Latest / Rusty's Garage / Wayne Gardner (Part 3)

Transcript

Wayne Gardner (Part 3) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  Hi, it's Rusty here.
• 0:21
  Quick thanks to all of you for your guest suggestions.
• 0:24
  I mightn't reply to all of them when they come in via the listener website or my socials, but I do read every one of them.
• 0:31
  A number of you have asked for Wayne Gardner, so I'm delighted that we could make that happen for you.
• 0:36
  He's about to head back to Europe with son Remy's race season getting underway.
• 0:40
  Back in the same paddock Wayne called home for so many years in the 80s and early 90s.
• 0:46
  We'll talk about Remy, a big bike road trip Wayne is doing with some close mates, including gold medal swimming legend Kieran Perkins, that will take them from East to West Australia.
• 0:58
  Really cool.
• 0:59
  We resumed the discussions around supercars and Bathurst, the one that potentially got away for he and Neil Crompton, a blown engine while leading.
• 1:08
  Had the result been different, his Great Race chapter would definitely be remembered more fondly.
• 1:17
  Uh, look, I've had lots of success at Bathurst.
• 1:20
  I was pole position by a long way.
• 1:21
  If you remember, nearly one second faster than everybody in the wet.
• 1:24
  Cromley said to me, how the hell do you do that?
• 1:27
  I said, I don't know.
• 1:28
  It just happens.
• 1:29
  I don't know why.
• 1:29
  It's just because it's slippery.
• 1:31
  It's easy compared to bikes.
• 1:33
  Car racing's easy compared to bikes, can I say?
• 1:36
  Because you don't have the danger factor and you can tend to push a little bit harder in certain things.
• 1:42
  So with bikes, if you make a mistake, you don't walk away.
• 1:46
  You carry it away in a stretcher.
• 1:49
  Driving cars was same theory, but just you're in a steel shell, you know, so you can be a bit more cheeky.
• 1:57
  But getting bullied all the time, I didn't enjoy that part.
• 2:00
  But, you know, if they give it, I give it back too, you know what I mean?
• 2:07
  But I thought it was a little unfair.
• 2:09
  But yeah, I think we would have won that day.
• 2:12
  But unfortunately the engine unloaded.
• 2:15
  That was my own team even with, I think it was time, Yokohama tyres at the time we were using.
• 2:19
  Even with tyres that weren't as good as the rest.
• 2:24
  We were smashing it that day.
• 2:26
  It's just that the thing unloaded and, as I said, we had an engine failure, which was disappointing.
• 2:33
  But I think we had a clear victory.
• 2:37
  I've put it on pole.
• 2:38
  I've led the race many times, may I say, over those years, but just didn't quite have...
• 2:44
  All the ducks in a row of equipment, if you know what I'm saying, tyres and engines and bits and pieces and engineers and all the, you know, we had a small team compared to the big team, so we didn't have the budget.
• 2:56
  But it was a good challenge.
• 2:58
  I learnt a lot.
• 2:59
  I learned how to deal with business and business opportunities and how to find sponsors.
• 3:04
  So I've learned a lot of those skills that I now apply in other areas of my life.
• 3:09
  So there's no downside.
• 3:12
  I learned a lot in the different things that I couldn't see at the time.
• 3:16
  But now I see the things that I've learned, I'm applying them in my business strategies now.
• 3:20
  So out of every – I'm really philosophical about this –
• 3:27
  Yeah, there's disappointments, but there's always lessons to learn in that.
• 3:31
  And lessons to learn is you don't do that again.
• 3:34
  And so now I think I'm a lot smarter and as a businessman, through all these difficulties, and there was good times as well.
• 3:43
  They're the great times, but...
• 3:45
  Out of the bad things, there's also good lessons to take with you, not to do again.
• 3:49
  So it was a good – the whole thing was a good fun.
• 3:53
  I had a great time.
• 3:54
  I would have liked obviously more results in the car racing, in touring cars in Australia here.
• 3:58
  But again, my back was against it because I didn't have the budget and I didn't have the tyres and I didn't have all the components to out and do the job properly compared to some of these big teams.
• 4:08
  And the rules were, you know, didn't favour the small teams.
• 4:12
  Mm-hmm.
• 4:12
  You had some good people around you then from Alan Heafy, Wally Storey.
• 4:16
  You talked about Crompo, who not only drove exceptionally well, but was a master when it came to the business and the professionalism side of it with the chasing and the sponsorship.
• 4:26
  I want to finish the Supercast chapter, if I can, with the frightening moment at Bathurst for you with Stone Brothers, the crash in the early 2000s, your recollections of that, and how much did it rattle you?
• 4:40
  Did it rattle you?
• 4:42
  Look, I had a car career without any big crashes.
• 4:46
  I had a few shunts but nothing that was ever knocked unconscious or anything like that.
• 4:52
  I had a couple of crashes in Japan but nothing big, nothing really put me off.
• 4:59
  And again, it was all pretty easy, just the driving part.
• 5:04
  But when I came back, obviously I'd won some races in Japan and Stone Brothers rang me up and said, oh, I want you to come and drive our Ford.
• 5:14
  And I went, well, I'm a holding man normally, but okay, why not?
• 5:17
  So I drove their car and good car and I was getting used to it and I was up there in the first few.
• 5:27
  And then I came in and...
• 5:29
  I got out and I said, oh, I think the tyres had it.
• 5:32
  I want them put in a good lap.
• 5:34
  And I think it was in the top three or something, four, whatever.
• 5:38
  And he said, okay, let's put some new tyres on.
• 5:41
  And as I got out of the car, he said, oh, go out and have a run now and finish the session off on a set of tyres and get a tyre.
• 5:48
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:49
  So I went, okay, and the tire warmers had been on them.
• 5:52
  I stuck the wheels on them.
• 5:53
  But as I got in the car, there was a lever under the seat, a brake bias valve.
• 5:59
  And as I got in, my race suit, I didn't know it was there.
• 6:04
  But as I got in, my leg, the cuff of my trousers hooked onto it.
• 6:11
  I didn't know and it pushed it across as I got in.
• 6:13
  So I then gone out of pit lane and I thought, oh, we've only got a few minutes left.
• 6:19
  I better get into it.
• 6:21
  So I hooked into it going up.
• 6:24
  Mountain Straight there.
• 6:26
  So I was on it.
• 6:28
  I was on it on the first lap and I've gone for the break up there and because the brake valve got pushed across by the cuff of my pants, I've gone for the break and there was nothing there and I kept pumping it, nothing, nothing, nothing, and I was going like fast, you know, and you shift back to fifth.
• 6:47
  um, six back to fifth and you, you, you get in, it's a high speed corner.
• 6:53
  And I went, oh shit, I was going too fast and I downshifted and I couldn't slow it down.
• 6:58
  And I've gone in there like, you know, way too fast.
• 7:01
  And I thought I've got it.
• 7:02
  Okay.
• 7:02
  I'm no, there's no break.
• 7:03
  There's nothing.
• 7:04
  It's just gone to the floor.
• 7:05
  And I just tried to make it as much as I could.
• 7:07
  And I nearly did.
• 7:08
  And I've got sideways and, um, I've got it sideways
• 7:10
  went and hit the fence on the outside and it fired me across to the other side of the fence and hit that pretty much head on.
• 7:16
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:17
  And I got knocked unconscious and woke up and it wasn't out for long.
• 7:23
  And I woke up and I was dazed and wobbly and I went, wow, am I still here?
• 7:29
  Because I thought I was going to die when I'm going into that fence flat.
• 7:33
  Flat, you know, like no brakes, zero brakes, zero, because the valve just is a bypass valve.
• 7:39
  And anyway, I come back there and I was really shaken by that.
• 7:43
  After that, I was wobbly for the rest of the day and they had a look at the car and they said, mate, it's trashed, it's finished, there's no racing this weekend.
• 7:50
  And I said, I don't think I'm – I had a headache and it shocked me.
• 7:55
  It shocked me how something that simple can happen and such a big consequence.
• 8:02
  Because up to then, you're kind of bravo a little bit and, you know, nothing can stop me and nothing will stop me, you know, and full of confidence.
• 8:11
  And when you have something like that that chips away at your confidence, it takes away your – it takes away the competitive edge.
• 8:19
  And I went, well, well, oh, I don't want this to happen.
• 8:21
  I want to end up, you know, having a big shunt in the car and everyone will be visiting my funeral.
• 8:27
  So I went, I don't think I want to do this.
• 8:31
  So again, and then I took a little while to get my feet back.
• 8:38
  I went back to Japan and I drove again and I went, I'm not enjoying it anymore.
• 8:47
  And then I thought about it and then I tested, sorry, I tested, I drove.
• 8:51
  And then I came back and then I went and this was the start of,
• 8:55
  2002 or 2003 or something.
• 8:56
  2003 probably.
• 8:58
  Yeah, and Kodara, my boss at TRD, rang me and he said, and Tachi from Tom's, he rang me and said, Wayne, what flight are you going to catch here to go next test?
• 9:13
  And I went...
• 9:15
  you know what, touchy, I hate to tell you this, but I think I want to stop.
• 9:19
  He goes, oh, you don't want to race this year?
• 9:20
  And I went, nah, nah.
• 9:23
  I kind of lost the urge.
• 9:25
  I had a crash in there because of the brake failure.
• 9:29
  And I said, you know what, it just put the wind up me.
• 9:31
  And my kids are getting older.
• 9:33
  They want me to stay home.
• 9:36
  And I had a beautiful home here.
• 9:37
  And I went, you know, yeah.
• 9:40
  Is it okay if I don't come back?
• 9:41
  And he goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's okay.
• 9:43
  He said, as long as you tell me.
• 9:44
  He said, if you don't want to do it, there's no problem.
• 9:46
  Better to tell me now.
• 9:47
  I can easily get another driver.
• 9:48
  You know, he said, no problem, Wayne Son.
• 9:51
  okay, yeah, I don't want to do it.
• 9:52
  I don't want to do it.
• 9:53
  Thanks, Tachi.
• 9:53
  And he goes, yeah, yeah.
• 9:55
  I said, good luck this year.
• 9:56
  He said, who are you going to get?
• 9:57
  He goes, oh, I got a European driver, you know.
• 9:59
  So... And that was it.
• 10:01
  And that was it, yeah.
• 10:02
  I just had enough.
• 10:03
  That was, yeah.
• 10:05
  That crash at Bathurst, it really did shock me, you know.
• 10:07
  And it wasn't my fault, you know.
• 10:10
  So it was just one of those silly things that happened.
• 10:12
  I love the fact that you then put your energy into the boys and going racing.
• 10:17
  I can vividly recall coming to...
• 10:19
  manly and talking to you and talking to them about it.
• 10:22
  And it takes us back to the whole, you know, which we talked about at the beginning of the podcast here about dirt track and the importance of dirt track.
• 10:29
  And you got them involved in that here in Australia.
• 10:33
  And those fundamentals are so important, aren't they, for young motorcycle racers?
• 10:39
  Yeah, look, I've never been a big believer about starting the kids off young in the sport, in the sport that obviously has been good to me.
• 10:48
  But I decided to...
• 10:51
  When I started looking at all the kids in Europe, what they're doing, they start them as young as three years old.
• 10:57
  Crazy.
• 10:57
  Yeah, it's crazy.
• 10:58
  I mean, it's forbidden in this country for sport and rec in most states, all states.
• 11:05
  But in Europe, in Spain and Italy, they allow it there.
• 11:08
  So that's why you've got Marqueses and Valleys and people like that that are coming through now.
• 11:15
  They're so good because they start at three years of age.
• 11:19
  Stoney was another case of that.
• 11:20
  I mean, his dad, you know, worked around the rules and had Casey starting at a very young age.
• 11:27
  So it does happen, but you've got to do it blindingly quiet.
• 11:31
  You can't go out and race and you can't race at such a young age.
• 11:35
  So you have to do some sort of training course.
• 11:38
  So my kids wanted to start going and then Honda rang me.
• 11:42
  My kids were riding around the farm down here in Barrie.
• 11:46
  I had a big farm there and I bought it to go out and ride bikes with my kids.
• 11:49
  I figured it would be pretty cool to do, you know.
• 11:52
  And the bike racing bought the farm and why not show them what bikes are about?
• 11:58
  And I bought them bikes, mini bikes and –
• 12:03
  In fact, the kids asked me, they were in traffic one day in Mossman and some bikes came by and they went, Dad, what's that?
• 12:11
  I said, no, motorbikes.
• 12:12
  Oh.
• 12:13
  well, can we have one of them?
• 12:14
  And I went, oh, that sounds good.
• 12:18
  So I bought them quads.
• 12:19
  And then we were riding around in little parks illegally in Manly, Manly Vale, just initially and annoying the neighbours.
• 12:29
  And they loved it.
• 12:30
  They got to go, oh, Dad, this is unreal.
• 12:32
  So, oh, can we have a motorbike?
• 12:36
  Okay.
• 12:37
  So I bought them little Peewee 50s or Honda 50cc things.
• 12:42
  And then we joined – this is a good story.
• 12:44
  Then we joined the St. Ivers Mini Bike Club and we were just driving over to St. Iverson back.
• 12:50
  And the day we turned up there and signed on and then they give you your numbers for your bike.
• 12:57
  We had two mini bikes, two 50cc things.
• 13:00
  So –
• 13:03
  They give me the numbers and I go and put them on and they gave me number 87 for Remy and then 88 for Luca.
• 13:09
  I didn't even think.
• 13:11
  And I've gone, oh, yeah.
• 13:12
  And they're having a good time and jumping rocks and it's all kind of like little trial stuff.
• 13:19
  And I was washing the bike.
• 13:20
  We did that several times.
• 13:21
  And then I was washing the bikes over in Manly.
• 13:24
  And then one day I went about three months later, I went, oh, that was 87.
• 13:28
  That was a good year, wasn't it?
• 13:29
  You know?
• 13:30
  And then 88, oh, I was second that year.
• 13:32
  It kind of reflected back what I did in my career.
• 13:35
  And I went, oh, that's quite ironic or quite spooky, isn't it?
• 13:39
  They've got those numbers.
• 13:41
  So I went, oh, that's funny.
• 13:43
  I told the kids.
• 13:44
  I went, oh, yeah, that's funny, Dad.
• 13:45
  Yeah, cool.
• 13:46
  And they didn't give a shit.
• 13:48
  And Tony couldn't give a shit as well.
• 13:52
  And anyway, they started doing that.
• 13:53
  And then one of the parents said, I said, the kids, Remy goes, oh, that's right.
• 13:58
  Then we got invited by Honda to do a, there was a motocross event in Wollongong Stadium.
• 14:03
  Mm-hmm.
• 14:04
  And Craig Dack rings me and he said, oh, come on, bring the kids.
• 14:08
  And then Honda rings and he said, oh, do the kids want to ride in this?
• 14:11
  They've got QR50s.
• 14:12
  I went, yeah, boys, you want to ride in the QR50 race, motocross?
• 14:17
  And they went, yeah.
• 14:19
  And I said, are you how big these jumps are?
• 14:21
  Yeah.
• 14:22
  We want to do it.
• 14:23
  So, okay, all right.
• 14:24
  So we go over there and I bring my kids and they ride their bikes because they had a fleet of them.
• 14:30
  And Remy goes out and wins the race and jumping and this little cube with no suspension in him.
• 14:37
  How are you about this?
• 14:37
  Oh, I'm going, I'm having a heart attack.
• 14:39
  And then Luca's wobbling around in the middle going, ah, and he looks more nervous than Remy.
• 14:44
  Remy's out of control too fast, you know, way too fast because I'd been giving them a little bit of training down on the farm so they were pretty confident.
• 14:53
  and I built him a little motocross down there because I had a tractor down there.
• 14:56
  So I was digging holes and building motocross jumps and prepared him a little bit.
• 15:01
  And so Remy won and Luca finished middle of the pack, but Luca's two years younger.
• 15:06
  And then after that, Remy goes, Dad, I want to race motocross.
• 15:10
  And I went...
• 15:13
  Don't do that.
• 15:14
  And Luca, yeah, motocross.
• 15:15
  We want to race motocross.
• 15:17
  Bigger bikes.
• 15:17
  I said, don't do that.
• 15:19
  You're going to get hurt because if bikes were meant to fly, they'd have wings.
• 15:22
  And they went, no, no, no.
• 15:23
  I said, I'll tell you what.
• 15:25
  I'll do your deal, boys.
• 15:27
  You can race motocross, but go and try dirt track first.
• 15:30
  Just try it.
• 15:31
  It's faster.
• 15:32
  And it's on the ground and no jumps.
• 15:34
  And I prefer that.
• 15:35
  And I went, yeah, all right.
• 15:37
  So I took them up to Nepean.
• 15:40
  And I said, here you go, boys.
• 15:41
  And they were on their 50s or 60s or whatever they are we had then.
• 15:45
  And so they're riding around Nepean Speedway dirt track up there, round, round, round, coming, going, ah!
• 15:53
  That's unreal.
• 15:53
  It's so fast in that first corner.
• 15:55
  It's wide open.
• 15:56
  And I'm going, yeah, well, take it easy, boys.
• 15:59
  And they were having a great time.
• 16:01
  And I said, what do you think?
• 16:02
  Oh, I love it.
• 16:03
  But this isn't racing.
• 16:04
  We want racing.
• 16:05
  And I went, oh, God.
• 16:07
  But you want to do this?
• 16:08
  Yeah, because it's faster.
• 16:10
  No jumps.
• 16:11
  So I like it.
• 16:12
  No jumps.
• 16:13
  And they were, okay.
• 16:15
  And so then I rang up and I talked to some people and they said, go up to Somersby.
• 16:19
  There's a dirt track up there.
• 16:21
  So I got in touch with Dave Smith from Somersby Track and I said, can we come and join your track?
• 16:27
  And, yeah, mate, sure, you know, bring the kids and da-da-da-da-da.
• 16:30
  Okay.
• 16:31
  So I'm up there and there's dirt track and they go out and start racing with other kids and they come out going, oh, my God, this is amazing.
• 16:40
  I want to do this, Dad.
• 16:41
  This is what I want to do.
• 16:43
  Okay, so then we start going to the races all the time and as you see out there, all the equipment that is still here and build up a chest of equipment and bikes and bought a trailer and trophies and then Remy's winning and Luca's winning and I've gone, oh, this is pretty cool.
• 17:02
  Then they did a couple of Speedway events and riding their mini bikes around the Speedway events and they won those and I've gone,
• 17:09
  Okay, and then Remy said, I want to try road racing.
• 17:12
  I said, I'll tell you what, Remy, you can try road racing if you win an Australian title or a championship.
• 17:18
  Okay, so he goes out and he wins an Australian dirt track championship on his 150 and his 85 and Luca goes out and wins the 80s or whatever they are, the smaller ones, and I've gone, okay, well, we're going to have to go and try road racing.
• 17:34
  So then I took their dirt bikes, changed the wheels,
• 17:38
  And put road tyres on them, changed the tyres and put road tyres on them.
• 17:41
  And we practised down a go-kart track down there because – but it's illegal to do.
• 17:45
  So, well, you can hire the track and you can do it as long as it's not racing.
• 17:49
  So I just trained them down there and what it feels like and on the tar and not sliding.
• 17:54
  And I went down there several times at the go-kart track and they got the feel of it and they went –
• 18:01
  Yeah, we want to go to another track now.
• 18:02
  And I said, okay.
• 18:03
  So then I started, I found another track down in Maroolan.
• 18:09
  And I hired that track and started teaching them.
• 18:13
  Then I realized I needed a couple of road racing bikes.
• 18:16
  So I borrowed a couple of old Morawaki 80s off a guy in WA.
• 18:22
  And I rebuilt them and stuck them on those.
• 18:27
  And I took them down to Maroolan and trained them up.
• 18:30
  trained them up how to brake, how to sit on the bike, how to do it properly, appropriately, what you're looking for, lines.
• 18:37
  And I rode with them.
• 18:39
  I got off and I pointed at the exact point you had it to be, their braking markers, and taught them all the little intricacies, you know, of it all.
• 18:47
  Because if you place the basic...
• 18:50
  stuff into here, it'll go on then forever in their career.
• 18:53
  You don't have to redesign their – It's instinctive then, isn't it?
• 18:56
  That's exactly right.
• 18:57
  It's instinctive.
• 18:58
  They don't have to think about that.
• 18:59
  Then after then, those building blocks are in place.
• 19:01
  And then they've got the appropriate tools then to keep going right through to what Remy's doing today.
• 19:08
  So we did – and then, of course, he got invited then to go to his first road race, which was in Spain.
• 19:15
  Yeah.
• 19:16
  uh coincidentally because honda rang me and said oh we've got these tickets for this world cup race and i said yeah nsf 100s i went he said yeah all honda dealers around the world uh distributors sorry uh get an opportunity to send a rider and i went oh so we want to know if you want to do it we can't think of anybody else i said but remy hasn't raced yet and they're like well do you want to go or not and i went
• 19:40
  Remy, do you want to go to Spain and race at Albacete?
• 19:44
  He goes, yeah.
• 19:47
  And I went, well, don't forget, he's never raced.
• 19:50
  And I went, well, these kids are really fast, mate, you know, really, really.
• 19:56
  These are the world's best.
• 19:58
  Yeah, I want to do it.
• 19:58
  I said, mate, your first race.
• 20:00
  Yeah, I want to do it.
• 20:01
  I said, oh, okay.
• 20:03
  Tony, can we do it?
• 20:04
  Oh, I said, well, you two can go.
• 20:06
  I said, no, let's all go.
• 20:08
  So I bought tickets for the rest of the family and we went over there on holiday.
• 20:11
  So we turned up there with a helmet under his arm and stuck him on a little 100cc NSF and he was amongst 40 of the world's best riders up to 16 or 17 years of age and Remy was only like 12 or something, 11 or 12.
• 20:27
  And I went, mate, you're going to get your ass kicked here because these guys are so fast.
• 20:32
  It's ridiculous.
• 20:34
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I still want to do it.
• 20:35
  And then we come back to the story and he took his helmet off when he came in after his race and he goes, oh, my God.
• 20:40
  He said, that was the best thing I've ever done in my life.
• 20:43
  And I went, where have I heard that from before?
• 20:46
  And that's how it started, you know, how Remy got his opportunity and what you have to do these days is you can't stay in this country as a junior.
• 20:54
  It's impossible.
• 20:55
  If you want to be the best, you have to go and face the best competition because you learn from the competition.
• 21:01
  Most definitely.
• 21:01
  You put him in, you know, he's in the right space then to grow and to take that next step.
• 21:06
  As we sit here now, he's got a wonderful opportunity in the second tier of the sport.
• 21:13
  He's proving himself.
• 21:14
  They're talking about potential progression to MotoGP or hinting at that sort of stuff.
• 21:19
  Give us a sense of how big an undertaking this process has been for you because you relocated to Spain for a time.
• 21:27
  I mean, it was big, WG, wasn't it?
• 21:31
  If I was to give any recommendation to Australian parents, never try it.
• 21:41
  Never, ever try it.
• 21:45
  Because it'll send you broke and it'll tear your heartstrings and your emotions apart.
• 21:51
  And you'll end up in lots of arguments with the Spanish and you'll find it difficult to obviously converse with them.
• 21:59
  It'll cost...
• 22:01
  plenty of zeros, seven zeros and six zeros, seven zeros, six zeros, sorry, yeah, and it costs a lot of money, a lot of sponsorship, and you don't find it because Australians don't give a shit or a rat if you're over there racing.
• 22:19
  It doesn't matter how good you are because it's so far away.
• 22:22
  You know, it's getting sponsors to sponsor someone to go to Spain and race doesn't –
• 22:26
  quantified to sponsors.
• 22:28
  So very difficult process, extremely difficult.
• 22:33
  You know, visits to the hospital, injuries, living in a country you don't speak the language, although the kids do now and me a little bit.
• 22:43
  It's a very, very difficult challenge and it costs a lot of money because not only does it cost a lot of money to go over there, you have to give up your job.
• 22:53
  your two jobs or whatever your jobs you've got, you've got to have big pockets, deep pockets to go and do this and you'll spend, you know, seriously seven numbers.
• 23:04
  So it's a very expensive process and it tears your heart apart and how you can't give your kid the best opportunity and it's such a steep learning curve because generally, I've been watching, the kids that come from Australia...
• 23:22
  that try to go overseas to Spain, and this is what I'm talking about, Spain and Italy, the kids are generally five to seven seconds a lap slower than the Europeans.
• 23:35
  Yeah, it's that big.
• 23:37
  It's a massive gap, massive gap.
• 23:40
  But in saying that, you won't find that here by staying home.
• 23:45
  You actually have to make... As soul-destroying as that sounds, the benchmark is better for you, isn't it, Eden?
• 23:51
  Yeah, it's very, very difficult.
• 23:55
  But if you don't go and try, you'll never know how to do it.
• 23:59
  You have to learn from the process.
• 24:01
  So, yeah, look, if somebody came to me and said, how much does it cost, how much would you charge for me to go and make another Remy?
• 24:09
  You couldn't pay me enough money, my time and heartache and pain that you have to go through.
• 24:14
  Extremely challenging, extremely challenging.
• 24:17
  And something I underestimated, to be honest.
• 24:22
  I probably would never do it again, or I wouldn't do it again.
• 24:35
  At the roundabout, turn left.
• 24:37
  Then you have arrived at the barber for your haircut.
• 24:40
  What?
• 24:41
  I'm not always making jokes, you know.
• 24:44
  The flip side now is enormously heartwarming to see him succeeding, to see him getting there and on the cusp maybe of getting into MotoGP.
• 24:56
  Oh, no, he'll get into MotoGP, there's no doubt.
• 24:59
  He could have gone in last year.
• 25:01
  He had an offer from Irving to join the KTM team.
• 25:03
  But at the time he received the offer for last year...
• 25:07
  the KTM wasn't very good, so we thought, oh, better do one more year in Moto2 and get on a good bike.
• 25:14
  But since then, KTM have really stepped up, and now they've got one of the best bikes.
• 25:18
  Remy has a contract now with Aki.
• 25:22
  Aki IO, correct.
• 25:24
  And Aki wanted him last year as well in Moto2.
• 25:28
  If he didn't want to take the MotoGP, he wanted him in Moto2.
• 25:31
  I don't know what him and Bobby's manager were thinking, but they didn't take it.
• 25:35
  And I'm screaming about it.
• 25:36
  And that's how Nagashima got into Remy's seat.
• 25:39
  But Nagashima did one race good, but Remy then had nothing left but to stay with the same team.
• 25:44
  And the same team, stop and go, said that they have all brand new equipment if Remy would stay.
• 25:50
  And they didn't.
• 25:51
  They had to use the previous year's bike, 2019 bike.
• 25:54
  So stop and go were disappointing.
• 25:57
  So Remy got kind of shit on big time, you know.
• 26:01
  And so anyway, Aki came back and Lisa, she got Remy back into KTM with Aki last year and got him ready for this year.
• 26:14
  And so Remy signed up with KTM.
• 26:17
  He's on a two-year deal with them.
• 26:19
  Two-year deal means one year riding in Moto2 and one year in MotoGP.
• 26:24
  And if his results are good after this year, he gets an automatic seat in a factory MotoGP ride with KTM.
• 26:32
  Fingers crossed.
• 26:32
  That's, you know, super ingredients.
• 26:35
  At the same time for you,
• 26:37
  He doesn't, and sorry, if KTM don't want him, he's allowed to go to other MotoGP teams.
• 26:43
  So the priority is on KTM, but already there's many teams interested in Remy, but there's not a lot of seats left.
• 26:51
  Apart from, you know, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with Rossi.
• 26:56
  But Remy's very keen to get in made AGP next year.
• 26:59
  I mean, he's biting at the bit, you know, and he kind of regrets not taking it last year.
• 27:04
  But at that time, we didn't think the bite was competitive enough.
• 27:07
  So, but as it is, I mean, Remy's obviously in a good place now with a good team and he'd have a fair shot, you know, top three in the championship this year.
• 27:16
  So judging by his speed, he's very, very talented and he's got a big future.
• 27:20
  At the same time, he's now his own man because he's grown and he's sort of, you know, and that probably prompts a little tough conversation between you guys at times because he wants to go about it his way.
• 27:32
  Dad, I love you.
• 27:33
  I want you to continue to support me, but you've got to kind of do it.
• 27:36
  How did that all go, that chat?
• 27:40
  It's been painstakingly difficult for the last...
• 27:44
  Two years, year and a half, year and a half.
• 27:46
  Because as a parent, you want your kid to avoid pitfalls in life, pitfalls that you've seen and done.
• 27:50
  But at the same time, they've got to walk their own road when they get to that age, mate, don't they?
• 27:53
  Look, I understand this.
• 27:54
  I always said that that would happen.
• 27:56
  I told Remy that would happen one day for sure.
• 27:58
  I've taught Remy how to ride, race, how to think.
• 28:01
  The building blocks are all in his head.
• 28:04
  But there was a piece missing and we've found that now.
• 28:08
  And it was a strategy on the track.
• 28:10
  He needed to be a bit more observant, take it in.
• 28:13
  But I didn't fix that.
• 28:15
  Some other people have fixed that, you know, namely Aki.
• 28:18
  Okay.
• 28:19
  Aki could see his talent.
• 28:20
  He's always like Remy.
• 28:21
  He's always thought he's a star.
• 28:24
  Great endorsement from Aki.
• 28:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:27
  Aki came in midway last year in the background and was talking to Remy.
• 28:33
  So once that started happening, the results changed.
• 28:37
  But Remy was on, you know, he was in an old equipment in a team that wasn't that good.
• 28:47
  So what he did last year, in particularly the second half of the year,
• 28:52
  um it was just amazing um he had a few little things key things behind the scene that's helped him and um but his speed and his talent's always been there so it was a case of i could see it and fixing the things and lisa fixing in the background so um now he's it's there it's there now and he's now he knows how to do it so i've been told to stay away um i'm allowed to go and watch occasionally but i don't get involved in the team um uh you know
• 29:21
  A lot of parents go through this.
• 29:23
  There's a point where Remy wants to be Remy Gardner, not Wayne Gardner's son, and I understand that, and I completely agree with that.
• 29:31
  But now I'm comfortable to sit back and watch.
• 29:33
  Oh, cool.
• 29:34
  And I'm comfortable to – because I know he's on it, he gets it.
• 29:38
  I see he's riding.
• 29:39
  I'm less nervous now than I was when he was starting off in Mato 2 and when he was with incompetent teams and people and things like that.
• 29:49
  But he's had a few bruisings, a few crashes, but there's an old saying, it's easier to slow a fast guy down than it is to try and make a slow guy go fast.
• 30:00
  So Remy's got big gonads and he never gives up attitude.
• 30:07
  So he's got the right attitude and the right philosophy and he's got everything that can go on to be winning Moto2 and be a MotoGP future world champion.
• 30:20
  I have no doubt in that, absolutely 100%.
• 30:21
  You know, he can do it.
• 30:23
  Let's finish with a couple of varying things.
• 30:27
  Firstly, the bike rival for you.
• 30:30
  There were some amazing names in that period that you came through.
• 30:33
  Is there one rider that you think of now?
• 30:36
  I mean, you won world championships, you beat them, but is there one that you think of, you know, you sort of...
• 30:43
  No, I think there was nobody that really fazed me.
• 30:47
  I thought that everybody is good in some tracks and some tracks not.
• 30:53
  Experience plays and all that.
• 30:56
  But, you know, I looked up to people like Kenny and Barry Sheen and in my own teams, Freddie.
• 31:04
  I think Freddie's a god.
• 31:05
  When I joined up there, I went, oh, my God.
• 31:08
  But I learnt from him and I used his skills and the learning that you get with somebody having a teammate like that and then you learn and then you go out and beat them.
• 31:17
  So, yeah, I just, no, Eddie was always, at my peak, I'd say Eddie was the hardest nut to crack.
• 31:27
  Because he's Mr.
• 31:28
  Cool, Mr.
• 31:29
  Consistency.
• 31:31
  Now I know why after when we built the bike a lot better than, you know.
• 31:36
  So I'm sure I would have done a great job with Yamaha, but it didn't happen.
• 31:40
  Yeah, look...
• 31:43
  Yeah, Mick came along.
• 31:44
  Mick was fast.
• 31:45
  Wayne Rainey, I thought, was very impressive.
• 31:49
  And, yeah, look, I looked up to all the people, you know.
• 31:53
  For me, one of the gods for me was when Freddie was around.
• 31:57
  Freddie was a 19-year-old kid.
• 31:59
  that was just unbelievably talented.
• 32:02
  And I've had him at many of our Legends events, you know, and I love talking to him because I like hearing the philosophy and how did he get so good in the wet?
• 32:10
  And I learnt about all that, you know, when he was a kid.
• 32:13
  And what he did, his father did for him.
• 32:15
  And he had all these training exercises that why he got so good and why it was so natural for him to push the front and slide the front across the road and hang on to it and then go again.
• 32:25
  So once you learn all these guys and the way they do it, you go, oh, okay, I get this now.
• 32:31
  And then I put all that energy into Remy and Luca in their road racing in Spain.
• 32:36
  So, no, look, I think…
• 32:40
  I think Rossi is probably one of my greatest heroes, you know.
• 32:44
  Are you surprised he's still going around?
• 32:46
  I mean, I'm surprised.
• 32:47
  I think he's probably hanging around a little bit too long, may I say, and I think he's probably not going to win anymore, not unless he gets lucky.
• 32:56
  a rainy day or something like that.
• 32:57
  But, no, I think he's probably – he loves the sport and I get it.
• 33:02
  I know why he doesn't want to leave because he loves it.
• 33:06
  But, you know, it's hard for him, I would think.
• 33:10
  It's very hard and frustrating.
• 33:11
  And he's changed engineers.
• 33:13
  He's changed everything, you know, including underwear, to try and make himself go faster.
• 33:18
  But...
• 33:19
  And what happens is as you get older, there comes a time that the throttle starts turning it off.
• 33:24
  It's an automatic process.
• 33:26
  You know, I used to go through this corner flat out in six, you know, with your gonads in your mouth.
• 33:32
  But now you tend to roll off because you don't want to hurt yourself because you know you're going to up in the hospital and get hurt.
• 33:36
  And I'm like that now.
• 33:37
  I go riding with Remy.
• 33:39
  I can't get within five seconds or six seconds of him.
• 33:42
  And he just laughs at me.
• 33:43
  He said, Dad, and I'm on exactly the same bike.
• 33:45
  I go, give me a go.
• 33:46
  He said, Dad, I bet you can't get in with...
• 33:48
  Five seconds, six seconds.
• 33:49
  I said, oh, of course I can.
• 33:51
  On a small track.
• 33:52
  Of course I can.
• 33:53
  Don't be stupid.
• 33:54
  I go out and rub my nuts off.
• 33:56
  And I come back and he said, you're 5.3 seconds off the five second thing.
• 34:01
  You didn't do it, wanker.
• 34:05
  So I go, thanks, Remy.
• 34:07
  Okay, come on, get in the truck.
• 34:09
  You can drive because I'm going to sleep because I'm tired.
• 34:11
  Go home in one piece.
• 34:14
  The 87 bike is here.
• 34:16
  I think the 89 bike that we spoke about so fondly after Phillip Island, I think that ended up in the Honda Museum in Japan.
• 34:21
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:22
  Which is the bike of all at world championship level that you might go to sleep and dream of?
• 34:27
  What's the one that you love?
• 34:28
  The 92 bike.
• 34:29
  92 bike-wise, the best thing I've ever ridden in my life.
• 34:32
  It was light years in front of Yamaha and Suzuki and everybody else, all because we copied the Suzuki chassis, the philosophy that they had, and Honda did it their way, you know?
• 34:43
  But once they got a gist of what...
• 34:45
  the opposite theory of what they had, they're very good.
• 34:49
  Honda's a very clever company, you know, but they actually had that principle wrong in their head, which I find enlightening, you know.
• 34:56
  So I just find that, you know, the size of the company Honda, they had the totally wrong philosophy on how a motorcycle works.
• 35:04
  From that moment...
• 35:05
  that copy of the Suzuki, from that moment, they changed their ways and now, obviously, they're way in front.
• 35:12
  So a big company.
• 35:14
  It was amazing.
• 35:15
  I was just surprised that that philosophy was happening inside.
• 35:18
  So, yeah, 92 Honda was amazing.
• 35:21
  And I've ridden the MotoGP bikes.
• 35:24
  But I like the two-strokes better than the four-strokes.
• 35:26
  They're exciting.
• 35:28
  I would have loved to have seen the two-strokes still racing now, and they would have had much more power, and they'd be seconds a lap faster.
• 35:35
  But they would have been good to watch.
• 35:38
  Unbelievable cars that you have ticked the box on over time, from testing a Formula One car, Le Mans, supercars with all sorts of different names and teams, including your own, the Coca-Cola Commodores, GT cars with Toms that you've,
• 35:54
  talked about so fondly even sprint cars and nazcars is there one car that you just went man that's that's cool that i got to drive that to tick that box
• 36:07
  Oh, I think to go to Le Mans and do the Le Mans event.
• 36:11
  I did that with Didier.
• 36:12
  I mean, we paid our way in sponsorship to get in a seat, but it was just tick the box to say I've raced at the Le Mans 24-hour.
• 36:20
  We were going good, you know, until the thing broke down and everything broke, the gearbox, the brakes, clutch, it just about fell apart and we never finished the race.
• 36:29
  But we were up there, but driving down Le Mans straight at over 300 kilometres an hour in the middle of the night,
• 36:36
  It was pretty cool, pretty exciting and a bit nervous.
• 36:39
  But then you've got the group one come flying by.
• 36:43
  Like, man, I'm just – and our thing was quick, you know.
• 36:48
  But doing that was pretty scary, but –
• 36:52
  And with lights and you've got these little mirrors, look at it and you see a flashlight and you go, here comes one, and they go past you.
• 36:58
  Wow, this is so cool.
• 37:00
  I didn't get the result that I wanted because I wanted to finish.
• 37:03
  And if we had to finish, we might have won our class because we were really quick in our class, you know.
• 37:08
  But, you know, it was one of those things that I wanted to do.
• 37:12
  I raced touring cars in Germany for a little bit.
• 37:15
  I was finished up there a couple of times on the podium.
• 37:18
  I did Porsche Cup races down at the Grand Prix.
• 37:24
  I think I was on the podium there, third place in the Porsche Cup race.
• 37:28
  I raced the Lamborghini.
• 37:31
  I was on pole and then the thing, wooden doors closed.
• 37:34
  I had to start last and I finished third, I think, or second or something.
• 37:38
  I was catching the leader.
• 37:39
  So I had some really exciting times and different cross-feed of cars, but probably the most enjoyable car ever.
• 37:47
  Out of all these and fun and loved it was the GT sports cars in Japan.
• 37:53
  Mate, they're an awesome car, awesome car.
• 37:57
  I would have, you cannot believe how much faster, well, 15 seconds a lap faster than the touring cars here.
• 38:03
  They're insanely fast, you know, around corners.
• 38:06
  So that is where you have to tighten up the hose clamp around your nuts again.
• 38:11
  And you have to be brave to go into corners with keeping the pedal on the floor because you've got aero force and sucking you down on the road.
• 38:19
  So it takes a little while and it's scary, but it's thrilling when you do it.
• 38:23
  You know what I mean?
• 38:25
  And Formula One.
• 38:26
  I practised and I was quick in a Formula One.
• 38:28
  I was only, I think I was about a second or a second off Herbert's time in the Lotus that I drove.
• 38:35
  So, yeah, it was good, but...
• 38:39
  But I like that GT car because everything's aero and everything's fast and it's gnarly, really gnarly.
• 38:47
  I love it.
• 38:48
  So, yeah, those cars were the best, I think, of the car racing career.
• 38:52
  Okay.
• 38:53
  Did you ever treat yourself, when you started to get some success in bike GP terms, did you treat yourself to a little something, a Porsche, a Ferrari?
• 39:01
  Was there a moment along the way where you went, this big outlay but I really want to treat myself to this?
• 39:06
  What did you show yourself?
• 39:09
  Oh, I've had lots of cars.
• 39:11
  Earlier in my career when I was just breaking into GPs, I was obviously getting paid lots of money and I had deals with Rothmans and they bought me Porsches and I had a Honda NSX, I had a Mercedes 600, SCL, I had Porsches, I had turbos, I had 928s.
• 39:34
  Ferrari, I had a Ferrari Testarossa.
• 39:37
  I crashed that, being a show-off and a dickhead.
• 39:39
  Yep, I bunkered it.
• 39:41
  I was at Stavros' wedding and someone wanted to go for a ride.
• 39:44
  I went, yeah, come for a ride, and I forgot that was left-hand drive and I started driving down the wrong way in England and I seen a car coming and bailed out and drove into the ditch and put it on its side.
• 39:56
  Like a dickhead.
• 39:57
  And now my missus, Donna, says, hey, hey, dickhead.
• 40:00
  And I seen a picture of a Porsche bunkered into a ditch.
• 40:03
  And she goes, hey, dickhead, does this remind you of anybody?
• 40:05
  I went, yes, it does.
• 40:07
  Piss off, Donna.
• 40:10
  So, yeah, I've had lots of good cars.
• 40:13
  Cool.
• 40:14
  But you know what happens?
• 40:16
  When I started racing cars, driving a flash car on the road doesn't feel the same.
• 40:21
  Okay.
• 40:22
  I get all my thrills out of racing a car.
• 40:25
  So I actually don't want to have a flash car on the road because all I did was worry about somebody scratching it or keying it or, you know what I mean, jealous people.
• 40:33
  So I got rid of all my toys.
• 40:36
  and including my boats and all the other things that I've had, excessive life, and just brought it back to basic now.
• 40:42
  Now I just drive... Now I have just a little BMW 3 Series diesel.
• 40:46
  I mean, it's fast, but that I drive in Europe, and I live in Europe.
• 40:49
  I live in Monaco.
• 40:50
  Perfect.
• 40:51
  Congratulations to you and to Jeremy Sims and the team in recent years.
• 40:55
  The movie Wayne is fabulous.
• 40:57
  For people that haven't seen it, go and find it, watch it.
• 41:00
  It's a...
• 41:03
  A great recount of the struggle that you've talked about to get to the top, to underscore a great Australian sporting achievement, not just in motorsport or automotive, as we've been talking about here, but it's bigger than that.
• 41:16
  It's a great walk down memory lane.
• 41:19
  Look, thank you.
• 41:20
  Thanks, Rusty.
• 41:24
  I didn't plan for that.
• 41:25
  That came along.
• 41:25
  And then when Matthew Metcalf came to me, the producer from New Zealand, said, oh, I've read the book about 20 times and I love it.
• 41:33
  And I make documentaries.
• 41:35
  And I went, yeah.
• 41:36
  And he said, I want to make yours.
• 41:37
  And I went, I think you're 30 years too late, don't you?
• 41:39
  And he goes, yeah.
• 41:40
  No, no, no, it's a great time because people were thinking about the 80s and how cool it was.
• 41:44
  And I said, well, okay, if you want.
• 41:46
  Yeah, I said, how big is it?
• 41:48
  He said, oh, no, it's going to be a cinema movie, big screen, blah, blah, blah.
• 41:52
  And I went, okay.
• 41:53
  So we need to do all the research and, you know, the basis of the movie is from the book.
• 41:58
  And he said, because people don't know the struggles that you've been through.
• 42:00
  Well, they only see you as racing, winning, world champion, now your kids.
• 42:05
  And he said, I'd like to show the world what...
• 42:10
  It's a really good story, what happened and what evolved in your life and how it all happened, you know.
• 42:15
  Because how I found that bike was I was looking for copper and brass and aluminium cans to sell at the local scrapyard.
• 42:26
  That's right, wreckers.
• 42:27
  And I was looking for that so I could buy petrol for my little go-kart that my dad built me with a Victor lawnmower on it.
• 42:32
  And that's how it started.
• 42:34
  And I found it just here, just down the road here.
• 42:37
  And that's where it all started with the $5 bike.
• 42:40
  So it's been an amazing story that I thought people would really like.
• 42:44
  But the struggle from, you know, living in Wollongong and the steelworks and the...
• 42:49
  and riding in the mountains and the police chasing me and all sorts of dramas and then the Morawaki stories and all the little things that's happened and all the little stepping stones that I've had and the people that have helped me that have come against me and stopped me.
• 43:03
  And it's been an amazing journey.
• 43:05
  I could never have ever predicted this or planned this.
• 43:09
  It just happened.
• 43:10
  I even pinch myself today because these stories just keep evolving.
• 43:14
  And I don't even know why or how it's me, but it keeps happening to me.
• 43:19
  Every day something happens or an opportunity turns up, and I don't know what I do, but I've been enjoying this amazing life.
• 43:27
  And then there's more to come, may I say, Rusty.
• 43:30
  You wait for the next this year, later this year.
• 43:32
  There's something that's going to be my legacy that's going to be left in this world for a long time, which is very exciting.
• 43:40
  I don't know what that is, but I sense in you and from the smile on your face that it's going to be good.
• 43:45
  Congrats on what you've been doing too in property development terms and some super stuff down around the Wollongong area here.
• 43:50
  I want to finish with a first, maybe.
• 43:53
  I think it's a first for you.
• 43:55
  And that is you're about to do a little of what...
• 43:58
  Charlie Borman and your mate Ewan McGregor have done so successfully with their, you know, long way round, long way down, whatever it may have been.
• 44:06
  I think you've got an Africa twin, Honda Africa twin, and you're about to go across the country here in Australia.
• 44:12
  You've never done that before?
• 44:13
  No.
• 44:13
  You know, all the years of racing, going flat out with my hair on fire, I've actually never slowed down enough to spare the time to go out and ride motorbikes for fun.
• 44:25
  That's awesome.
• 44:25
  So when are you sitting off and where are you going to?
• 44:28
  So my friend Mark Iams, my surfing buddy, who was teaching me surfing and teaching myself and Kieran Perkins, may I say, in Manly when I lived up there, we'd become really good mates.
• 44:38
  So he said, while you're home here, before you go back, let's go for a ride.
• 44:43
  Yeah, okay.
• 44:44
  Sounds good.
• 44:45
  My development stage one's all sold out now.
• 44:48
  So stage two has started building.
• 44:51
  So I don't need to be here as much now.
• 44:52
  Now it's in all the early stages.
• 44:54
  So I went, why not?
• 44:57
  So I said to Mark, what do you want to do?
• 44:59
  He goes, oh, I want to go across Australia, Nullarbor.
• 45:01
  I said, that sounds cool.
• 45:03
  So we're going to go.
• 45:04
  We're leaving on March 1.
• 45:06
  They're leaving from Manning.
• 45:07
  They're picking me up here in Wollongong.
• 45:09
  And then I'm, we're all riding down the coast, the coastway, all the way right down to Melbourne, provided COVID's going to let us through.
• 45:19
  And then through Victoria, around the coast on Victoria, up across over to Adelaide.
• 45:24
  We're going on a ferry across one of the Great Bight there, getting off.
• 45:30
  Then we're going up and getting onto the Nullarbor.
• 45:32
  We're stopping in the Nullarbor Hotel party.
• 45:35
  So lots of pub stops on the way, may I say.
• 45:39
  So this is not so much a filming thing, but it's more just a fun thing.
• 45:43
  So there's eight of us going.
• 45:44
  I was hoping Luca was going to join us, but he told me he's not now.
• 45:47
  He's got work to do.
• 45:49
  And we're riding across the Nullarbor to Perth.
• 45:51
  We're going down to Margaret River, try some wines.
• 45:55
  But it's very much we're going to do 300 or 400 kilometres a day.
• 45:59
  It's not a lot.
• 46:00
  But we're filming it with a drone and filming it.
• 46:03
  And we're just doing it for fun.
• 46:04
  We're not doing it to – it's something down under.
• 46:07
  We haven't even named it just yet.
• 46:09
  I was thinking of names this morning.
• 46:11
  So I won't say what I'm thinking of.
• 46:15
  We've got a name come out and get some T-shirts made up.
• 46:18
  But they're doing the big initiation departure out of –
• 46:21
  out of Manly on the first, on Monday the first, and then picking me up here and then we go.
• 46:26
  So it's something like 5,000 or 6,000 kilometres or something we're doing.
• 46:31
  And it's, you know, hotels.
• 46:33
  We're staying in hotels and pubs and bars and having a good time on the way and meeting lots of friendly people, may I say.
• 46:42
  Congratulations.
• 46:43
  That just sounds like an amazing adventure.
• 46:48
  Enjoy every second of that.
• 46:49
  Ride safe.
• 46:50
  Funny as though, Rusty, I've been asked by Charlie and Ewan to come on their tour before.
• 46:57
  But I go, never got time, mate, never got time.
• 46:59
  And I went with Charlie on one of the road rides here last time here.
• 47:02
  So they're good friends of mine.
• 47:04
  But I've never had time or spared the time to do fun things.
• 47:08
  I've always on a mission to do something and I just thought everything's under control.
• 47:12
  I've got a great business partner in Lisa and everything's pretty much under control and it's given me the free time away.
• 47:19
  And now you've got...
• 47:20
  you know, computers and phones and you can just about be anywhere in the world.
• 47:25
  So I figured, and Mark kept asking me to go for tours around Europe and I went, no, no, no, no, I'm too busy, but now I'm going to do it.
• 47:31
  So now we're planning the next one in Europe.
• 47:33
  So how many more we do after this?
• 47:36
  I don't really know.
• 47:36
  It depends, but I can tell you, everyone's so excited.
• 47:39
  We're all going, Kieran's coming as well, Kieran Perkins.
• 47:42
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 47:43
  He's going to meet him down in Victoria or something and, yeah,
• 47:46
  So, yeah, I'm leaving here, the local bike shop here, as loaned me a Honda African twin.
• 47:55
  Yeah, so it's going to be cool fun and relaxing and I'm only as close as the telephone to my business or my businesses that are running, you know.
• 48:03
  So I figured it was about time that I could have a holiday.
• 48:06
  I'm 61 now and I figured I'd better start enjoying my life a little bit more.
• 48:10
  Yeah, you know.
• 48:11
  You've earned it.
• 48:11
  Enjoy the ride.
• 48:12
  Congrats, WG, on everything from the world title to the gritty determination to get to the top to Order of Australian Medals to Australian Sports Hall of Fame.
• 48:23
  And we love the fact that there's another generation on the cusp of some great stuff, mate.
• 48:28
  So well done.
• 48:29
  Congratulations.
• 48:30
  Oh, thank you.
• 48:30
  Thank you.
• 48:31
  All I can say is it's been a fun journey, you know.
• 48:34
  And my kids, I always say to my kids, listen...
• 48:38
  Win or not, enjoy the journey.
• 48:40
  That's the secret to it.
• 48:41
  Enjoy the journey.
• 48:42
  Enjoy what you're doing.
• 48:44
  And if you're enjoying what you're doing, it's not work, is it?
• 48:46
  It's fun.
• 48:47
  So enjoy the journey.
• 48:48
  That's what I say to Remy and to Luca.
• 48:50
  Have a good time in life, you know, and enjoy the memories and the good times.
• 48:54
  I mean, there'll be ups and down days.
• 48:56
  But overall, enjoy it.
• 48:58
  Enjoy it.
• 48:58
  Enjoy the journey.
• 49:05
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 49:09
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 49:12
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 49:22
  Listener.