Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief: SVG and NASCAR, Oscar Piastri, Jack Doohan and V8 Sleuth Aaron Noonan

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief: SVG and NASCAR, Oscar Piastri, Jack Doohan and V8 Sleuth Aaron Noonan · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:06
  It's Monday, the 31st of July, 2023.
• 0:09
  Lots of good stuff to talk about from the weekend of racing.
• 0:12
  Supercars under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.
• 0:15
  F1 at one of the all-time great tracks, Spa.
• 0:19
  And an F2 feature race win for an Aussie knocking on the door of Formula One and much, much more.
• 0:26
  G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
• 0:31
  Incredible reaction to our 100th feature episode which we released last Tuesday.
• 0:37
  My mate from the 10 motorsport days, Mark Howard, who is a true podcast guru, check out his Howie Games pod if you haven't already, was in the driver's seat.
• 0:47
  He was in the garage for something of a Trading Places interview.
• 0:49
  He was in the garage for something of a Trading Places interview.
• 0:51
  How it all started for me in motorsport broadcasting.
• 0:55
  Tattoo stories with Darrell Beattie.
• 0:57
  The time I took my dog into the TV studios and the chaos that followed.
• 1:02
  Working on the 9-11 coverage and stepping up to work on big gigs like the Commonwealth Games and Winter Olympics.
• 1:09
  Plus, memories of Barry Sheen, laughs with my buddy Lee Diffie.
• 1:13
  And the time Jason Bright called to tell me we'd made it big in Bahrain.
• 1:18
  It reminded me of some very cool things that I've been fortunate to do along the way and how much more I still have in the tank.
• 1:26
  Thank you.
• 1:27
  Share it.
• 1:27
  I hope you and your mates enjoy it.
• 1:29
  Today on The Brief, something different.
• 1:31
  We are starting the countdown to Bathurst.
• 1:33
  Why not?
• 1:34
  What the hell?
• 1:35
  Just over two months, less than 70 days until the Great Race, and there is a fantastic new book out to celebrate a mountain milestone.
• 1:45
  It's called The Great Race, 60 Years of the Bathurst 1000.
• 1:50
  Written by a colleague and friend in Aaron Noonan, who many of you know as the V8 sleuth.
• 1:56
  He has become the go-to historian and stats custodian for the sport.
• 2:01
  Known for his incredible accuracy around this stuff and attention to detail.
• 2:06
  The book beautifully covers so many different eras of the other horsepower-based race that stops the nation.
• 2:14
  Published by HarperCollins, Noons, who I've had the pleasure of broadcasting with over the years, is on the line from Sleuth World Headquarters, where they have a team now of award-winning journos that have fast become a go-to for news, podcasts and more.
• 2:30
  Hello, mate.
• 2:31
  Hey, Rusty.
• 2:32
  How are you?
• 2:33
  I'm great.
• 2:34
  You are, I know, from a family that truly loves the sport, mate.
• 2:37
  At what age were you drawn to Bathurst and the magic that that race, that place consistently seems to create?
• 2:45
  I'd have to say zero, because I think that's actually technically true.
• 2:48
  LAUGHTER
• 2:49
  Because it's like anybody who's into Bathurst and racing.
• 2:52
  It really comes, it gets passed on through the generations.
• 2:55
  And I'm no different.
• 2:56
  My dad was a huge fan and I reckon that's where it really started.
• 2:59
  But I remember my mum recorded me when I was about four talking about car racing, talking about Peter Brock and Dick Johnson and all that stuff.
• 3:08
  That tape is somewhere around.
• 3:09
  I don't know where, but it goes way, way, way back to, yeah, many, many years ago.
• 3:14
  And, you know, here we are today still doing it.
• 3:16
  So, yeah, it's a long time.
• 3:19
  It is now a labour of love for you, working around it each October and every season for that matter.
• 3:24
  Before that time, what's the race that left a really lasting impression on you, whether it was the drama, the quality of the contest, one when you were a bit younger that is etched in your mind?
• 3:37
  I remember vividly, probably the first one I can remember is 1987.
• 3:41
  So it was the World Touring Car Championship race where the world came to Bathurst, the locals took on the Europeans and the Texaco Sierras and the Schnitzer BMWs and everybody that came out to have a crack.
• 3:53
  And I was in grade 11.
• 3:55
  Ooh, prep.
• 3:57
  Well, that's scary, isn't it?
• 3:58
  1987.
• 4:00
  And vividly remember sitting there watching it all day from start to finish in Ballarat.
• 4:04
  In those days, actually, we didn't get aggregated television.
• 4:08
  So it was our local BTV6 that brought the Channel 7 broadcast through to Ballarat to watch.
• 4:15
  But I was there.
• 4:16
  from flag fall to flag fall, start to finish, go to woe, loved it all, absolutely absorbed it, and have been pretty much an addict to Bathurst ever since, basically.
• 4:26
  That's a great word for you, mate, addict in a good way.
• 4:29
  In looking in the rearview mirror, which you have done so beautifully with this book, you remind us of the early days of the race, a 500 and production cars and so on, but the track itself,
• 4:40
  has origins that are even longer than the event.
• 4:43
  And it sort of dates back around World War I, doesn't it?
• 4:47
  Yeah, there's a long history of racing at Bathurst, not just at Mount Panorama.
• 4:51
  There was another track that used to race motorcycles in that timeframe that you talk about.
• 4:57
  But it got to the point where...
• 4:59
  they went, wow, this is just getting way too dangerous.
• 5:02
  But it actually was the local, the shops and the stores and all the business people who thought, hang on a minute, a big race event around here brings a lot of people.
• 5:11
  They spend a lot of money on food and accommodation and all that sort of stuff.
• 5:15
  So they went, hang on a minute, we've got to get this rolling.
• 5:17
  We've got to get this going.
• 5:18
  So that's where the Mount Panorama Circuit came from to bring the racing across to there in 1938.
• 5:24
  So there was a Bathurst track long before the race that we commonly call...
• 5:28
  Bathurst colloquially even came on the radar.
• 5:31
  So it had hosted Australian Grand Prix and some of the biggest stars in the sport before we got the race that really made it a worldwide phenomenon because that's really what it's become.
• 5:42
  But it's got a lot of history that goes beyond the great race itself, that's for sure, yeah, absolutely.
• 5:47
  In terms of the great race, you and I even now kind of salivate at the thought of a massive grid of cars that stretches around the final corner and so on.
• 5:55
  For the very first iteration, there was more than 50 that turned up for a crack at it, wasn't there?
• 5:59
  It was a bit of everything back in those days.
• 6:01
  In those days, they drove their cars to the track and then drove them home again, which...
• 6:06
  Could you imagine Chas Bostock driving his Mustang down the main street of Bathurst on a Monday after the Great Race?
• 6:12
  I mean, it's just a whole different world to think of what it was like back then.
• 6:16
  And even the TV broadcast, it wasn't on air all day.
• 6:19
  They'd come and go from the race and I think they had four cameras to cover the whole action.
• 6:24
  So, yeah, it's amazing to think, isn't it, how...
• 6:29
  It's the same thing.
• 6:31
  At its core, there's some elements that have stayed the same, but everything changes.
• 6:36
  It's kind of like when you look at something over time from 1963 to 2023, what's the same and what's different?
• 6:43
  Well, pretty much everything's different.
• 6:46
  underneath the bones the foundations are definitely there but uh those supercars of today go a little bit quicker than the cortinas that used to bang around the mountain in what 63 with bob jane and harry firth and and those guys if they were hitting 200ks down conrod straight uh they were flying but uh these days it's what 300 so they probably be lapped within about three laps this year so yeah it's changed
• 7:10
  We won't do chapter and verse here because we actually want people to have a read of the book.
• 7:14
  It is not just the place, as you know.
• 7:16
  In looking back at it, it's the heroes, the heroics, the characters, the villains that over time have helped to make this, haven't they?
• 7:25
  Yeah, and I was trying to capture...
• 7:27
  When you do something like this, a book like this, it's such a broad topic.
• 7:30
  You can't cover every element.
• 7:32
  And I was trying to figure as I was going...
• 7:36
  And we get asked it a lot, and you do too, how do you sum up Bathurst?
• 7:39
  Why is it special?
• 7:41
  And I think I've done something like 80-odd thousand words, and I'm still searching for the answer because it's kind of one of those elements.
• 7:48
  It's different to everybody, but I think it was just the right thing at the right time, in the right place.
• 7:54
  It's almost that perfect storm scenario of –
• 7:58
  The motor car was kind of now starting to become something more regular to the households in the 60s.
• 8:03
  To drive 500 miles nonstop fast was a big achievement, a big effort.
• 8:08
  Today you don't even think about it, do you, really?
• 8:12
  And then you take the whole Ford v Holden thing, the rise of Brock Moffat, the stars of the show, the show.
• 8:19
  the fight between, you know, Commodores and Falcons or Tiranas or whatever it might be, all those great rivalries and all those great stars.
• 8:26
  But I just can't – and I think it's probably the same with all the big sporting events, mate, like Wimbledon or the Indy 500 or the Kentucky Derby, whatever it might be –
• 8:36
  It's impossible to sum it up, which probably is the explanation as to why it's so special.
• 8:41
  I guess that's the only way I could probably find a way.
• 8:44
  I'm not sure I can write another 80,000 words to try to find the answer to all this.
• 8:48
  We might have to do part two.
• 8:50
  I disagree.
• 8:50
  I reckon you could.
• 8:51
  There's things in here that people may not know about at all or know the full extent of.
• 8:55
  So without delving into all of them, what about...
• 8:59
  and against all odds Bathurst yarn, because there have been a few over time and they tend to captivate us, particularly the casual viewer that may not follow the whole series.
• 9:10
  Yeah, they get a bit of sauce added to them over the years, don't they?
• 9:13
  It's kind of like the...
• 9:15
  the player in the grand final who, yeah, well, I had seven busted ribs that I managed to play through and kick six goals.
• 9:21
  And you look back and you go, had three kicks, two handballs, maybe a point.
• 9:25
  It has sauce put on over the time, but probably the one for me.
• 9:28
  And I was there.
• 9:29
  I mean, this year's the 30th anniversary when I first went.
• 9:32
  So I've sort of been around,
• 9:34
  in connected to the race for Harford's history, either as a fan or as a PR manager for a team or a broadcaster with TV or whatever I've been doing.
• 9:43
  So I was there, I first went in 93.
• 9:47
  So that's 30 years ago this year.
• 9:49
  My dad had gone on a bus trip from Ballarat the year before
• 9:52
  I wanted to go.
• 9:53
  He wouldn't let me go.
• 9:54
  He said, let me go for a year and then you can come the next year.
• 9:57
  So up we went on the bus trip.
• 9:59
  We saw Larry Perkins at Greek Hansford win in 93.
• 10:02
  But then two years later we went back and we camped on the top of the mountain.
• 10:06
  And I'll tell you, it has had a pile of work done and they've cleaned it up from what it was like back in those days.
• 10:11
  It was still a little bit wild.
• 10:13
  But that was the year Larry Perkins came from last to first, where he got a flat tire on the first lap and he and Russell Ingle, um,
• 10:20
  nailed it all day long and just fought their way back into the game.
• 10:23
  And, of course, Glenn Seton's engine blows up with nine laps to go.
• 10:26
  That big fairy tale that was supposed to be for Glenn wasn't to be in the end.
• 10:30
  Larry Storm's on by, wins the race, crowd goes wild, another chapter of Bathurst gets written.
• 10:36
  And I was at the top of the mountain when he went past on that last lap and people were losing their minds, which is pretty standard for Bathurst in the last lap when a crowd favourite's on their way home.
• 10:44
  Yeah, it's special.
• 10:46
  A quick break on this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 10:48
  More from the V8 sleuth, Aaron Noonan, in just a few moments.
• 10:55
  You're listening to the Rusty's Garage Motorsport Brief.
• 10:57
  News from supercars at Sydney Motorsport Park, F1 at Spa and more coming up.
• 11:03
  But first, the convo continues with Noons around the Bathurst book that he's penned, The Great Race, 60 Years of the Bathurst 1000.
• 11:14
  kind of brought up rivalries a moment ago too.
• 11:17
  That has been a huge part of it.
• 11:18
  And to write something like this, you get lots of reminders of the deep passion that is in this event, in this sport.
• 11:27
  Yes, the AFL and the NRL have had some iconic grand finals over the years, but there is this sort of tribalism that is a part of this event.
• 11:34
  When you look back on it, when do you reckon it was added zenith and how big a thing is it now?
• 11:40
  Yeah.
• 11:41
  Yeah, it's an interesting one.
• 11:42
  I guess it depends on your era of when you were an impressionable younger chap or girl because...
• 11:49
  For me, it's 80s and 90s, but I'm sure for someone else, it's 60s and 70s.
• 11:53
  But, yeah, it's a good point you raise because why are people so passionate?
• 11:59
  And I cover this a little bit in the book because there's a side to pick.
• 12:03
  So whether you're Holden or Ford or it was Brock or Moffat or it was Brock and Johnson or it's the modern-day kind of Lowndes or Scaife or Scotty McLaughlin or Shane Van Gisbergen,
• 12:16
  You had a side.
• 12:17
  And then you had the other elements like when I mentioned before about the World Touring Car Championship, there was a bit of us and them.
• 12:23
  You know, this is our place.
• 12:24
  This is our race.
• 12:25
  These guys are trying to come in and steal some trophies.
• 12:27
  So there's always been a side to stand on and take.
• 12:31
  And there's never been that kind of just sit in the middle and, like, it's very definitive.
• 12:38
  You're one or the other, and I reckon that's where a fair bit of that tribalism that you spoke about, I reckon that's where that comes from because there's always been a choice.
• 12:46
  There's always been a lot of choice, sometimes more than just a one or the other.
• 12:50
  There's been a whole pile of variables in between, whether it be cars or drivers or teams or whatever the case.
• 12:56
  But I think, too, people love a great story and they love the days of the
• 13:00
  the privateers who, you know, put their own car together, they funded it themselves, got a mate, another mate, and your brother's sister's uncle's father to help out in the pit crew and put all that stuff together, which is part of the rich fabric of what got us to the fully professional, all singing, all dancing Bathurst 1000 that we've...
• 13:20
  we've sort of got today.
• 13:21
  But, um, yeah, there's a lot of those, those elements that, um, are really special, but yeah, picking aside, I think it's a really big part of why this race has endured for 60 years and why it will, um, endure ongoing because, uh, there will still be sides to take.
• 13:36
  Obviously one of them doesn't have a line anymore, but, um,
• 13:40
  the growth and the rise of the next generation of drivers and cars and fans will see it through for sure.
• 13:46
  I reckon.
• 13:46
  Sprinkle in a little bit of weirdness, which you tend to get there.
• 13:50
  Kangaroos, the odd race being stopped.
• 13:52
  There's one stopped even for track repairs.
• 13:55
  That kind of stuff captivates us too, mate, doesn't it?
• 13:57
  Fascinates us.
• 13:59
  Well, you know, when they said there's an echidna on the track a couple of years ago, I thought someone was really taking the vicky.
• 14:06
  I don't know what we... Every time we always say it, and I know it's like a broken record, but you do never know what's going to happen.
• 14:13
  And stuff happens at that race that doesn't happen at any...
• 14:17
  It doesn't happen in Darwin or Townsville or Sandown or Simmons Plains.
• 14:23
  Weird stuff happens.
• 14:24
  I'm not sure if there's, like, this vortex over the mountain or, I don't know, something like that because, yeah, weird stuff happens that you could never in a million years predict that that would happen.
• 14:35
  So...
• 14:36
  And it's like a big bingo card.
• 14:37
  And just when you think you've crossed them all off and there's nothing left and you can say bingo.
• 14:41
  Haven't had one of those.
• 14:42
  Who had that on their card?
• 14:43
  Exactly.
• 14:44
  Exactly right.
• 14:45
  Exactly right.
• 14:46
  The exhilaration, the danger, that is all part of the lure of this place, the appeal of the event.
• 14:53
  Over 60 years, there's been lots of accidents, injuries and worse.
• 14:57
  I can recall probably like you being there for the crash when we lost the Kiwi, Mark Porter.
• 15:02
  Yeah.
• 15:03
  F1 champion, Denny Holm, the bear, passing away after a heart attack on Conrod in the 90s.
• 15:09
  What about the danger and perhaps even some of the tragic passings that you were reminded of in penning this?
• 15:16
  Yeah, it's part of the story, isn't it?
• 15:19
  It's not a nice part of the story, but it has to be covered.
• 15:22
  It has to be documented.
• 15:23
  And I think that because that track, that race, and I know Mark Scaife said this a lot, it's an old Brock line, but it's totally true, it's got consequences.
• 15:35
  So if something's dangerous, whether it's people climbing mountains or jumping out of planes or riding superbikes or whatever it might be that is dangerous,
• 15:45
  to you and I, crazy.
• 15:47
  As long as there's those sorts of things that are there to be done, these sorts of things can happen.
• 15:51
  So, yeah, it is a part of the story.
• 15:53
  Thankfully, it's less a part of the story in the modern sport, but obviously the cars are going faster, but the safety has stepped up along with it, and the track has too.
• 16:03
  There's a lot of things.
• 16:04
  You look at the old 60s and 70s and there's drops straight off the edge.
• 16:08
  No fence.
• 16:09
  No.
• 16:10
  know nothing.
• 16:11
  Like, you roll down there, you kept going.
• 16:13
  They'd have to send a search party to go and find you.
• 16:16
  And, yeah, it's sort of one of those things, and you said about Mark Porter.
• 16:21
  I was there that year.
• 16:22
  You were working the TV team that weekend.
• 16:25
  And there's sort of also a personal link.
• 16:26
  You know, I remember in 94, Don Watson, who was a Bacchus Mars transport operator, he was a privateer.
• 16:33
  He drove a car that Larry Perkins' team built and prepared and actually ran for him.
• 16:38
  And he had an issue with that car, crashed at the chase and unfortunately was killed.
• 16:43
  And as a kid in year seven, I didn't realise at the time.
• 16:48
  Yeah, really confronting because you love the sport and you love all the great stuff, but you never really stop and think about the bad stuff.
• 16:55
  And that does and can happen.
• 16:58
  And I didn't even know at the time, but I actually went to high school with his sons.
• 17:02
  I didn't know because I was new to the...
• 17:05
  to secondary school that year um and they were were from bacchus marsh and and have met linden and jolly's sons in in subsequent years through racing and and uh linden's he's one of his sons has actually married his wife uh is todd kelly's sister-in-law so it's just amazing how all these things all click together but uh it is a reminder that um
• 17:27
  it's easy small world but stuff like this can and does happen so hopefully fingers crossed that's not a chapter that we we ever add to in the future we won't get into eras I mean you touched on it before from Group C to to turbo and then what we have now in supercars I reckon that's for the book for people to enjoy a couple to finish here mate lots of flash points over the 60 years and we can't get into to all of them here but I know
• 17:52
  kind of the war, the battle between V8 Supercar and two-litre Super Touring, as it was back then, meant that we basically had rival events at the mountain.
• 18:02
  What about the battle for the great race?
• 18:05
  And did it, in your mind, kind of get to a Super League ARL-style level of thing?
• 18:13
  Yeah, it's an interesting one.
• 18:15
  I don't think it quite did.
• 18:16
  It had the potential to, but it happened at virtually the same time Super League was going on with Rugby League.
• 18:22
  So there was basically, for those who might not have followed it or might not know, at the time Channel 7 covered it, the Australian Racing Drivers Club ran it.
• 18:31
  But the teams of the V8 touring cars all said, well, hang on a minute, we're paying the race.
• 18:35
  Of course, Tony Cocker had got involved too.
• 18:38
  Long and short of it, we ended up with two Bathursts two weeks apart in 1997, just as there was an ARL and a Super League.
• 18:45
  So they kind of put the fans in a position to take your pick.
• 18:48
  You had the traditional date.
• 18:51
  two-litre super touring cars on Channel 7 with the traditional promoter, or all the cars and stars that you saw the previous year, two weeks later on Channel 10, V8s, Commodores and Falcons.
• 19:03
  And really the fans voted, didn't they?
• 19:05
  And history shows that the V8s won in a knockout.
• 19:08
  The two-litre races were great races and they are part of the history of the whole thing.
• 19:13
  But we kind of just pressed on after that and the V8s took over as the main show.
• 19:19
  But I think...
• 19:20
  The thing that that proved, and I think we really always need to remember this, no television network or promoter or private equity fund or whoever it might be owns the Bathurst 1000.
• 19:32
  They might on paper or in contracts and stuff like that.
• 19:35
  but it's in the hearts and minds of Australian sports fans as to what constitutes a Bathurst 1000.
• 19:41
  If you go and get the mix wrong and it's not smelling and looking and feeling like what the fans deem the Bathurst 1000, it's not going to be the Bathurst 1000.
• 19:51
  So I think that's a really important thing.
• 19:53
  moving forward that you've got to learn from history you can't repeat the mistakes of what's happened before but yeah cricket had world series cricket super league rugby league this was our little flashpoint that thankfully was a bit of a bushfire there for a couple of years and then we've we've raged on for what the last 25 years and and pressed on and um
• 20:11
  Yeah, but it's an important part of the race, and we've delved into that a little bit in the book as well.
• 20:15
  So it's not something we want to have happen again now.
• 20:18
  Let's just keep it to one.
• 20:19
  I used to think it was great.
• 20:20
  It was like Christmas.
• 20:20
  You have two bathers two weeks in a row, but, of course, it's not how it should be, and one is far better.
• 20:27
  Beautifully said.
• 20:28
  Before you go, you are the oracle around the numbers in this game and, you know, stuff that this event has racked up over time.
• 20:37
  Give us...
• 20:38
  a stat maybe for the 2023 race, which is only a couple of months away as we sit here and record now, that might be set, might be broken.
• 20:45
  You're looking forward to clicking over when we get to Bathurst in October.
• 20:50
  There's probably a couple, actually, that spring to mind.
• 20:53
  The office that I work in with my team are always digging.
• 20:56
  They're always trying to find something to come up with that's pretty cool or different or that no one's sort of thought of before.
• 21:02
  But I guess a couple of quick ones.
• 21:05
  Triple H trying to get 10.
• 21:07
  They've won nine.
• 21:08
  Bathurst won thousands.
• 21:09
  Of course, Brock famously tried to win 10, couldn't quite get there.
• 21:13
  Of course, they're a red-hot chance with two.
• 21:15
  Well, they've got three cars in the race.
• 21:17
  two regular Red Bulls and a wild card as well.
• 21:20
  I think one of the other things that we like, we like numbers.
• 21:22
  So there's a couple of wild cards in the race this year.
• 21:26
  So there's a number 98 Mustang for Kai Allen, a young gun from Super 2, and Simone Di Silvestro, who we're thrilled to have come back and race.
• 21:35
  That number's only been used twice.
• 21:37
  in the history of the Bathurst 1000, which is staggering to think that of all the numbers you can choose in the 60 years of racing, that this is only the third time in history that anyone's decided to roll out number 98.
• 21:49
  They've been on Fords every single time.
• 21:51
  So, but they've never finished a race.
• 21:54
  So hopefully those guys and girls can change that this year.
• 21:57
  But, yeah, that's the beauty of this race.
• 21:59
  There's so many angles to look at and stuff to dig into and,
• 22:03
  stats and histories and all sorts, but I can tell you one thing, that he's guaranteed, he can take this to the bank, he can lock it in, a car will win a race this year that has never won the race before.
• 22:15
  Forget the fact that they're all brand new this year.
• 22:17
  They've never been to the mountain before, but that is an absolute lock that we'll get a first-time car that will win this race.
• 22:23
  It's probably as safe as a bet as you're going to get, I reckon.
• 22:26
  Beautifully done, mate.
• 22:27
  It is the other race with horsepower that stops the nation.
• 22:30
  I love how you've encapsulated all the different aspects of it, from the scandals and stouches, the stars of the race over the years, some of the women.
• 22:38
  that have taken on the mountain over time.
• 22:40
  And I love the fact that you've brought up Simona Di Silvestro going back there for another shot at it.
• 22:44
  The breakthroughs, those that went so close, and much, much more.
• 22:48
  This is a fabulous book.
• 22:49
  It hits the stands in two days' time.
• 22:51
  The Great Race, 60 Years of the Bathurst 1000.
• 22:54
  Aaron Noonan, thank you.
• 22:55
  And we will get you back on, I promise, mate, for a longer chat at some stage to properly tell the great V8 sleuth story.
• 23:02
  Thank you for joining us today.
• 23:03
  Sounds good.
• 23:04
  Thank you, mate.
• 23:04
  Cheers.
• 23:06
  There you go.
• 23:07
  Potential Father's Day gift ideas for you.
• 23:10
  A must for the shelf where, if you're anything like me, you have a great selection of motor racing books.
• 23:16
  That's one to add.
• 23:17
  Time for some other news.
• 23:18
  Let's kick off with supercars, given that we're kind of on that theme.
• 23:22
  Sydney Supernight had a great crowd on the Saturday and was a fabulous spectacle, as always, as my colleague Richard Crail, who joined us on the brief after the Australian Grand Prix reflected...
• 23:33
  There is something about this sport and night racing.
• 23:36
  Now, I don't reckon we need a season full of night races because then it'll become the norm and we won't savour it as much.
• 23:43
  So how many should we have on the calendar?
• 23:45
  I'd love your thoughts.
• 23:47
  Barry Ryan from Erebus was fined and is going to do some community service for an interview with some expletives that the officials took offence to.
• 23:55
  Now, I'm all for not crossing the line, and I absolutely don't want to fuel any social hate around this stuff, but it got all of you talking.
• 24:03
  So clearly, we need to find a way to let the players, the teams, speak their minds a bit more.
• 24:09
  That's the stuff that will get headlines and wider coverage for the game.
• 24:13
  Shane Van Gisbergen has been on the short cast a few times this year.
• 24:17
  He confirmed in the post-race presser at Sydney Motorsport Park after that win in the Sunday sprint where he moved to third in the championship points that he does want to have a crack, a serious crack at NASCAR.
• 24:29
  Now, it might be a gradual integration around...
• 24:33
  racing here.
• 24:33
  He still has a contract through to the end of 2024.
• 24:36
  He doesn't want to leave Red Bull Ampole Racing in the lurch, even though Jamie Winkup has said he won't stand in his way if Shane wants an early exit.
• 24:46
  So here's what SVG had to say in that presser.
• 24:49
  Yeah, there's obviously a lot happening in the background, but I'm not leaving because of this team.
• 24:55
  I love this team, and when I leave, I want to make sure that there's someone here to replace me that's going to do a good job in the car.
• 25:04
  You don't want to leave the team with nothing, scrambling to find someone.
• 25:07
  There are a lot of the good drivers here signed up, so...
• 25:10
  Yeah, I want to leave with the team in a good spot.
• 25:13
  So, yeah, waiting to hopefully the team has someone soon.
• 25:18
  Your preference, your plan is to switch full-time to NASCAR next year if you can without disrupting your team at the moment.
• 25:27
  I don't know if I'll be full-time.
• 25:29
  But, OK, but your intention is to switch to racing NASCAR in America if you can.
• 25:36
  Yes, yes.
• 25:38
  That's courtesy of the official press conference, which you can find in full at supercars.com.
• 25:43
  Don't forget Shane and Brodie Kostecki heading to Indianapolis for the NASCAR race there on August 13.
• 25:50
  To F1, an Oscar Piastri went from the dizzy heights of his first podium on Saturday.
• 25:55
  Very cool.
• 25:56
  In the sprint there at Spa, a day he said he would never forget.
• 26:00
  to having the steering damaged in Moore in a crash at Turn 1 in the GP on Sunday.
• 26:05
  Love your thoughts on this.
• 26:07
  Carlos Saints was battling with Lewis Hamilton, and as they got into Turn 1, he locks the brake, gets in a bit hot.
• 26:13
  In endeavouring to take the apex, Carlos squeezes Oscar.
• 26:17
  On the one side, that makes Oscar's options very limited, obviously, but Carlos suggests that...
• 26:23
  History shows turn one incidents at Spa tend to be like that, and perhaps that is where the learning is in this one.
• 26:32
  Forget the Sunday.
• 26:33
  Heading into the summer break with that first career podium from the sprint in a car that is on the up.
• 26:39
  McLaren doing some good things.
• 26:40
  That's great motivation for Oscar for the second half of the season.
• 26:45
  Well done, young man.
• 26:46
  The mainstream press here seemed to sway from singing Daniel Ricciardo's praises one minute to hammering him the next.
• 26:54
  Can we just sit back and take stock of the two rounds since his return to the sport, Hungary and Spa?
• 27:00
  I believe they have provided a huge amount of positives here.
• 27:05
  Yes, a difficult qualifying made life hard for yesterday's GP, but a tenth in the sprint in Belgium and a thirteenth at the Hungarra Ring, both ahead of his teammate in a car that Daniel is still getting acquainted with.
• 27:18
  And let's be honest, it's not been a great car to date.
• 27:21
  These are things we need to keep in perspective when we're giving a report card on Dan's running so far.
• 27:28
  Hopefully his experience will improve that car in the second half of the season.
• 27:34
  Shout out to Jack Doohan, who we had on recently.
• 27:36
  He won the feature on Sunday in F2.
• 27:39
  Very cool.
• 27:40
  And while we're at it, Christian Mansell just missed out on the win in F3.
• 27:44
  Another podium for the Aussie in the third tier of the sport.
• 27:48
  Good stuff.
• 27:49
  And after former racer turn pit analyst Karun Chandok joined us last week on The Brief, the Kiwis, Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy, won the final rounds of Formula E in London.
• 28:00
  It wasn't enough to stop the Brit Jake Dennis from claiming the title.
• 28:04
  Karun talked about how much Nick Cassidy has impressed.
• 28:08
  He won the final race, got the fastest lap on the way, and that helped secure runner-up in the series by only two points from Evans after the Jaguar driver won round 15.
• 28:19
  That's it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 28:21
  We'll catch you next time, everybody.
• 28:23
  Bye for now.