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The Motorsport Brief: with NASCAR winner and milestone man Shane van Gisbergen ahead of Townsville · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Thursday, the 6th of July, 2023.
• 0:08
  What a week.
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  Everyone in this game talking about that awesome NASCAR race on the streets of Chicago.
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  Now, on the eve of round six of the Supercars Championship, we're going to talk to Shane Van Gisbergen.
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  He has been good enough to come back on the show for one of his first interviews since jetting back into Australia after that history-making moment in the Windy City.
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  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this week's Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:35
  I won't spend too long here on the plugs because I know you want to get to SVG.
• 0:40
  He loves rallying, so perfect link for me to remind you that our latest long-form ep with Neil Bates dropped last Tuesday, a three-parter with some cool stories, from his mateship with the legendary Possum Bourne to his title-winning rally cars, and we spend some time on touring cars as well, and his endurance race of Pond.
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  appearances.
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  That's all in the garage for you to enjoy a little later.
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  Next Tuesday, we release our 99th feature episode.
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  And for that, Molly Taylor is back on the pod.
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  Our first ever guest returns and there's a bit to catch up on with her.
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  Where do you start today's chat?
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  First driver to win on debut in 60 years, playing at the highest level of NASCAR.
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  Yes, on a street course.
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  That's something new for that code.
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  And it was damp.
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  They are things, admittedly, that played to Shane's strengths.
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  But it is a different race car.
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  Left-hand drive, the way it behaves, the way you shift even.
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  Not to mention the calibre of match-fit drivers he was up against that know the machinery, its nuances.
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  Yes.
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  They are vultures, right?
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  You know that, who play hard.
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  You cannot underscore enough the significance of this achievement, the way SVG applied himself in the lead-up, studied, learned.
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  It's kind of a case study for young racers who aspire to one day do this sort of thing.
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  And the praise that has come from every corner of the globe, from some of the all-time greats, that makes you realise the true extent of this achievement.
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  I think everyone's socials were flooded, weren't they?
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  Shane's back in Australia as I said ahead of his 500th race in supercars this weekend in Townsville and he is on the line congratulations mate how in the heck just process it for us at what point amid all the celebrations the craziness of what you achieved at what point did you go I actually did this
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  Probably on the plane home.
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  Yeah.
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  A little bit of a whirlwind, like when, yeah, finish the race and celebrations on the track, then you go to Victory Lane, you put on every single sponsor hat, then the media, like, there's two and a half hours of media after the race, it was crazy.
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  And then, yeah, then we went, celebrated a little bit, then jumped on a plane.
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  So, yeah, it was, took me a while to settle down and,
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  process it, I guess.
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  I love the way that you researched, really armed yourself, mate, in the week leading up from the test to the stuff on the sim and so on.
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  When you got out of that and got to Chicago, realistically, what did you think you might achieve against that sort of talent and those teams?
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  I didn't.
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  You don't know, but it's not anything different I do to other weeks.
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  Same for Townsville.
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  I've come and watched all the video and haven't watched Onboards yet, but I'll do that today.
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  You just study as much as you can and try and understand.
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  the series is so different with its rules, like for pitting restarts yellows, how they close the pit lane.
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  And it's mainly the rules I had to study up on, but yeah.
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  And then try and understand how the cars drive.
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  So set up philosophy is very different, how the guys drive them.
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  And I did compare well onto the sim compared to them, but, um,
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  Yeah, how I'd go in the racing, I had no idea until practice, you know, seeing the times come true.
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  Fans have sort of been saying, compare the cars.
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  How different is it to a supercar and so on?
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  How big, not just from a left-hand drive or a shifting point of view, how big was the transition, mate?
• 4:17
  Yeah, it's massive.
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  They're completely different.
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  Like the way the tire works, I think, I don't know if it's a crossfly, but how they lay the rubber is different.
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  So it makes the grip sideways instead of forwards.
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  So you can really slide them and turn.
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  They're quite different, the tire.
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  And then, yeah, shifting with the other hand, sitting on the other side, no doors.
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  Yeah, obviously the principle is the same, how you get the time out of them, but how you had to drive it was very different.
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  You know, they are much heavier.
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  They're 300 kilos heavier, I think.
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  but they don't body roll as much.
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  They don't roll and pitch under brakes and stuff like that.
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  So how they felt and achieved their speed was very different.
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  20 laps to go, 18 cars.
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  How much confidence?
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  I mean, it was such a joy to watch.
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  It was unreal.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah, I guess there were some fast guys ahead of me who had been beating me in the race so far, and when the race got shortened, we couldn't make it on fuel, and the people who already pitted could, so they stayed out, and we came out in 18th or something, and yeah, I knew it was going to be difficult, and I thought I'll try and latch on to some of those guys, but they sort of made mistakes coming through, and I felt a bit more comfortable in traffic passing people and moving around the track and stuff, and
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  That's sort of where I got going.
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  I was probably a little bit too timid early and let people pass.
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  And I wasn't aggressive, but that was sort of my plan.
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  It was a long race.
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  I wanted to play into it.
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  But, yeah, when it was go time, I guess I went pretty hard and made some big moves.
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  I think from our perspective, it looked like what you wanted to do.
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  I think you consulted Marcus Ambrose a little bit about how you would be respectful against the other drivers and so on.
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  It looks like from that perspective, mate, you left the absolute best possible mark, that you stood your ground, but you were respectful at the same time.
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  Do you feel like that's the case?
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  Yes.
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  Yeah, and that's what I found.
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  They were respectful back as well.
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  Everyone I spoke to was nice.
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  I hit one guy by accident.
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  I think it was the 24 car.
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  I just ran into the back of him.
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  He was a lot slower in the corner than I thought.
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  And I was, oh, sorry about that.
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  And then when I passed him, he just hit me straight back.
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  So fair enough.
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  But everyone else, I gave a lot of room.
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  One guy, Reddick in the 45, when I passed him, he just let off the gas and waved out the window and,
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  said to carry on like, you know, it's respectful racing, but it's tough.
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  And yeah, if you start hitting people, they'll hit you back even harder.
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  And, you know, it was less crazy than I thought it would be with no rules, but it's the respect thing, I guess.
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  And maybe with the walls, they were less aggressive than they would have been at a normal track.
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  You know, there's nowhere to go.
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  But yeah, the racing was, I found the racing really cool and everyone gave room and, yeah,
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  If someone showed their nose, you were expected to give them room, where a pair you'd turn in and if you spun out, it was their fault, they'd get a penalty, whereas the dynamic of it is very different.
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  But it works very well.
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  But they also have spare cars to fix them, whereas we don't.
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  So I guess you've got to have those rules here in some ways.
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  Just quickly, did you kind of report something to the team in that final caution period, and they were more or less talking to you like, hey, it's in your head, don't worry, go for it.
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  What happened there?
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  I found out what happened today.
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  I watched the race, and as I come out of the last corner before the last yellow,
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  Before the first overtime yellow, there was something on the screen on the camera.
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  So I've looked at the big screen while I'm driving and I saw it looked like some smoke, but the camera lens had something on it.
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  Okay.
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  So I saw that today and then I go, oh, man, is the car smoking?
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  Is that me smoking?
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  And I was stressed about the engine, but it was just the dirty camera lens.
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  So maybe I should focus where I'm going.
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  So tell us about the nerves in those final few laps.
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  Was that bright smile that I can now see in this chat we're having evident when you were getting so close?
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  Did you dare sort of with a couple laps to go far out, we can do this?
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  Yeah, there was uncertainty because they shortened the race.
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  And then when they did the overtime stuff, I was just praying that they weren't going to make it double file restarts like they normally do.
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  And when they said it was single file, I was a lot more comfortable.
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  But then it was getting so dark, like they shortened the race because they were going to run out of light.
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  And then they decided to do overtime anyway.
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  And, um,
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  Yeah, that extra time under yellow, like the track, the last restart, it was so dark and quite hard to see.
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  So I was just worried that they were going to keep on going until we got the race in.
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  But I just focused on getting a good restart, and I was a bit worried about the guys behind because they need a win to get into their championship chase to lock themselves in.
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  So I'm sure if they got close again, they would have had a shot at me.
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  But, yeah, once I got a good restart, I knew I was okay.
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  How about the endorsement from the global racing community?
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  I mean, Danny Hamlin talking about you being the greatest different athlete in the history of the sport.
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  Great stuff from Kyle Larson.
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  I love the tweet from the legend Mario Andretti.
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  Has there been one that we perhaps don't know about that was a bit of a surprise that you were chuffed with?
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  No, it's just overwhelming.
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  My phone's only just started slowing down.
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  Just the support from everyone, I can't believe the interest from Australia and New Zealand
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  how many people watched the race and supported me, you know, so many messages from Ford fans and stuff.
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  And, you know, they say, oh, it's so good to cheer for you, but you're back to the enemy this weekend, stuff like that.
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  Like, you just appreciate stuff like that.
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  You know, everyone was supporting me and cheering me on and hoping I did well.
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  And, yeah, to win the race, like the attention and seeing how global, I guess, the news has gone, it's unbelievable.
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  We'll take a quick break here.
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  We've got a couple more minutes with SVG, and that's coming your way right after this.
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  Supercars champion and Bathurst winner Shane Van Gisbergen is our special guest on this edition of the Motorsport Brief from Townsville ahead of this weekend's round of the series off the back of that epic NASCAR race in Chicago.
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  Let's dive straight back into the convo now.
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  Tell me about the reception there.
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  You're in Townsville.
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  It's early on the weekend there, but typically that's a sport, supercars, where they recognise something special among the constituents.
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  Have you had great feedback on the ground there from people in supercars?
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  Yeah, I'm bloody sick of getting asked what I'm going to do next year already.
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  Every other team, you know, all the team people I've seen, it's amazing.
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  They're all congratulating me and stuff.
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  Like it's very, very cool.
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  And, you know, I'm trying to switch my brain over and concentrate like I've got a job to do for my team this weekend.
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  But, yeah, just the response is – it's amazing.
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  Fans want me to ask, mate, what does your heart tell you?
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  What do you want to do?
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  And I know Jamie's sort of said he won't stand in your way and so on.
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  You just tell me what you can.
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  Yeah, well, I know I'm committed to next year, but then I've read the stuff Jamie has said publicly, but I haven't spoke to Jamie yet, so I don't have more to say.
• 11:29
  It is appealing.
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  I really enjoyed it.
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  I don't know how I'll go on the ovals and stuff.
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  That's going to be a massive challenge.
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  I'm under no illusion that I'm going to jump in and do the same on an oval.
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  It will take many years to be competitive.
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  I saw Marcus took five years until he was in a shot to win an oval.
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  But there's a lot more road courses.
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  I think they're going to have six, seven, eight and more in the coming years and probably some more street circuits after
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  next year so or after the Chicago one sorry so it's appealing like I'd love to go and love to go and try it now and um I never thought I'd say that a couple of months ago but we all know how this year's kind of going with everything and you know maybe it is time to go and try something but um in my head I'm committed here for one more year but uh let's see obviously I've
• 12:19
  My phone's running hot at the moment.
• 12:21
  I don't have any offers.
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  But, yeah, let's see.
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  A couple to finish.
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  I know you're busy and then everyone wants your time.
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  Firstly, a fan has asked, are you excited now about the whole notion of bump drafting, side drafting, you know, restrictor plate tracks at like Talladega?
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  Are you actually entertaining that whole idea now?
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  The service speedway scares the shit out of me.
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  Yeah.
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  The normal ovals, like I went to Nashville, which is their one and a half mile intermediate, their sort of standard most common racetrack.
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  And it was awesome.
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  Like you really, when we were watching there, you could focus on the back half of the field, which they don't normally show on TV.
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  And the battles looked amazing, you know, two, three, three wide and, you know, speaking to some of the drivers,
• 13:06
  they were having so much fun, even battling in the mid-pack.
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  No one's angry to be running up the back, that's just how it is.
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  And then when they get up front, they appreciate those moments.
• 13:17
  It's a very different environment, racing.
• 13:20
  The American people have a very different attitude, I guess, and maybe it was refreshing, but yeah, I'd like to try an oval just to see what it's like.
• 13:30
  Cool.
• 13:31
  Final one for you.
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  You return to Townsville this weekend.
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  You'll chalk up your 500th race in supercars.
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  I can remember Orrin Park and Team Kiwi, and that seems like yesterday, mate.
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  Congratulations on the milestone.
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  And I know it was tough at Newcastle at the beginning of the year, mate, but I sense even off the back of Chicago, are you hungrier than ever here?
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  Is that a fair statement?
• 13:54
  Yeah.
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  I don't know why people think I'm not hungry.
• 13:57
  No.
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  I don't think that.
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  But, yeah, it's just the off-track stuff that is a bit shit.
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  And even coming back here and reading all the parody stuff, like, it sucks.
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  But on track, like, I love my team.
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  The atmosphere at the moment is awesome.
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  And, yeah, like, getting to 500 races, it's a special number.
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  And I've worked with some great people through the years.
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  And I've, you know, had ups and downs, but I've loved it.
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  Like, this is my dream.
• 14:23
  dream career and it still is and yeah getting to 500 it's an amazing number and even special sharing it with this team I've been here a long time now and I love it more than ever so it's cool to share these moments with people and hopefully we get some good results too Congratulations on Chicago just a history making moment for anyone who loves motorsport enjoy the 500 this weekend that is a special milestone and thank you for taking the time to chat with us today.
• 14:51
  Cheers mate, speak to you soon
• 14:54
  When Shane and I last spoke after the drama in Newcastle, the feeling that we were all left with was this incredible inner drive, more than normal, to prove a point and win with the new generation supercar.
• 15:07
  Don't think for a moment that the NASCAR victory and potential career moves down the track will see him take his eye off the ball or roll off the throttle here, as they say.
• 15:17
  I actually think he will ride that wave of confidence and go even harder in supercars.
• 15:24
  A couple of other shout-outs, things that caught our attention before we go.
• 15:27
  Firstly, the supercar silly season has shifted upper gear, all because of this SVG chat.
• 15:33
  We mentioned Cam Waters in our last short cast, reportedly being in the mix of those at Red Bull Ampoll Racing and who they've got on their target list.
• 15:42
  Now, he and Brodie Kostecki have some US ambitions as well, so how would that factor into the discussions if Cam indeed was to get serious about a 888 move?
• 15:54
  Don't forget about Richie Stanaway as you play the game of who might go where.
• 15:58
  He's already on board with Triple Eight for the Enduros, you know that.
• 16:02
  He turned heads at Bathurst last October in that incredible comeback race with Greg Murphy.
• 16:08
  As my colleagues Stefan Bartholomeus and Andrew Van Leeuwen reflected in their Motorsport News pod this week, that would be quite a comeback story.
• 16:16
  Stanaway is reinvigorated and he absolutely has the talent.
• 16:20
  Speaking of comebacks, Tony Quinn returns to the scene of his massive accident in Townsville last year.
• 16:26
  He'll drive an Aussie racing car this weekend.
• 16:29
  We thought Quinny might never drive a race car again in anger after that big off in Carrera Cup.
• 16:35
  But he's eased himself back in with some racing in a Porsche GT4 in New Zealand over summer with friends after a long road to recovery.
• 16:43
  He has been a huge ambassador in between time around the simple reminder to fellow drivers to give your belts that extra Titan 2.
• 16:53
  Tony's grandson, Ryder, took to Instagram overnight to say that he won't be competing in Townsville, sadly.
• 16:59
  Ryder made quite an impression in the ultra-competitive Formula Regional Oceania Series for open wheelers on the other side of the Tasman over summer, and he jumped straight into Carrera Cup on his return.
• 17:10
  Now, damage to his car from the last round has sidelined him, for now.
• 17:15
  That chassis is actually ruled out of this type of competition anywhere in the world.
• 17:20
  F1 has released a mammoth 24-round calendar for next season.
• 17:25
  2024 will make more of a regionalised approach to the way they travel around the globe.
• 17:30
  That's smart.
• 17:31
  China is set to return for the first time since the pandemic.
• 17:34
  The series opens in the Middle East, with Australia set for round three at Albert Park, slightly earlier than this year too, March 22 to 24.
• 17:44
  Hopefully by the time Austria rolls around in late June, they have resolved the whole track limits fast there.
• 17:50
  Don't get me started.
• 17:52
  And a 90s flashback to finish.
• 17:54
  If you saw any of Stephen Richard's socials last weekend, you will know that he and fellow Bathurst legend Greg Murphy were at Brands Hatch in the UK for a super two-ring revival.
• 18:05
  Two-time World Cup winner Paul Radisic, a BTCC legend, was there too.
• 18:09
  Stephen drove the Volvo that his dad campaigned.
• 18:12
  The Rat...
• 18:13
  Fittingly, was in a Ford Mondeo.
• 18:15
  Murph drove a Nissan Primera.
• 18:17
  And if you go looking, you'll also find him at the wheel of a supercar, reunited with a Tasman Sprint Gas Commodore in the UK.
• 18:24
  That's cool.
• 18:25
  That is it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 18:27
  Enjoy the NTI Townsville 500, everybody, and the British Grand Prix at one of the legendary circuits there, Silverstone.
• 18:35
  I'm Greg Rust.
• 18:36
  We'll catch you next time.
• 18:37
  Bye for now.