WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.673 --> 00:00:04.034
A listener production.

2
00:00:05.294 --> 00:00:10.216
For both personal and professional reasons, this episode was a real highlight for me and it still is.

3
00:00:10.596 --> 00:00:16.278
As a kid, I'd plucked up enough courage to ask for Gary Rush's autograph, which I reckon I've still got somewhere.

4
00:00:16.778 --> 00:00:21.780
I was just a fan in the stands who was constantly wowed by his brilliance in a sprint car.

5
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:27.401
Rushy's incredible list of achievements made him one of the greats of Australian motor racing.

6
00:00:27.661 --> 00:00:31.042
Little wonder then that we get requests for a pod with him.

7
00:00:31.122 --> 00:00:35.484
So we're re-releasing this ep because many people don't realise he's already in our library.

8
00:00:36.044 --> 00:00:45.606
We sat in his then office in 2019 at Pick and Payless in Kings Park in Western Sydney while the wrecking and recycling process has happened outside his window.

9
00:00:46.086 --> 00:00:48.267
He's been called the Master Blaster,

10
00:00:48.587 --> 00:00:53.169
won a staggering 10 Australian titles, dominating the sport in the 70s and 80s.

11
00:00:53.589 --> 00:01:02.454
A decorated career that went beyond Aussie shores, spanning more than 40 years, and at the height of it, he had a 60% podium strike rate.

12
00:01:02.474 --> 00:01:05.275
That is just remarkable when you stop and think about it.

13
00:01:05.775 --> 00:01:16.659
He raced in other categories too, and you may be surprised to learn that at one point he had serious Formula One ambitions, which seems like the absolute antithesis of the dirt tracks that he became famous on.

14
00:01:17.259 --> 00:01:23.821
The Australian Motorsport and Speedway Australia Hall of Famer recently celebrated his 82nd birthday.

15
00:01:24.141 --> 00:01:32.884
He still loves the game, a dream that began on the other side of the fence, mesmerised by the brutal beauty of oval track racing.

16
00:01:36.832 --> 00:01:40.633
Back in them days, it was probably 1963.

17
00:01:41.474 --> 00:01:53.438
We were typical young guys with their first cars and their early model Holdens, lowered and black wheels and some super exhaust on them, a Myers exhaust system.

18
00:01:54.098 --> 00:02:02.461
And we were there one Sunday afternoon with a mate of mine called John Price and looking at the Westmead Speedway.

19
00:02:02.521 --> 00:02:04.322
And we were Holden fans.

20
00:02:05.958 --> 00:02:11.561
And all these Fords were out there winning all these races on the Speedway dirt at Westmead.

21
00:02:11.782 --> 00:02:13.463
And that's where the Westmead Hospital is there.

22
00:02:13.483 --> 00:02:14.943
A lot of people don't know that.

23
00:02:15.023 --> 00:02:16.404
That's where Westmead Speedway was.

24
00:02:17.145 --> 00:02:22.408
And we thought, gee, why ain't there no Holdens here?

25
00:02:24.072 --> 00:02:34.898
So the next week we went to the local wreckers at Old Guildford, where we lived, and asked him would he give us an old Holden car and we're going to take it to Whistler East for your own race.

26
00:02:35.198 --> 00:02:38.100
So you literally built the thing yourself?

27
00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:40.822
We put some bar work in it and we put a...

28
00:02:41.514 --> 00:02:47.516
We had a hot Holden engine with triple SU carburetors on it and all that hot stuff.

29
00:02:47.576 --> 00:02:52.638
And we took it to Westmoot Spurway and they were standing starts them days.

30
00:02:52.798 --> 00:02:53.379
Were they?

31
00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:53.539
Yep.

32
00:02:54.139 --> 00:02:58.501
And the Holden, nothing could come close to it as far as acceleration.

33
00:02:58.541 --> 00:03:00.381
Been my old Fords, their old V8 Fords.

34
00:03:02.842 --> 00:03:07.083
They didn't see which way the Holden went until we got to the first corner.

35
00:03:08.003 --> 00:03:09.263
And that was a problem.

36
00:03:09.323 --> 00:03:12.904
The Holden suspension wasn't built to race on dirt.

37
00:03:12.964 --> 00:03:14.844
It was built to race on bitumen roads.

38
00:03:15.144 --> 00:03:17.765
And their mile forwards were built back in the 1930s.

39
00:03:18.045 --> 00:03:19.985
And that's all they had was dirt tracks.

40
00:03:21.266 --> 00:03:26.186
And so over the next few months, their mile forwards become the glamour car to have.

41
00:03:27.207 --> 00:03:28.667
The Holdens didn't steer on dirt.

42
00:03:29.436 --> 00:03:30.997
Was the class called Stockrods?

43
00:03:31.077 --> 00:03:32.259
Stockrods, exactly.

44
00:03:32.299 --> 00:03:32.979
That's what it was.

45
00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:37.743
And I remember the gun stockrod driver of the day was Maxi Hugo.

46
00:03:38.544 --> 00:03:42.968
And I think Steve Brazier's dad, Stan, he was a gun driver up there.

47
00:03:43.609 --> 00:03:44.950
That's the Brazier family.

48
00:03:45.530 --> 00:03:47.292
And they're still in Speedway.

49
00:03:47.372 --> 00:03:52.777
We call them nowadays a speed car, but a purist knows them as a midget.

50
00:03:54.319 --> 00:04:04.970
When did the – I mean, when you look at your career timeline, it seems like a relatively short period from all of a sudden you were in stock rods to the next thing you were getting opportunities in midgets.

51
00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:11.977
Back in them days, to go to the Sydney Showground as a young guy, never driven before, you have to go in the encourage race.

52
00:04:11.997 --> 00:04:12.117
Okay.

53
00:04:12.638 --> 00:04:12.818
Okay.

54
00:04:13.100 --> 00:04:17.801
They're called Encourage Race and they're a demo derby.

55
00:04:18.641 --> 00:04:21.062
To get through there, it's a lot of luck.

56
00:04:21.502 --> 00:04:29.264
I was lucky enough never have to race in an Encourage Race because my luck come about is I got into a midget at Westmead.

57
00:04:29.484 --> 00:04:35.165
So the midgets used to race at Westmead on a Sunday afternoon in winter and they used to race at Sydney Showground in summer.

58
00:04:35.805 --> 00:04:39.946
Well, my midget career started at Westmead in winter.

59
00:04:40.666 --> 00:04:47.291
And I was lucky enough to – I got into a couple of half-decent cars and do a little bit.

60
00:04:47.351 --> 00:04:54.315
And then the Higgins brothers come along and they had a very good midget, number 30, and they asked me would I drive it.

61
00:04:55.976 --> 00:05:04.022
And that was when the people that run the midgets decided, let's go American type of qualifying system.

62
00:05:04.042 --> 00:05:04.122
Yep.

63
00:05:04.762 --> 00:05:15.006
And lucky enough, I shot my bum in Kevin's car and Paul's car and I was quick enough to be an A grader off the bat.

64
00:05:16.066 --> 00:05:16.447
Amazing.

65
00:05:16.467 --> 00:05:19.608
So I never had to go to the Sydney showground and go for encourage races.

66
00:05:21.609 --> 00:05:26.731
Because of the American qualifying system, I was virtually a backmarker within a short period.

67
00:05:27.011 --> 00:05:28.731
Cars now are modern-day midget.

68
00:05:28.751 --> 00:05:29.612
You're talking probably...

69
00:05:30.312 --> 00:05:36.177
You know, 300 horsepower, fundamentally four-cylinder engine sitting in front of you, weapon car.

70
00:05:36.197 --> 00:05:41.041
But I would imagine from a driving point of view, they're a joyous thing when they're in full flight.

71
00:05:41.161 --> 00:05:46.245
Back then, though, they were also a dangerous thing in the sense of safety in your career.

72
00:05:46.425 --> 00:05:48.306
Yeah, they came a long way, didn't they?

73
00:05:48.406 --> 00:05:49.427
Yeah, before cages.

74
00:05:49.467 --> 00:05:49.847
They were...

75
00:05:51.337 --> 00:06:00.739
I remember when I started racing Sydney Showground and by this time I was racing for Kevin Higgins and maybe the Dark Family.

76
00:06:00.819 --> 00:06:09.721
I'm not sure which car I was racing, but I'd turn up at the Sydney Showground and there were all the guns there, the Johnny Stuarts and the McGavins.

77
00:06:09.781 --> 00:06:12.062
And I was just a young kid.

78
00:06:13.312 --> 00:06:17.496
I walked into the gents' toilet one day and they were all having their nervous.

79
00:06:18.457 --> 00:06:21.019
You name it, they were having it.

80
00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:25.063
And that's, you know, it was a pretty deadly sport back in them days.

81
00:06:25.408 --> 00:06:26.908
What were the early learnings for you?

82
00:06:26.948 --> 00:06:37.611
Because it's, for those that are listening that don't know Speedway intimately, I think it's a beautiful sport because a bit like basketball or baseball in America, it all happens in front of you.

83
00:06:37.651 --> 00:06:38.251
You can't miss it.

84
00:06:38.271 --> 00:06:42.472
It's this wonderful cauldron of action right in front of you.

85
00:06:42.492 --> 00:06:47.793
But as a driver, you have to learn where to place the car at certain moments.

86
00:06:47.813 --> 00:06:49.014
Were there people that taught you that?

87
00:06:49.054 --> 00:06:50.414
How did you learn that sort of stuff?

88
00:06:50.434 --> 00:06:51.374
You teach yourself, mate.

89
00:06:51.614 --> 00:06:51.814
Do you?

90
00:06:52.134 --> 00:06:53.815
And there's no such thing as practice.

91
00:06:53.875 --> 00:06:55.135
The practice is in the race.

92
00:06:56.616 --> 00:06:59.277
No, you just, you know, you think back.

93
00:07:00.118 --> 00:07:01.979
But when you're fast, you know the quick way around.

94
00:07:02.940 --> 00:07:10.304
And after, you know, Greg, I've sat in the infield looking at my wrecked car and said if I only would have waited.

95
00:07:11.245 --> 00:07:13.066
I've done that many, many times.

96
00:07:13.246 --> 00:07:14.707
And you learn by those experiences.

97
00:07:15.367 --> 00:07:17.548
I think you crashed one time at Liverpool.

98
00:07:18.809 --> 00:07:23.252
Your dad, or my dad rather, has done some business with you over time and for a little bit of...

99
00:07:24.035 --> 00:07:35.824
preparation for this, I was talking to him and he could vividly recall a crash at Liverpool, I think it was, in Sydney, where you'd climbed maybe the rear wheel of Steve Kintz's car, a legend of Speedway racing, and you had quite a big crash.

100
00:07:35.844 --> 00:07:45.551
And in the interview, might have even been with Mike or Steve Raymond afterwards, you said, well, I've now got some very good parts left over for my next race car and things like that.

101
00:07:45.611 --> 00:07:48.934
Yeah, that particular night I got up into the lights at Liverpool Speedway.

102
00:07:48.954 --> 00:07:51.416
Yeah, it was a good crash, yeah.

103
00:07:51.896 --> 00:07:54.199
It wasn't the biggest one that you would have.

104
00:07:54.219 --> 00:07:55.640
I'm jumping all over the place here.

105
00:07:55.660 --> 00:08:03.108
The one that fans kind of, and probably you, think of is 79 Ascot in America.

106
00:08:03.569 --> 00:08:05.951
You were driving a wingless sprint car.

107
00:08:06.352 --> 00:08:09.315
What happened that day and, you know, how did you...

108
00:08:10.055 --> 00:08:18.781
We went over for the Nationals, Eldora, the big race at Eldora Speedway, and then go to Knoxville for the Nationals.

109
00:08:19.301 --> 00:08:27.006
And we run seventh at the Nationals, which was, back in them days, it was pretty decent just to make the main event.

110
00:08:27.046 --> 00:08:32.130
But since then, there's been a couple of young Australians who've gone very well over there.

111
00:08:32.630 --> 00:08:36.993
And we're on the way home, we're going to put the car in a container at LA and...

112
00:08:37.693 --> 00:08:46.836
We thought, oh, typical Speedway guys, you know, I had a few people, Ivan Walk and John Barrett, they were all... And we thought, let's go to Ascot Park.

113
00:08:47.117 --> 00:08:50.358
We'll do one last race, then we'll put it in a container tomorrow, right?

114
00:08:50.558 --> 00:08:51.298
That's what we thought.

115
00:08:52.058 --> 00:08:55.019
Well, lucky enough, I made the trophy dash.

116
00:08:55.980 --> 00:09:02.622
And I was on the front row of the trophy dash, and I went into Turn 1, and that's all I remember about it.

117
00:09:03.102 --> 00:09:05.243
I woke up two days later in hospital.

118
00:09:06.804 --> 00:09:07.084
Yeah.

119
00:09:08.664 --> 00:09:10.705
Were you in a coma for that length of time?

120
00:09:10.805 --> 00:09:13.346
Yeah, yeah, I hit my head pretty hard.

121
00:09:14.086 --> 00:09:17.347
I smashed all my helmet, but yeah.

122
00:09:18.108 --> 00:09:20.669
But I got over, it took me 12 months to get over that one.

123
00:09:21.029 --> 00:09:33.794
Sometimes doctors, you can meet a couple of good doctors in motor racing that understand the game and are supportive in that regard, but often doctors you meet when it comes to motor racing will say, hey, that's enough.

124
00:09:34.294 --> 00:09:36.855
Or, you know, were you ever told to stop at that stage?

125
00:09:37.788 --> 00:09:48.154
No, I remember when I raced for the McGee family at Sydney Shagrin, I was lucky enough to race in one of their cars for a couple of years.

126
00:09:48.214 --> 00:09:55.577
And I remember Hedley, he was like an advisor, great man.

127
00:09:56.078 --> 00:09:58.899
Almost a mentor.

128
00:09:59.139 --> 00:10:02.421
Yeah, he used to keep your feet on the ground a bit, he did.

129
00:10:03.121 --> 00:10:03.362
And...

130
00:10:04.322 --> 00:10:20.868
He introduced me to a doctor because his workshop was just down the road from St Vincent's Hospital, and the doctors used to call in there and talk racing with him and things like that, and he introduced me to a doctor once, and that doctor, he said, mate, down the road there, we can just about fix anything except the head.

131
00:10:21.888 --> 00:10:28.350
He said, you know, you damage it, we'll fix it, but we can't fix anything up here.

132
00:10:28.410 --> 00:10:30.071
We don't know enough about that yet.

133
00:10:30.524 --> 00:10:33.366
You mentioned a moment ago Sydney Showground Speedway.

134
00:10:33.486 --> 00:10:36.748
These days it is television studios.

135
00:10:36.868 --> 00:10:42.311
It's not what it once was, but it was an incredible track back in the day.

136
00:10:42.411 --> 00:10:48.614
You guys would command a decent amount of space in the papers for news on Speedway.

137
00:10:48.654 --> 00:10:49.135
I mean, it was a...

138
00:10:49.155 --> 00:10:49.995
Thanks to the Romans.

139
00:10:50.255 --> 00:10:53.817
Yeah, well, that was my next question.

140
00:10:54.017 --> 00:10:58.020
Yeah, Mike and Steve, you know, the sport owes them a lot.

141
00:10:58.787 --> 00:11:01.709
You know, they really, really kept us up there.

142
00:11:02.389 --> 00:11:07.752
You know, Mike's got a hell of a history, and so has Steve, as far as what they've done for the sport.

143
00:11:08.372 --> 00:11:17.817
And I hope people realise that, because they're, like, I'm getting elderly, but they're getting elderly, and I think people realise what they've done for the sport.

144
00:11:17.977 --> 00:11:18.897
I certainly do.

145
00:11:19.177 --> 00:11:19.637
I do too.

146
00:11:19.978 --> 00:11:24.679
From an aspiring kind of commentator standpoint, you look at what they've done.

147
00:11:24.859 --> 00:11:30.880
Out of the blue one night, I was reading news on a radio station in Sydney and the phone rang after a bulletin I did and it was Steve.

148
00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:36.301
And all he wanted to do was say, hey mate, great job, keep pressing on and sort of encouragement for a young bloke.

149
00:11:36.321 --> 00:11:42.503
And I always remember that very, very fondly, but I'm acutely aware, as you say, of what they've done for the sport.

150
00:11:43.223 --> 00:11:45.924
But come back to the Sydney showground, it was...

151
00:11:46.744 --> 00:11:48.325
A phenomenal place, wasn't it?

152
00:11:48.345 --> 00:11:50.787
And so many great racers competed there.

153
00:11:51.087 --> 00:11:52.728
There'll never be another Sydney Speedway.

154
00:11:53.148 --> 00:11:59.072
Not in people like yourselves and your dad, you know, what we remember how the Sydney Speedway was.

155
00:11:59.933 --> 00:12:01.354
It'll never go closer.

156
00:12:01.774 --> 00:12:05.697
You know, I had an interesting night, a very interesting night, only a few months ago.

157
00:12:06.277 --> 00:12:12.161
A few of the people around Sydney had a surprise birthday party for Dennis Newland.

158
00:12:12.181 --> 00:12:12.702
Fantastic.

159
00:12:12.722 --> 00:12:13.102
Fantastic.

160
00:12:13.342 --> 00:12:39.188
right and someone rang me midweek and said would you like would you be interested in going to surprise party for Dennis Newland and I said yeah that'd be good and at about that time there's about 25 people going apparently every Tuesday night I think it's Tuesday night he goes out and has dinner with a friend of his at Warwick Farm at a hotel at Warwick Farm and so anyway that

161
00:12:43.649 --> 00:12:44.850
And it only word of mouth.

162
00:12:45.831 --> 00:12:46.411
Word of mouth.

163
00:12:46.871 --> 00:12:55.597
And it was just the best night because we got to say hello to a lot of people we hadn't seen, but then we got Dennis Newland up there.

164
00:12:55.737 --> 00:12:56.537
And you know Dennis.

165
00:12:56.778 --> 00:12:59.699
He's just a quite unassuming type of bloke.

166
00:13:00.640 --> 00:13:02.581
And he took questions off the floor.

167
00:13:02.941 --> 00:13:04.783
The guy's like a cyclopaedia.

168
00:13:05.483 --> 00:13:08.905
He knows every race that was run at the Sydney Shaggart.

169
00:13:09.185 --> 00:13:13.647
He can tell you who won it, who runs second or third, and what times they took to run the race.

170
00:13:13.727 --> 00:13:17.288
He's a phenomenal... And we sat there in awe listening to Dennis Newland.

171
00:13:17.789 --> 00:13:19.970
And people like him are just phenomenal.

172
00:13:20.110 --> 00:13:27.233
He's a part of the framework, a long-time journalist and a guy who's been immersed in the sport, as you rightly point out.

173
00:13:27.813 --> 00:13:32.735
Let's take a little sidetrack here for a moment because throughout your career there was some circuit racing.

174
00:13:33.316 --> 00:13:33.496
And...

175
00:13:34.515 --> 00:13:39.699
You, in 1971, contested the Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series.

176
00:13:40.219 --> 00:13:42.221
Larry Perkins won the championship that year.

177
00:13:42.401 --> 00:13:46.384
You won the Phillip Island round and finished top three in the championship, I reckon.

178
00:13:46.404 --> 00:13:50.367
I'm not sure if I don't run a round, but it was the year before.

179
00:13:50.447 --> 00:13:51.528
Larry come the second year.

180
00:13:51.748 --> 00:13:52.328
Okay.

181
00:13:52.468 --> 00:13:53.609
The first year was funny.

182
00:13:53.629 --> 00:13:56.652
There's some good stories about the first year in Formula Ford's Australia.

183
00:13:56.912 --> 00:14:03.176
Oh, well, we all read the rule book, and I went to Waggots, and...

184
00:14:04.843 --> 00:14:09.388
I give the rule book to the Waggots Engineering because they're the gun people doing engines.

185
00:14:10.589 --> 00:14:14.113
And the bloke at Dougie Tyment used to race sidecars.

186
00:14:14.133 --> 00:14:16.015
He's a cam grinder over at Waggots.

187
00:14:16.195 --> 00:14:20.560
He said, yeah, we could build an engine for you.

188
00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:22.682
We all turned up at Sandown Park.

189
00:14:24.464 --> 00:14:26.606
I think every competitor got the rule book wrong.

190
00:14:27.426 --> 00:14:29.228
thorough hot engines, you name it.

191
00:14:30.549 --> 00:14:33.071
One particular guy, he worked for a Mercedes dealer.

192
00:14:33.552 --> 00:14:35.373
He worked for a Mercedes dealer.

193
00:14:35.754 --> 00:14:39.738
And the guy racing the Formula Ford, he was the boss.

194
00:14:40.238 --> 00:14:47.405
He said to his mechanic, I'll give you a dollar, what was it, a dollar per horsepower per week.

195
00:14:49.302 --> 00:14:52.463
And we could only ever get 86 horsepower.

196
00:14:53.183 --> 00:14:56.444
I think it was 86 horsepower out of our Formula Ford engine.

197
00:14:57.364 --> 00:14:59.925
But everyone was talking 100 horsepower.

198
00:15:00.425 --> 00:15:03.246
And this bloke said, oh, I want $100 a week.

199
00:15:03.266 --> 00:15:04.646
That was his wages, right?

200
00:15:05.166 --> 00:15:06.767
So he got his boss $100.

201
00:15:07.827 --> 00:15:26.473
horsepower right but we went to the second race at sand down and he went past us going down the straight like we're going out of sight they pulled him down he had hot motor in there there's some good stories the first second year but larry come along in the second second year uh richard knight won the first formula four championship uh and went to england and

202
00:15:27.033 --> 00:15:29.714
I don't think anyone's ever heard of him before.

203
00:15:29.734 --> 00:15:32.735
Well, there's another story there because I followed him over to England.

204
00:15:33.256 --> 00:15:38.518
But Larry come along in the second year, the Coanji kid, and, mate, he was a gun.

205
00:15:38.898 --> 00:15:41.359
Did you get on OK?

206
00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:42.519
Larry and I did.

207
00:15:42.599 --> 00:15:44.000
Larry, yeah, we did.

208
00:15:45.222 --> 00:16:00.095
Larry, you know, back in them days we had a few offs and different opinions with different drivers and cams would haul you in and Larry went and gave evidence on my behalf on a few instances I got involved with.

209
00:16:00.355 --> 00:16:00.875
Yeah.

210
00:16:00.915 --> 00:16:01.276
Fantastic.

211
00:16:01.896 --> 00:16:10.340
It is 180 of the kind of racing that we know you for and for the great things that you've done in Speedway, mate.

212
00:16:10.380 --> 00:16:13.462
So did you enjoy the whole circuit racing thing?

213
00:16:13.482 --> 00:16:18.364
And what was the spark that made you think, righto, I'm going to go and give Formula 4 to crack?

214
00:16:18.404 --> 00:16:19.225
Why did that come about?

215
00:16:19.425 --> 00:16:20.806
Well, I was a young bloke.

216
00:16:21.066 --> 00:16:22.607
I wanted to be World Motor Racing Chairman.

217
00:16:23.007 --> 00:16:25.048
So to follow Jack Brabham and kind of go to Formula 1?

218
00:16:26.067 --> 00:16:29.050
I read all the books and said, I can do that.

219
00:16:29.510 --> 00:16:35.555
And I think every driver that gets into a racing car at that certain age thinks he's going to be world champion, right?

220
00:16:36.475 --> 00:16:41.859
And I read enough to where if you want to be world champion, you better go to England and get in and form a forward.

221
00:16:42.880 --> 00:16:48.144
And when Richard Knight won the world's first series, I followed him over.

222
00:16:48.244 --> 00:16:49.105
I think I run...

223
00:16:51.146 --> 00:16:54.289
I might have run third or fourth in the series, I think.

224
00:16:54.390 --> 00:16:55.090
I might have run.

225
00:16:55.150 --> 00:16:55.691
I'm not sure.

226
00:16:55.711 --> 00:16:56.692
Okay.

227
00:16:56.732 --> 00:17:00.316
But I still had the belief that I was as good as anyone in the world.

228
00:17:01.117 --> 00:17:04.640
And I went and I read about this particular Formula Ford.

229
00:17:05.421 --> 00:17:09.165
It was a Merlin Formula Ford that...

230
00:17:11.724 --> 00:17:14.368
Tim Schenken, I think, drove.

231
00:17:14.388 --> 00:17:15.390
Okay.

232
00:17:15.410 --> 00:17:17.072
And someone else drove it.

233
00:17:17.794 --> 00:17:23.483
And I think they both won Formula Ford Series in England in this particular car, and I seen it for sale.

234
00:17:24.603 --> 00:17:26.545
I said, I'm going to England to buy that car.

235
00:17:26.565 --> 00:17:29.307
That's the car I have to have, you know, because I was a motor mechanic.

236
00:17:30.248 --> 00:17:31.529
I'm going to England to buy that car.

237
00:17:32.470 --> 00:17:40.037
So, and I had a wife and a couple of young kids at that stage, but I had enough money to save up to get on a plane.

238
00:17:40.237 --> 00:17:49.385
I went over there, but before I got there, Jodie Schechter had bought the car and he won the Formula Ford Series.

239
00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.902
He won the Formula 4 Series in that same Merlin car.

240
00:17:56.362 --> 00:18:02.205
So anyway, what happened was I got off at Heathrow.

241
00:18:02.685 --> 00:18:04.446
This is quite a funny story, I'm told too.

242
00:18:04.786 --> 00:18:06.887
Well, Richard Knight's supposed to have met me there.

243
00:18:07.007 --> 00:18:09.088
I've never been to England and it was summer here.

244
00:18:09.348 --> 00:18:11.389
It was summer here?

245
00:18:11.409 --> 00:18:13.950
It was summer here and it was bloody cold over there.

246
00:18:15.490 --> 00:18:17.491
And I got off a plane with a T-shirt on.

247
00:18:18.052 --> 00:18:18.372
Anyway...

248
00:18:19.353 --> 00:18:21.805
Richard Knight wasn't there, so I had an address.

249
00:18:22.508 --> 00:18:23.673
I got into a taxi.

250
00:18:24.948 --> 00:18:27.829
and he drove around for a half hour and charged me 20 quid.

251
00:18:28.469 --> 00:18:33.291
And I said, oh, okay, and that's the address, so that's where Richard's supposed to be staying in that house there.

252
00:18:33.351 --> 00:18:37.172
And I seen this plane take, I go across the top and I said, where's that?

253
00:18:37.212 --> 00:18:38.152
You were still at Heathrow.

254
00:18:38.172 --> 00:18:40.753
I was still on the other side of Heathrow after 20 quid.

255
00:18:42.554 --> 00:18:46.835
So anyway, I got the first taste of England, I got ripped off for 20 quid.

256
00:18:46.855 --> 00:18:53.558
But anyway, Richard opened the door and, oh, Gary, I'm sorry, I forgot to meet you, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah.

257
00:18:54.138 --> 00:18:54.598
And, um...

258
00:18:56.355 --> 00:19:03.087
And he said, well, oh, gee, I had a room for you, but it's taken.

259
00:19:04.809 --> 00:19:06.693
But I know another place I can put you in.

260
00:19:07.790 --> 00:19:08.891
So he took me down the road.

261
00:19:08.931 --> 00:19:10.451
I think I stayed with Richard the first night.

262
00:19:10.471 --> 00:19:14.774
The next day he took me down the road and put me in this convent in England.

263
00:19:15.494 --> 00:19:25.840
It's a church and a convent and it was full of expats, Australians and Kiwis that didn't have a scent to bless and so forth and they couldn't get home.

264
00:19:26.420 --> 00:19:29.622
And I had a bit of money in me kick and...

265
00:19:33.132 --> 00:19:40.694
Anyway, long story short, Richard Knight had just bought a Formula Ford and he wasn't a modern mechanic, so I helped him.

266
00:19:40.714 --> 00:19:42.815
I helped him put it together.

267
00:19:45.015 --> 00:19:51.497
And so I worked there for a few days and then I'm going home to this horrible place to live at night time.

268
00:19:52.337 --> 00:19:56.598
And I met Vern Shupin.

269
00:19:57.078 --> 00:19:58.859
He was the boss of...

270
00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:10.505
a Formula Ford manufacturer building palaces, I think that's the name pronounced, palaces, racing cars, and Verne was the boss.

271
00:20:11.066 --> 00:20:20.091
And you'd walk in there and you'd see 50 Formula Fords getting built with all these blokes that want to be world motor racing champion, and Richard Knight was one of them.

272
00:20:20.111 --> 00:20:20.831
But...

273
00:20:22.312 --> 00:20:24.152
So that was interesting.

274
00:20:24.693 --> 00:20:34.495
And then I just happened to ring a friend of mine from California, Larry Burton, who'd raced here and he's like a big brother to me.

275
00:20:35.095 --> 00:20:39.476
And I rang him and he said, where are you at?

276
00:20:39.576 --> 00:20:40.256
And I said, London.

277
00:20:40.296 --> 00:20:42.197
He said, what are you doing there?

278
00:20:42.237 --> 00:20:43.397
And I said, freezing to death.

279
00:20:43.437 --> 00:20:48.878
He says, oh, it's 105 degrees here at Roseville, California today and that sounded good to me.

280
00:20:48.938 --> 00:20:50.479
He said, you better get over here.

281
00:20:51.379 --> 00:20:57.666
And by this time, I'd spent about four or five days there and my plans because the car had been sold.

282
00:20:57.706 --> 00:21:07.596
And I remember going to a racetrack with Richard Knight just before he raced his car at a place called Fruxton.

283
00:21:07.896 --> 00:21:08.656
Yes.

284
00:21:08.796 --> 00:21:12.778
And here I was changing gears in the back of his Formula Ford in the snow.

285
00:21:13.858 --> 00:21:16.379
So things weren't going too well for me, I tell you.

286
00:21:16.900 --> 00:21:28.384
But anyway, I remember going to Richard's first race at Bran's Hatch, Bran's Hatch, and I think Richard got punted in the first corner.

287
00:21:29.965 --> 00:21:33.226
But we had to get there at five in the morning, five in the morning.

288
00:21:34.285 --> 00:21:37.127
Yeah, I remember stepping out of it.

289
00:21:37.147 --> 00:21:47.515
He had this old Volkswagen Kombi there with the Formula 4 in the back and I remember getting out of the car and next thing I'm on ice, I slip way over Turkey.

290
00:21:48.095 --> 00:21:49.496
It was ice on the ground.

291
00:21:49.956 --> 00:21:58.723
That was London and when you come from Sydney with this beautiful weather we have here in Sydney, snow and ice doesn't go down too well with me.

292
00:21:59.220 --> 00:22:17.212
That phone call to America, am I right in saying that because things perhaps hadn't gone as smoothly as you expected in that journey to the UK and the like, that you literally jumped on a plane and went to the States, did you?

293
00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:23.687
The next day, Vern was very good to meet you.

294
00:22:23.727 --> 00:22:24.488
Do you know Vern?

295
00:22:24.548 --> 00:22:34.260
He's a lovely bloke, him and his wife, Jan. And they could see I was kind of homesick and nothing was going right for me.

296
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:35.101
And they said...

297
00:22:36.182 --> 00:22:38.082
come home for dinner tonight, stay at our place.

298
00:22:39.003 --> 00:22:41.843
By this time I'd already booked my flight to America.

299
00:22:42.644 --> 00:22:57.907
But I did and it was a lovely, it was just lovely to stay with them that one night and Vern run me to the airport the next day and on the way there stopped at Brabham's and showed me Brabham's factory and, you know, things were starting to turn around.

300
00:22:57.927 --> 00:23:01.548
I was only there for maybe five or six days and...

301
00:23:02.348 --> 00:23:11.890
Things were starting to turn around, but by that time, I'd already made plans to go to the States, and you asked me how did my career turn.

302
00:23:13.350 --> 00:23:23.893
What happened was Larry Burton picked me up from San Francisco, and I told him, by the way, Vernon won the first...

303
00:23:26.595 --> 00:23:31.079
Formula Atlantic race at Brands Hatch in a Palliser racing car.

304
00:23:31.779 --> 00:23:37.303
He, an Australian guy, won the first Formula Atlantic race at Brands Hatch, right?

305
00:23:38.384 --> 00:23:46.150
When I got there, I told Larry on the phone what Vern had done, right?

306
00:23:49.313 --> 00:23:50.714
He picked me up from the airport.

307
00:23:50.894 --> 00:23:54.497
We're driving up Highway 80 to Sacramento.

308
00:23:55.748 --> 00:23:59.510
And he said, Gary, I've got your sprint car ride at my track.

309
00:23:59.750 --> 00:24:01.731
He owned a racetrack in Roseville, California.

310
00:24:01.751 --> 00:24:03.652
He says, you're racing on Friday night.

311
00:24:03.752 --> 00:24:04.373
I said, really?

312
00:24:04.853 --> 00:24:06.874
He said, yeah, I've got a sprint car ride for you.

313
00:24:07.595 --> 00:24:12.697
And he said, I just thought I'd show you the local paper, the Sacramento Bee.

314
00:24:12.737 --> 00:24:14.298
It was the local paper.

315
00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:16.840
And he said, just happened to read the sports page.

316
00:24:16.860 --> 00:24:22.343
And there was a photo of me racing at Roseville, California, this Friday night, Gary Rush.

317
00:24:23.288 --> 00:24:27.894
just beat Jackie Stewart in a Formula 2 race at Branch Hatch.

318
00:24:29.776 --> 00:24:30.577
That's true.

319
00:24:31.018 --> 00:24:34.602
I said, Larry, you can't say things like that.

320
00:24:34.642 --> 00:24:35.463
That's not true.

321
00:24:35.924 --> 00:24:38.707
He said, these dumb yanks wouldn't know the difference.

322
00:24:38.727 --> 00:24:39.949
Details.

323
00:24:41.410 --> 00:24:44.594
So that's, anyway, that's Larry Burton.

324
00:24:44.694 --> 00:24:51.621
Anyone that knows Larry would laugh what I just said and know how true, that's how Larry Burton was.

325
00:24:52.002 --> 00:24:59.430
Larry Burton was like a big brother to me and I always said if he wanted to be President of the United States, he could have been.

326
00:25:00.130 --> 00:25:01.412
It was that type of bloke, you know.

327
00:25:01.612 --> 00:25:01.892
I love it.

328
00:25:01.912 --> 00:25:02.913
I love the side stories.

329
00:25:03.033 --> 00:25:09.797
And also, too, the journey to England there is something that people that listen to the podcast may not have been aware of.

330
00:25:10.017 --> 00:25:12.739
And we're going to get Vern on for a chat at some point.

331
00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:17.402
I mean, his own career has been remarkable, what he's achieved in world motorsport.

332
00:25:18.022 --> 00:25:21.124
Before we move into the whole American world,

333
00:25:22.755 --> 00:25:25.796
and significant sprint car chapter for you.

334
00:25:25.836 --> 00:25:31.239
I want to just touch on a couple of the midgets to begin with.

335
00:25:31.379 --> 00:25:40.223
Firstly, I reckon my dad can recall meeting you for the first time at a Caltex garage in Auburn in Sydney.

336
00:25:40.403 --> 00:25:41.884
My first place of business, yeah.

337
00:25:41.904 --> 00:25:42.724
Your first place of business.

338
00:25:42.764 --> 00:25:43.285
Tell me about that.

339
00:25:44.265 --> 00:25:45.586
Well, I work for Sutton's.

340
00:25:46.606 --> 00:25:48.167
I served my time at Sutton's Holden.

341
00:25:48.187 --> 00:25:49.047
You're at Prentice Motor Mechanic.

342
00:25:49.067 --> 00:25:50.108
Prentice Motor Mechanic, yeah.

343
00:25:50.948 --> 00:26:03.638
And after seven years, my old boss, Les Vag, who was just a beautiful man, he could see what type of person he'd work me out.

344
00:26:04.618 --> 00:26:10.022
And he'd give me the best advice I've ever had in my life.

345
00:26:10.062 --> 00:26:10.763
Which is good.

346
00:26:11.623 --> 00:26:28.311
I never grew up with Dad, you know, so my mum used to try to keep me on the straight and narrow, but Mr Vag, he said, Gary, after a few, you know, he said, we love you working here, but he said, you need to go and work for yourself.

347
00:26:30.011 --> 00:26:31.532
He said, you resent authority.

348
00:26:34.993 --> 00:26:38.535
And he said, now that you've just started a racing career, because they're my first sponsors.

349
00:26:39.581 --> 00:26:42.664
Only a little bit of money, but that was my first sponsor I ever had.

350
00:26:43.385 --> 00:26:49.411
And he said, now that you've started your racing career and you're starting to make a name for yourself, you're going to need more than wages.

351
00:26:50.592 --> 00:27:02.443
And that was, I went out and found a service station, a brand new service station in Auburn, and that's my wife and I opened up there in business.

352
00:27:02.503 --> 00:27:03.584
Business business.

353
00:27:03.604 --> 00:27:03.745
1967.

354
00:27:04.276 --> 00:27:18.369
Dad says he was, I think, in his early 20s, and he walked past, and you had, I think, was a Joe Brandler speed car that you'd bought, and he recalls a bit of a kind of short, not terse, but a sort of short conversation with you.

355
00:27:18.389 --> 00:27:20.931
You damaged the front end the night before, and you're a bit filthy with yourself.

356
00:27:20.951 --> 00:27:23.454
You're a bit annoyed at yourself for damaging... You always are.

357
00:27:23.474 --> 00:27:25.316
You always are until you get it fixed.

358
00:27:25.336 --> 00:27:25.816
LAUGHTER

359
00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:27.341
What was that car like?

360
00:27:27.401 --> 00:27:29.422
It was a beautiful little car.

361
00:27:29.922 --> 00:27:34.525
That was a time when I'm trying to think.

362
00:27:35.786 --> 00:27:49.835
You know, by that time I was an established midget driver and I wanted to do well and I guess the Dark family come later.

363
00:27:50.695 --> 00:27:58.819
I must have left the Higgins brothers and I was looking for a better car to drive and that one was for sale so I went to Adelaide and bought it.

364
00:27:58.839 --> 00:27:59.940
Amazing.

365
00:27:59.960 --> 00:28:04.983
Did you enjoy, because you'd had that apprentice background, did you enjoy doing the prep on it yourself at that start?

366
00:28:05.003 --> 00:28:10.585
Yeah, I had some good people around me back in them two days or them early days was John Price.

367
00:28:11.406 --> 00:28:15.088
He was with you for a good 10 years or more, wasn't he?

368
00:28:15.168 --> 00:28:18.770
Yeah, well, he left Sutton's at the same time as I did to come and work with me

369
00:28:19.550 --> 00:28:21.993
And we worked together for many, many years.

370
00:28:22.073 --> 00:28:25.536
And then John Barrett come along and took over from John Price.

371
00:28:25.856 --> 00:28:30.801
So I had two very good mechanics doing all the hard work.

372
00:28:30.861 --> 00:28:34.024
Look, when you go racing, you need the good people around you.

373
00:28:34.164 --> 00:28:35.345
And I was very lucky to have that.

374
00:28:36.026 --> 00:28:38.669
I think when you look back over your career, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong,

375
00:28:40.309 --> 00:28:43.050
Barrett's a great friend mate in so many ways, isn't he?

376
00:28:43.070 --> 00:28:45.411
And he's been with you for such a long period.

377
00:28:45.431 --> 00:28:56.114
And when you would walk into the... You know, as a kid, when I was walking through Parramatta or now what it's called, Sydney Speedway there, he was a figure that was always a constant in your... You know, the group that were around your car, wasn't he?

378
00:28:57.114 --> 00:29:02.616
Well, I don't think there's many race car mechanics around that's got a winning record like John Barrett.

379
00:29:03.436 --> 00:29:06.977
You know, well, I had a pretty good record, but then he was...

380
00:29:08.208 --> 00:29:16.690
when Schatz was racing for us, you know, all them wins that he had, John's a very good, hard worker, good thinker, very good thinker.

381
00:29:17.570 --> 00:29:31.694
Ivan Walker was in the mix as well, and I reckon I saw one TV interview where someone asked him about you and he said, when it's going right, he's terrific, but if the night's going to custard, if it's not going well, you're a bit of a tough bastard too, aren't you?

382
00:29:32.014 --> 00:29:33.034
It was always his fault.

383
00:29:36.362 --> 00:29:38.344
Any good race car driver, it's not going faster.

384
00:29:38.564 --> 00:29:39.505
It's a mechanic's fault.

385
00:29:41.107 --> 00:29:43.050
He's going to have a sip of his cup of tea, which is great.

386
00:29:44.048 --> 00:29:51.494
The big powered sprint cars would be the most successful chapter of your career, mate.

387
00:29:51.954 --> 00:29:58.540
And I want to try and get your recollections of the first drive of a sprint car that you had in the United States.

388
00:29:58.560 --> 00:30:00.682
And if memory serves, it was in the early 1970s.

389
00:30:01.162 --> 00:30:01.883
What was the track?

390
00:30:01.923 --> 00:30:02.763
What are your recollections?

391
00:30:03.064 --> 00:30:06.046
And was it Gary Patterson that was involved in helping to tee that up?

392
00:30:06.967 --> 00:30:12.711
When Burton took me to Roseville, he called a day and it was kind of –

393
00:30:13.874 --> 00:30:15.475
It must have been on a Thursday or something.

394
00:30:15.515 --> 00:30:21.857
He said, I'm going to have a bloke come in because Larry had a bitumen track and a high bank quarter mile track.

395
00:30:21.877 --> 00:30:24.117
They used to do 10 seconds a lap or something, right?

396
00:30:24.738 --> 00:30:27.299
And he said, I'll get... That is nuts.

397
00:30:27.339 --> 00:30:29.019
If you just stop and soak that in for a minute.

398
00:30:29.099 --> 00:30:30.300
Yeah.

399
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:37.902
And anyway, he said, I'm going to have a guy come along and show you how you should drive these high bank tracks.

400
00:30:38.903 --> 00:30:40.123
Well, GP turned up.

401
00:30:41.555 --> 00:30:42.776
And he said, right, that's good.

402
00:30:43.197 --> 00:30:47.321
And carry on the long day down his two shoulders.

403
00:30:47.341 --> 00:30:48.402
A typical hippie.

404
00:30:49.123 --> 00:30:53.747
And he said, righto, okay, we're going to show you how to drive.

405
00:30:54.328 --> 00:30:55.549
Who's got the beer around here?

406
00:30:57.090 --> 00:31:03.056
But anyway, he'd do a few laps, I'd do a few laps, and after a couple of hours I had a pretty down pat, you know.

407
00:31:04.337 --> 00:31:07.059
quite a character in the sense of a couple of things.

408
00:31:07.099 --> 00:31:10.221
I mean, he very well educated, if that...

409
00:31:11.001 --> 00:31:12.722
I think his brother was a state senator.

410
00:31:12.923 --> 00:31:13.503
Amazing.

411
00:31:13.783 --> 00:31:15.905
He'd come from a very well-educated family, yeah.

412
00:31:16.325 --> 00:31:19.127
And yet he was the wayward one, wasn't he?

413
00:31:20.848 --> 00:31:21.348
Exactly.

414
00:31:21.428 --> 00:31:24.710
But if you knew GP, like, he's a nice bloke.

415
00:31:25.271 --> 00:31:29.974
Everyone, to look at him, most people are scared to look at him.

416
00:31:30.394 --> 00:31:31.655
But no, he was a gentle soul.

417
00:31:32.481 --> 00:31:36.803
Describe for the audience what the sensation of driving the car was like.

418
00:31:36.843 --> 00:31:50.630
I mean, if you were to tell someone that doesn't know Speedway now about the cars, I mean, they're an amazingly addictive thing, I think, in the sense that you have nowadays, you know, what are we talking, sort of 800 horsepower or...

419
00:31:50.710 --> 00:31:51.550
They're up to about...

420
00:31:51.630 --> 00:31:53.231
They're heading towards 1,000 horsepower now.

421
00:31:53.271 --> 00:31:55.672
They're heading towards 1,000 horsepower now.

422
00:31:55.732 --> 00:31:57.233
950, 960 horsepower now.

423
00:31:57.393 --> 00:31:59.714
And you sit on it, you know, for...

424
00:32:00.159 --> 00:32:11.805
terrible description, but it's a bit like you're sitting on a dunny with the engine right in front of you, 900 to close to 1,000 horsepower nowadays, and you need the wing to work above you, don't you?

425
00:32:12.066 --> 00:32:12.366
Oh, yeah.

426
00:32:12.506 --> 00:32:13.767
Yeah, they don't work without a wing.

427
00:32:13.787 --> 00:32:15.027
They're designed around that wing.

428
00:32:15.948 --> 00:32:17.449
No, the best car.

429
00:32:17.609 --> 00:32:25.273
You asked me 20 minutes ago what turned my career around or what changed was driving a sprint car.

430
00:32:26.177 --> 00:32:28.503
Driving a sprint car in the States on a half-mile track.

431
00:32:28.985 --> 00:32:29.787
How did it feel?

432
00:32:29.807 --> 00:32:30.970
Give me a sense of their sensation.

433
00:32:30.990 --> 00:32:31.451
Sensational.

434
00:32:32.654 --> 00:32:34.981
They built a driver under it, and they just...

435
00:32:37.830 --> 00:32:43.034
You know, I've taken, you know, see that photo on the wall there of Larry and Russell there standing there.

436
00:32:43.094 --> 00:32:49.539
I took them to Parramatta Speedway to try to get them to experience the joy of driving a sprint car.

437
00:32:49.939 --> 00:32:56.163
But unfortunately, on a daytime track, the track's never good enough to get that excitement.

438
00:32:56.644 --> 00:33:04.710
But driving a good sprint car on a good half-mile track or a good quarter-mile track is really...

439
00:33:06.002 --> 00:33:08.563
You haven't driven a race car until you drive a sprint car.

440
00:33:08.903 --> 00:33:19.407
The picture that you're referring to has Russell Ingle, who's been a supercars champion and Bathurst winner, Larry Perkins, a legend, and yourself, you're all part of the Castrol family there, which is mega.

441
00:33:20.008 --> 00:33:23.029
So there's an example of two guys that have sampled it from a different...

442
00:33:24.367 --> 00:33:46.728
area of motorsport if you like Greg Murphy Stephen Richards they've driven them I know Neil Crompton and Wayne Gardner speak about it as well and for circuit racing guys when they drive them they all talk about the way that that to begin with when you when you first go out of pit lane or out of the pit area I should say at sort of low rpm and things if you're not

443
00:33:48.259 --> 00:33:58.326
It almost wants to fire you right into the wall, but the moment you unleash that throttle, it all comes to life and it wants to turn left and do what it was designed to do.

444
00:33:58.366 --> 00:33:59.227
They're amazing, aren't they?

445
00:33:59.682 --> 00:34:02.023
They don't steer good until they're going fast.

446
00:34:02.043 --> 00:34:02.764
Amazing.

447
00:34:02.964 --> 00:34:03.224
Yeah.

448
00:34:03.464 --> 00:34:04.465
No, they're good to drive.

449
00:34:05.225 --> 00:34:17.392
Seriously, you know, that particular fighter you're talking about, I was a bit disappointed because I was trying to get Larry, because Larry is an engineer, thinker, and...

450
00:34:19.011 --> 00:34:28.379
I would have loved to have him there on a night time when the track's right and then you'd feel the thrill of driving a sprint car.

451
00:34:28.499 --> 00:34:30.741
It's just a phenomenal race car they drive.

452
00:34:32.082 --> 00:34:33.463
I just wish they'd still let our side.

453
00:34:33.483 --> 00:34:34.424
I'd still be racing one.

454
00:34:35.565 --> 00:34:39.208
Racing is about having all the elements perfect, right?

455
00:34:39.368 --> 00:34:44.932
And I think you once said in an interview that you kind of had the easy job, but...

456
00:34:46.590 --> 00:34:48.471
It's about the team of people around you.

457
00:34:48.491 --> 00:34:53.114
I mean, we've talked about Price there a minute ago and Ivan Walker and John Barrett and things like that.

458
00:34:53.594 --> 00:35:00.699
But you all were renowned for the meticulous preparation, good engines, done right.

459
00:35:01.799 --> 00:35:03.541
That is your nature, Gary.

460
00:35:05.542 --> 00:35:07.063
You won't win unless you've got the best.

461
00:35:08.298 --> 00:35:17.903
And I think I had the best mechanic and I made sure we bought the best cars.

462
00:35:18.404 --> 00:35:21.545
I used to have a – if Steve Kinder races, that's good enough for me.

463
00:35:22.566 --> 00:35:24.487
And that's what we had.

464
00:35:26.888 --> 00:35:32.371
And if you haven't got a good engine builder, he's a very important part of a sprint car team.

465
00:35:33.453 --> 00:35:42.378
Right in saying that you were the first person to import a sprint car to Australia, the game was different here in the country at the time.

466
00:35:42.398 --> 00:35:45.439
I think was it kind of supermodifiers that were the main thing?

467
00:35:45.459 --> 00:35:46.480
Supermodifiers.

468
00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:56.045
And what happened, Mike, because he was promoting Liverpool at the time, you know, Mike was probably one of the best promoters around, you know.

469
00:35:56.645 --> 00:35:59.427
And he brought Johnny Anderson out in a sprint car.

470
00:35:59.447 --> 00:35:59.727
Yeah.

471
00:36:01.051 --> 00:36:07.974
with a cage on it and Johnny Anderson was just unbeatable.

472
00:36:07.994 --> 00:36:09.114
He made us look silly.

473
00:36:10.915 --> 00:36:17.778
And apparently Sid Hopping was going to buy the sprint car when Johnny finished.

474
00:36:19.014 --> 00:36:23.656
And one day I got a phone call from Mike and said, are you interested in buying an Anderson Sprint car?

475
00:36:23.676 --> 00:36:25.276
And I said, what's Sid doing?

476
00:36:25.336 --> 00:36:27.157
And he says, oh, that's not going to happen.

477
00:36:28.197 --> 00:36:29.397
And I said, yeah, I'll buy it.

478
00:36:30.498 --> 00:36:37.140
And that was, you know, that phone call from Mike, you know, done a lot for my career.

479
00:36:37.660 --> 00:36:38.780
And for the sport too.

480
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:41.661
I mean, it was a game-changing moment for the country, wasn't it?

481
00:36:42.001 --> 00:36:42.222
It was.

482
00:36:42.242 --> 00:36:43.422
Don't get me wrong, it was just...

483
00:36:44.989 --> 00:36:48.130
Well, look at what sprint cars are like now in Australia.

484
00:36:48.330 --> 00:36:50.231
And that was the first one racing in Australia.

485
00:36:50.691 --> 00:36:52.772
But we had our, there's people against it.

486
00:36:53.072 --> 00:36:55.452
And naturally, that's what happens, you know.

487
00:36:55.472 --> 00:36:56.513
Because that's changed.

488
00:36:56.533 --> 00:36:57.953
They made me put a clutch in it.

489
00:36:58.653 --> 00:37:00.274
It was just horrible.

490
00:37:01.114 --> 00:37:03.335
It's like cutting a thoroughbred's leg off.

491
00:37:04.983 --> 00:37:06.604
You know, they made me put a clutch in it.

492
00:37:06.644 --> 00:37:11.288
I had to go and race at Adelaide, and I had to show them that it had a clutch in it, which I did.

493
00:37:11.668 --> 00:37:12.449
We made a clutch.

494
00:37:12.990 --> 00:37:25.960
We built a clutch, designed a clutch, and unfortunately I towed my car all the way to Perth to race over there, and the clutch didn't hang on, and I drove all the way to Perth for nothing.

495
00:37:26.020 --> 00:37:26.781
I did two laps.

496
00:37:28.082 --> 00:37:34.327
But no, it was terrible what they, you know, they tried to stop it happening, but you can't stop something like that.

497
00:37:34.959 --> 00:37:44.065
You mentioned about the service station before and, you know, the fact that promoters were eager for you in that example you gave to come into state and to race for them and things like that.

498
00:37:44.085 --> 00:37:46.767
What were the cars you were using to tow them back then?

499
00:37:46.787 --> 00:37:47.808
What were the family vehicles?

500
00:37:48.028 --> 00:37:49.609
Oh, haven't I got some stories about that?

501
00:37:49.649 --> 00:37:50.529
Joe, tell us.

502
00:37:50.930 --> 00:37:52.111
Oh, I don't know if you haven't.

503
00:37:52.491 --> 00:37:57.474
Look, we were going to – they had the Cravenay Midget Series.

504
00:37:57.494 --> 00:37:57.574
Yes.

505
00:37:58.615 --> 00:38:02.878
And the final was in Adelaide, the Raleigh Park.

506
00:38:02.898 --> 00:38:02.978
Yep.

507
00:38:04.370 --> 00:38:10.514
So we decided, it was Kevin Egan's car, 30, and we said, oh, well, let's go down for that race.

508
00:38:11.675 --> 00:38:12.996
And I said, yeah, right.

509
00:38:13.136 --> 00:38:14.797
Well, what are we going to tow it with?

510
00:38:15.631 --> 00:38:40.490
And back in them times, Johnny Stewart had a, what was the brand of car, a big V8, oh God, I've got a memory bank, big V8 car that, and I said, oh, well, let's borrow, and one of my customers at the service station had one of these, what brand of car was it, big V8 car it was, and I said, oh.

511
00:38:40.730 --> 00:38:41.711
Like a Judy Go Cho or something?

512
00:38:41.751 --> 00:38:43.314
No, no, it wasn't that elaborate.

513
00:38:43.334 --> 00:38:45.456
It was something, the Studebaker.

514
00:38:45.476 --> 00:38:47.059
Studebaker Lark, was it?

515
00:38:47.079 --> 00:38:48.300
Studebaker Lark or something?

516
00:38:48.861 --> 00:38:52.346
And I asked my customer, I said, could you lend me your car?

517
00:38:52.406 --> 00:38:53.948
I wanted to tow a race car to Adelaide.

518
00:38:54.669 --> 00:38:56.671
He said, yes, of course you can have a lend of it.

519
00:38:56.711 --> 00:38:58.173
He said, but you'll need to put tyres on it.

520
00:38:58.854 --> 00:38:59.394
So we did.

521
00:38:59.474 --> 00:39:09.999
We put some tyres on it and we filled it up at my own service station and I hired a guy to run my service station for three days while we were away.

522
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:12.381
So we fill her up.

523
00:39:14.081 --> 00:39:21.305
We're heading towards Adelaide and we get the razor back, which the UMI way, the freeway wasn't in them days.

524
00:39:21.725 --> 00:39:23.586
We get the razor back and she's on empty.

525
00:39:24.926 --> 00:39:25.627
What's going on there?

526
00:39:25.647 --> 00:39:25.767
Yeah.

527
00:39:27.252 --> 00:39:29.793
All the way to Adelaide, we were getting six miles of the gallop.

528
00:39:31.093 --> 00:39:33.214
And I was going broke.

529
00:39:33.614 --> 00:39:38.815
But anyway, so anyway, we stopped at Wadra and we said, there's something that can be wrong.

530
00:39:38.835 --> 00:39:46.537
We went to somewhere and see if they could tune this Judy Baker lark up and they couldn't find nothing wrong.

531
00:39:46.577 --> 00:39:49.878
Then we stopped at Barrow-Rannell and said, something has to be wrong.

532
00:39:50.498 --> 00:39:52.459
It was going for a field like a...

533
00:39:53.399 --> 00:39:55.101
But anyway, we got to Adelaide.

534
00:39:55.141 --> 00:39:56.944
I was broke by the time we got to Adelaide.

535
00:39:57.524 --> 00:39:59.787
Anyway, we run...

536
00:40:00.408 --> 00:40:06.375
In the race, we run fifth in a Craven State round, right?

537
00:40:09.219 --> 00:40:10.200
On the way home...

538
00:40:11.278 --> 00:40:21.184
What we found out why this studio baker wasn't, we put tyres on, but they're too tall a tyre and it's high geared and it was labouring all the way to Adelaide.

539
00:40:21.204 --> 00:40:29.269
That's why I was using fuel because on the way home it started running so we backed off the throttle and all of a sudden we're getting half decent economy again.

540
00:40:29.289 --> 00:40:34.492
But anyway, the crunch came when the cheque come in the mail.

541
00:40:36.909 --> 00:40:38.451
$1.20 only.

542
00:40:38.671 --> 00:40:40.554
Prize money check you took.

543
00:40:41.115 --> 00:40:43.198
The prize, $1.20 only.

544
00:40:44.200 --> 00:40:45.542
And I said, I'm not cash of this.

545
00:40:45.582 --> 00:40:46.483
This is a good story.

546
00:40:47.145 --> 00:40:48.907
So I kept it in my wallet.

547
00:40:49.849 --> 00:40:51.491
And I remember going to Brisbane...

548
00:40:52.420 --> 00:40:55.301
I don't know, a year or two later or sometime later, I'm not sure.

549
00:40:55.641 --> 00:40:57.442
And Frank Arthur was the promoter up there.

550
00:40:58.042 --> 00:41:03.904
And by this time I'd started to make a name for myself and they were starting to give me appearance monies and things like that.

551
00:41:04.505 --> 00:41:10.247
And I went to Frank Arthur's office to get my appearance money and...

552
00:41:12.663 --> 00:41:16.287
somehow I told him about my $1.20 only.

553
00:41:16.688 --> 00:41:17.549
I told him the story.

554
00:41:18.129 --> 00:41:20.492
He says, I'll give you 50 bucks for that check.

555
00:41:21.113 --> 00:41:21.794
I said, what for?

556
00:41:21.834 --> 00:41:27.100
He says, because every time a competitor comes in here asking for more money, I'm going to tell him your story.

557
00:41:27.120 --> 00:41:27.761
I said, I'm going to tell you.

558
00:41:34.607 --> 00:41:39.812
Sprint cars weigh approximately 640 kilograms, including the driver.

559
00:41:40.513 --> 00:41:48.741
When combined with power outputs of over 900 horses, it gives them a power to weight ratio comparable with a Formula One car.

560
00:41:49.162 --> 00:41:52.245
But you drive them on the dirt and sideways.

561
00:41:54.095 --> 00:41:59.036
The achievements that you've had in sprint car racing are phenomenal statistically.

562
00:41:59.056 --> 00:42:00.377
I'm very happy with that.

563
00:42:00.977 --> 00:42:01.497
You should be.

564
00:42:01.557 --> 00:42:05.978
I mean, when you first started out, clearly you enjoy the competitive element.

565
00:42:06.078 --> 00:42:11.440
And was there ever a moment of doubt for you that you couldn't make a career out of it at any point?

566
00:42:11.920 --> 00:42:12.901
Oh, when I first started.

567
00:42:13.422 --> 00:42:18.808
When I went to Westby as a stock rod driver with a Holden, I kept on rolling over all the time.

568
00:42:18.848 --> 00:42:20.730
These blokes got something that I haven't got.

569
00:42:20.850 --> 00:42:32.343
I really didn't think I had the ability until one day, just Donnie Fortune and Clive Sevenoaks, they said, we're taking our supermodifieds out to this track out near...

570
00:42:33.163 --> 00:42:56.734
Dural were going to run them around and that was the first time I'd ever sat myself in a car that you put into the corner and it'd steer good it'd control slide you could you couldn't control the slide on an old FJ Holden the early bottle Holden and that's when I got that feeling was Speedway that addiction that you that you like you the competitive side you really enjoy don't you

571
00:42:58.264 --> 00:43:00.285
It's life, isn't it?

572
00:43:01.106 --> 00:43:04.127
You hang around with shots and he's a competitor.

573
00:43:05.528 --> 00:43:09.991
And I think I was, I wish I was good as him.

574
00:43:10.011 --> 00:43:12.913
Mate, he's one in a million, that bloke.

575
00:43:13.353 --> 00:43:16.915
But he hates the world.

576
00:43:17.937 --> 00:43:21.541
You're talking about Donnie Schultz, the American, who's an amazing racer.

577
00:43:21.822 --> 00:43:24.224
If you're competing against him, you're the enemy.

578
00:43:25.025 --> 00:43:27.388
You're the enemy.

579
00:43:28.229 --> 00:43:29.611
But, no, I...

580
00:43:30.900 --> 00:43:33.380
Well, you race to win, mate.

581
00:43:33.981 --> 00:43:39.702
You know, when you look at Formula One today, it leaves me a little bit cold.

582
00:43:40.402 --> 00:43:41.862
But Formula One's not a sport.

583
00:43:42.062 --> 00:43:43.242
I've been involved in the sport.

584
00:43:43.262 --> 00:43:44.542
Formula One's a business, I think.

585
00:43:45.323 --> 00:43:45.523
Yeah.

586
00:43:45.643 --> 00:43:47.643
It's, you know...

587
00:43:47.763 --> 00:43:54.944
I just... You're gonna do something, you can do it properly and try to do it as good as an X-bike.

588
00:43:55.424 --> 00:43:57.505
Were you an intense guy on race night?

589
00:43:57.525 --> 00:43:58.525
What was Gary Rush like?

590
00:44:01.315 --> 00:44:02.515
Yeah, I think I was, yeah.

591
00:44:02.555 --> 00:44:02.895
People...

592
00:44:05.096 --> 00:44:15.339
I used to worry... You could walk through the pits and if you said hello to everyone, everyone said, oh, look at that big head.

593
00:44:16.620 --> 00:44:22.201
And then if you walked through the pits and said nothing, they'd say, look at you... You couldn't make them happy.

594
00:44:22.581 --> 00:44:24.202
So I used to say nothing.

595
00:44:25.082 --> 00:44:26.203
I used to get to the pits.

596
00:44:27.023 --> 00:44:31.044
You wouldn't see me walking around talking to other people at the pits because I just...

597
00:44:33.169 --> 00:44:33.869
You're there to race.

598
00:44:34.970 --> 00:44:36.451
You're not there to socialise.

599
00:44:38.492 --> 00:44:43.415
Is there a title in the many that you have won in your incredible career?

600
00:44:43.435 --> 00:44:47.958
Is there one that you have a soft spot for that is close to your heart?

601
00:44:49.939 --> 00:44:52.240
No, I've done everything I wanted to do.

602
00:44:52.261 --> 00:44:53.181
But it took me a while.

603
00:44:53.661 --> 00:44:55.923
It took me a long time before I won my first title.

604
00:44:57.187 --> 00:44:59.148
But Larry Burton used to keep my feet on the ground.

605
00:44:59.168 --> 00:45:00.568
He said, when you're ready, you'll win it.

606
00:45:01.668 --> 00:45:04.409
And when I did, I started winning for you.

607
00:45:05.109 --> 00:45:10.370
But no, nothing's...

608
00:45:10.510 --> 00:45:13.651
The World Series, it come along...

609
00:45:14.131 --> 00:45:20.152
I was quite instrumental in the early days of World Series.

610
00:45:20.332 --> 00:45:20.512
I...

611
00:45:25.727 --> 00:45:33.854
A guy in Victoria, I was at Warrnambool one year, and a guy in Victoria come and knocked on my motel room and said, can I talk?

612
00:45:33.894 --> 00:45:35.775
And I said, yeah, and I'm trying to think of his name.

613
00:45:36.816 --> 00:45:42.721
And he said, why haven't we got a sprint car series in Australia?

614
00:45:44.503 --> 00:45:45.624
And I said, I'm not sure.

615
00:45:45.984 --> 00:45:46.124
Mm-hmm.

616
00:45:47.507 --> 00:45:49.369
I'll figure his name out.

617
00:45:50.531 --> 00:45:54.495
He's a bloke they should... David...

618
00:45:54.696 --> 00:45:56.037
I'll think of his name in a minute.

619
00:45:57.779 --> 00:46:04.026
And he said... And then, anyway, I couldn't answer his question and then a few days later he called me at work and he said...

620
00:46:05.400 --> 00:46:17.495
If I call a meeting with all the influential people around Sydney or Australia to have a meeting in Sydney to discuss why isn't there a race series for sprint cars in Australia, would you attend?

621
00:46:19.586 --> 00:46:20.527
And I said, yeah, I would.

622
00:46:21.887 --> 00:46:28.412
And sure enough, he put it together, and we all met at a hotel at Sydney Kings Cross up there.

623
00:46:29.312 --> 00:46:32.074
And we all sat around.

624
00:46:32.094 --> 00:46:33.235
You name it, they were all there.

625
00:46:33.255 --> 00:46:35.136
Bob Kelly from Queensland.

626
00:46:36.097 --> 00:46:36.997
Just everyone was there.

627
00:46:37.537 --> 00:46:42.040
The blokes that meant something in the sport.

628
00:46:42.961 --> 00:46:47.184
And that's how World Series was formed that day.

629
00:46:48.044 --> 00:46:49.085
And what happened was...

630
00:46:52.814 --> 00:46:54.824
we discussed why we need a series...

631
00:46:56.798 --> 00:47:03.479
And probably the only bloke that was against it was Mike Raymond because he knew he was going to lose all these drivers, stars.

632
00:47:03.879 --> 00:47:13.781
You know, he'd spent years building these stars to race at Liverpool and this series was going to take them stars away from his track.

633
00:47:14.241 --> 00:47:25.683
But anyway, we all agreed to put a series and I said, well, look, this is not the first meeting I've been to talking about the future of our sport.

634
00:47:27.930 --> 00:47:34.376
And what we do, we sit here and talk about it, but when we go back and go to work on Monday, we forget about it.

635
00:47:35.637 --> 00:47:45.807
We need to appoint a manager today, and his job on Monday morning is to start putting a series together.

636
00:47:47.169 --> 00:47:49.271
But first of all, you can't do that without money.

637
00:47:50.805 --> 00:47:59.376
And I said, and we'd sent it around the table and I think we put about 50, 60 grand together, just a show of hands.

638
00:48:02.500 --> 00:48:03.581
I think there was $2,000 a share.

639
00:48:05.601 --> 00:48:14.529
And a good friend of mine had just got hurt in a sprint car in Victoria, in a coma in a hospital in Victoria, so I bought a share for him, Chris Taylor.

640
00:48:14.549 --> 00:48:17.211
I'm not sure if you remember Chris Taylor.

641
00:48:17.411 --> 00:48:22.435
I bought a share for him and we all put in about 60 grand.

642
00:48:23.956 --> 00:48:25.718
And we said, right, who's going to run this?

643
00:48:27.539 --> 00:48:27.720
Right?

644
00:48:29.261 --> 00:48:30.522
That was a lot of money back in them days.

645
00:48:31.202 --> 00:48:31.403
And...

646
00:48:32.834 --> 00:48:39.698
And John Hughes had just finished up as a co-promoter in Adelaide.

647
00:48:40.758 --> 00:48:41.999
He was sitting right beside me.

648
00:48:43.640 --> 00:48:44.280
I said, John...

649
00:48:45.791 --> 00:48:46.791
This is a good job for you.

650
00:48:47.891 --> 00:48:48.872
Put your hand up for this job.

651
00:48:49.512 --> 00:48:53.913
I hit him in the ribs with my elbow and said, take this job, you're just a man to do it.

652
00:48:54.293 --> 00:48:54.693
I did it.

653
00:48:54.913 --> 00:48:56.093
That's how World Series started.

654
00:48:57.373 --> 00:48:57.754
Amazing.

655
00:48:58.234 --> 00:49:00.494
And John done a fantastic job, seriously.

656
00:49:01.714 --> 00:49:10.276
Him and I had a few disagreements, but I was the first driver to get fined for an infringement.

657
00:49:10.736 --> 00:49:11.316
Were you?

658
00:49:11.336 --> 00:49:12.217
Well, I wasn't on the track.

659
00:49:12.277 --> 00:49:13.557
I was late to the pit meeting.

660
00:49:16.095 --> 00:49:17.335
is very unlike you.

661
00:49:17.695 --> 00:49:23.777
Well, we were racing in Melbourne this particular night and I got... We were in a motel near the airport.

662
00:49:23.937 --> 00:49:36.420
The track was further away and I was 20 minutes late for the driver's meeting and no one told me about it until after I finished my heats and I thought, I think I should be starting up pretty close in wherever I was starting.

663
00:49:37.341 --> 00:49:40.482
And I was down the back of something and I thought, what have they done to the points?

664
00:49:40.702 --> 00:49:42.042
They deducted points.

665
00:49:42.842 --> 00:49:44.623
I was trying to grab John's throat.

666
00:49:46.283 --> 00:49:48.103
But anyway, no, he done an excellent job.

667
00:49:48.703 --> 00:49:53.164
Promoting, as you know, mate, is a very difficult thing, isn't it?

668
00:49:53.204 --> 00:50:04.026
I mean, and as you and I sit here now, you know, we could both probably drink glass half full and wish motorsport generally well, but it has its challenges.

669
00:50:04.086 --> 00:50:08.507
And Speedway is, in so many ways, mate, it is like a best-kept secret.

670
00:50:09.007 --> 00:50:11.687
I wish things were better in many ways.

671
00:50:11.727 --> 00:50:14.728
And I know that's not an easy one to resolve or answer, is it?

672
00:50:14.748 --> 00:50:14.848
Yeah.

673
00:50:15.431 --> 00:50:25.800
Look, all my racing career, I just wanted our sport to be recognised and, you know, to...

674
00:50:27.482 --> 00:50:28.863
But it is what it is.

675
00:50:28.983 --> 00:50:35.369
It's a... You know, the guys in Struggle Street, that's what we are.

676
00:50:36.189 --> 00:50:37.891
You know, we make up a small...

677
00:50:40.352 --> 00:50:44.253
But our venues are not as good as they should be.

678
00:50:44.713 --> 00:50:46.914
See, Perth, Kwinana.

679
00:50:46.954 --> 00:50:50.735
When I first seen Kwinana, I think Kwinana's 20-year-old now, is it?

680
00:50:52.275 --> 00:50:52.756
Yeah.

681
00:50:52.796 --> 00:50:59.618
When I first seen Kwinana, I thought, if they can do it in Western Australia, we can do it in New South Wales.

682
00:51:00.058 --> 00:51:02.258
We need a good track like that in New South Wales.

683
00:51:03.039 --> 00:51:07.380
And that's why I got into the promotion business here, because I believe...

684
00:51:11.287 --> 00:51:21.637
to make our sport great, to better than it is, to get that recognition that we're talking about here, is you need good venues, the venues, and then the racing's fantastic.

685
00:51:22.697 --> 00:51:25.280
You take someone to the speedway and have a good sprint car race, you won't.

686
00:51:26.221 --> 00:51:26.781
That's racing.

687
00:51:27.502 --> 00:51:30.665
You know, you won't get more enjoyment than that.

688
00:51:31.824 --> 00:51:41.953
There were rumours, maybe I don't know how true they were, but there were rumours of you being involved in perhaps something that would be at Eastern Creek or in that precinct that would be like Kwinana.

689
00:51:41.973 --> 00:51:43.354
What can you tell us about that?

690
00:51:43.514 --> 00:51:52.743
Well, that's, you know, I've been around on this earth for a long time and you know that land is getting valuable.

691
00:51:52.903 --> 00:51:53.063
Yes.

692
00:51:53.809 --> 00:51:58.393
Parramatta's life, one day they can't afford to have a speedway there.

693
00:51:59.294 --> 00:52:05.100
It's, you know... We don't want that, but you're thinking...

694
00:52:05.120 --> 00:52:11.606
The Lands Department control that land, and one day that's too valuable to have a speedway there.

695
00:52:12.887 --> 00:52:15.450
The state government want all motorsport to be at Eastern Creek.

696
00:52:16.680 --> 00:52:22.528
And what happened was Brian Healy and his partner had Parramatta.

697
00:52:22.548 --> 00:52:24.971
They owned the lease.

698
00:52:25.412 --> 00:52:27.414
Unfortunately, Brian was a good mate of mine.

699
00:52:27.434 --> 00:52:34.323
I took him to the States in 1971, and that's where he fell in love and lived there many years after that.

700
00:52:35.765 --> 00:52:48.483
When he passed, I went and spoke to his partner, Bob Spence, a very successful businessman in California, and we negotiated a deal to buy Parramatta.

701
00:52:49.545 --> 00:52:50.967
So I went to the state government.

702
00:52:52.155 --> 00:53:04.121
And at the time it was a Labor government and Kevin Green was the sports minister and you wouldn't find a better bloke than him, a really good sports minister and a good bloke for the community.

703
00:53:04.641 --> 00:53:13.966
You know, I went to him and a mad Speedway fan too and he's very close to Skip Jackson and his family.

704
00:53:14.846 --> 00:53:17.207
He knows them very well and nice bloke.

705
00:53:17.828 --> 00:53:18.168
And...

706
00:53:19.817 --> 00:53:27.283
I went to him and said, look, I need $3 million to buy the lease off this American businessman.

707
00:53:28.404 --> 00:53:33.908
And he come back and he said, Gary, I can't give you the $3 million.

708
00:53:34.769 --> 00:53:44.717
He said, but you go and get investors, raise $3 million, get that lease, and I'll promise you a new speedway at Eastern Creek in two years.

709
00:53:47.448 --> 00:53:48.188
That's what he said to me.

710
00:53:49.129 --> 00:53:52.151
So I went around and I got... We got...

711
00:53:52.571 --> 00:53:53.331
There was first...

712
00:53:53.351 --> 00:53:57.273
There was four investors and then we made... Peter Addo was the fifth investor.

713
00:53:57.954 --> 00:54:12.541
And it was... And our whole point of... None of the people... Sure, making money is one thing, but the whole point of doing that was hoping we could get a new speed with Eastern Creek.

714
00:54:12.681 --> 00:54:13.682
That's what I'd done it for.

715
00:54:15.023 --> 00:54:15.223
And...

716
00:54:17.642 --> 00:54:23.084
Because I've seen how Jimmy Reid got the drag strip from the state government.

717
00:54:23.764 --> 00:54:31.306
And what I found out is the guys who'd done all the hard work getting... Jimmy, don't get me wrong, Jimmy Reid done...

718
00:54:31.406 --> 00:54:33.066
Drag racing owes Jimmy Reid a lot.

719
00:54:34.207 --> 00:54:35.007
Yeah, yeah.

720
00:54:35.187 --> 00:54:37.848
If it wasn't for Jim, they wouldn't have one, right?

721
00:54:38.348 --> 00:54:40.128
But they...

722
00:54:42.852 --> 00:54:51.174
Jimmy, I've known Jimmy for years and years, and he said the bloke that helped me get this drag strip was a guy called Byron Patching.

723
00:54:51.874 --> 00:54:55.615
And so I got in touch with Byron Patching.

724
00:54:55.675 --> 00:54:59.656
I said, you better get your bum ear into my office and we talk about let's get in the spreeway.

725
00:55:00.136 --> 00:55:04.197
So he kind of mapped out how you go about handling governments.

726
00:55:04.957 --> 00:55:07.338
And he said, right, you know, blah, blah, blah.

727
00:55:07.678 --> 00:55:08.618
Anyway...

728
00:55:09.518 --> 00:55:21.488
Kevin Green, the sports minister, one day rang me and said, I said, could you and your partners come to my office in Sydney?

729
00:55:22.108 --> 00:55:23.890
I want you to introduce you to a guy.

730
00:55:25.751 --> 00:55:31.556
So we went in there and he was the boss of the Lance Department, the boss.

731
00:55:34.178 --> 00:55:39.222
And he said, I want to buy this spreeway off you.

732
00:55:41.829 --> 00:55:49.214
And we all heard by this time, by this time, we'd realised that, look, having four partners is not easy.

733
00:55:49.354 --> 00:55:49.514
Yes.

734
00:55:49.874 --> 00:55:50.554
It's not easy.

735
00:55:51.195 --> 00:55:51.395
Yeah.

736
00:55:52.736 --> 00:55:54.497
But it was going along good.

737
00:55:54.537 --> 00:56:01.921
This partnership was going along good, but it was starting to get a bit, you know, having four or five different opinions is not good for any business.

738
00:56:02.281 --> 00:56:06.904
But anyway, he said, I want to buy the speedway off you.

739
00:56:08.005 --> 00:56:09.246
And we went, oh, beauty, good.

740
00:56:09.266 --> 00:56:09.366
Yeah.

741
00:56:10.535 --> 00:56:14.316
And then I said, but we didn't buy the speedway for financial gain.

742
00:56:15.037 --> 00:56:18.918
We bought the speedway to get a new speedway at Eastern Creek.

743
00:56:19.858 --> 00:56:20.458
He says, oh.

744
00:56:21.659 --> 00:56:24.580
He said, well, you know, I'll go and have a look into that.

745
00:56:26.140 --> 00:56:33.583
And he was going to look into moving us out of Parramatta and putting us into a new speedway.

746
00:56:33.643 --> 00:56:38.965
And we said, we want a turnkey speedway before we release the release at Parramatta.

747
00:56:39.045 --> 00:56:39.205
Yep.

748
00:56:40.252 --> 00:56:41.172
Turn key speedway.

749
00:56:41.212 --> 00:56:42.753
We want it finished everything.

750
00:56:42.813 --> 00:56:43.493
That was the deal.

751
00:56:43.613 --> 00:56:45.034
Finish one and start the next one.

752
00:56:45.054 --> 00:56:46.494
Yep.

753
00:56:46.714 --> 00:56:51.196
And he said, right, I'll start up.

754
00:56:51.436 --> 00:56:52.177
Let's make it happen.

755
00:56:53.357 --> 00:57:06.142
And what they did, they wanted to put an air ambulance, a helicopter, an air ambulance service at Parramatta Speedway and they're going to spend $300 million or something because they

756
00:57:07.530 --> 00:57:09.632
Central and, yeah.

757
00:57:09.732 --> 00:57:14.776
If an accident happens here, they want to get a helicopter, that accident, the traffic's, you know, and it's...

758
00:57:14.836 --> 00:57:16.337
Very centrally located in Sydney.

759
00:57:16.377 --> 00:57:24.163
Yeah, and then they had that helicopter avenue, I think the airwaves, only helicopters can fly in certain parts of Sydney.

760
00:57:24.923 --> 00:57:30.227
And so they thought they were going to build, but we wanted a speedway at Eastern Creek.

761
00:57:31.028 --> 00:57:32.249
And it was that close.

762
00:57:33.670 --> 00:57:36.572
And... Why did it not go ahead?

763
00:57:38.628 --> 00:57:41.570
Unfortunately, the bloke was not a bad bloke either.

764
00:57:45.393 --> 00:58:05.485
He was on the front page of the newspaper, him and a government minister, and he had the decency to ring me and tell me, I'm sorry, very sorry, Gary, you obviously read the papers, but we... and that became a problem.

765
00:58:06.264 --> 00:58:07.585
Freakish timing.

766
00:58:08.045 --> 00:58:13.227
And then the next state election, Labor got voted out and Kevin even lost his job.

767
00:58:14.247 --> 00:58:18.248
And we'd put about four or five years' work into it.

768
00:58:20.069 --> 00:58:24.831
And, yeah, we were very close to getting a new speedway at Eastern Creek.

769
00:58:25.491 --> 00:58:25.791
Sad.

770
00:58:26.311 --> 00:58:26.611
Sad.

771
00:58:27.292 --> 00:58:29.633
Let's talk rivals for a minute during your career.

772
00:58:29.933 --> 00:58:33.674
When you were driving, who were the guys that made you bristle?

773
00:58:36.683 --> 00:58:38.124
Oh, well, it was always George.

774
00:58:38.404 --> 00:58:38.944
George Tadnell?

775
00:58:39.244 --> 00:58:39.544
Yeah.

776
00:58:39.885 --> 00:58:42.046
He was a Hollywood sort of character.

777
00:58:42.266 --> 00:58:47.448
Oh, he's just that flamboyant double bloke and he, you know, the sport misses him.

778
00:58:48.248 --> 00:58:49.729
No sport needs blokes like him.

779
00:58:50.129 --> 00:58:56.452
You know, but as a rival, yeah, we had a lot of arguments, but I think he respected me and I respected him.

780
00:58:57.412 --> 00:58:58.533
This is Steve Brosey.

781
00:58:58.793 --> 00:58:59.713
He was my competitor.

782
00:59:01.934 --> 00:59:05.076
If you wanted to race in Perth, you'd better race against South Barbagello.

783
00:59:05.316 --> 00:59:05.476
Yep.

784
00:59:06.252 --> 00:59:10.196
If you wanted to race in Brisbane, you had to race against the Kellys.

785
00:59:10.556 --> 00:59:11.697
I'm probably forgetting people.

786
00:59:11.757 --> 00:59:16.462
If you wanted to race in Adelaide, you better race against Bill Wigsall.

787
00:59:16.662 --> 00:59:20.526
All great people, people that have done their bit for the sport.

788
00:59:21.925 --> 00:59:31.652
Because of its kind of American origins, there are moments in Speedway where blokes have shaped up to one another to iron things out.

789
00:59:31.852 --> 00:59:32.453
It does happen.

790
00:59:32.473 --> 00:59:33.734
You mean Sid have had it?

791
00:59:33.754 --> 00:59:41.079
Well, that was my next question because it happened with you and Sid Moore and it ended up, I think, going to court, didn't it?

792
00:59:41.099 --> 00:59:41.819
Did it get settled?

793
00:59:41.839 --> 00:59:42.960
One of them got settled in court?

794
00:59:43.040 --> 00:59:43.521
That's one.

795
00:59:43.561 --> 00:59:45.902
There's two Sids, Sid Hopping and Sid Moore.

796
00:59:46.383 --> 00:59:46.643
LAUGHTER

797
00:59:48.467 --> 00:59:49.708
Well, tell me, go one at a time.

798
00:59:49.728 --> 00:59:50.508
What happened with each other?

799
00:59:50.528 --> 00:59:53.869
Well, Sid Hopping was the one, but because that was typical, Mike.

800
00:59:55.450 --> 00:59:58.371
When you went to Liverpool, you had to beat Sid Hopping.

801
00:59:58.951 --> 01:00:01.252
And Sid's a lovely bloke.

802
01:00:01.312 --> 01:00:03.872
He really is a lovely bloke, but in the car he's just...

803
01:00:06.513 --> 01:00:08.574
Anyway, he's a lovely bloke.

804
01:00:08.594 --> 01:00:10.455
I can't imagine you shaping up to someone.

805
01:00:10.515 --> 01:00:11.455
I can't... Oh, well...

806
01:00:13.541 --> 01:00:15.863
Someone put you on ahead in the first turn.

807
01:00:15.983 --> 01:00:17.324
It wasn't deliberate.

808
01:00:17.344 --> 01:00:18.425
It was just stupidity.

809
01:00:19.006 --> 01:00:19.866
You get a bit angry.

810
01:00:20.827 --> 01:00:22.369
That's not the style of racing you enjoy.

811
01:00:22.389 --> 01:00:27.773
You enjoy the whole let's go wheel to wheel but not... Yeah, there's a photo getting around.

812
01:00:27.813 --> 01:00:33.738
It's the best Speedway photo you've ever seen, I believe, because I'm in it.

813
01:00:34.659 --> 01:00:36.160
George and I at the Sydney Showground.

814
01:00:36.521 --> 01:00:39.183
If you ever find that photo, go and have a look at it.

815
01:00:39.563 --> 01:00:41.105
If you don't think that's close racing,

816
01:00:42.165 --> 01:00:42.686
What are you in there?

817
01:00:42.706 --> 01:00:43.447
Are you both in midgets there?

818
01:00:43.467 --> 01:00:44.307
Both in midgets, yeah.

819
01:00:44.467 --> 01:00:45.508
Yeah, no, it's very good.

820
01:00:45.869 --> 01:00:46.609
It's a good photo.

821
01:00:46.629 --> 01:00:47.009
Look it up.

822
01:00:47.130 --> 01:00:47.470
Will do.

823
01:00:47.650 --> 01:00:47.950
Righto.

824
01:00:48.271 --> 01:00:49.752
Sid Moore, what happened there?

825
01:00:49.772 --> 01:00:58.019
Because from what I can gather, you got off on, was it on the basis of the fight took place in the pits rather than the track or something or other?

826
01:00:58.039 --> 01:00:58.699
What happened there?

827
01:01:00.668 --> 01:01:01.829
I owe a lot to Sid Moore.

828
01:01:02.509 --> 01:01:02.709
Okay.

829
01:01:02.729 --> 01:01:03.949
I owe a lot to Sid Moore.

830
01:01:04.310 --> 01:01:05.970
He gave me my first Australian title.

831
01:01:06.871 --> 01:01:07.091
Yep.

832
01:01:07.371 --> 01:01:12.113
But anyone knows Sid, he can make you wild.

833
01:01:13.113 --> 01:01:15.734
He's just the way he is and no one's ever going to change him.

834
01:01:16.515 --> 01:01:16.715
Yep.

835
01:01:17.955 --> 01:01:37.573
somehow or other uh i was racing for him i was successful in his cars and um then i left him and went to uh race for someone else jack mags in victoria and i think sid always held something against me and one time in adelaide

836
01:01:39.358 --> 01:01:44.102
He deliberately tried to run into me, missed and hit the fence and rode himself off.

837
01:01:45.223 --> 01:01:48.125
And two weeks later, we were racing at Newcastle.

838
01:01:48.165 --> 01:01:49.226
He didn't miss me this time.

839
01:01:49.246 --> 01:01:51.969
He got me and I was in a brand new car and I wasn't happy about it.

840
01:01:52.249 --> 01:01:55.792
You did go and compete at Bathurst on more than one occasion.

841
01:01:55.832 --> 01:01:57.773
So let's talk a little bit about Bathurst.

842
01:01:58.234 --> 01:02:01.376
Was the first experience in a GDHO Falcon and what year was that?

843
01:02:02.597 --> 01:02:05.440
Phase two, 70, 1970.

844
01:02:05.460 --> 01:02:06.681
How was that whole experience?

845
01:02:07.442 --> 01:02:08.082
Excellent, yeah.

846
01:02:08.102 --> 01:02:09.383
It was pretty good.

847
01:02:10.764 --> 01:02:15.929
I met up with, well, here's my first Formula, he owned my first Formula Ford, Brian Burt.

848
01:02:15.989 --> 01:02:16.790
Yes.

849
01:02:17.591 --> 01:02:18.511
It was a good story.

850
01:02:18.651 --> 01:02:27.719
I was over at Waggots getting my engine done, my engine done, and Gary, oh, gee whiz, he

851
01:02:28.480 --> 01:02:32.744
is a Mercedes-Benz dealer in Liverpool.

852
01:02:33.144 --> 01:02:34.786
He's got a tragic story to that too.

853
01:02:35.747 --> 01:02:38.549
This Gary, oh, gee, I always forget his name.

854
01:02:39.290 --> 01:02:41.151
He said, have you got a sponsor for this car yet?

855
01:02:42.252 --> 01:02:43.473
Because I own this Formula Ford.

856
01:02:43.493 --> 01:02:46.396
I was getting this Formula Ford built by Bowen.

857
01:02:48.358 --> 01:02:50.139
Bowen's been building Formula Fords and...

858
01:02:51.160 --> 01:02:52.622
He said, you got a sponsor for this guy yet?

859
01:02:52.822 --> 01:02:54.163
And I said, no, I haven't.

860
01:02:54.724 --> 01:02:59.108
And I had about six or seven grand tied up in it as my worldly wealth.

861
01:02:59.629 --> 01:03:03.092
And he said, I think I know a bloke that might sponsor you on this.

862
01:03:03.958 --> 01:03:04.598
I said, really?

863
01:03:05.419 --> 01:03:09.421
Anyway, he rang me and said, here's a number.

864
01:03:09.501 --> 01:03:10.121
Give him a call.

865
01:03:10.582 --> 01:03:11.862
His name's Brian Burt.

866
01:03:12.283 --> 01:03:14.684
He's got a Ford dealership at Wollongong.

867
01:03:15.524 --> 01:03:20.007
And so I rang him and he said, oh, yeah, yeah, Gary.

868
01:03:20.047 --> 01:03:25.470
He says, yeah, no, would you like to come down and meet us?

869
01:03:26.675 --> 01:03:29.177
And I said, I'm leaving the office now.

870
01:03:30.137 --> 01:03:32.659
And he said, oh, it's a bit foggy down here today.

871
01:03:32.679 --> 01:03:33.339
Maybe you shouldn't.

872
01:03:33.399 --> 01:03:34.420
I said, that won't worry me.

873
01:03:34.640 --> 01:03:35.380
That won't worry me.

874
01:03:36.361 --> 01:03:41.904
And on the way down, on the way down, I was thinking to myself, now, I've seen these sponsors before.

875
01:03:41.944 --> 01:03:44.606
All they want to give is a pint of oil or something.

876
01:03:44.886 --> 01:03:47.548
I says, there's no way he's going to get me.

877
01:03:48.148 --> 01:03:54.072
I've got all my money tied up in this car unless if he buys me a spare engine, he's got me.

878
01:03:54.692 --> 01:03:55.673
He can put his name on the car.

879
01:03:55.693 --> 01:03:55.833
Yeah.

880
01:03:56.748 --> 01:04:21.554
Well, I went down there and we met each other and he said, and he showed me around his dealership and he said, we've done this, I've only been here a year, I think about a year or so, in the dealership, I've done this and I'm doing this and I'm doing this and, you know, as you do, you're kind of taking a mental adding up of how much money you spent.

881
01:04:21.594 --> 01:04:22.734
I went, jeez, yeah.

882
01:04:23.394 --> 01:04:25.735
And then we went back to his office, he said, well,

883
01:04:26.950 --> 01:04:31.192
What does other people do in this case?

884
01:04:31.892 --> 01:04:39.896
And I said, well, there's a team in Victoria, Bibb Stillwell, Stillwell Ford, and Bibb Stillwell was a famous Australian racing driver.

885
01:04:40.557 --> 01:04:48.381
He's got his own team and he's got a two-car team and he's got his own truck that pulls them around.

886
01:04:48.441 --> 01:04:52.803
And he said, well, why don't I buy your car off you?

887
01:04:53.717 --> 01:04:57.003
and we'll get that team going, and you just come and drive for me.

888
01:04:59.347 --> 01:05:03.689
I'm driving home thinking, am I dreaming this?

889
01:05:04.989 --> 01:05:07.870
And that's how the relationship started with Brian Burt.

890
01:05:08.250 --> 01:05:10.271
And, you know, it was very good.

891
01:05:10.631 --> 01:05:11.151
It was very good.

892
01:05:11.351 --> 01:05:13.232
Iconic car to race at the mountain too.

893
01:05:13.272 --> 01:05:14.893
What were your first recollections about?

894
01:05:14.933 --> 01:05:25.597
What happened was he bought my Formula Ford, but he'd raced a car at Baffist in 69, and that's what he got the bug.

895
01:05:25.617 --> 01:05:25.757
Okay.

896
01:05:26.535 --> 01:05:49.287
right he said we raced a car at baffist last year we really enjoyed it we're going to race another and would you be interested well you can race our formula ford for us now that i've bought it and now we'll go to baffist in the gd falcon and that's what we did that was my first and then that was in 1970 the phase two falcon

897
01:05:49.786 --> 01:05:52.969
Great era for the sport at that stage.

898
01:05:53.329 --> 01:05:58.034
Was the track for you, you know, it's an iconic thing now.

899
01:05:58.074 --> 01:05:58.975
It's a major sport.

900
01:05:59.015 --> 01:05:59.215
Yeah.

901
01:05:59.435 --> 01:06:00.276
It's a racing track.

902
01:06:00.516 --> 01:06:06.121
I mean, I've been to Bathurst, oh, I don't know, 10 times now probably.

903
01:06:06.141 --> 01:06:06.482
I don't know.

904
01:06:06.502 --> 01:06:07.383
I'm not sure how many times.

905
01:06:07.663 --> 01:06:09.925
Not, wouldn't be that many times.

906
01:06:09.965 --> 01:06:12.207
But you don't race the other blokes.

907
01:06:12.227 --> 01:06:12.908
You race a track.

908
01:06:12.928 --> 01:06:13.148
Yeah.

909
01:06:14.268 --> 01:06:19.537
And I think I've driven home from Baffist every time saying that track beat me again today.

910
01:06:20.199 --> 01:06:21.842
Oh, yeah, it's a racing track.

911
01:06:21.882 --> 01:06:23.645
That and Phillip Island.

912
01:06:24.386 --> 01:06:26.370
You really have to know what you're doing.

913
01:06:27.175 --> 01:06:38.442
You had a top 10 finish there, and there was a point with the RS500 Sierra Cosworth where you were tempted, I think, if I'm right here, to maybe do a two-car team where you were going to get serious with it at one point.

914
01:06:38.462 --> 01:06:40.943
I got very serious with the Sierras.

915
01:06:41.204 --> 01:06:42.625
I was nearly going to buy one.

916
01:06:44.866 --> 01:06:47.287
I was lucky enough to...

917
01:06:48.468 --> 01:06:50.731
Valvoline before Castrol come along.

918
01:06:52.193 --> 01:07:01.623
I got to know, we're buying a bit of oil off the Valvoline and I got to know the boss of Valvoline and somehow we struck a pretty good friendship going.

919
01:07:03.792 --> 01:07:06.575
He, what happened?

920
01:07:06.955 --> 01:07:07.736
Ray Lintot.

921
01:07:08.677 --> 01:07:10.538
He was a Sydney car dealer at the time.

922
01:07:10.558 --> 01:07:12.540
I think he's gone to heaven now.

923
01:07:12.620 --> 01:07:15.563
Yeah, I knew Ray as a car dealer.

924
01:07:16.343 --> 01:07:18.766
He got a Dick Johnson Sierra.

925
01:07:18.786 --> 01:07:20.547
Mm-hmm.

926
01:07:20.827 --> 01:07:26.693
And I think we put, Valvoline sponsored it.

927
01:07:26.813 --> 01:07:26.973
Mm-hmm.

928
01:07:27.968 --> 01:07:33.671
And I think Valvoline put up 25 grand for me to have a drive.

929
01:07:34.912 --> 01:07:43.396
And Ray was in it, I was in it, and a good young bloke, a little bit younger than I was, I suppose, he was very, very good.

930
01:07:43.576 --> 01:07:46.097
He was very fast around there, trying to think of his name.

931
01:07:47.018 --> 01:07:50.380
And he was quite a bit quicker than Ray and I.

932
01:07:51.120 --> 01:07:53.582
But when it comes for me to drive it, I put it in the sand...

933
01:07:53.983 --> 01:07:56.245
I put it at the end of the pit straight.

934
01:07:56.805 --> 01:07:58.627
I put it in the sand bunker.

935
01:07:59.508 --> 01:08:03.411
But it was a fast car, but I wasn't that good in that.

936
01:08:04.192 --> 01:08:09.296
They're a really different machine in the way that they deliver their power and do things like that.

937
01:08:09.316 --> 01:08:12.619
I mean, it's 180 of a sprint car to begin with, isn't it?

938
01:08:12.639 --> 01:08:13.140
Yeah, yeah.

939
01:08:13.673 --> 01:08:20.502
That was a – I've always said the two fastest cars I've ever driven was a sprint car and one of them.

940
01:08:21.242 --> 01:08:21.923
Is that right?

941
01:08:21.963 --> 01:08:23.245
Yeah, they're a pretty fast car.

942
01:08:23.781 --> 01:08:31.588
In the early 80s, a bloke by the name of Steve Kinsert would come along that you would have a good friendship with and great racers with.

943
01:08:32.548 --> 01:08:41.736
In global terms, if you were to draw a parallel, I mean, his success is admittedly in a different field, but better than a Valentino Rossi.

944
01:08:41.776 --> 01:08:45.419
I mean, he's done some remarkable things over time.

945
01:08:45.799 --> 01:08:50.143
When you first came up against him, did you know straight away this guy is good?

946
01:08:51.832 --> 01:08:52.813
No, we didn't know.

947
01:08:52.833 --> 01:08:58.277
We arrived at Knoxville one day and I was with this famous mechanic over there, Ken Woodruff.

948
01:08:58.337 --> 01:08:59.738
He made his own name over there.

949
01:09:00.158 --> 01:09:07.923
Him and I went racing at Knoxville together and he said, he said, hey, buddy, he said, see that young blonde bloke over there?

950
01:09:07.943 --> 01:09:09.425
He's starting to make a name for himself.

951
01:09:09.805 --> 01:09:12.287
That's when we first bumped into Steve Kinzer.

952
01:09:12.727 --> 01:09:19.832
But in the next 25 years, he'd become the biggest, well, he's the greatest racing car driver that's ever lived in America, I think.

953
01:09:20.413 --> 01:09:25.558
You know, there's no driver in the world who's got a winning record like him.

954
01:09:26.239 --> 01:09:28.822
And the next bloke that's coming is going to follow him as shots.

955
01:09:29.642 --> 01:09:33.847
You know, but Steve Kinzer was just, they call him the king and he was the king.

956
01:09:34.728 --> 01:09:39.292
Since 1980 until he only retired three years ago.

957
01:09:39.773 --> 01:09:41.675
That's a long time to be on top.

958
01:09:42.782 --> 01:09:44.423
His record is remarkable.

959
01:09:44.643 --> 01:09:46.924
Yours in Australia, mate, is... Special talent, mate.

960
01:09:47.104 --> 01:09:51.547
Yeah, but I want to shine a little bit of a light on yours just for a moment because I'm not...

961
01:09:51.987 --> 01:09:54.669
There are days where I don't know if you fully...

962
01:09:56.230 --> 01:10:06.155
I know you know what you achieved and you worked enormously hard to do that, but the reaction still from fans to this day to what you did, I mean, does it... You power on at work here.

963
01:10:06.175 --> 01:10:08.156
We're sitting in your office as we record this and...

964
01:10:09.560 --> 01:10:13.163
You're in your 70s, but you're working as hard as a young bloke from what I can see.

965
01:10:13.884 --> 01:10:17.467
Do you stop and take it in and think about what you would choose?

966
01:10:17.588 --> 01:10:22.712
I went to Warrnambool this year as a first time as a non-competitor.

967
01:10:23.273 --> 01:10:24.734
I really, really enjoyed it.

968
01:10:24.754 --> 01:10:26.036
Fantastic.

969
01:10:26.056 --> 01:10:29.499
I really, you know, I've always went there and there as a competitor.

970
01:10:30.867 --> 01:10:33.049
And I really enjoyed it this year.

971
01:10:33.129 --> 01:10:37.373
I could sit back and I realised what a lovely town Warrnambool is.

972
01:10:37.453 --> 01:10:38.454
I'd never seen that before.

973
01:10:38.914 --> 01:10:41.076
And I'd been going there since 19-whatever.

974
01:10:42.898 --> 01:10:53.247
But some of the fans and some of the people I bumped into, they just sit back and say, gee,

975
01:10:56.800 --> 01:11:19.417
well they what you mean to them I used to say that about Brock I only met Peter on a two big times times when we spent a bit of time together and I come away thinking he doesn't realise what he means to people you thought that really?

976
01:11:19.617 --> 01:11:25.222
yeah he was just a normal bloke but people idolised him

977
01:11:26.790 --> 01:11:32.494
You know, probably people knew him a lot better than I did, but, mate, I can only speak very well of him.

978
01:11:33.375 --> 01:11:35.536
I'm pleased you stopped.

979
01:11:35.576 --> 01:11:40.040
You stopped in that sense at Warrnambool and kind of took stock of it and understood.

980
01:11:40.100 --> 01:11:46.564
Yeah, I really enjoyed some of the people would... what I guess my career meant to them, you know, yeah.

981
01:11:47.885 --> 01:11:48.146
You...

982
01:11:49.147 --> 01:11:55.131
It would eventually stop and, you know, we can recall the send-off coming in in a chopper and all that sort of stuff.

983
01:11:55.151 --> 01:11:59.034
But was it difficult to stop, Gary, and what was the ultimate reason?

984
01:11:59.194 --> 01:12:01.736
It took me six years, I believe six years.

985
01:12:01.836 --> 01:12:02.897
I've always said six years.

986
01:12:03.417 --> 01:12:08.141
Six years to get over it, to get it out of my system, yeah.

987
01:12:09.342 --> 01:12:13.284
I remember taking my son to Perth to race.

988
01:12:14.765 --> 01:12:24.011
And I remember getting in the race car to do a couple of laps after I retired and I'd done a few laps and I sat there.

989
01:12:26.653 --> 01:12:33.318
And this might sound silly and I hope people don't think how stupid it sounds.

990
01:12:34.479 --> 01:12:37.541
I think I was put on an after-drive sprint car.

991
01:12:37.841 --> 01:12:40.403
You know, I just loved it so much.

992
01:12:42.203 --> 01:12:43.444
Most people would agree with you, mate.

993
01:12:43.484 --> 01:12:44.885
I mean, it's...

994
01:12:46.246 --> 01:12:56.133
I greatly admire in life people that latch onto a thing, whether it's golf clubs or tennis or whatever, and pursue it.

995
01:12:57.414 --> 01:13:01.377
I'm always amazed at the way they get to that point to find it.

996
01:13:01.417 --> 01:13:09.623
But when people like you find it, mate, and then go and have just the most massive career, and to know that you...

997
01:13:11.418 --> 01:13:15.721
clicked with the thing that you were meant, clearly meant to do, I think is enormously special.

998
01:13:15.801 --> 01:13:19.104
Well, that's not enjoying England.

999
01:13:19.144 --> 01:13:22.206
I went to the States and drove a sprint car and that was... Meant to be.

1000
01:13:22.226 --> 01:13:25.429
...when I drove...

1001
01:13:25.509 --> 01:13:27.450
I drove on a bitumen track the first time.

1002
01:13:27.510 --> 01:13:28.591
That wasn't that exciting.

1003
01:13:28.931 --> 01:13:33.595
But once I got on a half-mile dirt track, that finished it.

1004
01:13:34.195 --> 01:13:37.858
You haven't driven a race car until you drive on one of them tracks.

1005
01:13:37.878 --> 01:13:38.038
Yeah.

1006
01:13:38.300 --> 01:13:45.347
We'll talk in a minute about what you're doing now, and there's some phenomenal things that you've shown me around here today that you are doing in post-race life.

1007
01:13:45.888 --> 01:13:52.515
But you did dabble briefly with NASCAR and the Thunderdome at Calder Park there.

1008
01:13:53.440 --> 01:14:05.224
You have to correct me if I get this quote wrong, but I think at the time you said to John, when you pulled up after the first laps in the car, you said words to the effect of, if this is motor racing, I don't want to be a part of it.

1009
01:14:05.704 --> 01:14:10.646
Why was it, did the NASCAR not suit you?

1010
01:14:10.726 --> 01:14:12.346
Was it a frightening thing to drive?

1011
01:14:12.366 --> 01:14:14.167
What was it that you didn't perhaps like at the time?

1012
01:14:14.187 --> 01:14:15.067
And correct me if I'm wrong there.

1013
01:14:15.890 --> 01:14:18.452
Bob Jane built Calder.

1014
01:14:18.612 --> 01:14:18.752
Yep.

1015
01:14:19.873 --> 01:14:23.715
He wanted to make it successful.

1016
01:14:24.836 --> 01:14:27.737
I had a high profile in Speedway.

1017
01:14:29.719 --> 01:14:36.623
I think he asked John Shepard, and I knew John Shepard from many years before when he worked for Ron Hodson.

1018
01:14:38.264 --> 01:14:42.807
And John Shepard said, would you like to drive a NASCAR at the opening meeting at Calder?

1019
01:14:42.867 --> 01:14:42.987
Yeah.

1020
01:14:45.283 --> 01:14:48.304
I said, why not?

1021
01:14:49.105 --> 01:14:56.687
So they had an outing, a day there, and they treated it like a king.

1022
01:14:56.727 --> 01:14:58.828
They flee in a helicopter.

1023
01:14:58.928 --> 01:15:00.189
You know, it was big time.

1024
01:15:00.229 --> 01:15:00.869
I was big time.

1025
01:15:01.489 --> 01:15:07.872
But we went out there and drove a few laps and different things.

1026
01:15:08.392 --> 01:15:10.253
But then they sent me a new car.

1027
01:15:11.231 --> 01:15:20.035
And they said, right, we're going to send you up this car and you try to put it together and come down and race in the opening meeting.

1028
01:15:21.235 --> 01:15:26.257
Well, I think, look, I've got no proof of this.

1029
01:15:28.979 --> 01:15:38.783
I think Bob Jane said to Goodyear, send me all the old tyres, NASCAR tyres you have.

1030
01:15:38.923 --> 01:15:39.063
Mm-hmm.

1031
01:15:39.840 --> 01:15:42.022
and they probably had thousands of them.

1032
01:15:43.543 --> 01:15:44.623
We can't afford new ones.

1033
01:15:45.384 --> 01:15:58.994
Sorry, we can't afford... You know, they're probably stocked up of NASCAR tyres that are probably two or three-year-old that they never use again, and so Bob Jane brought them to Australia and put them on all our cars.

1034
01:16:00.174 --> 01:16:03.517
Well, they sent some guns out...

1035
01:16:07.258 --> 01:16:12.341
I'm trying to think of their drivers, the Americans that won it.

1036
01:16:14.763 --> 01:16:15.384
Gee, what's it?

1037
01:16:15.424 --> 01:16:15.944
Neil Bonnet?

1038
01:16:16.064 --> 01:16:16.424
Yep.

1039
01:16:16.444 --> 01:16:21.848
Neil Bonnet and one of the two brothers that were here.

1040
01:16:22.388 --> 01:16:24.690
Mate, on race day, they made us look silly.

1041
01:16:26.031 --> 01:16:27.532
And I think they brought their own tyres.

1042
01:16:27.552 --> 01:16:28.312
Oh, really?

1043
01:16:28.332 --> 01:16:33.255
Because our tyres were two and three-year-old and they're like being on a skating rink.

1044
01:16:34.196 --> 01:16:35.357
Mate, I...

1045
01:16:36.487 --> 01:16:44.594
I had two spin-outs prior to the race, practicing, and I kept it off the fence, I didn't bend the car.

1046
01:16:46.396 --> 01:16:53.642
The second one, I was backing up to the fence and I left enough room for a car to get through.

1047
01:16:55.795 --> 01:17:00.356
And thank God the bloke was coming at me, got through there.

1048
01:17:00.656 --> 01:17:05.758
If it would have been anyone else, I reckon they would have went, drove straight through me, but it was Jim Richards.

1049
01:17:07.939 --> 01:17:10.279
And he was the master.

1050
01:17:10.979 --> 01:17:12.460
He got between me and the fence.

1051
01:17:13.020 --> 01:17:14.560
I don't reckon anyone else could have done it.

1052
01:17:15.441 --> 01:17:16.661
And that's the memory.

1053
01:17:17.061 --> 01:17:19.922
And I come back into the pits and John Barrett said,

1054
01:17:22.164 --> 01:17:22.725
You're white.

1055
01:17:23.367 --> 01:17:24.369
I says, I'm scared.

1056
01:17:25.191 --> 01:17:26.033
I'm scared to death.

1057
01:17:26.534 --> 01:17:28.398
But these cars just don't handle.

1058
01:17:29.441 --> 01:17:31.585
They just don't handle, right?

1059
01:17:33.889 --> 01:17:36.411
We're scratching our heads and saying, oh, what do we do?

1060
01:17:36.451 --> 01:17:37.051
What do we do?

1061
01:17:37.091 --> 01:17:37.672
What do we do?

1062
01:17:38.052 --> 01:17:43.235
So a friend of mine, a good friend of mine, he goes and gets Neil Bonnet.

1063
01:17:43.636 --> 01:17:45.016
He goes and taps him on the shoulder.

1064
01:17:45.036 --> 01:17:48.779
He said, mate, we're having trouble with this car down here.

1065
01:17:49.559 --> 01:17:53.682
Could you come down and maybe give us some tips on what we're doing wrong?

1066
01:17:54.603 --> 01:18:00.647
And by this time, Neil Bonnet, he had busted bones.

1067
01:18:00.687 --> 01:18:01.648
He walked down with a limp.

1068
01:18:01.688 --> 01:18:02.068
Nice bloke.

1069
01:18:02.088 --> 01:18:02.188
Yeah.

1070
01:18:02.945 --> 01:18:04.185
And he said, what are you doing here?

1071
01:18:04.205 --> 01:18:08.407
He said, oh, let's do this to this car, let's do this to this car, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah.

1072
01:18:08.927 --> 01:18:10.807
And he said, mate, let me do a few laps in it.

1073
01:18:12.928 --> 01:18:14.908
So he does a few laps and he has a spin out.

1074
01:18:17.609 --> 01:18:20.590
And he comes back and he said, yeah, well, you can do this, you can do it.

1075
01:18:20.750 --> 01:18:22.150
I said, mate, you spun it out.

1076
01:18:22.170 --> 01:18:24.631
He says, oh, just making you feel good.

1077
01:18:26.272 --> 01:18:27.272
Just making you feel good.

1078
01:18:30.538 --> 01:18:36.283
And then he said, I know of your name.

1079
01:18:37.124 --> 01:18:38.565
You're a friend of Jack Ewitt's, aren't you?

1080
01:18:39.526 --> 01:18:40.167
I said, yeah.

1081
01:18:41.167 --> 01:18:44.230
He said, well, yeah, you're a sprint car driver.

1082
01:18:45.251 --> 01:18:47.573
Yeah, well, everyone knows Jack Ewitt.

1083
01:18:48.054 --> 01:18:49.815
Well, let me tell you about these cars.

1084
01:18:50.556 --> 01:18:54.980
He says, compared to sprint cars, even when they're good, they're still shitty.

1085
01:18:57.086 --> 01:18:58.167
Compared to sprint cars.

1086
01:18:58.427 --> 01:18:59.268
And that's what he said.

1087
01:18:59.988 --> 01:19:04.972
In the office where we sit here now, there is, I'm pleased to say, a bit of memorabilia from your career.

1088
01:19:04.992 --> 01:19:05.813
I mean, you were inducted.

1089
01:19:05.873 --> 01:19:07.314
Oh, that one's up there.

1090
01:19:07.354 --> 01:19:08.055
I'm pretty proud of it.

1091
01:19:08.095 --> 01:19:08.956
You should be.

1092
01:19:09.016 --> 01:19:14.440
Hall of Fame induction and all sorts of things from an incredible career.

1093
01:19:14.460 --> 01:19:20.144
But you have, a little bit like Marcus Ambrose, who I spoke to recently for the podcast series, you have...

1094
01:19:20.245 --> 01:19:21.245
I met him at...

1095
01:19:21.265 --> 01:19:22.626
I met him... Where did I meet him?

1096
01:19:22.667 --> 01:19:23.067
Recently.

1097
01:19:23.977 --> 01:19:24.317
Warrnambool.

1098
01:19:24.597 --> 01:19:25.278
He was at Warrnambool.

1099
01:19:25.358 --> 01:19:25.518
Yeah.

1100
01:19:25.698 --> 01:19:26.759
Yeah, that's where I met him.

1101
01:19:27.639 --> 01:19:27.939
Yeah.

1102
01:19:28.500 --> 01:19:29.520
He still enjoys it.

1103
01:19:29.540 --> 01:19:41.708
But like you, he's, you know, given away some of the things either to charity and you've done some great things for like the children's hospital and stuff like that, mate, over time with your helmets and some of the memorabilia, haven't you?

1104
01:19:42.869 --> 01:19:50.013
I was, my wife and my family were blessed to have twin girls with my daughter 21 years ago.

1105
01:19:50.934 --> 01:19:53.135
And they were born three months premature.

1106
01:19:54.613 --> 01:20:22.555
at Penrith Hospital and I know what Jodie went through prior to giving birth and moving around to, you know, one day she'd be in this hospital and another day she'd be in this hospital because they only had these humic ribs for babies, they only had so many of them and they wouldn't, if they had a spare one there, that's where they'd send her

1107
01:20:23.580 --> 01:20:29.427
And all of a sudden that'd be taken, then she'd have to move to another one where there's a spare humi crib, right?

1108
01:20:30.308 --> 01:20:43.002
And anyway, after my granddaughters were born, they were very tiny and miniature, and I had a shed full of trophies.

1109
01:20:45.308 --> 01:20:59.971
So we sent them to the SPO, we auctioned them off and raised a lot of money and we donated that money to the... Half was to the Westmead Children's Hospital and half was to Penrith Nick Ward.

1110
01:21:00.311 --> 01:21:05.212
Just to see if we can get some money happening for the hospital for these little humic ribs.

1111
01:21:06.193 --> 01:21:07.313
Great initiative.

1112
01:21:07.853 --> 01:21:12.274
We are at Pick and Pay Less in Western Sydney in Blacktown.

1113
01:21:14.263 --> 01:21:21.146
In the podcast, we talk about cars and bikes and things that people that have either raced or owned are passionate about.

1114
01:21:21.186 --> 01:21:29.590
But one thing I've never discussed is about what happens to cars at the end of their life if they're not restored or kept or something along those lines.

1115
01:21:29.790 --> 01:21:33.792
Recycling is a massive thing, isn't it?

1116
01:21:34.052 --> 01:21:34.332
Yeah.

1117
01:21:35.153 --> 01:21:38.814
It's around the world.

1118
01:21:39.214 --> 01:21:42.176
We sell a million new cars a year in Australia.

1119
01:21:43.219 --> 01:21:48.042
And we recycle 200,000 cars in New South Wales a year.

1120
01:21:48.363 --> 01:21:49.023
That's amazing.

1121
01:21:49.163 --> 01:21:49.463
Yeah.

1122
01:21:49.764 --> 01:21:58.229
And the car life is, you know, when I come here 21 years ago, the average life of a car was 15 years.

1123
01:21:59.230 --> 01:22:02.612
You know, you could drive around the car 15 years old and not feel that bad.

1124
01:22:02.933 --> 01:22:07.476
But now, you know, the average life of a car now would be under 10 years, I think.

1125
01:22:07.496 --> 01:22:07.936
Okay.

1126
01:22:08.337 --> 01:22:14.061
And so, you know, them cars are going to be ELVs, that's what the industry calls them, end-of-life vehicles.

1127
01:22:14.782 --> 01:22:16.543
And it's a massive industry, mate.

1128
01:22:16.883 --> 01:22:25.470
So you have here, if people want to come and repair their own car, you know, they can come and acquire parts from some of the wrecked cars to begin with, don't you?

1129
01:22:25.490 --> 01:22:27.992
There's a massive stock, if you like.

1130
01:22:28.052 --> 01:22:35.237
We're in the western suburbs of Sydney and we have quite a large number of people come here every month.

1131
01:22:36.057 --> 01:22:38.419
repairing their own cars and we cater for them.

1132
01:22:39.840 --> 01:22:52.349
But also we've just recently, in the last three years, branched out into recycling in a bigger way in as much as recycling in the scrap metal industry and spent a lot of money doing that.

1133
01:22:52.449 --> 01:22:55.071
And it's never been done in Australia.

1134
01:22:55.111 --> 01:22:57.713
What I'm doing here, it's never been done in Australia before.

1135
01:22:58.113 --> 01:23:00.695
I've seen it happen in South Korea.

1136
01:23:00.715 --> 01:23:03.758
There's one company over there in South Korea doing it and...

1137
01:23:04.718 --> 01:23:24.188
similar to us and but I'm you know I don't want to retire at this stage I my wife would like to well I think I think she'd like me home more more days than I am but I still want to do things what you've done here is impressive mate very very impressive

1138
01:23:24.662 --> 01:23:47.050
And the thing that stands out for me is that you, in the green world that we now live, which is so important, particularly in the whole automotive industry, at the end of that car's life, you are able through some very clever processes to recapture lots of aspects of that car and separate it, put it into a reusable state, don't you?

1139
01:23:47.890 --> 01:23:52.432
We've got recycling down to about here in Australia,

1140
01:23:54.237 --> 01:23:58.338
It's probably 20% of it waste.

1141
01:23:58.718 --> 01:24:02.919
I think in Japan they've got it down to about 10%.

1142
01:24:03.879 --> 01:24:10.740
But as this new company of mine grows, we'll get it down to that.

1143
01:24:11.060 --> 01:24:19.642
There's equipment coming out all the time for recycling, just separation, separating all the plastics and all the metals from all the cars.

1144
01:24:19.982 --> 01:24:20.603
We're not finished.

1145
01:24:20.623 --> 01:24:28.250
We're only in the first stage of our recycling, but in another year or two's time, it'll be a nice operation.

1146
01:24:28.670 --> 01:24:31.413
For me, there is a tiny little tie in here.

1147
01:24:31.453 --> 01:24:33.435
My father worked in the hydraulic game.

1148
01:24:34.135 --> 01:24:38.239
You did some work in this sort of area to begin with.

1149
01:24:38.259 --> 01:24:41.062
He built a machine for Ron Monless and I back in the 80s.

1150
01:24:41.182 --> 01:24:42.543
Wow.

1151
01:24:42.563 --> 01:24:43.884
Like a crushing machine.

1152
01:24:44.204 --> 01:24:44.905
A car baler.

1153
01:24:45.125 --> 01:24:45.366
Wow.

1154
01:24:45.406 --> 01:24:45.586
Yeah.

1155
01:24:46.419 --> 01:24:46.599
Yes.

1156
01:24:46.619 --> 01:24:51.080
I mean, it's come in that time frame since you've worked with Ron Wanlis.

1157
01:24:51.140 --> 01:24:58.842
The whole industry and the scrap metal industry has become a hugely successful thing in this country, hasn't it?

1158
01:24:59.582 --> 01:24:59.922
Huge.

1159
01:25:00.242 --> 01:25:00.882
It's huge.

1160
01:25:00.962 --> 01:25:03.523
It's run by the big companies, but we're a little company.

1161
01:25:03.543 --> 01:25:07.784
But I'm lucky enough I have a good partner in the scrap business.

1162
01:25:10.044 --> 01:25:12.405
And he's a very go-ahead person.

1163
01:25:14.009 --> 01:25:37.285
guy that um he's he because of recycling he he knows about everything there's not many things he can sit at any table and talk about anything and uh he's very very well educated very interesting bloke to talk to the knowledge he has on anything you want to talk about and recycling has got into his blood too

1164
01:25:37.825 --> 01:25:52.343
You have been flat out in your career, mate, and since the bug bit to the enormous amount of achievements that you've done both here in Australia and even the things you did in America, I think, are remarkable.

1165
01:25:53.124 --> 01:25:54.725
Will you slow down?

1166
01:25:54.746 --> 01:25:56.367
And if so, when will...

1167
01:25:57.614 --> 01:25:59.355
Gary Rush, slow down.

1168
01:25:59.455 --> 01:26:00.935
I enjoy very good health.

1169
01:26:01.055 --> 01:26:10.378
I've been married for a long, long time, and my wife looks after me very much, and I owe my good health to her.

1170
01:26:10.438 --> 01:26:14.820
She makes sure that I eat the right foods and I get the right sleep.

1171
01:26:15.260 --> 01:26:19.221
I've been married 54 years now.

1172
01:26:19.961 --> 01:26:21.662
Yeah, I was very lucky.

1173
01:26:22.420 --> 01:26:23.241
Congratulations.

1174
01:26:23.261 --> 01:26:26.062
Thank you so much for spending some time and chatting with me.

1175
01:26:26.143 --> 01:26:31.846
And I was chuffed to be at the very first Hall of Fame dinner and to...

1176
01:26:32.767 --> 01:26:42.393
Someone reminded me very recently of this, that, you know, Mark Webber got up on stage that night and he's someone who really appreciates all different levels of motor racing.

1177
01:26:42.413 --> 01:26:48.357
You and I nearly, we very nearly got him into a sprint car at one point at Sydney Speedway there at Parramatta.

1178
01:26:48.377 --> 01:26:48.518
Yeah.

1179
01:26:49.278 --> 01:26:51.581
He loves it and he greatly appreciates what you've done.

1180
01:26:51.601 --> 01:26:54.646
But I know he singled you out in the speech.

1181
01:26:56.255 --> 01:27:01.419
For the Webber family, when they were growing up and watching Speedway, he was... Camberra.

1182
01:27:01.499 --> 01:27:02.540
Yeah, exactly.

1183
01:27:02.760 --> 01:27:17.251
And that, to me, underscores when the industry like that, not just because of you being inducted into the Hall of Fame, but when the constituents stop and say, hey, what this bloke's done is incredible.

1184
01:27:17.891 --> 01:27:20.153
Yeah, it was good to hear that.

1185
01:27:20.393 --> 01:27:21.714
It's good to hear that, yeah.

1186
01:27:22.174 --> 01:27:23.635
But let me say something about you.

1187
01:27:24.669 --> 01:27:26.911
You know, congratulations on your career too.

1188
01:27:27.552 --> 01:27:36.700
You know, I knew your dad and he used to come to the speedway and I remember one Friday night he come along in the speedway and I reckon you were 15, if that, if that.

1189
01:27:37.481 --> 01:27:41.525
And he introduced me to you and I said, what are you going to be, what are you going to do?

1190
01:27:41.665 --> 01:27:49.713
And I was expecting you to tell me I want to race a car but you said I want to be a motor racing commentator and here you are, one of the best.

1191
01:27:50.365 --> 01:27:58.260
It's been awesome all these years later to walk down memory lane with you, to celebrate an incredible career, and well done on everything.

1192
01:27:58.300 --> 01:27:58.942
Thank you very much.

1193
01:27:58.982 --> 01:27:59.122
Cheers.

1194
01:27:59.142 --> 01:27:59.643
Well done, Greg.

1195
01:27:59.984 --> 01:28:00.505
Well done, mate.

1196
01:28:03.262 --> 01:28:06.786
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.

1197
01:28:07.126 --> 01:28:09.789
Series editor and producer is Joel Harrison.

1198
01:28:10.250 --> 01:28:12.252
Audio production by Link Kelly.

1199
01:28:12.672 --> 01:28:16.377
If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me on social media.

1200
01:28:16.797 --> 01:28:17.458
The Garage.

1201
01:28:17.698 --> 01:28:21.863
It's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fueled stories.