Latest / Rusty's Garage / Todd Hazelwood | Part 1 - Dirt karts and Dad’s bucket list Finke

Transcript

Todd Hazelwood | Part 1 - Dirt karts and Dad’s bucket list Finke · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:05
  For this episode, I'm in our Brisbane studio.
• 0:07
  My guest is originally from South Australia and proudly so, but he lives up here nowadays and is just about to head to Darwin for the supercars round to contest the Trans Am support races where he's the reigning champion.
• 0:20
  Todd Hazlewood is one of those people who seems to have boundless enthusiasm when the magnitude of a project or project,
• 0:27
  The size of an undertaking to find sponsorship for, say, a supercars program would seem like something that is well beyond most of us.
• 0:35
  Todd is the type who just doesn't seem to see barriers.
• 0:39
  He finds a way.
• 0:40
  From a humble family that truly love motorsport, Todd has overcome some hurdles to win the Super 2 title and a very memorable Bathurst 1000 with his mate Brodie Kostecki in recent years.
• 0:52
  There are moments in this two-parter that are deep in the nature of the conversation as he shares his diagnosis and recovery from a medical condition that changed his outlook on life significantly.
• 1:05
  How loyalty made him seriously contemplate staying at Erebus when a dream opportunity came up at DJR, a team that he's loved all his life, plus a COVID resto buy that is so him, and the formation of Todd's Garage.
• 1:22
  We are having such a good convo here, and I was conscious of time and studio bookings that we didn't get into World Time Attack.
• 1:29
  That's my bad.
• 1:30
  I will be at Sydney Motorsport Park in September for the broadcast.
• 1:34
  I'll put a link in the EPP description if you're thinking about coming along.
• 1:37
  Todd has been running the Tanuki Racing S13 in recent time again, and he told me off mic that this is one of the coolest challenges that he's ever undertaken –
• 1:48
  It is a serious bit of kit, huge power, aero and tuning capability, and they are hoping to beat their record this year and possibly even take the car overseas in the future.
• 1:59
  So keep an eye on his socials around that stuff and the World Time Attack platforms too.
• 2:04
  Let's get cracking with the podcast now.
• 2:09
  Hello, mate.
• 2:10
  Rusty, how are we?
• 2:11
  This is overdue.
• 2:12
  Well overdue.
• 2:13
  Well, I actually don't know why.
• 2:15
  I have no excuses for whatever reason.
• 2:19
  Because we've crossed paths so many times over the past decade plus.
• 2:25
  So it's really nice to get you on and have a chat, mate.
• 2:28
  So can I start with – it doesn't have to be – this conversation doesn't have to be a complete year-by-year timeline, but I'm sensing it'll follow a little bit of that.
• 2:37
  I've had convos with your mum and dad over time.
• 2:42
  They're lovely people, mate.
• 2:43
  Yeah.
• 2:45
  Your dad has a motor racing background that, I mean, you spoke about this with Brodie and Will recently on Lucky Dogs too.
• 2:52
  But he's his two wheel, isn't it?
• 2:54
  He is.
• 2:54
  Yeah, he was a lot crazier than what I was.
• 2:57
  And I think he broke enough bones to realize that four wheels is much safer and pushed me into go karts from there.
• 3:02
  Yeah.
• 3:02
  Yeah, old man was just lived and breathed anything automotive, you know, growing up on the farm and just tinkering in the shed and yeah, just a mad man on two wheels from what I understand.
• 3:12
  Yeah, so desert racing as a kid, growing up in the Mallee Farm here in South Australia, sorry, down in South Australia and yeah, just loved MotoGP.
• 3:20
  You know, mum and dad used to go to the races back in the day cheering on Wayne Gardner and
• 3:25
  McDoan and eventually that started to follow into cars as well.
• 3:28
  Mum was a massive Dick Johnson fan, so it's all quite ironic.
• 3:32
  How it's ended up, yeah.
• 3:34
  20 odd years later.
• 3:35
  That's brilliant.
• 3:36
  Yeah, that's where it all began, I guess.
• 3:38
  I gather she might have had a conversation with him at some point around the Broken Bones and whatever and said, okay, young family and whatever else, we need to park this at least for now.
• 3:49
  And did he have an XC?
• 3:50
  What did he have?
• 3:51
  And he started doing some hill climbs and things like that.
• 3:53
  Is that right?
• 3:54
  Yeah, correct.
• 3:55
  Yeah.
• 3:55
  Basically the two-wheel dream pulled the pin basically when dad broke his back and mum was pregnant with me at the time.
• 4:02
  So mum was basically like, well, you either keep the bike or you divorce me.
• 4:05
  Basically it was a pretty serious automation, I guess.
• 4:08
  But yes, dad sold the bike.
• 4:11
  And yeah, I was actually, so dad actually bought an XC Falcon, which was actually from my mum's father.
• 4:17
  Yeah.
• 4:18
  Yeah, so my grandpa bought it brand new in 1977.
• 4:21
  Yeah, XC Rally Pack, Pine and Lime, bright yellow.
• 4:24
  And yeah, dad brought it off grandpa and did it up, did a bit of hill climbs here down at Collingrove, took it out to Malala in the track sprints.
• 4:31
  And that was really my first introduction to motorsport.
• 4:34
  I sort of remember playing with my Hot Wheels in the dirt there on the front straight at Malala and smelling the fumes and the hot brakes coming in after every session and just thought that was the coolest thing in the world.
• 4:44
  And yeah.
• 4:45
  watching DVDs on replay as a kid, all the motorsport documentaries and races that Dad had filmed on VHS.
• 4:52
  I was just obsessed with the sport from such a young age.
• 4:55
  Your sister, full transparency, I have spoken to Lauren, who works for Motorsport Australia nowadays, and she's helped me a little bit with some stuff.
• 5:01
  She reckons you've never really watched cartoons or done anything like that that kids would have done.
• 5:07
  She said you would, even from a very young age, you would grab those VHSs.
• 5:11
  And it might have been Bathurst, steering car races, whatever.
• 5:14
  And she said that was your, in the way other kids would go and obsess about something, that was you, mate, wasn't it?
• 5:20
  It was.
• 5:21
  Yeah, it was pretty crazy thinking about it all now.
• 5:22
  But, yeah, as you said, I didn't watch cartoons.
• 5:24
  It would be like the Pikes Peak Hill Climb VHS or it would be a Dick Johnson documentary or a Moffat documentary or anything.
• 5:31
  I pretty much had all the Australian touring car drivers, documentaries and VHS and races that dad have filmed.
• 5:37
  And, you know, even back to, you know, just as a kid, you know, taping the supercars racing, you know, obviously watching the RPM show when I was a kid, all that sort of stuff.
• 5:47
  I was just obsessed with it, loved cars, and Dad was always tinkering in the shed.
• 5:51
  We had the XC Rally Pack at home, so Dad would be working on that in between hill climbs and track days.
• 5:56
  And we had a little Mini Cooper as well, which was a lot of fun.
• 5:59
  So Dad used to do a bit of backyard engineering and roaring up in the hills.
• 6:03
  Me scared for life, hanging on in the back seat, sliding around on the lino.
• 6:06
  So, yeah, a lot of cool memories as a kid.
• 6:08
  And I guess, yeah, just the obsession, you know, buying magazines, street Fords and street machine and that sort of stuff.
• 6:14
  I was just, everything about my life was all cars.
• 6:17
  And, you know, it's crazy how they say, you know, you buy Hot Wheels and that's the cheapest car you'll ever buy because they just get more expensive as you get older.
• 6:23
  And that's pretty accurate.
• 6:25
  The purity of your folks, mate, I mean, they...
• 6:29
  I think your mum worked in cafes and stuff.
• 6:32
  Your dad was involved in the railways and stuff like that.
• 6:34
  So it's not like there was money on tap, but they made it work, didn't they?
• 6:38
  Yeah, 100%.
• 6:38
  They just lived and breathed, I guess, giving me a chance to do what I loved.
• 6:43
  I think I was able to show them that if I was to go go-kart racing, which I started when I was seven, that they knew that that was what I wanted to do.
• 6:51
  I tasted a bit of football and I loved my cricket, but I think that individual challenge of getting behind the wheel, you know,
• 6:59
  breathing in the fumes at the race weekend.
• 7:00
  And, you know, I was so hungry and driven at such a young age.
• 7:04
  And I think they knew that, you know, I wasn't just going to buy a go-kart, do a couple of races and then want to sell it or, or give up on, on that passion.
• 7:12
  It was pretty evident from a young age that that was what I wanted to do.
• 7:15
  And I,
• 7:16
  I was really fortunate where I had two parents that just put everything into me from such a young age to give me that opportunity.
• 7:23
  And we did it with a very tight budget, you know, shoestring budget.
• 7:26
  And, you know, at the time I started out in dirt karting.
• 7:29
  So dirt karting was great because it's quite cost effective, massive in South Australia.
• 7:33
  So we're racing big fields almost every weekend at the stage where racing started to get quite serious.
• 7:38
  And it was a great opening for me into my adventure into motorsport and, you know,
• 7:42
  So many cool memories looking back at it.
• 7:43
  It's really, really, really special.
• 7:45
  There are state titles in that.
• 7:46
  You're talking kind of circa 2003 here, I think, aren't you?
• 7:49
  Was there ever a thought then that you might go, I don't know, sprint car racing or something along those lines in that early part?
• 7:54
  For me, I loved touring cars.
• 7:56
  That was always a dream.
• 7:57
  I'd always dreamed of, you know, driving the number 17 DJR Falcon at the time.
• 8:03
  You know, that was, you know, winning Bathurst, going to Adelaide 500 as a kid.
• 8:07
  That was the one race as a family we would go to there.
• 8:09
  We'd sit there at turn seven, turn eight and just watch our heroes go past as we used to feel back in the day.
• 8:16
  So, yeah, for me, I was always obsessed with supercars.
• 8:18
  That was my genuine passion.
• 8:20
  Yeah, there was always that temptation to go speedway, and I did a couple of speedway races and go-karting, and to be fair, the go-karts probably weren't quite fast enough to get that thrill and excitement, so I probably didn't enjoy the challenge at the time as a kid.
• 8:32
  I really wanted to go circuit racing and...
• 8:34
  That's where that, I guess, we drew a line in the sand.
• 8:36
  Well, if we're going to be serious about it, let's have a crack.
• 8:39
  And we've done, yeah, five races – oh, sorry, five years in dirt karting.
• 8:42
  And then we've made that decision.
• 8:44
  Okay, let's try and turn this into something.
• 8:46
  We'd sort of won everything that we needed to win in dirt karting.
• 8:49
  It was like, all right, what's next?
• 8:50
  So we went to bitumen karting when I just turned 12.
• 8:52
  Yeah.
• 8:53
  And the cool thing coming out of dirt karting, I've been racing in juniors for four years.
• 8:57
  So I only did rookies for one year.
• 8:59
  And then I was racing 14-year-olds when I was eight.
• 9:01
  So in dirt karting, I think I got thrown into the deep end quite young.
• 9:05
  But it taught me a lot, you know, not only about racing and being aggressive, but also my maturity level I felt was, you know, it just helped me evolve as a human as well.
• 9:14
  So, you know, looking back at those dirt karting days, it was actually...
• 9:17
  quite powerful and what it taught me.
• 9:20
  So, yeah, when I turned up to Bitchman, I won my first race meeting on P plates starting from the rear field.
• 9:25
  So I still remember Dad sort of, you know, trying to downplay it.
• 9:28
  He goes, look, son, you know, it's a new challenge.
• 9:30
  You know, we've won a lot in dirt karting, but Bitchman's different.
• 9:33
  And then, you know, he said, you know, just lower your expectations, basically.
• 9:36
  Like, don't be too hard on yourself.
• 9:37
  And then, yeah, we went out and won the first race meeting.
• 9:39
  So dad was like, oh, man, like, what have we created?
• 9:42
  So, yeah, it was still a steep learning curve going to bitumen karting.
• 9:45
  But that was where, I guess, for me, I was very, you know, at 12 years old, even I was determined to make a career out of it from that stage onwards.
• 9:53
  Lauren tells me this is maybe the first time you started to come up against the likes of Anton Di Pasquale, Cam Waters and so on.
• 10:01
  Is that right?
• 10:01
  Yeah, I remember my first race of CAM, and I think it was my third or fourth race in Richmond, and we went to Horsham, Victorian Country Series.
• 10:11
  Cam Waters just won the blue plate, Victorian state title holder.
• 10:15
  Everyone was sort of talking.
• 10:16
  I didn't know who Cam was from Barra Soat.
• 10:18
  And I still had my old dirt cart helmet, so it still had stone chips on it.
• 10:21
  It didn't have a nice painted helmet or anything.
• 10:23
  And, yeah, come to this race, and I'm just passing up the inside of Cam, and then he passed me back.
• 10:28
  And I kept passing him back, and it was like this real tip-for-tap battle.
• 10:31
  So they're probably like, who is this kid to in the same breath?
• 10:33
  Yeah, and they're like, man, who is this kid?
• 10:35
  He's got no – in dirt, it was just like get to the front, and then it was a short race.
• 10:39
  So I would always just kept passing and passing, whereas bitumen was a bit, you know, played a long game, worked together and push each other along.
• 10:45
  Whereas, yes, I think I sort of rattled Cam straight away.
• 10:47
  He's like, man, what's this kid doing?
• 10:49
  And I remember him pointing to my helmet, you know, saying work together.
• 10:51
  I think, what's he pointing at his helmet for?
• 10:52
  So I just passed him again.
• 10:54
  So, um.
• 10:54
  Yeah, Cam was probably the first guy that I had proper battles with, you know, looking back at that time.
• 10:59
  And then, yeah, years come later with Anton turning onto the scene as a young junior.
• 11:04
  And, yeah, to be fair, it was probably between Anton, Joey Morse and myself for a good couple of years there.
• 11:10
  It was like tit for tat in both junior national and junior clubmen.
• 11:14
  We had some epic races and, yeah.
• 11:15
  looking back, some of the best memories as a kid.
• 11:17
  It was really cool.
• 11:18
  You touched on, I think, there a moment ago, just to help me out a little bit here in some detail.
• 11:23
  Was it second in your first ever Australian title bid in terms of circuit racing, karting not on dirt, basically?
• 11:31
  Yeah, so, yeah, 2005, so it was my very first Australian title.
• 11:35
  I oversubscribed field, I think there was 50-odd cuts, and, you know, again, it was like, oh, you know, Australian title, let's play, you know, expectations quite low, and, yeah, had enough points to start pole for the final, so I got the pole award, which was, you know, I was...
• 11:48
  completely frightened.
• 11:50
  You know, I was nine years old racing these 14, 15 year olds and it was actually Daniel Peska was the reigning champion.
• 11:55
  You know, he's well known in sprint cars now and supported by Rosenberg and yes, I remember starting next to him absolutely shitting myself to be honest.
• 12:02
  I was, you know, crazy.
• 12:03
  Crap in my back, sitting there on the grid.
• 12:05
  And, yeah, finished second in my first Australian title, which is really cool.
• 12:08
  And, yeah, then went on.
• 12:09
  That was sort of, I guess, the injection of confidence that I needed as a young kid to sort of prove myself that I could take it to these older kids.
• 12:16
  And, yeah, then on in, it was just a roll-on effect.
• 12:19
  Then I got my first state title win and another state title, and it just kept rolling on from there.
• 12:23
  Yeah.
• 12:24
  As I say, one win can really change your perception on your career, and that was certainly at a nine-year-old.
• 12:30
  That was where it basically all kick-started from there.
• 12:33
  Great stuff.
• 12:33
  Let's come back to the carding in one moment, if you don't mind.
• 12:36
  There is an aspect of your dad's story that I didn't touch on there before.
• 12:41
  So he's also Rusty, I'm told.
• 12:43
  Is that right?
• 12:43
  So Russell is also Rusty.
• 12:44
  Rusty is Rusty.
• 12:46
  Which I didn't know that he had that nickname in the family.
• 12:48
  I think I've always called him Russ.
• 12:50
  But there was a family Christmas, maybe pre-COVID,
• 12:55
  and you're all sitting around and a couple of the maybe uncles or cousins or something were Fink.
• 13:00
  They were big on Fink.
• 13:01
  And they said, Hey, you should come and do this with us.
• 13:05
  And he might've sheepishly looked at your mum and said, Oh, do you reckon I could do that?
• 13:09
  Like kids are kind of grown up now.
• 13:10
  And she said, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:11
  Go and go and do that.
• 13:12
  And he finished Fink, mate, which was awesome.
• 13:14
  Awesome.
• 13:15
  Well, we all thought like, Oh yeah, whatever, dad.
• 13:18
  Like it was like, you know, we'd all had a few drinks and, you know, we're all getting pretty rowdy by, you know, the late afternoon on Christmas day.
• 13:24
  And
• 13:24
  Yeah, Richard, our cousin, he was like, you know, they had a bit of a team and, you know, always sort of been pestering dad, you know, come on, Russ, get back on the bike and yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:33
  And it was sort of like that conversation just glossed straight over me.
• 13:36
  So I didn't think anything of it.
• 13:38
  And, um, yeah, I think it was, yeah, 2018.
• 13:40
  So I'd just come down for the Adelaide 500 for the start of the year, supercars championship.
• 13:45
  And, you know, I come down a few days earlier to spend some time with mom and dad and I come in and goes, oh, the motorbike's arriving today.
• 13:50
  I'm like.
• 13:51
  What?
• 13:52
  Excuse me?
• 13:52
  What?
• 13:53
  What do you mean?
• 13:54
  And he goes, yeah, no, Richard's going to drop off the motorbike and I'm going to do Fink.
• 13:58
  I'm like, just completely speechless.
• 14:00
  I'm like, Dad, you haven't ridden in like 26 years, 27 years and obviously a little bit overweight and all of that.
• 14:06
  That's hard going too.
• 14:07
  Yeah, I thought, man, okay, like nothing throwing yourself in the deep end.
• 14:09
  But hey, credit where credit's due.
• 14:11
  He got back on the bike and...
• 14:13
  He was just like, you know, as I say, get him back on the bike and he was, off he went.
• 14:17
  And, yeah, lost a heap of weight and, you know, went to think and he finished.
• 14:21
  You know, that was his biggest fear was not finishing in time.
• 14:24
  And he got to, got there and back, which was really cool.
• 14:27
  Got his dog's bike and that, you know, that's the pride and joy at the Hazelwood household at home.
• 14:32
  It's really cool.
• 14:33
  For me, that was probably the first time, obviously, yes, seeing Dad ride, but then going to Fink, being a part of that awesome event.
• 14:39
  We caught up there as well.
• 14:41
  It's such a cool challenge and so different to anything I've done.
• 14:46
  That was really special.
• 14:47
  Then he went to go back the year later, got even more fitter, lost like another 15 kilos, fell off in pre-riding, broke all his ribs, broke his collarbone.
• 14:55
  And I think it was like penny drop.
• 14:56
  He's like, I'm too old for this, man.
• 14:59
  Like this is silly.
• 15:01
  So yeah, now he's got an adventure bike and cruises around and yeah, he's still married.
• 15:04
  So yeah, mum removed that jurisdiction on him.
• 15:10
  I really enjoyed catching up with him for a little yarn around that in the, in the Fink coverage.
• 15:14
  Just come back to your karting career.
• 15:15
  Am I right that there are City of Melbourne, maybe even City of Adelaide titles in the karting CV along the way here too?
• 15:24
  Yeah, definitely.
• 15:25
  I won quite a few City of Adelaide titles back-to-back in both classes.
• 15:29
  And yeah, I got close to winning City of Melbourne a few times on occasion and finally broke through, I think that was, jeez, you're rejigging my memory now, 2011.
• 15:38
  Excellent.
• 15:39
  And the heavens opened up.
• 15:40
  It was absolutely pouring.
• 15:41
  A typical day at Todd Road.
• 15:42
  Road, yeah.
• 15:43
  Windy and raining.
• 15:44
  And whenever it rained, you know, that was where my dirt karting skills really come into effect.
• 15:48
  So if I was having a bad day, I'd normally pray for rain because that would instantly leapfrog me to the front of the field.
• 15:54
  So, yeah, it was a rainy day and we, yeah, won by half a straight.
• 15:56
  It was a really cool day.
• 15:58
  Your sister says to me that she's the older one, the wiser one maybe.
• 16:03
  She's the boss.
• 16:04
  But you were always this person who was on their best behavior.
• 16:07
  So she said if she ever did anything kind of slightly wrong, it was magnified because you were such a well-behaved kid.
• 16:15
  Like you didn't enjoy stepping out of line or anything along, you know, like that.
• 16:18
  No, and I think, you know, I knew there was so much expectation on me to, you know, to go racing and I was so aware of not jeopardizing my racing.
• 16:27
  So I guess I just tried to be super squeaky clean as a kid.
• 16:31
  I didn't really have any too many issues with mum and dad or anything like that.
• 16:34
  It was always just working on go-karts and getting ready for the next event.
• 16:38
  So yeah, poor Loz.
• 16:41
  Credit where credit's due because Lauren used to come away with us all the time and spend a lot of hours travelling around the country because we drove everywhere or sleeping on the side of the track or sleeping at the circuit in the tent.
• 16:53
  Loz was an awesome sister.
• 16:54
  She just tagged along and helped out where she could and become a really pivotal part of it.
• 16:58
  helping me progress my career, helping me with sponsorship proposals.
• 17:02
  And she was studying journalism at the time when I was trying to break through.
• 17:05
  So the whole family has really been – we've been our own little team from day dot, I guess.
• 17:10
  She says there were like fake interviews that you conducted.
• 17:14
  I don't know whether you were trying to pretend it was an RPM yarn.
• 17:17
  And maybe that was helping her on the media side that she was interested in and so on.
• 17:21
  She'd record them and stuff.
• 17:22
  And that helped you, I guess.
• 17:23
  Did it learn the whole post-race stuff?
• 17:27
  Yeah, 100%.
• 17:27
  You know what?
• 17:28
  I still remember sitting down with a good friend of mine.
• 17:31
  He said, like, you know, you've got your back up against the wall.
• 17:33
  You don't have the money financially.
• 17:34
  But if you can just be across every element of the sport, you know, if you can present well, talk well, have some sponsors on board, you know, and make sure your equipment's good, you know, you're half a chance.
• 17:44
  Just work your backside off, basically.
• 17:46
  So I just studied every aspect of the sport.
• 17:48
  So, you know, basically...
• 17:50
  learnt the fact that, you know, you've got to present well and talk to the media well and try to portray an image of, you know, who you want to be, but also be very respectful.
• 17:58
  So that was something I guess was entrained into me from a young age.
• 18:01
  And, yeah, I was just always aware of it, you know, just trying to be across every aspect to ensure that there was no – nothing stopping me from being able to progress throughout my career.
• 18:11
  Yeah.
• 18:14
  the money needed to do this as you go in your career, it gets harder, bigger, more expensive and so on.
• 18:21
  But you've always been all inmate, haven't you?
• 18:23
  You're not, and I don't mean that in a risky manner, I mean that as in some people might go, oh, I'm biting off more than I can chew there or I can't do that.
• 18:36
  You know, there've been moments when your folks have either mortgaged or remortgaged or whatever to ensure that you could go and do this basically.
• 18:42
  Yeah, correct.
• 18:43
  And that all started to become very evident for me, you know, what was going to happen when, you know, karting had started to finish up and we're already pretty much tapped just doing go-karting and, you know, the peak of 2011, 2010, 2011, you know, we were racing both classes and trying to do what we could obviously, you know, showcase who I was about and what I was doing.
• 19:01
  But, you know, looking back at the time, we weren't really aware of how the food chain system worked, you know, it was just...
• 19:07
  us as a family trying to make a career out of something that we had no idea what we were doing, basically.
• 19:11
  So we didn't have any connections in the wider world of motorsport.
• 19:15
  We couldn't just, you know, we had no connections in supercars, pit lane or anything like that.
• 19:19
  We had no, I had a little sponsorship with Fujitsu, which basically helped kickstart my open wheel career.
• 19:25
  Yep, Formula Ford.
• 19:26
  Making that, bridging that gap out of go-karts.
• 19:28
  So I actually won a test day in a Formula Ford.
• 19:31
  It's called Cool Drive or something, was it?
• 19:33
  No, was it the Fujitsu?
• 19:34
  Cool driver program.
• 19:36
  So that was just after I actually, the arrow rewards program was put in place.
• 19:41
  I was a factory driver for arrow go-karts at the time.
• 19:44
  And they basically handpicked a driver from every state, you know, based on your credentials and results from the year.
• 19:50
  And that gave us a free shot in a formula forward.
• 19:51
  So that was myself, Deep Squally, Joey Morrison,
• 19:55
  Simon Hodge, a few other names.
• 19:56
  I can't quite remember now, but yeah, good bunch of drives.
• 19:59
  And they basically said, whoever shows the most promise out of the test day will get a free race meeting in a State Series Formula Ford round.
• 20:05
  So yeah, the day went really well for me and they then gave me an opportunity to do a free race meeting in a Formula Ford at State Series.
• 20:12
  Finished second on debut at the start of 2011 thinking, all right, this is everything we dreamt of, you know, making that next step.
• 20:18
  And then...
• 20:19
  Yeah, push come to shove.
• 20:21
  We didn't have the money.
• 20:22
  Had to head back to go-karting for another year.
• 20:26
  So we thought, okay, well, that was sort of the penny dropper for us going, right, well, clearly we don't have the money to make that next step.
• 20:31
  What the hell are we going to do now?
• 20:33
  So that was actually, at that time, that was actually when the Fujitsu Cool Driver Program got announced.
• 20:38
  Sorry, I've jumped ahead.
• 20:39
  Yeah, so it was just a year in front.
• 20:40
  So I actually then went back to go-karting for a year.
• 20:43
  We did a really slim year.
• 20:44
  We just basically did state titles.
• 20:46
  I think it was like six race meetings a year.
• 20:48
  Got on board with Fujitsu, so got to know Chris Jewell.
• 20:50
  And that was really our first step, I guess, trying to get introduced to someone that sort of knew someone within the motorsport circle.
• 20:58
  So Chris was really, I guess, pivotal in helping me make that next step.
• 21:02
  I was obviously a couple of years behind where Scott McLaughlin was.
• 21:05
  Scotty was racing go-karts when I was, and he was a couple of years older than me.
• 21:09
  So sort of watching what he was doing, and he made that massive step straight from karts to supercars, or super two, I should say, in the development series.
• 21:16
  And Chris was sort of saying, well, we want to do the same with you with the Fujitsu Cool Driver Program, because Scotty had Fujitsu.
• 21:22
  I was in Formula 4 with Fujitsu, and I was like, right, let's make a bit of a path out of this.
• 21:25
  And that was all going really well.
• 21:27
  First year of Formula 4 was extremely tough because I think we had a budget of like 40 grand.
• 21:32
  And that was like we were, you know, busting our backsides to try and pull it off.
• 21:37
  And we started doing fundraising.
• 21:39
  We had the oldest car in the field.
• 21:40
  We brought this old busted old Miguel.
• 21:42
  And that was our introduction to, I guess, the world of motorsport.
• 21:47
  You know, be careful with who you trust.
• 21:48
  And we got a little bit burnt by that.
• 21:50
  Bought a car that we probably shouldn't have.
• 21:51
  Had to spend more money than what we anticipated.
• 21:53
  And all of a sudden we were...
• 21:55
  you know, quietly crapping ourselves going, man, how are we going to be able to afford all this?
• 21:58
  Because this is, you know, we've overcommitted already.
• 22:01
  And I know 40 grand doesn't sound like much to some in motorsport.
• 22:03
  But in Formula Ford terms, that's actually not enough, mate.
• 22:05
  It's not anywhere near.
• 22:06
  No, so we had no testing.
• 22:08
  We were turning up to race meetings with old tyres, old brakes, and that come with its challenges as well.
• 22:12
  But we got through it.
• 22:13
  I think we were fourth out of 40 cars in that year.
• 22:16
  Deep Squally won the championship.
• 22:18
  So it was a really stacked field.
• 22:19
  And then at that stage, we're like, well, we can't afford to do national series.
• 22:23
  What do we do?
• 22:24
  And then that was when I had a phone call from Ian Richards from Artec in South Australia, running a Formula 3 team, national Formula 3.
• 22:30
  So it wasn't the outright championship.
• 22:32
  But for me, it was like, well, it's a step up.
• 22:34
  The cars are faster, open wheeler, wings and slicks.
• 22:38
  And, you know, Ian was really good to me and sort of took me under his wing.
• 22:41
  And it was my last year of school.
• 22:42
  So I was currently in year 12.
• 22:43
  And I'd sort of do half a day at school, then half a day at the workshop with Ian.
• 22:47
  And, you know, Ian was in his, I don't know how Ian was, but, you know, he's a...
• 22:51
  pretty wise old Scotsman and took me under his wing and taught me a lot.
• 22:55
  And it was really cool to...
• 22:56
  They were cool cars too, mate.
• 22:57
  Yeah, they were.
• 22:58
  Seriously quick cars too, you know, faster than a supercar, essentially every track that we went to.
• 23:04
  For a kid that was still in school, it was a tough initiation.
• 23:07
  Again, with a slim budget, not much testing, and turning up to the supercar events, racing on the main stage.
• 23:12
  That was pretty special.
• 23:14
  Yeah, it was a tough year, but learned a lot.
• 23:17
  Yeah, then it started to really gain momentum from there.
• 23:20
  You left out one little aspect of that.
• 23:22
  I think it may have been, despite how tough it was, there's a pole and a round win there, I think, is there not in the F3 thing too, which is pretty damn cool.
• 23:31
  In the Formula Ford...
• 23:33
  You've talked about, you know, older chassis and some of the learnings and budget and whatever.
• 23:37
  I don't think the engine was necessarily... Engine is key in Formula Ford in so many ways.
• 23:42
  So you're sort of battling with that, but there was, I think, a fourth, as you detailed there, before and so on.
• 23:46
  So if you looked at it...
• 23:52
  without purely focusing on on you know who's the champion or whatever else if you looked at some of those things that you battled away to get relatively speaking they're pretty pretty impressive yeah it's funny you know i was so remember being so frustrated at the time because come out of co-karting where well you know we're always a contender everywhere we went then went to formula four where i just wasn't prepared you know like didn't have didn't have the equipment underneath me and
• 24:16
  I sound like a proper driver now.
• 24:17
  I'm making all those excuses and pulling them out of the playbook.
• 24:20
  But yeah, I just remember being so frustrated at the time and I didn't deal with that frustration very well.
• 24:24
  So then I was overdriving.
• 24:25
  I made a lot of mistakes.
• 24:28
  But that was all part of that learning process, how to deal with the pressure financially.
• 24:32
  That was something that was all new to me as well.
• 24:34
  I knew that if I crashed the car, we wouldn't race the next round.
• 24:37
  So I was always all these demons in my mind, I guess.
• 24:40
  But also the pressure on the family, that was the first time that we'd...
• 24:43
  you know, taking the mortgage out.
• 24:45
  So things like that.
• 24:45
  So it was all happening at a very short space of time at a very young age, I guess, you know, still 16, 17 years old at the time.
• 24:52
  But no plan B, mate.
• 24:53
  There was no like I'm going to leave school and maybe become a draftsman or something or other.
• 24:56
  You were... No, and it was funny at the time.
• 24:58
  I just started a motor mechanic apprenticeship
• 25:01
  And I knew in the back of my mind, I'm like, this is just a waste of time.
• 25:03
  Like, I don't want to do this.
• 25:05
  But, you know, people go, oh, you know, you need to have a plan B. I'm like, there is no plan B.
• 25:08
  Like, for me, it was always plan A was to be winning racers, make a career in motorsport.
• 25:12
  That was it.
• 25:13
  That was it.
• 25:14
  And there was nothing else that was going to get in my way.
• 25:16
  So I actually stopped my motor apprenticeship in the second year in.
• 25:21
  I thought, no, I'm losing too much time, you know, doing the TAFE work and all the other, like all the training modules and stuff.
• 25:26
  I thought, no, I need to put this into chasing sponsors and stuff.
• 25:30
  trying to make this dream work.
• 25:31
  Whilst I was still living at home with mum and dad, I thought, well... How'd they take that conversation?
• 25:35
  How did that go?
• 25:36
  They were pretty good.
• 25:37
  I sort of proved myself that I said, I can make more money in sponsorship, trying to basically be a telemarketer than what I was making 400 bucks a week as an apprentice.
• 25:49
  So, and then that's when we started doing the fundraising on weekends.
• 25:52
  Then we started selling snags on weekends at Mitre 10.
• 25:55
  And
• 25:56
  all of a sudden we had our own little ecosystem going, where I was like the telemarketer by weekend, selling snags on weekends, and then the odd weekend we'd go racing.
• 26:03
  And that was just enough for us to keep one foot in front of the other.
• 26:06
  You know, we never dared look back.
• 26:08
  You know, as you mentioned, like, we were ones for all, you know, dad was always the reserve one going, you know,
• 26:14
  Dad was obviously the one earning the money, so that which I look back now.
• 26:17
  He's very positive in what he told you, though, wasn't he?
• 26:19
  He would always sort of say to you about that, have a go, kind of give it up, roll your sleeves up kind of deal.
• 26:25
  Something along those lines, wasn't it?
• 26:26
  A hundred percent.
• 26:27
  Yeah, I always had the full support.
• 26:28
  And mum was always my biggest supporter.
• 26:31
  She was always the one basically pushing down, hey, we need to make this happen.
• 26:35
  Like, we don't know how yet, but we're going to make it happen.
• 26:37
  And that was...
• 26:38
  When we talk about mindset in sport, but even mindset in life, I think that's so important where if it all chips in, you can't have anyone looking in a different direction.
• 26:47
  We had everyone full focus.
• 26:49
  It was mom, dad, Laura, my sister, and myself.
• 26:53
  I believed I could do the job.
• 26:54
  So there was never at any point hesitation going, this isn't going to work.
• 26:58
  It was just how are we going to make it work?
• 27:08
  Will Davison played reality TV coach for Todd as Hazelwood was endeavouring to break into supercars.
• 27:14
  If you haven't caught Will's feature episode, released in January this year, you will love it, including the time he and Will Power tested with Minardi in Formula One.
• 27:24
  Like you're in the car in 30 minutes.
• 27:27
  And I've got on camera the mechanics of the car, they're going...
• 27:30
  What?
• 27:31
  Like, Davison?
• 27:32
  Davison?
• 27:33
  Power?
• 27:34
  Because they were shocked because the belts are different, the seats, the sticker on the name.
• 27:37
  Yeah, right, right.
• 27:38
  Everything had to, and I'm like, what?
• 27:39
  I thought, they're like, Power was having a meltdown because it was icy cold, freezing.
• 27:44
  I think he thought it was going to be slippery.
• 27:46
  I'm going to ask you one day.
• 27:47
  I don't care.
• 27:48
  I love it about him.
• 27:49
  I love it about him.
• 27:51
  Two young bulls making the most of every opportunity.
• 27:54
  You can also find Will Power in the Rusty's Garage Library.
• 27:58
  Let's get back to Todd Hazelwood now.
• 28:01
  Can I explore two things here?
• 28:02
  Firstly, you've said things like understanding ecosystem and – like did you become obsessed with understanding the business of the sport?
• 28:14
  How does this work?
• 28:15
  How much is it going to cost?
• 28:16
  What is the best way to make this happen?
• 28:18
  Was that a thing that you started to –
• 28:21
  And study, even though there's no course to go to for that.
• 28:24
  Yeah, 100%.
• 28:25
  Yeah, when I was 15, I remember sitting down in Chris Jules' living room and he basically had this whiteboard of all the things that a professional race driver needs to be.
• 28:34
  And this is how we're going to maximize every element.
• 28:36
  And I remember just visualizing that whiteboard, essentially.
• 28:39
  Excellent.
• 28:39
  Excellent.
• 28:39
  And that was the introduction.
• 28:41
  So I was basically 14, 15 years old, running my own race, running my own business, if you call it.
• 28:46
  So then managing sponsors, managing finances, getting the money coming in and out.
• 28:51
  That was a big element.
• 28:51
  Then the marketing side, how do I present myself, doing my own sponsorship proposals and running my own website.
• 28:58
  I think Loz said you learned to write press releases, newsletters.
• 29:01
  You could work Illustrator and all sorts.
• 29:04
  Is that right?
• 29:04
  Yeah.
• 29:04
  Yes.
• 29:05
  I was doing my own designs on Illustrator and Photoshop and...
• 29:09
  Yeah, it just was completely across all of it because I was too damn tight to pay someone to do a car design or pay someone to do my sponsorship pitch or proposals.
• 29:18
  So I just did it all.
• 29:19
  Probably a bit of a sucker for punishment, I guess.
• 29:21
  But that was, at the time, that was my only option.
• 29:24
  So I just had to get creative.
• 29:25
  And even when I was at school, I basically designed all the classes I was doing at school.
• 29:31
  How would that benefit?
• 29:32
  benefit me in racing.
• 29:33
  So I did web design so I could learn how to create my own website and learn how to use Illustrator and all that sort of stuff.
• 29:40
  And then welding and automotive for the workshop stuff.
• 29:43
  But I did business studies to help me learn, well, how do I do a tax return and all these other things when I was at a young age.
• 29:50
  So...
• 29:51
  Yeah, as you said, just obsessed with the fact of how do I create this monster that I'm now living today?
• 29:58
  Ironically, the limited time with the apprenticeship wasn't wasted because you are on the tools now with the Trans Am, aren't you?
• 30:07
  Which we'll come to a little bit later.
• 30:08
  Come back to the Sausage Sizzle.
• 30:13
  Who came up with that idea?
• 30:14
  You literally, arguably tons, there are tens of thousands of sausage sandwiches that you have sold along the way, mate.
• 30:23
  A lot of snags.
• 30:24
  A lot of snags.
• 30:25
  Yeah.
• 30:25
  So actually, it started from selling the Frodo Frog chocolates at school.
• 30:30
  Okay.
• 30:30
  So the fundraiser chocolates.
• 30:31
  So my nickname in high school was Frodo Frog.
• 30:35
  I was always that kid that had two boxes of chocolates.
• 30:38
  Here he comes again.
• 30:39
  Yeah.
• 30:39
  So literally I'd roll into class and I was like the dealer of chocolates.
• 30:43
  I'd come in and I'd have $5 thrown at me, a couple of dollars, passing out chocolates behind my back in class, trying to raise funds for my racing.
• 30:53
  So it's pretty crazy because at one stage, I was selling two boxes a day.
• 30:56
  Lauren would take a box to school.
• 30:58
  So she was a couple of years in front of me.
• 30:59
  So she'd sell it to her classmates and my classmates and all.
• 31:03
  All of a sudden, we were selling three or four boxes a day of chocolates, so 50 bucks a box.
• 31:08
  That was good money, just selling chocolates.
• 31:11
  That was where the fundraising started.
• 31:13
  I remember going down to Bunnings with Dad.
• 31:15
  We were just getting some bits and pieces.
• 31:17
  Man, how do we get involved with selling snags?
• 31:20
  We had heard people make a grand or 500 bucks a day.
• 31:23
  I thought, well, that's good money.
• 31:25
  why don't we do that?
• 31:26
  And we did some inquiries and Bunnings never really come to the party of anything.
• 31:29
  So we thought, well, we'll go to our local Mitre 10 at Glynn Mitre 10.
• 31:33
  You know, they're well known for supporting the local community and they took us with open arms.
• 31:38
  They sort of gave us a slot once a month, that once a month then become once a week.
• 31:43
  And then at one stage it was three times a week.
• 31:45
  So yeah.
• 31:46
  And we were doing long weekends or public holidays and...
• 31:50
  So many snags.
• 31:51
  It's not funny.
• 31:52
  We even got to the point where we were doing it at two different locations on the same day because it was – the money we were raising wasn't massive money.
• 31:59
  Like it was $200 to $500 a day, but that was better than me going to work, essentially.
• 32:04
  That was what I worked out.
• 32:05
  So it was like, well, let's just keep selling snags and keep promoting myself, and it was good –
• 32:10
  In a way, because I was then promoting myself within the local community and you meet a lot of different people, people coming in for business supplies and stuff.
• 32:17
  So all of a sudden, that was helping me grow who I was about.
• 32:22
  And that really then helped create other opportunities from that as well.
• 32:25
  It was better than what just the Saturday afternoon bottom line might suggest because of some of those contacts, which we'll come to in a minute.
• 32:31
  And you learnt the value of changing it up a bit too, didn't you?
• 32:35
  Were you doing like two for five or sausage and egg or something?
• 32:39
  Like you changed it up, didn't you?
• 32:40
  Yeah, we had sausage and egg sandwich.
• 32:43
  So that was one of my creations, $4 at the time.
• 32:46
  So it was an absolute bargain.
• 32:47
  So we had half the hot plate full of eggs, half the hot plate full of snags and...
• 32:51
  Yeah, I'm definitely king of the barbecue.
• 32:54
  Say that much.
• 32:55
  I've had my fair share of practice.
• 32:58
  Cool.
• 32:58
  Come back to the racing for me.
• 33:01
  All of that stuff, right, you manage your own socials even now.
• 33:05
  Did you become aware of your racer brand?
• 33:09
  That's a stupid thing to say, but –
• 33:13
  You are the same person in here in the studio talking to me now as the guy that I would see having just done a qualifying session for Bathurst or Super 2 back in the day or whatever it may have been.
• 33:23
  You've always been authentically you.
• 33:25
  I think that's the best way to say it.
• 33:27
  So Julie might have had that stuff on the whiteboard of what you needed to do and about presenting professionally and stuff.
• 33:33
  But have you ever paused and thought about that?
• 33:36
  that holistic thing.
• 33:37
  Who is Todd Hazelwood and what is he?
• 33:39
  Not really.
• 33:40
  What is he about?
• 33:41
  What is he?
• 33:41
  It's funny.
• 33:43
  Every year it's just full steam ahead.
• 33:44
  What's next?
• 33:45
  What's next?
• 33:45
  I've been a suck of, suck of punishment, I guess going, you know, I never get too complacent.
• 33:50
  I don't like being comfortable.
• 33:52
  It's like, what's next?
• 33:53
  You know, what's the next challenge?
• 33:54
  What's the next goal?
• 33:56
  Um, so, um,
• 33:57
  Yeah, stop and be past, as I say.
• 33:59
  Yeah, good.
• 34:00
  And always fall forward.
• 34:02
  If you have a setback, just make sure you fall forward.
• 34:04
  Don't look backwards.
• 34:04
  Don't fall backwards.
• 34:05
  Just keep falling forward.
• 34:06
  That's always been my motto.
• 34:09
  So, yeah, I guess what do I stand for?
• 34:11
  You know, being, as you said, I've always tried to be myself.
• 34:14
  I don't try to fake being this tough guy in the media or be bullish to people.
• 34:20
  I feel like I could go up to anyone in pit lane and say g'day, and that's genuine.
• 34:23
  It's not me putting on a front or being fake or anything like that.
• 34:28
  you know, when, when the helmet goes on, I'd like to think I'm probably a bit of a pain backside because, you know, I feel like I'm quite aggressive and probably ruffle some feathers.
• 34:35
  And I think some drivers probably know what I'm saying, but, um, you know, that's where I think don't let the racing get in, get in the way of who I am as a person.
• 34:43
  I've always been really conscious of that.
• 34:45
  Yeah.
• 34:46
  And I guess too, I've been in industry for a while now and I still remember getting ingrained to me as a kid, you know, people don't change when you get older, don't change when you might win a race.
• 34:55
  And you've always been conscious of, you know, me as a kid when I was, you know, between five and 10 years old, lining up for autographs at the Adelaide 500 or Clipsa 500 back in the day.
• 35:06
  I always think back to that, how much that one moment meant for me as a fan.
• 35:11
  And when I sit there, I did a fan appearance yesterday of the team at Shell V Power Racing.
• 35:16
  And I still think of that moment going how important it is to spend time with each fan that comes along and have that real interaction.
• 35:23
  Because I know as a fan what that meant to me as a kid.
• 35:25
  How powerful that is, mate.
• 35:26
  And you never forget it.
• 35:27
  Have you kept those autographs?
• 35:29
  I've got plenty.
• 35:30
  Have you?
• 35:30
  Yeah.
• 35:30
  Mum keeps reminding me that my room at home is just filled with paraphernalia and I've got no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it's still kept away and I don't think I could ever get rid of it.
• 35:40
  Who would you have got back in the day?
• 35:41
  Are we talking DJ or who are we talking to?
• 35:44
  I self-confessed, we were a Ford family through and through.
• 35:48
  So we were completely obsessed.
• 35:50
  Everything was forward in my bedroom.
• 35:52
  So I had Street Forward magazines, the posters.
• 35:54
  Yeah, I was obviously a massive DJI fan.
• 35:57
  So I used to get every poster from every year from them.
• 36:00
  So all the back from when it was Steve and the Rat.
• 36:03
  all the way up to Warren Luff and even James Courtney in the later years and Will Davison.
• 36:07
  You know, Will Davison was actually a driver that I idolized a lot, you know, seeing his background and his commitment going overseas and obviously over to Europe and then coming back and getting, I guess, felt like he sort of got DJR back on track to his winning ways.
• 36:19
  So he was a good driver I looked up to a lot.
• 36:21
  And, man, I used to even send letters to Stephen and probably would have been Stephen and Warren Luff at the time.
• 36:27
  Yeah.
• 36:28
  We had a... Mum actually had a contact with Liz McDonald, who used to do the merchandise at DJR.
• 36:33
  And, yeah, I used to... You know, I was basically a pen pal.
• 36:36
  I used to send him my letters saying, well done on the weekend, hope the next race is better, and all that sort of stuff.
• 36:40
  So, yeah, we're just massive fans.
• 36:42
  That's amazing, mate.
• 36:43
  So, yeah, it is...
• 36:44
  When I think back to that, going full circle to where I am today, you know, this year having the privilege of racing number... You know, car 17 with DJR, it still is a real pinch-myself moment because...
• 36:56
  winding back the clock 20-odd years now, was literally just a self-perverse fan.
• 37:01
  I had the DJI race suit.
• 37:03
  That was my first race suit as a seven-year-old, the Shell Helix colors.
• 37:06
  So, yeah, it's pretty special.
• 37:08
  I love that.
• 37:08
  I love that.
• 37:09
  So, at end of F3...
• 37:12
  Are you thinking about how the heck could I stitch something together, single-seaters?
• 37:15
  Are you only about touring cars and supercars?
• 37:18
  And what transpires next in that period?
• 37:21
  I know we're going to come to the Shannon's program and what have you, but was there a little moment there where you were thinking about going a different direction or not?
• 37:30
  Yeah, 100%.
• 37:31
  I was falling in love with the Wings and Slick Challenge and that whole ecosystem over to Europe.
• 37:36
  And I guess that's where I probably say like where I idolize Will Davidson and guys like Will Power going, well, if they can do it, so can I. I started getting obsessed with the fact, well, let's pull this off.
• 37:46
  And then I don't know how the hell we're going to do it, but we're going to do it.
• 37:49
  And Ian Richards was quite well connected with, you know, teams like Carlin and Fortech and things like that overseas and, you know, started making some inquiries.
• 37:56
  And I still remember we were talking about trying to do the Macau Grand Prix as an Australian going over there as an invite, but the money wasn't there.
• 38:04
  And all of a sudden, you know, there was talk of Fujitsu maybe pulling out and all of a sudden it was like, we've got nothing.
• 38:10
  Like we're just, you know, dad's working for the railways and I'm selling the dream as hard as I can, but it's just not enough.
• 38:17
  The money's not coming in.
• 38:18
  And it was actually getting quite – as a family and as me is trying to break through as a career, it's going, well, we sort of feel like we're stuffed.
• 38:27
  We're hitting a bit of a dead end here.
• 38:29
  As hard as we're working, we're not going where we need to be going.
• 38:33
  And at that stage, we're starting to see our competitors in my mind, kids that I was racing in go-karts were then –
• 38:40
  you know, off doing some pretty big and special things.
• 38:42
  And I sort of felt like I was getting left behind, um, just due to the money wasn't there.
• 38:46
  And that was actually, I remember I was driving home from school one day and got this random phone call from a Melbourne number.
• 38:53
  And I always used to get excited when I had a random phone call.
• 38:56
  It was like, Oh, maybe a potential sponsor or someone that I tested over last week.
• 38:59
  And,
• 39:00
  So I raced over, pulled over, and, yeah, got a phone call from the TV production running the Shannon Supercar Series show, which was then going to be full performance racing.
• 39:11
  So, yeah, chomped at the bit of that.
• 39:12
  I was invited in, and that was my first introduction to being involved, I guess, in the supercar space, meeting my idols of Frosty and Will Davison.
• 39:22
  And, yeah, obviously then went on to win the show, drive a supercar for the first time, and then that was...
• 39:27
  I guess a new plan was generated out of that, and all of a sudden it's like, oh, we've got a way forward here.
• 39:32
  A way forward.
• 39:33
  It's a very short way forward, but it's an opportunity, right?
• 39:38
  You know, you get an opportunity, you've got to take it with both hands.
• 39:40
  And that gave me a shot, and that sort of led on to...
• 39:43
  I was then trying to obviously work really hard with keeping that link with FPR.
• 39:47
  I worked really closely with Tim Edwards, but unfortunately they had just signed Cam Waters to run in their Super 2 program.
• 39:53
  So they only had one car and I missed out.
• 39:56
  We sort of didn't really have to budget.
• 39:57
  We couldn't really give them that clear confirmation that we're all chips in.
• 40:01
  We're a little bit gun shy because, again, a lot of money that we didn't have.
• 40:06
  And then he goes, well, we can't put a car together, but Matt Stone's actually looking for a driver and he's asked if you'd be available or be interested to have a chat.
• 40:13
  So I was like, oh, yeah, of course.
• 40:15
  You know, so, yeah, so I took that phone call, spoke with Matt and I said, well, you know, he said, I want you to fly up and I want you to meet the team and see what we're about.
• 40:23
  So, you know, as a young, I think I just turned 17 at the time.
• 40:27
  So I put my business slacks on and flew up to.
• 40:31
  I had my laptop bag that sort of looked like a – I tried to present really professional.
• 40:35
  And I remember Matt pulling up like, where's this kid?
• 40:37
  Yeah, I'm the one, this little 17-year-old waving at Matt.
• 40:41
  He's like, oh, okay.
• 40:43
  Here's this kid, takes me to the workshop.
• 40:45
  And we sort of got a couple of other drivers, but we wanted to give the opportunity for you first.
• 40:51
  It's going to be about $400,000 to put this together.
• 40:53
  And I was like, okay, well, I don't want to miss out.
• 40:55
  So we'd already missed out on the FPR gig.
• 40:58
  So I shook his hand and said, yep, no, deal's done.
• 41:01
  We'll make this work, blah, blah, blah.
• 41:04
  And I sort of had spoken to mum over lunch saying, you know, Matt's sort of presented a number.
• 41:09
  Don't know about it.
• 41:10
  Didn't realise that that wasn't including GST.
• 41:12
  So that was another $40,000 I hadn't allocated for.
• 41:15
  And then flew home and dad's like, like, torch drips off me.
• 41:18
  He's like, what the hell have you done?
• 41:19
  Like, this is just way above us.
• 41:21
  And yeah, and it, it probably was like, honestly, like I stepped out of line, but I was so desperate to, to not miss out because I knew there was only a couple other gigs available where there were competitive cars.
• 41:32
  I was teaming up with Ash Walsh as a teammate.
• 41:34
  He was fighting for a championship.
• 41:36
  So I thought, perfect.
• 41:37
  You know, like, this is, this is what I need.
• 41:39
  And then at that stage, so I committed, then Fujitsu had just pulled out.
• 41:43
  So they pulled out of their major sponsorship.
• 41:45
  So I was like, well, okay, this is not good.
• 41:48
  So we literally, yeah, had to then mortgage the house to just do the first payment to get to round one, which was the Adelaide 500.
• 41:55
  So first round in a supercar.
• 41:57
  We'd just done a test day.
• 41:58
  Test day went really well.
• 41:59
  And at that stage, Super 2 was really competitive.
• 42:02
  A lot of ex-main game guys running as co-driver, trying to get co-driver laps in.
• 42:07
  And then, yeah, we got a top 10 on debut at Adelaide on the streets there.
• 42:11
  And that was, we had no signage on, we had minor sponsors, but we didn't have a major sponsor.
• 42:16
  Um, the loan for the mortgage loan had only got approved on the Friday morning.
• 42:21
  So we'd already done practice on Thursday.
• 42:24
  So I remember absolutely like the whole family was just like petrified.
• 42:28
  I think like, including myself, like even in practice, like just don't crash this thing.
• 42:31
  Cause we don't have the money to fix it.
• 42:34
  And we're not even worried about round two yet.
• 42:36
  We're just all about just trying to get to round one.
• 42:38
  Even though Matt, you know, we'd sign a deal with Matt going, yeah, no, we're all... We're fine.
• 42:42
  We've got this covered.
• 42:43
  But we're all like, you know, the duck's underwater.
• 42:46
  We're pedalling like crazy trying to pull this off.
• 42:48
  So...
• 42:49
  And yeah, then started to share a bit more information with Matt what was going on.
• 42:52
  And he's like, oh, wow.
• 42:53
  Right.
• 42:54
  Okay.
• 42:54
  Like, geez, you Hazelwood's really over committed here, haven't you?
• 42:59
  So, but, you know, that was our only option to get that opportunity.
• 43:03
  We got fourth in the championship in our first, sorry.
• 43:05
  Yeah.
• 43:05
  Fourth or fifth in our first year.
• 43:07
  Got the Mike Cable Award for the year.
• 43:09
  It was a really special year.
• 43:11
  And we literally went round by round by round.
• 43:14
  It was a big push and a big struggle, but we sort of made it work in a really unique way.
• 43:19
  The Mike Cable thing's actually pretty special in our side of the world because as a journalist, he was a, he's gone now obviously and has been for some time, but he was a huge promoter of young talent, huge believer in showcasing that.
• 43:34
  So that's a pretty special award along the way as you climb.
• 43:37
  I think we're talking 2014 here today.
• 43:40
  Now, the Shannon's Supercar Showdown thing, just in closing that off too, I think, was Will kind of your mentor in that as well?
• 43:47
  It was season three, and I think you got to work with him there, didn't you?
• 43:51
  I did, yeah.
• 43:51
  So I was on Team Will.
• 43:52
  So there's Team Frosty, Team Will, a couple of guys from the UK come over.
• 43:55
  I think there was eight or nine contestants from memory.
• 43:58
  And, yeah, Will was sort of took me under his wing and, yeah, he was great to work with.
• 44:02
  You know, I just remember being in awe, being at the workshop there at FPR and seeing the factory Ford team.
• 44:07
  You know, for me as a mad Ford fanatic was just like living the dream.
• 44:10
  Like, how good is this?
• 44:11
  You know, it was all my Christmases coming at once.
• 44:13
  So, yeah, Will was really cool.
• 44:14
  And he actually handpicked me to go through to the semifinals.
• 44:17
  It was like a judge's choice.
• 44:19
  And then that was, you know, the semifinal was my first taste of a supercar.
• 44:23
  I was fastest in the semifinal.
• 44:24
  You stand down here, I think.
• 44:25
  Is that right?
• 44:26
  No, it was actually at Calder Park.
• 44:27
  Calder Park, sorry.
• 44:27
  On the short track for the – was it short track?
• 44:30
  I can't remember now.
• 44:31
  For the semifinal.
• 44:32
  Then we went the full track.
• 44:33
  So I'd never done laps at Calder Park.
• 44:35
  And it was me and Timmy Macro.
• 44:36
  And actually, basically, it was whoever's fastest won the show.
• 44:38
  So I won by a tenth of a second looking back.
• 44:42
  Yeah, I thought I was, that was it.
• 44:45
  Reality TV star.
• 44:47
  Reality TV star.
• 44:48
  Shannon Supercar Showdown.
• 44:52
  Yeah, that's it.
• 44:53
  Yeah, what a time.
• 44:53
  Yeah, looking back, that was, as I said, just an opportunity for me to have another go.
• 44:58
  Because at that stage, it was like we had nothing going on.
• 45:02
  The doors were closing.
• 45:03
  Well, what's, and Lauren has told me this too, mate, and maybe when you're up against it,
• 45:09
  as you're climbing here and it's getting more and more expensive and so on, she doesn't recall ever seeing you thinking that's it.
• 45:18
  Or, you know, maybe there was doubt, maybe there was moments where, you know, you're seeing these others getting opportunity ahead of you or whatever it may have been.
• 45:26
  But she said you just were this constant, you know, this constant sort of self-belief or whatever.
• 45:33
  She was really impressed by that, you know.
• 45:36
  Yeah, I don't think self-doubt ever crept into my mind.
• 45:39
  I never felt like I was not good enough.
• 45:40
  I always felt like I was good enough to the job.
• 45:42
  I just needed to get the right opportunity, get the right, you know, make, if I was going to get an opportunity, I wanted to make sure I grabbed it with everything that I had.
• 45:51
  And that's what I felt like I did, you know, especially in those younger years.
• 45:53
  So, yeah, I was just...
• 45:55
  I don't know.
• 45:56
  I was just trying to do whatever I could.
• 45:57
  And yeah, just that single-minded approach on a goal.
• 46:01
  It's interesting to talk to people in sport.
• 46:04
  You've almost got to be a little bit obsessive to be able to make something happen sometimes.
• 46:09
  And that was definitely me as a kid.
• 46:12
  You know, I didn't go out partying on weekends.
• 46:13
  You know, I always had that distraction from my footy mates in Adelaide going, come on, let's have a weekend off, Hazelwood.
• 46:18
  You know, like you work too hard.
• 46:19
  It's like, no, like I've got proposals to do tonight.
• 46:22
  I've got meetings next week.
• 46:23
  Like I've got to be ready for it.
• 46:24
  I've got to be sharp, you know.
• 46:26
  So there was none of that ever going on.
• 46:27
  So it was very selfish on my own behalf.
• 46:30
  Like it was just...
• 46:31
  But you have to have that, don't you?
• 46:32
  You've got to be like that.
• 46:33
  And otherwise, you know, you can do everything at 10% or you can be 100% in and...
• 46:39
  It may or may not work, but for me, I guess, you know, I had a bit of a health scare when I was young and that was, I guess, a real light bulb moment for me.
• 46:46
  It's like, well, you get one life, one chance of living life.
• 46:50
  You might as well do the things that you want to do.
• 46:51
  And that was for me, it was, I want to make a career out of motorsport.
• 46:54
  I want to be a professional race car driver.
• 46:56
  I want to race in the supercars championship and I want to win Bathurst.
• 46:59
  You know, they were, they were goals for me as a very young age and.
• 47:03
  What was the health scare, mate?
• 47:04
  Are you okay to talk about that?
• 47:05
  Yeah, yeah.
• 47:05
  No, actually, at the time, I didn't know what was going on.
• 47:08
  I was racing.
• 47:09
  Well, we were actually driving to Alice Springs for the 2007 state titles, so Northern Territory state titles, and I always kept having these chronic knee pains and aches, and the doctor kept saying it was just growing pains.
• 47:24
  I think, man, like the change of weather, like I could hardly walk sort of thing.
• 47:28
  Anyway, the pains got worse and worse to the point where I just kept sleeping.
• 47:32
  So every time I just had no energy and I got to a stage where it was getting really bad and then I just broke out in a complete body rash.
• 47:39
  when we were driving to Alice Springs, out of all places that you don't want to fall ill, obviously, you know, so it was at Alice Springs.
• 47:45
  I could, I could only stay awake for like half an hour at a time.
• 47:48
  So essentially my body was turning, like shutting down, yeah, switching off and doing a lot of damage in that process.
• 47:55
  So it took three months.
• 47:57
  So I spent a lot of time at women's and children's hospital, didn't race for a couple of months.
• 48:01
  And I got diagnosed with vasculitis.
• 48:03
  So it's like a really rare skin and blood disease.
• 48:06
  So it's like bleeding of the blood vessels, essentially.
• 48:09
  So that was actually where a lot of my idea where I become blind.
• 48:13
  So I didn't know at the time, but that was actually detrimental to my eyesight, to my liver and a few other things.
• 48:19
  So, yeah, so that was a health scare.
• 48:21
  Then I was on painkillers.
• 48:24
  I was on drugs basically to try and weed off, yeah, trying to survive it basically for quite a few years.
• 48:31
  So, yeah, having a health scare at a very young age makes you appreciate life for sure.
• 48:36
  You know, you hear people when they get later in life going, you know, they have a health scare of cancer and stuff and go, oh, you know, now it's time to live life large.
• 48:42
  Well, for me...
• 48:44
  I've tried to live life large from a very young age because I'm very aware of that.
• 48:48
  All it takes is the flick of a switch and it could all be over.
• 48:51
  So, yeah, I guess that might be why I'm wired the way that I am.
• 48:57
  I'm very ambitious and hungry, but I think that's just because I want to get the most out of what I'm doing here today.
• 49:10
  That is the end of part one of my feature ep with Todd Hazelwood, but we are not done yet.
• 49:14
  Within 24 hours of the release of part one, you'll find part two, which is chock full of good yarns.
• 49:21
  The frustrations of full-time supercars racing at...
• 49:25
  that stage of his career, and a clever but tough decision to change it up by shifting to a quality co-drive with a mate instead.
• 49:34
  Winning Bathurst and the elation and exhaustion of finally achieving that and how it changed perceptions in the paddock, plus Trans Am titles, pie warmers, and a whole lot more.
• 49:45
  That's all ahead here on Rusty's Garage.