Latest / Rusty's Garage / Craig Dack - Part 2

Transcript

Craig Dack - Part 2 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:18
  G'day, it's Rusty here, all set for part two of my podcast with former Mr. Motocross Craig Dack.
• 0:24
  Dacker would probably tell you he hasn't worked a proper day in his life and that it's not work if you enjoy it as much as he does, right?
• 0:31
  Those old sayings don't really paint the full picture, though, because there's been a lot of long hours and sacrifices along the way, combined with some good decision-making.
• 0:41
  We are about to launch into the team ownership chapter of his career, including working with Chad Reid.
• 0:47
  But if you've landed here and not heard part one, you're missing something that is terrific.
• 0:52
  Good yarns on Dakar's racing career, including laps around the backyard on Christmas Day and how that started it all.
• 1:00
  Trying to pull monos on his BMX bike like another legend, Stephen Gawley's.
• 1:06
  coming on the pod in the months ahead, incidentally, there is a cool story about getting some guidance from Peter Brock and how he nearly went touring car racing with him, hanging out with Neil Crompton, and the surreal feeling of racing in the United States.
• 1:21
  Time to kickstart the second half.
• 1:22
  Hope you enjoy it.
• 1:25
  The notion of starting your own race team, had you been thinking about that in the early 90s before you stopped riding?
• 1:31
  Were you already thinking, right, I could maybe base it here and start with a bike or two?
• 1:40
  Where did the genesis for that come from?
• 1:43
  In the late, in the 80s, like in my era, I was pretty much managing my own career anyway.
• 1:49
  So the last...
• 1:52
  We went through a stage where the manufacturers kind of went away from the Peter Jackson and Marlborough race team era where the manufacturers kind of went away for a little while.
• 2:02
  So I was doing all my own deals, even though I was with Peter Jackson or Marlborough, that deal, I'd put the deals together.
• 2:09
  So I did a contract with Marlborough or Peter Jackson, then I'd do it with Yamaha and all the other sponsors and then I would pay my mechanic and the people to do it.
• 2:18
  So...
• 2:19
  I was already doing that.
• 2:21
  So when I quit, it was just a matter of adding another person and adding a few more mechanics.
• 2:26
  And it just sort of happened really organically, to be honest.
• 2:30
  Were there early learnings and all that?
• 2:31
  When you're talking corporately, you're dealing with big companies or your contracts and responsibilities and all sorts of things.
• 2:39
  I guess so.
• 2:41
  I didn't see that as a problem because the people that were with me through the end of my racing career, which was Yamaha and Philip Morris, who had a great relationship with all those people, a lot of those sponsors like, yeah, not Philip Morris and Dunlop and all those people, they're still with me now.
• 2:58
  So that part of it I found kind of natural.
• 3:01
  That was easy.
• 3:03
  The biggest part I had to get used to was –
• 3:07
  when working with the riders, not sort of trying to make them who I was.
• 3:14
  I had to understand each rider had their own character and had their own strengths and weaknesses.
• 3:21
  Instead of trying to put my way into them, I had to learn to work with their way and get the best out of them with what they had.
• 3:29
  So that took me several years to master that.
• 3:32
  Whether I've mastered it completely now, I don't think I have because it's always changing.
• 3:36
  It's always difficult.
• 3:38
  So to me, the commercial side somehow comes natural.
• 3:42
  It's more the personalities and keeping the, you know, everybody singing the same song is the challenge.
• 3:52
  Can we explore that a little bit if you don't mind?
• 3:54
  Firstly, what do you look for?
• 3:57
  You know, we'll get to Chad Reid and others as we go here, but
• 4:00
  But when you first trackside and you're watching someone, what is it that kind of catches your eye about their potential as a future star?
• 4:10
  Well, because I'm going to races all the time, you kind of just become a talent scout.
• 4:16
  You're watching people sort of seeing what's going on.
• 4:20
  We also within Yamaha have sort of a step-up program.
• 4:23
  So we have a junior program and feeding all the way up to us.
• 4:26
  That would be the ideal thing.
• 4:28
  It doesn't always work.
• 4:30
  But to me, you've just got to find someone who's quick.
• 4:33
  If they're quick, you can sort of work the rest out.
• 4:36
  That's the number one thing.
• 4:37
  They've got to have the speed.
• 4:39
  I want to come back to what you talked about, about almost the generational thing, because kids are wired differently now.
• 4:48
  Social media is a thing.
• 4:49
  It wasn't a thing for you in the 90s there and so on, learning to connect with them so that...
• 4:59
  I'm assuming you probably often hear dads go, oh, I told him the same thing or I told her the same thing.
• 5:04
  They wouldn't listen to me, but they'll listen to you.
• 5:07
  But there is a – overcoming that generational gap is a thing, mate, isn't it?
• 5:10
  Mm-hmm.
• 5:12
  Well, in fact, when a rider starts with my team, I always sit down with their mum and dad on the side and ask them all about the character of their son.
• 5:20
  Let me know.
• 5:21
  Yeah, who is this kid?
• 5:22
  What's he all about?
• 5:23
  What do I have to look out for?
• 5:24
  What do I have to work with?
• 5:27
  What's his good points?
• 5:28
  What's his bad points?
• 5:30
  And straight away you make a connection with the family by doing that because –
• 5:35
  I get the easy bit.
• 5:37
  You know, I get the kid when he's, I don't know, 20, 21, 22 years of age.
• 5:42
  Mum and dad spend all the money.
• 5:44
  They've done all the hard work and then they hand them over to me.
• 5:47
  I get the easy part.
• 5:50
  So I try and make, I try and encourage the parents to be part of the team, which they do.
• 5:58
  And that way, to me, it shortcuts your learning curve on what you're dealing with.
• 6:03
  Because if you ask the parents, they'll open up and tell you all about it because they just want the best for their son.
• 6:09
  So that seems to be one.
• 6:11
  And once I get that bit, then I can work the rest out.
• 6:15
  Usually the struggles you have, not struggles is not the right word, the difficulties is just those one percenters, trying to get those one percenters right because a lot of the times, well, most of the time the athlete has the key to that door but they just have to be prepared to put the key in and unlock it and sometimes they just don't do that.
• 6:35
  Yeah, or find the right way to go about doing that.
• 6:38
  As you and I sit and talk with one another now, I mean, you've got,
• 6:41
  a team top on there.
• 6:43
  There are sponsors there from, from Yamaha Fox and others.
• 6:48
  What is the secret to the longevity with you?
• 6:51
  Because in society now, you know, not everyone has a job that goes for 30 plus years.
• 6:56
  And when we talked before about Yamaha, the connection really goes back to 88 for you with them, not just the, the, the, you celebrated last year, 30 years from a team ownership perspective.
• 7:06
  What's the secret?
• 7:08
  What's the secret to maintaining that, to keeping that?
• 7:11
  I don't know.
• 7:13
  I don't know how to answer that.
• 7:16
  It's ongoing because a lot of people say your relationship with Yamaha or your relationship with Monster or your relationship with Fox, well, it's actually not with the company.
• 7:29
  It's with the individuals in those companies.
• 7:33
  And they change.
• 7:34
  Yamaha, for instance, since I started working with them, I probably had –
• 7:40
  four different people that I've had to deal with.
• 7:42
  So maintaining those relationships are important.
• 7:47
  Making sure they're 100% part of what you're doing.
• 7:52
  No secrets.
• 7:53
  Honesty.
• 7:54
  Have everything on the table is really important.
• 7:57
  Transparency.
• 7:59
  I have that with Yamaha now.
• 8:00
  Yamaha are our major sponsor, but I have an open book policy with them.
• 8:05
  So although they're not...
• 8:07
  They don't own me.
• 8:08
  They're a contractor to my company.
• 8:11
  In our contracts, they're entitled and I'm obliged to open my books if they need to see it.
• 8:17
  So I think just having that transparency and honesty is probably why it's still strong.
• 8:25
  The relationships too aren't just Australia.
• 8:27
  While Australia might be a focal point for you, there are
• 8:31
  deep connections, I would imagine, from Japan to America and others that you maintain to this day with regular phone calls and things like that.
• 8:39
  That stuff is important too, isn't it?
• 8:41
  Yes, yes, certainly.
• 8:43
  So we have a strong relationship with the factory, with Yamaha in Japan.
• 8:49
  In the past, you know, when this whole four-stroke era come about 20 years ago, we were part of the development of those bikes in Japan.
• 8:59
  So very, very deep in with the factory at that point.
• 9:02
  Over time, it hasn't been as deep as that, but we still have a connection.
• 9:08
  We buy our suspension from Yamaha Japan, a new car.
• 9:13
  There's only three teams in the world that can do that, a Yamaha-supported team.
• 9:16
  That's the US team, the world championship team, and us.
• 9:20
  So that in itself shows the connection that we have.
• 9:24
  So we just keep Yamaha Japan informed technically on what we do.
• 9:30
  So having those – and those relationships aren't something you can just click your fingers and buy and expect.
• 9:38
  You have to earn those relationships, especially in the Japanese world.
• 9:41
  Um, and it's funny, some of those engineers that I talk to now are now, well, some of those engineers that I used to work with when they were kids and I was a kid doing the testing, we're only in their twenties, they are now in upper management position.
• 9:57
  So, you know, so our connection has been there for 30 or 40 years, but now at a different level.
• 10:03
  It also means that you give opportunity to mechanics and others that come through your organization.
• 10:09
  Alex Briggs has been on the podcast.
• 10:11
  I'm trying to remember, mate.
• 10:11
  He worked for you for a time, am I right?
• 10:13
  Yeah, yeah.
• 10:14
  He went from me to McDoan.
• 10:16
  Doan.
• 10:19
  He made a better choice there, that's for sure.
• 10:21
  Oh, no, but I think he speaks very fondly about that period with you.
• 10:27
  Yeah.
• 10:28
  Yeah, no, we did have a very strong relationship.
• 10:31
  And, in fact, the last bike I rode, he actually worked for me my very last year that I raced.
• 10:39
  Yeah.
• 10:39
  Did he?
• 10:40
  And the bike that I've got now, which is my Peter Jackson bike, which is kind of a special bike, him and the Yamaha guys built that up as a present for me and gave it to me as my retirement package.
• 10:50
  So Alex, he's a good friend.
• 10:54
  He's a good fellow.
• 10:55
  I'm pleased that you've – people quite like that in the podcast.
• 10:57
  I'm pleased between your first – an example of your first bike and then now that bike, you've kept a couple of special ones that are important to you, haven't you?
• 11:05
  Yeah.
• 11:05
  Yeah, I got my first bike and I got my last bike and they sit in my gym and every morning I'm doing – I sit up, I'm doing my weights or whatever, I have a look at the first bike and the last bike and just keeps it in perspective from where I've started or where I've come to.
• 11:20
  Tremendous.
• 11:21
  That's cool.
• 11:22
  Where were you?
• 11:23
  Can you remember the first time you laid eyes on Chad Reed?
• 11:26
  Where were you and what impact did that leave you with?
• 11:31
  I think he was riding for Suzuki and he just sort of popped his head up very, very quickly in my eyes.
• 11:39
  But I can remember he was sort of not there one minute and there the next.
• 11:43
  Next.
• 11:44
  We're probably talking turn of the century here.
• 11:45
  What do you reckon we're talking time-wise?
• 11:47
  Yeah, it would have been very late 90s for sure.
• 11:52
  90s.
• 11:52
  Yeah, early 2000s because we then went on to work with each other.
• 11:57
  He rode for me here for a year and then –
• 12:00
  Then he took off and went to Europe, rode for Factory Kawasaki for a year.
• 12:04
  Then he ended up in America and I ended up in America.
• 12:07
  We ended up working together, which is a story in itself.
• 12:10
  Yep, Yamaha of Troy, wasn't it?
• 12:11
  It was Yamaha of Troy, that's right.
• 12:13
  Yeah.
• 12:13
  So tell us, I mean, firstly, working with him in that early phase when he's growing as a racer, clearly with talent and so on, was it the kind of thing that you thought, wow, this kid has the potential to go to America and you perhaps encouraged that or to go to the international scene?
• 12:30
  Well, yeah, it's a good story.
• 12:32
  When he rode for me, he wanted to go from me to America.
• 12:35
  That was always his dream, to go to America.
• 12:37
  And I think his inspiration was Jerry McGrath because that was it.
• 12:41
  McGrath, yeah.
• 12:41
  McGrath, that was the era that influenced him.
• 12:46
  So he had a tentative deal to go to America with a...
• 12:50
  a third-tier team.
• 12:52
  I can't remember what it was.
• 12:54
  And he was going to take that deal.
• 12:56
  But he also had an option to go to factory Kawasaki in Europe and do the world championship.
• 13:00
  Championship, yeah.
• 13:02
  And my advice to him said, Chad, if you get a factory ride with factory Kawasaki...
• 13:08
  I would go to the factory ride because if you do well with the factory ride, the hardest thing in any industry is getting in.
• 13:15
  Once you're in, unless you do something stupid, you're in.
• 13:19
  You're part of the clan.
• 13:22
  So he went to the factory Kawasaki team in Europe and as it went, he ended up runner-up in the world championship in the 250 class that year.
• 13:31
  He used that to then leapfrog into America to Yamaha Troyn.
• 13:36
  And that – so he already had been contracted to do Yamaha Troy, I think it was 2000, 2001, something like that.
• 13:46
  And the team manager for Yamaha Troy at the time, he got poached and went to Honda.
• 13:51
  So Yamaha Troy needed a manager.
• 13:54
  And Yamaha America rang me and said, would you be interested?
• 13:57
  And I said, yeah, why not?
• 13:58
  Let's give it a go.
• 13:59
  So I went over there and did that, still kept my team running here.
• 14:03
  So I was running CDR in Australia and doing the Yamaha Troy team in the States.
• 14:08
  and working with Chad, and we won a championship together over there, East Coast Supercross Championship.
• 14:15
  Unreal.
• 14:16
  Just for people that are listening that mightn't, and Daka, please, if I don't articulate this right, you better correct it for me.
• 14:24
  But the Yamaha of Troy arrangement, is it right to say it's a bit like a satellite team kind of deal?
• 14:29
  Like it had a level of...
• 14:32
  connection and good support.
• 14:33
  I mean, it was a good opportunity.
• 14:35
  It was Yamaha's official factory 250 program.
• 14:39
  Team.
• 14:39
  Yeah, so the 450 team that was in-house at Yamaha.
• 14:44
  Yep.
• 14:44
  And then they would contract out their 250 team.
• 14:47
  Thank you.
• 14:48
  Sorry, I didn't describe it well.
• 14:49
  Yeah, that's right, as a satellite team, but it was Yamaha's official 250 program.
• 14:56
  And because of my long-term relationship with Yamaha, that's why the opportunity come up.
• 15:02
  Well, they asked me to come and do it because they trusted me, I guess.
• 15:06
  Pretty cool to win a crown with him early on before he would go on to even greater success there in the United States.
• 15:13
  What was he like as a racer in that period?
• 15:15
  You're both away from home effectively.
• 15:17
  He's kind of setting himself up in the States.
• 15:19
  You're trying to juggle stuff at home as well as help that program.
• 15:24
  Yeah.
• 15:24
  It was a tough period for me for doing all that.
• 15:28
  I lasted two years there doing that.
• 15:30
  Then I had to sort of make a decision whether I made that my full-time career, staying there or come home.
• 15:37
  And I decided to come home and, you know, happily made that decision.
• 15:42
  But working with Chad was really, really interesting because he's a really determined young man and you couldn't really sort of influence him too much.
• 15:54
  Well, I did it in positive ways, I guess.
• 15:57
  But he was, and at the same time, he was a new kid on the block, so he had all these vultures coming at him at the same time.
• 16:06
  So there was, I was riding in the hype of it all, but, you know, him and I now can sit down over a coffee or a dinner and have some fond memories.
• 16:14
  Our relationship is nice and strong now.
• 16:17
  It was tough at the time because he was tough to manage, but most high-level athletes are at the time, yeah.
• 16:34
  It's crazy to think Chad Reed's kids now enjoy racing.
• 16:37
  Dakar can vividly remember the talented young racer, who made the number 22 famous, wowing Aussie crowds before he took the big step to head to the United States and ultimately earn a special place in the Supercross record books.
• 16:51
  I can't get out of life what I want from motorcycle racing in Australia.
• 16:58
  I don't want to live in Europe, so then if I'm going to live and race and do this motorcycle thing, you know, America is where it's at.
• 17:08
  Enjoy Chad's straight-talking convo just by searching for his two-part episode in the Garage Library.
• 17:13
  They recorded at the Aussie Supercross with Chad in his riding gear, and you'll hear the odd dirt bike in the background.
• 17:19
  Daka was there too, running his race team.
• 17:22
  Let's continue his pod now with Rusty.
• 17:27
  There's been others that have been on the books for CDR, I mean, and you haven't, you know, well, you're proudly Australian and you've always...
• 17:35
  more or less had that ethos of trying to promote Aussies as they've come through.
• 17:41
  You've also given like Josh Coppens and others rides and the Kiwis have come through, haven't they too?
• 17:46
  There was a period there, mate, where we had a sort of a bunch or a few Kiwis that were doing really well in the world championships.
• 17:55
  You had Coppens and you had the King brothers, Shane and Daryl King.
• 18:00
  So they were finishing up their careers in Europe and wanting to come home.
• 18:05
  So we just got the last puff out of the cigar from them, you know.
• 18:13
  They were done it, you know, the cigar was perfect.
• 18:16
  90% smoking in Europe, there were still a couple of puffs in Australia.
• 18:20
  So we got a couple of years out of them.
• 18:22
  We won a couple of championships with Josh Coppens and we won a few with Daryl King as well who retired from Europe and came back here.
• 18:31
  So that worked really good for us for several years.
• 18:35
  I hate bringing up the pandemic because I want to keep that bloody thing in the rear view mirror now and just be eyes forward.
• 18:41
  You did a great job of, I think, navigating that at the time.
• 18:45
  Was that tough for the guys on the books?
• 18:47
  I think you might have even said that to Racer X, just around Luke Clout and Aaron Tante.
• 18:52
  I mean, it was probably at a time in their careers where –
• 18:57
  You know, I feel for some people with the timing of that bloody thing, if that's what I – The athletes – yeah, the poor athletes.
• 19:04
  They lost, you know, at that age, in their mid-20s, and those guys lost nearly two years, wasn't it?
• 19:10
  It's hard to remember now.
• 19:11
  Two years of their early capacity.
• 19:14
  They fell behind compared to the rest of the world because the Yanks kept going.
• 19:19
  They made programs where they could keep racing.
• 19:22
  We nearly had – I think we did something like five races in the two years there.
• 19:27
  So the riders, as far as their development, their growth as an athlete, I felt sorry for them with that.
• 19:35
  However, this is something I'm very proud of and very happy to share, that our major partners, like our big partners are Yamaha, Monster and Fox, they kept paying us in full.
• 19:47
  We had to duck the gap that the government paid us.
• 19:51
  I thought the government did a great job supporting us.
• 19:53
  But the monetary side of CDR with the government support and our sponsors still paying us never changed.
• 20:00
  So we were able to keep paying our riders who were contractors, not employees, so we could have stopped paying them at any time.
• 20:07
  We paid them in full and we paid all our staff and employees at full wages in that time as well.
• 20:15
  So that's the bit I'm really proud of.
• 20:18
  But that gets back to having that strong relationship with partners that can go on that journey with you.
• 20:23
  Respect to you and to them, mate, for that sort of support.
• 20:25
  I reckon that's unreal.
• 20:27
  People would think it remiss of me if I didn't ask you about the Lawrence brothers, what they're doing in the United States right now, that kind of next wave, Hunter, Jet, and the impact that that might have potentially on our scene back down under.
• 20:40
  Yeah, well, they're kind of doing the new Chad Reid thing, yeah?
• 20:42
  They've got, you know, we're just amazing Australians.
• 20:46
  You know, we just always punch above our weight.
• 20:48
  Why is that?
• 20:49
  Why is that, do you reckon?
• 20:50
  I mean, is it the framework, you know?
• 20:52
  I don't know.
• 20:52
  It just seems that, you know, you go through these periods, you know, at the moment a couple of people have said to me in our domestic sport, oh, I can't see anybody popping their head up.
• 21:02
  Who's coming through?
• 21:04
  And I always say, don't worry, just wait.
• 21:06
  Someone will pop their head up.
• 21:08
  And that's in our domestic thing and more so in the Australian thing.
• 21:12
  You look back over the years, you know, in all of our whatever motorsport you do, the Australian and even technical people, they're riddled around the world, you know.
• 21:22
  They're Kiwis and Australians.
• 21:24
  They're always punching above their weight.
• 21:27
  But so the Lawrence has got the light, you know, brightly shining on Australia at the moment for sure.
• 21:34
  And they're so young.
• 21:36
  We're going to see this go on for the next sort of 10 years.
• 21:38
  Awesome.
• 21:39
  Awesome.
• 21:41
  Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame induction.
• 21:44
  I got to be there and to see that happen for you.
• 21:47
  It happened alongside recognition of the late legendary Jack O'Hearn as well.
• 21:52
  What did that – I mean, there's lots of great achievements for you when you look at your CV, your list of wins and so on.
• 21:59
  What did that one mean to you?
• 22:01
  Yeah, it's a good question, that one, because when I –
• 22:04
  was awarded it by you.
• 22:05
  It was nice to see you again after all these years.
• 22:07
  But I went there and said, oh, yeah, this is nice.
• 22:10
  But it was actually the drive home.
• 22:12
  A mate of mine came with me and it was on the way home and once I got home and I reflected on it, it's sort of what it meant to me, you know, thinking of that kid that started the minibike club at Blacktown and, you know, everywhere I've been through that journey.
• 22:28
  But it was more about, to me, the recognition was that,
• 22:32
  It was like, well done, you haven't screwed it up because after 30 or 40 years in any one industry, to me it means that you've actually played the game with a straight bat because the industries, if you're in the same industry, you get spat out if you've been doing the wrong thing.
• 22:50
  If you've been a naughty boy or a bad boy, I've been a naughty boy sometimes, but...
• 22:54
  By and large, it irons it out, mate, doesn't it?
• 22:56
  It levels itself.
• 22:58
  I mean, to get that award means you kind of made it to the pinnacle of your sport and you've done the right thing generally.
• 23:04
  Richly, richly deserved.
• 23:06
  Rider, team owner, I'm going to say because you won't, legend.
• 23:11
  What sort of wish list things, now that you've chalked up 30 years as a team owner, what kind of wish list things for the sport have you got?
• 23:20
  For the next 10, what would you like to – and it doesn't have to be just for CDR.
• 23:23
  It can be more broadly, right, like from a growth and a success thing.
• 23:27
  And obviously the market is interesting at the moment.
• 23:29
  We've gone four-stroke in the last decade after a real passion for two-stroke.
• 23:34
  There are electric bikes floating around and so on.
• 23:36
  What do you reckon the future looks like?
• 23:38
  Yeah, who knows?
• 23:40
  It's getting tougher.
• 23:41
  The motocross market has declined over the years.
• 23:47
  When I say declined in sales of motorcycles, but the popularity of the sport seems to be strong.
• 23:53
  Our motocross series at the moment, we're getting full entries, five or 600 entries at any one race, which is a lot.
• 24:03
  Um, the grids are full, um, up until about five or six years ago, only getting half grid.
• 24:08
  So the grids are full again.
• 24:10
  Um, Supercross is, it's in good hands.
• 24:13
  We've got some good Supercross promoters, sort of young people, um, doing the contemporary thing with it.
• 24:19
  Um, they, they, the modern way.
• 24:21
  Um.
• 24:21
  So the sport feels like it's in a good position.
• 24:25
  What turns me on these days or what gets me going is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff.
• 24:29
  I'm doing a school with a few other people in a couple of months trying to help raise money for the Motocross donations team.
• 24:37
  So I do stuff like that in the background.
• 24:39
  I don't make too much noise about that.
• 24:42
  We formed a group called AMG, Australian Motocross Group, which is a group that sits beside Motorcycling Australia, our governing body, and we talk with them about the sport.
• 24:54
  It's a passive group and try and help them on how to make things better.
• 24:59
  So there's a lot of things behind the scenes, Rusty, I like to do these days that I don't want any recognition for, but I just like doing it.
• 25:08
  But mostly I still want to keep the focus on my race team because I love getting young guys and I've had the same age boy or young man over 30 years come through my team.
• 25:19
  So if anybody wants to know what's changed in young males about 24, 25 years or age in 30 years, come and see me and tell you exactly.
• 25:30
  But just helping those young men make the best out of the job that they're choosing and get the best out and put that smile on their face and see them achieve what their parents probably are and what they want to achieve.
• 25:43
  There is lots of success stories in there.
• 25:46
  I would imagine there's probably been some tough moments for you too in dealing with that.
• 25:51
  I mean, you know, 30 years in business, you can't not have challenges.
• 25:56
  Either, you know, you've got longevity from the partners, which is terrific.
• 26:01
  But, I mean, there's economic challenges along the way.
• 26:04
  There's some riders who perhaps come in with what seems like a bucket load of talent but don't quite make it or injury stops them.
• 26:10
  I mean, things like that can't be easy to navigate.
• 26:13
  No, there's, you know, characters, you know, dealing with, you know, when I was a red-hot-blooded, you know, bloke, I'm settled down a bit now.
• 26:22
  The edges are getting a bit more rounder as you get older, which is nice.
• 26:26
  But still for 10 years after I raced, I was still pretty sharp around the edges and stuff.
• 26:31
  So we had a lot of clashes with riders and athletes, which that's just personality things that didn't work.
• 26:37
  But you still have to manage your way through them or manage your way out of them somehow.
• 26:41
  Yeah.
• 26:42
  I remember when was the financial crisis we had, I think 2009, 2010.
• 26:45
  Yeah, yeah.
• 26:47
  At the 11th down, that all sort of happened in October, November.
• 26:51
  I was cut 30% of my budget from Yamaha.
• 26:53
  30% is a lot.
• 26:56
  Then we lost a major sponsor at the same time.
• 26:59
  So all of a sudden I had a huge deficit there and somehow I managed the way through that.
• 27:05
  That took –
• 27:06
  sort of five years to get back on top of.
• 27:08
  So it seems to be just like in normal life, mate.
• 27:11
  And it seems like just as things start to feel smooth and going, whack, whack, you get one across the back of the head again.
• 27:17
  So... Yeah, that bloody GFC, hey?
• 27:20
  Yeah.
• 27:20
  Bloody GFC.
• 27:20
  Yeah, yeah.
• 27:22
  To finish, to finish, you've talked about a couple of special bikes in your career.
• 27:26
  What about...
• 27:28
  the race, the place where you just felt sublime that you, and it could have been internationally, could have been locally, wherever, just one of the races in your mind, in your riding career where you went, that one there is one I'll cherish.
• 27:46
  1986 was my standout year where it all started to happen for me when I was riding Honda.
• 27:51
  And I won everything that year.
• 27:53
  And then at the end of the year, September, we had the Motocross Donations, which the Motocross Donations is a race that's in a different country each year that each country sends its best three riders to.
• 28:05
  It's sort of like the Olympics of motocross, but it's every year.
• 28:09
  And this was at a place called Majora in Italy.
• 28:12
  And basically in the race, I, so the, you know, 500s and 250s went together.
• 28:19
  So that's the two-stroke era.
• 28:21
  So I was on a 250.
• 28:24
  and basically I rode the race of my life.
• 28:26
  I almost won my class, so I end up fourth outright in the race and second in my class, and the guy that won was a guy by the name of David Bailey on a 500, Ricky Johnson on a 250.
• 28:39
  Ricky Johnson.
• 28:40
  David Thorpe, who was just the world champion on a 500, and I finished right behind him, and I was coming towards him.
• 28:47
  So another couple of laps, and I may have won it, so it stands out pretty strong.
• 28:52
  Even to this day, you can tell the way that you're talking about it.
• 28:56
  Is it the PJ bike that you've kept?
• 28:58
  Is that the one that is kind of the bike?
• 29:02
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:03
  That and my first bike.
• 29:05
  But my current bike that I like to ride is a little Yamaha X-Max 300cc scooter that I ride down to the beach with my board shorts and my thongs.
• 29:13
  Yeah.
• 29:14
  You are a talkie local.
• 29:16
  That kind of naturally brings us to just, it is a business for you now, but clearly the love of that pure love of motorcycles today is the same as that kid that we spoke about at the beginning of this podcast, just in a different way as a team owner.
• 29:31
  Now, you still love them.
• 29:33
  It is in a different way, yeah.
• 29:35
  And to get on a motocross bike now gives me the heebie-jeebies to even think about.
• 29:40
  Does it?
• 29:40
  Yeah.
• 29:41
  It's the last thing I would want to do.
• 29:43
  I still have people come up and say, why don't you get back on and make a comeback?
• 29:47
  Mate, that was 30 years ago.
• 29:49
  It's a blur.
• 29:52
  But, yeah, but I do get my genuine passion is pulling it together every year, all the commercial side of things.
• 29:59
  Side of it.
• 30:00
  And not only the riders but the mechanics that work on the team, their guys are just, they've got the, to them, they've got the best job in the world.
• 30:09
  They're not working on dirty old quad bikes off a farm at a dealership.
• 30:13
  They're working on the pristine top of the level, top of the,
• 30:17
  bunch motocross bikes.
• 30:19
  So you're putting a lot of smiles on a lot of people's faces and that's what I get off on these days.
• 30:26
  Terrific.
• 30:26
  I'm pleased you brought up donations before too, because representing a country I know is something you're immensely proud of.
• 30:31
  I want to finish with a little funny story.
• 30:33
  I have been reliably informed.
• 30:37
  My source may or may not be your good mate, David Tapp, who's been a colleague of mine over the years.
• 30:42
  Here we go.
• 30:43
  There was a good catch up with some friends.
• 30:47
  You're in a cab.
• 30:47
  You're in a cab.
• 30:48
  You're
• 30:49
  from Barcelona.
• 30:51
  It's late at night, but the backstory is your luggage had been mucked around by British Airways.
• 30:58
  Is this correct?
• 30:58
  You were in – and you hadn't – you had no clothes.
• 31:02
  Had no clothes?
• 31:02
  You had no clothes.
• 31:02
  No, that went on for a week, yeah.
• 31:04
  It went on for a week.
• 31:05
  You weren't happy about it either, were you?
• 31:07
  I was dark as 10 men, mate.
• 31:10
  But you were in – I think, if I'm right, you borrowed his jeans.
• 31:14
  Is this true?
• 31:19
  The cab driver, naturally, is Spanish.
• 31:21
  He can't understand English.
• 31:23
  You desperately, after a fun night out with some blokes, need to stop by the roadside and drain a bit of fluid.
• 31:31
  Mate, it was the closest I've ever come to not making it, I can tell you.
• 31:37
  I almost grabbed the taxi driver by the back of the neck.
• 31:41
  And we just made it, I tell you.
• 31:42
  It was the hardest 10 seconds of my life.
• 31:45
  And a nervous David Tep with his jeans.
• 31:46
  I think that's very funny.
• 31:48
  That's a ripper way to finish.
• 31:50
  We haven't covered all the stories because I know there's even more that should rightly be reserved for a book.
• 31:56
  It has been wonderful to shoot the breeze with you, mate.
• 31:58
  Congratulations on all the titles you won as a writer.
• 32:02
  the titles that you've continued to win as a team owner.
• 32:05
  I was chuffed to see you inducted into the Hall of Fame.
• 32:09
  You've represented Australia and you're continuing to mentor, to foster young talent, be it in a mechanic sense, all those riders that continue to come through the CDR framework, mate.
• 32:22
  Well done.
• 32:23
  Thanks, mate.
• 32:23
  It's good to see you, Rusty, and it's a pleasure to hear that from you.
• 32:27
  Thank you very much.
• 32:35
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 32:39
  Series editor and producer is Thomas Dullard.
• 32:43
  Audio production by Link Kelly.
• 32:45
  If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me via social media.
• 32:50
  The Garage, that's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuelled stories.