Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief: The details behind SVG's NASCAR announcement, Will Brown's move and more with Chad Neylon
Transcript
- 0:02A listener production.
- 0:04Welcome to the Motorsport Brief.
- 0:06It's Thursday, the 17th of August, 2023.
- 0:09Supercars are headed to South Australia this weekend for the OTR Super Sprint, the final stop on the tour before the endurance races begin.
- 0:18A few are getting over a...
- 0:19bit of jet lag before arriving at the bend having been in the u.s for brodie kustecchi and shane van gisbergen's nazcar outings in indianapolis and some announcements over the past week have seen the silly season for supercars shift into top gear those topics are in focus for this episode
- 0:40G'day everybody, Greg Rust with you for this edition of the Rusty's Garage Shortcast.
- 0:44For those of you asking about our traditional feature EPS, yes, we've had a little pause there to catch our breath after chalking up EPS 100.
- 0:53Michael Caruso joins us as we start the journey of our next 100, so keep an eye out for that on your notifications.
- 1:01Really cool chat, that one.
- 1:03What he's up to now?
- 1:04Pairing with his good mate in Mark Winterbottom, they've known each other since they were little tackers in karting and they'll be with Team 18 for Sandown and Bathurst.
- 1:14Plus a fun story on his stylish interview approach when he first met Gary Rogers before being thrust straight into work for GRM, literally.
- 1:25In order to find a guest for this edition of the Shortcast, we kind of needed them to tick a few boxes.
- 1:30Immersed in the sport, works in the pit lane, commentates Super 2, among other support categories.
- 1:37He's respected for his neutrality, and in a win for those of you listening, he was also stateside for Brodie and SVG's weekend at Indy, so we'll get stuck into that.
- 1:50He's a friend.
- 1:51colleague, a very worthy winner of the most recent Supercars Media Award too.
- 1:56I'm thrilled we could finally get him on.
- 1:59Chad Nalon, welcome to the garage.
- 2:02Hello, Rusty.
- 2:03Always good to chat to you, buddy, and the many, many people who download your podcast.
- 2:07Thank you, mate, for joining us today.
- 2:09Front row seat for the whole US mission.
- 2:12How was that?
- 2:13What kind of impact did the Aussie and the Kiwi respectively have on the sport and the fans there?
- 2:19Yeah.
- 2:20Oh, mate, very lucky to be able to go over there.
- 2:23So a big thank you to Brodie Kistecki and his team, including Nathan Kayser, for chucking me on the plane and taking me over there.
- 2:30So we spent a week in Charlotte, and we were really immersed with Richard Childress Racing, which is where Brodie was driving for, and also spent quite a bit of time at the GM Tech Centre.
- 2:39watching him on the crazy simulator there.
- 2:41And then we're off to Indy and spend about three or four nights there and had, like you said, the front row seat at the Pagoda to watch him rip around the brickyard, which is a pretty crazy experience.
- 2:51And any time you get to go to that track, I've been lucky enough to see MotoGP there, Indy 500.
- 2:56And this was something new, IndyCar on Saturday and then NASCAR Sunday was pretty exciting.
- 3:02What kind of impact did that have?
- 3:03It was huge.
- 3:04Like the international flavor at that event,
- 3:06with Jenson Button being there, Kimi Kobayashi, Mike Rockenfella.
- 3:10It didn't feel like NASCAR.
- 3:11It felt like sports car racing or something completely different.
- 3:14They've just massively embraced the international flavour in NASCAR right now.
- 3:18It shows you how crazy far that sport has come.
- 3:21Media reaction was big too.
- 3:22I mean, for Shane to, and Brodie, I think even for that matter, to spend some time with Dale Jr.
- 3:29The response, perhaps given the hype of what happened in Chicago, was significant, wasn't it?
- 3:36Yeah, that was the moment, wasn't it?
- 3:38That changed everything.
- 3:40We came into Chicago.
- 3:41These guys didn't even know who Shane Van Gisvergen was.
- 3:44They are very much aware of him and also the internationals now that want to come over and play.
- 3:49They've got a new respect for what their skill set is.
- 3:52But Indianapolis was always going to be a bit of a different thing, wasn't it?
- 3:55Because it was a track where the local guys already knew their way around.
- 3:58They'd had a few races there before.
- 3:59It was a normal road course, not a street circuit like the one that Shane had his win at.
- 4:03There was no rain as well, things that were always going to tip in Shane's favour.
- 4:06So very different to what we had in Chicago.
- 4:09And that's why we didn't see Brodie or Shane just get out there and wipe the floor with them like Shane sort of did in Chicago.
- 4:15But there were some immense positives.
- 4:17I mean, despite the crash for Brodie, I think, I mean, the way he still came through the field in a very significant way, just outside the top 20 in the end, I think there's lots of positives to take away from it, isn't there?
- 4:31Hugely.
- 4:31I mean, Brodie carried himself superbly throughout the entire week, starting with the simulator at Chevrolet.
- 4:37And they were just gripped with what he had to say about feedback and things, terminology that they weren't used to.
- 4:43And you could tell that they were just feeding off him and the things that he was able to give them in terms of setting up the car.
- 4:49Because what you've got to remember is they don't have like what we have in Australia, where you have multiple practice sessions and you tinker and you fix things.
- 4:54That car is pretty much set.
- 4:56Once you arrive at the track, you change very minimal things.
- 4:59You have one practice session, one qualifying, and then bang, into the race.
- 5:03And Brody didn't get a test day.
- 5:05He had no other time apart from the simulator time.
- 5:07And then he lost the entire practice session with a pedal box issue as well.
- 5:11So he rolled into qualifying, essentially having never driven a NASCAR Cup car.
- 5:15And then he had his one lap.
- 5:17essentially to go and do the job.
- 5:19And he was seventh out of the 20 cars that he was qualifying with.
- 5:22And then he went and did another lap on the same set of tyres, got it down to sixth, and it was like he just missed that transfer spot to get into the top ten by one spot.
- 5:30And then it was the next lap he tried and just risked it a little bit too much and put it in the fence.
- 5:34He did a great job.
- 5:35And driving through the field the way he did, finishing 22nd is not a true indicator of where that kid's speed was.
- 5:41He was...
- 5:42on speed with Shane the whole time during that race, if not quicker, through that last stint.
- 5:46He had a top 10 car and a top 10 ability.
- 5:49Can you give us a report card from your standpoint and maybe even what the teams have sort of said on their respective races and race weekends there?
- 5:56From Richard Childress Race,
- 5:57I think they probably left a little disappointed given that they won at Indianapolis the year prior with Tyler Reddick.
- 6:02But I think they learned a lot, a tremendous amount.
- 6:05Back-to-back road courses as well because they go straight over to Watkins Glen.
- 6:09For Trackhouse, the team that SVG drives for, they actually picked up the pole with Daniel Suarez.
- 6:13It was a slow pit stop that cost them the race win because Suarez probably definitely had the speed over Michael McDowell.
- 6:19But a slow pit stop just cost them and ultimately they would have won.
- 6:22the way winners of chicago winners of indy with shane winning in chicago and then daniel suarez winning at indy so they'll probably a little bit disappointed too but i think that they what they've proven is that they've got the speed and they bring in these road course ringers and they've got the ability to challenge for race wins so i'd be very surprised if we didn't see more of this cool a couple to finish this part of our discussion before we kind of move into to silly season if you don't mind um
- 6:47You mentioned before about IndyCar being on the bill too.
- 6:50I mean, just an amazing weekend for fans.
- 6:52Did you get to take that in as well, or were you kind of tied up on the content side?
- 6:57I mean, that is such a competitive series, isn't it?
- 7:01Yeah.
- 7:01Actually, I got to watch qualifying from down behind Scotty McLaughlin's pit area, which was pretty cool.
- 7:06So I had a good chat to Carly, his wife, down there, and just watched Scotty rip around.
- 7:09He didn't quite make it through to the last part of qualifying.
- 7:13And the Penske cars in general just didn't seem to quite have the speed that they typically have around that place.
- 7:18But watching what Scott Dixon did in that race, he got turned around in the opening lap.
- 7:22He was last on the restart, essentially.
- 7:24and just did what he does and with a good strategy, popped out the other side and all of a sudden it was his race win.
- 7:31Similar to the NASCAR race, Daniel Suarez was the quick guy, didn't win.
- 7:34Graham Rahul was the quick guy and didn't win.
- 7:37It was funny watching the way that strategy played out in that one.
- 7:39But what's that, 19 years straight now that Xenis won an IndyCar race?
- 7:44The guy is just...
- 7:45like evergreen incredible.
- 7:47So to be able to be at the Brickyard, you know, it's like a classic.
- 7:49I'll tell my grandkids I saw Scott Dixon win at the Brickyard.
- 7:52Very cool.
- 7:53It wasn't the 500, but it still counts.
- 7:54Doesn't matter.
- 7:55Doesn't matter.
- 7:55I mean, he is just the ultimate athlete.
- 7:58And I think at times in our part of the world, he doesn't always get the recognition that he properly deserves, I should say.
- 8:04Peter Adderton is outspoken at times.
- 8:07I mean, fans can have their own view on that.
- 8:09Whatever you think.
- 8:11He did keep his word.
- 8:12He supported Brodie on this project for quite some time now.
- 8:15That didn't seem to really ever waver.
- 8:17Can you see this pair doing something like this again, or at the very least, another NASCAR outing for Brodie?
- 8:23I think you kind of alluded to that in one of your answers there a moment ago.
- 8:28Yeah, so he had a really good group of sponsors, Mobile X, which is essentially the new version that sprouted out from Boost Mobile with the same owners, like you mentioned, Peter Addedon, and then also Velo, which are pretty familiar here in Australia, but they're expanding into America, which is why I think coincidentally they've added the I into Velo.
- 8:46because that's all part of the US expansion there, and Shoreham Partners as well.
- 8:50So a collection of sponsors that have been with Brody for a while, we're familiar with them in supercars, and they've really backed him into what he's doing in America at the moment.
- 8:59And I'd be very surprised if Brody wanted to do more of this, if they didn't come along with him, because he seems to really click with that little group of partners that he's got.
- 9:07He's very appreciative of the support that they give him.
- 9:10Peter Addison is besotted by Brody.
- 9:12Like you can tell...
- 9:14Like they were just, when he got out of the car, he finished 22nd, he's walking back through Gasoline Alley, he sort of got his chin down a little bit, and his sponsors were around him like family members, you know, patting him on the back, telling him how proud they are of him.
- 9:26And so they're extremely supportive.
- 9:29And, yeah, I think if we see more of Brodie running in America, I think we'll see similar sponsors on that car.
- 9:34By the way, it looked amazing.
- 9:35It did, it did.
- 9:36Car looked mint.
- 9:37Very cool.
- 9:37And the helmet, for that matter, as well, mate.
- 9:40Very cool.
- 9:41Now, while you're there, news breaks.
- 9:43that his Erebus teammate, Will Brown, I know there'd been some rumours and so on, but at breaks that he's going to leave the team.
- 9:51We now know where he's off to, obviously.
- 9:53Can you give us a sense of the reaction?
- 9:55You're away in the States.
- 9:57Some of the members of the Erebus team are there with you.
- 10:00What was the kind of response?
- 10:02Yeah.
- 10:03Yeah, he had George Commons with him.
- 10:04He's a race engineer here in Australia.
- 10:06He was actually very helpful for the team at RCR to learn from an Aussie supercars engineer.
- 10:12Yeah, he did a very good job, really, of just putting his mind forward to what was coming up at the brickyard and sort of compartmentalising, okay, well, this is happening.
- 10:22I'll ignore that for now and just focus on the job.
- 10:25It helped that he had 12 hours of simulator time.
- 10:27Yes.
- 10:27Probably where he could just punch gears away and keep hitting the brake and the throttle pedal.
- 10:33Yeah, I mean, I imagine it could have been a bit of a distraction for him.
- 10:36It probably helped that it happened earlier in the week as well.
- 10:39Like the whispers were starting to happen pretty much once we got to America.
- 10:43And then from that point onwards, he was like, okay, well, now I'm just going to focus on going and doing my job at Indianapolis.
- 10:49But it does create a very interesting dynamic, doesn't it, for the rest of the year?
- 10:52I think if they weren't so hell-bent on winning the team's championship as well as the driver's championship, that it could maybe be a bit more disruptive.
- 11:00But I think we'll see that real bromance between Brodie and Will probably persist through the rest of the year because they are very clearly good friends.
- 11:09I fully expect that to change when he goes over to the other mob in 2024.
- 11:13But at the moment, they're very good mates.
- 11:15And everyone keeps sort of pushing them and niggling at them as to when that will stop.
- 11:20One day, surely, when you're fighting for a championship, you can't be best friends forever.
- 11:23But it's not showing any signs of easing up at the moment.
- 11:26Funny story for you on my end of the scale.
- 11:29I walked into a garage at Queensland Raceway where I was there for Speed Series and TCR.
- 11:35Will's in there with Tom Brown, his engineer, in the Melbourne Performance Centre pit and so on.
- 11:40And I thought, I'm not going to talk to him about this because he'll be getting hounded by journos.
- 11:45I just want to catch up with him.
- 11:47So I started to ask him about his pit special plane that he's got.
- 11:51And that's a sort of side project that Will's really excited about.
- 11:55And I...
- 11:56you know, started the conversation along those lines and he looked stressed.
- 11:59He said, mate, I can't talk about this.
- 12:00I can't talk about this.
- 12:02Tom kind of elbowed him and said, hey, mate, he's not asking you about anything about where you're going or where he's asking you about your plane.
- 12:09So he was stressed.
- 12:10And then at three o'clock that afternoon, the news obviously came out from an Erebus perspective and he put out his own post and so on.
- 12:17We now know that he's heading to Red Bull.
- 12:20That's come out in the past 24 hours.
- 12:23How wide are you...
- 12:25Can you tell us how wide do you reckon they cast the net for replacements?
- 12:29And while we're on that, a lot of people, a lot of our journalist colleagues for a time thought that Richie Stanaway was the man most likely in the early part of the race if Shane did leave.
- 12:40And that's kind of changed, hasn't it?
- 12:45Yeah.
- 12:45I mean, how far do you cast that net?
- 12:47I mean, extremely far all around the world.
- 12:49I mean, that is a seat that anybody would kill to drive in.
- 12:55That's probably the coveted seat that you can go and get.
- 12:58Probably have 888 on the door as well.
- 13:00It doesn't get any bigger than that just about in supercars.
- 13:03When you look, there are GT teams like Audi, for example, folding their operations.
- 13:08So they've got a ton of very talented race car drivers about a seat all around the world.
- 13:12So for them to look internally into the supercars world and then essentially poach someone from another team that was under contract is quite a big call.
- 13:20And it probably serves a big reminder to everybody in pit lane that no one is safe from change.
- 13:26No one is safe from being picked up
- 13:29mid-contract and moved in another direction should someone come calling him.
- 13:33And Shane, under contract, leaving.
- 13:36Will Brown, under contract, leaving.
- 13:38So there's still a lot of seats available, whether it be Groves or there's talk of change at Walkinshaw, Team 18.
- 13:45And you go, okay, well, who's off contract?
- 13:47Maybe the question we should be asking isn't who's off contract.
- 13:50It's just who would be the right fit.
- 13:59We are potentially here in for one of the biggest silly seasons in a long time.
- 14:03And looking at it, I mean, some teams are upsizing, others look like downsizing.
- 14:08Maybe with the exception of DJR, it looks like most are going to have change of some kind potentially, aren't they?
- 14:15Yeah.
- 14:16So I think DJR, they're locked in, obviously, with Anton and Will.
- 14:20It looks like they've got sort of Kai Allen waiting in the wings as well, potentially for one day in the future, which is really exciting.
- 14:25And now we know who's driving the T8 cars.
- 14:28That is it.
- 14:29The next nine teams down pit lane probably all going to have some form of change.
- 14:35I don't think my 10 years working in the sport have seen anything quite like that.
- 14:39It's going to be, when we rock into round one next year, a very different looking grid.
- 14:44And it also, you know, a life and a grid without Shane Van Gisbergen there.
- 14:47Like, what is life after Shane going to look like in the supercars?
- 14:51I think it's going to look fine.
- 14:52You know, we've, over the last few years, Jamie Winkup, Craig Lowndes, Garth Tander, Scott McLaughlin, Shane Van Gisbergen, all, you know, absolute icons of the sport.
- 15:02all gone, you know, and replacing them is Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki, Brock Feeney, you know, all these young, hungry kids coming through, James Golding, who have proven to be already, like Bryce Fullwood, the next wave of guys who are going to stand up and they're going to make their name be counted as well, and they've got great opportunities.
- 15:21You know, a couple of kids who started in the Toyota 86s,
- 15:24a series that's not even seven years old yet, have made it into triple eight already.
- 15:29You know, they're backing the youth.
- 15:30So while people go, oh, you know, the sky is falling, we're losing SVG and all these other great drivers, potentially one day.
- 15:37I don't see it like that at all.
- 15:38I see it as let's see the next wave of kids come through.
- 15:41Change is not a bad thing.
- 15:42Look what Formula One's done with SVG.
- 15:44George Russell, Lando Norris, like all these amazing young drivers coming through.
- 15:48We have exceptional drivers waiting in the ranks in the Mop Series and Toyota 86 and all these other categories, Porsche Carrera Cup, ready to go.
- 15:56So bring them in.
- 15:57Great outlook.
- 15:58A couple to finish here because you've been great with your time.
- 16:00SVG, now free to race overseas.
- 16:03Will he do Bathurst?
- 16:04To me, if it fits the schedule, I can't see him not doing it because he loves it so much.
- 16:11Yeah.
- 16:12So it depends on the schedule, right?
- 16:14So he did say at City Motorsport Park that he wasn't looking to do full-time yet.
- 16:19But part-time over there is still probably 20 to 25 races a year, right?
- 16:23So I'd be surprised if, A, the schedule is clear enough, and, B, like, you know, we saw Scott McLaughlin make a pretty clean break, didn't we?
- 16:32Yes.
- 16:32And he never came back to do a basis.
- 16:34I get the feeling Shane's probably leaning towards doing that as well.
- 16:40you know, I'm sure he'd love to come back and keep winning multiple Bathurst and Scotty would as well.
- 16:43But it's just when your focus goes in one direction, putting everything you've got into that opportunity might actually be what's best for him.
- 16:51Final hit out before Sandown and Bathurst, when you go to the bend, new cars for the Enduros this year, what things should we get excited about in potential in those races?
- 17:04I mean, things that might be different with those Gen 3 cars in
- 17:11I think there's going to be a lot of talk about reliability, no doubt.
- 17:13Like, they're the long days to get through, right?
- 17:15500 Ks of sand down, smashing the kerbs.
- 17:18That is a big ask for any motor vehicle ever.
- 17:21You know, like, yes, our old cars are so reliable because we've had them for, what, seven years or whatever it was, pounding around.
- 17:27But these new cars obviously still going to have a lot of teething issues.
- 17:30So they're still working out, engineering-wise, a lot within the car.
- 17:34I'm sure in another seven years they'll be bulletproof.
- 17:36But for now, it's year one.
- 17:37And so they're still figuring a lot of that stuff out.
- 17:40you know, we will see retirements.
- 17:41We will see big names falling out of that race.
- 17:44We could see someone play the smart card and just go a little more conservative and pop out the other end and get a pretty big result.
- 17:52But with four drivers fighting for a championship and 600 points across Sandown and Bathurst up for grabs, I hope...
- 17:58It doesn't affect one of those top four, and I hope we get out the other end and we go into the last two rounds of the championship with all four of them still in contact with each other because that'll make for something pretty special.
- 18:08Just cast an eye forward to Adelaide for a second, Rusty.
- 18:10You've got Shane Van Gisbergen having his swan song, his farewell race.
- 18:14Imagine if he is up against...
- 18:16potentially Will Brown or Brodie Kostecki or even Brock Feeney and how crazy that scenario is going to be, it might just be that final fairytale Shane moment in a long, long history of fairytales for that guy when we get Adelaide.
- 18:30Awesome stuff, mate.
- 18:31Great work by you as always.
- 18:32Hope you've been able to get over the jet lag.
- 18:34I think you did a bit of mowing to cope with that.
- 18:38Anything to avoid jet lag.
- 18:39If it means mowing the lawn on an 8th degree Melbourne day, then whatever.
- 18:43Well done.
- 18:44Thank you very much for joining us on the podcast today.
- 18:46Have a fantastic weekend at the Bend and go get them in your coverage of the Enduros as well.
- 18:51Thank you, mate.
- 18:52Could be a bit of rain around at the Bend.
- 18:53So unmissable TV coming up this weekend.
- 18:58Incidentally, who should Erebus go with as Will's replacement?
- 19:02Rumour Mills says Jack LeBrock is in kind of the box seat at the moment.
- 19:06Is there anyone else that you think would fit the Erebus mould?
- 19:10Also, while we're on this subject, there are going to be differing views on Will Brown's decision and his impending departure from Erebus.
- 19:19Some fans are upset, given the loyalty that Barry, Betty Klemenko and the Erebus team have shown him and the opportunity that they've given him.
- 19:28To Chad's point, it is a game where change happens.
- 19:33So you don't have to like that necessarily.
- 19:37Maybe you accept change.
- 19:39Let's just remember whichever side of the viewpoint you're on, and both are fine.
- 19:44When we're on socials dealing with that, let's respect someone else who may not share your viewpoint.
- 19:52A little bit of tension in the wake of the Speed Series round at Queensland Raceway.
- 19:56Jordan Cox taking a swipe at Tony Dalberto following an incident between the Peugeot and Honda drivers, respectively, in the final race.
- 20:05Very early on there in that final race too.
- 20:07Tony did...
- 20:09as you'd expect with TD, put his hand up and apologise for what happened.
- 20:13Now, Jordan implied in a post-race interview that he thought Tony's 10-second penalty wasn't enough and he suggested Tony was no good last year but still collected enough points to win the TCR crown.
- 20:26Tony has responded on socials, something we don't often see him do, saying, this guy...
- 20:33has a very short memory and that he never sledged Jordan on TV when the roles were reversed at Winton in June.
- 20:41A situation, he says, Cox never apologised for.
- 20:46The Bend has been rebranded in the lead-up to this weekend's Supercars Round and will now be known as Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.
- 20:55And finally, our Southern Cross Osterio stablemates, Triple M in Adelaide, had a very interesting anonymous call in the past week with the listener claiming to be across a deal that would see supercars sold to the Shahins who own the Bend.
- 21:11Now, some wonder if this was a bit of a PR stunt, given all the hype around the US NASCAR trip for Brody and SVG perhaps took away from coverage or the promotional impact in the crucial days leading up to this round, right?
- 21:27Others say where there's smoke...
- 21:29There's fire.
- 21:31Watch this space.
- 21:32That is it for today.
- 21:33We haven't forgotten about two-wheel fans, I promise you.
- 21:36Good news, Jack Miller has agreed to come on the shortcast next month as we gear up and kind of preview MotoGP at Phillip Island.
- 21:44And all the best to a great friend of the show too, Molly Taylor, who's added the RX2 E-Series to her incredibly busy schedule.
- 21:53She's in Germany this weekend for the round of the Electric Rallycross Championship.
- 21:58Go get them.
- 21:59Thanks for listening.
- 22:00Thank you for all your feedback and reviews of the pod too.
- 22:03We see each and every one of them.
- 22:05We'll catch you next week, everybody.
- 22:06Bye for now.