Latest / Rusty's Garage / Fabian Coulthard (Part 1)

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Fabian Coulthard (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:18
I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
0:29
I first started talking to today's guest about coming on back in May 2019.
0:34
We were driving around the Gold Coast at the time in a Mustang on a video content shoot, shooting the breeze, as they say.
0:42
Fabian Coulthard has the same famous surname as former F1 star David Coulthard, his second cousin.
0:50
Fabs has definitely not ridden the coattails though and has walked his own road.
0:55
He's spent nearly two decades now in the supercars paddock and driven some cool cars along the way.
1:01
He was even teammate for a time in his early days to the great Sir Lewis Hamilton, well before Lewis's seven F1 world titles and the knighthood.
1:12
You'll enjoy his recollections of that chapter.
1:15
There have been highs and lows in Fabian's career, and while we cover plenty of miles, we don't tackle everything.
1:23
This is a conversation.
1:24
It's not a current affair.
1:26
Enough has been written about some things, and I kind of sense that he's respectfully drawn a line in the sand about others.
1:34
I've always maintained this is about our guests.
1:38
In their own words, we don't really edit the podcasts and we respect that it is their say.
1:44
We do, however, in this one, tackle a number of your questions.
1:48
So to those of you who have sent them in, a big thank you.
1:51
That's later.
1:52
I'm at home for this chat.
1:53
He's in our Gold Coast studio.
1:55
I wish we were face-to-face for the conversation.
1:59
Life for fabs and the fab pack began halfway round the world and settled on the other side of the ditch.
2:07
Born in England, raised in New Zealand, now reside in Australia.
2:10
So I'm quite the mixed bag, you know, growing up in New Zealand.
2:14
Moved there when, moved to New Zealand from England when I was 11 months old.
2:17
So I regard myself as a Kiwi.
2:20
But, you know, they're just the simple things, you know, like went to school there.
2:23
You know, I always wanted to be a racing driver.
2:26
My fifth birthday, dad really wanted to get me into go-karts.
2:30
Mum was not real keen.
2:31
I wasn't very good with left and right, so I started when I was six.
2:33
So my sixth birthday, a go-kart rocked up, and yeah, it's all history from there.
2:38
You're obsessed, I guess, with cars and racing as a kid.
2:42
Were those early influences from your dad?
2:45
Because I sense he has a passion for it.
2:47
I've always sensed that in him.
2:48
That bug clearly rubbed off, didn't it?
2:51
Yeah, absolutely.
2:52
And I guess the best thing...
2:54
you know, that I look upon, you know, from, you know, my younger days that it was, I was never pressured and, uh,
3:01
A go-kart rocked up and, like I said, there was an opportunity for me then to go go-kart racing.
3:08
Dad said, look, this is what I always wanted to do.
3:10
I was never in a position to be able to do it.
3:13
Would you like to do it?
3:14
It sort of all progressed from there.
3:15
It started off from going around a Glenfield shopping mall car park at 5 a.m. on my birthday morning.
3:26
I ended up crashing into the kerb.
3:29
So a bit of a back story is my cart rocked up.
3:32
I was still probably half asleep.
3:33
I was putting around and dad said, look, if you're going to carry on going that slow, we'll probably sell it.
3:39
You know?
3:40
So I was like, okay.
3:41
So I was just from then on pedal to the metal and it was an oval.
3:46
And, you know, obviously with speed, you know, you get wider and wider and wider.
3:50
And I eventually slapped the curb and nearly went through a, you know, an automatic door.
3:55
So...
3:55
From then on, mum's like, oh, you're going to kill our son and we probably should go to a racetrack next time.
4:03
The next weekend we went to a racetrack and it was myself, Scott Dixon and Jodie Vincent.
4:09
We all started on the same day.
4:10
Fantastic.
4:11
Looking around going, how good is this?
4:13
I'm driving a go-kart.
4:15
Next minute I look up and there's a bank in front of me and I'll flip the card into the bank.
4:18
And mum's definitely very anti us going racing from that point.
4:23
You know, we've got a six-year-old child that's probably not going to see a seventh birthday if he carries on the way he's going.
4:28
So then dad put in a rule.
4:30
He said, look, you know, I think we're probably getting into this a little bit too deep, too quick.
4:34
And he made me do 500 laps of this Mount Wellington go-kart track before I was actually allowed to do a race.
4:42
And I think it took, you know, four or five weekends to do these 500 laps.
4:45
A lot of guys, you know, I think Greg Murphy's got an old historic cart.
4:49
Craig Beard's restored one as well.
4:51
Some people have actually tracked down their originals.
4:53
I think maybe Scott McLaughlin or one of them.
4:57
What was that first go-kart?
4:58
What kind of chassis?
4:59
What became of that cart?
5:02
It was loud as, I'll never forget that, and it had like this little tea bucket seat.
5:05
It was uncomfortable as hell, but it was a no-name.
5:07
It was just a home-built, homemade chassis.
5:11
I think it was $500 or $600 from one of Dad's mates that lived a little bit further south than us in Auckland, and yeah, I have no idea where it is.
5:22
But yeah, it's what got me started and got me into it.
5:25
There's success there on the CV in karting.
5:27
When did it kind of click for you from some of those hair-raising moments for your poor mum that you've just rattled off there?
5:32
But when did it become natural that you would go fast and this was what you wanted to do?
5:40
Well, I think mainly, you know, it starts off as a hobby.
5:44
You get a little bit of success and it progresses from there.
5:47
And, you know, it was always fun.
5:49
I always enjoyed it.
5:51
And, you know, I continue to enjoy it to this day.
5:54
But for it to switch over from, you know, a hobby and then, you know, to progress on to other categories, I guess, it's sort of the next rung in the ladder.
6:04
You never really know if you're going to become a professional athlete.
6:07
at it, you know, that's definitely the dream to become a professional racing driver.
6:11
But will it happen?
6:13
You have some success in go-karts.
6:14
You win go-kart championships.
6:17
You move up through the ranks.
6:18
You continue to win.
6:19
And then you progress that way.
6:21
And you get to a point where you've done everything you can achieve in go-karts.
6:25
And, you know, the next step was I did a Formula V scholarship when I was 12.
6:30
I practiced to drive in mum's manual RX-7 around the local sporting complex.
6:36
Dad taught me how to do a start just in case I needed it on the initiation process.
6:41
And then, yeah, so I finished second in the Formula V scholarship and won the Formula Ford scholarship a year later.
6:50
And then, yeah, progressed on to racing Formula Ford.
6:53
So you have success in that and then so on and so forth.
6:55
So, yeah, it's obviously an expensive sport.
6:59
You know, you have to have support.
7:00
And, you know, I never really applied myself in any other sport away from go-karting.
7:06
I didn't feel like it was right on the team to do all the training and, you know, do all the lead up and then be away on the weekends.
7:12
It was, you know, letting a team down.
7:14
So, you know, my sole focus was go-karts and that was it.
7:19
Did that mean that teachers every once in a while had to say, hey, you know, Fabs, you've got to pick up your grades here?
7:24
And the background too, mate, we probably should shed a little bit of light on that.
7:28
I think your mum was a hairdresser, wasn't she?
7:30
And what did your dad do?
7:31
We should, you know, make clear it was very sort of humble beginnings.
7:35
It wasn't like an open checkbook, was it?
7:36
Far from it.
7:37
So yeah, my mum was eventually a hairdresser from home.
7:41
She used to have a hairdressing salon in the city and brought it to home.
7:46
I used to remember being in my pram while mum was cutting hair at the salon.
7:53
I was quite a big kid.
7:53
I've been a big kid, tall kid since I was knee high to a grasshopper.
7:57
They'd always ask me, why aren't you at school?
8:00
And I'm like, well, I'm only four.
8:02
I was hanging out with mum, watching her cut hair and things like that.
8:04
Dad was a toolmaker by trade, so...
8:07
He was always in the garage, you know, working on go-karts, working on engines and things like that.
8:11
And then, you know, when he wasn't at home, he was at work.
8:13
So definitely haven't come from, you know, a lot of financial backing.
8:17
It's been, you know, it's been a tough old slog.
8:19
But, you know, we've been able to create this family sport, you know, do it as a family and, you know, I guess live the dream through me, so to speak.
8:29
You've mentioned the RX-7 that you got to do a little bit of learning on there.
8:32
What model RX-7 was that?
8:33
And what was your first car?
8:35
Did Fabian Coulthard get his licence first go?
8:38
I was, it was a Series 1 RX-7.
8:41
I learned to drive in that when I was, you know, 12 or 13.
8:45
Mum might have come to a school camp and I might have been doing some circle work in the car park.
8:49
the story for another day, but I was king of the kids back then.
8:53
But yeah, and then for me, I got my license when I was 15, learner's license, typical racing driver fashion, you know it all, you don't need to study, and it was multi-choice and I failed, I was devastated.
9:09
I didn't have enough dignity to go back for probably another six months, which kind of worked in my favor, because all my mates had their license and they took me everywhere, so it was...
9:17
So I was like chauffeur driven around everywhere.
9:19
Couldn't drive anyone.
9:22
And then, yeah, I went back, got my license, got my restricted license.
9:25
I got in trouble for not having two hands on the steering wheel.
9:28
I had one on the gear stick, one on the steering wheel.
9:30
So I got a slap over the wrist for that.
9:31
Would it be fair to say then that a significant step in that journey was winning the 0-1-0-2 New Zealand Formula Ford title and then you'd go to Australia and race at the Grand Prix, for example.
9:41
Is this the point where you're starting to think, okay, from a career standpoint, that's my sole objective?
9:48
Oh, 100%.
9:49
And for us, our championship run over Christmas.
9:52
So it was a distraction, so to speak, to come away and race at the Australian Grand Prix and Formula Ford.
9:58
But
9:59
um you know i think that was it was an instrumental part to me you know first of all getting my name out there in australia you know winning two of the three races um and then also from a financial standpoint and backing and support to then getting me to to the next part of my career and you know at the time you know i was just all about winning the alan jones trophy no one had won it outside of australia and i'm the first and only person to do so so that's you know a pretty cool stat in
10:29
You know, a key moment was me sitting on the starting grid on that last race at the Grand Prix.
10:39
And, you know, there was a gentleman...
10:42
that went over the pit wall at Formula One and just sort of hung his head out and waved to me.
10:48
And I was like, that's weird, but I'll do the right thing and wave back and thought nothing of it.
10:53
And then went on and won that race.
10:56
And afterwards, the same guy come up to me and he goes, well, you don't probably know me or recognize me, but that was a test.
11:03
And I'm like, a test for what?
11:05
And he's like, well...
11:07
I want to, you know, get in behind and support someone and, you know, being New Zealander, I'm a New Zealander and, you know, I want to be able to be instrumental in this person's career to get them to the next part.
11:18
And, you know, like we touched on earlier, I didn't come from a wealthy family, so I needed all the support I could get to, you know, go to England and progress.
11:25
And, yeah, so that was a pretty unique experience, you know.
11:29
pretty unbelievable that it stemmed from a wave.
11:33
Yeah, it's all history.
11:35
But yeah, I still speak to this person weekly and he's played a huge part of my career.
11:42
Do you want to share their name while we're here?
11:44
I prefer not to.
11:44
Okay.
11:45
He's kind of been a silent guy that's been there in the background and looked after me throughout my career.
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And it's probably something I've never really touched on.
11:53
So it's special to me.
11:55
It's special to my family.
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And without this person, I wouldn't be where I am today.
11:59
I love the fact that you brought up the Alan Jones trophy too, mate.
12:02
Before we move on here, I got to share the desk with him in a broadcasting sense, covering Formula One for many years.
12:07
I mean, 1980 world champion.
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He was a tough guy.
12:11
You know, to significantly win that at Albert Park, that's, I would imagine, a very cool one in the trophies you've got.
12:17
Yeah, absolutely.
12:18
You know, that's back in New Zealand.
12:20
Yeah, it's a cool trophy.
12:21
And, you know, Albert Park's been one of those tracks that's been very kind to me.
12:25
You know, big Carrera Cup, you know, supercars, Formula Ford.
12:28
So, yeah, to have my name, you know, against that trophy is pretty special.
12:34
The international chapter is the focus and it sort of beckons at this point.
12:38
But just in joining some dots here, Fabs, did you sample a supercar around this point?
12:44
I think you flew with Larry Perkins and Russell Ingle to Winton somewhere about this point.
12:48
Is that right?
12:49
And what are your recollections of that?
12:50
Yeah.
12:50
Yeah, that's 100% correct.
12:53
You know, it was the Castrol Commodore and, you know, LP said, look, you know, I've got a test day at Winton.
13:02
Russell's coming along.
13:04
I want you to come along.
13:04
So I got picked up in...
13:06
I think I met at Moorabbin and then we got collected from the airfield and taken to the racetrack.
13:11
So it was my first ever time in a supercar.
13:14
It was a fair culture shock for me, you know, coming out of Formula Ford where the visibility is amazing.
13:20
You hop in a supercar where it's quite...
13:23
closed in.
13:24
You had the Larry bar at that time.
13:26
So the visibility, you're always trying to look around this bar that's completely in front of you.
13:30
But I think the biggest thing that surprised me was how sensitive the throttle was, how quickly the engine would rev, with how light the flywheels and things like that were.
13:41
but yeah, it's just super responsive.
13:43
You've come out of a 1600 Formula Ford into a V8 5-litre supercar, which is an animal compared to what I'm used to.
13:51
Yeah.
13:51
It was a great experience.
13:54
Larry was pretty keen to sign me up and to do something moving forward, but I said to Larry, I said, my dream, unfortunately at the moment, is not supercars.
14:04
And I was at the point where I was negotiating deals to go to –
14:09
England to race Formula Reno.
14:10
And, you know, that was primarily my focus because my childhood dream was always to race in Formula One, which, um, so I wanted to at least go and have a try, uh, try my luck at, um, you know, potentially, you know, having a crack and, and, and fulfilling that dream.
14:24
But I think if I was to, you know, just commit and say, yep, I'm happy with supercars, I would always be wondering and thinking, what if I flew off to England?
14:33
Um, I think I was 17 at the
14:35
It was the next step at the time, you know, coming out of Formula Ford, you know, we didn't have a wings and slicks category to, to practice, I guess, so to speak, when you're, um, you're going over to try and, you know, cut your teeth against the best over in Europe.
14:50
Um, so that's probably one thing that's made my journey a little bit tougher.
14:54
Um, you know, I had Formula Holden at the time, but that wasn't something that I had sunk my teeth in yet.
14:59
Um, so yeah, it's just, uh, one of those things.
15:02
I reckon Larry would have respected that too, mate, knowing what he'd done overseas himself in single-seaters and so on.
15:08
He tended to seek out people that had a bit of that background, you know, that wanted to do that.
15:14
This was a significant step up in budget terms too, mate.
15:17
I mean, you talked about your teenage years and living away from home and things like that.
15:22
And the New Zealand dollar to pounds back then would have probably been like three to one or something, I think you said recently.
15:28
And what was the budget like to go and pursue this?
15:31
give or take, you know, sort of 150, 145,000 pounds.
15:35
So it was sort of fundraising close to a million dollars to go and race over in England.
15:42
You know, we weighed up both options and, you know, there was the option to go via America.
15:47
But I thought that, you know, I thought that was a harder way to get to Formula One.
15:52
You never really saw many people come from IndyCar and get to Formula One or Indy Lights and go to Formula One.
15:57
They would always go Formula Renault F3 or F3 to F1.
16:01
And that's why I chose to go, you know, that path.
16:04
It's probably a tougher route to go that way.
16:08
You know, obviously there's – when you're racing people from England,
16:12
you know, their parents or their family earns the pound.
16:14
So,
16:15
you know, 145,000 pounds, don't get me wrong, is a lot of money.
16:18
When our New Zealand dollar was so poor, to go over there and try and fundraise that amount of money is hard work.
16:25
And it's a lot of money.
16:26
So yeah, it's just the way it goes.
16:29
I'm glad that I went over and raced in Europe and did what I did and achieved what I achieved because I felt like I learned a lot.
16:36
You know, the overall outcome, I feel like if I had another year, then, you know, life could probably be a little bit different.
16:43
But
16:43
You know, at the time, that's the things you evaluate.
16:46
We said we get to a point which we draw a line in the sand if it's heading in the right direction.
16:50
Yes, and then if not, then we shut it down and come home.
16:53
So...
16:54
We did the latter.
16:55
And then, yeah, we got an opportunity to drive for Greg Murphy Racing.
16:59
And I'm sure that's the next chapter.
17:02
Before we go there, can we just touch on a couple of little things?
17:05
Manor Motorsport, you are teammate to Lewis Hamilton, now one of the greatest of all time, seven-time F1 world champion, 100 wins.
17:15
When did you guys first meet?
17:16
And was it immediately clear to you that he was special?
17:19
Or was it just another sort of mate trying to make his way?
17:26
I think definitely he was...
17:29
How do you put it?
17:30
He definitely had his career mapped out.
17:34
Yes, it was mapped out, but he still had to perform.
17:37
So it's not like it's just been handed to him.
17:39
He's had to earn it.
17:41
There was a time there where it was sort of GP2, where he sort of went against the grain a little bit and still got to Formula 1, and that was his call.
17:50
And it turned out to be the right one.
17:53
So he's been very fortunate in being successful.
17:57
He's delivered when he's needed to deliver.
17:59
And, yeah, Lewis is a freak, you know, and I think you can see from the performance that he's had and everything he's ever driven that, you know, he's naturally gifted.
18:10
And, you know, he was a great bloke back then.
18:12
You know, we used to hang out all the time, obviously, because we were teammates.
18:16
He picked me up in his silver Mini Cooper with 50 Cent in the club cranking.
18:21
You know, he was just a mate.
18:24
Obviously, things have changed since then.
18:25
You know, I'm on the other side of the world.
18:27
It's, you know, tough to...
18:29
um keep in contact and you know he's on the road so much and things like that so we i haven't you know i'll be honest i haven't kept in contact but you know those odd times that he's at the grand prix and things like that we've crossed paths and you know i've had a little bit of time to to catch up but um yeah his schedule's manic um and uh yeah like i say i haven't caught up as much as i probably would have liked but you know he's a busy man
18:50
You obviously got to drive and race at some, you know, some famous British tracks.
18:54
And while you're walking this path, Fabs, were there Aussie or Kiwi mentors that had perhaps tried to do this or done it before you that were offering some advice, maybe even just in a little mentoring way?
19:07
That's years ago now.
19:08
I'd have to really back my brain.
19:10
But there was some familiar names I'd raced.
19:13
Marcus Marshall.
19:15
Will was there.
19:16
Will Davison.
19:18
JC was over there with racing Formula 3.
19:21
So there was names and people that I'd associated with in the past which were over there, which it's like anything.
19:27
You're kind of...
19:29
keep your network going that way and gravitate to people that you know.
19:33
And, you know, I saw Will a little bit, Marcus a little bit.
19:37
Didn't see JC too much, but, you know, if I saw him at the track, we'd say g'day, but that was sort of the level there.
19:42
But to go on and to do there, to race there and things like that, was a lot of fun.
19:48
But I wouldn't say there was, you know, someone that mentored me while I was there or I looked up to or anything like that.
19:56
I think you just gravitate to local names that you know.
19:59
What about the favourite British track, the one that you still think about now and go, yeah, right, I really enjoyed driving around that place?
20:05
And tell us a little bit about the Formula Renault too.
20:07
They were a pretty cool thing.
20:08
Was it a Tata chassis, two-litre power plant, things like that?
20:11
Yeah, 100%.
20:12
So it was probably...
20:15
over-tired for the level of grip you had, so you had to be very smooth.
20:18
Obviously, similar to, you know, like a Carrera Cup type setup where all the cars are very similar, and it comes down to, you know, setup, understanding, and driving ability.
20:28
Qualifying's, you know, massively important like it is at any form in racing.
20:35
The car itself wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible.
20:39
You know, it was a little bit unique to drive.
20:42
but a lot of fun, you know, an open wheeler, wings of slicks.
20:45
It was a little bit tough in the first part as...
20:49
You know, the faster you go, the more grip you have.
20:51
You try and tell your brain that, you know, if you hold it flat for longer, it's going to be better.
20:54
You know, you just have to overcome that in the early days.
20:57
But other than that, it was a good series.
21:00
I really enjoyed being over there.
21:01
You know, I had great teammates.
21:02
You know, Paul Diresta, Lewis, Sergio Jimenez from Brazil.
21:07
There's lots of cool things that we were able to talk about.
21:10
You know, you eat, sleep, and breathe racing when you're over there.
21:14
Very similar to what you do now.
21:15
But, yeah, it's all good fun.
21:18
Chad Nalon, my colleague, did a really cool vid with you recently that I love, mate, for supercars.
21:24
You've touched on it a little bit here.
21:26
Was the difficult decision when it came to a point where you perhaps just couldn't keep tipping or throwing money at it?
21:32
How difficult was that to call time and change tact on the grand plan, the dream?
21:38
It's tough because as a driver, you always have an element of self-belief that you can do it, you can get there.
21:43
So it was hard, but, you know, I hate to use this word, but the fallback plan was always supercars, you know.
21:50
I always knew that there would be a...
21:53
position or an opportunity for me to then, you know, still become a professional driver.
21:57
Yeah, it might not have been my chosen profession.
22:01
But when you get to the point and you've drawn that line in the sand and you say, no, my focus is now not this, it's now supercars, then I think your mentality changes.
22:10
And we re-evaluated how we were going to get to supercars from, you know, coming back from England.
22:15
And, you know, there was a driver evaluation day at Greg Murphy Racing at Winton and, you
22:22
I ended up winning that and that gave me an opportunity to race Carrera Cup and no better person to drive for than Greg.
22:29
Greg was always older than me and in slightly different classes, but always had a huge amount of success.
22:35
And obviously he went on to drive for HRT in the glory days with the Mobile One backed
22:43
you know, Commodores and, you know, that was something that I was like, yeah, that's pretty cool.
22:47
You know, I could see myself doing that, but I needed to get to that point and the switch needed to be flicked that, yeah, I'm not doing that dream anymore.
22:54
My focus has now changed to supercars.
22:56
And yeah, so I said, we evaluated Carrera Cup or the development series or Conacher or whatever it was called at the time, now Super 2.
23:05
But it didn't race at all the tracks.
23:07
And, you know, I hadn't done any other racing apart from the Grand Prix in Formula Ford.
23:11
So I needed an opportunity to learn the tracks but also showcase what I could do in a Carrera Cup car to then be recognized or noticed to then drive supercars.
23:22
So the first year I finished third, won the Rookie of the Year, the Drive to Europe, which gave me an opportunity to race Super Cup at Silverstone.
23:33
next to Peter Dunbrek and the other VIP car.
23:35
And then I won the championship the following year.
23:39
And another funny little story how that came about is Siramay Wines was on the bonnet of the Carrera Cup car, which sponsored Alan Gurr, which is obviously Paul Morris, Terry Morris,
23:52
um and after winning the career cup championship in 2005 i think it was like the 12th of december or something that year um paul says i want you to come and test my supercar so i tested the supercar with um with paul and you know he was happy with what i did and you know offered me something you know that night and said look you know can we um come to a agreement or do a deal and
24:17
And you race a supercar for me.
24:19
But that whole program changed a little bit because we were going to do development series, two cars, me and Alan Gurr, then swapped on the really close to the start of the year.
24:34
And he says, oh, we're not going to do that anymore.
24:36
You and Alan are going to share a car.
24:37
I think this was obviously in 2006.
24:39
So Alan would do a round.
24:42
I'd be Alan's tire guy.
24:44
And then...
24:45
Alan would be my tire guy, then I would do a round.
24:48
And it sort of just swung in roundabouts, you know, alternate rounds and things like that.
24:52
So it was probably a good way of doing it because we got the best experience we could against all the current supercar guys.
24:59
And yeah, that's sort of how my supercars career kicked off.
25:14
If I'm ever stuck for hours doing laps around a shopping centre looking for a car park, I'll just say I'm practising like Fabian did when he was a kid.
25:23
Your first Bathurst 1000, if I'm not wrong, just correct me if I'm here, was actually with the late Jase Richards at Tasman in 04, is that right?
25:30
And did that really, you know, to go to the Great Race and, you know, even for Kiwis that grow up on the other side of the ditch, I mean, it's still a huge thing over there, isn't it?
25:41
Yeah, absolutely.
25:43
And, you know, that was, you know, a moment in my career that, you know, JR was always, you know, an idol of mine.
25:50
You know, when we went to the race in New Zealand called the Sunbelts, we'd go and stay with Jason.
25:56
And if he ever come to Auckland, he'd come and stay with us.
25:59
So to drive with JR at Bathurst was, you know, it was a dream come true for me.
26:05
I was fortunate enough.
26:07
at Tasman Motorsport to do a round before Bathurst at Oran Park in 2004 to give me a bit of an insight to what it's like.
26:16
We did the Sandown 500, then you got the opportunity to do Bathurst after that.
26:21
It was the Inner Circle rum car.
26:23
Yeah, it's pretty surreal to be racing with your mate around Bathurst.
26:30
Ironically, a year later, you'd pair up with Tony Delberto for the first time.
26:33
Good partnership that kind of got cemented later on.
26:38
Now, he's been very good to me with a little bit of dirt for our chat here.
26:42
He says, you have incredible eye for detail that I've noticed before anyway.
26:47
And he recalls a story later in your time working together regarding colour-coded lap belts.
26:55
Yeah.
26:55
And his needed to be a different size to yours to fit his little seat insert and so on.
27:00
And I think he tried to change it up one year and you knew straight away that it had changed.
27:05
Is that right?
27:06
I have pretty good OCD and attention to detail.
27:09
And he did try it on.
27:11
He also was a bandit to try and move my throttle pedal.
27:15
In what way?
27:16
In what way?
27:17
Probably closer to him to suit him better.
27:20
Straight away I noticed that as well and he's like, man, I can't get anything past you.
27:23
So hopefully he has a bit more luck with Anton now.
27:26
So they're a similar height.
27:29
But, yeah, it was ironic that both TD and I did our Bathurst together.
27:35
That was in Jamie's car when he was at Tasman Motorsport because that was when you're able to pair your two main drivers in 2005 and then me and TD took over Jamie's car and –
27:47
Yeah, ironic that, you know, many years later we would do so many years together.
27:52
I think we did five years together at DJR Team Penske.
27:55
And, yeah, if I had my way, I would have had them again this year.
27:59
TD says you don't drink a lot in your stints either.
28:03
And he's a bit the opposite, I think, isn't he?
28:05
Did you...
28:06
Did something happen?
28:07
I mean, he may have caused it to leak or something on one occasion, went all over you.
28:12
Is that when you hated that?
28:13
One occasion every time he hopped in it.
28:15
The way it works, I prefer to drink out of the car.
28:18
I don't like that swishing around water feeling.
28:21
You know, when you're turning corners, you can feel the water moving in your stomach, whereas TD, I carry it around for ballast where TD actually uses it and drinks it.
28:29
But I think the moment TD pushes the drink button,
28:33
it undoes the dry brakes and then it just continuously drips and leaks all over me.
28:37
So that's something I've got used to.
28:39
I used to complain about it a lot, but...
28:42
Yeah.
28:42
Cool.
28:42
I want to tap back into what you were talking about with Paul Morris now, if I may, and that is the hands-on period.
28:48
I mean, he's kind of big on that even still now with the whole Norwell driver training thing.
28:53
Were you any good on the tools and how was that when you and Alan were sort of sharing roles?
28:59
Yeah, well, Alan was the sticker guy.
29:00
He was the sign writer at PMM, Paul Morris Motorsport at the time.
29:06
Yeah.
29:08
And he sort of coached me how to become the sticker guy.
29:12
So on a daily basis, we were doing stickers at the workshop.
29:16
So if either Alan scratched it or I scratched it or if Paul scratched it, we'd just redo the stickers and we'd be all good and we're good to go again.
29:24
But...
29:26
On the tire pressure gauge, I think it was good for us to get an understanding of tire pressures, how the tires worked and things like that.
29:33
It's an art.
29:34
You see a lot of tire pressure guys up and down pit lane running around, getting the actual perfect amount of bleed and everything like that and checking the pressures when they're hot.
29:44
Prior to that, you don't really understand what's involved in being a tyre guy.
29:48
It's not just put air in the tyres and forget about it.
29:51
It's all about the ambient of the day and how much it warms up, how much you bleed out of your base set and things like that, which taught me a hell of a lot.
30:01
Probably information I wouldn't have had in the past prior to working for Paul.
30:05
Yeah.
30:06
It was good.
30:06
It was a good balance.
30:08
Did you ever worry, mate, that it mightn't pan out at this stage when you're quite hands-on and you're having to do these things?
30:14
And maybe there were other jobs you were doing too to keep the money topped up and so on.
30:18
But was there ever a point where you thought, you know, far out, I might need to go and study to be a surveyor or an electrician or something or other?
30:25
Or was it only you only ever had your eyes on the steering wheel and racing?
30:31
No, I only ever had my eyes focused on the steering wheel and racing, but it was my mum and dad that pushed me prior to going to Europe to say, basically, this is not a given.
30:41
There's potential that you can go over there and come back and you'll have absolutely nothing to fall back on.
30:47
So I've started a marine cabinet-making apprenticeship on luxury super yachts at Alloy Yachts.
30:53
Wow.
30:54
So anything over 100 foot was the boats that I was working on.
30:58
So...
31:00
I used to love anything hands-on at school, you know, metal work, woodwork, anything like that.
31:06
So I've done two of the four years and, you know, thankfully I haven't had to go back and rely on that skill set.
31:12
You know, my dreams panned out and I have become a professional racing driver.
31:16
So, yeah, but my mum and my dad and I'm very thankful that they, you know, pushed me to do that because there is the opportunity that, you know, it may not have panned out.
31:26
And, you know, I'm thankful that it has.
31:28
Yeah.
31:28
Some of those skills, mate, I know you and your partner, Becky, have been doing a place up at Noosa and so on.
31:33
I've seen you covered in dust and so on.
31:36
Has that, has a little bit of that actually helped?
31:39
And it's probably been a good distraction at times during this whole COVID period, has it?
31:42
You know, it's, it's been good to be able to, you know, sort of keep your mind fresh, keep it ticking over and, and, you know, being able to do things.
31:49
I wasn't.
31:51
overly hands-on, like I wasn't swinging off saws or anything like that, but nothing's ever perfect.
31:58
So after the job's complete and I need to make things perfect, that's when I start to swing off the tools and make things right.
32:05
But we've had some great people involved.
32:08
to help us with that project.
32:10
And we're very thankful for everyone that's been part of that project to convert it into what it is now.
32:17
It's an amazing space.
32:18
And Beck's credit.
32:21
She's done an amazing job.
32:22
And she's...
32:24
so invigorated and so into that style of work.
32:29
You know, she's been finishing her construction management degree, a new company called Bybronte Projects, which is going to go into that sort of building space, renovation space, to then, you know, be able to, you know, showcase more of what we were able to achieve with the loft up in Noosa.
32:47
People can find, I'm glad you mentioned the name too, The Loft, and some of the socials that she's done around at the tours and so on are terrific.
32:54
Let's move now to Paul Cruickshank for this part of the podcast and working with him.
33:00
He spoke super highly of you, mate, when I caught up with him for a bit of research.
33:03
He said you were a great fit for his operation in that period post-Paul Morris Motorsport.
33:10
It isn't over you saying, Fabius, but you guys really, for what you had and the emergence of his operation at that stage and so on, you punched above your weight, mate, didn't you?
33:18
Yeah, well, I actually had a contract with Paul for that year.
33:22
But then Russell Ingle turned up with super cheap money or cash draw money, I forget what it was at the time, and flung me out of my seat.
33:29
So I had great equipment, you know, triple eight equipment, and probably had a lot more success than people probably expected.
33:38
I remember quite vividly my first podium at Tasmania, another track that's been kind to me.
33:45
That was back in 2009 and back on the soft tyre when it was properly soft.
33:51
Everyone that's played their part in my supercars career should be very proud to what they've done and played their part to getting me to where I am today.
34:00
I reckon even in 2008 there, there were maybe four or five single car operations on the grid.
34:06
And you guys did something like chalking up double the points of the second best single car outfit.
34:12
And there was a Bathurst top 10 shootout appearance there too, mate, wasn't there?
34:15
Yeah, there was.
34:16
It was me and Alex Davison that year.
34:18
I think if you're...
34:20
poke Paul enough, he'd say that's probably one of the best races or best weekends we'd had as a team.
34:27
He had a soft spot for Alex.
34:29
And, um, you know, I think that we were probably his favorite driver pairing that he's had.
34:33
So yeah, look, it was great to be in the shootout and obviously being a small team, you know, you get two and a half minutes of, you know, pure coverage at prime time, um, for Paul Crookshank racing.
34:43
And, um, yeah, it's good just to be able to showcase what you can do and, uh, in a small team.
34:48
He was happy to give me a little bit of fodder for the chat, mate, because he always said he felt like he had unfinished business with you.
34:54
The career moves to a stint with, effectively, the Walkinshaw stable.
34:58
Lots of fans have asked via social media, again, about...
35:02
the crash, the rollover at the chase, which has been played ad nauseum, I know.
35:06
Mate, has it been the kind of thing over time where you've thought about something a little bit extra or is there a different take or twist on it now with all these years that have passed since then?
35:21
The most vivid thing for me is, you know, how airy and how deathly silent it was when I hopped out.
35:30
And, you know, I thought it felt like a test day, you know, like there was no one there, you know, just, I'm just there by myself.
35:37
I've just had this monumental crash.
35:42
And no one's seen it.
35:44
I hopped out and I was like, it took me a while to get out because, you know,
35:48
As I'd unplugged my radio, I heard Rob Starr, my engineer, talk to me.
35:52
I probably should have said to him, look, hey, mate, I'm all right.
35:54
But I was just interested in getting out of this car that's, you know, a complete mess.
35:59
And I knew it was a big shunt because I didn't have to open the door to get out.
36:03
And then my next train of thought is, I've just survived this massive crash.
36:08
What happens if I trip over in the gravel when I hop out?
36:11
I'll look like a right flog.
36:13
So I'm like, I've got out ginger and I'm feeling my way around.
36:17
And then all of a sudden I hear this massive roar and,
36:21
Obviously, there is people there.
36:22
You know, the people are there that have supported the race, and it's happened on lap one, so everyone's sort of still coherent at this point.
36:29
And they've just witnessed, you know, probably one of the biggest crashes Bathurst's ever going to see at one of the fastest corners of, or the fastest corner of Australian motorsports.
36:39
So, you know, I'm just thankful that the car was, you know, built correctly.
36:42
You know, the guys at Walkinshaw Racing have done an amazing job.
36:45
You know, very thankful for all the safety gear that we wear.
36:48
to be able to, you know, be here to talk and tell the tale.
36:51
But, yeah, the moment the car started to rotate at 288 kilometres an hour, I'm like, I've got this, I can save this as a driver.
37:01
You think naturally I'm going to fight it to death because it's not over until it's over.
37:05
And then obviously where it was headed towards the gravel and, you know, that little bit of grass that, you know, sort of tripped the car over.
37:11
It was inevitable that it was going to dig in and roll over at some point, just I didn't know when and for how long.
37:17
And I think from when the car started to rotate to it come to a complete rest by itself was 11 seconds.
37:24
And I can assure you it felt like a hell of a lot longer than 11 seconds.
37:27
But I was always concerned...
37:31
You know, when it's going to finish or when is it going to slowly, you know, dissipate the speed or am I going to hit anything hard?
37:38
Because albeit my crash was very spectacular, it came to rest by itself.
37:43
You know, you don't need to think and look back at, you know, Chaz's crash at Bathurst.
37:48
The other one that springs to mind is Lee Holdsworth's crash at Darwin, where Chas was very spectacular.
37:55
Obviously, the car had a sudden deacceleration, which is when all your body organs and everything with inertia keep going.
38:03
And that's when Chas was very violent.
38:05
All his body kept going because, you know, all of a sudden the car's changed angle and is going a different way.
38:10
Yeah.
38:10
His was pretty extreme.
38:13
But you looked at Lee's crash at Darwin and it doesn't necessarily have to be the biggest crash to do the most damage.
38:22
It's understandable, mate, that it is etched like film in your mind.
38:25
That's over 10 years ago.
38:27
But your recount of it then is very vivid.
38:30
Is that imprinted like that for you?
38:34
I think it's imprinted in the sense that
38:37
Everywhere I go, I talk about it.
38:39
So there's been things that, you know, people have said or I've remembered or anything like that that makes, I wouldn't say the story, but, you know, my recollection of it, you know, very good.
38:49
But, you know, me and Scotty Mack used to have jokes, you know, every time we got to Bathurst, who's going to be flat through the chase the quickest, lap one, lap two, out lap.
38:59
So it doesn't affect me anymore.
39:01
I think the biggest time it affected me was probably going back to Bathurst the first time.
39:06
When I'm driving around there now, it's not something I think of.
39:09
The best thing for me was probably just going to the Gold Coast race two weeks later, going to a concrete canyon, which I think is a much tougher race than Bathurst, in a sense of having to be accurate and things like that.
39:22
I think that was probably the best thing for me, is to get back on the horse, so to speak, and continue to drive.
39:33
That's the end of part one of my podcast with supercars driver Fabian Coulthard.
39:37
What a fascinating insight into that massive Bathurst crash.
39:42
If you're keen to hit the gas on part two, it is there in the Rusty's Garage Library, ready for a start right now.
39:49
Your questions, Team Sydney driving for Brad Jones and the automotive icon Roger Penske, plus the race that is still on his bucket list.
40:04
Listener.