.
• 4:30
  That process continued at Bathurst during the 12-hour when they had to run a Mustang and a Camaro, both fitted with a lot of sensors.
• 4:37
  It will continue next week at Bathurst and beyond that because supercars does not want to go through this again.
• 4:44
  They don't want that parity discussion that you and I have been hearing for the last 25 years on and off.
• 4:50
  They don't want that to continue.
• 4:51
  They want everybody on both sides to be happy.
• 4:54
  Can we bounce through the lineup of teams on the grid, maybe get your thoughts?
• 4:58
  Much has been said, right, about Erebus in recent weeks.
• 5:01
  We know that their driver's champion in Brodie Kosticki won't be with them for round one.
• 5:06
  The cars are good.
• 5:07
  The crew is essentially the same.
• 5:09
  That presents a great opportunity for Jack LeBrock and for Todd Hazelwood this coming weekend.
• 5:14
  Could the champion team actually kind of leave all of that other stuff behind and potentially pick up some silverware here?
• 5:22
  They're not the champion team for no good reason.
• 5:24
  All the reasons they prevailed last year in the team's championship, most of them are still there, but they'd have different drivers.
• 5:30
  If you go back three years, they had a reset when Brown and Kostecki arrived and they built a team around them.
• 5:36
  And now it's Jack LeBrock.
• 5:38
  And for the time being Todd Hazelwood, but in two brand new cars, the team has worked very hard on the off season to build.
• 5:44
  And people forget a couple of things about Bathurst.
• 5:47
  And one is that sometimes there is a driver who may not have been a front-line driver at other tracks who are sneaky fast at Bathurst.
• 5:56
  And I think LeBrock's one of those guys.
• 5:58
  I think he sees this as an opportunity.
• 6:00
  Now, he's been around for a long time.
• 6:01
  He's got good performances at that track before.
• 6:03
  He almost won the race in 2016.
• 6:05
  He was three and a half seconds away when he shared a car with Cam Waters.
• 6:09
  He could leave the circuit in 14th place in the championship on Sunday night, but he could leave the circuit in the top three of the points.
• 6:16
  Either of those things are possible.
• 6:18
  Will Brown starts a new chapter at Red Bull Ampol Racing, having left Erebus.
• 6:23
  Will there be a kind of settling phase for him and that Brock Feeney benefits from those familiar surroundings for him?
• 6:33
  Or will these two, straight off the blocks, in your opinion, be the ones to beat?
• 6:38
  Are they the ones with the target on their back?
• 6:42
  They must be.
• 6:43
  Feeney must be because Feeney's got continuity.
• 6:46
  He knows what was there last year.
• 6:47
  He knows how the team operates.
• 6:49
  Brown's the new boy.
• 6:50
  But don't forget, Brown led the championship for a fair few of the rounds last year.
• 6:54
  He's very fast.
• 6:55
  He's very fast at Bathurst, so is Feeney.
• 6:58
  In terms of being the title favourites at the moment, they might be, at least on the Chevrolet side of the fence.
• 7:04
  But don't forget, we've already talked about parity.
• 7:06
  If the Fords come out on an equal footing with the Chevres...
• 7:10
  They can't take anything for granted at Red Bull Ample Racing.
• 7:13
  Why don't we consider one of the Ford teams now, and I'm going to specifically look at Grove Racing with you if we can.
• 7:19
  A second and very well-deserved chance for a reinvigorated Richie Stanaway, the most recent race winner in the sport in Matt Payne, a bright young star alongside him.
• 7:33
  The team, for me, I think will kind of...
• 7:36
  They have staked a claim right at the end of last year's championship.
• 7:39
  They have arrived.
• 7:40
  Can they consistently fight for this title, do you think?
• 7:45
  You know what?
• 7:46
  I'm not prepared to rule out anything for Stanaway.
• 7:49
  He's such a talent.
• 7:50
  He's so fast.
• 7:52
  He seems focused.
• 7:54
  That team has taken some big steps in the last 12 months.
• 7:58
  But Payne...
• 8:00
  I've just got a feeling about this guy that we're looking at something special.
• 8:04
  We saw it in Adelaide.
• 8:06
  We've been around a long time, Rusty.
• 8:07
  How many times have you seen drivers drive away from the pack at Adelaide?
• 8:11
  We saw Winkup do it.
• 8:12
  We've seen Lowndes do it.
• 8:14
  Scaife has done it back in the day.
• 8:16
  Ambrose has done it.
• 8:18
  I don't want to put too much pressure on Payne.
• 8:20
  He's only 21.
• 8:21
  He's only starting his second full season in the sport, but he looks like something special, and there could be some great things ahead in that Penright-branded team.
• 8:28
  Do we?
• 8:28
  I mean, well, I'll continue with some of the teams here in a moment, but just more broadly speaking, Phil, you know, Shane Van Gisbergen's gone to the United States and so on.
• 8:38
  Is this a new chapter for young stars that we're looking at here?
• 8:44
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 8:45
  There's no question.
• 8:46
  We've got the veterans, we've got the 40-somethings, Winterbottom and Davison and James Courtney, who's going to be the oldest driver on the grid.
• 8:56
  We've got the late 20-somethings, your Heimgartners, your Anton De Pasquale's, your Randall's, and then you've got your mid-20s, your Browns and Fullwood, and then Feeney's 21, Aaron Love's 21, Payne's 21.
• 9:09
  Ryan Woods 20, what are you putting in the water over there in New Zealand?
• 9:11
  I wish you'd stop it because you're kicking out all these young drivers.
• 9:17
  We've got Kai Allen sitting on the sidelines.
• 9:18
  He's gonna be in Super 2.
• 9:19
  It's not long before he's gonna come in.
• 9:21
  I actually wrote a piece about this in Autosport a few weeks ago.
• 9:25
  As much as this wasn't planned for supercars, not to have Kostecchi on the grid, here's a great opportunity to put the focus on these guys
• 9:33
  Some people might say you can't throw them to the walls, but you know what?
• 9:36
  Racing drivers get thrown to the walls all the time.
• 9:38
  That's why they go into the business.
• 9:39
  That's the wolf business.
• 9:42
  This breed of young drivers is as good as any I've seen for a long time.
• 9:47
  And a lot of them look like they're ready to upset the apple cart and ruin some reputations and maybe end some careers.
• 9:55
  I love that they're grabbing the opportunity.
• 9:57
  And hopefully the sport, as you say, shines a light on it.
• 10:01
  And the teams are showing faith in them.
• 10:03
  That's great.
• 10:04
  Yeah, exactly.
• 10:04
  Exactly.
• 10:05
  Let's go to Walkinshaw and Trudy United.
• 10:08
  So Chas Mostert, alongside another bright young star in Ryan Wood, who stepped up from Super 2.
• 10:16
  Are all the ingredients right for Chas?
• 10:18
  And what realistically, realistically, should we expect from Ryan in year one in the main game, do you reckon?
• 10:25
  I think the management at WAU wants to play him in gently.
• 10:30
  Whether racing drivers like being played in gently or not is a different question.
• 10:35
  Is Chas Mostert, is he ever going to have a better chance?
• 10:38
  Providing, once again, the parity is kind of between the Mustang and the Camaro.
• 10:42
  He looks the complete package.
• 10:43
  He's a great qualifier.
• 10:44
  He's a fantastic racer.
• 10:45
  He usually doesn't make mistakes.
• 10:47
  But motor racing is a funny business.
• 10:49
  A long time ago, someone said, you don't win championships on your good days, you win them on your bad days.
• 10:53
  In other words, when you might be 12th or 16th and you scrape together enough points in eighth or maybe drag it to sixth, how many times have we seen the greats in the sport do that right across the board, whether it's supercars or somewhere else?
• 11:07
  Mostert's good at that.
• 11:08
  He came on like a train in the second half of last season.
• 11:10
  He's a class act.
• 11:11
  The team doesn't lack anything.
• 11:12
  They've got a great budget.
• 11:14
  This could be Chas's year.
• 11:15
  Listen to you, the wise owl.
• 11:17
  I love it.
• 11:18
  The wise owl.
• 11:19
  I knew him when he was young.
• 11:20
  Yes.
• 11:21
  Dick Johnson Racing.
• 11:23
  Ryan's story is back and helping to drive the organisation forward again.
• 11:28
  Ludo Lacroix has departed during the break.
• 11:31
  Will we see a resurgence from this team?
• 11:34
  Will Davison and Anton Di Pasquale, who you mentioned before.
• 11:37
  They've had some organisational changes.
• 11:40
  They're no longer...
• 11:42
  Well, they don't have the responsibility of being the whole location team and the engine supply, even though it's in-house, has been moved off to like a side project.
• 11:50
  So that's all working in their favour.
• 11:52
  There's no questions about the quality of the drivers.
• 11:54
  I think Anton Deepaswali looked fantastic.
• 11:58
  When the car permitted him to last year, he took an emphatic win in Townsville.
• 12:01
  But he did have an extra set of tyres because he had a bad Saturday.
• 12:05
  It's time for him to step up, quite frankly.
• 12:06
  And it's probably time for Davison to show greater consistency.
• 12:10
  That's what that team will be looking for.
• 12:11
  They're right in that mix.
• 12:13
  The team doesn't lack anything.
• 12:14
  We've seen what they've done in previous incarnations.
• 12:17
  So there's no reason why both of them shouldn't be able to win races and race wins put you in title contention.
• 12:23
  Hey, Phil, can we get you to stay on the line there for just a moment?
• 12:25
  We're going to grab a quick break here.
• 12:27
  Our preview of the 2024 Supercars Championship continues in just a few moments.
• 12:34
  You're listening to the Rusty's Garage Motorsport Brief.
• 12:37
  Motorsport.com's Phil Brannigan is with us as we cast an eye over the supercars grid ahead of this weekend's season opener in Bathurst.
• 12:47
  We talked before the break about Ludo Lacroix leaving DJR.
• 12:51
  He's landed at Premier.
• 12:52
  What impact does he make and how quickly will we see this outfit become perhaps more of a regular force?
• 12:59
  There's certainly absolute glimpses of their speed, isn't there?
• 13:03
  Yeah, there is.
• 13:03
  They need consistency.
• 13:05
  Lacroix is very good at providing that.
• 13:08
  He's very calm.
• 13:09
  You talk about a wise owl.
• 13:10
  He is a wise owl sitting there as long as people can understand him and wind him up and get the best out of him.
• 13:16
  He's a very smart guy.
• 13:17
  He knows a lot about setting up supercars.
• 13:19
  Technically, I don't think there's anyone much better than him in pit lane.
• 13:22
  It's how he settles in.
• 13:24
  It's a big shift.
• 13:25
  It's a different team.
• 13:26
  I think he's going to be working by remote control between the races.
• 13:31
  It's a big challenge for the drivers because if the cars are right, they're not going to have any excuses.
• 13:35
  And it's time for Tim Slade and Jimmy G to really put their best foot forward.
• 13:40
  one of the biggest teams that we should talk about, and you alluded to them before, and that's Tickford.
• 13:44
  Big restructure over the break, a downsize from four cars to two.
• 13:49
  Does this work for them?
• 13:50
  A reset to get two cars competitive on a regular basis, and how important for Cam Waters and Thomas Randall is this?
• 13:59
  I think Waters is in a similar position to Chas Mostert.
• 14:04
  This has to be his year.
• 14:06
  He's got everything he needs at his disposal.
• 14:08
  He's got good backing.
• 14:10
  He's got the attention of the team, like you say, of downsize.
• 14:13
  There has been a management change in the team, but that shouldn't affect the way it runs, certainly in a negative fashion.
• 14:20
  Waters has got a lot of experience...
• 14:23
  by now and he went well into his supercast career.
• 14:25
  He's almost a decade into it, if you can believe it.
• 14:27
  Crazy.
• 14:28
  He's had a lot of race wins.
• 14:29
  He just needs to start tying things together.
• 14:30
  But there's no reason why Cam can't be a title contender and take it all the way to the end of the season.
• 14:36
  What about Thomas Randall there?
• 14:38
  Great talent.
• 14:39
  I'm not sure all the building blocks are in place yet.
• 14:43
  But on his day...
• 14:45
  he's one of these drivers that can also just consistently put it on the podium.
• 14:48
  And that's one of the great things we saw from him last year when he started to string results together.
• 14:52
  So in that battle of the forwards, which we weren't used to seeing last year, or we were, but it was further down the grid, how that's all going to wash out and what the pecking order is going to be, we're not quite sure.
• 15:03
  I just talked about whether the Shell V-Power cars are going to be at the shiny end.
• 15:07
  It wouldn't be that surprising to see them at the tail end of the forward pack because there's so many good candidates in there.
• 15:13
  David Reynolds reunites with Frosty.
• 15:15
  They were both at Tickford a couple of years back.
• 15:17
  This time it's Team 18.
• 15:19
  Adrian Burgess is there now.
• 15:20
  Can you see that being collectively a good formula for the kind of success that clearly team owner Charlie Schwerko craves more often?
• 15:30
  It better be because Frosty's in the twilight of his career now.
• 15:34
  But we saw he's still got the speed.
• 15:35
  He was quick last year.
• 15:36
  He won races.
• 15:38
  Reynolds was on fire when he was on fire.
• 15:41
  He also needs a bit more consistency.
• 15:43
  It's how he settles into that environment.
• 15:44
  But he's such an easygoing character.
• 15:46
  It's hard to imagine that he and Schwerko won't get on.
• 15:49
  But sometimes there's fireworks behind the scenes, as we've learned during the offseason, that don't necessarily affect the team.
• 15:57
  Well, I think they'll have a great season.
• 15:59
  Will there be title contenders?
• 16:00
  Maybe not.
• 16:01
  But you can't discount those two guys from winning anywhere.
• 16:04
  Matt Stone Racing.
• 16:05
  Nick Perkat sounds like he feels right at home here.
• 16:09
  It's a fresh start.
• 16:10
  What should we expect from him and MSR?
• 16:12
  I mean, given, as you talked about before, I mean, Jack LeBrock had a score to win for them last year and so on.
• 16:17
  Yeah.
• 16:19
  Very much so.
• 16:20
  Perkat's an enigma, isn't he?
• 16:23
  He's been around for a long time and he's as talented as anybody, but sometimes we don't get to see him.
• 16:29
  I think a change of environment is going to do him the world of good.
• 16:32
  I think the team's going to put a lot of confidence in him.
• 16:34
  Cameron Hill is a rising star.
• 16:36
  He's been fantastic on the way to this point of his career, so it's time for him to step up.
• 16:41
  I think he might have a good relationship with Perkett.
• 16:44
  It's an ideal opportunity for him to use Perkett as a mentor and to take that step.
• 16:50
  It's a good team.
• 16:51
  I don't want to call it a good little team because that sounds like it's insulting.
• 16:54
  They've built a really good base there, and Matt Stone and his crew can be proud.
• 16:58
  They've got two drivers they can move forward with.
• 17:00
  To Albury's finest, Andre Heimgartner.
• 17:03
  Andre's finest.
• 17:04
  He starred for Brad Jones Racing last year.
• 17:07
  They've dominated that pit stop challenge for many years now.
• 17:10
  Porsche driver Jackson Evans joins Fullwood, as you detailed there before.
• 17:15
  Does the kind of year two of Gen 3 present an opportunity for this kind of much-loved operation?
• 17:24
  It is going to be that much harder, but a little bit of New Zealand on the Murray River.
• 17:28
  The New Zealand side of the garage, Heimgartner's a proven performer.
• 17:32
  He's very fast, but with due respect, I'm looking forward to seeing how Jackson Evans goes.
• 17:37
  He's been like lightning in everything he's driven.
• 17:40
  At the Bathurst 12-hour on the weekend, he dragged the car, him and his co-drivers, from well outside the top 10 into the fight for the major positions at the end of the race.
• 17:48
  Did fantastically well.
• 17:50
  He is one of the drivers to watch, and it looks like he's going to have a great future.
• 17:54
  And don't forget Bryce Fullwood as well in one of the other cars, the Middies car.
• 17:57
  He's shown a lot of speed through the course of last season, a bit more consistency, and yeah, he could be in the fight for the top six or eight positions.
• 18:04
  Let's go to Blanchard Racing Team, BRT, an expansion to two cars.
• 18:07
  James Courtney comes across from Tickford.
• 18:10
  He's joined by another fast youngster in Aaron Love.
• 18:13
  Two cars is a bigger outlay, naturally.
• 18:15
  That's an obvious thing to say.
• 18:16
  But does that kind of collective help them take a step forward in 24, particularly given JC's experience?
• 18:22
  Exactly.
• 18:23
  And Courtney has kind of assumed the mentor role in the last few years, wherever he's been.
• 18:30
  And this is a great opportunity for him to race 24.
• 18:32
  with the greatest respect, James, alongside somebody half your age.
• 18:36
  And what an opportunity for love.
• 18:38
  Blanchards have built a really strong base.
• 18:41
  They've done it slowly.
• 18:42
  They've done it steadily.
• 18:44
  They've taken on a few personnel from Tickford.
• 18:46
  They've got very good equipment.
• 18:48
  They've got very sound backing, good budget, everything they need, a little bit of luck.
• 18:54
  They've had some damage on cars in the last couple of years, but they've shown speed on occasion.
• 18:59
  it's going to be fascinating to see how Love goes in his rookie season.
• 19:01
  But Courtney, on his day, still has a bit of fire in the belly, doesn't he?
• 19:05
  Yeah, he does.
• 19:06
  Right here on the roof and a bit of fire on the fireplace.
• 19:08
  And Aaron Love's actually been to Topor and run in a support category, I think last November it may have been, just to cut some laps in something non-supercar orientated, but to ensure that he's got as much familiarity with the venue as he possibly can.
• 19:22
  So you've got to admire that kind of application from that young man.
• 19:26
  And there is...
• 19:27
  quality motor racing in the Love family, isn't there?
• 19:31
  Yeah.
• 19:31
  It's a real – it's turning into a bit of a dynasty, isn't it?
• 19:33
  And Courtney Love.
• 19:34
  I mean, how can you not like Courtney Love?
• 19:37
  Right.
• 19:37
  I knew you'd do something like that.
• 19:38
  Finally, Bathurst this weekend.
• 19:41
  Will it work?
• 19:42
  Can you see a return to a signature event somewhere else in New South Wales at some stage?
• 19:46
  In my opinion, Newcastle were mad to let it go.
• 19:48
  Yeah.
• 19:49
  Yeah, I can see both sides of that argument.
• 19:51
  If they weren't going to get a long-term guarantee from the state government, I can see why the ratepayers might not have wanted to support that race.
• 19:57
  And it makes sense from a council point of view.
• 20:00
  It's a great shame for everybody.
• 20:03
  You and I have both been to Newcastle.
• 20:04
  We know what a great place it is.
• 20:05
  It's one of the few places where I've heard people walking around saying, I'm going to come back here when there's no race on because I want to see more of this environment.
• 20:12
  And it really did work, and I think the numbers showed that.
• 20:14
  But it's gone in the same way as one day Sandown will be gone, in the same way as we don't race VX supercars at Caldera anymore.
• 20:22
  back in the old days.
• 20:23
  So, look, we have to move on.
• 20:25
  I'd like to see more support in New South Wales.
• 20:28
  I don't know if two Bathursts is going to work in the long term because there's restrictions on what they can actually do at the circuit.
• 20:36
  There's a new permanent racetrack being built north of Newcastle, and there's talk that they might have a temporary venue somewhere else in regional New South Wales, which is a great part of the world.
• 20:45
  Not quite as nice as some parts of New Zealand, maybe, but...
• 20:50
  We'll look forward to getting there and we'll keep an eye on whether we're going to go back to somewhere in New South Wales and then get out our passports and see if we need them sometime in the future.
• 20:58
  Phil, thank you so much for coming on today and we look forward to getting you back on the podcast again soon.
• 21:04
  Hopefully Bathurst is a great success this weekend and we know you'll be covering it all for motorsport.com.
• 21:09
  Thanks, mate.
• 21:09
  Look forward to being back next time and it's going to be a great season.
• 21:13
  Bathurst might mark the start of the supercar season, but it's actually the end of a big week at the mountain.
• 21:20
  The 12-hour was huge, with TV ratings to match.
• 21:24
  Seventh most watched show last Sunday, with a reach of 1.3 million.
• 21:30
  Well done to everyone involved on the TV side, including some colleagues and friends.
• 21:34
  Chad Nalon, Jack Perkins, Garth Tander...
• 21:37
  Richard Crail, who does a stellar job in commentary, and everyone else behind the scenes for that matter.
• 21:42
  Matt Nolte on the support coverage there too.
• 21:44
  We had Matt Campbell on the short cast recently.
• 21:47
  What a year he is having, and it's only February.
• 21:51
  The former McElroy Racing protege added this year's 12-hour to his Daytona 24-hour win last month.
• 21:58
  We wish him well for the rest of the season.
• 22:00
  Congratulations to everyone on that Porsche team.
• 22:03
  On the other side of the ditch, it was the 68th running of the New Zealand Grand Prix at the Highlands Track, about 40 minutes out of Queenstown on the South Island there.
• 22:12
  The place looked incredible too.
• 22:15
  First time that they've staged the GP at that venue.
• 22:18
  Young Aucklander Liam Skeets, who was racing in Japan last year and is eyeing up a move to the United States,
• 22:25
  joined a very impressive list of winners of that GP, which includes Bruce McLaren, Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Jack Brabham, and in the modern era, Paul Radisic, Craig Baird, Liam Lawson, Shane Van Gisbergen and more.
• 22:39
  Thierry's, he's actually based in the UK, wrapped up the Formula Regional Oceania title in race two of the weekend, but had a massive crash right at the end of the GP that saw him climb over the top of another car and hit the wall on the final corner.
• 22:55
  Both drivers were given the all-clear, with Belinsky understandably a little sore when I caught up with him at the Toyota New Zealand End of Year Awards for that championship.
• 23:05
  They've been on the road for about five straight weeks.
• 23:08
  And finally, to everyone who said I was fence-sitting in that short cast with Peter Adderton and Simon Chapman as we unpacked various aspects of the Erebus-Brodie Kostecki situation recently...
• 23:20
  I don't care, that's your view, you may be right.
• 23:22
  Call me old school, but I want to actually wait until I hear from the direct parties involved, be it Barry or Betty from Erebus and from Brody himself, when they are ready to do so.
• 23:34
  And I've extended that offer to all of them.
• 23:36
  In the meantime, what I endeavour to do was fairly discuss the situation with a couple of people who've either followed the story closely or know the parties involved.
• 23:45
  That's all.
• 23:46
  You can make up your own minds.
• 23:48
  I'll just go and get some splinters removed, shall I?
• 23:51
  Catch you next week, everybody.
• 23:52
  Oh, and I recorded a pod with West Surrey Racing's British Touring Car Championship team owner, Dick Bennett, while I was at Highlands too.
• 24:00
  That's out next week.
• 24:01
  Some cool yarns in there from his time in Formula 3, working with a young Ayrton Senna, a young Micah Hackinen, Keke Rosberg, and many more.
• 24:10
  That's it for today.
• 24:11
  We'll catch you next time.
• 24:12
  Bye for now.