Unknown Speaker 0:08
Hi and welcome to the motorsport coaching podcast sponsored by motivate Training Management. This is a podcast where we talk to drivers and industry experts to help you maximize your performances on and off the track. Let's get started with today's show
Unknown Speaker 0:29
Hi crew Welcome to Episode 122 of the motorsport coaching podcast. I am your host Belinda Isley, founder of motivate training and management crew I know everyone has heard I'm excited for my guests and I am I value each and every one of them. Today I am golfing over up today's guests being Miss Go and as well, her story, her career from being a racecar driver to working from a Ford all the way through to formula with the great man himself, Charlie YT. She doesn't think that her story is amazing. As you'll hear throughout the episode, there are a lot of quiet moments as I'm just in awe of everything that she has achieved. She's an amazing Australian who's lived overseas. She's now back in Oz. And hopefully, we'll be seeing a lot more of her. I do hope you enjoy today's episode. We'd love it if you could take a photo and post it to social media and tag us at motivate T or write us a review on your preferred podcast platform to go into our monthly draw to win one of our prizes. So we do have an upcoming webinar 10 things you can do now to help you gain sponsorship. It's on August the second 7pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, the links will be in today's show notes. If you're interested. It is free, it will be live. If you're interested in attending. If not, please register and a copy of the webinar will be sent out afterwards. Again, Kurt, grab a coffee, grab your tea, put those ear pods on and enjoy today's episode.
Unknown Speaker 1:59
I couldn't do what was the medical coaching podcast. Hi, Belinda. Thank you for having me.
Unknown Speaker 2:06
I said here every episode, but I'm very excited to have you on today's show. Because you have such a wonderful career. We're going to pinpoint and pick things out because I want to know about everything that you've done to Korea because it's so exciting. And I know there'll be lots of people interested to hear about what you've done. But tell us a little bit about you and how you got started? Well,
Unknown Speaker 2:27
I think I've always had an interest in cars and motorsport, because I do remember watching that first when I was early teens. And my father and brother were very much into it. But being a girl, I was sort of guided away from it. And it never even entered my head to get involved in it until as late 20s, really.
Unknown Speaker 2:51
And that was when my brother was racing in Formula Ford. And he had a go kart to it. So my first race that I ever actually went to was a Formula Ford race at Emory Park. And I really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed being involved with with my brothers racing specifically. So got out there in the pit lane and always getting involved with timing him and comparing his times to other people's times and where they were quicker and whatever. And so that's where it started. And have you driven yourself? Yeah, I have. Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 3:36
I never ever had any great ambition as a driver. But I want to do it for the experience. I actually wanted to be a team manager.
Unknown Speaker 3:49
And I could see at the time people, the best team managers will people like Frank Gardner,
Unknown Speaker 3:56
Ron Dennis, and Frank Williams, and they are all ex drivers. And so I thought there's got to be something in that experience that like, that contributes to being a good team manager. And my brother had a fun day at Eastern Creek ones as well. It's now Sydney Motorsport Park, where all of us got to have a drive of his Formula Ford.
Unknown Speaker 4:24
And I really enjoyed it. And of the images that were there. I was the only one who did turn one flat, and
Unknown Speaker 4:35
Mike Quinn was running the cars from Phoenix motorsports. And he said to me, are you a brother sister team would go down really well with sponsors if you ever want to do this, let me know and I said don't be ridiculous. I can't do that. And he said, why not?
Unknown Speaker 4:52
And I got to thinking about it. I thought well, why not?
Unknown Speaker 4:56
So I then did a advanced for
Unknown Speaker 5:00
I've been caught with Peter Finley.
Unknown Speaker 5:04
It was a two day course at Oran Park.
Unknown Speaker 5:08
And in that course you do a qualifying session and a five lap race. And I did a lot better in that course than I thought I would go to. If Peter rated me as a great driver. And during the five lap race, I felt like I was hooked in in there I thought, Oh my God, I've got to do this. Yeah. So then I said about buying a
Unknown Speaker 5:36
production car to be able to go in the world. I wasn't aiming for the 12 hour at this point. I was just wanted to get my race license. And I had a go kart, but I felt like I needed a roof over my head. There are too many people breaking their bones in karting and was before side pods were mandatory and lit. And
Unknown Speaker 6:02
yes, so I bought a Suzuki Swift.
Unknown Speaker 6:07
From my brain that was the cat category winning car from the 12 hour class A
Unknown Speaker 6:17
and said about getting my race license.
Unknown Speaker 6:21
So I did that. And then I Yeah, so that's where the my racing side of it came about. Yeah, cuz.
Unknown Speaker 6:31
Yeah. That just remind me because they used to be Suzuki Swift series. Yes, yes.
Unknown Speaker 6:39
Yeah, so I raced against people like Jason Buck water back then.
Unknown Speaker 6:46
was walking around racing around now around Oran Park. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jason started racing about the same time as me. And my brother was racing against people like Russell Lingle.
Unknown Speaker 6:59
And Steve Richards. What happened after your racing career? Did you make it to the fattest to about I did, I did run we put a proposal to Toyota, because they just happen to have at that time and advertising campaign, that was triatic cars designed with women in mind. So I said, Well, here's an opportunity to give credibility to your advertising campaign. Yeah, when we get those in the 12 out, and the very next day, they call back and said, yeah, we'll do it.
Unknown Speaker 7:34
And then
Unknown Speaker 7:37
it was to be Lisa Brabham and Heather Bailey.
Unknown Speaker 7:41
Lisa got pregnant, so she never got to do the race. And then in the race, the car broke down. After six hours, or at about the six hour mark.
Unknown Speaker 7:53
It broke a driveshaft that I had started the race, and I did a double stint. And I absolutely loved it.
Unknown Speaker 8:04
And but the Seleka was too slow.
Unknown Speaker 8:08
So I bought the team's sister car, the Mr. Two.
Unknown Speaker 8:15
And I raced that in the production car championship that year, which was back in 1994 95.
Unknown Speaker 8:26
Oh, that's awesome. At
Unknown Speaker 8:28
the end of my driving career, I raced up here on the Gold Coast on the like this as support to the Indy IndyCar race. Yeah, that was fun to do a straight circuit like that. category was that is GT again, I was actually secretary of the Australian production car Association at the time. So I suggested to the promoters of the end that they put on have the GT cars for a one hour race so that we could have two drivers in each car with was a compulsory pitstop. And yeah, it happened. We did it.
Unknown Speaker 9:06
So when you're with your hubby being motorsports, what would your career What were you try, obviously had that love to go into motorsports, but Well, yeah, he's studying something else to try and get into motorsports or No, no, no, no, I was never good at school.
Unknown Speaker 9:23
So I left school early, I did a business management course.
Unknown Speaker 9:30
That was only a one year course. And then I actually went to work in a legal office as a legal secretary.
Unknown Speaker 9:38
And so I did that for the first two years of my working life, with no involvement in motorsport at all, but that was actually a really good grounding for how things progressed. I didn't plan out to Korea ever in anything. I was just working and I mean, I grew up in a family where we're girls, you know, get married and have babies and that's it.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
I was actually told not to bother going to see the career guidance counselor at school.
Unknown Speaker 10:06
Because it was no point because I was a girl.
Unknown Speaker 10:10
And so
Unknown Speaker 10:13
now,
Unknown Speaker 10:15
yes, yeah, my parents didn't even know I was racing. When I when I did my first race. My parents didn't even know about it. They were in England at the time, and they didn't approve it. I should not be doing something like that. So I, my brothers supported me. And yeah, we sort of kept it pretty quiet until they heard about it from other friends of theirs that have seen those racing.
Unknown Speaker 10:40
Mean, sad, but
Unknown Speaker 10:42
had that support of your brother? So did they actually ever get to see you race? Like, did they
Unknown Speaker 10:48
compete? No, no. I don't think they wanted to either. My father particularly was very disapproving. No daughter of his was gonna do something like that. Yes. No, you didn't even want to talk about.
Unknown Speaker 11:04
So you're obviously love the sport, which is great to hear. We have that same excitement. And you mentioned that you're the secretary of the GT production cars that your first role within motorsport was at a paid and volunteer role. It was a volunteer role. And, yeah, it was my first trip. Well, I consider my first involvement was by like, helping my brother out as part of his pit crew, and then buying my own car, I effectively ran my own team, because we prepared the car ourselves, I used to put it on the trailer and take it to the circuit, unload it, change the brake pads, and so on. I did that myself.
Unknown Speaker 11:44
Wearing all the hats, team again. Yes. And I'm really glad I did that, because it's given me such an insight to all different aspects. And again, none of it planned. Although, at that point in time, the team management role was what I was aiming for. And I was working in the family business, which was transport. So we had our own depo, where we maintained the trucks. Yep. And that also is where I kept the race car and was able to do work on it there.
Unknown Speaker 12:17
And so yeah, life at for us kids was quite often on the road. My parents did a lot of driving themselves.
Unknown Speaker 12:27
To us just familiar with being around motors and cars and trucks, as I grew up.
Unknown Speaker 12:35
Oh, fantastic. So I'm doing the bit of research, a lot of your work that you've done has been overseas to currently you're basically go.
Unknown Speaker 12:44
How did you go from Sydney to the Gulf Coast to Europe? Well, back in 95. Once I
Unknown Speaker 12:52
had done, well, some racing, I was introduced to well, at the time leases, Lisa brabbins, husband, David was racing in Formula One. And I haven't really had any exposure to Formula One, I had no intention at all of going to work in Formula One or anything. But he because Lisa was pregnant, she ended up not coming to the Adelaide Grand Prix that year. And he asked me if I would help out by being with him being the only Australian driver in the race. That meant he had a lot of commitments work for doing interviews and things and wanted somebody to be there to help him be on time and not be late for things and
Unknown Speaker 13:36
how I did it. And so I found myself in sim Tech's garage for the weekend. And that was my first real exposure to Formula One. And I thought, Oh, my God, this is just so much higher level than what I'm used to. I want to go
Unknown Speaker 13:54
throughout our own path.
Unknown Speaker 13:56
Afraid Adelaide wouldn't have been in 1996.
Unknown Speaker 14:00
We were going to
Unknown Speaker 14:03
learn
Unknown Speaker 14:05
so well.
Unknown Speaker 14:08
Yeah. And I didn't know anyone in the UK at the time other than Well, Heather, because she was Scottish and was living in the UK and come out to do the 12 hour with us, David and Lisa and my parents. They're the only people in the UK that I knew at the time. And so they said, oh, we'll help you find a job over here. Come on over.
Unknown Speaker 14:30
Were you single then what kind of age group was this? Oh, I was
Unknown Speaker 14:36
just 30 Oh, beautiful. Yeah. And I had just gotten divorced a year earlier, a couple of years earlier, actually.
Unknown Speaker 14:46
And so I was free and able to up and move to England. So I did but I didn't expect to get a job in Formula One straightaway and I didn't really I actually I briefly did I got a job.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
with Pacific Grand Prix,
Unknown Speaker 15:03
and I moved out to seckford apne Snetterton over there. And I lived there for three months and worked for the team there and did the 96 Adelaide Grand Prix with them.
Unknown Speaker 15:18
Well actually thought Hewlett Packard, they're a sponsor if the team and I attended Adelaide on the basis that I was there to look after their sponsors. Great. Looking after the guests. Yes. And also didn't some of their their press releases. I used to write the press releases for them.
Unknown Speaker 15:40
So I'd never done that before. So that was a whole new experience for me. But that was such a small team and they had no money. And already have you studied copywriting?
Unknown Speaker 15:53
No, I hate it. But it was a way of getting my foot in the door. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 15:59
Sorry. Was it like a fake it to your make it situation? Yes, yes, it was. And
Unknown Speaker 16:07
they only I was only with them three months because they went down the drain. They actually went into liquidation. And so I never got paid. So I knew I was a risk when I moved out there to
Unknown Speaker 16:20
to not get paid. Because this had happened to a number of teams in the past where they go down the drain, or wing staff money. Yeah. And I thought to myself, well, if I don't get paid, it's gonna I'm gonna get to know people in the industry. And it'll be a foot in the door and sure enough,
Unknown Speaker 16:39
eventually led to a job with Jordan Grand Prix, where I did get paid.
Unknown Speaker 16:46
Tell us all about that.
Unknown Speaker 16:48
Well, in between
Unknown Speaker 16:51
Pacific and Jordan, I worked for a sportscar team.
Unknown Speaker 16:56
I was the assistant team manager. Because as the team it was a team based it did caught
Unknown Speaker 17:04
in the UK, and the team manager was actually living in America. So he turned up for the races. He wasn't there between the races. So I organized everything in between. And so that was for the World Sportscar Championship.
Unknown Speaker 17:20
And we did the Lemond 24 hour. And that has
Unknown Speaker 17:24
to do. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 17:27
I got to do that event, as like the team coordinator.
Unknown Speaker 17:33
And I really enjoyed that. But again, the car. Well, one of the drivers crashed it at about 3am in the morning. So then I got a bit asleep.
Unknown Speaker 17:44
Yeah. So and that from that role, I went to work for Jordan Grand Prix. So the same guy that I had worked for at Pacific Rim free.
Unknown Speaker 17:54
So
Unknown Speaker 17:56
yeah, that's how I got the job and children. And so with, with them, I was again looking after sponsors, almost. They had a full time press officer, so I didn't have to write the press. Although I did do the test reports that that's reporting facts. And
Unknown Speaker 18:20
so in the commercial department based there at Silverstone in the factory next to Silverstone Where
Unknown Speaker 18:28
are what are they called now? Aston Martin are based
Unknown Speaker 18:33
now the Yeah, that Jordan became have went through a few different iterations of names and it's now Aston Martin. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 18:43
Yeah, I used to look after the MasterCard sponsorship of German Grand Prix.
Unknown Speaker 18:49
So yeah, so like corporate hosting. So
Unknown Speaker 18:53
event? Yes, I used
Unknown Speaker 18:57
the garage and give them a little chat about the car and mix and dice pack. Yes, yes. Being paddock club. And yeah, answer the questions about the sport and so on. Yeah, help out with organizing travel arrangements and transfers to and from the track and that sort of thing. And how long did you do that raw for two years till 99 and 99. Yeah. And then I decided I'd haven't had enough of the commercial side of things. So throughout that time, I was trying to get a job. On the more practical side of the team. They had even stuff like putting stickers on the cars is something
Unknown Speaker 19:40
a lot easier.
Unknown Speaker 19:43
But none of the teams would entertain that even for a moment. And partly that was because they all share rooms at the events and if they had one girl in the group, then I'd have to happen in that room. So that would put their costs up. Yeah. So they said
Unknown Speaker 20:00
because it's just not practical.
Unknown Speaker 20:03
And so I still pursued other roles.
Unknown Speaker 20:09
Eventually, a I was contacted by Formula One management, I Well, I had been contacting them trying to get into the TV broadcast side of things behind the scenes not to be on camera to be behind the scenes to be a production assistant.
Unknown Speaker 20:28
They were just Ray.
Unknown Speaker 20:33
Oh, just job opportunities.
Unknown Speaker 20:41
In between these jobs I used to work as and when I very first moved over to the UK, I worked as a driving instructor at the different race schools over there, which is another way of getting to know people. So I got to know lots of other instructors. So I worked.
Unknown Speaker 20:56
Yeah, and what everything you did, but it was volunteer, or just getting paid. No, by then I was getting paid. Yeah. Everything was driving towards like networking and getting into that bigger picture of what you wanted to do. So yeah, you started to work at the technical assistant vice director. How did that roll? You just mentioned the FBI gave you a call or so what will they call you to ask? Well, it was actually Formula One management because yeah, they they said it was timekeeping guy, the head of timekeeping that rang me and said, we've got a job that we think you might be suitable for, in timekeeping. And I'm thinking I have no experience in time. Well, interesting timekeeping, like actually standing there. I had no idea how they timed the f1 races. And
Unknown Speaker 21:43
this week, and I thought, why not go and talk to them, at least he said, Come and have a chat with us about it. And soon as I got in there for the interview, and he described for the role that they needed to fill, I knew it was just perfect for me.
Unknown Speaker 22:00
And tell us about what was my absolute dream job.
Unknown Speaker 22:06
Tell us that? Well, I, they were at that time, they were just developing the electronic marshaling system, which is effectively a positioning system. But also, it was connected
Unknown Speaker 22:19
to the lights on the cars for yellow, blue and red flags only.
Unknown Speaker 22:26
And so I would sit in Race Control, and a laptop that had this positioning screen and all the flag signal controls. And if someone went off track,
Unknown Speaker 22:40
I would set a yellow zone so that the lights yellow light would come on in the car as they pass through that zone. And then clear it when the incident had been cleared. I also did all the race messages, which is a communication system they use in Formula One to let all the teams know like if there is a red flag, what time the session is going to start. And if someone does crash, we used to put a message up who it was and where they gone off the track or crash or whatever they've stopped. So that was
Unknown Speaker 23:16
communication to the media and everyone as well. I mean, these days, if you watch f1 race, you see the graphics from Race Control. They're the messages that I used to do as part of running this system. Yeah, that sounds bad to ask, like, are you blown away? Like 22 years later? How much technology has played a part in? Yeah, yeah. And it's surprisingly, though, that's still as in, in learning how the system worked. I did work within the timing timekeeping group and learnt exactly how they do time f1 races and the software involved to do it. And they're still using the same software now. Oh, wow. Which is, which is quite surprising, actually, that there's so many different systems that all talk to one another. And so it's a big jigsaw puzzle. And it's yeah, pretty difficult for them to implement a new system they've tried a few times, but haven't managed to do it yet. So you got to travel the world with f1 cars.
Unknown Speaker 24:11
And of course, being able to work with Formula One management then because the system was being developed by Formula One management. And it was unreliable when I started working with them. And we were working on getting it, getting that getting it to be more reliable. And so the lights are actually covered up on cars initially, because the drivers found them too distracting. And after a year or two, we got it working
Unknown Speaker 24:37
reliably. And so then the system was handed over to the FAA. And I went with it because I was in Race Control for all the races operating the system anyway. Yeah, so I went I kept doing the same job but different color shirt.
Unknown Speaker 24:56
So yeah, and yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed that.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
that role? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 25:03
How do you top that? Like, when are you
Unknown Speaker 25:07
still ideal role? As far as I'm concerned? You get lots of traveling, or did you get known knowing
Unknown Speaker 25:16
what might
Unknown Speaker 25:18
be a bit of politics and cost cutting and so on? They actually did away with the system. Yeah. So there was no role for me there anymore. And with that, I didn't want to live in England in the bad weather yet, so I set about trying to convince my partner to move to Australia, which eventually, so we moved Australia, back in what 2006 or something. And I went to I, during my time with Jordan, and the FIA, I knew to Edwards because Tim was working at Jordan when I was working at Jordan. And he called me to say, because he had only been in the role about a year with pro drive at the time for performance racing, and
Unknown Speaker 26:07
called and said, I've got a job you might be interested in over here. I know you want to come back to Australia. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 26:17
Yeah. So then I went to look for what was Ford Performance racing? Now take that. Yeah. So you get from cold England to cold?
Unknown Speaker 26:27
Well, cold Melbourne. Yeah. But it's still I worked it out 10 degrees warmer all year round than what it is in England. Beautiful.
Unknown Speaker 26:38
Even though now that I'm on the Gold Coast, I think no, and it wasn't really an improvement. No.
Unknown Speaker 26:45
What was your role to Tim Edwards of your project? Well, I was initially that just the the team coordinator doing all the travel arrangements primarily. And that kind of telling you that I wanted to sort of advance a bit there. And I enjoyed the data analysis side of things, I had learned to use PI
Unknown Speaker 27:10
on my laptop and did a bit of data work in between events. I quite enjoyed data analysis of any type. And
Unknown Speaker 27:19
so I started doing a bit of data for the Development Series team, and then I was the team manager of the Development Series team. So you've probably reached the goal of being a team manager.
Unknown Speaker 27:34
Not for now, though, was it only there in that role for about a year and then then moved on again, gets a chance? What does being a team manager may what, what kind of tasks are involved in that? Well, Team Manager, well is responsible for the travel arrangements, just make sure everybody's going to be in the right place at the right time, but the trucks or the mechanics flying
Unknown Speaker 27:59
you had and it doesn't go to plan every race Matey, or Oh, no, I actually found it more complicated to do that type of role in Australia than what it was in f1. Because in f1, it's all quite rigid. And it's all planned well in advance, and it doesn't change. Whereas in Australia, they'll check back. I don't know how it is now, because I've not had any involvement for many years now. But at that time, they're changing the timetable two days before the event starts. Really? Yeah. So you know, just, I'd have to leave printing everybody's timetable to the very last minute because there'll be changes, right up till the date, everyone's leaving the factory to go to the event. Watch, quite frustrating.
Unknown Speaker 28:46
Flight, I'd imagine they miss lots of flights and things like that.
Unknown Speaker 28:51
No, no, no. Well trained pretty well.
Unknown Speaker 28:55
Not in your clock.
Unknown Speaker 28:59
It's a matter of making sure everybody's got the right information. And if you do the job properly, as a team manager, you really shouldn't get many questions at a race event. Because everything everyone should know what they need to know. And be able to do their role
Unknown Speaker 29:17
efficiently. And
Unknown Speaker 29:20
the manager also is responsible for sporting aspects, which is how it was my interest in that side of things as well know the sporting regulations.
Unknown Speaker 29:31
Now, you can
Unknown Speaker 29:36
just guide the rest of the team as to what they got to do when in the unusual situations like when there's a red flag and that sort of thing. And obviously having that background of being a race official and working in that capacity.
Unknown Speaker 29:52
To be able to, I guess, really pick through the big book of regulations and be able to decipher it
Unknown Speaker 30:00
Well
Unknown Speaker 30:03
to learn the regulations that will, that being in that role with Charlie, for five years, I am he used to often talk instead of using just the article number, rather than explaining through it the rule that he's talking about, oh, under 48.3 Blah, blah, blah. So I learned it that way.
Unknown Speaker 30:29
And also, it was so precise. I mean, I had the best teacher in learning how to apply the sporting regulations in Charlie watching and her the blush. I sat alongside both of them for all of that time.
Unknown Speaker 30:45
Because haven't called you up, my dad tried hard to get the supercars. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 30:52
Yeah, that's a very dry, what happened.
Unknown Speaker 30:57
I decided to take a bit of a break from motorsport. And so I went and worked more on the data side of things for a company that had nothing to do with motorsport,
Unknown Speaker 31:13
too, to
Unknown Speaker 31:15
just keep in touch with that sporting regulation side, I got my Stuart's license, and became
Unknown Speaker 31:23
a coach.
Unknown Speaker 31:28
So I did some events down there in Victoria, for what was then cams.
Unknown Speaker 31:36
Got experienced that way, because a lot of the work I did for Charlie was to gather information, this is after the sessions, while it's one thing to, you know, run the sessions
Unknown Speaker 31:49
live. It's another thing then between the events to go back through the data and see exactly what happened when. And so when they were
Unknown Speaker 32:00
stewards hearings, I would gather the information that was needed by the stewards and explain it all to the students. It was some of it was technical with the timing system, they're not expected to know how the timing system worked. And so
Unknown Speaker 32:17
I quite enjoyed that aspect of the role as well. So I can use that in being a steward myself. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 32:27
So yeah, this is all part of the jigsaw puzzle. And you suppose again, say after that, so you've got insurance life, and you couldn't keep away? You joined the board of directors with Australian motorsport foundation? What?
Unknown Speaker 32:40
Obviously, Operations Manager, I wasn't on the board, but
Unknown Speaker 32:46
volunteer role as well. Sorry.
Unknown Speaker 32:50
No, no, that was a full time job. And asked in the cams office in Melbourne. And that involved dealing with the karting drivers that they supported.
Unknown Speaker 33:07
They had 1010 drivers that they were already supporting in karting and for in Formula Ford.
Unknown Speaker 33:17
So was my job to liaise with all of those 14 drivers and give them a bit of guidance, a bit of what you do now.
Unknown Speaker 33:29
And
Unknown Speaker 33:30
in that, whilst I was in that role,
Unknown Speaker 33:34
I came across Joey Lawson, who was the only one in karting who was already competing overseas.
Unknown Speaker 33:42
And he was doing the World Championship.
Unknown Speaker 33:46
And I've never met him or his family. And I took a closer look at the results of all the sessions that he was doing in the world championships because it's all available on the internet yet. And I discovered that he was doing his fastest lap and qualifying order. Often he would do his three quickest sectors on the one lap, which is actually quite unusual for drivers, specially young ones, especially young.
Unknown Speaker 34:17
And so I thought, well, this kid is got some talent, because He added he didn't get the opportunity to do test days because he didn't have the budget.
Unknown Speaker 34:29
And he couldn't have new tires all the time. And all the drivers that he was racing against had unlimited tires and unlimited test days. And were just on the track all the time. So in qualifying, he tended to be further back. And in the heats, and by the by the he always got into the final and usually up to the top 10 And some of them he actually came fourth in the World Championship before he moved into cars, and he was racing against people like Chelsea
Unknown Speaker 35:00
Cook. So he did actually beat shell for one round of the chips. So I thought he's the one who deserves support because he was doing it, doing it tough over there living with family, you know, a tiny little apartment, you know. And he was only 16. And this well as, as my, part of my role with the Australian motorsport Foundation was to support him and look after him to some degree. And then I was made redundant from the Australian production, the Australian men.
Unknown Speaker 35:40
And so on a voluntary basis, I continued to support Joey and his family, and
Unknown Speaker 35:50
Tom Warwick and Jeff Morgan, who were on the board of the Australian motorsport Foundation, there was going to be a change in structure, lots of changes. And so they actually resigned from the board along with a few other people and started their own company called podium, which actually was an acronym.
Unknown Speaker 36:11
And
Unknown Speaker 36:13
they gave me work like as a contractor, and they paid my travel costs for me to go and support Joey so they continued to support Joey. Yeah, financially, like to move from cars crashing into cars. Yeah, so did the fracture for championship and then the German f4 Championship, and it was
Unknown Speaker 36:36
I attended a lot of the German f4 races with Joey, did you move over there? Or were you flying back and forth? No, I was going back and forward. I did three trips in one year.
Unknown Speaker 36:48
I still lived in Melbourne, and I was still working for a paint job in Melbourne. Nothing was motorsport, but going off for a couple of weeks at a time to the races in Germany. And
Unknown Speaker 37:03
yeah, it was actually a lot of fun. It wasn't particularly good for me financially. But
Unknown Speaker 37:10
like we said, we all do this.
Unknown Speaker 37:14
Yes. But and it was great of,
Unknown Speaker 37:19
of Jeff and Tom and all the others that were part of the podium group to continue supporting Joey because they kept going for a few years until, Yeah, unfortunately, Tom tomorrow it very suddenly passed away.
Unknown Speaker 37:32
Jeff kept going for a while and I mean, I don't know if you're familiar with Joey now you knew him from karting. And of course, he's just won the Australian drivers championship twice in a row. So it's one of Australia's most underrated drivers. So
Unknown Speaker 37:49
talent without a doubt. i Oh, they supercar teams looking for drivers.
Unknown Speaker 37:55
Trying to get some hard things Australian profile or experience in those types of of cars, but he's pretty adaptable. What he did the 12 out this year in the Audi and he from last to second in his stint in the car. So yeah, he can.
Unknown Speaker 38:14
You will get better he's very committed to to that aspiration to get a supercar. So give it two more years. I reckon we'll see.
Unknown Speaker 38:26
Yeah, yeah. So like, yeah, so you're doing consultancy for motorsport? Well,
Unknown Speaker 38:32
after that, what else have you done?
Unknown Speaker 38:35
Did you get involved in actors? Well, once again, with Charlie Whiting actually rang me one day, I was staying at my sister's place in Melbourne, because by that time, I was based most of my time in Europe. And
Unknown Speaker 38:53
we didn't
Unknown Speaker 38:55
need to ask
Unknown Speaker 38:57
the one that you bought back from England was he still is he still with you? Was he
Unknown Speaker 39:01
we ended up going your separate ways in 2016.
Unknown Speaker 39:06
And that was while I was doing a lot of these trips to eat and that and so then I didn't bother coming back to Australia in between events I just paid over there. And I'm still close to Lisa and David Robin and some of them sometimes or
Unknown Speaker 39:22
the team van Amersfoort racing that Joey was with a based in the Netherlands and they would have houses that the staff would live in. So sometimes I would have a room in one of those houses for event laws a bit of just, you know, no man's land for a little bit there when when that long term relationship split up
Unknown Speaker 39:47
and the problem
Unknown Speaker 39:50
did actually enjoy it. That too. I enjoyed the freedom it gave me you know, I'd go off to Italy for a week here and there or, you know, be
Unknown Speaker 40:00
doing things in England. And so when I was in England, I'd work as driving instructor again, I'd do the contract to, you know, for people like Mercedes Benz and BMW on the corporate days. And that was reasonable money. So I'd just do that in between time to earn money to live on. And that in that when Joey was in Formula Three, FIA for three,
Unknown Speaker 40:23
it didn't do very well. And part of it was some of the stewarding decisions that were went against him that were really pretty poor. And I had evidence of it being pretty poor. And I emailed Charlie Whiting and said, this is one thing in Formula Three, just take it
Unknown Speaker 40:46
once
Unknown Speaker 40:48
talented young drivers to come through, and yet these decisions go against them, and now he'll lose that support. Those guys putting in the money, they're gonna say that they did stop. And that's why I did email, Charlie. And Charlie rang me back. And he said, Have you got any evidence of this? Because I've had so many complaints about that category, and the decisions being made? And I said, Yes, I've been taking photos of the decisions and things I said, Yeah. And so he said, meet me at Heathrow Airport, and show me what's going on in that category. So I did
Unknown Speaker 41:29
that
Unknown Speaker 41:31
I didn't think anything was gonna come of it. But he said, So what are you doing next year? I said, I don't know yet. I'm back in Australia.
Unknown Speaker 41:39
Anyway, a few months later, he rang me and said, I've got a job that I'd like you to do if you're willing to move back over here again, and, and live here.
Unknown Speaker 41:51
What is
Unknown Speaker 41:54
getting explained? was looking after f2 and GP three
Unknown Speaker 42:00
from a sporting perspective for the FIA or him. And so I jumped at it. We'll see ya.
Unknown Speaker 42:08
Yeah, yeah. A bit, although it's the structure is completely different.
Unknown Speaker 42:14
So but no, I was.
Unknown Speaker 42:18
Specifically Fia, not the promoter. Yes. So I wasn't Category Manager, there was somebody else that was Category Manager. So I was closely involved with stewards did all their paperwork throughout the events.
Unknown Speaker 42:32
But they I had a direct involvement in the sporting regulations for those categories, too. Because having done my apprenticeship under Charlie, he used to get me to do a lot of that sort of thing for him, that groundwork, give it to him to review and then he distributed.
Unknown Speaker 42:51
Yeah. And then,
Unknown Speaker 42:54
like, there's more.
Unknown Speaker 42:59
Really, really, because it will actually at Charlie's request, I did the international students seminar because the FAA, on a global level is sort of changing the way they appoint stewards and stewards licensing system because there were a lot of people that didn't really have much of a background
Unknown Speaker 43:19
in the sport that didn't progress to a high level of stewarding through different ways. And they brought in a new rule that in order to be a steward, for the FIA, as different to the ASN is in each of the countries, you have to do the international students seminar, which involves a an assessment after the seminar, which involves
Unknown Speaker 43:49
questions, multiple choice questions that has to be done on ascertain only 20 or 30 minutes is all the time you've got to answer these questions. And also, they describe a scenario of an incident and you have to write a decision.
Unknown Speaker 44:08
And you have to get a distinction or above in the assessment to be able to do international events as a steward.
Unknown Speaker 44:20
So Charlie asked me to do that
Unknown Speaker 44:24
seminar so that I could get the appropriate students license. Yep.
Unknown Speaker 44:29
And so I did that in 2019, actually, and I got the required score of a distinction. And
Unknown Speaker 44:39
a few weeks later, Charlie died of that heart attack.
Unknown Speaker 44:45
And everything fell flat after that. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So you SP to now then what? Yeah, yeah, that's that's really unusual. Airspeeder
Unknown Speaker 45:00
or is flying cars? Oh, wow. They kind of like a giant drone. Yeah. And it's completely new development. And in order to speed up development of the vehicles, they want to race them.
Unknown Speaker 45:17
So they needed somebody that could come up with some sporting regulations for them and run their races now, I mean, it's small scale, and there's no public there or anything. So, but it's just in those really early stages. So I've only been doing that a few months. So that's what I'm currently working on.
Unknown Speaker 45:38
And you're back in Australia. It's mad. Yes. Yeah. Well, part of it. Also, though, when I last left England.
Unknown Speaker 45:46
I thought I was going back there in a couple of months. It was
Unknown Speaker 45:53
it was before Christmas. Yeah. COVID hit.
Unknown Speaker 45:58
And so I didn't want to go and be in England during that. So I don't know, I'll just stay in Australia. And I found and I moved up here to the Gold Coast. And I absolutely love moving here. So I've decided I want to stay here.
Unknown Speaker 46:15
Fantastic. That is such an amazing story. I just
Unknown Speaker 46:20
I keep talking, I keep forgetting to talk because I'm just like in audit city. Anyone that wants to watch the video, you can see that I'm just like, Oh my God, I've got to talk.
Unknown Speaker 46:31
How do you wrap up your curry? Like, what do you say to people? That's a really tough one. I actually avoid talking about it. Too complicated. Like Kim got all that comment. We can call engineer Gorod. Dad, and unless you've kind of done everything.
Unknown Speaker 46:50
Yeah, I do have experience in lots of different areas of the sport. And
Unknown Speaker 46:58
I feel that is an asset, particularly when it comes to race management. Like this whole sporting side of the sport.
Unknown Speaker 47:07
And I still go Hello, I want to ask a question of what's next and look what's
Unknown Speaker 47:13
gonna look like I mean, we're all coming out and
Unknown Speaker 47:17
you got beautiful golf course, like, Are you looking to get back into Australian motorsport? Or are you over?
Unknown Speaker 47:25
Yeah, I don't know.
Unknown Speaker 47:27
I think I mean, it's not that long since I decided that I want to stay in Australia, because like when, when we first had all those lock downs with COVID, I thought it would only last a few months, you know, and that tends a couple of years. And so it's only a year ago that I decided I'd stay here. So but my involvement now is I actually just a couple of weeks ago, I became secretary of the normal racers club.
Unknown Speaker 47:55
And, of course, I know Paul Morris from back in when he was racing formula, racing with your brother Roy.
Unknown Speaker 48:03
And in fact, Hey, Paul, and my brother, Ron raced in what was known then as formula Birbhum. together then both with Phoenix motorsport, so
Unknown Speaker 48:14
So yeah, we go back a long way. You see you back. Really? Yeah. And I've stayed in touch with Paul throughout the years. Yeah. And so. Yeah, I spend a bit of time there. The normal motorplex Fantastic.
Unknown Speaker 48:34
Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 48:37
It's really cool corner. I mean, all the best opportunities that I've had, I've just come up out of the blue. Yeah, and I guess Yeah, that was the next thing is like this, someone who's aspiring to do everything that you've achieved is so many different things.
Unknown Speaker 48:51
I just like to recognize an opportunity and go for it when I didn't see it.
Unknown Speaker 48:57
Yeah. And the sheer fact that you did have to move overseas. I think that's the biggest thing that we have here that we're hearing like with a lot of the girls as far into work in f1 Obviously, there's no shame here sorry if they're wanting to move overseas, like our drivers at such a young age
Unknown Speaker 49:16
to dry once we can do data interview all those social media, anything like they've kind of got to go anywhere between like that 15 and 22 years of age to try and get their foot into the door. And I think what you've mentioned 100 times it's just like around about networking being in the right time right place me we don't all have problems as best friends. But
Unknown Speaker 49:37
does consistency like you said about you caught and if I over and over a poorly made contact with Paul Morris, you're not scared to pick up those phone and to make those actual contacts? Or Greengate and stuff like that? Yeah, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 49:54
I would love to have you back on like an event another cheese home. Where would you like episode 254
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Hey
Unknown Speaker 50:01
what has happened in the last
Unknown Speaker 50:05
place you because
Unknown Speaker 50:15
you broke it. I cannot thank you enough for sharing your story with us. I'm so
Unknown Speaker 50:22
interested in it I sort of
Unknown Speaker 50:25
Yeah, I guess I'm a bit shy about it. Oh, really.
Unknown Speaker 50:30
And I'm sure our listeners will be going Wow. Well, congratulations on a such a fantastic career to date. Again, thank
Unknown Speaker 50:41
you for coming on to share your story. I wish you all the very best to get I will be definitely watching to see on LinkedIn what the next step is coming up. And hopefully, if I come up to know, well, we can catch up for a coffee. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, let me know if you're coming up. But
Unknown Speaker 50:58
thank you for joining onto the podcast. All the best with what you're doing with training your young drivers too. Thank you. And yeah, I look forward to hopefully catching up with you soon. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 51:11
Well, thanks everyone for listening to this week's show. I really hope you enjoyed that one as much as I did. Now remember all the show notes with the links and the specials mentioned in today's show are available over at motivate training.com Today you if you haven't already, I'd really appreciate if you could head to iTunes or Stitcher typing motorsport coaching SUBSCRIBE And leave us a review each week or read them out and you're going to multi George with a fantastic price. You have any questions or comments please email us at motivate training.com.au or head over to our Facebook page at motivate t until next time, take care
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
