Latest / Rusty's Garage / Dave Casey - Part 1

Transcript

Dave Casey - Part 1 · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:14
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  We're heading into new terrain this ep.
• 0:29
  Little play on words there as four-wheel driving and ute racing feature.
• 0:33
  But the convo is more wide-reaching than that.
• 0:36
  Dave Casey is a bit of a character who we wanted to get to know better.
• 0:40
  Some in the supercars paddock are acutely aware of mudflap, a nickname relating to a trademark mullity proudly sports.
• 0:48
  But that's not the only reason they seem to be taking a shine to him.
• 0:52
  Casey is making competitive strides behind the wheel in circuit racing, having been a proven winner off-road.
• 0:59
  And what he does away from the track is arguably even more impressive.
• 1:04
  From the early days, paddock bashing in a Toyota that he bought for a couple of hundred bucks, to shoehorning a powerful road tree into the most unlikely little four-wheel drive chassis –
• 1:14
  plus his eventing work that's helped create a show far north Queensland is incredibly proud of, one that attracts four-wheel drivers and industry exhibitors from all around the country.
• 1:27
  He's had some guidance from Paul Morris, who you can find in the garage library, and he's clearly got unfinished business in stadium super trucks too.
• 1:35
  More on that a little later.
• 1:37
  Dave Casey is one of those guests that I reckon will surprise you.
• 1:41
  His easygoing, likeable Aussie nature masks a strong inner drive to master a new challenge in circuit racing, all while retaining his pure love of getting off road.
• 1:53
  And that's how we connected, via a mutual supporter in Bendix Brakes.
• 1:57
  I've been and seen the world-class product they are designing and producing at their Ballarat facility.
• 2:03
  And Dave has showcased their four-wheel drive brake upgrade kits in all sorts of builds and terrain.
• 2:10
  Strap in.
• 2:11
  I hope you enjoy the ride.
• 2:14
  Dave, welcome to the podcast.
• 2:16
  How you going, mate?
• 2:17
  It's fantastic to get you on.
• 2:18
  I am reliably informed you're a bit of a character.
• 2:21
  My buddy, Matt Nolte, who commentates the Ute series, has spoken very highly of you.
• 2:26
  And we thought it'd be a bit of fun to get you on the pod and have a conversation.
• 2:30
  Firstly, where does the love of anything, four-wheel drive, Utes, you name it, where does that all come from?
• 2:38
  Obviously, it's really, really popular in our area of Rocky, so it's sort of our go-to thing.
• 2:45
  Everyone growing up, they sort of always want to get a Nissan Patrol or Toyota Land Cruiser because we're from the bush, so that's sort of where it all came from.
• 2:53
  Yeah, just kicked things off really early in my life with a four-wheel drive, yeah.
• 2:59
  Normally, it's something in the driveway as you're growing up.
• 3:03
  Was there a family wagon that evoked some fun memories or what are the early childhood wheel stories that you can tell us?
• 3:12
  I actually didn't have a full drive as my first car.
• 3:16
  It was a K55 Toyota Corolla.
• 3:20
  Fantastic.
• 3:21
  That sounds very unlike you though, mate.
• 3:23
  Very unlike you.
• 3:24
  Yeah, it was...
• 3:25
  It was $200.
• 3:27
  I saved up and bought it with my pocket money and that.
• 3:31
  Yeah, it taught me a lot, that car, because it was a rear-wheel drive one.
• 3:35
  But yeah, it was a good little car.
• 3:37
  They're really reliable and yeah, it teaches you a lot of skills on dirt.
• 3:41
  So yeah, it was pretty cool.
• 3:44
  Well done.
• 3:44
  Where did you track that down?
• 3:46
  Is that a Rockhampton purchase somewhere in Queensland?
• 3:48
  And what became of that car?
• 3:50
  Yeah, it was obviously just in the local handy trader and I was just dying to get behind the wheel of an actual car, not a buggy or anything.
• 3:59
  So, yeah, me parents, we went and had a look at it and we picked it up.
• 4:04
  Yeah, just drove around the paddocks behind our house and had a lot of fun over the years.
• 4:09
  Awesome.
• 4:10
  That teaches you a lot, Dave, doesn't it?
• 4:12
  Some of that fun stuff, that car control in paddocks and things like that.
• 4:16
  Yeah, definitely.
• 4:18
  What you learn there, you take on with you for the rest of your life.
• 4:23
  Obviously my parents, my mum particularly, didn't like me sliding in and out between trees.
• 4:30
  um yeah she got over it and yeah it's probably um taught me taught me what i'm doing now in cars i've dragged it right through right right from there sort of thing so yeah it's it's good stepping stone
• 4:42
  Now, we can see each other for this chat, which I like.
• 4:44
  You always have a very stylish haircut.
• 4:47
  Tell me a little bit about that, how long you've had them, and you don't mind mucking around with that too, do you?
• 4:52
  Yeah, the old mullet.
• 4:54
  I haven't had it too long.
• 4:57
  Yeah, it's probably a few years now.
• 5:00
  I got the inspiration from Pappenhausen, the NRL player.
• 5:05
  Mrs is like, oh, I like that haircut.
• 5:07
  So I'm like, yeah, I should grow one of them.
• 5:10
  And it's sort of stuck and, yeah, I mean, my nickname's Mudflap now.
• 5:14
  So, yeah, because it's sort of like a four-wheel drive thing, got the mullet on the back.
• 5:19
  That's what's on the back of the ute.
• 5:20
  So, yeah, it fits in well.
• 5:22
  Good on you.
• 5:23
  So it's not going anywhere anytime soon then, is it?
• 5:25
  Nah, I'm a bit worried one day when it goes grey.
• 5:28
  I don't know what I'm going to do then.
• 5:29
  So...
• 5:31
  The move from having fun with the early Corolla that you bought for a couple of hundred bucks to something that was a little more off-road or competitive orientated, what was that vehicle and what sparked the interest for you to try some of the – I mean, there's various aspects to your career here that we'll get to from ute racing to stadium super trucks and more.
• 5:54
  But in a four-wheel drive sense, that's been the underpinning of the early part of your career, hasn't it?
• 6:01
  Yeah, yeah, sort of, we started off, we had a lot of off-road buggies and that, and then winch challenges are very popular in our area.
• 6:10
  It's very, they're very big in Queensland and Victoria, mainly.
• 6:15
  Well done, mate, well done.
• 6:22
  So my actual first winch challenge car was a Suzuki Sierra soft top, so they're like a little hairdresser car.
• 6:32
  It actually went pretty good because a lot of the tracks, they sort of, the wheelbase and that was so tiny, it sort of went in between them.
• 6:40
  So I never got bogged or anything.
• 6:42
  Obviously it was a lot slower, but we didn't do too bad in it.
• 6:46
  So it stirred a lot of the bigger guys up that have been doing it for years and spent a lot more money, obviously.
• 6:52
  So yeah, we started off in that.
• 6:54
  And then obviously as we kept on getting faster and better, we transitioned into
• 7:00
  Nissan patrols and really heavily developed them.
• 7:06
  But, yeah, that was the first car, the old Suzuki Sierra, which I've still got now.
• 7:11
  But, yeah, I actually just finished rebuilding that.
• 7:13
  So, yeah, it's a very, very important car in my life.
• 7:18
  Well done.
• 7:19
  I'm glad that you've kept it.
• 7:20
  Can we just share with the audience, you know, you have a lot of followers that are into their four-wheel driving and they will know the answer to this question, but just take the rest of our Rusty's Garage crew on a little journey for one of those winch challenges.
• 7:33
  What happens?
• 7:33
  What do you do?
• 7:34
  How does it work?
• 7:35
  And so on.
• 7:36
  So it's basically like a mixture of like rally Dakar style events.
• 7:45
  There's a lot of GPS stages and then there's sprint stages that are, you know, basically someone going walking through a...
• 7:53
  an undriven paddock just straight through the bush, trees, rocks, anything, and they just mark out tracks with bunting.
• 8:01
  And you've got to try and get there through that track to start to finish as quick as you can.
• 8:06
  And, yeah, it's pretty cool.
• 8:09
  And, like, the cars these days, you know,
• 8:13
  on average probably have six, seven hundred horsepower and the suspension, you know, they're using the same coil over and triple bypass as a trophy truck.
• 8:24
  So they're very serious cars and they require a lot of talent to drive them fast.
• 8:31
  And then the whole winch name comes in because if we can't drive something, the wall's too steep, the rocks are too big, then we've got to,
• 8:39
  winch over them and then obviously the quicker you can winch the faster time you do so now you know we we modify our winches add more motors to them 24 volt you know all the bells and whistles to to make them faster and then there's rules of that to come in to make sure you you know you stick to the guidelines and you get penalties so it's it's pretty it's pretty cool not a lot of people in the city have heard of it but um
• 9:07
  Yeah, you should come have a watch one day.
• 9:08
  I think you'd be quite surprised.
• 9:10
  The landscape is beautiful and the challenges are, to use the young kid phrases, mate, they are gnarly, aren't they?
• 9:17
  Yeah.
• 9:18
  Some hardcore stuff.
• 9:20
  Yeah.
• 9:20
  And clearly you enjoy that.
• 9:22
  Yeah, I loved it.
• 9:23
  I haven't done it too much of a late, but, yeah, I wouldn't mind getting back into it.
• 9:29
  But, yeah, it's definitely...
• 9:32
  Definitely been a big part of my life for a long time.
• 9:35
  Tell me about the Suzuki and the kind of mods that you've had along the way.
• 9:38
  And has this become something of a restoration project for you?
• 9:43
  What's that been about?
• 9:45
  Yeah, we've got this event up our way called Dobinson's King of the Strip.
• 9:51
  It's four drive drags.
• 9:54
  Myself, three other blokes sort of run it.
• 9:56
  Well, Dobinson's Spring Works, they've actually run it.
• 10:02
  And then, yeah, myself, Nick Hogg and Alan Cornick and Ben Dobinson, we all run it and it's actually turned into the biggest four drive drag event in Australia and richest one.
• 10:14
  I didn't really have a car for it.
• 10:17
  And everyone's like, oh, what are you going to build for it?
• 10:20
  And then we sort of had this stupid idea of putting a really big motor in – oh, like not big but a really powerful motor in my Suzuki because it was just sitting in the back of the shed.
• 10:31
  Yeah, as one year finished, I think to that, the following year, I was working day and night with a fabrication shop just to get this thing built for this event that was just a few months ago.
• 10:44
  And yeah, it's the craziest thing I've ever driven.
• 10:47
  Like, it's like driving a CR500 motorbike on the road, mate.
• 10:52
  It's, yeah, it's absolutely nuts.
• 10:54
  Share some of the stats.
• 10:55
  Tell us about the power plant and more.
• 10:57
  So it's got a Mazda 13B rotary turbo in it.
• 11:03
  Yeah, and it's fully built.
• 11:07
  It punched out 520 horsepower at the wheels, so the power-to-weight ratio just weighs under 1,000 kilos, so it's very violent when it comes on boost.
• 11:19
  Yeah.
• 11:20
  Drive train?
• 11:21
  Yeah, it's got the RX-7 box behind it.
• 11:24
  We want to change that because it keeps blowing boxes at the moment, so we're going to probably put a turbo 400 in it.
• 11:32
  And it's got a nine inch diff in the rear, all custom made and shortened with bigger axles and whatnot.
• 11:41
  And yeah, just Dobinson coilovers and just hang on for dear life, mate, is very, very violent car.
• 11:49
  Like to the point where like,
• 11:52
  When you're taken off and you fully give it the full throttle and it comes on boost, it like creaks, like I've grown the chassis, like that's how much tension it's under.
• 12:01
  Like it's like a leash.
• 12:03
  Twisted almost.
• 12:04
  Yeah.
• 12:04
  It's like, it's just like, yeah, it's hard to explain.
• 12:08
  It's just, it's very aggressive.
• 12:10
  So it's pretty cool.
• 12:12
  Awesome.
• 12:13
  Will you do more to it or do you feel like it's at peak kind of development there?
• 12:18
  Nah, nah, definitely.
• 12:19
  Yeah, we'll put that Turbo 400 in it.
• 12:22
  Yeah, probably run 10s down the quarter in it then.
• 12:25
  And then, yeah, just I'm going to get it like it's all fully engineered to drive on the road.
• 12:32
  So I just want to finish that off and get it street registered.
• 12:35
  And it's just a great little promo car.
• 12:37
  It's bright red.
• 12:39
  And obviously the rotary noise, it just turns a lot of heads.
• 12:42
  So it's going to have some fun with it on the weekends.
• 12:44
  And yeah, just keep, you know, turning heads with it.
• 12:49
  The early part of your career, when you look at the CV sort of around, I don't know, back to 2007, for example, modified class, four by four outright wins, cliffhanger, you were a stage winner there in 2014 and so on.
• 13:01
  Tell us a little bit about the early part and was it just kind of weekend fun with friends?
• 13:07
  Was it something you were seriously pursuing?
• 13:09
  What was it about at that stage?
• 13:11
  Yeah, like that during 2009, that was our first sort of championship we won.
• 13:18
  So that was really starting to get into it serious then.
• 13:22
  After that, we built another car.
• 13:24
  Prior to that, it was just, yeah, just go and have a bit of fun with mates sort of thing.
• 13:29
  Just it wasn't do it as you could afford.
• 13:33
  And then after we got our first championship, yeah, really costs really blew out and we started –
• 13:39
  Throwing a lot of money at cars and trying to, you know, get faster and faster.
• 13:44
  You know, it just, it was crazy times, but I wouldn't change it for the world.
• 13:52
  Excellent.
• 13:52
  So from a career perspective, what are you doing Monday to Friday to supplement this, to make the weekend habit go around?
• 14:02
  So I work with my parents.
• 14:05
  They contract to real estate companies doing their marketing and media work.
• 14:10
  So I go in and draw a lot of floor plans for houses.
• 14:13
  Like when you go and buy something, you look at a plan of the house.
• 14:16
  So I do like the drafting of that.
• 14:17
  Yeah.
• 14:19
  Obviously, I've got SWL on my race team.
• 14:23
  We sell a lot of merch and do a few car builds and that.
• 14:27
  So, yeah, I keep pretty busy in between everything.
• 14:31
  Tell me about SWL, what it stands for, how long it's been going and so on.
• 14:35
  Bit of fun behind this too, isn't it?
• 14:37
  Um, yeah, it's a bit of a silly story, but, um, first, first, um, team winch challenge we ever done, you had to have three cars in it and they were all, um, they were all stock standard.
• 14:50
  The only thing they had was diff locks.
• 14:53
  So we're just, we didn't have a team name.
• 14:54
  It was all last minute.
• 14:55
  So we just all put our heads together and we're like, oh, we'll just call stockers with lockers.
• 15:00
  And then, um.
• 15:02
  And it's stuck.
• 15:03
  Yeah, it's just stuck.
• 15:05
  And then sort of it just came with everything I'd done.
• 15:09
  Oh, that's Stockers with Lockers.
• 15:11
  And then I sort of like, oh, I can't keep calling myself this forever.
• 15:14
  So I'm just like, oh, I'll change it to SWL.
• 15:16
  And everyone knows the SWL logo now.
• 15:20
  So I've just kept it at that.
• 15:31
  Motorsport sure has its share of characters.
• 15:34
  Dave Casey might be one of the new breed, but there are others in Rusty's library you might enjoy, like Roscoe Mac Glashen, the fastest Aussie on earth.
• 15:42
  20 kilometers away, at least down the freeway.
• 15:47
  He said he went to put the key in the front door and he heard his noise.
• 15:50
  And he said, Jesus, it seemed like a jet.
• 15:52
  And he's got an airport, the genicot airport was pretty near them.
• 15:54
  He thought, oh, there must be someone screwing around with a jet at the airport or something.
• 15:59
  And as he put his key in the lock, as the story told me,
• 16:04
  felt the bloody vibration at his house.
• 16:07
  He said vibrated all the way down the freeway and he felt the vibration at his front door.
• 16:11
  He said, holy shit, McLachin, you arsehole.
• 16:15
  Hear incredible stories from a life spent in the pursuit of speed, including the bespoke build of Aussie Invader, the 200,000 horsepower rocket land speed car.
• 16:24
  You probably can't four wheel drive that.
• 16:27
  Sorry, Dave.
• 16:30
  the stories around Rocky and the massive four by four scene there, you sort of touched on that a little bit.
• 16:37
  Give people a sense of the kind of numbers that come to these events, the other kind of cars or four wheel drives rather that you're up against and so on.
• 16:45
  Yeah.
• 16:45
  Because you don't sort of have a, a motorsport kind of complex or a track as such there, do you?
• 16:51
  No, we don't.
• 16:52
  And we're, we're,
• 16:53
  That's exactly right.
• 16:55
  That's why we got such a big four-wheel drive following here because we don't have a track to go to.
• 17:00
  No one can go and get off the streets and do any circuit racing work.
• 17:05
  So what we do is we use our four-wheel drives, and it is massive here.
• 17:08
  I think –
• 17:10
  Per head, per capita, Dobinson's worked it out.
• 17:13
  We got the highest number of four-wheel drive enthusiasts in Australia.
• 17:17
  Isn't that right?
• 17:19
  Yeah, yes.
• 17:20
  So that's why we got, like, a large event like Dobinson's King of the Strip.
• 17:24
  Like, I think we get just over 100 entries in that, which it's not only that, it's the prize money that goes with it.
• 17:31
  I think, yeah, it's the richest one in Australia.
• 17:34
  I personally run an invite-only four-wheel drive display at Rocky Nats.
• 17:40
  Yeah.
• 17:40
  Fantastic.
• 17:41
  So I call up people.
• 17:45
  I think cars are worthy and invite them to be in this display.
• 17:49
  And this year it was absolutely phenomenal, the quality of cars we had.
• 17:53
  SWL Racing 4x4 display.
• 17:55
  This is our Bendix Super Ute, the one we'll be racing in Perth.
• 18:00
  Everyone you talked to was really impressed by it.
• 18:03
  Rocky Nats, you know, as everyone says, you build something and it will come.
• 18:08
  And Rocky's been needing...
• 18:10
  a motorsport event for so long and some and that's in the council got together and they've created this event built for rocky and um yeah like we had just over 1800 entrants this year um
• 18:25
  58,000 people through the gate, you know, like... Mega.
• 18:29
  It books out the whole town and all the towns surrounding us in accommodation.
• 18:35
  And I just think if that isn't enough proof that we need a track here, I don't know what is because there has been people...
• 18:45
  within our region, pushing for tracks for a long time.
• 18:49
  There's a committee called Circuit CQ, but we haven't just quite had enough luck with that yet.
• 18:55
  But, yeah, I think if we keep proving how big Rocky Nats, because it keeps growing bigger and bigger every year, I think the next track to get built will be in central Queensland.
• 19:07
  Clearly, Dave, what you want there too is, and the word I used before was complex.
• 19:11
  You want something that I guess caters to the four-wheel drive love, which has such a strong presence there, but also to give people maybe that circuit-style outlet that you now know about from other activity that you do too, don't you?
• 19:26
  100% mate.
• 19:27
  You know, like I believe like we have absolutely fantastic drivers in our region.
• 19:34
  I know personally heaps off the top of my head.
• 19:38
  They've just never been presented with an opportunity or been able to show their skills because –
• 19:43
  we've got to drive seven hours north or south to the closest track.
• 19:49
  So it's just too hard for people.
• 19:51
  And growing up, you know, their dad and their XL or, you know, dad and their cart.
• 19:57
  We got cart tracks, but mainly we're talking about cars here with their, you know, XL or something.
• 20:01
  It's seven hours is too far just to get a drive, mate.
• 20:04
  So, yeah, that's why we go in our Forbies at the moment.
• 20:09
  I mean, the Forbys, that was the next thing that I was going to ask you about, the love of Forbys.
• 20:13
  Clearly, even from your first car, has never ventured too far away, has it?
• 20:19
  Nah, mate.
• 20:20
  Yeah, like, I've got three or four now.
• 20:23
  Like, I just get, they're just part of my, you know, part of my life.
• 20:27
  They're in my blood, but...
• 20:29
  As I keep doing circuit racing more, yeah, definitely, it's probably one of the best things I've ever done.
• 20:36
  I'm really, really starting to love this circuit racing.
• 20:39
  I want to come back to the Nats for a moment if I can.
• 20:41
  Yeah, mate, yeah.
• 20:43
  Because the Summer Nats is so well known.
• 20:47
  worldwide really, not even just Australia-wide, what they do there in Canberra.
• 20:51
  But obviously what you've been able to do is to take a little bit of the essence of that, make sure that it works for the part of Queensland and beyond that you're in, and give it a unique flavour.
• 21:01
  So just take people there.
• 21:03
  I mean, that's an amazing roll-up of machines and people that you've had through the gates for this.
• 21:09
  Just give us a snapshot of the event.
• 21:12
  So it's hard to explain in a couple of words, but...
• 21:16
  Yeah, okay.
• 21:17
  So on Friday, you know how they have street parades at Summer Nats?
• 21:21
  Yes.
• 21:21
  Well, we have one of them at Rocky Nats on the Friday, and it's the biggest street parade in Australia.
• 21:27
  So numbers-wise, I think we had just over 1,500 cars and bikes in it this year.
• 21:34
  Yeah, it takes the whole day.
• 21:36
  It takes the whole day because we've got to line everyone up.
• 21:38
  Our whole showgrounds is packed, so line up of cars and bikes.
• 21:44
  Yeah.
• 21:45
  How far and wide are people coming with their machinery and so on?
• 21:49
  Give us an idea of a couple of the standouts this year.
• 21:52
  Oh, mate, well, I've got people coming from Perth with their four-wheel drives.
• 21:57
  Wow.
• 21:57
  Yeah, and, you know, people, Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin, they're all coming to Rocky just to show their car.
• 22:05
  Fantastic.
• 22:06
  It's a little bit different to Salmonats because Rocky Nats is family friendly.
• 22:10
  They're targeting the family, so they want the kids to be able to have fun as well.
• 22:14
  And, you know, they've got stuff to cater for the families.
• 22:18
  You know, it's not just about – it is about cars, but they want to keep that family vibe going, which I think is really good.
• 22:26
  So important.
• 22:27
  Yeah.
• 22:29
  We're the only event in Australia that has street drags.
• 22:32
  So it's one of the main streets in Rocky.
• 22:35
  They just put concrete pylons down it and people are just circulating all day to do street drags.
• 22:42
  So no track prep, nothing.
• 22:44
  There's a tree there for obviously, you know, the lights.
• 22:48
  But yeah, and people are loving it.
• 22:51
  Like just...
• 22:52
  pull up next to whoever you want and drag them sort of thing, which is a real big hit.
• 22:57
  That's the only event in Australia that has street drags illegally.
• 23:01
  Amazing.
• 23:02
  Yeah.
• 23:03
  There's obviously the burnouts that Summonat sort of wholly and solely run.
• 23:09
  Yep.
• 23:11
  Which is, yeah, we get all the pro guys.
• 23:14
  And then, yeah, we got...
• 23:16
  the elite pavilions and all your sort of standard car show stuff.
• 23:21
  But there's a lot of top-notch cars.
• 23:23
  Like they're all coming from far and wide like Perth and Adelaide and all that.
• 23:28
  And then yeah, we got our four-wheel drive display, which
• 23:32
  What they're telling us is the feedback they're getting from the spectators is one of the most favourite precincts in the whole show.
• 23:39
  So they keep wanting to grow it and grow it and asking me to find more people.
• 23:45
  You lit up in this part of the conversation, I can tell from your smile, mate.
• 23:49
  Just how much of that, you know, does your involvement in this event, how much time does that occupy?
• 23:56
  Because this is a pretty serious undertaking, isn't it?
• 23:58
  Yeah, mate, it's huge, to be honest.
• 24:03
  And to try and race in between it all and focus mentally, it's pretty tough.
• 24:10
  But like we touched on before, mate, I've lived in Rocky my whole life.
• 24:16
  We've needed an event like this for so long.
• 24:18
  So whatever I can do and whatever our family and our mates can do to make this continue and make it bigger and better and make people come to Rocky and put it on the map so we do maybe get a track one day, the better, mate.
• 24:33
  We'll put as much effort in as we can.
• 24:36
  That's a very strong argument with that style of event, the success that it's clearly having and the roll up of vehicles that you've got.
• 24:43
  If there was one wish list, Dave, of things that you could add to it, you know, in the next year or two, what would you like to do to expand the event or, you know, attract something different?
• 24:53
  What's your plans with it?
• 24:55
  Oh, I think like adding an off-road element would be cool.
• 25:01
  A competitive one, you mean?
• 25:03
  Yeah, yeah.
• 25:04
  Yeah, there has been – I can confirm there has been some talk about it.
• 25:08
  They have approached me to do something.
• 25:10
  Excellent.
• 25:10
  But, yeah, there's a few logistical things that we've got to sort out there.
• 25:17
  Maybe even like a little street circuit for, you know, not supercars or anything.
• 25:25
  Obviously, that's a massive undertaking.
• 25:28
  But something time trial wise that you could have like, you know, tarmac car, rally cross cars or something come and compete sort of thing.
• 25:37
  I think that'd be great.
• 25:39
  You mentioned burnouts before.
• 25:40
  You do have a Power Cruise pro-class trophy back in 2015, don't you?
• 25:46
  Tell us about that.
• 25:47
  Yeah, so it was just a bit of a spur of the moment thing.
• 25:51
  It took one of me, the patrol that we were racing at the time down to the burnouts at Power Cruise.
• 25:58
  That was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done because it happens a lot now, but back in when I'd done that, you rock up at Power Cruise with a 700-horsepower patrol, people are just like, what the hell?
• 26:13
  I took it out on the track cruising around QR and you dust off people in XR6 turbos and VL turbos and they come in and they ask you, what the hell is in that thing?
• 26:24
  People were just loving it.
• 26:26
  And then...
• 26:29
  I think I was just like, oh, I'm gonna put it in the burnout comp at night.
• 26:32
  And yeah, the crowd just went wild, mate.
• 26:36
  They just loved it.
• 26:36
  Like the whole tour, I didn't block the brakes off or anything.
• 26:40
  So the brakes are glowing red and pop the tires.
• 26:44
  It was a pretty cool experience.
• 26:47
  I think they rang us up the next day and they're like, oh, you're in the final.
• 26:51
  And I'm just, I'm like, what do you mean?
• 26:52
  He's like, you're in the burnout final.
• 26:54
  That's what you done the burnout for last night.
• 26:56
  I'm like, holy hell.
• 26:57
  So I had to go and find another set of tyres.
• 27:01
  And then when we came out, the crowd were loving it again.
• 27:04
  So, yeah, we ended up getting fifth, which is pretty cool because...
• 27:08
  These other cars, you know, they've got a couple of thousand horsepower and that's their dedication of that whole car.
• 27:14
  And I'm just here rocking up with a, you know, full drive with a winch on it with a bit of horsepower.
• 27:18
  And they weren't looking at me like you hillbilly, but it was pretty cool.
• 27:24
  Now, we have a great friend in Bendix Breaks, both of us.
• 27:29
  Yes.
• 27:30
  So, they've been very good supporters of the podcast here and you've got a great partnership with them.
• 27:36
  They have something which I reckon is super cool for people listening and that's brake four-wheel drive upgrade kits.
• 27:45
  Yes.
• 27:45
  Which are –
• 27:46
  Really cool, mate, aren't they?
• 27:48
  Because they take some of the, you know, if we've got maybe grey nomads listening or people that want to tow their massive boat, whatever it might be, often the road-going package isn't up to the big heavy task of that sort of stuff.
• 28:01
  And you regularly put this to the test, mate, don't you?
• 28:04
  Yeah, 100%.
• 28:07
  Those kits are great.
• 28:08
  Even the fact that they come with the braided lines, I think that's a crucial part of it.
• 28:15
  Why?
• 28:15
  Oh, just it takes – I think I've put pads and rotors in with other brands and they don't give you the braided lines.
• 28:24
  And you sort of – you feel a little bit of a difference in that, but it's not too much gain.
• 28:29
  And with these kits, particularly on cars that I've used, like Nissan Patrols and Land Cruisers and that,
• 28:36
  The braided lines, I think, is what makes a difference to me.
• 28:40
  And you get better pedal feel and no fade.
• 28:43
  If you're pulling up with a heavy car trailer and car on the back and you get a red light...
• 28:49
  With standard brakes, your pedal will nearly sink to the floor and it'll be very dead by the end of it.
• 28:54
  But with those kits, it'll have the same pressure the whole time and it'll pull you up a lot quicker.
• 29:00
  So they're worth their weight in gold, eh?
• 29:02
  Agreed.
• 29:03
  Now, how does a bloke with one of the stylish...
• 29:06
  most stylish mudflap mullets in the country go knocking on the door.
• 29:11
  Their facility in Victoria there, what they make here in Australia is world-class, isn't it?
• 29:17
  Yes, definitely.
• 29:18
  I actually was fortunate enough to get a tour of the factory when we raced in Winton last year.
• 29:24
  They said, oh, come down and have a look.
• 29:25
  And I was actually blown away that,
• 29:29
  they still hand-pour and hand-make the pads.
• 29:32
  Like they've got a production line with little workers.
• 29:34
  I just thought, holy hell, you know.
• 29:37
  And I was walking around with Rob Darby and a few of the other Bending staff and they all treat each other like family.
• 29:44
  Correct.
• 29:46
  And just to see all the pads come out and then go through the production line of wrapping, it's a phenomenal process and it's great to see that we've got –
• 29:57
  something like that happening in our own backyard still, not overseas.
• 30:00
  Agreed.
• 30:00
  I mean, the fact that the automotive industry in Australia has changed, obviously, you know, with Holden, you know, closing of stores, it's nice to be able to shine a light on stories like this and say, hey, you know, there are some very good Australian automotive business stories like this.
• 30:16
  What they make, as you've just detailed, in our part of the world is...
• 30:21
  But in addition to that, the great staff that you've met, I've been at the facility there as well when they've brought in their pride and joy.
• 30:28
  And there are some seriously cool car lovers with some really cool machines there too.
• 30:35
  100%, yeah.
• 30:37
  I got talking to a few of them because once they knew I was there, they come over and show me their cars.
• 30:43
  Yeah, like a lot of Holman Ford fans there.
• 30:46
  And some of them love their motorbikes too.
• 30:49
  They were telling me about a couple of them racing that.
• 30:52
  So yeah, it's great to see the staff getting right into the motorsport as well.
• 31:02
  That's the end of part one of my conversation with super ute racer and proven off-road winner Dave Casey, a.k.a.
• 31:09
  Mudflap.
• 31:10
  We're only partway through this story, though.
• 31:13
  There is another edition, part two, all parked up and ready to hit the start button on whenever you're ready.
• 31:19
  Words of wisdom from Paul Morris to a potential window into the future.
• 31:25
  How Dave's committed to conquering the super-utes, but there may be some unfinished business, it seems, in stadium super-trucks too.
• 31:33
  All that and more on a special episode that's had the full Bendix Brakes 4WD upgrade kit installed in Rusty's garage.