Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief | Shane van Gisbergen's Nascar journey, Bathurst thoughts and Q&A!

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief | Shane van Gisbergen's Nascar journey, Bathurst thoughts and Q&A! · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  Welcome to the Motorsport Brief, a catch-up with Shane Van Gisbergen, which is basically dedicated to you, the fans.
• 0:12
  G'day, everyone.
• 0:13
  Rusty here with you for a short cast chat that we recorded in the past week with SVG, where we put your questions to him.
• 0:19
  So thank you from the top here for responding to my call-out on socials.
• 0:23
  We haven't done that for a while, and we had a really good response.
• 0:26
  I won't get to all of the questions.
• 0:28
  I just couldn't fit them in, but...
• 0:30
  we do try and cover a few reoccurring themes or topics.
• 0:33
  And even though he's a racer's racer, there are some fun ones in there too.
• 0:37
  A quick reminder about our latest feature ep with respected commentator, author and PR guru, John Smiles, who in some ways...
• 0:45
  Set the tone, pave the way in a motorsport broadcasting sense.
• 0:49
  He was with Will Hagen on the ABC back in the day with a very young Neil Crompton.
• 0:54
  He worked with the legendary Evan Green too.
• 0:57
  From getting elbowed by Kimi Räikkönen in the Albert Park pit lane to the streaker in the back of an interview with Wayne Gardner.
• 1:04
  Both are very funny tales.
• 1:06
  There's the deal that he stitched together for the legendary Murray Walker to tackle Targa.
• 1:10
  And reporting on the London to Sydney, a famous event, but he got to do it from some very sketchy locations too.
• 1:17
  Let's get to Shane Van Gisbergen now.
• 1:19
  He beamed in from North Carolina where he was going back to back in some ways from a breakfast TV cross to home in New Zealand.
• 1:27
  But home is now...
• 1:28
  in the United States, obviously, and then straight into talking with us.
• 1:31
  You'll get a sense of the great space that he is in right now.
• 1:34
  Clearly, Trackhouse is making progress, and that is complemented by his almost insatiable thirst for knowledge of what it takes to win at the highest level of NASCAR and grasping all of its uniqueness.
• 1:46
  I hope you enjoy it.
• 1:49
  Hello mate, it's nice to catch up.
• 1:51
  Yeah, good to see you again.
• 1:52
  Great to see you too.
• 1:53
  Can I open the batting with Denny Hamlin, right?
• 1:56
  Spoke very recently on his podcast, greatest road course racer of all time.
• 2:01
  And I know you don't chase headlines like that.
• 2:03
  That's not your thing.
• 2:06
  But to think that the sport, the constituents in your first full year of Cup, mate, congratulations.
• 2:11
  That is a huge achievement.
• 2:13
  Yeah, it's a pretty big thing for them to say, but obviously I don't think of myself like that.
• 2:19
  We've had an amazing run and still got a long way to go, but yeah, pretty cool that they think that of me.
• 2:26
  And, you know, most of the guys I speak to have pretty good things to say.
• 2:29
  So yeah, it's been an amazing year, but I can't take all the credit.
• 2:34
  Like my car's obviously pretty decent as well to be able to do that too.
• 2:39
  Talking with Lee Diffie in the lead up to this, he's a great mate of mine, as you know.
• 2:43
  And he just reflected on the last three oval performances for you.
• 2:47
  I mean, Las Vegas, what was it?
• 2:48
  You qualified 13th there, running comfortably in the top 10, running there at the front legitimately, Shane.
• 2:54
  Kansas top 10.
• 2:56
  It feels like a switch has been flicked.
• 2:59
  Is that an accurate feeling?
• 3:00
  And if so, why?
• 3:04
  Yeah, I don't know.
• 3:04
  Certainly we've had an upward trajectory this whole year, but we've started at the very bottom.
• 3:11
  You know, we were genuinely running in the mid-30s at the start of the year on these types of tracks, and it's just because of me, you know, my experience and not knowing how to drive on these ovals, and it's just taken time.
• 3:26
  I felt like I started from zero again, like the cars are so different to Xfinity, and...
• 3:31
  Yeah, it was tough starting building up and yeah, we've gone from being in the 30s to the 20s and now the last few weeks we've been at the back end of the top 10 and top 15.
• 3:44
  It's been awesome and qualifying has really improved and it's just that comfort level going back to these tracks for the second and third time, you know, I just get...
• 3:53
  better and better and know what to expect.
• 3:55
  So it's certainly been good racing up near the front and I still have a lot to learn in it, but I feel like every weekend I'm making steps forward and learning with the team.
• 4:06
  It's been really cool.
• 4:07
  I reckon your smile there because we can see each other for this chat says so much, Shane.
• 4:12
  Can I bring you to a question from Bob Stevens on Facebook who says, how far off do you kind of believe that your first true oval win is?
• 4:20
  Do you feel like that's close?
• 4:23
  Oh, yeah, to win one genuinely on speed is still a while to come, but, you know, there's lots of ways to get fluky wins, but you obviously want to get a proper one, and, you know, I can see where it is, though, now.
• 4:35
  Like, I get glimpses, you know, I feel...
• 4:38
  I can feel like the tire and feel the sliding a lot more.
• 4:41
  I feel what the car's doing underneath me and I know what it needs to feel like.
• 4:45
  And I can string two or three laps together instead of 40.
• 4:50
  I just have these glimpses and that gives me that indication and that hope.
• 4:54
  And I can feel how to do it now.
• 4:56
  I just have to keep stringing it together.
• 4:58
  And it's coming, but I know that I have to be realistic and I'm still a wee way away from winning.
• 5:06
  I can see it happening, you know, one day, but I don't know how far away that's going to be.
• 5:10
  Okay.
• 5:10
  You still love the sim racing, clearly, but am I right in saying that you have perhaps pulled that back a little and that you're getting quite a lot now out of just watching the in-car video?
• 5:19
  Yeah, so our sim goes through phases.
• 5:22
  Some tracks are really accurate and amazing.
• 5:25
  Some are not.
• 5:26
  And I go to these tracks after spending hours on the sim, and you only get, what do we get?
• 5:31
  We get 20 laps of practice, one set of tires, and you have this idea in your head that you're going to go into a corner and this is what's going to happen with the setup you've got because you run the exact same setup in the sim as what you are in real life, and you just have all this preconceived idea in your head from the simulator
• 5:50
  get on track and all that prep just goes straight out the window.
• 5:52
  So yeah, I've been studying more with film, with data, SMT data it's called.
• 5:59
  You get to look at everyone's data and yeah, I get more out of that and I have more of an open mind and less expectation of what the car's going to feel like.
• 6:06
  And yeah, it seems to be working for me the last few months and I think we've improved and that's what I tell the engineers anyway.
• 6:14
  So they don't keep calling me to come do some...
• 6:17
  Awesome.
• 6:18
  Just before we started to record today, Peyton, who works with you at Trackhouse, who does a fantastic job, was sort of indicating over her shoulder there was a tyre from the burnout, I think, at the Roval.
• 6:29
  And are the Hall of Fame going to do something with that?
• 6:32
  That's awesome.
• 6:33
  Yeah, the Hall of Fame that they have in Charlotte is amazing.
• 6:37
  Like how they have all the old cars and they rotate new stuff.
• 6:40
  I think they've got some of my Chicago wins there and everything.
• 6:43
  It's really cool walking through there and yeah, awesome.
• 6:47
  If anyone ever comes to Charlotte, you got to go through there like what they do and showcase for the sport is it's an amazing place.
• 6:54
  Awesome.
• 6:54
  David Seville on Facebook.
• 6:56
  As a fan, I get frustrated when you get turned while you're in a good position in NASCAR.
• 7:01
  What's that been like, getting used to kind of acceptable contact in that pond relative to other places that you've played in racing in the past?
• 7:11
  Well, yeah, I'm on the other side of it now because it's very different to what we see at home, you know, like...
• 7:17
  It's good and bad.
• 7:19
  Like I've gotten away with a few and, but even on the weekend before at the Roval, I had some contact with Kyle, accidental, and he just started hitting me back and I passed him and he hit me off and I'm like, okay, I deserve that.
• 7:31
  You know, I should have been better with my movements and, but it created this amazing race and you, you know, shake hands after and carry on.
• 7:38
  I think.
• 7:39
  it self-polices itself.
• 7:41
  Like you never see anything really egregious.
• 7:44
  Like, you know, I don't feel like I've ever been crashed properly on purpose.
• 7:48
  Uh, I might've, I don't know, but you just, uh, everything seems to be in the States and, and you just get on with it the next week.
• 7:55
  You know, I've wrecked a couple of guys by accident and you just say, sorry, and move on.
• 7:59
  I think it's, uh.
• 8:01
  an amazing system how it you know it polices itself and itself it creates good racing yeah awesome i saw marcus ambrose at bathurst he was in great form mate can you believe it he and greg murphy stayed in the same house over the weekend 20 years on which is which is crazy yeah they did they did um is he still in touch with you mate he's been great along the way i know we talked about that when we caught up last year but you've maintained contact i think haven't you
• 8:25
  Yeah, every now and then a lot less this year.
• 8:27
  I used to pester him every week last year, especially when I was going to new tracks and just amazing, you know, and some of the stuff he talked about and described the cars, you know, I haven't really felt that until this year, you know, like how you, you sort of just slump in the seat and let the car kind of do what it does underneath you and.
• 8:48
  It's taken me a while to feel that, making me just relax in the seat, let the car do the work and ignore all the sliding and let the air take over.
• 8:55
  It's just how he described that stuff, you know, I just was mind blowing.
• 9:00
  And now I'm starting to feel it and get that things, you know, and he was an amazing almost coach, you know, and just what to look for and what an amazing guy and how good and but also how well
• 9:14
  respected he is here everyone loves him everyone speaks highly of him and it's so cool you know you say the word the name marcus ambrose here and everyone just lights up and has good memories of him that's fantastic mate michael roberts um who i think is from hawks bay where i sort of base myself nowadays have you come close to pulling a hammy kicking the ball into the crowd and where and where did that idea come from
• 9:37
  I probably should stretch before I do it.
• 9:39
  I'm always so excited, I just boot the thing.
• 9:42
  But yeah, you see the pictures after, it doesn't look too comfortable.
• 9:46
  I got my leg right up.
• 9:48
  Yeah, it's a fun thing to do.
• 9:51
  We at Trackhouse all have our own celebrations.
• 9:55
  Daniel, he smashes a pinata, Ross smashes a watermelon.
• 10:00
  And then I thought, you know, someone came up with the idea we'll kick a rugby ball.
• 10:03
  And I think it's perfect for, you know, takes, pays homage to my heritage, I guess.
• 10:10
  And I'm proud of where I come from.
• 10:11
  So pretty cool to kick a ball into the stands.
• 10:14
  We are not done yet on this edition of the Shortcast.
• 10:17
  Stick around.
• 10:18
  More with SVG in just a few moments.
• 10:23
  You're listening to the Motorsport Brief.
• 10:24
  Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a new feature ep with Colin Bond, too.
• 10:28
  Australian touring car great who was equally as talented in a rally car.
• 10:31
  And we've also recorded one with Motorcycling Australia CEO Peter Doyle.
• 10:35
  We don't often do administrators.
• 10:37
  There is a couple in the library.
• 10:39
  But Peter's story extends well beyond that, with successful stints as a team leader in the United States and in world super bikes.
• 10:46
  Let's get back to the convo now with Shane Van Gisbergen.
• 10:50
  Lee Rasmussen asked, do you on that basis follow any other sports or are you just all about racing?
• 10:55
  Maybe there's no time to do that.
• 10:57
  No, I'd try and watch American football, but it's a little tough.
• 11:00
  That's all everyone talks about here, especially this time of year, the college stuff on Saturday, NFL on Sunday.
• 11:05
  But...
• 11:06
  Really, my life is racing.
• 11:08
  We race every single week and I study as much as I can and I'm all about racing.
• 11:14
  Awesome, mate.
• 11:15
  That leads us, I guess, to Bathurst.
• 11:18
  Have you, in the midst of your busy schedule, have you had a chance to watch that amazing race?
• 11:22
  Yes.
• 11:22
  Yeah, so being in Vegas, the time zone was a little better.
• 11:26
  So, yeah, I haven't been really engaged this year like I was last year, but obviously I watched Bathurst again, and I would say that they're glad it rained after all the shit and the lead-up, and it saved them from a lot, and they had a pretty good race in the end, and the race was amazing.
• 11:44
  I'm pretty pissed off for Jimmy.
• 11:46
  I thought his pass was good, and...
• 11:48
  pretty unfair.
• 11:49
  He got the five second penalty.
• 11:51
  I thought Cooper just turned down whether he was unaware or he was trying to protect position.
• 11:57
  I'm not sure, but I'm very gutted for James.
• 12:00
  I don't think that should have been a penalty.
• 12:03
  But anyway, I'm very happy for Matt Payne.
• 12:06
  I was there Kiwi and then my mate Garth.
• 12:09
  He taught me how to win that race and I won it twice with Garth.
• 12:13
  And then to see him
• 12:15
  win it again, like just so stoked, you know, it was a pretty big risk for him.
• 12:20
  Well, not a risk, but a big challenge for him to go to another team that wasn't really established.
• 12:26
  And now they're a competitive team and a Bathurst winning team.
• 12:29
  I'm so stoked for, you know, Garth and Chippy, Couchy, all those guys at Grove.
• 12:33
  It's amazing to see them win it.
• 12:36
  Lovely, mate.
• 12:37
  What did Garth teach you?
• 12:38
  That intrigues me.
• 12:39
  What aspect of the race did sort of maybe sink in from him then?
• 12:43
  I don't want to give too much away.
• 12:45
  Okay.
• 12:45
  Yeah, just, I don't know, just how to be more patient.
• 12:49
  Just let it come to you and, you know, just be more relaxed on the Thursday when the car's not right, you know, because the track's going to be very different to Sunday.
• 12:57
  And, you know, he'd won it before a few times and just...
• 13:02
  Just know how it feels in the lead-up, just what you want from your car.
• 13:06
  There's some pretty critical corners there, turn one, the cutting, and the elbow, probably the three most important corners.
• 13:13
  That's where all the time is, just getting your car right at those corners and then just being patient.
• 13:18
  You don't have to be the hero over the top and be the fastest guy over the top.
• 13:23
  They get the headlines, but ultimately that's not where you pass people or defend from people.
• 13:32
  added up and yeah, once we crept that race once, I was quick there every year since.
• 13:39
  Awesome.
• 13:40
  Ryan McGregor, his daughter, Indian son, Austin, they ask, would a current gen NASCAR at Bathurst, what would that be like?
• 13:46
  Would it be a good thing in your mind?
• 13:48
  Well, I think it'd be awesome.
• 13:49
  Yeah, probably wouldn't be as fast as the supercars, but it would sound a whole lot cooler and look a whole lot cooler and probably piss off the Aussie nanny state with no mufflers.
• 14:03
  I'd be all for it.
• 14:04
  Oh, cool, cool.
• 14:06
  Austin Sindrick is obviously coming this way in the not-too-distant future.
• 14:09
  I don't know whether time has permitted you to speak with him.
• 14:11
  Maybe there's been a conversation there.
• 14:13
  What's it going to be like for him going that direction from NASCAR?
• 14:16
  Yeah, I mean, I'll say it a bit.
• 14:18
  I really don't know.
• 14:19
  You know, his...
• 14:22
  The things he has going for him is that there's three races, you know?
• 14:25
  So Friday he can sort of ease into it and, you know, he gets a qualifying in a race.
• 14:29
  Saturday, I think he gets the same.
• 14:31
  And by Sunday, that should be his money day.
• 14:33
  You know, he gets his third qualifying and then, you know, the big race, the one that matters.
• 14:39
  So he gets a lot of practice, lots of sets of tires.
• 14:42
  So as long as he's patient, keeps it straight until Sunday, I think Sunday you'll see him get a good result.
• 14:47
  Because I think he's a really good driver.
• 14:50
  but it's end of the season.
• 14:52
  You know, everyone's tuned up.
• 14:54
  They've just come off a street circuit, I think it's a Gold Coast before Adelaide.
• 14:58
  And then, you know, end of season, everyone's on the edge.
• 15:01
  So he's going to be up against it, but I'm really intrigued to see how he'll go.
• 15:07
  Tom on Facebook, is there a program in place for you during the NASCAR off season to maybe work on some things that you perhaps feel are little shortcomings?
• 15:17
  Is there things you're going to work on over the break?
• 15:19
  Yeah, we will do some more sim and stuff in the break.
• 15:23
  And then I just got to study more.
• 15:25
  Like I get all my, you get everyone's on board, you get everyone's starter and I just have to go through it, you know?
• 15:31
  So I'll take some time off, but then I'll just be studying and,
• 15:35
  Even for this week, Talladega, I'm watching Ryan Blaney.
• 15:38
  He's probably the best super speedway racer and just trying to understand how he moves at the right time and gets the flow of the race going and reads the race so much better than most people can.
• 15:50
  And he always seems to find himself in the right position.
• 15:53
  And he's got a very fast car, but it's understanding how he puts himself there.
• 15:58
  You know, I can get up front quite a lot in a super speedway race and I'm pretty decent at finding my way to the front.
• 16:05
  Um, but once I'm up there, people get rid of me, you know, they put me in a bad spot and I get forced to the back.
• 16:11
  So I just need to learn off him how to read it.
• 16:13
  So it's stuff like that.
• 16:15
  I'll be studying over the off season just to make myself better.
• 16:20
  Awesome, mate.
• 16:20
  That's a great insight.
• 16:21
  Here's one from Will Buxton, who's Drive to Survive, F1 Land, now IndyCar commentator and host on X or Twitter.
• 16:29
  He wants to know if you would be up for an Indy 500 at some stage.
• 16:33
  Ooh, I don't know about that.
• 16:36
  I actually, there was one point in time a few months ago where they were talking about...
• 16:41
  a double header at Mexico and I was rubbing my hands at that.
• 16:44
  I would have loved to have done a double header on a road course.
• 16:48
  That would be great.
• 16:50
  But Indy 500, that's difficult.
• 16:52
  You hear Kyle talk about it, especially this year.
• 16:56
  You know, it was minute by minute, all the delays and everything had to go perfect to get himself back to Charlotte.
• 17:02
  So it seems like a lot of unnecessary stress.
• 17:07
  Okay.
• 17:07
  Stu Russell on Facebook.
• 17:09
  Any more talk of Chilli Bowl or sprint car racing?
• 17:12
  Or is it just as you've described before, just for now, at least all about NASCAR?
• 17:16
  Yeah, probably not Chilli Bowl.
• 17:17
  I'd love to go watch that.
• 17:19
  I struggle to fit in a midget.
• 17:22
  But yeah, it's a shame about the sprint car stuff in New Zealand with Western Springs and all that.
• 17:29
  Yeah, I don't know if I'll race this year.
• 17:30
  I'm still working that out.
• 17:31
  But
• 17:32
  yeah i'd love to do some i love screen car racing i had a ball last year with i had an awesome team around me and great people we had fun doing i think we did seven or eight races so yeah tbd if we're going to do that this year one final one before we wrap this up mate a couple of people have asked about rallying too you enjoyed dabbling and that it was more than a than a dabble i sense it might be for for later life but is there still a want to play there maybe again one day
• 17:57
  Oh, I would love to do more rally.
• 17:58
  That's one of my most favorite disciplines of racing.
• 18:02
  And I don't know.
• 18:04
  I don't know if I regret starting too late, but I wish I had found it earlier.
• 18:10
  You know, I always had that love for it.
• 18:11
  But yeah, it was fun trying to, you know, raise the money myself, put a car together, put a team together, and then sharing those weeks with Dad.
• 18:20
  And yeah, like because my dad is a rally diehard and doing those rallies with him and...
• 18:26
  Yeah, just like the first rally I won was the Far North rally, and he won it in 1982 or something, you know?
• 18:33
  And yeah, he was crying at the finish line.
• 18:35
  Like just those moments in rally getting to go with Dad and him trying to teach me how to drive and stuff.
• 18:41
  Like I had so much fun doing rallies.
• 18:43
  So yeah, when I finish here in NASCAR, it's hard to do other stuff because we're at RECs every week.
• 18:49
  I'm definitely trying to put together a rally program.
• 18:52
  That's for sure.
• 18:53
  Cool.
• 18:53
  Finally, are you enjoying life there?
• 18:56
  You seem well settled, Shane.
• 18:59
  Your wife looks like she's got a menagerie or a small zoo happening.
• 19:02
  She seems happy too.
• 19:04
  Yeah, yeah.
• 19:04
  It's been amazing.
• 19:06
  I miss home.
• 19:07
  I miss being so far from New Zealand.
• 19:10
  It's pretty shitty, but yeah, I get to spend time there.
• 19:13
  Lots of friends come over and hang out, come to races, so it's been okay.
• 19:17
  But the racing, I really, really needed the change and I love it.
• 19:22
  The last two years have been awesome and especially reading all that crap on Thursday and Friday at Bathurst.
• 19:29
  I'm really happy I'm here.
• 19:31
  Okay.
• 19:32
  I didn't even bother to enter in that conversation, mate, because I don't want clickbait stuff to come out of that.
• 19:36
  I just wanted to talk today about what you're doing, and I'm so pleased that you're happy, mate.
• 19:40
  As we wrap this up, what you have achieved in fundamentally 65 oval races, let's call it that, you're regularly in the top 10.
• 19:48
  Mate, the best is yet to come.
• 19:50
  Thank you very much for talking to us today.
• 19:52
  Thank you.
• 19:53
  And then thanks for all the coverage too.
• 19:54
  Like it's amazing the support that I get and read from over here.
• 19:59
  And I say it all the time, but when a Kiwi or an Australian goes overseas, they just get so much more support.
• 20:05
  You know, you see the guys in Formula E, Formula One or IndyCar.
• 20:08
  It's amazing how people support us as Kiwis overseas.
• 20:12
  So yeah, thanks for supporting us and giving us all the time.
• 20:16
  I'll leave you with this thought.
• 20:18
  Michael B says on X that it was really cool having track house merch at Bathurst this year.
• 20:23
  He bought his 11-year-old a cap.
• 20:25
  He wore it proudly around the mountain all weekend.
• 20:27
  And he's been an SVG fan since he was five.
• 20:29
  So there you go, mate.
• 20:30
  Let's work it on this side too.
• 20:32
  Oh, that's awesome.
• 20:33
  Thank you.
• 20:34
  How good is he?
• 20:35
  We seem to keep having brilliant chats with Shane and I'm so pleased that we could get him back on the pod again.
• 20:40
  And we did that with the help of Trackhouse as well as colleagues at Red Bull New Zealand.
• 20:44
  Thank you.
• 20:44
  We have a short cast out in the weeks ahead with Joanne Cicconti too, one of the Aussie teenagers in F1 Academy.
• 20:51
  Final round coming up there on the support bill at Vegas F1, going to be huge.
• 20:55
  And she impressed at Singapore last time out.
• 20:58
  I'll let you know when we release that.
• 21:00
  Bye for now.