Latest / Rusty's Garage / Anton De Pasquale | Part 1 - Larko’s radar and open wheels OS

Transcript

Anton De Pasquale | Part 1 - Larko’s radar and open wheels OS · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  For this episode, I'm in Melbourne on the way to Darwin.
• 0:07
  Second visit there in a month, but this time for the Shannon Speed Series.
• 0:11
  And while I was in town, I had the opportunity, almost by chance, to chat with Anton Di Pasquale.
• 0:16
  When it came up, we jumped at it, and I'm so pleased that we did.
• 0:19
  This is easy, enjoyable listening, and I say that because...
• 0:23
  The conversation is almost organic at times.
• 0:26
  That is a shit overused term, I know, but it really is.
• 0:30
  By chance, a studio at Listener was also available.
• 0:33
  Team 18 went the extra mile to kindly tee it up, so away we went.
• 0:37
  This is a story of someone who had great open-wheel talent that actually took Anton beyond our shores to a Formula Renault title.
• 0:45
  That chapter...
• 0:46
  on his CV was noticed and valued by some key team people in the Supercars paddock as he would later discover and he drove at some great tracks in Europe too.
• 0:56
  Although Supercars are incredibly different when he made that change it almost immediately underscored his talent and the story of a day at Norwell with Paul Morris to start Anton on the Supercars path is a beauty.
• 1:08
  But what I learned in this chat is the heartfelt investment he makes in the lives of the people working around him on the car.
• 1:15
  He's in the workshop regularly and socialises beyond race weekends with the crew.
• 1:20
  That forges a good bond, trust.
• 1:23
  Anton also has a level-headed approach when things aren't necessarily going right, but is still a straight talker.
• 1:30
  We cover some good ground here, including coaching work with a young Brock Feeney, a resto project that he's got his eyes on when he can release the purse strings, and some international racing that he'd like to do eventually.
• 1:43
  Quick thank you to Adrian Burgess, Dewey Jones at Team 18, and Mark Larkham for the pre-game chats too.
• 1:49
  Enjoy getting to know Anton Di Pasquale a little better.
• 1:56
  Hello, mate.
• 1:56
  Welcome.
• 1:57
  Thank you.
• 1:58
  I feel like you're... You do this stuff.
• 2:00
  You obviously have to do this stuff from a work sense, but you're a private person by nature in the same breath, aren't you?
• 2:07
  So the notion of Greg Russ calling and going, hey, you want to come and talk a bit about life and time and career of Anton Di Pasquale isn't necessarily something you'd race to do, though, is it?
• 2:17
  I don't mind.
• 2:18
  I quite like this sort of informal chat of like sort of...
• 2:23
  podcast style.
• 2:24
  I don't do a lot of it.
• 2:25
  I don't have my own one, obviously.
• 2:27
  But yeah, I don't mind it.
• 2:29
  It's a bit of fun, but yeah, I don't sort of spread my whole life out there, probably because I don't do anything cooler than drive a race car around, which everyone knows about.
• 2:37
  So nothing in my life is as cool as my job, which is pretty cool.
• 2:41
  Now, can we come to that?
• 2:42
  I've spoken to a couple of people before this, just for thought provokers or conversation starters.
• 2:46
  Larko was one of them.
• 2:47
  I literally hung up when you arrived here today.
• 2:50
  It's going to be dangerous.
• 2:51
  No, no, it's good.
• 2:53
  It reinforces kind of everything that I thought in some respects.
• 2:56
  And he talked about you, school, and how you have only ever really lived...
• 3:07
  ate and breathed, as they say, cars and racing.
• 3:10
  There was never any inkling to do anything else, was there?
• 3:16
  No, not really.
• 3:17
  I think it was one of those very fortunate, like if you wind it back, very fortunate to have the opportunity to...
• 3:24
  race, but if I didn't want to race, I was allowed to do footy.
• 3:26
  I could do, if I wanted to go to school, I could go to, like, I was allowed to.
• 3:29
  But academia wasn't your thing though, mate, is that what you're saying?
• 3:32
  I didn't enjoy it.
• 3:33
  I actually wasn't too bad at it, but, um, that's a whole nother topic.
• 3:36
  But I was given that ability to choose what I enjoyed, um, which was really fortunate.
• 3:41
  Unfortunately for my parents, I chose the most expensive thing that I could find.
• 3:46
  Um, but yeah, once I sort of
• 3:49
  once we committed to doing formal forward and you, you know, you spend in big bucks, then it was, it was just plan A is plan A and plan B.
• 3:57
  What's the point of that?
• 3:58
  So, um, yeah.
• 4:00
  And you know, you still, even if it'll come crumbling down, you're still young, you can press on.
• 4:05
  But, um, yeah, since I've sort of been, um,
• 4:09
  racing that high level go karts onwards it's it was like yep yep let's go racing um and let's do it so yeah plan b's um hasn't really crossed my mind and it still hasn't and hopefully never does good you've triggered two things here in the in the conversation firstly the footy stuff um i mean you're you're a fan of collingwood to this day you love your afl don't you
• 4:31
  Yeah, I love footy.
• 4:33
  I think anyone in any race team ever with me will know that.
• 4:37
  Sort of once I digest the day and everything, I sort of wind down after a race or after Friday practices, turn the footy on at night.
• 4:45
  I have to obviously go through the debriefing and the engineering stuff, but that's sort of my wind down.
• 4:50
  And I watch pretty much most games every week.
• 4:53
  Just love it.
• 4:53
  It's a good sport.
• 4:54
  But in saying that, I love sport.
• 4:55
  I woke up watching the World Cup a lot.
• 4:57
  Nice.
• 4:57
  Yeah.
• 4:58
  I just enjoy sport.
• 4:59
  I think the concept of sport and competing is sort of what keeps me going.
• 5:03
  As the sport, as in our motor racing supercars, has that provided an opportunity for a little bit of crossover from time where you've maybe, I don't know, had a kick around with some of the players or done a few things like that?
• 5:13
  Yeah.
• 5:14
  Um, yeah.
• 5:15
  The beauty of our sport is we do cross over with a lot of cool things.
• 5:18
  Obviously sports, one of them.
• 5:19
  Um, so done a fair bit of stuff with some AFL teams and players over the years and kick some goals with them and stuff.
• 5:26
  And, um, I quite enjoy that cause that takes me back to when I was like 12, 13 thinking I could, I could kick a footy.
• 5:32
  Well, obviously can't kick as good as them.
• 5:34
  Um, but
• 5:35
  And, yeah, we had a kick once.
• 5:38
  A few of the Bulldogs players, myself and Dave, and Dave's not a footy player.
• 5:42
  And he doesn't want to be, and he hasn't tried to be.
• 5:44
  He can strut like one, though, can't he?
• 5:45
  Yeah, and you can tell the way he kicks.
• 5:47
  Terrible.
• 5:48
  He's never kicked a foot in his life.
• 5:50
  But, yeah, you get to cross over a lot of cool stuff over the years and take people for hot laps, and that's the beauty of our sport.
• 5:56
  That's what we can offer back.
• 5:59
  And you take people for hot laps, and they're just amazed of –
• 6:02
  what it is because it's not just driving a car around, which is what your first concept is.
• 6:07
  So yeah, that's sort of a beauty of our sport as well.
• 6:09
  Those things are great.
• 6:11
  They're really eye-opening things.
• 6:12
  And when you watch a footy player get out of a supercar or something like that, it changes their whole perspective.
• 6:18
  Once they realize what actually goes on in your world and how...
• 6:22
  you know, how they corner, how they break, things like that.
• 6:26
  And there is that crossover, I think, between fans of both coats too, isn't there?
• 6:32
  Yeah, for sure.
• 6:33
  Like I said, I'm a fan of both.
• 6:36
  I like all sports.
• 6:37
  I think people that like sport like sport.
• 6:38
  Like you enjoy seeing people compete.
• 6:41
  You enjoy seeing the underdog win.
• 6:43
  You enjoy all those things about sort of Australian sport especially.
• 6:46
  So, yeah, I think it all crosses over a lot.
• 6:48
  Tell me about school life and early life.
• 6:51
  Is it Werribee?
• 6:52
  And mum and dad were kind of... Was it market gardening?
• 6:56
  What was that?
• 6:56
  It's Sam and Michelle too, mate.
• 6:57
  Is that right?
• 6:58
  Yeah, that's pretty good.
• 7:00
  Yeah.
• 7:02
  So from a farming family, grew up on a farm.
• 7:05
  Parents and them are still farming.
• 7:07
  So that's been going ever since.
• 7:10
  What do they grow?
• 7:10
  So like...
• 7:12
  like mainly cauliflowers throughout the years, but it's that sort of, the area grows like broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, all that sort of green veggie stuff that you sort of hate as kids, but you grow to love as you get older.
• 7:24
  That's sort of what the area does really well.
• 7:27
  So that's been, yeah, my life as a kid.
• 7:29
  And that's sort of what indirectly probably got me into where I'm now.
• 7:31
  Motorbikes, paddock bashes,
• 7:33
  all this cool stuff, which is a sort of world coming back around.
• 7:37
  My nephew's doing all that now at three years old.
• 7:39
  He's got his first motorbike and stuff.
• 7:41
  And, um, yeah, he's gone down that same path.
• 7:43
  So, um, yeah.
• 7:45
  It was really cool.
• 7:46
  Where's that gene come from then?
• 7:47
  Does that come from dad, from someone else?
• 7:50
  Did you, what made you gravitate to it?
• 7:53
  I don't know.
• 7:53
  I think it goes back to what I said earlier.
• 7:55
  I was just allowed to do stuff and allowed to sort of make your own choices.
• 7:59
  And if you like something, we're allowed to be good at it or try to be good at it at least.
• 8:04
  So my sister had horses, you know, we'd both just have the four wheelers and go after school and stuff and get in a lot of trouble doing stuff we weren't supposed to.
• 8:13
  But yeah, I think it was just that freedom of...
• 8:17
  being able to do cool stuff and obviously being on a farm and stuff.
• 8:20
  It's not normal to have a motorbike in your backyard and just be able to turn it on and go for a ride and have a bit of a track at the back.
• 8:26
  So I had all that.
• 8:28
  And then that eventually turned into go-karts at some point.
• 8:31
  The go-karts stuff, I mean, if I look through some of the success points, I mean, I could rattle that off in the introduction to this podcast episode.
• 8:38
  Did it click straight away for you?
• 8:40
  Did you take to it like a duck to water?
• 8:41
  Where was the kind of the first real experience that you can remember?
• 8:45
  I think it...
• 8:47
  naturally it never does.
• 8:48
  Like, yeah, it's, it's hard to be fast in a go-kart.
• 8:50
  And, um, the first time I tried it, I was no good, obviously, but, um, got going pretty well.
• 8:55
  So pretty quickly, like only race karts for three years.
• 8:58
  And, um, because I got into it late.
• 9:01
  So I started racing when I was 13.
• 9:03
  Um, but I come from dirt bikes and sort of doing stuff that, um, was like it.
• 9:09
  So, um,
• 9:11
  Once I got going and raced and we sort of worked out after the first couple of race meetings, everyone's been doing this for a long time, we'll bit off the pace.
• 9:17
  And then we stepped up the game a bit and started practicing.
• 9:20
  And same thing, like dad really committed to it.
• 9:23
  And we went to a lot of tracks and we sort of...
• 9:26
  Both had no idea what we were doing, but we realized that we had to do more of it to work it out.
• 9:31
  So we just, you know, sign up to a country meet here, go to there, go here, go there.
• 9:35
  It's a bit of Tassie and stuff too, mate, I think, didn't it?
• 9:37
  Yeah, we went to everywhere, every state in the end.
• 9:39
  In my last year, racing sort of Australian titles and stuff.
• 9:43
  But in the early days, we went to every country club that you meet that you could ever think about existed.
• 9:48
  I was there doing a race.
• 9:49
  Like a pun hill, blah, blah, blah, all that sort of stuff.
• 9:51
  Yeah, because you had...
• 9:54
  I was sort of four or five years behind, so I had to sort of get on the pace quickly.
• 9:58
  And the only way to do that was learn new tracks and new experiences.
• 10:02
  And then through those years, you come across a lot of the same guys I'm coming across now, which is cool.
• 10:06
  Lovely support from mum and dad and all that.
• 10:10
  It's an expensive game, right?
• 10:11
  Was that a train, a tough thing for them along the way?
• 10:15
  It didn't seem like it at the time.
• 10:17
  But as I get older, you could imagine...
• 10:22
  that sort of commitment.
• 10:22
  Obviously I have my own go-kart now and I buy my own tires and stuff.
• 10:27
  So I don't quite enjoy it.
• 10:28
  You sweat about pulling dollars out of your pocket.
• 10:31
  I don't quite enjoy it, but, um, no question for them.
• 10:34
  So it was really cool.
• 10:35
  But, um, yeah, at the same time, we had some of the best experiences, even if it didn't progress to where we are now.
• 10:41
  As a family.
• 10:41
  Like the, the, the, the,
• 10:43
  borderline friendship that we have from all that and how close we are, um, probably goes back to all those days racing.
• 10:50
  Um, so yeah, wouldn't change it.
• 10:52
  Well, I wouldn't change it for sure.
• 10:53
  No, exactly.
• 10:54
  Larko talks to me about, you know, the,
• 10:58
  the recognition of the talent that you had, the skill that you had.
• 11:03
  And, you know, he has a love of Formula Ford, obviously.
• 11:06
  And to him, I think that was immediately obvious in Formula Ford.
• 11:10
  Was it at this point that you're thinking, I want to go to Europe?
• 11:13
  Because there is a single-seater component to your career before you got into supercars, obviously, and a European element of that.
• 11:19
  Was that what you were just kind of hell-bent on?
• 11:22
  What were you doing at this phase?
• 11:24
  Not really.
• 11:25
  I've...
• 11:26
  Sort of always thought back on this and I've never been one to say, I like need to do that.
• 11:32
  Or that's sort of like, if I don't, if I don't succeed here, I failed or whatever.
• 11:36
  So it wasn't like, I have to be Formula One driver after this, it was sort of more, I guess, Larko probably opened that door up more than anything.
• 11:43
  And it was, um, we won the Australian for the, uh,
• 11:47
  a formal four championship and there wasn't really a plan to do anything else.
• 11:50
  Obviously you work that out as you go.
• 11:52
  Um, and he come along and sort of structured that around us and was more like, well, why don't you do it?
• 11:59
  Like, what's the worst that can happen?
• 12:00
  You come back to where you are now in two, three, four years, maybe never come back who knows.
• 12:05
  So, um, that kind of opened our eyes up to go, yeah, why not?
• 12:08
  Like go there, learn some experiences.
• 12:11
  Um, worst case, um,
• 12:13
  full circle, you come back to where you are and you've got all that in your pocket now.
• 12:16
  So, um, he organized all that and, um, arranged it.
• 12:21
  Obviously it was a big step for us as well.
• 12:23
  Um, but it worked out really well.
• 12:24
  And indirectly that probably is what sort of leapfrogged me over a few other guys into the Erebus seat.
• 12:30
  Um, just having that extra experiences was what sort of, I think stood me out to Barry.
• 12:36
  And, um, so it all worked out really.
• 12:39
  A lot of guys like, like him, like Barry place value in that, Hey, like they value in that,
• 12:43
  single seater, but also international experience.
• 12:45
  And, and, uh, was that, was that hard?
• 12:47
  Yeah.
• 12:48
  I mean, there's, there's the results show the success you had there, but how tough was that chasing that being abroad and so on?
• 12:55
  Um, yeah, it was, it was really, I don't even know if it was ever hard.
• 12:59
  It was like just really cool.
• 13:01
  Um, but,
• 13:03
  first went from, never been overseas before, uh, went, moved straight to Austria.
• 13:09
  Um, Leichner was, I'm trying to remember the team.
• 13:11
  Leichner.
• 13:12
  Leichner, thank you.
• 13:12
  Yeah, so they're really renowned for Porsches.
• 13:14
  Yep.
• 13:14
  Um, and they were stepping back into single seaters for the first time in a long time.
• 13:19
  Um, and Leichner had a connection there, so that all teed up really well, and I got picked up from the airport, everyone speaking German, obviously they all spoke English because it's motor racing.
• 13:28
  Um, and they looked after me really well, you know, and,
• 13:31
  We're at family dinners and got him included in everything and we all traveled together and stuff.
• 13:35
  So I never felt like out of place or I never felt lost and felt really comfortable just being somewhere else.
• 13:41
  And at the same time, we'll go in all these different places, race in all these tracks, F1 tracks.
• 13:48
  I was still 18, so it's still all new to me.
• 13:51
  Freshly 18 too, so I only just got my license, and I only just could go out and all this stuff, and I've just been lumped on the other side of the world.
• 13:58
  So, yeah, that was really cool, but there was a lot of good people, I think, around me without me knowing just –
• 14:06
  I got connected with other drivers or other people from the local town that were cool and they cycled or they did this or did that.
• 14:12
  And you just become friends with people and had something to do every day.
• 14:15
  So, and on top of that, the racing, of course.
• 14:18
  A couple of things here.
• 14:19
  How did you first cross paths with Larco?
• 14:21
  What transpired there?
• 14:24
  I don't exactly know, but it was through Formula Ford.
• 14:27
  Yeah.
• 14:28
  he, I guess had a liking to me and the way I was racing and, um, we were doing a really good job in the championship that year.
• 14:34
  And I think, um, he wanted to help.
• 14:37
  So that's sort of the way I understood it and, and he did.
• 14:41
  And, um, yeah, he wanted to help us do something and obviously find success somewhere.
• 14:46
  And, um, at that time it was trying to find success in Europe and open
• 14:53
  like it's an expensive process and, um, you run out of cash real quick, but, um, yeah, so that's how that connection came through sort of the back end of that formal Ford year in 2013.
• 15:03
  So tell me about the Zenith moment of the, of the international adventure, if you, if you will, was there a track that you had some success at that you have this very vivid memory of and, and so on?
• 15:14
  Um, I can remember all the tracks and all the races and I think I can remember every lap and every moment.
• 15:21
  Um, um,
• 15:22
  And it's always amazing, even in your supercar career, you look back at certain results or just you think about it and you go, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
• 15:30
  Like...
• 15:31
  I look back now and go, if I knew what I knew now then, I think I could have done that so much better or understand the issues with the car or get yourself out of these holes.
• 15:41
  Just through the years, you learn things and you understand cars better.
• 15:45
  You understand moments better.
• 15:47
  People better.
• 15:48
  Yeah.
• 15:48
  And you look back and go, I always struggled with this.
• 15:52
  think I could fix that now, but back then I had no idea.
• 15:55
  I was just first time happened to me, you know?
• 15:57
  So, um, so I think I remember all that, but I would say my favorite track, um, would have been Zanvoort.
• 16:04
  I raced there a fair few times.
• 16:06
  Um, and that was my first race as well.
• 16:09
  And there was also ultimately when I won that first championship, that was the same track as well.
• 16:12
  We raced there the first and sort of last round.
• 16:14
  So I raced there twice that year and it was just awesome.
• 16:17
  It was like before they resurfaced it and did all the banking and stuff, the old school version.
• 16:21
  Yeah.
• 16:22
  which was way cooler, I reckon.
• 16:24
  And it was just awesome.
• 16:25
  And there's people everywhere and the town's cool.
• 16:28
  I just had a great time.
• 16:29
  What transpires there?
• 16:30
  You talked about the expensive nature of it.
• 16:33
  And, you know, was there interest from other people for you to stay and to keep going?
• 16:38
  Or did you have to make a crucial decision at a certain time?
• 16:41
  What forced the change of tack to come back to Australia?
• 16:45
  I think it was more just like a realistic vision on if we go –
• 16:51
  If we do this again next year, cool.
• 16:53
  Say we win that, then what?
• 16:55
  The price is going to double, triple for the next year.
• 16:57
  Then you've got to do it again and again.
• 16:59
  If it's hard now, it's going to be twice as hard later.
• 17:02
  We're talking millions at this point when you get to that sort of phase, mate, aren't you?
• 17:04
  Yeah, so what we were doing was kind of like imagine super two budget kind of stuff, plus you're living overseas and stuff.
• 17:10
  So maybe give or take around that.
• 17:12
  So not crazy numbers like there are now, but from there it was –
• 17:17
  the next steps were the big dollars and we were never going to be able to do that.
• 17:21
  And it's just a really sick moment ago.
• 17:23
  We're probably out of our depth here.
• 17:25
  Um, this is not viable and why I'm still young enough and still fresh enough.
• 17:29
  And we could come back and do super two.
• 17:31
  And that's, that's a career that's more than amazing.
• 17:34
  Um,
• 17:35
  why not do that?
• 17:36
  So that's sort of what happened.
• 17:38
  It was just basically good parenting, I'd say.
• 17:41
  Yeah.
• 17:42
  You have got a couple of supporters, I guess you could say, that I think are even prevalent now at Team 18 and so on.
• 17:50
  Have those sort of people been with you on this journey?
• 17:53
  Were there people that got on board and said, we've got to help get you over there and so on?
• 17:59
  Yeah, I've had a lot of good supporters over the years from obviously financial supporters and also like mentorships like Larco, Paul.
• 18:06
  Paul Morris, which we've come to.
• 18:08
  Yeah.
• 18:08
  Over the years.
• 18:09
  And then also like good partners that have had probably more so from like super two years that are still on my helmet and some are back on the car now.
• 18:17
  Nice.
• 18:18
  10 years later or whatever.
• 18:19
  So, yeah, I've been really fortunate to be...
• 18:23
  I've always had a pretty good support group around me and, you know, partnerships and whatever throughout the years.
• 18:29
  And I've sort of valued that stuff and don't really like chopping and changing and doing too much stuff.
• 18:34
  Loyalty.
• 18:35
  So it's really cool.
• 18:36
  And ultimately, just a good bunch of people trying to go racing and having a really good time.
• 18:40
  You sound like you've, you know, despite being...
• 18:43
  probably quite young at the time, late teens or whatever, that you framed all that really well.
• 18:47
  So, you know, coming back to supercars wasn't a failure or wasn't a, you know, the European thing had been a valuable experience but a realistic kind of bookend or something, a change of pace, yeah?
• 19:01
  Yeah.
• 19:01
  Yeah, it was pretty – obviously it hurts because you're having a good time and a dream could be sort of cut off.
• 19:08
  But at the same time, I knew I was – even now, I know I'm in a privileged position to be driving race cars.
• 19:15
  And whether it was racing a supercar, racing an open wheeler, racing on dirt – it doesn't matter where it was.
• 19:22
  If that's what you're doing, it's a pretty cool thing because I think I was surrounded by –
• 19:28
  enough people doing hard enough jobs that I didn't want to do that either.
• 19:31
  So, you know, the farming, whatever, the trading, whatever, all my mates, I was aware that I was doing the good job of everybody.
• 19:39
  So I wanted to keep that as much as possible.
• 19:41
  But, yeah, there's no failures if you're having a go at something.
• 19:45
  I don't think like you go do something, you have a crack at it.
• 19:49
  It never really failed because if you didn't do it in the first place, you'd be in the same position, you know, so you've had a go.
• 19:55
  But supercars is...
• 19:57
  is still one of the, I'd say the best motorsport careers you can have.
• 20:00
  Like, obviously there's a few different categories over the, around the world that do more racing or get paid more or whatever, but we've still got some of the best racing that you could do and we can do it all here at home, which is awesome.
• 20:12
  Absolutely.
• 20:13
  Do you stay in touch with any of those guys from the Formula Renault days?
• 20:16
  Have you kept in touch with a few people and so on?
• 20:18
  Uh, yeah.
• 20:19
  Oh, yeah.
• 20:19
  Yeah.
• 20:20
  Every now and again, um, probably more so like when I went and did spa a couple of years ago and a couple of the endurance races, a lot of people obviously go through the open wheeler phase and end the same thing.
• 20:30
  But over there you end up going GT racing or whatever it is.
• 20:34
  So you go do spa 24 hour and the whole, the whole fields there, you know, like you enjoy that.
• 20:39
  Did you talk about the old stories and it's funny.
• 20:42
  The first thing they always say is I've been watching the race in supercars is the best.
• 20:45
  I wish I could race something like that.
• 20:47
  The amount of people that, um.
• 20:49
  drivers just go like, we love your racing, like flying over curbs, crashing into each other.
• 20:55
  Because they don't get to do that.
• 20:57
  They're doing a total different style of racing.
• 20:59
  So it's funny, it's always the first thing.
• 21:01
  But yeah, over the years, obviously, keeping in touch with a lot of people and a lot of people doing really cool things around the world, which is awesome to see.
• 21:07
  What brings you into connection with Paul Morris and how does that whole...
• 21:12
  next chapter, if you will, where you get into, you know, the Dunlop series as it was known then and so on.
• 21:20
  That change of, of path there.
• 21:22
  Tell us about that.
• 21:23
  So that was Larko again.
• 21:24
  So when we came back from Europe, it was, what do we do now?
• 21:28
  Um,
• 21:30
  And like I said, I used to go do some driving with Paul because I'd never driven anything with a roof or anything like that.
• 21:35
  So go do some laps at Paul at Norwell.
• 21:39
  This is sort of before Norwell is what it is now with all the 86s and a very structured and a lot of cars.
• 21:44
  So we had a SS Commodore, which is still one of the best cars to learn in and drive in.
• 21:50
  And it's just simple.
• 21:51
  You go do one or two laps, do a couple of cool down laps because the brakes are on fire and then go again.
• 21:57
  Um, so just spent sort of half a day with Paul, just meeting him, just driving around doing different stuff.
• 22:01
  And, um, um,
• 22:03
  at the end of it was like, oh, we should do Super 2.
• 22:07
  Let's roll a car, let's go do a test, see how the test goes, and we should go race Super 2 because at that time he wasn't going to be racing the FG.
• 22:17
  So they had the car there, had the people there.
• 22:21
  This is the year where all the futures were coming in, so the group was 50-50 between the old cars and new cars.
• 22:27
  So yeah, just a simple moment like, oh yeah.
• 22:29
  that's pretty good.
• 22:31
  Let's go test a car.
• 22:32
  Then a couple of weeks later, we went and tested the car at QR and was like, oh yeah, okay.
• 22:37
  Let's go racing.
• 22:38
  Let's work this out.
• 22:39
  So then we worked it out, had a bit of a plan.
• 22:41
  Obviously, the first year was always going to be hard because you're,
• 22:45
  a rookie in super two but then you're also against car of the futures in the old car um so it's always just a learning year just drive around and then um we eventually got the new car and then race the next year so the plan was always to to do that and paul sort of structured that with that on the team at norwell and we went racing which was good
• 23:12
  Anton races for Team 18 in the Supercars Championship, which is owned by forklift tycoon Charlie Schwerkholt.
• 23:19
  Charlie is a proper car enthusiast too with a rare Aston Martin in his garage.
• 23:24
  You could just about write a book on this car.
• 23:27
  The original owner who's just passed away, the only owner of the car besides me now, couldn't keep the car in tune, the whole thing, and had trouble with the engine, so they transplanted the engine out of it.
• 23:40
  The beautiful triple Weber Aston Martin engine, they put a Ford Falcon six-cylinder in it with an automatic, which was sacrilege.
• 23:47
  It was terrible.
• 23:49
  But fortunately, they didn't get rid of the engine,
• 23:52
  Schwerkholz.
• 23:53
  Charlie Schwerkholz.
• 23:54
  Shaken not stirred.
• 23:56
  That beautifully restored Aston Martin DB6 just picked up some big awards at NusaCom course.
• 24:01
  I wonder if Anton has a resto project.
• 24:04
  Put that on your questions list Rusty.
• 24:09
  I'm paraphrasing here, and to be fair to Larco, I may not be articulating his line of thought right, but I sense that he had fully supported and backed you on this open wheeler journey and so on, but he was under no doubt that a switch to...
• 24:24
  supercars was a significant shift and it would be a big test of you as a driver and how you would adapt.
• 24:30
  And I wouldn't say he doubted you.
• 24:31
  I reckon that's the wrong choice of words by me, but he said it was to see you flourish, mate, to see you get behind the wheel of those things and adapt so well.
• 24:40
  Did it feel like a simple transition or it wasn't as easy as that?
• 24:45
  It was really difficult because I sort of, I guess a little bit of beauty was in former Ford, we did that all right for braking and hill-towing and everything.
• 24:56
  That was something that Mick Ritter made sure we did because most people that go through former Ford go to supercars or whatever.
• 25:04
  Yeah.
• 25:04
  He always had the cars.
• 25:06
  He had the right foot brake.
• 25:07
  He was sort of, you weren't allowed not to.
• 25:08
  So I did have some experience already doing that.
• 25:11
  So that transition wasn't too hard.
• 25:13
  It wasn't easy either.
• 25:14
  It was a very different car.
• 25:15
  But so I had a little bit of a leg up there.
• 25:19
  But then I guess the way the team worked as well, there wasn't like, you imagine like a race team where there's engineers, data engineers, all these guys.
• 25:27
  It's hands on.
• 25:28
  Yeah.
• 25:28
  A lot of it was really just me, Paul saying, do this.
• 25:32
  And I just believe him and just do it.
• 25:35
  And obviously knows how to drive a race car around a track.
• 25:37
  So there was a lot of, um, just, you know, very simple racing, but basically drive the car properly and the result will come and you can influence the car, but the base car was obviously very good as well.
• 25:48
  So, um, yeah, that's sort of, it was fortunate that.
• 25:52
  obviously had a driver coach there the whole time and then when he wasn't there because he was in stadium super trucks around the in america and stuff um had like owen cali come in and some other guys throughout the year to just sort of fill that spot so always have people to lean on from a driving point of view um they had experience that wasn't sort of still in the game so they they were happy to give it to you they're all no-nonsense guys right like nick ridder
• 26:14
  Paul Morris, even Owen Kelly, you could throw into that mix in the way that they talk about something, that they do something.
• 26:20
  As a young man at this stage, did that sort of approach resonate with you?
• 26:24
  Did that work well with you kind of thing?
• 26:25
  It was really good.
• 26:26
  It was, yeah, very much...
• 26:30
  We'd have the comment, this is my problem, and a lot of time Paul would say, just do this.
• 26:35
  Like, okay, yeah.
• 26:37
  Black and white, straight ass.
• 26:37
  Yeah, cool.
• 26:38
  I'll just go do that then.
• 26:39
  Normally, you get something out of it, you know?
• 26:41
  But, yeah, so there was obviously all the data and all the stuff as well, but a lot of it was just...
• 26:48
  proper sort of, I don't know, old school because I never raced old school.
• 26:51
  But yeah, just driving to impact the result.
• 26:56
  And then the next year when we've got the better car and there's a Tickford car and stuff, obviously you're naturally going to go faster.
• 27:03
  Yeah.
• 27:04
  What is it about him?
• 27:05
  He's been on the podcast.
• 27:06
  So, you know, we've spoken about this.
• 27:10
  Why has he become such a good coach?
• 27:13
  driver trainer mentor and how valuable was this to you at at you know this stage of your career timeline um i think it's just like obviously um everyone's different but this it's just i guess having norwell as the track and being able to drive sitting side by side to each other communicating as you go that's sort of it's hard to do that at a racetrack and you go to a hot lap or whatever and you come you
• 27:41
  Oh, do you cool down?
• 27:41
  Like this, this, that swap, swap, swap, swap.
• 27:44
  You can't do that at a racetrack.
• 27:46
  It's very formal.
• 27:46
  You got limited time and ties always going off.
• 27:49
  So many other things.
• 27:50
  So I think, um, having that ability to, to do it in a sort of informal way in a sense and be able to change it on the fly, um, sort of speeds everything up.
• 28:01
  And then at the same time.
• 28:03
  it got to the point where there's a lot of good people at the same, like same day, same track Friday afternoon, top on the shootouts and all these things.
• 28:12
  You can't do that anywhere pretty much in the world.
• 28:14
  So, um, we've got days there where there's, you know, um,
• 28:18
  five, six guys on the grid during COVID and stuff that are driving around next to each other, trying it with, obviously you're having a laugh, whatever, but you're trying to beat each other.
• 28:26
  And then you roll out the first race after COVID and that's the podium, you know, like there's, um.
• 28:31
  Something in that.
• 28:31
  Yeah.
• 28:31
  There has to be something in that because if you're not doing your craft and how you're going to be good at it.
• 28:37
  That whole, um, complex that's set up that, um.
• 28:43
  Like I see some of the young guys, there's a young kid, Arthur Braun, who's come from New Zealand, who's up there now.
• 28:47
  And some of it just, it's been so needed for this part of the world, I feel, hasn't it?
• 28:53
  I think just in motorsport, like it's sort of one of the only sports or I don't know, maybe there's more, but...
• 29:01
  you don't have a coach or you don't have, you've got engineers, obviously.
• 29:05
  Yep, you've got people that can analyze your driving.
• 29:07
  But in terms of the whys and the hows, it's where sort of the drivers in the team, only ones that know what it feels like or...
• 29:16
  We've done it before.
• 29:17
  So it's really, you don't have sort of like a coach as such.
• 29:20
  Like you look at most sports, they've got coaching for all different roles.
• 29:23
  Those guys have done that before.
• 29:24
  They understand it.
• 29:27
  So you end up coaching yourself most of the time using the data and using the engineers and all this stuff.
• 29:34
  But in the day, you're sort of self-coaching a lot, which...
• 29:39
  um when i was in europe we had had driver coaches i was very popular um within like a team would have a driver coach through for the four or five drivers whatever's in the team and that's his only job for the weekend he would go around the track take videos analyze things um come back and just you'd have your own debrief with him and then your engineers and that was really helpful as a young driver so i guess that's kind of like what it is but it's just something that you don't really do that much in motorsport i guess i'm not sure why
• 30:05
  And you see it sort of go in cycles, like someone comes through, they benefit from Paul, and then they'll often be back.
• 30:13
  I mean, Shane was doing it for a while and so on, helping that next wave coming through.
• 30:16
  So I would imagine that's been asked of you as well.
• 30:19
  Do you enjoy that?
• 30:20
  Do you feel like you're good on that kind of side of the ledger coaching people and helping them?
• 30:25
  It's good.
• 30:25
  Obviously, you're happy, especially with that good young people that are
• 30:31
  learning and they're willing to learn and you can see it paying off as well.
• 30:36
  So like I spent heaps of time obviously with Brock when he started racing Super 3 at that time because he was back in that car racing Paul, so I'd be at every test day, um, I'd
• 30:47
  with Brock and Paul and that.
• 30:48
  And, um, so I went through that already and it was, it was, it was exciting.
• 30:52
  Obviously now he beats us, which is cool.
• 30:54
  But, um, do you still get on a ride?
• 30:56
  Yeah.
• 30:57
  Yeah.
• 30:57
  Um, yeah.
• 30:58
  So like throughout the years, it's, it's, and it's, it's exciting.
• 31:02
  You jump in a car sometimes with someone, um, experienced or not experienced, then, um,
• 31:08
  your eyes open a lot of time for different reasons.
• 31:11
  Um, and sometimes you're like, Oh wow, I never thought about it like that, or that was really weird, but why did that work?
• 31:16
  And you, you pick up these little things from other people as well, um, throughout that journey.
• 31:23
  Good.
• 31:23
  Is Paul kind of, you know, would there be phone calls from time to time from you guys, or does it become a thing now where you're, you're on your own pathway and he sort of lets you go do your thing?
• 31:31
  What's that, that relationship sort of
• 31:33
  Mike?
• 31:33
  Yeah, definitely on my own pathway.
• 31:35
  And obviously, we're all sort of, as a few of us, sort of embedded in supercars that come through that sort of… System, if you like.
• 31:43
  Yeah.
• 31:44
  But I guess the most exciting part of it all is like in that we have Nash as well, which we've been…
• 31:51
  You would have been little when you wouldn't.
• 31:53
  Never raced when I was sort of there.
• 31:56
  And obviously myself and Brody lived with Paul and Nash during COVID and stuff.
• 32:02
  And that's when he took a really liking the cars.
• 32:05
  And so to see that develop from a whole another side is like a big brother moment.
• 32:09
  And still now, you know, we're at the test the other day and he's there.
• 32:12
  So that's cool as well.
• 32:15
  But yeah, we're all obviously on our own path, but we all get on really well.
• 32:18
  For sure.
• 32:18
  What was that COVID period like?
• 32:20
  Oh, it was crazy, but then you guys as kind of, let's call it housemates, what was that like?
• 32:26
  Yeah, it was cool.
• 32:28
  We had a really good time.
• 32:30
  I guess the way we did COVID, obviously with the racing and we're moving around, some of it was really annoying, but we're still doing it and we'll kind of...
• 32:37
  almost living your childhood dream.
• 32:39
  You kind of go on racetrack to racetrack and not a single thing in between.
• 32:42
  Yeah.
• 32:43
  And there's periods there when we had the four weeks in a row.
• 32:45
  Like, that's perfect.
• 32:46
  We're away from home.
• 32:47
  We're racing back-to-back weekends.
• 32:50
  Obviously, why we're doing it sucks.
• 32:52
  But what we're doing was actually kind of cool.
• 32:54
  Yeah.
• 32:55
  And then in the meantime, we're sort of all based out of the Gold Coast.
• 32:58
  And we're still trying to drive, obviously, where we could.
• 33:00
  Yeah.
• 33:01
  and do stuff.
• 33:02
  But yeah, we, uh, I was bunked out of, out of Paul's with me and Brody and then yeah, Nash and, and that as well.
• 33:08
  So, cause Brody was my co-driver that year.
• 33:10
  So that's cool.
• 33:11
  Cool.
• 33:12
  When does the phone ring from Erebus?
• 33:15
  How does that opportunity emerge for you?
• 33:18
  Can you share that?
• 33:20
  Um, so it, well, they rank Paul, originally Barry and Paul got together and essentially, um,
• 33:28
  I did an evaluation day, one of those evaluation days, and you can only do that when you aren't a co-driver.
• 33:34
  So I didn't have a co-drive, um, which worked out really well for me because I got to this evaluation day.
• 33:41
  Um, so basically the whole, whole day at, uh, Winton in Dave's car, um, which he went on a few weeks later to win Bathurst.
• 33:49
  Um, so I just did a whole day driving the car around, obviously Dave could back, um, baseline it for the day, went through the changes.
• 33:56
  I don't, I still don't know what exactly we were testing, whatever they need to know.
• 33:59
  I'm just driving around and give my feedback and all that.
• 34:02
  And then, um, I guess I did a good enough job to go, well, it was worth the risk for them to put me in the, into the 99 car.
• 34:10
  And, um, yeah, it probably wouldn't have happened without that day.
• 34:14
  which wouldn't have happened if I had a co-drive and a few things have to work out.
• 34:18
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:19
  So you land a multi-year deal there.
• 34:23
  There's some success at Hidden Valley and so on.
• 34:26
  Just tell me about, did you relocate from Gold Coast back down?
• 34:29
  What did you do in this stage of things?
• 34:31
  I was based out of Melbourne at this stage.
• 34:33
  So I was sort of flying up to the
• 34:39
  races and whatever, but I was based at home with my parents in Melbourne.
• 34:42
  So that was fine.
• 34:44
  Um, but yeah, it was just basically, um, it was obviously a big transition and, um, to go full time and different cars, different intensity, like how intense, how intense.
• 34:58
  Yeah.
• 34:58
  Very like on the step up from super two to main game is massive.
• 35:03
  And I hadn't done a lot of
• 35:05
  touring car races, like you only done at that point like 11 rounds or something in Super 2 and before that it was all open wheelers and everything.
• 35:12
  So you haven't done a lot.
• 35:15
  You can only, you only did like one test day before the first round.
• 35:19
  So you're on the back foot, no co-driving.
• 35:22
  So it's a big step but lucky throughout that
• 35:26
  That year, I had some rounds where the car was really good.
• 35:28
  Obviously, Dave won a few rounds, and I was going good at all those rounds, and that sort of got you out of the trouble, you know, like make some shootouts and all that.
• 35:37
  So a good run at Bathurst and, you know, some important tracks and got going by the end of the year and sort of get you out of trouble and get you into the next deal.
• 35:47
  And then you've only got a limited time to make your mark, to earn your spot, otherwise you're going to get shuffled out.
• 35:57
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with Anton Di Pasquale.
• 35:59
  Jump over to the library when you're ready, because just 24 hours after this part drops, we'll have a second instalment for you, and it's just as good, perhaps even better, than this first one.
• 36:10
  From the highs and lows of his time at DJR to the bond that he's forged with the crew at Team 18 beyond the track.
• 36:18
  Is the calm, level-headed, trademark style of his learned or innate and the resto project that he's got his eyes on?
• 36:26
  If he can get it at the right price.
• 36:28
  It's all ahead here on Rusty's Garage.
• 36:29
  Rusty's Garage.