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FCTTN: Winners and losers from Darwin · Full Credit to the Noise

• Speedcafe Team: Yeah This week on Full Credit to the Noise, Darwin Heat claims some victims, Anton shuts Scafe up, and Waters wins the crown. Welcome to Full Credit to the Noise. Well hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and welcome to full credit to the noise. You can find this podcast on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at FCTN Podcast. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Blue Sky, and Facebook at former underscore legend Jesus Lone the over at Blue Sky AVL. You can find the book across me on Twitter at AVL underscore motorsport. He's on Av at Instagram at AVL dot motorsport. He's a man who this week hugged a crocodile, wore a crocodile, and then ate a crocodile. He has demanded the Newswell State of Origin team and the Socceros be swapped for their next games. And tonight he's wearing a T Birds leather jacket. Welcome to Speed Cafe's Andrew Van Lewen. Hello, former. I'm definitely not wearing a jacket. I'm still in Darwin. I'm actually in sort of semi holidays mode today. So still at the Airbnb in Darwin. Apologies if there's any background noise. And at any moment, several fighter jets could fly over the top of the house and rattle the windows here, which will be probably Pretty easy to pick up as well because ⁓ that's just been happening. I don't d does that do people here just live with that? With fire jets flying over all the time? I heard your podcast on Friday night. I thought it was a brave decision to record a podcast at the end of a runway, but ⁓ I swear to god, I woke up this morning. It sounded like one of ⁓ had taxied into the street we live in. Taken off from there. It was like the windows were rattling. It was ⁓ it's just been going on all day. But we did have a nice little escape out to ⁓ out to Berry Springs today for a bit of a ⁓ for a bit of a swim. So we're sort of in yeah, like I say, I in sort of semi holiday mode. I got little drink on the go here and it's ⁓ it's quite nice. But yeah, it was good out at the ⁓ springs. Saw the ⁓ Tigford crew out there, Tommy Randall was out having a little dip in the springs, doing a bit of recovery before he ⁓ before he heads back after what was obviously a pretty pretty tough weekend ⁓ for him. So ⁓ yeah it's pretty it's pretty like fighter jets aside it's pretty nice up here to be honest. Well, other than your exciting weekend, my ⁓ my highlight from the weekend was I don't know if you've seen this, eighty six year old Lorraine Tuckett. ⁓ better known as Nan. And her birthday she just wanted to for her eighty six, she just wanted to smash some tires at a local burnout track. And on Saturday she got a wish for the sixty year in a row, friends and family, traveled to Leeton for Nan's birthday bash, a big burnout competition. ⁓ Where they turn rubber into rubber confetti. ⁓ sorry, tire into rubber confetti, I should say. She said her n her her grandson Guy taught her, but she's even beat him in competition a couple of times. And then there was video of Nan's birthday burnout returning ⁓ which returned more than one million views on Saturday and attracted the attention of car enthusiasts. I'm just gonna finish this story by saying I I'm not adverse to an older lady. And Nan is ticking some boxes, if you know what I'm saying. Well, she did better than Anton Deep Asqually on Sunday 'cause he got given permission from his team to destroy his rear tires and gently rolled around back into pit lane. Didn't do a burnout. Well he didn't he didn't really give a great explanation. I think because of the way the race finished under safety car, there was kind of other cars around him and that sort of stuff. But ⁓ yeah, he just didn't just didn't do a burnout. All right. Pretty pretty disappointing. We maybe we need to get Nan in the seat next time, ⁓ to show him how it's done. It was Quite the weekend up there, mate. On Friday, ⁓ Brody got poll, and then Cam Waters broke a almost, what was it, a year and a half, eighteen months ⁓ dry spell? Forty six races or something like that. Yep. And then on Saturday he got a poll, which was also a rarity in the in recent times. But Kai Allen got a win ⁓ on good driving and good strategy, and that excellent outcome for those guys. And then on Sunday, Cam got another poll, and Anton. ⁓ got another win for Chev for the year, the second one for the year. ⁓ a few surprises in all of that. What's the biggest surprise? Out of all of that, I I think Tickford's turnaround's up there. Really, you know, like it's ⁓ and the fact that they were just Cam was so consistently fast across the weekend ⁓ when they have had such a tough run. So you know like i it was kind of one of those things where we really felt like Ford was going to break its winless streak at Hidden Valley in the Gen 3 era this weekend. That made sense given the form of some of those teams. But you probably wouldn't have had Cam at the top of your list as the driver to to go and do that in that Friday race. So ⁓ I think that was that that was the real standout performance. Obviously great win for Anton as well, an important win for Supercars and for GM and for Team 18. ⁓ but like I kind of I mean we spoke about it last week. You know there there was some Some signs or or or it was easy to kind of predict that they would have a good weekend because they do go well, team eighteen in Darwin. We know the Chev package can work there. ⁓ so yeah, that that was not as surprising probably as Cam really just firing back into form in a pretty serious way. Yep. and ⁓ yeah, it's kind of one of those things like in this i i it's a funny thing because we think about how bad they've kind of been going but Cam's still always been in that like top four mix in the championship and suddenly you look at it and go, Man, if they can turn that speed on like he's right in the right in the mix for a title under this finals format. But even without it, he's not miles off. Like it's it's been a really weird year for those guys. A bit like last year to be honest. But yeah, to see him at the front, you know Racing so well on both tire compounds. That was that was pretty im impressive. Well, after every round we do the same thing and it's Champagne and Shires and AVL, and we'll start with a champagne from Darwin. And as you said, it was Cam Waters and Tickford. It's been a long time between the waters whiskies, but ⁓ he finally got a win as well as two pole positions and the triple crown, let's not forget. ⁓ not sure where the pace has been, and I don't even know that they do, although Brandu Chazzy seemingly hasn't hurt. But ⁓ holy duly, he's back and ⁓ like you say, he's in the pointy end for the title. You'd have to imagine if sh if short short term form is in the go by. My sex second champagne of the year of the weekend is Todd Hazelwood and Mark Winterbottom. I mean, one bloke went up there to drive a pie truck, the other one went up there to hold a microphone, and both ended up racing supercars on Sunday. ⁓ and while the results results weren't groundbreaking, well done to both those guys for filling in. Keeping it tidy, bringing it home in one piece, and battling s a little bit of adversity with seat fittings and things like that. And let's not forget, Todd actually beat his teammate home, which was ⁓ quite the outcome. Absolutely. ⁓ my next one's the liveries AVL. I know we get to do this to death, and I've heard ⁓ Winges say that you it's virtue signal signaling and everything else, but just well done to the entire team for the indigenous inspired liveries from the weekend. Every car looked absolutely mint. In my opinion. Obviously not you, K not you, Cam Hill. ⁓ remember when it was non uniform day at school, AVL, and there was always that one kid that would forget and still wear his uniform? Yeah. Well, that was Cam Hill on the weekend for some reason. I don't know what happened. ⁓ and my final champagne for the weekend goes to Trans Am, who did more racing laps on Friday's race than the entire event this time last year. Yeah, true. That's a win. ⁓ but the racing was mega on the weekend and Up front, that field is dead set, the sharpest field in the country outside of supercars, I reckon. ⁓ the racing's great viewing, so once again, well done to those guys. They turned on some good racing, but for every champagne there's a shizen, and we'll start with look, feel free to push your chair back from the table and separate yourself from what what I'm about to say, Aviol, 'cause this is about the TV coverage. Now, we are now past the halfway point of the season. Thanks, ⁓ Larco for that. And the T V product is really bad. It's l very problematic. Here are some of the problems identified by our Discord members from the weekend just gone. And I'll say ⁓ in no particular order, although I think the first couple are from Friday. There was the timing stopped during qualifying on Friday, and then they put a screenshot up from someone's phone to show us the ⁓ the qualifying order. The car mic audio is absolutely atrocious. They left the sound on during one of the replays of people talking in the background. The drone has a microphone on it for some reason, and the sound of the drone was actually annoying. ⁓ from any from all my experience, drones don't have microphones. And it makes me think that that that has actually been added in as some sort of sound effect, which I don't get, because drone manufacturers right now are trying to make their drones as quiet as possible, which I don't know. ⁓ There were poorly timed replays. ⁓ We weren't watching the battle for the lead in some races. They missed the pass between Kai and Waters. And the onboard audio quality was really bad across all classes, which extends the radios between the engineers and the root drivers as well. The director inexplicably cut to a ridiculous camera angles at odd times that add absolutely nothing to the production. These are all things that people have highlighted in the Discord, by the way. Someone pulled the plug and we got rainbow bars and a snowman skiing across the screen at one point. ⁓ the dynamic range in the in-car cameras is putrid, just like being filmed on a GoPro. ⁓ three. Larko said for all you people out there who like your GM versus Ford battle, there's nothing between the speed of these two cars as he compared two Ford cars speed traces. I remind you, Avial, we were one of the few places who said that we would allow a bit of a betting in period for the new Bob that have taken over at the start of the year, but that period is long gone. I spoke to someone who knows exactly what they're talking about when it comes to the broadcasting, and they had a few interesting th things to say from this morning. ⁓ They said, he slash she said, from an industry perspective, supercars used to be seen as an elite crew. To be asked to join supercars was like being asked to join a special task force and everyone cleared their calendars. Those days are long gone. The media arm of the sport is broken. Rather than gutting the production department and starting again, they replaced the facilitator without enough lead in time for NEP to be ready. And by the way, guys, can we please update that fake crowd noise you use? That sound file that you used from Philip Island in twenty fourteen could probably do with a freshen up. Your thoughts, Aviol. I'm not sure there was ever a crowd at Phillip Island in twenty fourteen to have been recorded. That was probably the wrong circuit to to use for your ⁓ for your gag there. But yeah, obviously like that I I I I really don't understand why there's a rainbow bar with a thrusting s snow skiing snowman on it in the first place. In in any sort of back end system for this thing. That one was ⁓ was really bizarre. So ⁓ We kind of feel like we've moved on a little bit from the graphics issues in general and then we have things like that. So look, I I haven't ⁓ had the opportunity to sort of investigate how or why that happened, whether it is to do with this hub, ⁓ this move to the hub format in Sydney. Obviously the majority of the production team stayed in Sydney and didn't travel to Darwin and the plan is to do that for all rounds except Perth and Bathurst for the remainder of the season. So but I I do agree that, you know, I I think we were pretty fair at the start of the season in terms of saying, well, this is a pretty big change. ⁓ and let's give it time to kind of settle in. But yeah, what it's we're recording this on the twenty second of June. Like you say, we're halfway through the season. It it does need to get better. And I would definitely hope and fully expect that that's not something that would come as any sort of shock to Nathan Prendergast and he a and his team. Right? Like surely they get that This is not the level they need to be at. and you would just really hope there's some pretty swift action on getting on top of these things. ⁓ but yeah, the fact that we're this far into the year and still having issues like this is is definitely definitely not ⁓ not ideal. No, no. We'll end that there for the time being. ⁓ next ⁓ Schizen for the weekend was just the heat stress AVL. You gotta feel for Brody Kastecki, look, I know he was ill, ⁓ but his drink bottle wasn't working properly. And Thomas Randall, and they were both victims of faulty equipment, Thomas had a cool suit failure, led to them being slowly broiled in their cars on Saturday. It's an unfortunate truth that the series has never hundred percent nailed. Things like cool suits, water bottles, and ventilation in cars. ⁓ for those playing at home, it was thirty-two degrees during the race on Saturday and the temperature dropped to twenty-two overnight. But let's not have a night race AVL because Journos can't get on the cans. And some pubs might not make coin from Piss Rec supercar fans. In the race of life, back the horse, named self interest, AVL. You it's trying. What you say about a night race now? I stand a hundred percent by my thoughts on a night race. I still do not think it's a good idea at all. Step me through it again, because I there's a couple of points I just can't go with. Go on. So firstly, like and this is something that's been this is not criticism criticism of supercars at all. This is something that's been driven by The N T government. But firstly, I think the postcard is the blue skies and the red dirt and all that sort of stuff that you just will not be able to see at night. The sunsets over yell. The sunsets. Yeah, but you can kinda get that with it. Well you don't get a sunset for a night race, right? That's the whole point. Well, but it would be afternoonslash night. The twilight race would be on the on the Saturday. But I just think that you miss out on brilliant like that the the the drone noise might have been annoying, but the view from the drone cam back towards the city was spectacular. And you could look great at a sunset, I reckon. Around but otherwise you're just looking at illuminated tarmac. That's all you're gonna see. ⁓ and the last time they tried to do this, it was the ⁓ hospitality industry that pushed back and said, Hang on a minute, we don't want people at the racetrack at night, we want them in our pubs and bars and restaurants and not just the punters, but you know, people working for teams and people working in the industry. So I still the easiest job in the world. What's that? Beer selling in Darwin. It's not tricky. Yeah. But open your join up, sell beer. That's pretty much the two steps you need to know. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they do enjoy an upswing in patronage over the Supercars weekend. Right. So And you're still narrowing down even in the Twilight Race, you're narrowing down the window in which people can contribute to the local economy through the hospitality industry. So I still think it's a bad idea. The heat thing is obviously an issue. I've I still cannot fathom why we tightened up the rules around driver welfare in heat and then could have a situation like Tommy Randall found himself in on the Saturday there. Like that makes no sense to me because Obviously the either the threshold is too high or whatever, but it didn't protect him. No. You know, and and you can't expect drivers to to stop racing, you know? Like they're gonna keep going. and yes, you could mount an argument should the team have pulled him in, but they were sort of pretty across the fact that they'd been monitoring his lap times, talking to him on the radio, making sure he was making sense and that they felt he was capable of driving the car. And that was the case till the end. And it was kind of after when, you know, the adrenaline wears off and you get out of the car that the the exhaustion really set in. And and to Tickford's credit, even before ⁓ Tommy had been ruled out a Sunday's race by by ⁓ the supercar's medical delegate, ⁓ Dr. Carl, the team had already gone, there's no way we're putting this guy in the car. And they were already down the path of talking to Supercars and Motorsport Australia about what they were going to do as ⁓ as as a replacement. So ⁓ I do give Tigford props for that. ⁓ but yeah, I just don't I I don't like probably a starting point is the fact that, you know, we we do have a f ⁓ an almost fully homologated category. Well, it is a fully homologated category where you really have very little freedom to do much, but cooling systems is one of the things that you do have freedom with. So maybe there needs to they need to move to a standardized system, something that can be well tested, something that works, or do they need to insulate the cabins better so that an aircon system could come into play like in GT3 racing, because at the moment the theory in supercars is that the aircon thing won't work because the cars aren't really designed to have aircon. These Gen 3 cars were meant to be, and it's there's data that suggests they're a little bit cooler than the Gen 2 cars, but we just seem to be seeing more of these these issues and more of these failures. So ⁓ we've seen issues with the chill out system, which is the electronic system that like Triple Eight uses. They've had some issues, but in the case of Tommy Randall that was a dry ice ⁓ problem. So yeah, I I really I don't you know I I I don't fully know what the answer is in terms of a solution, but I don't see the point in having a rule that allows what happened to Tommy on that Saturday happen. Like like how how much hotter does it does it happen? Like it was a really good question, Mike because it it just it didn't protect him in that in that moment. So you know and I'm sure you know he's he's probably pretty happy he got to do that race given the fact he then missed the other one. But you know, it it would have just swung the other way around. He would have been forced out of the Saturday race, but then be good to go on Sunday. Yeah. So you know there it wasn't really a loss or gain in terms of points and that sort of stuff. So ⁓ the Brody situation is different. Like the drink bottle thing isn't something the team really feels contributed to it. Like they were they were pretty confident that Brody was going to be Secondhand at the end of that race, regardless, just because of the illness he's been carrying and carrying for a around a week from from what Todd Hazelwood said and a few other people have said. So that really was the issue there. Brody's kind of got the freedom in terms of his points position to sit that race out, because again, in this finals format, it's not, you know, as long as he's in the 10, that's all he really needs to worry about. ⁓ and you can't imagine a scenario where he's not. Whereas ⁓ for Tommy that was that was a hard hit. And we were just talking about this today as we were bobbing around Barry Springs. Like he he's kind of on that, you know, he he needs to get into the tent and he's just lost the opportunity to bank a bunch of points. So it really it really hurt for him and he still he he was pretty down today. And I and I think that's ⁓ I think he feels like he's let the team down, even though obviously there was nothing he could do about it. You know, it was a it was a it was a car failure. And obviously, like I say If you had stricter rules, then he doesn't race and he misses the points anyway, but then he wouldn't have gone through that ordeal because I spoke to him on Saturday night and he he was not well. Like that was that was a lot. I know he might be disappointed, but nothing is important as being healthy and mate. He could have gone out and passed out at the wheel or something horrendous like that. And then what happens? You know what I mean? Like well even he did the exact right thing on after qualifying by flagging with the team, Hey, this I'm not good. Something's not good here. And I and I need to go see the doctor again. So yeah. Yeah, it was a it was a very interesting situation. But again, I just can't get my head around the fact that we we came into this weekend with new rules. With a crackdown on this and we had two drivers miss miss miss a race. Yeah. ⁓ having gone through the heat exhaustion already. Not miss the race because the rules stop them from racing, miss the race because the rules didn't protect them. Yeah. ⁓ my next Shizen. And I I feel sorry for Erebus Motorsport right now. They got whacked with four penalties following a spade of infringements on Saturday, just on Saturday alone. ⁓ they finished eighteenth and twenty third, only ahead of ⁓ Ryan Wood. Those results have become became twenty second and twenty third following the addition of twenty two seconds to both their drivers' ⁓ times. ⁓ as part of a Leaving the tires out in the sun thing. Now before you say this was cheating, which is y we know you can't leave the tires out in the sun, they're in the shade, but then the sun obviously moves and the shade moves and it became sunshine. Was it clever? Maybe. But they ran twenty second and twenty third. It's it's not it's not that hasn't got ⁓ to the lead, has it? So I I get the I get the the the crackdown, but it just seems ⁓ recalcitrant given that the where they finished ⁓ that wasn't the only time they got belted on the weekend. They also got docked thirty teams championship points after ⁓ Stewart departed his pit box during the race with a wheel gun still attached. And then ⁓ rounding up the rap sheet as an additional five second penalty to Cameron Murray for ⁓ failing to leave racing room in a battle with Ryland Gray. Cameron Murray. Sorry sorry, Cooper Murray. I do that all the time, Cooper and Cameron. Sorry about that. But yeah, like ⁓ They're just getting bashed up at the moment. They're running two young blokes. I just would love and it's ⁓ like yeah, anyway, I feel I feel bad for them. So it was a shizen weekend for them. Yeah. ⁓ I don't know much about the tire thing to be honest, but they do have tire tents where the tires are meant to be. Yeah. And you can't run into a well, it suddenly got sunny inside the tie tent scenario. So I don't fully understand what what happened there. But ⁓ you know, and as the the report says it wasn't ⁓ d deliberate, but you know, there is a Yeah. They have tie tents and that's where the ties are meant to be. ⁓ for my final Shizon, and it's not the usual Darwin round, but Triple Eight had one they probably wouldn't mind forgetting. Feeney was off the pace on Friday and Saturday. Will Brown wasn't much chop either. I reckon their weekend was summed up on Sunday's race though, AVL. The team asked Brock Feeney to let Will Brown through for fourth place during the final stint for Brown to go and have a crack at Cam Waters for the final podium spot. If he didn't get it, then he was going to give it back to Brock. Unfortunately, Chaz Mostit's engine went kaput and then that meant the whole entire race finished under safety car so Feeney didn't even get his spot back, so it was just a bad weekend. Although I'm not sure the questioning of ⁓ Jamie Wincup on Sunday morning where they said how's the morale of the team? I don't think it'd be too bad. It's triple eight for God's sake, they're going okay. Yeah, mean there's plenty of teams that would take that bad weekend would be pretty happy with it. ⁓ definitely not what we expect from Triple Eight in Darwin. So I totally get your point. ⁓ but yeah, a triple eight disaster is ⁓ would still be readily accepted by by others out there. So but yeah, it was interesting. It it was always going to be a pretty interesting test, like Tazzy was, of of, you know, where where these guys are at with this Ford ⁓ product and and how on top of it they are because These are triple eight strongholds, these circuits, and ⁓ that just wasn't the case. Like it was by no means the fastest team. They were not the fastest cars. And they kind of battled through and banged some good points and it was damage limitation, basically. But you know, Brock Feeney's now only just ahead of Matt Payne in the driver's standings. ⁓ Grove Racing are ahead in the team standings. ⁓ and we'll have the the the the pit exit garage. For Townsville. So ⁓ yeah, I think there will be, given the high standards that Triple Eight sets, there'll be some pretty robust soul searching going on in the next week and a half before we go to Townsville. Yeah. All right, let's go to the shift cut because there's other news other than what happened in Darwin. ⁓ We'll start with this news that the bleeding from Victoria Motorsport hasn't stopped with the FIM Superbike World Championship. Announcing they're going to be heading to the bend from Phillip Island from 2028 on a multi-year deal. It's another blow. ⁓ obviously the Moto GP has now left for Adelaide as well. Phillip Island has staged the most world superbike races of any track in the championship's history, with seventy-six races putting it just ahead of Assin on seventy-four after this year's April visit. Australia's hosted the World Championship thirty-seven times, beginning at Oran Park in nineteen eighty-eight before moving permanently to Philip Island in nineteen ninety. I mean, Peter Malinaskis woke up and chose violence against Vic against Victoria is all I can put it down to. Yeah, I think this was probably more of a Shaheen led sort of thing, and it feels like it was partly packaged into the whole brokering, the whole ⁓ MotoGP deal and and Sam Shahin's ⁓ sort of part in that. So this was a very obvious ⁓ outcome from all of that sort of stuff. You know, I kind of I I do feel sorry for The guys at the bend sometimes because like again, they build this amazing facility that everyone says it's in the middle of nowhere and it's too windy and it's boring. ⁓ they spend tens, tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on this thing and then they've gone and and done what people with a facility like that do and lure a massive event and then just got absolutely torn up because people are sad it's leaving Phillip Island, which is a completely understandable position as well, because Phillip Island is one of the greatest. ⁓ motorcycle racing circuits on the face of the planet and it now doesn't have any world championship events left as of the end of this year. So ⁓ yeah it's a it's an interesting thing. ⁓ but it's it's just very hard to do something like that and not get the the rusted on fans offside because ⁓ there's so much more goes into funding these events and All that sort of stuff, but on the surface, any bike racing not happening at Phillip Island is just gonna be seen by the fan base as a bad thing. Yeah, I agree. even a couple of motorbike riders I spoke sp speaking to on the weekend said that even as spectators that is, they're gonna miss just that trip down to Victoria from New South Wales. Yeah. 'Cause it's just an epic ride of through two or three days, depending on how hard you go, of some cracking motor p bike tra roads. But I guess Great Ocean Road's not a bad little trip either on a motorbike, you'd imagine, if you want to go that way. So it's not all lost. ⁓ standout supercars rookie Jaden Ojada is already locked in for a second season at Premier Racing, according to Roland Dane. He confirmed that the twenty-six year old ⁓ joined the team this season on a two year deal. The twenty five year old is understood to be on a one plus one contract with the team holding an option for his services for twenty seven. ⁓ Roland said someone as good as Jaden for sure other people will be looking at him, but ultimately I hope he stays with Premier. He's certainly committed for next year. He certainly showed some turn of a turn of speed in the last sort of two rounds, AVL. and y yes, I believe that other teams would definitely be looking at him if they knew he was available. Yeah, he's ⁓ he's starting to hit his straps in his rookie season, which is awesome. ⁓ this is one of those things that it's not necessarily like nothing's changed for this to be the case. It was just It was just seeking clarification over what his arrangement is. So it's good for him to have that security and it's good for Premier to have such a promising talent on its books, given the fact that, you know, with Roland Dane at the helm, there's obviously going there's obviously you know, there's big ambitions going on there. So ⁓ yeah, it's a ⁓ it's a good thing for for all concerned. Speaking of things that haven't changed, but it's still news. Matt Payne is committed to Grove Racing for the twenty seventh supercar season. And in speculation of an early move to team eighteen. The Kiwi issued a statement confirming he'll see out his contract with the Ford squad that runs through until the end of the season. He said, and I quote, I have a contract with Grove Racing and I expect to be driving with the team in the end of to the end of twenty seven. For now, my priority is winning races, competing for the championship, and delivering the best possible results for Grove Racing, our sponsors and everyone who supports us. It's like when my dad said he was going to stay for the sake of the kids. It's look, th this was kind of ⁓ it's the sensible outcome to this whole thing. And there is a few little I don't know, there's a there's a bit of weirdness in the wording with that, like I expect to be driving and that sort of stuff. But from from what we can sort of ascertain over the weekend, this is a genuine statement of intent to see at that contract. ⁓ at as we sit here right now, ⁓ I still fully expect that he will lead the team at the end of the twenty twenty seven season. ⁓ but ⁓ I guess when your second best option is to stay at the team with the fastest race cars in the category at the moment, like life's pretty good. Yep. ⁓ in the category of just because you can doesn't mean you should. Supercars has set its sights on hosting NASCAR action on Australian soil, but it won't happen this year. Speed Cafe can ru has revealed that supercars investigated the viability of including a NASCAR demonstration as part of the Gold Coast five hundred. The plan was first hatched ahead of the twenty five event before a renewed effort to secure the coup this year. Supercar strategic advisor Shane Howard and Strategy Growth Officer Mark Pedic ⁓ recently met with NASCAR officials and teams in the United States. They'd hoped to secure a demo for the Gold Coast five hundred, initially targeting six cars with the hope of growing to twelve cars the following year, spread evenly between manufacturers. Why? Well, it'd be pretty cool. It would be a pretty cool thing to do, but obviously it's not happening it's not happening this year in any way, shape or form. And it does feel like from some of the chats we were having over the weekend that ⁓ the focus has now moved to doing something like this in Adelaide because it's just so much easier to facilitate there because it's out of the NASCAR season. Right. And it's just it's just easier to do. So ⁓ I reckon it's something we know how ambitious and open minded the SA Motorsport Board is. ⁓ so I reckon it's something they would definitely have their hands up to do. ⁓ so yeah, it it just becomes a watch this space for the ⁓ for the future. But it's not something for this year, unfortunately, because I know it'd be pretty cool. Hmm. I don't know, man. I feel like it's when it's like when they took those cars over to Malaysia, was it? For that it was just I get it, but it it just didn't feel like it was anything. It was just a just an exhibition. Kiwi's Nozzies overseas in the IndyCar qualifying for the Road America race or Mr. Underrated Marcus Armstrong qualified third. Scotty McLaughlin was sixth. Will Power 11th. Scotty Dixon was twelfth. In the race won by Christian Lug Lundard, ⁓ Marcus Armstrong was looking like a winner with ten to go before his car lunched itself. Power ran fifth, McLaughlin seventh, and the Cider Man Scott Dixon ran twelfth. Did you see any of this? Absolutely none. You've got to see some of it, man. It's great racing this year. It's honestly great. It's as good as anything around there at the moment. It's just it's unfortunate behind two paywalls and it's at four in the morning. But other than that, it's very watchable. ⁓ NASCAR, Shane Van Gisbergen, put it on poll for the street race around the naval base in San Diego in the Department of War, none from one three hundred. In the race, SVG was a victim of Austin Hill's lack of ability to drive a car taken out when Hill began a six-car pile up on the race restart. ⁓ meanwhile I don't know you saw this. In the O'Reilly Auto Parts series race on Saturday, there was carnage and chaos. The race lasted less than a lap before the caution was thrown when a manhole cover lodged itself in the front splitter of Corey Day's Hendrick Motorsports chef. After several laps under the control of the safety car, racing was stopped to inspect the circuit and make repairs. How's this but? Remarkably, when Day returned to the race, he came upon a tow truck going the opposite direction, and this happened Again today in the race where they were sending tow trucks in the opposite race direction on the track while it was still hot. ⁓ he said, Please let me know if there are any more safety trucks driving backwards on the track that I should know about. ⁓ then Sam Mayer tr triggered a pile up on lap thirty five when he clipped the inside wall. Nineteen cars were involved in that and they had to red flag the race again. That was some race. Yep. Absolutely. I don't know if you also saw there was a bloke who scaled two fences and when gave one of the drivers a fist bump ⁓ during a stoppage at one point, ⁓ which was an absolutely wild thing to do at any racetrack, let alone one on an active military base. Yeah. Very Darwin thing to do in San Diego. ⁓ he was wearing thongs too, so like yeah, just absolutely crazy. Speaking of crazy, ⁓ have you seen this in the Moto GP on the sprint race on Saturday? World Championship leader Marco Bezecchi was banned from taking place in the Grand Prix the next day in an astonishing ruling after the Sprit race. After crashing out from fifth place, Bezecchi was furious with vision showing him run towards a marshal who was helping to recover his bike before striking him twice in the face. ⁓ this is an action prejudicial to the s interest of the sport and is therefore an infringement. Any corrupt or fraudulent act or any action prejudicial to the interest of the meeting or the sport carried out by a person will be And the group of persons occurring during event will see them not race. Bazeki went then after this and went and found the marshal that he punched in the face. He gave him a cuddle to fix it all. And then, as our colleague Simon Chapman highlighted, ironically, gave him the glove that he belted him with as a gift. I'm not sure that's what you want to be doing. ⁓ just an unbelievable thing top to bottom. ⁓ there's a bit of my chin you can see if you have a look closely to that. Yeah, you can plug the tooth that you lost out of the ⁓ out of the leather. I just I'd what gas through a bloke's head to punch a marshal in the face for picking up your bike. Yeah. ⁓ meanwhile Ducati's Francesco Bagnoire took his first sprit race win on the Saturday. In the Grand Prix, Mark Marquez fended off I Agura to claim victory in the Czech Grand Prix in a race that championship leader Marco Bosecki was sitting out because he got all punch happy. ⁓ the reigning champion scored back to back Grand Prix wins now to bring his points deficit to Bezzecki down to just forty points, having been a hundred and two points away from the Italian Grand Prix last month. Don't forget Marquez sat out a race or two while he was getting double surgery. He's now fourth in the championships. He's nine ⁓ while ninth place ⁓ Jorge Martin on the in the race now closes up to Besecki to eight points. So really now there's four riders in a hunt for the championship, including Marquez, who's had double surgery on his back and his leg. Yep. Wow. Incredible. ⁓ Moto two, Senna Agius qualified fifth. He finished fourth, which was a good outcome. Moto three, Joel Kelso qualified ninth and finished eighth in a big weekend. Normally we'd put a super cheap ad here. We'll do it next week because it's just been a massive weekend and we'll do that after the break. Food credit to the noise. Yeah, welcome back to forward headline from the past weekend. I'll give you a topic. AVL, you tell me what the foreword headline is attached to them. ⁓ and we'll start with Brody Kastecki. What's your forward headline? ⁓ I touched on this a bit before, but I'll go with ⁓ finals or win for driver welfare because I do really think in this case that format gave Brody the freedom to put his health first. You know, he's in a healthy situation points wise. He can afford to drop the points that he would have scored in that race. And I really do wonder. If under the old system, if he was in a title contending position, whether he would have felt a much stricter obligation to to race. My forward headline was Hazelwood stopped eating pies because all of a sudden he's enjoying the sponsor's product and then he gets thrown into a supercar. So ⁓ what about Mark Winterbottom speaking of replacements? No, pretty fast for an old bloke. Because he was flying at parts of that race, like going really well. And I guess that just shows how important experience is and obviously incredible natural talent. ⁓ but ⁓ if it hadn't it would have been really interesting to see where he would have finished had he not had that issue in the pits there where he stalled and and couldn't get the car restarted, which is one of those kind of ⁓ I guess out of practice things, you know, when you're when you're not doing a whole bunch of racing and you haven't had the benefit of the sort of Limited but still the testing that you get when you go into the enduro. So I think he'd be pretty annoyed at himself at for the how that played out. But I would have loved to have seen where he'd actually finished had that not happened. Yeah. I just wrote I couldn't stop smiling because he just took it in the humour. Even before the race he was having a laugh at what was about to happen and then he was actually saying, I hope I haven't gone too hard on some of these blokes during this weekend up to this race. It's gonna be bad news for me. So It was just good. It was good to see. ⁓ what's your forward headline for Cam Waters? ⁓ the forgotten title contender. Because again, as we talked about at the top of the show, you suddenly go, ⁓ that's right. This guy could actually win the title. Yeah. Minus Waters Waters breaks drought, because I reckon he would have had a few of his own product at the end of it. And to break a drought like that for Tickford and and himself, of course, was a good outcome and I reckon it should have been celebrated hard, although I think he got the red eye yesterday, ⁓ which was What about Ryland Gray? Gotta beat the part timer. He just had to be he just had to be ahead of Todd yesterday. I think I sorry, on on Sunday I should say. ⁓ yeah, I I think he just had to be ahead of to Todd. I think that'll that'll be a ⁓ a bit of a disappointing outcome for for young Ryland. No, it's his rookie season. ⁓ but you would hope that the match fitness of of being full time in the championship should put you ahead of someone who's coming in Having raced over the weekend in the Transam but not racing for supercars full time, having compromises in terms of just how to, you know, do the job. ⁓ and yeah, th that that that's that it wasn't a great look for Ryland. And that's just the the pure honest take on the situation. Yeah, that's my ⁓ headline too, not the best look. ⁓ I don't know, maybe Mark Winterborough didn't go as well because he didn't get to the track to town like Hazelwood did and that might be the secret moving forward. So ⁓ what about Matty Payne? What's your forward headline? He's always there. He's just always there scoring points this year. Like it's ⁓ he's having an impressive season. I got the best number two because maybe Kai is now the number one. I don't know. ⁓ Zach Bates. ⁓ more yo yo action than a twenty twenty six F one race. A real up and down weekend for Zach. He's so fast and he and he's and he's so capable, but ⁓ Yeah, it just just up and down, inconsistent. You know, it's it's really hard to tell ⁓ in that environment, you know, whether that's ⁓ a driver issue or a team issue. probably given the fact he's a rookie, you would expect it would be a driver issue in some cases. Obviously Jack LeBrock had a pretty good weekend speed wise, but yeah, he's just bouncing around a bit, Zach. I've got him as really good at qualifying. ⁓ we just we just haven't got that racing at the moment. I'm sure it'll come because the speed is definitely there. What about your headline for Supercars T V? ⁓ dancing snowman new gold logan favourite. ⁓ my forward headline, you can't print any of the words except bad. So something, something, something bad. So ⁓ finally, the most contentious issue of the weekend. What's your forward headline for night racing in Darwin? ⁓ buy stocks in Bushman's Insect Repellent. 'Cause it's gonna be an absolute mosquito and midgy fest out there. I can tell you that right now. It's bad enough during the day. Mine is don't listen to drunk journos. ⁓ do it. Put it on. Don't worry about blokes who need to go to the pub. They can go to the pub anyway. Watch it from the pub for all we care. Do what you gotta do. It's tempting sometimes. I see you doing the ⁓ the Sydney race from the East and Creek Tavern once so No you did. No I didn't. I was in the pokey's room. I wasn't watching the race. Got the pyramids, got the pyramids, yem yeti. All right, we'll go to a break and we'll come back with rear of grid. Full credit to the noise. Yeah, welcome back to Rear of Grid. ⁓ I tell you where was busy over the weekend. Thank Christ there wasn't Formula One on because my fingers couldn't keep up with the typing that was happening in that Discord. Yeah, fun Discord weekend, actually. Very, really fun we ⁓ weekend. And I felt like there was more people than ever in the Darwin Triple Crown ⁓ channel. Like that was just going going all day. So ⁓ yeah, it was a really fun weekend on the Discord. And my spice tell me there's a sneaky ⁓ person in there with good Contacts, just put it that way. Yeah. Who's the I think I know who you're talking about. It's getting anagon. Yeah. Yeah, he's got contacts, all right. Yeah. Usually yeah, no, I won't say that. All right. Credit or shredded. ⁓ I'll make a state, but you just tell me whether you agree or disagree with a credit or a shredder. We'll come back after we've done all six. Number one swerving left and right to warm your tires after you leave pits should be banned and made illegal in all motorsport. ⁓ shreddit. Nah, credit. ⁓ number two. Somehow the T V coverage need to use both Richard Crail and Matt Nolte for each round. That's from Tobes in our Discord. ⁓ credit. Credit if they can. Number three, Anton Di Pasquely is an A grade driver. Credit. Credit. Number four. Supercars should have green and white checkers a la NASCAR. Credit. Credit. Number five from Cheerdog. Groves should relax with the pain retention work and put the effort into making sure Allen is still with them in twenty thirty four. ⁓ yeah, credit. Credit. number six, that was five, that was by the way. Number six, Mark Scafe should take credit for motivating team eighteen to win on the weekend by attacking them on Motorsport one hundred eighty couple of weeks ago. ⁓ yeah, credit. Sure. Credit. All right, we'll go back. Swerving left and right. I I've seen this in Formula One, I've seen it in Indy, and I've seen it in ⁓ supercars, and for the life of me, I don't think it should be allowed. First of all, isn't it proven that it doesn't actually do much? ⁓ no, it definitely does do something. And I think you do need to give drivers the opportunity in in non ⁓ tire blanket categories to to try and get some heat into the tires. So obviously there was a bit of fuss. Around waters and and Matt Payne and that sort of stuff, but it's not actually a ⁓ a regular sort of issue. Yep. I don't know. I see it in Formula One and I think why is that allowed just because you've come out of pits. ⁓ the T V courage needs a needs both Crayle and Nulty. I mean if it's possible, Avi, I'll be Madnell did a big week ha did a big big job on the weekend. But it will happen. Like like Knultz's You it lets let's ⁓ let's say that they say to Richard, right, you're now the lead caller for supercars, and old's is still going to play a big role in the broadcast through support categories and this and that. And yeah, it's ⁓ all of these guys will be utilized in in some way, shape, or form. And I think we have got a pretty good lens now on on what their strengths are and it's all pretty exciting to be honest. I agree. I totally agree, mate, and I think it's it's been a really good revelation. It's fresh and it's new and it sounds good. Especially with Crayle and Nolte. There's it's a split air between the two of ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ Anton is an A grade driver. I think I think on the weekend we've seen that if he's not, he's geez is is a Mickey hair from it. It's ⁓ no, I think he definitely is. I think we need to see more of it. But I think Anton at his absolute best is ⁓ is absolutely fantastic. I had changed that one because I did say Anton D. Pasquale is too nice to be a number one driver in a team, but I changed it. ⁓ Green and white checkers. I think everyone was calling for that on on Sunday afternoon. Yeah, it's one of those things that sounds incredibly more simple than it is to implement, but fundamentally as a statement, yes, we should have it. Grow should relax about trying to keep pain and worry about Alan. Well, I think they pretty much have given up on paying after anyway, so they may as well concentrate on Alan. Well, and they've locked ⁓ Kai into a long term deal, so I said credit 'cause this is effectively Exactly what's happened. And Mark Scott should take the credit for motivating Team 18. Yeah, Charlie Charlie was ⁓ there was an aure of Schadenfreuder around Charlie ⁓ yesterday afternoon, let me tell you that. He was ⁓ he was I interviewed him after the race and I didn't say anything about Scapy or anything like that, and straight away that was the first name that came out of his mouth. He was ⁓ he was pretty keen to ⁓ to clap back at those ⁓ those comments from Mark. So ⁓ Making the use of his time in the sun there, ⁓ Charlie, and you love to see it. Knowing Scopey you'll invoice him for it, so they might want to check their mail. All right now, whisperer of the week. I didn't know where to put this in. We'll talk about it after. I think I know where this is going. Which high profile manager or upper manager of a team was spotted late on Saturday night supporting local Darwin artists, namely local dancers, AVL. I wouldn't know anything. I wouldn't have a clue. got two letters of the week. I've got a short one and a long one. This is the short one. ⁓ I'd love to know what you think about this. This is from Chris Gray. Should Ferrari focus on Hamilton's season as he has had an opportunity to win ⁓ the championship and make Charles the second driver for the year? They're not gonna do that. No, they're not. No, they're not. They risk Charles. Looking at every way out of his contract if they did that. Well, we have a fighter jet by the way. Can you hear that? Yeah, I could hear it, mate. Yeah, great. All right, leave that in. Yep. ⁓ and our second letter comes from Discord. It comes from a guy named J B and he says, question of the week, and he's written an essay, so stick with me. Is switching to Ford the worst strategic decision in triple eight history? He says the cont competitive advantage has evaporated. ⁓ they were the lead Chev team. They're now no longer the lead Ford team. ⁓ They're now building the best car for their competitors. Under Chevrolet Triple Eight's work often flowed disproportionately to their own benefit. Under Ford, every gain they make is an hob homologation and development potentially strengthens multiple front-running rivals. ⁓ other negatives for it, loss of customer team data. ⁓ the financial argument may not stack up. Ford was reportedly lucrative, but Triple Eight has also lost customer supply revenue. And finally, Ford needed Triple Eight more than Triple Eight needed Ford. Now the case to say that they should have come to Ford was Ford reportedly offered substantial factory backing. Triple eight now has direct influence over the largest manufacturer fan base in supercars. The move may future proof the business if GM's commitment to supercars weakens. It's still early. Championships ultimately determine whether the decision was right. What do you reckon? Was it a good move or a bad move at this point, from what we can tell? The issue with the argument is that it's impossible to tell beyond on track results because we don't understand exactly what the business case for it is. What I will say, like I I I certainly think in terms of on track performance, I think the transition is proving tougher than anyone expected. And I would reckon in their quieter moments Triple Eight would also be thinking this is harder than we thought it was going to be. Yep. ⁓ but I d have no doubt the business case does stack up. Just fine. ⁓ and you gotta think about the ownership group there. Obviously, we kind of see Jamie Wink up as the figurehead, and he has this incredible motorsport background and he's the managing director of the business, but you've got ⁓ an ownership group that as well as Jamie Wink Up includes Tony Quinn, Earl Evans, and Steve Blackmore, right? Like three very, very successful and clever business people. So, you know, in terms of You know, what was the exact wording of this? Is it was it a str the worst strategic decision? ⁓ I doubt it. No. I doubt it. I bet it's making sense in a whole bunch of ways. And they will ultimately find the on track performance. Like it's you'd be nuts to bet against them doing that. ⁓ so I don't think that's a long term issue. I think ⁓ I think over time they're gonna win championships. Like you're not gonna sit there and go, you know, these guys are ⁓ are are never gonna be able to beat Groves or or DJR or Tickford or whatever. Of course they definitely are going to do that. There's every chance Brock walks away with a big trophy at the end of this season. ⁓ but ⁓ in terms of a strat ⁓ a wider business strategy, I'm gonna guess there's a whole bunch of reasons why it makes a lot of sense because otherwise you wouldn't have had you know, very wealthy and wealthy because of their business success, people like T Q, Earl and Steve going, let's go and do this thing. So ⁓ Yeah, it it's it's impossible to speak to exactly what they all are because unless you're a board member or, you know, par like you're part of the inner sanctum, you'd never know. But it'll make sense. I'd be amazed if it doesn't. I was gonna say there's no way a bloke named Formal Legend is gonna be questioned the business acumen of those blokes. So if they say you didn't join you didn't join the chairman's club for ⁓ for at twenty five ⁓ twenty five grand a year on a three year commitment? Nah, missed out on that opportunity, unfortunately. ⁓ yeah, ⁓ had to put petrol in the car. ⁓ and the other thing too is which I think JB actually touched on, is that the longevity of Chev being in the sport is always going to be not concreted down, put it that way. Whereas I think Ford will at least be the last man standing. So I think coming Well, you don't you actually don't know that. It takes one management change. Ford's incredibly well protected at the moment. ⁓ by the fact that Jim Farley, the global CEO, just loves motorsport. And Pete's does it like loves it. But, you know, it doesn't take much to change. It wasn't that long ago Ford weren't putting any money into it. Yeah. Like in twenty seventeen they weren't putting any money into it. So things do change very quickly. So you can never bank on that in any way because it just takes one change of leadership and someone who has a different lens on on what they think is effective marketing and effective spend. ⁓ so I I wouldn't worry about that too much. I I don't think that's a major issue. But certainly at the moment, Ford is the brand globally that is just going absolutely nuts on spending money on motorsport. Yep. All right, mate. That'll about do us for this episode of Full Credit of the Noise. Don't forget you can find the show on all the socials at FCTN Podcast. You read ABL's Excellentwork at speedcafe.com where they do break all the big motorsport news first. Until next time, I've been Former Legend. He's been Avi Earl. This has been Full Crow the Noise and we'll see you out on airstrip number three at Darwin in about ten minutes time. That's you, I'm going to the sailing club. Are you? Yep, sure am. See you there. Alright, well let's go there. We'll see you there.