Latest / Rusty's Garage / Brendon Leitch | Part 2 - GT Gun for Hire & Mentor Miles

Transcript

Brendon Leitch | Part 2 - GT Gun for Hire & Mentor Miles · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:20
  G'day, it's Rusty here.
• 0:21
  All set for part two of my feature episode with GT racer Brendan Leach.
• 0:25
  If you have clicked the go button on this one before listening to part one, I'd recommend jumping back to the garage library and firing that one up first.
• 0:33
  His journey from obsessed kid with his brother Damon, the racing influence of both of his parents, being around his dad's workshop and how things he learned there still serve him so well to this day.
• 0:47
  plus his relentless pursuit of sponsors and the support from a little city called Invercargill at the bottom of the world and why geography was no barrier to his plans.
• 0:58
  Coming up, the influence of the late Tim Miles testing a supercar and his new home in GT World Challenge Australia.
• 1:05
  Let's launch back into it now.
• 1:10
  I mean, as we move forward here, I mean, there are scraps with the likes of Valentino Rossi.
• 1:14
  There's lots of legends in the GT3 class.
• 1:16
  You are on the big stage, mate.
• 1:18
  Did you feel like you were kind of meant to be there?
• 1:21
  Are you, you know, small fish, big pond?
• 1:23
  Well, what's the sensation?
• 1:24
  What are you feeling like here?
• 1:26
  Yeah, very small fish, big pond feeling for the first couple of years.
• 1:29
  In 2021, those endurance races they did were great for me to really understand how GT3 racing works on the other side of the planet.
• 1:39
  Endurance racing, how that works at a top level.
• 1:42
  You enjoyed that?
• 1:42
  You enjoyed that?
• 1:43
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:43
  It was hard.
• 1:44
  It was really good to challenge myself and I was, you know, I wasn't just hunting for a sprint race.
• 1:48
  I was going, I was in for a long distance race.
• 1:53
  It's a very different feeling when you're pushing for 25 minutes, when you're trying to challenge your own time for two hours, you know, and you're absolutely exhausted by the end of the second hour and...
• 2:04
  just trying to squeeze every bit of lap time out and try and minimize, make your stint, you know, get as many laps as possible within that stint.
• 2:11
  So managing the traffic was something that I wasn't used to before.
• 2:14
  I ended up taking out a TCR car at the Hockenheim race, just went beside him and he just turned in and just sent him off into the fruits and veggies.
• 2:22
  It was just, it was lots of different dynamics going on.
• 2:25
  First time working with a German team.
• 2:28
  I didn't speak any German.
• 2:30
  Can you speak it now?
• 2:30
  Can you speak a bit now?
• 2:32
  Not really.
• 2:32
  I can speak a little bit, but it's very limited.
• 2:35
  Yeah, I didn't put too much effort into that.
• 2:39
  I was, I can't, what did I say to myself?
• 2:41
  I was like, the effort that I'm putting into learning a language, I could be spending on the simulator.
• 2:45
  Okay.
• 2:46
  Yeah, so that was the way I approached it all.
• 2:48
  But...
• 2:50
  For me in 2021, it was really important.
• 2:53
  And in 2022 was when I first raced in GT World Challenge Europe.
• 2:56
  And that is the biggest GT3 championship in the world.
• 3:02
  It's Spa 24 Hour.
• 3:04
  Back then it was the three hours of Imola, 24 hours of Spa, Barcelona, Hockenheim, and one other track.
• 3:12
  I can't remember right now.
• 3:13
  This is a heck of a roll call of amazing places.
• 3:16
  That's right.
• 3:16
  And I did...
• 3:17
  I did the first race.
• 3:18
  I did an amazing job in qualifying and I remember how good the lap was and I qualified 41st.
• 3:24
  Yeah.
• 3:25
  And that was a humbling moment and I was like, oh, my gosh, like how and why?
• 3:30
  And that was when I started to put all the pieces together from when I was a kid and add to that knowledge and understand like where's the time?
• 3:39
  How can I find it?
• 3:40
  What does the car need?
• 3:41
  What do I need?
• 3:44
  And all of these pieces now have to come together at the right time perfectly to be at the front.
• 3:49
  And, you know, I was racing that same weekend where I qualified 41st at Imola as round one.
• 3:55
  I just put it on pole on Super Trofeo Europe on debut.
• 3:59
  So it was – but I did the pole first.
• 4:03
  And then we had our first race in Trofeo and then I went and had that quali and that was a very humbling moment for me.
• 4:08
  But yeah, it's such an important thing to have a team and racing and endurance racing especially.
• 4:16
  There's definitely no I in the team.
• 4:20
  In all of that.
• 4:20
  Yeah.
• 4:21
  I love the growth here, mate, and the way you've looked within yourself for that.
• 4:26
  You fundamentally become a bit of a gun for hire here, right?
• 4:29
  Why is...
• 4:32
  the racing in Pro-Am about more, I think, than what you just do in the car.
• 4:38
  It's about the relationships.
• 4:40
  It's about rapport.
• 4:42
  It's about...
• 4:43
  you know, fostering and building up the AM drivers and so on, there is a lot more to it.
• 4:48
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:49
  Look, it's these guys that I race with, they're here to have fun, but they're super competitive and they want to get better.
• 4:58
  So for us, it's not only do you have to be fast, be a rocket, but you've got to be super personable.
• 5:07
  Like no one likes to...
• 5:09
  that comes easy to you now.
• 5:10
  I don't know if it did it when you were younger, but it comes easy now.
• 5:12
  It didn't come so easily to me.
• 5:13
  I didn't used to be so good with people, but it's one of those things that you just acquire over time and experience.
• 5:20
  And it's important to be, again, this is where I come back to the having fun thing.
• 5:24
  If you're not having fun, why are you doing it?
• 5:26
  And,
• 5:27
  you know, the lap time's just going to come at some point, but, and if everything else comes together for you, if you're, if you're driving well, you're always going to be, be having a good time, right?
• 5:38
  So it's just trying to pick yourself up or pick, pick these guys up when they're having a bad day and, and dust them off and say like, yeah, I know you can do better than this.
• 5:47
  This is not you.
• 5:48
  Like,
• 5:49
  Just close the door, get back out there and do another run and push on.
• 5:54
  I know you can do it.
• 5:55
  You've just got to believe in yourself a bit.
• 5:59
  The car can do it.
• 5:59
  I know you can do it.
• 6:01
  You've just got to get it done now.
• 6:02
  Is there a track you haven't done that you would like to do?
• 6:05
  And of all it means, Suzuka, Hockenheim, legendary places.
• 6:09
  Is there a little fave there for you too, mate, of the international stuff?
• 6:12
  No.
• 6:12
  The only one I can think of right now is Daytona that I haven't competed on.
• 6:16
  I mean, I did Le Mans in 2023 in the Michelin Le Mans Cup.
• 6:20
  I didn't do the 24-hour, but we had a really awesome weekend in Le Mans Cup that weekend.
• 6:25
  And I just missed out on the podium from a silly little mistake that I made.
• 6:28
  So it was super close.
• 6:31
  But yeah, 24 hours of Daytona is one race that I really want to do and it's a track I want to drive.
• 6:36
  But yeah, those two races are the races I've got to tick off for sure, Daytona and Le Mans.
• 6:44
  When did you get kind of that confidence in your own ability, mate, and not feeling that need you talked about before to prove yourself the pressure and so on?
• 6:52
  When did that come?
• 6:53
  Probably...
• 6:55
  you know, three or four years ago in Asian Le Mans, I think, 2022 or three, started the, yeah, 2023.
• 7:02
  You know, we turned up there.
• 7:03
  It was the first time I ever drove a factory car, like the car had been with the factory and prepared and, you know, we had all the engineers around us from the manufacturer to support us where we needed it.
• 7:16
  And, you know, I had really cool teammates and Gabrielle Rendon and Marco Mapelli.
• 7:22
  And Marco is like a world-class driver.
• 7:25
  Anybody that knows motorsport knows Marco as one of the best sports car drivers in the world.
• 7:30
  And to race with him and learn from him was a huge thing.
• 7:33
  And the first time that I've...
• 7:35
  I'd probably been in a situation in a GT3 car where I was in the same car, I was the chaser.
• 7:43
  So it was a massive learning opportunity for me.
• 7:45
  And to be, I mean, Marco was for sure better than me.
• 7:50
  And to be close to him and learn from him and just keep trying to get as close to him as possible was the point where I realized, oh man, I'm not...
• 7:58
  I'm not really too bad at this anymore.
• 8:00
  Thanks.
• 8:00
  I'm doing a good job here.
• 8:02
  The team did a great job.
• 8:03
  The manufacturer did a great job.
• 8:05
  All the drivers, we did an awesome job.
• 8:06
  We ended up with two podiums in Abu Dhabi that year in Asian Le Mans.
• 8:09
  We just missed out on top three in the Asian Le Mans series by a couple of points.
• 8:14
  It was very, very tight at the end.
• 8:16
  And then, yeah, we went back the following year and we just missed out on the championship due to one race where we had an issue.
• 8:23
  So, like it was that Asian Le Mans series was a turning point for me where I started to trust myself and that, you know, I could do it.
• 8:31
  Was it a conscious park your nerves thing or was it just more that the results were there and that you –
• 8:37
  Yeah, the results were there.
• 8:39
  I was able to, I knew that I could do it then.
• 8:42
  I was like, well, now I've proved it.
• 8:45
  And then accumulation of that and some knowledge.
• 8:48
  And I say, oh, you know what, if I can't do it, it's just not meant to be that day, you know.
• 8:54
  And yeah, that's just how it sort of came together for me and how I built my confidence off it.
• 9:00
  When did you meet, and maybe I'm jumping around in the timeline here, forgive me if I've missed some gaps, but when did you meet Tim Miles?
• 9:07
  Can we talk about Timmy now?
• 9:08
  Oh, yeah.
• 9:08
  Yeah, so I met Tim in 2013, I think it was.
• 9:12
  It was when I was racing in the Atlantic at Wigram, and I remember I was lining up at Scruton Earring.
• 9:18
  My brother was racing in another RT4, and here's Andy McIlroy and Tim Miles under the gazebo.
• 9:24
  You can't miss those two when they turn up in those moments.
• 9:26
  Oh, yeah.
• 9:28
  I think, let's just say, I think it was five o'clock at a historic event.
• 9:32
  And Tim and Andy were out there, I mean, working on their cars a little bit, I think.
• 9:37
  But it was just more yapping than working.
• 9:39
  But we were parked up there and I just, in the distance, just heard this voice, you know.
• 9:45
  is that those leech buggers?
• 9:47
  And I'm like, I've never heard this voice before.
• 9:50
  I look over and sure enough, here's Tim just absolutely chuffed with himself.
• 9:55
  And I'm like, hi, mate.
• 9:57
  Laughing at his own gag.
• 9:59
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:59
  So, you know, that was the first time I'd met Tim and Andy.
• 10:05
  And, you know, the relationship built from there.
• 10:08
  And then, yeah, when they would come over to Queenstown, I was working at Highlands.
• 10:12
  I'd often go over and meet up with Andy and Tim and Hunter McIlroy, Andy's son, kick around with Hunter a bit.
• 10:21
  And I remember us going on the luge and doing all sorts of fun stuff.
• 10:24
  So we kept in touch ever since then.
• 10:26
  And then, yeah, the opportunity to race with Tim came, which was –
• 10:31
  Was there a bit of period of uncertainty there and maybe he sort of came about and maybe a crossroads or something or other?
• 10:37
  What transpired there?
• 10:38
  Yeah, 100%.
• 10:40
  That was the turning point for me in my professional career, I would say, is when Tim gave me the opportunity.
• 10:46
  I was...
• 10:48
  In the end of 2023, I came back and did the Highland 6 hour with Tim.
• 10:52
  It was the first time I raced with him.
• 10:54
  And we had a great weekend.
• 10:55
  It was so much fun.
• 10:56
  We missed out on the win and we had a small fuel issue which cost us through no fault of anybody apart from we just tried to cut it so fine and we missed out.
• 11:09
  And we had such a fun weekend.
• 11:10
  I kept in touch with Tim obviously frequently.
• 11:13
  And after that, you know, he started talking about wanting to do some racing with me.
• 11:17
  And I was like, I didn't think, you know, so much of it.
• 11:19
  Then I was, you know, laser focused on becoming or trying to become a Lamborghini factory driver.
• 11:26
  I had just...
• 11:29
  That weekend was the weekend before the final round of Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe where I, after the six-hour race, I flew straight back there to compete in the last round and we won the European Championship.
• 11:39
  Mega man.
• 11:40
  And then, you know, Tim started talking about potentially doing some racing in Australia and he was looking at coming back and into GT3 and he wondered what I was doing, what I'd like to come and race with him.
• 11:51
  and that's how the opportunity came about, and I wasn't sure because I was still really trying at the end of 2023 to get that factory drive, and it obviously didn't come in the end.
• 12:03
  Went and did Asian Le Mans with Marco and Gabby again, and we had a successful campaign, and we got another couple of trophies.
• 12:10
  We even won a race on the track and got it taken off us for an infringement, and then, yeah, then I went back to Europe and...
• 12:19
  I was wondering what I was going to do next.
• 12:20
  Actually, at that point at the end of Asian Le Mans, I had not a single drive for 2024.
• 12:24
  And I'm like, well, what am I going to do here?
• 12:27
  And I had an email from someone and they said, look, we want you to do this championship.
• 12:36
  And I knew full well that the competition
• 12:39
  the customer they wanted me to race with was not going to be competing that year.
• 12:43
  So I'm like, this doesn't make any sense.
• 12:46
  Later on, he ended up leaving and we're getting told to leave and I ended up with no drive.
• 12:53
  So I talked to Tim and said, hey, you still want a co-driver for this championship in Australia?
• 13:00
  And he said, yeah, absolutely.
• 13:01
  I haven't got anyone sorted yet.
• 13:03
  Would you like to come do it?
• 13:03
  I was, you know, absolutely keen as.
• 13:05
  And that was the point where I really pivoted my career and we moved to Australia, my partner and I, my fiance and I, a partner at the time.
• 13:15
  And we moved over here, Sydney, sight unseen, never been here before.
• 13:20
  And, yeah, started competing with Tim in Australia.
• 13:22
  And, yeah, and then it was a very busy year, 2024, in terms of I didn't have anything.
• 13:28
  So I was trying so hard to get every drive possible and got some really cool opportunities that year.
• 13:34
  Together, mate, I mean, I have very vivid memories of his drive at Phillip Island and people like Paul Morris coming over and saying, mate, one of the best drives I've ever seen from you, Tim Miles.
• 13:45
  In that kind of mentoring, coaching, whatever you want to call it, capacity that you are as the pro driver, if you like, you helped that, mate.
• 13:55
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 13:56
  I mean, that first weekend that we spent together at Phillip Island, we had an amazing weekend.
• 14:02
  And I'd only had one weekend with Tim before that, so it was –
• 14:07
  I wasn't really sure how it was going to go, what the dynamic might have been like in the car together, like, you know, what's the tension going to be like, and everything was really good.
• 14:15
  But after race one, we actually had a, in Tim's stint, he was a little bit upset with himself, and, you know, later on I figured out he'd actually...
• 14:26
  He just let a couple of cars pass, like one of his competitors or something.
• 14:29
  And we had a conversation on Sunday morning.
• 14:32
  I was like, look, this here, you didn't even fight.
• 14:37
  You just let him go.
• 14:38
  Like, what's going on?
• 14:40
  He's like, oh, you know, I just wasn't quite in the right headspace.
• 14:42
  And we ended up having a great result that first race anyway.
• 14:44
  It rained and...
• 14:46
  And that's where I had an amazing race that I just flew through the field.
• 14:51
  It was really, really cool.
• 14:53
  Yeah, it was a real cool race that I always remember.
• 14:55
  And anyway, Sunday morning, sitting with Tim, having a chat and said, hey, mate, like, come on, you can do better than this.
• 15:00
  This is not you.
• 15:01
  Like, get it together.
• 15:02
  Yeah.
• 15:03
  And then the Sunday race too, he just put on an absolute master class of defense and brought the thing home and won our first race together in GT World Challenge.
• 15:16
  Amazing.
• 15:17
  Can I ask you, mate, if you don't mind, about coping with his loss?
• 15:20
  You and I are recording this.
• 15:21
  Not quite 12 months since he left us.
• 15:24
  I have, I don't often talk about it, but I can recall being with you on the grid at Sandown.
• 15:30
  Krause was with us.
• 15:31
  And this is post the funeral, right, which I'd done a bit of work on the MC side of it.
• 15:36
  And I privately felt...
• 15:39
  I'm very proud because you want to do the best job you can in that moment and be strong for the family and so on.
• 15:44
  But, man, I nearly broke on the grid there with you guys.
• 15:47
  And Kralese sort of saved me and said, hey, mate, you know, we got this and blah, blah, blah, and I didn't want to get upset on camera.
• 15:56
  I don't think you could look at me at one point.
• 15:57
  So it was tough all that, mate, wasn't it?
• 15:58
  It was really tough.
• 15:59
  Yeah, that was hard.
• 16:00
  I mean, I actually missed his funeral because I had a race in South Korea.
• 16:06
  You would not have minded that, mate.
• 16:07
  No, absolutely.
• 16:07
  You would not have minded that.
• 16:08
  Andy and Tracy both said I had to go do it.
• 16:11
  Like it was not a choice.
• 16:13
  And they ended up being with my co-driver now in Asia.
• 16:17
  It gave me an opportunity this year in racing in GT World Challenge.
• 16:21
  But yeah, that day on the grid and sand down was very hard.
• 16:25
  It was probably the moment where it hit home for me that he'd gone.
• 16:29
  That effervescent figure is not going to be in the pit lane anymore.
• 16:32
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:34
  And sitting in the car, I remember after the moment on the grid, I had to do a lap in the car and, I mean, it might have looked cool from the outside, but it was just the waterworks under the helmet.
• 16:45
  You know, for me it was...
• 16:48
  That was when it really hit me that I open the door next time and Tim's not going to be there ripping me out of the car.
• 16:54
  That's it.
• 16:54
  So yeah, it was a tough period and I just tried my best to keep battling through.
• 17:01
  I sat in the corner of hospitality in South Korea and watched the funeral and it was great that I could feel like I was still involved, but it was a very hard time and now I just feel more determined than ever to make everything work.
• 17:26
  Brendan talked earlier about working at Highlands Motorsport Park as he climbed the ladder.
• 17:31
  That world-class venue is owned by Tony Quinn who joined Rusty on the pod in 2020 for a fascinating chat about his business success and why motorsport has been such a good vehicle for the brands.
• 17:42
  Yeah, so look, motorsport in business for me, whilst, you know, people would say that it's for personal enjoyment.
• 17:51
  It's actually not.
• 17:52
  I've used it for the businesses that I've got.
• 17:56
  And I've done very, very well out of the businesses that I've had.
• 18:01
  TQ has been on the pod for a number of shortcasts since then and he never disappoints.
• 18:05
  But we still get feedback on the feature EP and not just for the motorsport yarns, particularly for the business chats.
• 18:12
  Search for it later.
• 18:14
  Now it's back to Rusty and Brendan Leach.
• 18:17
  Can we talk about the supercar's test, mate?
• 18:19
  Because I think by the sounds of it, he played maybe a little part in helping some of that stuff come.
• 18:26
  Tell me about that.
• 18:26
  Massive.
• 18:28
  He got that test for me and he also got that drive for me in the Bathurst 12 the first year I did it.
• 18:34
  So it was all a conversation with another New Zealander called Paul Forgy.
• 18:40
  Yes.
• 18:41
  And, yeah, Forgy gave me the opportunity to come and drive the car.
• 18:45
  But first...
• 18:48
  Tim had sold it that I was a gun for hire in the Lambo, which was true.
• 18:52
  So Adrian gave me the opportunity to come and race with him at the Bathurst 12-hour.
• 18:56
  Yeah, we had a great weekend together.
• 18:59
  And from that moment, Paul was super stoked to come and have me test the car.
• 19:03
  And we had a great test in Sydney.
• 19:05
  It's just a...
• 19:07
  Yeah, it's just a tricky situation, I think.
• 19:11
  To get an opportunity in supercars would be great.
• 19:13
  I'd love to do a co-drive.
• 19:14
  You know, for me, that's...
• 19:16
  I'm very focused on my sports car career, but I think I'd make a damn good co-driver for sure.
• 19:21
  But one day...
• 19:22
  I think that most people realize, mate, I'm pumping your tires there, but that's, I think, the general feeling.
• 19:26
  Thank you, yeah.
• 19:27
  And I really want to do it.
• 19:29
  It's something that I...
• 19:30
  For sure, Tim was trying very, very hard to get that going for me.
• 19:34
  And at the moment, it hasn't got off the ground.
• 19:36
  But I'm confident that in the next couple of years, something will come together.
• 19:41
  Good.
• 19:41
  But I'll just keep pressing on that.
• 19:43
  And I'm sure at some point, my international endeavors will strike up a bit of interest from some of the team owners.
• 19:51
  And they'll be happy to give me the opportunity.
• 19:54
  The test day was really good in Sydney, were you?
• 19:57
  Yeah.
• 19:58
  Forgey was super impressed and, I mean, he knew exactly what I could do.
• 20:02
  So he was, you know, like a bit of a proud dad moment.
• 20:06
  He's such a good bugger.
• 20:07
  And, yeah, it would have been great to race last year, but I'm sure it'll come.
• 20:12
  I'm great.
• 20:13
  I'm pleased, rather, that you still have a strong want for that.
• 20:17
  And I look forward to the day that that happens, mate.
• 20:20
  Can we come to...
• 20:21
  where we are now.
• 20:22
  Firstly, of all the international stuff, what's the zenith moment for you?
• 20:27
  What's the thing that you're most proud of from all of that?
• 20:31
  Oh, my gosh.
• 20:32
  You talked tidal there a moment ago?
• 20:33
  You talked all sorts.
• 20:34
  Yeah, look...
• 20:35
  There has to be probably a couple of moments and I think I already spoke briefly about them.
• 20:39
  It would have been when I won the European Championship and Lamborghini Super Trofeo.
• 20:43
  It was actually my first ever championship.
• 20:45
  I never won a national championship before leaving the country.
• 20:48
  That must have felt good, mate.
• 20:50
  It did.
• 20:51
  It was definitely a little bit of weight off my shoulders.
• 20:55
  I knew it would come at some point and the team trusted me and like it, they...
• 21:01
  They knew that if someone was going to get the job done, it was going to be me.
• 21:04
  And that definitely helped my confidence as well.
• 21:08
  And the second thing would have been the first race at Phillip Island in 2024, I think.
• 21:12
  I mean, there was many times in that championship where I was able to puff my chest out a little bit.
• 21:18
  But that was probably the first one and the one that just gave me that momentum to keep pushing forward.
• 21:24
  I had a great engineer.
• 21:26
  Yeah.
• 21:27
  Great co-driver, good team.
• 21:29
  And it was just super fun to be racing here in Australia.
• 21:33
  Phillip Island was a track that I watched, been to growing up.
• 21:37
  I'd been there when I was like three years old.
• 21:39
  Dad was looking after historic cars there.
• 21:40
  So to go back there, I mean, when I'm growing up and to race there and compete, then I'm still the current lap record holder there.
• 21:49
  So hopefully no one beats that.
• 21:50
  So it's a really, it holds a little special spot in my heart, that one.
• 21:54
  Definitely.
• 21:55
  What about the move to Tagani this year, how that's going?
• 21:58
  I feel like...
• 22:01
  you know, we're on the eve of the Ben Round here, but even at Phillip Island, Sergio Perez showed some really good form there.
• 22:09
  Are you enjoying working with that outfit?
• 22:11
  What's that been like?
• 22:12
  100%.
• 22:13
  They would definitely be one of the best teams I've ever worked with.
• 22:18
  They are super professional.
• 22:22
  And, yeah, man, those guys can make a car go fast for sure.
• 22:26
  It's...
• 22:27
  They do a really good job.
• 22:28
  Good vibe too.
• 22:29
  You're going just off and music playing and stuff.
• 22:30
  That's right.
• 22:32
  And that also is right in me.
• 22:35
  It's all about having fun.
• 22:36
  And all those guys down there are happy to be here.
• 22:40
  They're enjoying themselves.
• 22:42
  And they're super competitive.
• 22:43
  They all want to win.
• 22:44
  drivers, mechanics, engineers, the whole lot.
• 22:47
  So that's really important for me.
• 22:49
  And Nathan has done an amazing job with that team with the help of Matt.
• 22:54
  And yeah, I'm just super grateful that they gave me the opportunity to come and race for them.
• 22:59
  It was middle end of last year.
• 23:02
  I wasn't sure what was going to happen with my Australian racing.
• 23:06
  I didn't have anything and they called up and said, you know,
• 23:10
  we want you because we don't want to be racing against you.
• 23:13
  So that was exactly what Matt said.
• 23:16
  So I'm sure I won't mind me saying that.
• 23:18
  But yeah, it was super cool.
• 23:20
  Sergio is an amazing driver.
• 23:23
  And to think that he's never had a driver coach
• 23:26
  until now, a proper race coach to race with.
• 23:29
  It's just amazing.
• 23:30
  So he's just getting faster and faster and faster.
• 23:32
  He's loving it, mate.
• 23:32
  You can tell.
• 23:33
  Oh, yeah, absolutely.
• 23:35
  He's driving really well and just getting better every time.
• 23:38
  And we're having heaps of fun doing it.
• 23:39
  That's good.
• 23:40
  It's good.
• 23:40
  Keep that mantra.
• 23:41
  Before I come to a couple of maybe nice lessons to end for young races, stuff that you've learned along the way through the hard graft, mate, what?
• 23:50
  You have shared an apartment with some mates that is a bit of fun.
• 23:57
  Can you tell me about what that life is like?
• 24:00
  I see some videos on socials from time to time.
• 24:03
  Tell me about the flatmates.
• 24:04
  Tell me about the fun that goes on there.
• 24:08
  I think in the video side of things, this podcast has been a lovely discussion, which I've enjoyed, but a bit more of your character comes out in that stuff, doesn't it?
• 24:18
  Yeah, so I haven't had too many flatmates over the years, but when I first moved to Australia, I moved in with Simon Chapman and James Pavey and his girlfriend.
• 24:27
  James works for super cows, we should point out to.
• 24:31
  Yeah, so it was a very motorsport-orientated flat.
• 24:34
  True, yes.
• 24:36
  We called ourselves the River Road Racing Club.
• 24:38
  We still call ourselves that.
• 24:41
  That's still the name of our group chat.
• 24:42
  Okay.
• 24:43
  But no, we had heaps of fun.
• 24:46
  Yeah, we enjoyed a lot of ice cream, that's for sure.
• 24:50
  And I turned Simon into a coffee snob.
• 24:53
  And James too.
• 24:54
  Bought themselves a coffee machine.
• 24:56
  I'm sure they won't mind me saying that.
• 24:57
  You got two name four euro on me.
• 24:59
  I didn't know that.
• 24:59
  That's right.
• 25:00
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:01
  So absolute connoisseur Simon is.
• 25:03
  He outdoes me these days.
• 25:04
  So...
• 25:05
  That's been something.
• 25:07
  And then, yeah, I've turned Simon back into a sim racer again.
• 25:10
  Excellent.
• 25:11
  Yeah, he's a NASCAR specialist.
• 25:12
  Okay.
• 25:13
  We haven't touched on that before we go to these sort of bits of advice, mate.
• 25:15
  The sim racing stuff, how much you enjoy that and you're immersed in that and so on.
• 25:19
  Yeah.
• 25:20
  I mean, the sim racing I do now mainly for fun and learning circuits, but also do a bit of driver coaching on that with some of the guys I race with.
• 25:29
  Yeah.
• 25:30
  Yeah.
• 25:31
  Super, super useful for them.
• 25:32
  I would say it's more useful for them than it is for me because, you know, it's just like being in a car in terms of, you know, how you place the car, your pedal inputs, how you hold the handlebars and what you do.
• 25:44
  And you can actually see like, you know, when they're looking at the screen and doing something, if you're in the same room, you can see where they're looking and what they're looking for.
• 25:52
  there's so much to be said for sitting beside them while they're pushing and just the way they respond because not only that, it's all psychological as well, right?
• 26:03
  So making sure that they're relaxed, they're breathing.
• 26:08
  You often see them, you know, white knuckling the steering wheel and as soon as the drivers relax, they always go faster.
• 26:16
  So, you know, sim racing is...
• 26:19
  one of the most important tools that we have that we didn't used to have.
• 26:24
  And yeah, I use that very, very often with my guys and getting them quicker.
• 26:30
  And it works very, very well.
• 26:32
  Cool.
• 26:32
  Let's bounce through these to finish if you don't mind.
• 26:35
  And maybe you've already covered this in the conversation.
• 26:37
  So forgive me if I'm doubling up here.
• 26:39
  A failure that perhaps secretly helped your career.
• 26:44
  That would definitely be when I got denied the factory promotion from Lamborghini.
• 26:53
  Yeah, that was a turning... How did that give you... Well, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have come to Australia and I would still be in Europe and trying to pursue the career over there and who knows what would have happened.
• 27:06
  But moving over here made me become a freelancer
• 27:10
  now driving with many manufacturers and like you said, a gun for hire.
• 27:16
  But for me, it's being able to be flexible and drive whatever my customers want me to race in.
• 27:23
  And that's probably something that I've...
• 27:28
  taken on as a bit of a strength is the adaptability to the different brands.
• 27:32
  They're all a bit different and there's a lot of different tools that they all use and just trying to maximize the car as hard on any day of the week, but trying to jump from one brand to another and try and get everything out of it is a very tricky puzzle to solve.
• 27:47
  Maybe this is the Phillip Island result, I'm not sure, but what about a race result that perhaps meant more to you than other people realize?
• 27:55
  Yeah, for me, it was what I talked about much earlier about 2015.
• 27:59
  I think 2015 was a point in my career where I was really struggling to find funds.
• 28:06
  Take that next step into Wings and Slicks from Formula 4 was a huge jump up in terms of funding.
• 28:13
  had I not been able to put the car on pole that day in 2015 and win the race, I have no idea where I would have been, but it wouldn't have given me that confidence to push forward and, and know that I could do it.
• 28:23
  Cause that was the first day where I, I got in a proper, a proper race car against some of the world's best young drivers and, and yeah, you know, took the fight to them and, and kept my cool and brought the thing home without a mistake.
• 28:37
  And that's,
• 28:39
  really one of the most important parts is that you, you know, you believe in yourself.
• 28:44
  If you don't have that belief, you can't do much without that.
• 28:47
  I think that's tremendous that that is still etched here, mate.
• 28:49
  That's brilliant.
• 28:52
  What do you reckon perhaps are the most underrated skills in motorsport?
• 28:56
  I mean, you've learned the mechanical side through your dad.
• 28:59
  You've talked about the sales side that you learned on your push bike as a young kid hitting the road and so on.
• 29:05
  And now the people side in that kind of coaching capacity.
• 29:07
  What's the most underrated thing?
• 29:09
  No, well, that's it.
• 29:09
  I think the diversity and being able to adapt to a different situation and having that skill base, you've got to be willing to do things you don't want to do.
• 29:22
  Put yourself out there.
• 29:24
  Yeah, put yourself out there, right, and get comfortable being uncomfortable.
• 29:29
  I love that.
• 29:30
  Yeah, because I think...
• 29:32
  the more you put yourself in situations as a driver that you don't feel fully comfortable with, the more you learn.
• 29:39
  And every single day, it doesn't matter how much experience, you know, we as professional drivers have, you're always learning every single day.
• 29:46
  And, you know...
• 29:47
  whether it's something to do with the car or something to do with the way that you show yourself to the world or something to do with the way that you treat your customers and your peers.
• 30:00
  It's all very important to be able to adapt to any situation and yeah, again, make sure you're having fun.
• 30:07
  That's really key.
• 30:09
  So that leads me to what's harder, getting those opportunities or keeping them?
• 30:14
  Keeping them.
• 30:15
  Keeping them.
• 30:18
  It was very, very hard to make the opportunities happen just to get to the grid, right?
• 30:21
  But actually, the hardest part is performing the task still.
• 30:26
  So if you don't enjoy the hustle, you're definitely not going to enjoy the chase, I think.
• 30:33
  When you're at this different level of the sport, you're doing the same things
• 30:40
  or performing similar tasks, but with different outcomes, right?
• 30:44
  Like when I was younger, it was all about, all I needed was money, right?
• 30:48
  And now all I need is opportunities to drive.
• 30:53
  But what you're doing is the same thing.
• 30:56
  You're just...
• 30:57
  not looking for funds, you're looking for opportunities now, right?
• 31:00
  So the challenge doesn't get easier, just changes.
• 31:04
  There's some really sage stuff in here, mate.
• 31:06
  To finish, advice to aspiring drivers and perhaps something that you might have done differently along the way.
• 31:11
  I'm not a believer in regret, right?
• 31:13
  You do the best with what you've got at the time and make the best choice or decision at the time, right?
• 31:19
  But is there something along those lines?
• 31:20
  Oh, I mean, as a driver, you're always looking for optimization, right?
• 31:26
  But normally it's just on the track.
• 31:27
  And when I look back at where my career took me, like you said, I wouldn't change anything.
• 31:32
  I think it's what builds character and it's what makes you become the person you are.
• 31:37
  I'm a massive believer of that.
• 31:38
  But definitely there's some things I would change
• 31:41
  I wish I knew back then that, you know, and still these days, I think about this often is you've got to trust your instinct and when something doesn't feel right, it's most likely not right, you know.
• 31:56
  And I do wish I created different opportunities at different points and if that had happened, things might have happened a bit quicker or might have took me in a different path completely.
• 32:07
  But yeah, nothing.
• 32:10
  I don't regret anything.
• 32:11
  Good.
• 32:12
  The final thing for me, you have a cool Kombi.
• 32:16
  Tell me about that, baby.
• 32:17
  And every once in a while, I see a pic of you, maybe your fiance with you two, venturing off for a little escape somewhere.
• 32:24
  Tell me about that.
• 32:25
  Oh, yeah.
• 32:25
  1973 Volkswagen Kombi.
• 32:28
  I bought it as soon as we went into lockdown in 2020.
• 32:31
  Did you?
• 32:32
  Yeah.
• 32:32
  That was what kept me sane around that time.
• 32:36
  I had some savings.
• 32:37
  I was saving up for a house.
• 32:38
  And...
• 32:40
  I just said, you know what, just go for it.
• 32:42
  So I bought the van and over a period of nine or 10 months, I restored it with the help of dad and his workshop during, I mean, during COVID, it was, I had lots of free time, so it was fine.
• 32:55
  But once we went back to work, it was just during nights.
• 32:57
  So I was working for dad in the workshop, building race cars.
• 33:00
  And then in the evening, I was out in the shed building race cars, no, building the van.
• 33:04
  So, yeah.
• 33:05
  Yeah, I have a lovely 1973 V-Dub combi.
• 33:09
  And whenever we're back in New Zealand, we always make the effort to take it out for a trip, take it out for a night camping.
• 33:16
  We enjoy going away and getting out in the nature a bit.
• 33:19
  Love that.
• 33:20
  And going for a few dips in the cold lakes in New Zealand because there's definitely no shortage of those.
• 33:25
  Yeah, it's good.
• 33:26
  And I mean, yeah.
• 33:28
  It's good fun.
• 33:28
  It's such a beautiful country and we love going back there as often as we can.
• 33:33
  It's very expensive to do, but we do try our best.
• 33:36
  And yeah, whenever we do, we always take the combi out for a gallop and hopefully a night or two as well.
• 33:42
  Good on you.
• 33:42
  Well done.
• 33:42
  This has been fantastic.
• 33:44
  In hitting record here today, I wasn't sure whether this would be short cast, long form.
• 33:49
  And I know in your career, mate, you still have chapters that you would
• 33:52
  that you want to write.
• 33:54
  I want to say go well with that.
• 33:56
  I know Timmy would be massively proud, mate.
• 33:59
  And congrats on what you have achieved so far through things that I think are great examples for those that are going to be the next wave of Kiwis coming through.
• 34:10
  Well done.
• 34:10
  Thank you, Rusty.
• 34:11
  Thank you very much.