Latest / Rusty's Garage / Scott Pedder | Part 1 - Scandinavian flicks in pedal karts on the way to the ARC

Transcript

Scott Pedder | Part 1 - Scandinavian flicks in pedal karts on the way to the ARC · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:14
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  For this episode, I'm in the studio with one of the lead drivers in the Australian Rally Championship.
• 0:33
  But this convo won't just appeal for the motorsport.
• 0:36
  You'll enjoy the business aspects of this one as well.
• 0:39
  Scott Petter, approaching 50, he'll hate me saying that, is still winning stages and enjoying going head-to-head with the next generation as much as he did in the previous era against the likes of Neil Bates, Ed Ordinsky and more.
• 0:54
  These days, Scott campaigns a Skoda that's prepped by
• 0:58
  Maximum Motorsport.
• 0:59
  We had Dean Herridge on from Maximum recently, you might remember, talking about that.
• 1:04
  But Petter has run in Mitsubishi Evos, he starred in the Front Wheel Drive Chapter 2, and now he's driving the latest spec machines that have reinvigorated the ARC.
• 1:14
  Pretty impressive when you stop to consider the diverse array of machines, and he's been good in all of them.
• 1:21
  He's a champion.
• 1:22
  Scott's competed on the global stage too.
• 1:24
  For a time, he took the reins of the ARC, the Australian series, in a managerial capacity.
• 1:31
  And all while working for the successful juggernaut that is Petter's suspension.
• 1:36
  Scott is third generation of a family business that has really made its mark on the Aussie automotive landscape.
• 1:43
  And the company has used motorsport as a great platform, not just rally and round Australia competition, but also in supercars.
• 1:52
  It's a milestone year for Peders, so we'll talk about that too.
• 1:56
  Scott has a great brain on his shoulders.
• 1:59
  I'm told he even crunches the numbers to figure out the seating orders before they're even published ahead of events.
• 2:06
  He's a family man, and in his younger years, he demonstrated pretty impressive form and dedication to a completely different sport, as you'll hear.
• 2:16
  I hope you enjoy getting to know Scott Pedder and some insights on the Peders suspension business too.
• 2:24
  I was actually worried that I'd done something wrong to you to be this far down the list.
• 2:29
  I mean, behind Odinsky.
• 2:30
  I don't play favourites in this.
• 2:31
  I randomly go for different things.
• 2:33
  And ironically, for different reasons, which we'll talk about a bit later, there is a bit of crazy, fortuitous timing in this in some respects, in some respects.
• 2:41
  Earliest memories of motorsport.
• 2:43
  You were a spectator basically in a pram, weren't you?
• 2:47
  I can't remember that time, but mum says to me that I was about six days old, I think, in the – it must have been 1976 because that was when I was born.
• 2:59
  So a 1976 rally in Canberra, spectating for my dad.
• 3:03
  So my dad was running an event there, and that's in 1600 at about car 95 or something like that.
• 3:09
  Awesome.
• 3:10
  So I had no hope, but I've got a famous photo at work, which is Huey Bell going over the mineshaft in the 1983 Castrol Rally, I believe.
• 3:22
  And you can see Mark and I, my brother and I, spectating halfway up the mineshaft as a six, seven-year-old.
• 3:28
  So...
• 3:28
  Basically, I had no chance from day one, really, did I?
• 3:31
  Famous.
• 3:32
  I mean, famous piece of road in the Australian Rally Championship.
• 3:35
  And a guy that Pedder's, among others, supported along the way.
• 3:39
  Huey's one of them, isn't he?
• 3:40
  Yeah, yeah.
• 3:40
  And look, you know, one of those guys.
• 3:42
  It's topical, actually, because we're talking about, you know, WRC regs changing and having potentially more people coming out and winning rallies, apart from the sort of top four or five that can...
• 3:52
  afford WRC one you know he barely in my opinion was one of those guys that you know given the opportunity um you know he could have uh done some big damage in the in the world championship you made it to the WRC and uh did some some competition there which we'll come to but I've done a bit of background in here uh spoke to your good brother Mark it was very helpful
• 4:14
  He says that he can recall you being maybe age three or four, pedal car, fully sideways, and that you went through some plastic wheels.
• 4:23
  True or false.
• 4:25
  Yeah, I did.
• 4:26
  I had a pedal car, and fortunately enough, to have a driveway with a nice downward grade, I could get to about 12K an hour, I reckon.
• 4:37
  Scando flicks at 0.3.
• 4:39
  Right was a little bit scary because that was a pole on the outside.
• 4:42
  Left had a bit of a gravel driveway next to it.
• 4:46
  So I chose right or left and generally right because that was the scarier side.
• 4:51
  So I love it.
• 4:53
  Next question's a bit loaded.
• 4:54
  Can you – I mean, we know you can drive the wheels off a rally car.
• 4:57
  What about mechanically minded?
• 4:59
  Terrible.
• 5:00
  You got that from Mark as well.
• 5:01
  I did.
• 5:01
  I did.
• 5:02
  I did.
• 5:03
  Yeah, no, absolutely horrendous.
• 5:06
  I am shocking when it comes to, you know, people, mechanically minded people just know stuff and, you know, I hang pitches and they come down straight away.
• 5:16
  I can't do anything mechanically, so I'm not inept.
• 5:20
  But you play to your strengths and you have several of those.
• 5:23
  Now, can we talk Hayla Breeze?
• 5:26
  The reason I want to do that, I mean, that's topical at the moment.
• 5:28
  Oscar Piastri went there.
• 5:30
  Obviously, they have a great foundation around him now, I think, which helps people that may want to go and study or do sport internationally.
• 5:37
  I think that's a really great initiative.
• 5:39
  And you've kept some really close-knit...
• 5:42
  from that period of your life and probably even beyond there.
• 5:45
  And they've all got their own individual success stories.
• 5:47
  So I worked with Adam Hilton at Channel 10 for a time.
• 5:50
  You've got another great mate, Tim.
• 5:52
  Stu Fox, CEO of the MCG and so on.
• 5:54
  You're all tight, you guys, aren't you?
• 5:56
  Yeah, yeah.
• 5:56
  And I mean, I've been very fortunate to have four guys that I met –
• 6:01
  day one and year nine because I went to Brighton Campus School and those guys went to the Quaysburg Campus School and we caught up literally day one kicking the footy at lunchtime and I was a big guy, they're big guys, so that was instantly a hit and, you know, we've...
• 6:18
  Kept that friendship bond, you know, the four of us going.
• 6:21
  And then obviously Stu Fox and Timmy Norman and those sort of guys, they're a bit later.
• 6:25
  They're school dads, friends.
• 6:28
  But, yeah, I'm very, very fortunate to have a great bunch of guys that keep me grounded apart from Raleigh.
• 6:36
  Now, you said AFL there.
• 6:37
  Little Birdie tells me you may have come to a crossroads as a teen.
• 6:42
  You could have gone the path of another sport.
• 6:44
  I'm told you're quite...
• 6:46
  And certainly were back then a very handy tennis player.
• 6:50
  Yep.
• 6:50
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:51
  I sort of... How big did that get?
• 6:53
  Yeah, I got to the stage where I probably got to the crossroads when I was about 16.
• 6:57
  I could have gone professional.
• 7:00
  I won a tournament in Yarrawonga, which was an under-19s Coca-Cola sponsored tournament, which is basically all the best kids from around the state and the country, and particularly the country kids.
• 7:10
  And I won that as a 16-year-old.
• 7:12
  So that was sort of a moment when my coach said, righto, well...
• 7:16
  Do you want to work or do you don't want to work because the guy over in Russia or Poland or, you know, those sort of places is doing 12 hours a day.
• 7:23
  Are you prepared to do that because that's what you need to do?
• 7:25
  You've got the talent and all that sort of stuff.
• 7:28
  And I had girlfriends and I love food too much and motorsport was becoming a thing.
• 7:35
  I decided to be the lazy path and went the other way.
• 7:39
  But I love tennis and I actually, given my personality, this is probably an insight in my personality, from that day forward until my young fella, which is now 20, 25 years later,
• 7:50
  um i didn't pick up a tennis racket for 20 25 years um um you know up until just a few years ago so um probably one of the regrets in my of my life was not to continue playing tennis because i was pretty good at it don't have regrets don't have regrets
• 8:05
  I am told you did pick it up socially, though.
• 8:08
  I think Dean Heritage recounted to me that you and Mark might have played he and someone else I can't remember, and you absolutely smashed them in WA1.
• 8:16
  Yeah.
• 8:17
  They didn't know what they were in for, did they?
• 8:18
  Yeah.
• 8:18
  They saw a couple of two fat pedablokes, and they thought, we're going to wipe these guys, and...
• 8:22
  I don't think they won a point, to be honest.
• 8:24
  Did they?
• 8:24
  No, no.
• 8:25
  I'm looking for, I think Harry and Lewis Bates are quite handy tennis players.
• 8:28
  Well, they talked themselves up, so maybe we need to bring them down to Cooyang and show them a few sets or two.
• 8:35
  Before we move on from tennis, did you come across anyone in that period?
• 8:40
  Did you play a Mark Philippousis?
• 8:41
  Yeah, I played Philippousis twice.
• 8:43
  He was very, very good.
• 8:43
  He was the number one in the world.
• 8:45
  as a 14-year-old back then, even though they didn't really have 14-year-old rankings.
• 8:49
  He was number one in the world by some stretch.
• 8:52
  A young kid called Andrew Illy, who I think got to the quarterfinals of the French Open.
• 8:56
  I played in squads with him.
• 8:58
  Amazing.
• 8:59
  Yeah.
• 9:00
  Actually, the funny story is I played semifinals.
• 9:02
  I think it was semifinals.
• 9:03
  It's always bigger than 25 years.
• 9:05
  So it was probably a quarterfinal, but I'll go a semi.
• 9:08
  I played a doubles pairing of Dustin Fletcher,
• 9:12
  the Essendon fullback, and Chris Anstey, the NBA.
• 9:16
  So at 14, they beat us 6-4 in the third set at the National Tennis Centre here.
• 9:23
  But I think Dusty was, let's say, 6-3 at 14, and I think Chris was about 6-6.
• 9:27
  So...
• 9:28
  Hard to lob.
• 9:29
  Hard to lob.
• 9:31
  And my doubles partner, I was relatively tall.
• 9:33
  My doubles partner was about 4'11".
• 9:35
  So we almost got them, but they were a pretty handy pairing.
• 9:39
  Nice.
• 9:40
  When did the – I mean, firstly, in telling the motor racing journey of your life, there is an influence from family here, isn't there?
• 9:49
  I mean, with what your dad did around Australia trials and so on.
• 9:52
  Even, I mean, you touched on his rallying and so on there before, but it wasn't just rally, basically, was it?
• 9:58
  No, the round Australia trials were very, very exciting.
• 10:02
  Obviously, Mark co-driving the 95 one, I was off doing university study and I actually didn't meet them until week two because I was doing exams.
• 10:11
  What's your degree?
• 10:13
  Bachelor of Commerce, Marketing and Accounting.
• 10:15
  So yeah, I didn't really go.
• 10:17
  I sort of just snuck my way through.
• 10:19
  It was a three-year course that I took four years to do, but that's another podcast.
• 10:22
  You've got it done.
• 10:22
  You've got it done.
• 10:24
  but then I got the chance to do the 98 rally, which was incredible.
• 10:29
  It was amazing.
• 10:30
  It's funny, you know, it was sort of touted as an opportunity to spend some time with your dad.
• 10:35
  But the problem is, is that, you know, dad would do all the competitive sections and then would fall asleep and I would do all the, all the transport sections.
• 10:43
  So you'd be on the road for 18 or 19 hours.
• 10:46
  And we joked after the, after the rally, we said, you know, it was probably only one hour a day.
• 10:50
  We're actually, actually awake talking to each other.
• 10:52
  So, yeah,
• 10:53
  It was, no, but it was an unbelievable experience.
• 10:55
  Probably the most interesting and cool rally that I've done in my life.
• 11:02
  It's a sixth, I think, too.
• 11:03
  You guys got sixth, is that right?
• 11:04
  We got sixth, yeah, which was pretty cool.
• 11:07
  Intercomador, which was, and obviously to spend, you know, three weeks with Brockie.
• 11:10
  Yes.
• 11:10
  It was pretty amazing.
• 11:12
  Often, you know, often the car behind or car in front very rarely, but the car behind a lot.
• 11:17
  uh with with him so and brucey garland those sort of people it was pretty graham wise pretty amazing experience and um you know the perth sunsets and and you know far far north and yeah it was it was unbelievably cool beautiful plus you get to see i mean garland's a great character he's been on the pod before brock sadly is is no longer with us when you get to spend kind of quality time away
• 11:39
  you know, media pressures and all that sort of stuff.
• 11:41
  What was he like?
• 11:43
  Brock was the consummate professional, really, really nice guy, the hardest working person I've seen in my career.
• 11:52
  You know, like he – yeah, they were tough days.
• 11:55
  They were – you know, some of the days were 21, 22-hour days, and Brock, he would be the last person there signing autographs, you know, in some places that –
• 12:06
  You know, not the safest places in Australia, Catherine's and that sort of stuff.
• 12:10
  But he'd be there, you know, the last person signing autographs and probably get one hour's sleep.
• 12:16
  And talent-wise, I remember a stage actually not far out of Catherine, I think, in the Northern Territory.
• 12:23
  It was an old...
• 12:24
  tarmac road it was probably 30 35 k's and he's in a standard jackaroo on rally suspension against i think guestie was still there or still in that at that point in a subaru and and brocky won the stage in a standard jackaroo because it was tarmac and dad thought he had a good run through there and we had the commodore
• 12:44
  And I think Brockie beat us by about four or five minutes on that stage.
• 12:49
  So, yeah, look, as everybody knows, he's unbelievably talented, and we've got an opportunity to spend three weeks with arguably the best and the biggest in the business.
• 13:01
  Nice memory.
• 13:02
  Thank you for sharing that.
• 13:03
  Your own emergence, does it start with autocrosses with your brother?
• 13:08
  And when was that?
• 13:09
  How did that all kick off?
• 13:10
  Yeah, we actually started, you know, obviously Dad was driving and then sponsored Ed and that sort of stuff.
• 13:18
  And then we had a bit of a break, obviously, when we were playing tennis and school and that sort of stuff.
• 13:23
  And then Dad sort of got the inkling that we were getting any interest in motorsports.
• 13:29
  So Dad bought an Escort, Ernie Graham Mark 276 Escort.
• 13:34
  So it leaf sprung rear end.
• 13:36
  It had about eight horsepower, this thing.
• 13:38
  you know, full speed.
• 13:41
  Twin Webbers?
• 13:41
  What was it?
• 13:42
  Yeah, Webbers.
• 13:43
  Downdraft, not side-draft.
• 13:44
  It wasn't too fast.
• 13:46
  You know, straight-cut gears and that sort of stuff.
• 13:48
  So it sounded pretty cool.
• 13:51
  And Mark, Dad went out there and saw it, you know, I'll show you boys how it's done.
• 13:55
  And,
• 13:55
  He rolled into a creek with Mark on the first rally.
• 13:58
  So that was not a good start.
• 14:01
  And then from there, we actually ended up having two escorts.
• 14:03
  And as you said, started with autocross.
• 14:06
  Actually, funny story, my first, I drove to the Packham Auto Club track for my first ever autocross.
• 14:13
  And I just got my learners about two days before.
• 14:17
  So I think the second hour of my driving career...
• 14:21
  I was driving an escort rally car.
• 14:23
  And for those that know Packham Autocross, you turn right across Princess Highway.
• 14:28
  So big downhill four-lane or three-lane trucks and that sort of stuff.
• 14:32
  I've stalled the escort in the middle of Princess Highway going up to the autocross track with Bill Orders, my uncle, sitting there and looking at me going, for Christ's sake, can you please turn the key?
• 14:43
  Let's go, let's go.
• 14:45
  So, yeah, my first, I was so nervous on my first autocross on the start line and I'm a 16-year-old kid.
• 14:54
  Actually, yeah, I might have even been 15, 16 maybe, yeah.
• 14:57
  I have a learner, so I must have been 16.
• 14:59
  And I said, what do I want to do?
• 15:00
  You know, and Bill goes, well, just rev it to 5,000, drop the clutch.
• 15:04
  So I did rev it to 5,000, drop the clutch and spun about 20 meters down the road.
• 15:09
  So that was probably an indication of my rallying career right there, I think.
• 15:12
  No, no.
• 15:14
  I think we very quickly got a window into the kind of natural talent that you had there, mate.
• 15:19
  In this early phase, you and your brother...
• 15:23
  share duties.
• 15:24
  So I think you co-drove for each other.
• 15:26
  We did, yep.
• 15:27
  What was that like?
• 15:28
  Terrible.
• 15:28
  Was it?
• 15:29
  Yeah.
• 15:31
  I was actually, I'm actually a state class winning co-drive champion for Bill.
• 15:35
  So I think I was a better co-driver than Mark.
• 15:39
  He says you got him lost early on though.
• 15:40
  Oh, very lost.
• 15:41
  Yeah.
• 15:41
  It was obviously back then, you know, all the events were at night.
• 15:44
  There were maps and all that sort of stuff.
• 15:46
  What were tulips and stuff?
• 15:47
  It was even before that, was it?
• 15:48
  Even before that, maps.
• 15:49
  Oh, wow.
• 15:49
  So marked up maps.
• 15:50
  Yeah.
• 15:51
  Um, um, that sort of stuff.
• 15:52
  And, and, uh, yeah, so, um, we did that.
• 15:55
  Yeah.
• 15:55
  But I think the first rally that I did as a draw, as a driver, Mark wasn't the co-driver, but I, I, I think I came last by about 16 minutes cause we were lost, but yeah, I co-drove for Mark and famously, um, he co-drove for me, um, in, I think it was 97 when we upgraded to the VR4, um, which was a pretty big
• 16:15
  Great for an escort with 10 horsepower.
• 16:18
  And I put him six feet up a tree.
• 16:21
  So that put an end to rallying for about 12 months because mum said, ah, and that was the end of Mark and Scott in the car together.
• 16:28
  Mum intervened there, didn't you?
• 16:29
  Mum intervened.
• 16:29
  You can play, but not together like that, yeah.
• 16:32
  And then we came back, obviously, in Evos and from there moved on.
• 16:36
  I think, you know, in talking to some of them that were around the ARC then,
• 16:41
  I can recall moments, I guess, when the VRC was playing at the ARC round and so on, and people acutely became aware of you boys and what you were doing.
• 16:50
  Was it always going to be...
• 16:53
  You know, you love rallying.
• 16:54
  It's in your DNA, mate.
• 16:55
  It's in your blood.
• 16:56
  But was it always the target, the ARC?
• 16:58
  Yeah, very much so.
• 16:59
  I mean, I grew up with the Australian League Championship in my blood.
• 17:04
  You know, I was dragged to, you know, to watch Dinter Offices and Hugh Bells and those sort of people, Portman's Furies.
• 17:11
  Mega.
• 17:12
  um that sort of stuff so i i witnessed you know in my opinion the the two biggest eras one is a spectator which was the 80s and one is a competitor which is the early 2000s and maybe we're getting close to the to the third one now so i'm sort of very fortunate to be able to be you know actively involved in those three areas or three years years yeah um
• 17:32
  But yeah, you're right.
• 17:33
  It was a natural progression from introductory trials through to club to state.
• 17:38
  And then we won two state championships in 1999-2000 as a 22 or 23-year-old.
• 17:45
  And having taste of doing Rally in Melbourne those years and pace notes and having Ed Ordinsky teach me about pace notes and that sort of stuff.
• 17:53
  The national progression was the ARC and we had our own team there, which was just so much fun.
• 17:58
  Fabulous.
• 17:59
  It wasn't the best way to do it and it wasn't the best way to be competitive as we turned out, but geez, it was a lot of fun.
• 18:05
  And we got an opportunity to tie in the commercial part of Peders as well because at the same time...
• 18:10
  Mark and I were becoming more active in the business.
• 18:14
  And then sort of just progressed from there, obviously, and became factory drivers through to Age Pacific, World Championship, and now back to the Australian Championship.
• 18:22
  So it's been a pretty good journey.
• 18:23
  Yeah, a real good journey.
• 18:24
  Let's touch on a few of those things.
• 18:25
  Firstly, I sort of began to do some reporting for...
• 18:30
  for Channel 10 around the year 2000, 2001.
• 18:33
  I can vividly recall coming to do interviews with you guys.
• 18:37
  Bill Orders, I think, was team boss back then, wasn't he?
• 18:39
  His own son drove for a while there.
• 18:41
  He was a three-car team and so on.
• 18:44
  But it always sort of had this essence of what you were talking about.
• 18:46
  Like on the outside, you know, really good –
• 18:50
  Evo 3s, were they Evo 3s you run back then?
• 18:52
  Yes, correct.
• 18:53
  And, you know, professional in its presentation, what you brought to the table, fast cars, good drivers, but you kept an almost barbecue fun element about it, didn't you?
• 19:05
  Yeah, and in hindsight, that's what we're trying to bring now is to bring the fun back.
• 19:12
  It's a bit more difficult when you're up in winning stages and you think you're a chance and that sort of stuff, but bringing that fun is really important.
• 19:19
  But that team was fun.
• 19:21
  As I said, we tied the business in.
• 19:24
  friends, long-term friends that had done the Round Australia trials, both of them with us as our team.
• 19:32
  There was no food and chef back then.
• 19:34
  So you'd get back and you had to, it was generally McDonald's or Pizza Hut.
• 19:37
  So that's probably why 10 kilos to blame over that journey.
• 19:44
  But it was just so much fun.
• 19:46
  I think our biggest part of our budget was beer.
• 19:48
  Um, and, and it was just, it was just an amazing experience.
• 19:52
  As I said, you know, Bill was a big part of that, um, you know, obviously.
• 19:55
  And, and, you know, we, we also had sponsors.
• 19:58
  We had, we had, you know, suppliers and sponsors, um, that, that came on the journey as well, which, you know, ironically we've got now 20 years later.
• 20:04
  Was that a bit of a learning for you on the business side?
• 20:06
  I want to, I want to talk the Petters story here as we, as we go, but...
• 20:10
  You know, when you do that kind of, I guess it's co-op based things where you're bringing in partners that you might work with in a business sense to come and play in that motorsport sense.
• 20:16
  Was that a good marketing learning for you?
• 20:19
  Yeah, it was, you know, and obviously I'd done marketing at uni.
• 20:22
  So at that point, I'd sort of gone into the one man marketing team at Peders and sacked the agency and started marketing in the No Bull campaign and all that sort of stuff.
• 20:34
  You came up with that?
• 20:34
  No, I didn't come up with that.
• 20:36
  The agency came up with that, but I took it over and took their good work and took it forward.
• 20:41
  And then obviously the motorsport thing, they had supercars and TV with Channel 10, all that sort of stuff.
• 20:47
  But yeah, the…
• 20:49
  you know, the learnings from sponsorship and back in the days, because we treated those, you know, regardless if they were suppliers or whatever, we treated those guys as proper sponsors and we made sure that they got good value.
• 21:00
  And that's really taught me, you know, both sides of the sport is that, you know, I've been very fortunate to be able to tap on sponsors that, you know, probably saw it as a rebate rather than a sponsorship payment.
• 21:11
  But at the same time, you know, I've been able to sort of, you know,
• 21:17
  go through my career and have that opportunity to see both sides of the sport.
• 21:30
  If you're enjoying Scott Petter's episode, make sure you check out Ed Ordinsky too.
• 21:35
  What he did in production-based rally cars with Mitsubishi was remarkable.
• 21:40
  But the group and cast were fantastic.
• 21:43
  And so, you know, we took the lion's share of the prize money, both categories.
• 21:48
  And that was the first time I had to talk contractually with Mitsubishi because I said, hang on, if we win the rally outright, doesn't that get us the prize money for both, which they had to agree to?
• 21:58
  So that was quite good.
• 22:01
  Ed and Rusty are good talkers, so this is a three-parter.
• 22:04
  What is it with these rally people?
• 22:06
  They love a chat.
• 22:07
  Back to another one now.
• 22:09
  Scott Pedder, here on Rusty's Garage.
• 22:14
  When do you reckon you felt like, and you're...
• 22:18
  one of your own you're a hard marker on yourself right when do you feel like you you had earned a a place in the arc elite if you will i mean like you can you can look at results like uh second in 02 and 03 at the the aprc event in in canberra and stuff before you go on to you know win uh south australia and melbourne in 05 and 06 when do you sort of feel like right i i've
• 22:44
  I can more than hold my own here.
• 22:46
  I'm ready to go toe-to-toe with these guys.
• 22:49
  Um, probably this might sound a little arrogant, but probably early on, uh, I am a hard marker on myself, but probably the one that, that went that people, people stood up and even my, I, myself stood up is that we'd done 2001 in the Evo three, which was a PRC card.
• 23:04
  It was 10 years old.
• 23:06
  Um, everyone thought it was a, it was a grunter and, and had unbelievable power in essentially it was a group N car with a 34, you know, with a slightly bigger restrictor.
• 23:15
  And we got some good results.
• 23:16
  I think we got fourth in Queensland that year behind the two world cars and Cody, so that was okay.
• 23:23
  Then we started the first rally the following year, 02, was the Forest Rally.
• 23:30
  And we were car eight or nine or 10, and I got Ed's Evo 6, which I still rate as probably one of the best Evos, if not the best Evo.
• 23:39
  He'd moved up to a seven, and I got his six.
• 23:42
  Awesome.
• 23:42
  And we were leading day one up until the last stage, and literally, it's probably the most unlucky…
• 23:49
  uh day of rallying that i've ever had is that the it was seriously windy no dust obviously we got the clean swept road being car nine or ten um and and literally for the last stage i'm not sure why that the wind stopped it went from you know 30 knots to zero and possum was car one and ended up winning the winning the heat by about six seconds six seconds and then
• 24:11
  And then to make it even, so we came second and then we had a spin on day two.
• 24:15
  And to make the unlucky even worse is that Ed and Possum actually tied for second in Heat 2.
• 24:21
  And Simon won Heat 2.
• 24:24
  That tie stopped us winning the rally.
• 24:27
  So we actually finished second in the rally on points, literally by 0.1 of a second.
• 24:32
  We could have won the first rally in the Group N. And then, as you said, that went on to that next event was Canberra.
• 24:38
  So I started off my Group N career...
• 24:41
  you know, pretty, pretty well.
• 24:43
  So, you know, probably the answer to the question is early on.
• 24:47
  There has been times throughout my career where I've thought I'm a bit of an imposter.
• 24:52
  Why do you think that?
• 24:54
  I mean... You shouldn't.
• 24:55
  You shouldn't.
• 24:55
  I mean, you're whatever you are now.
• 24:57
  You're 48, I think, aren't you?
• 24:58
  49.
• 24:58
  49.
• 24:59
  And, like...
• 25:00
  You're winning stages, you're battling for heat wins.
• 25:04
  Why would you think that?
• 25:05
  Yeah, I think speed-wise, I've always had it.
• 25:08
  It's just that level of consistency.
• 25:11
  When you compare some of the drivers, the Eds and Codies and that sort of stuff, pace-wise, no problems.
• 25:19
  But just that ability to do that pace for longer periods of time, that's what I'd like to get to.
• 25:25
  And I'm running out of years to get to that.
• 25:28
  And certainly this year, I haven't got to that yet.
• 25:30
  But, you know, I think there's fast rally drivers and there's good rally drivers.
• 25:36
  And then there's great rally drivers.
• 25:38
  I think I'm fast and good.
• 25:39
  Am I great?
• 25:40
  I don't think so.
• 25:41
  Okay.
• 25:42
  We'll come to more of this because, I mean, you touched on eras before.
• 25:44
  I mean, you've competed against prior generations.
• 25:47
  You're now up against the next, you know, generation of baits.
• 25:50
  I mean, we've gone front-wheel drive, group end, to what we're enjoying now, and you're still, you know, you're fast across a lot of them.
• 25:58
  Come back to the point where maybe the phone starts ringing the other way.
• 26:02
  So instead of you...
• 26:03
  putting the programs together and Pedder's putting the programs together.
• 26:06
  What happens next?
• 26:09
  Do you – are you on the forward foot or is it starting to come back the other way?
• 26:13
  It was interesting is I think, you know, obviously we were the third Mitsubishi car when we had the Pedder's team and, you know, it was Ed and Spencer who had the two seats, you know, by rights.
• 26:26
  They were very, very good drivers, both of them, obviously.
• 26:30
  But I think Mitsubishi saw me as he's always going to turn up, so we don't need to put him in a factory car.
• 26:37
  And then once we made the decision at the end of 2004 that we weren't going to run as a Pedder's team again, which was a business decision, money and growth decision at that time in the business,
• 26:48
  All of a sudden the door, you know, the doors opened and I didn't just get opportunities from Mitsubishi.
• 26:53
  This is unknown to many, but I got opportunities from Subaru as well.
• 26:59
  So, you know, Alan Heafy approached me and I actually tested the Evo 7, Ed's Evo 7 at the end of 2004, I think.
• 27:11
  and were actually faster than Ed and Spencer on the road that they'd run.
• 27:15
  So that was a... Where'd you test?
• 27:17
  In Tassie.
• 27:19
  Nice.
• 27:20
  And then, you know, Alan said, you know, would you like to come and join the team?
• 27:25
  And, you know, the first year I paid a little bit of money, so Petters did provide some finance, some support, because, you know, really Alan was doing it on the smell of an oily rag with Mitsubishi at the time.
• 27:37
  And then 2005, we started off pretty poorly, but won Adelaide and came second, I think, in Tassie and probably should have won Melbourne.
• 27:48
  And then moved to 2006, which we probably should have won that championship.
• 27:52
  We were the fastest, I believe.
• 27:54
  Simon might say otherwise, I think, but we were the fastest car.
• 27:57
  We just got unlucky with some turbo issues and some other issues.
• 28:01
  And then at the end of 2006, Steve Glennie was my teammate.
• 28:06
  We had Christmas breakup and then six days later Mitsubishi pulled the pin.
• 28:11
  And then ironically I had an offer from Subaru that I turned down to stay with Mitsubishi.
• 28:19
  And then the Subaru opportunity went elsewhere.
• 28:22
  Crazy.
• 28:22
  How do you frame all of that now?
• 28:24
  I mean you've talked about being…
• 28:26
  ultra close in 06 and then opportunities that through circumstance, you know, I mean, maybe we might have sensed that Mitsubishi were a bit borderline, but would they really go?
• 28:37
  And then obviously the Subaru thing, how did you frame all that at the end of it?
• 28:40
  Look, I think if you go through life and your one downside is loyalty, that's a pretty good thing.
• 28:46
  Hell yeah.
• 28:47
  So I think, you know, my thing was loyalty, you know, particularly Alan.
• 28:53
  I got a lot of time for Alan Heafy, he put...
• 28:56
  He's head on the block, particularly after I crashed a couple of cars early in 2005.
• 29:00
  And I know that he said to the Mitsubishi guys, you know, just have some faith and patience with this guy.
• 29:06
  I've got some trust in him and he did.
• 29:09
  So I wasn't going anywhere.
• 29:12
  And I was really excited about Steve coming on to the team.
• 29:15
  You know, he's unlucky because he had that opportunity.
• 29:18
  He was very fast in Adelaide that year.
• 29:20
  And that was going to be a fantastic year, having a teammate for the first time.
• 29:24
  And unfortunately, it got pulled from under us.
• 29:28
  Crazy.
• 29:28
  There's, in a short time frame after, an opportunity emerges in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship for you.
• 29:34
  I think Katsu Taguchi was your teammate.
• 29:35
  You're with MRF and so on.
• 29:37
  Tell us about that journey.
• 29:38
  Yeah, really, really good.
• 29:39
  I mean, again, a new experience.
• 29:41
  So left-hand drive for the first time, still running an H-pattern box, which I just didn't get my head around and ended up buying a lot of gearboxes because I just was too aggressive and too, you know, 6'3 and 95 kilos on the gearbox didn't really help out.
• 29:55
  But from an experience point of view, Katsu was fantastic.
• 29:57
  You know, Racetalk that ran the team and Lane and the team were really great to work with.
• 30:02
  And
• 30:02
  Hot events like just crazy hot Indonesia and Malaysia and then it rained in Malaysia and it was just ridiculous.
• 30:11
  Didn't do fantastically well from a results point of view.
• 30:16
  Cody and that team, the Motor Image team are in that as well.
• 30:20
  So it was a pretty…
• 30:21
  good championship.
• 30:22
  It was fantastic from an experience point of view.
• 30:24
  It did ground me.
• 30:25
  It's sort of like you've gone from a big fish, small pond into the Asia Pacific.
• 30:31
  And it was certainly eye-opening.
• 30:34
  Did you get during this time, later on, you'd go in 2015 and do some stuff in WRC too.
• 30:43
  But did other things potentially come on the radar in this period?
• 30:47
  Was it like, oh, maybe we could go and do this or, you know, did stuff like that happen?
• 30:51
  Yeah.
• 30:52
  I mean, post-06, you know, again, we talk about regrets and, you know, I know you shouldn't have regrets, but you do, is that that was the opportunity I had to go and do PWRC.
• 30:59
  I should have taken the opportunity, you know, then I was, you know, 30, which I reckon is the sort of nice age.
• 31:06
  I think I probably then was driving the best that I did.
• 31:10
  um we went and did rally new zealand in 07 um in a trading post car and we put all eggs in one basket to go and do that and unfortunately you know whether the spectators did it or someone you know someone did it there was just one corner which was out of character slippery and literally us and i think six other cars around us slipped off and we on stage two or one maybe and
• 31:34
  We got the car back, and if you take the times, you know, this is the old thing.
• 31:37
  If you take the times over the two days, I think we were second fastest PWRC behind Joachimann.
• 31:42
  And so, again, speed good.
• 31:45
  We never won a stage, but I think we got about five seconds.
• 31:48
  So, you know, the speed was there, and probably in hindsight, you know, that was the time that I should have...
• 31:54
  you know, you know, bit the bullet.
• 31:56
  But at the same time, I think, I think I just had my third child then.
• 32:00
  So, you know, three, three girls under the age of four, you know, business, business going well, Mark just, you know, moved into the director's seat.
• 32:09
  So supporting him with the transition from, from dad to him.
• 32:13
  So lots of stuff going on.
• 32:14
  So no regrets, but, you know, that's the time that I really should have done.
• 32:19
  I should have done what I did in 15 back in 2007.
• 32:23
  You are a very proud, very good dad, mate.
• 32:26
  And I think if you were to say...
• 32:28
  you know, I mean, whether it's business success, what you've done in rallying and so on, you put a strong level of value in that, don't you?
• 32:38
  You were clearly always going to be in a rally car.
• 32:39
  That's obvious from when you were a youngster.
• 32:41
  But one thing you were always going to be at, mate, was a good dad.
• 32:44
  Yeah, look, I often say that I only had two aims in life, and that was to be a good dad and a good rally driver.
• 32:48
  And
• 32:50
  I think I've done the third.
• 32:50
  Tick, tick.
• 32:51
  I think, yeah.
• 32:52
  So, you know, Caroline goes, what about a good husband?
• 32:56
  And I say, I don't think that's possible with the expectations coming from that side.
• 33:01
  But, you know, yeah, I think I've ticked those boxes and I've got, you know, great family, great kids.
• 33:06
  But, you know, I grew up with great parents and I think that's the secret is –
• 33:10
  that genetic, you know, flow through of, you know, philosophy and learning and that sort of stuff.
• 33:14
  So I was given every opportunity in life and been very fortunate.
• 33:17
  So that's the way I treat my kids.
• 33:19
  Do you think motorsport plays a part in helping that too, in some respects?
• 33:23
  Because, you know, you often hear people that, you know, family stays together, they go karting, they do whatever.
• 33:27
  And there's often some real good stories out of perhaps stopping kids going the wrong direction.
• 33:33
  And so it's good like that, isn't it?
• 33:35
  Yeah, I think so.
• 33:36
  You know, yeah, I
• 33:38
  I think sport, squash motorsport for a second, but sport or interest I think is paramount.
• 33:45
  Stop the kids from going down to the shopping centers and just getting bored.
• 33:48
  I think half the problem these days is just boredom with kids and get them off the phones and that sort of stuff and have interest and passion.
• 33:56
  um have something that they can wake up in the morning and try and aspire to and i think motorsport for me is that you know um i've i've um kept my kids a little bit away from from motorsport but they're okay with dad and husband doing well they haven't i haven't taken them for a ride in the car so so caroline's been for a ride and she's done an event that's probably another story if you want to go there um she still hates me for it does she
• 34:18
  Will she hate me for bringing the store out?
• 34:20
  No, no, no.
• 34:20
  Well, maybe.
• 34:21
  But the four kids haven't gone for a ride.
• 34:24
  And I'm not sure if I want to.
• 34:26
  I've got very different kids.
• 34:28
  I've got two of them, I reckon, that'll say, Dad, you're an idiot and why are you doing this?
• 34:32
  And that's unsafe.
• 34:33
  And I've got two kids that might want to co-drive and might cost me a million bucks a year.
• 34:39
  But no, I think...
• 34:41
  Back to the point.
• 34:42
  I think rallying has been amazing for my life and for my personality.
• 34:48
  And, you know, it's just been such a buzz and I can't believe that I'm 49 and potentially it's coming to an end because I still feel like I'm 16.
• 34:56
  Yeah, well, keep doing it as long as it's fun.
• 34:59
  And we can talk about this as we go.
• 35:01
  What happened with Carolyn?
• 35:01
  What happened with the coach?
• 35:02
  What happened?
• 35:04
  Well, I'm trying to put this into one or two minutes, but it's difficult.
• 35:09
  At the end of 2001, we decided as a bit of a team thing that we do a state round.
• 35:14
  But we wouldn't do it in the rally cars.
• 35:16
  We'd do it in the reconnaissance cars.
• 35:17
  If you remember back then, we had Evo 1 pretty recce cars, which were pretty standard, had a roll cage and that sort of stuff.
• 35:23
  So Mark did – I'm not sure who Mark competed with as a co-driver, but I took Caroline.
• 35:29
  And she'd never done, was paced noted.
• 35:30
  She'd never done paced notes before.
• 35:31
  She'd never co-driven before.
• 35:32
  She was her very, very first event.
• 35:34
  So we started, I think, car two behind a bloke called Darren Windus, who was pretty quick.
• 35:37
  Yeah.
• 35:38
  Group A, Subaru and some stuff.
• 35:39
  And we got through the first stage.
• 35:42
  And basically, she was calling the notes.
• 35:44
  And I was saying, next, next, next.
• 35:45
  Because she would just call out a line.
• 35:47
  And I'd say, next.
• 35:48
  So she didn't have to worry about timing.
• 35:49
  I was controlling the timing of the note coming out.
• 35:52
  We get to the end.
• 35:53
  And obviously we've done all right that year in the ARC and she thought I was pretty good and that sort of stuff.
• 35:57
  And I'm her husband, so therefore she thinks I'm pretty good most of the time.
• 36:01
  We get to the end of the first stage and we're seventh.
• 36:04
  And she's like, what do you mean?
• 36:07
  Like we're seventh.
• 36:07
  I expected to win.
• 36:09
  And I'm like, well, there's some fast guys here and we're not in a great car.
• 36:13
  And to be honest, the notes aren't that great.
• 36:17
  So she sort of gave me that wife look and she said, well,
• 36:22
  how do we sort of improve our pace?
• 36:24
  And I said, well, when I say next, don't pause.
• 36:26
  Like you need to say next straight into it.
• 36:29
  So anyway, um, obviously her competitive, uh, you know, thing was the same as mine.
• 36:34
  So I think we ended up winning the next nine stages and we went into the last stage and,
• 36:39
  up by about five seconds.
• 36:40
  And I could be wrong, but let's go with that.
• 36:44
  And then I come over a crest with about three k's to go on the last stage, going okay, and I see the bunting.
• 36:49
  She calls the note perfectly left.
• 36:50
  I go right.
• 36:52
  We lose the rally by three seconds.
• 36:55
  And I get to the end and one of the, I'm not sure if it was Stewie Lister or one of those old sort of guys comes up to me and he goes, do you realise if you had have won this rally that she would have been the only co-driver in Victorian rallying history to go from grade five to grade one in one rally?
• 37:10
  So as it stands, if you look up the record books, Caroline Petter is a grade two co-driver.
• 37:15
  Is that right?
• 37:17
  And you half-torched her debut.
• 37:18
  And I torched her.
• 37:19
  It was all my fault.
• 37:20
  So I'm a grade one driver and she's a grade two.
• 37:23
  So anyway, that's the story.
• 37:25
  Cool story.
• 37:25
  You are a great student of the sport, mate.
• 37:27
  In talking with Glenn McNeil in the lead up to this and others, I was reminded of that.
• 37:35
  I mean, the underscoring that point.
• 37:38
  I mean, for example, I gather you can crunch numbers before the event comes out and figure out seedings and things like that, can't you?
• 37:46
  Yeah, numbers have always been my strength.
• 37:48
  So Mark's terrible with numbers but great with words.
• 37:50
  He reads books and words are amazing.
• 37:54
  He's very good with English and letters and all that sort of stuff.
• 37:56
  I've read four books in my life.
• 37:57
  I think one of them is an autobiography or probably three of them are autobiographies and one of them is a cartoon.
• 38:03
  Yeah, numbers.
• 38:05
  I love numbers and that's what I love to – that actually relaxes me.
• 38:08
  Does it?
• 38:09
  Yeah, so I'm probably more of a co-driver before the event than many co-drivers I've ever had.
• 38:14
  I remember Glenn, the first – really remember Glenn, I actually sent him the recce schedule and he sort of pulled me up and he said, mate, how about I do the co-driving bit and you do the driving bit?
• 38:26
  uh no worries no worries i look i don't you know don't take offense it's just what i do so you're organized yeah so and i think actually interesting talking to harry bates harry bates is very similar as well so um you know and he's got a pretty good co-driver as well so he doesn't need to do it either tell me about then the next level of detail and all that so are you like if you know if we talked who won what championship and who was co-driving with who back then can you remember all that that's
• 38:50
  Not that I'll test you, but I mean, is that the sort of... No, no, yeah, I've got a pretty good idea.
• 38:53
  I'm a pretty good historian, that sort of stuff.
• 38:55
  I couldn't tell you exactly who won the years and that sort of stuff.
• 38:59
  But, you know, if you threw out, you know, names and stuff, I'd certainly throw back cars and memories of those people and that sort of stuff.
• 39:06
  So, yeah, as I said, I've always loved the Australian Rally Championship.
• 39:11
  I just think it's...
• 39:12
  one of the most amazing um things you know it's an amazing championship it's just steeped with so much history um and it's a bit like pedas to be honest it's a bit of a it's a bit of a secret you know like it's just it's just you know you see what v8 supercars have done and i don't think that rallying in this country will ever be that but
• 39:33
  geez, we're underplaying how great rallying is and commercially we just haven't got there.
• 39:39
  And I don't think we've got there in the world championship really.
• 39:42
  I think there's so many opportunities that we don't grab and so many stupid decisions that get made that cost this sport.
• 39:49
  great commercial, you know, limelight, you know, versus its other motorsport peers.
• 39:56
  Great potential in at the moment.
• 39:57
  I know we're trying lots of fresh and new things and it's got a good vibe about it at the moment, the ARC, doesn't it?
• 40:02
  I think it really does.
• 40:03
  Just in, you know, your organisation, your pre-planning and so on, you watch lots of videos, you're knee deep on stuff around recce and things, aren't you?
• 40:14
  Yeah, I try and
• 40:16
  You know, I don't get angry very often, but I get angry with my team when the videos don't work.
• 40:25
  Really?
• 40:26
  Yeah, yeah.
• 40:27
  I think the videos are as important as shock settings and coil springs, you know, because…
• 40:32
  that learning ability after the event to dissect what you do and to go back next year and change that note or, you know, to talk to Glenn and say, hey, your timing was off.
• 40:42
  That never happens, but I wish it did.
• 40:45
  Whatever the tuning is.
• 40:46
  Whatever that tuning is, I think, you know, that ability to continually learn.
• 40:52
  You know, I'm 49, I'm still learning and every day is a
• 40:58
  a perfectionist competitive when you do the behavioral tests that i'm i'm high on competitive and perfectionist which is positive and lots of negatives in that um but yeah i i actually get frustrated with drivers that aren't like that i think there's a lot of people that have just wasted natural ability that could apply more that could apply more um particularly to the mental side and the preparation side and
• 41:20
  you know, don't watch the videos and that sort of stuff.
• 41:22
  I think that's absolutely crazy that they don't do that.
• 41:25
  Have people come to you for that kind of almost mentoring guidance and advice and have you helped in that regard?
• 41:32
  I'd love to.
• 41:33
  You know, I've had this conversation with Glenn and we shake our heads as well is that, you know, a few have.
• 41:39
  Adrian Coppin is one.
• 41:42
  Aaron Winders a little bit.
• 41:43
  Will Orders back in the day was one.
• 41:44
  You know, I was...
• 41:48
  okay at that obviously ed was my mentor and spent a little bit time with ed and ed taught me paste notes and and taught me that third gear corners are actually fifth another story if you want it um uh but yeah it's kids don't do it you know um i've certainly offered it i've certainly been open to it um but whether it's ego or or competitiveness or even fear even fear maybe you know and and maybe that's you know glenn and i and
• 42:14
  Glen Weston's and the older people's lot in life is to make sure that we pass those information down to the next level.
• 42:23
  And maybe because it's not – people aren't coming forward, maybe we need to do it in a formal way.
• 42:28
  Maybe we need to do it in an academy or something like that, which formalizes that because –
• 42:32
  You know, I think when you look at...
• 42:34
  Such a bank of knowledge, mate.
• 42:35
  Such a wealth of knowledge.
• 42:36
  Yeah, and when you look at it from a world championship point of view, the Roven Perez, the Macrays and that sort of stuff, they're naturally fast.
• 42:42
  Don't get me wrong, but they're fast straight away because they've got 10, 15, 20 people behind them helping them with notes, helping them with ice driving, helping them with sponsorship and that sort of stuff.
• 42:50
  It's no fluke.
• 42:52
  So again, it's frustrating that the young kids, you know, don't come through.
• 42:56
  I'm a huge believer, maybe for young ones listening, pick up the phone or find a way.
• 43:02
  Quite often, it's not just the advice.
• 43:05
  It's actually the fact that you're prepared and hungry enough to go and chase that sort of stuff and garner the respect of these people that you can then draw on further down the line if you need to.
• 43:15
  100%.
• 43:16
  Okay, let's, as we progress here on your career path, I know there are times where perhaps business or whatever the decisions may have been that you either reduce the amount of events that you do, you maybe even sit on the sidelines for a little while.
• 43:30
  How difficult have those moments been when you have not been competing?
• 43:36
  It's sort of, people have asked me that question, difficult, but not difficult.
• 43:40
  You know, I certainly do watch the events when I'm not there and, you know, assume where I would have been and why was that person so slow on that split?
• 43:48
  And I'll generally call someone that's at the event to ask them what's going on.
• 43:53
  But I think my brain's sort of very on and off.
• 43:56
  Once I've made a decision that I'm not doing it, I go off and do something else.
• 44:01
  I'm pretty good at that.
• 44:04
  I don't miss, even though I love rallying, I don't miss it when I'm not there.
• 44:08
  And I think that's because I've got a great life.
• 44:12
  Rallying's not everything.
• 44:13
  That's almost the Scotty Scheffler conversation is that rallying's not everything for me because I've just got such a magnificent life in family and business and friends and that sort of stuff.
• 44:22
  Yeah, I love rallying, but I don't need it.
• 44:24
  Okay, okay.
• 44:26
  Do your bonds, like how much value do you place in the bond with the co-driver?
• 44:30
  And you've had some great ones along the way.
• 44:32
  I mean, you call up GMAC, Glenn McNeil in 2023, I think, didn't you?
• 44:37
  And a guy with a huge amount of experience.
• 44:39
  He's not the only one that we can talk about there.
• 44:41
  And have you always run a 1 to 10 thing with those co-drivers system?
• 44:47
  Um, yes.
• 44:48
  So, so whether it be good luck or good management, um, the very first decision to go to Pace Notes, I, I, and I'm not sure who, who, I think it might've been dad, um, that said, let's get Ed because Ed, you know, in my opinion is the, is the guru, the doyen of, of the, of the 10 system and the, and the, the, the steering wheel system, which is all about consistency and, and not, um, perceiving what the road is going to do.
• 45:12
  You use that in the recce car.
• 45:13
  Yeah.
• 45:14
  Yeah.
• 45:15
  So one to 10, I actually got 14 notes.
• 45:18
  I've got pluses and stuff, which has all been a Finland.
• 45:21
  I didn't have enough notes for Finland.
• 45:23
  So I've incorporated some more notes and changes from that one event.
• 45:28
  But yeah, the co-driving, co-drivers are crucial.
• 45:31
  You know, as I said before, I've actually got,
• 45:34
  probably more respect for co-drivers than many of the drivers because i think i'm actually more a co-driver from a mentality point of view um i understand what they go through um i understand the importance of of the pace notes and timing um and that sort of stuff and i've had comments from from co-drivers over the over the journey you know things like um i'll slow down on recce if i know that i've made a note change that's going to require them to write quite a lot rather than just continue driving and
• 46:00
  have them potentially stuff up or not be able to catch up.
• 46:04
  So co-drivers are crucial.
• 46:06
  I mean, pace notes are, it's often been said, but I'm so pedantic and fanatical about pace notes that it's actually quite ridiculous.
• 46:20
  But you accept that.
• 46:21
  That's just how you're wide, right?
• 46:22
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:23
  And, you know, back to the videos.
• 46:25
  It's not uncommon for me, you know, to spend a day just on one stage.
• 46:31
  Really?
• 46:32
  Eight hours on a stage watching a video.
• 46:34
  And, you know, it's not uncommon for me to spend two business weeks on a rally watching videos.
• 46:41
  Does it become like film in your mind then in some ways?
• 46:45
  It's not just for the remembering.
• 46:47
  I mean, that's certainly part of it.
• 46:49
  And I think actually remembering a road can have its pros and its cons.
• 46:53
  It's just picking up detail.
• 46:54
  It's just, you know, it's looking both at last year's recce, this year's roads, and also last year's events, and just picking up detail and, you know, just...
• 47:06
  making sure that when you get into that car, because it's an intense environment, that you know in your brain that you've done everything that you possibly can to go down this road as fast and safe as you can.
• 47:26
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with Scott Pedder.
• 47:29
  Have you noticed the rally guests are all good talkers?
• 47:33
  I think Scott is determined not to go for three parts, like Neil Bates, Ed Ordinsky or the Herridges.
• 47:40
  Who doesn't love those chats?
• 47:41
  Anyway, there is a part two at least, all loaded up and in the library, ready for you to hit the start button on whenever you're ready.
• 47:48
  From reaching an important moment in the Pedder's business timeline when we recorded this episode...
• 47:54
  to taking on the world and what's around the corner on the stages and in the boardroom for Scott Pedder.