A “Trans Am weekend” is the full racing event schedule for that series at one location. It includes qualifying and the races, and sometimes penalties can affect the official outcome.
Pole position means you were the fastest in qualifying, so you start at the front of the grid. Starting first usually helps you avoid getting stuck in traffic.
In racing, a black flag is an official warning that something is wrong with your car. A “mechanical” black flag means the problem is mechanical—like a part coming loose—so the driver is expected to react.
A loose exhaust means the exhaust system isn’t properly secured to the car, so it can vibrate, detach, or fall off under load. If it comes off, it can create safety hazards and can also lead to disqualification if the driver doesn’t respond to the flag.
“Excluded from the race” means officials removed the driver from the official race results. It usually happens when the driver didn’t follow a safety/rules instruction in time.
“Super sub” is a motorsport slang phrase for a substitute driver who steps in and performs at a very high level. It highlights the challenge of adapting quickly—learning the car setup and driving demands without the usual full-week preparation.
Anton DiPasquale is a professional race driver. In this episode, the hosts say he and his team won impressively because they made smart race decisions and the car was fast.
Team 18 is the racing team that Anton DiPasquale drives for. The hosts are saying the team did a great job with both planning the race and having a fast car.
This means the first race event of the season in Sydney. The hosts are using it to explain how teams can look unbeatable early on, then the season plays out differently.
Sydney Motorsport Park is a race track in Australia. The host is talking about scheduling races at night so more people can watch—both at the track and on TV.
Dry ice is used as a super-cold cooling method in racing. Teams use it to chill parts of the car so the engine can work better, not like a normal car air conditioner.
This describes how race cars are tightly sealed to control airflow and protect the cockpit/driver area. In motorsport, sealing reduces unwanted air leaks that can hurt aerodynamic efficiency and also supports safety packaging and thermal management.
In racing, drivers sometimes wear a special cooling suit to keep them from overheating. If that system fails, the driver can get too hot and feel worse much faster.
Driver cooling is how race teams keep the driver from getting overheated. If a driver gets too hot, they can think slower and react worse, so it’s a safety issue.
They’re talking about changing a safety rule that starts when conditions get bad enough. By lowering the trigger point, the rule would help drivers more often in hot weather.
Cooling systems are the gear and processes that keep things from getting too hot. The discussion here is that they don’t always work perfectly, especially in extreme heat.
A replacement driver is a backup driver. If the main driver can’t race, the replacement driver takes over so the team still has someone behind the wheel.
“Super Two” is a lower-tier racing series that helps up-and-coming drivers gain experience. The hosts are saying those drivers can’t always step in for the main supercar races because the events happen on different parts of the weekend.
A “race precursor” is a race that happens earlier in the weekend before the main race. If the precursor race is scheduled at the same time as the main event, those drivers can’t easily switch over.
Term
track to town
“Track to town” likely means the event includes driving that goes beyond just the race track—more like a route or activity in/around town. They’re talking about it as part of the event schedule, not as a car part.
Term
pre-grip
“Pre-grip” sounds like a specific moment before the main racing starts—basically a pre-race period. They’re using it to say when they first noticed what was going on.
This is a safety rule for head injuries. If someone might have a concussion, they have to be checked and may not be allowed to race until it’s cleared.
A risk assessment of heat and heat stroke is a structured way to decide whether racing conditions are medically unsafe. It typically considers factors like ambient temperature, track conditions, and how likely drivers are to overheat, which can trigger rule-driven actions such as substitutions or medical holds.
Tod’s Garage sounds like a car-focused project or community. The host is describing it as covering lots of different kinds of car interests, not just racing.
Term
tuning scene
The tuning scene is about people modifying regular street cars. They might change parts to make the car faster, handle better, or look/sound different.
It’s a Toyota racing series where drivers compete in cars that are closely related. The idea is to give up-and-coming drivers a structured place to race and learn.
Townsville is where the race track is located, and the guest clearly likes racing there. They’re saying they’ve done well there before and miss competing on that circuit.
An enduro is a longer race than a sprint, where you have to manage the car and your driving for a long time. Strategy and staying consistent matter a lot.
Perth is where they’re going for a track event. It’s part of the racing schedule they’re working around.
Car
Trans Am
Trans Am is a well-known type of race series. In this episode, they’re talking about being on track for Trans Am events and how that affects their timing and preparation.
A co-driver is a second driver who shares driving duties with the primary driver, especially in endurance-style events. The co-driver’s job often includes staying sharp during practice and test sessions so they can take over quickly and consistently during race stints.
They’re talking about updated rules that change how teams can test before races. If testing time is limited, it’s harder for co-drivers to get fully prepared.
Term
Shelby Power Race suit
A race suit is the special protective outfit drivers wear. It’s designed to help protect them in a crash and in case of fire.
Toyota GR Cup is a racing series run by Toyota where many drivers race very similar cars. The point is to make the competition about driving, not huge differences in the cars.
They’re talking about how often different teams win at a specific race track. If only a few teams account for most wins, it suggests those teams (or their setups) fit that track particularly well.
Topic
Gens free era
This phrase is referring to a particular rules period in the racing series. When the rules change, teams can suddenly have an advantage, so the winners can look very different.
DJR (Dick Johnson Racing) is a famous Australian race team. In this discussion, it’s mentioned because it’s one of the teams that racks up wins at this track.
Company
Wolken Shores
This sounds like the name of another racing team from Australia’s touring-car history. The host is linking it to the era when Holden cars were prominent.
James Courtney is an Australian touring-car driver. The host credits him with winning the very first year at this track (as stated in the segment), which is a notable historical marker for the series there.
Topic
The Sunday race blew up on the Saturday
They’re talking about something going wrong during the weekend that affected the race that was supposed to happen on Sunday. In other words, Saturday’s events changed what happened later.
Company
McLaughlin
McLaughlin is a well-known Australian race driver. The host is saying that during the Penske era, he was a big part of where many wins came from.
A street circuit is a race course made from regular city streets. Because it’s tight and bumpy, the cars have to be set up to handle corners carefully and keep the tires from overheating.
Place
Elbert Park
Albert Park is a famous racing track in Australia. They’re comparing this circuit’s feel to Albert Park so you can picture the mix of fast and twisty sections.
Riding the kerbs means using the curb edges to help you turn tighter and go faster through corners. It’s tricky because it can shake the car and wear the tires if the suspension and tires aren’t up to it.
Looking after the tires means keeping them from getting too hot or wearing out too fast. If tires lose grip, your lap times drop, especially on tight tracks.
“Putting its power down” means getting the car moving hard without the wheels slipping. On twisty tracks, that’s what helps you accelerate out of corners efficiently.
RPM is how fast the engine is spinning. “Low RPM” means you’re accelerating with the engine not revving high, so the car needs enough pull to move strongly anyway.
Term
four gen three package
“Gen three” refers to a specific generation of race car regulations or a car development “generation” used in that series. A “package” typically means the combined set of hardware/software updates (car spec) the team will run at the next event.
This is about the process of getting replacement parts (“spares”) approved for competition. It’s a key part of race engineering in regulated series because teams can’t just swap in anything—they must comply with technical rules.
Will Brown is a driver mentioned for doing something impressive: finishing races 77 times in a row. That means he’s been very consistent and avoided big problems for a long stretch.
Engine bearings are small internal parts that help the engine’s moving parts slide and spin smoothly. In a race car, they have to survive a lot of heat and stress, so good bearings matter.
Repco Brabham is mentioned as an old racing team/program that used ACL bearings. It’s basically a historical link showing ACL’s motorsport involvement.
LIVE
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There's touring car legends, touring car tributes, classic sports cars, Formula 4 historic
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It's an event for fans of all ages.
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And if you can't make a trackside, catch the two day live streaming coverage on Blendline
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Pencil it into the diary, July 24 to 26 for the Winton Festival of Speed.
Great to have you with us.
The Darwin Triple Crown is in the books.
Cam Orders is back in town.
Grove Racing lead the team's championship.
Chevy's had a win as well.
There's a lot to talk about.
James Moffitt, welcome to you.
Thank you, Nunes.
Thanks.
Nice to be back.
So, yeah, looking forward to discussing everything that happened up in Darwin.
The big news from Darwin was not Anton.
It was not Cam.
It was not Grove Racing.
It was not Red Bull.
It was not any of those supercar teams.
It was you.
In the headlines, with a round win, albeit, does it still have an asterisk next to its
name for the Trans Am weekend?
I believe it's so.
I wouldn't go as far say that, Nunes, but yeah, we are the round winners.
So currently back-to-back round wins up in Darwin.
So, yeah, it was a good solid weekend for us, particularly Friday, pole position and
a race win.
So, yeah, nice and got our sort of championship back on track.
Bit of drama in that last race, fair to say.
So, for those who didn't see it or might not know, just to give you the quick snapshot.
So, the results provisional for the weekend.
Blake Tracy was given a mechanical black flag.
He had a loose exhaust.
It flew off.
Long safety car period.
The mechanical black flag he didn't respond to.
It fell off.
He pressed on.
In the end, they said, actually, no, you should have responded to that flag, excluded from
the race.
Therefore, points go to you.
Therefore, round win goes to you.
Therefore, they've appealed.
Therefore, we don't quite know where we're at.
Exactly.
So, therefore, just a big giant shoo-choo, pretty much.
I tell you what we do know, that's our Castrol performer of the week kicks us off on the
undercut every week, as thanks to Castrol Edge, they are trusted Castrol Edge by experts.
Now, who have you got for the weekend?
Because look, do you want me to start?
I'll fire it off here.
Quite often on our performer of the week, we're isolating drivers and look, drivers are the
ones who steer the cars.
They get the headlines.
They spray the champagne.
Absolutely, they are at the forefront.
But I wanted to give my performer of the week to a guy you don't hear much about.
You know, his name, he's been around a very long time.
He's the head of performance at Grove Racing.
He's a longtime member of the Supercars Paddock, Alistair McVane.
So I think that so much of the credit, rightly so, goes to the drivers, to Matt Payne, to
Kai Allen.
They are now in the team's championship lead of the Repco Supercars Championship, which
is a massive feat.
Because if you look back over the years, not many teams win that title and not many get
to the lead during the season.
So I think that's a huge step.
He's not underrated.
He's very well rated in the industry.
But when you go back through the Grove history of the last year or two, lots of headlines
with David Couchy, lots with Grant McPherson, Ricardo Corte in recent times with Kai, Jack
Bell as well.
The gal sort of slips through the cracks a little bit, which is his sort of style.
But he's my castor up before in the week, given where they've ended up.
He certainly goes quietly about his business.
But yeah, that's a very good nomination, Noons, because Grove Racing are really proving that
they are the real deal.
Do you expect them now when they go to a round?
You're kind of disappointed if they're not in the top five or six.
Like they look like they've changed what they deem is acceptable now.
Judging by Brenton Grove's comments on Sunday, where they were disappointed that Matt Payne
didn't win their little pit stop slip up and their customer chance.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, and that's highlighted by the fact now that they're in the lead of the
team's championship.
So they really, it really feels like that team is just going from strength to strength.
And on the back of that, it's the people behind it, right?
So, you know, you've got smart people like El McVein, and there'll be a number of people
that I'm leaving out, obviously, in that organization, but they are definitely proving.
I mentioned Grant McPherson too.
So he's still with the team, but you know, he's not at the track.
And I believe he's working from home in that period that he's kind of told them that
he's going to go and work for GM before he actually, I think he joins them just
before Bathurst, I think, might be around when that kicks in.
So, nevertheless, though, they're a team that is not on the rise anymore.
They are now absolutely there.
They're absolutely there.
Their expectation levels have raced.
Who have you got for your Castrol performer of the week for Castrol edge
trusted by experts?
Right. Well, I've got I've got a couple of.
This is a bit of a three-phaser for me.
Yeah, you have three.
It's the performer of the week, not the performers of the week, because there were
enough people that could easily have slotted into this nomination.
You see you've got offence here.
I'm not. No, but firstly, we're going to speak to him a bit later in the show,
but definitely a big tip of the hat to Todd Hazelwood.
That's true.
Super sub performance was just quality.
Yeah, really, really impressive.
So stepping into a really good car that had been running at the front of the weekend,
but you've still got to do the preparation.
You still got to do the job.
That was like trying to do the the long jump of the Olympics without a run up.
Exactly. It was pretty impressive.
Was good to see Waters and Tickford back on form.
I think we'll touch on that a little bit later in the show.
But for me, my performer of the week was Anton DiPasquale and Team 18.
So in the lead up to the event, a little bit of external noise around their
performances and whether they were living up to the standards that should be said
by the Chevrolet Amologation team.
I'm better in the bush.
Marks gave comments.
Exactly. Yeah.
And, you know, he's got the credentials and the
his CV is behind him to have a bit of weight behind those comments.
But for Anton and the team, they came out and they answered
those critics, if you like, if they are out there in the best possible way
that that Sunday win was very, very impressive.
They did it both on strategy and car speed.
So they are my cash drawl performer of the week.
So you've narrowed it down in the end and you've settled on Anton.
Yes, I have. OK.
So you had a few that you want to just mention honorable mentions.
Honourable mentions podium.
OK, fair play, fair play.
But I have to agree with you, Anton DiPasquale,
team 18, their second win of the season, a win at City Motorsport Park
and now win at Hidden Valley, which is actually where Anton won his first race.
If you remember back in 2020 with Erebus in the COVID era,
one of those remember they had that sort of COVID situation where they had
the tire allocation such that no one could possibly win all three races
in a weekend, but nevertheless, that is where he kicked off his winning
Supercast. And, you know, that's been a successful track for team 18 in the past.
And they continued that.
Yeah, so yeah, it was good to see.
We will chat more about Anton DiPasquale, Kamaro and team 18 later on the show.
That was our Castrol edge performer of the week for Castrol edge.
It is trusted by experts, but it's time now for our burning questions
powered by Motorcraft.
Burning questions powered by Motorcraft, of course, Moff Motorcraft.
Oh, long history in the sport, presenting partners of Mustang Cup Australia.
Long time partner of your dad with the Transair Mustang back in the day
when it comes to our imparts, Motorcraft to go trusted by Ford spark plugs,
batteries, brakes, whatever you need, Motorcraft, Motorcraft also places to go.
Question one. OK, yep.
Does Triple 8 have the wobbles at the moment?
Well, I think you might be going a bit early for that type of chat.
Do you ask the question that has been posed on my run sheet?
Right. Well,
for a team that is still leading the drivers championship with Brock,
Will Brown is moved up one spot to seventh, second, second in the team's championship.
So I don't probably think that that warrants calls that they have the wobbles just yet.
So it was an uncharacteristic Darwin result for them, no silverware, no polls.
But I guess it's a real reflection of the level that they've achieved for such a such a sustained period of time
that when they don't, I mean, your points, right, Brock Feney is still leading the championship
and their second in teams championship by not much at all.
But we're so used to the Red Bull Ampoel team being the absolute benchmark bar
spraying champagne and winning trophies is kind of a habit.
Yeah, it's sort of funny because we've probably got to a sport.
A point, sorry, where within the sport,
we're disappointed when they are winning races and dominating.
But then critical when they're not exactly.
Yeah. So, you know, you can't have both, can you really?
But I'll definitely be motivated to regain the the teams championship.
I know that for a fact.
And Townsville is always another typically good track for T8.
But we said that coming into Darwin.
So I think what is really unfolding this year is, you know, when when people get it right,
anybody's capable of winning races with this Gen 3.
It's the nature of the era of the platform, isn't it?
So it's not the technical advantage previously held by a team like Triple H.
Just not there anymore. I think they're permitted a tough round.
I mean, and by all measurements, if we deemed that a tough round,
they are absolutely permitted one of those along the way.
No one has 14 perfect weekends in the year anyway.
But if they have two or three of these, I'm still not worried.
I'm not worried at all, because they've they've clearly
and Brock Feeney's comments in the aftermath of the round where he said,
we basically need to go testing at these next couple of rounds.
It's bang on.
But the irony is that that's the thing that Jamie Winkler said at the start of the year.
It wasn't happening.
That wasn't what Walkershaws did last year to win the championship.
But I get the sense that everyone's got a bit of that in their mind at this part of the year.
And Triple H should.
I mean, I'm not worried if they have two or three like this in a row.
At the end of the day, it's kind of like being on top of the AFL or the NRA ladder right now.
Yeah.
Who remembers who's leading after round 13 of AFL?
They only remember who wins the cup.
Exactly. So, you know, they're they're in a position where they can come up,
like Brock can come out and sort of make a statement like that.
You know, if it's not a perfect weekend, he's got a buffer to be able to play with.
I mean, what is he now at the moment?
He's so far is 500 points in 507 in front of the top 10 cut line.
He's 203 in front of Brody Kostecki in fourth.
He's 333 a whole weekend in front of Will Brown, his own teammate.
Yeah. So for Will Brown, you can't.
You don't really want to go playing around at the moment on trying stuff
because you need to make sure you're a bit further up the queue
to be able to be a bit safer when you get to those enduroes.
Well, and Will did that across the weekend, really, you know,
results of fifth, fifth and fourth across the three races.
Brock obviously had that struggle
in the first race up at Darwin's fourteenth,
but seventh and fifth across the Saturday and Sunday races.
So, you know, again, we're we're marking them pretty harshly.
If if we even consider that a down weekend, there's plenty of teams
and drivers love to have that result weekend result.
Yeah, any day of the week. Absolutely.
And when you look at the last two rounds, so Tassie Darwin,
Payne is the top scorer.
He's only outscored Fanny by 31.
Deeper Squarley's third of the those two rounds.
Payne Allen, fourth and Will Brown, fifth.
So they're there. They're all there about.
So I think it's it's I'm not giving them the wobbles.
The bike's not wobbling.
The wheels are not about to fall off.
It's just a nature of how they've been in the past.
But the other element for me was that the triple eight supported team
Blanchard, or they were even further away.
So that's a pretty good measurement of how triple eight is going,
how the customer team is going.
Well, I think also further to that is BRT struggled in Tassie as well,
relative to how they have been going in the early part of it.
So, you know, maybe the question should be, are they starting to get the wobbles?
Yeah, yeah, true, true.
Anyway, you know, their their results up until the last couple of rounds
have probably exceeded expectations.
Yeah, true, true.
A question to on our burning questions for Motocraft Moff.
Can cam waters and Anton Deeper Squalay maintain the rage?
Yes or no? Well, I would just start by saying.
The sport needs we need and waters in a competitive car
because seeing him back up the front of the field fighting for race winds
is natural aggression behind the wheel is good to see.
You know, he puts up to be too aggressive.
No, but because he had a good car.
Exactly. But he puts up a fight, you know, even that thing
that moment when he came out of the pits and defended.
Overly aggressive.
The first defense was OK, but then he went again.
But it was, you know, for me, it's it's good to see that, you know,
somebody that's that's going to fight and fight to the end.
Not just put white flag up and go after you.
Yeah, and with cam, you know better than anyone what he's like.
You're going to get that.
Yeah. So he's got to have the car underneath him to fight with.
And clearly they were able to turn it around on the weekend
because probably I don't think anybody saw that coming
based on on how they have been performing up until the weekend.
So it was great to see and he just proved
that when he has the car underneath him, he can and he will deliver.
But it's a real case, though.
One day of sunshine doesn't make it summer.
No, we got seduced last year by Tickford and Cam
at Round One Sydney, where they just went bang, bang, bang, polls,
wins, lead of the championship.
People were genuinely saying, is this Tickford's year?
They finally going to stitch together another championship.
2015 is Mark Winterbottom was a long time ago,
the one championship that they've won.
And then they just sort of peed it out, limping into the back end of the year.
I reckon they've learned that lesson.
A lot of these teams have watched last year and gone, you know what?
Let's pick our moment.
Let's pick our time.
Let's get ourselves in position for that run home, because that's when it matters.
But what's funny, you say that, Nudes, because I bumped into Sam Potter,
Cam's engineer at the airport security, leaving for Darwin
on Wednesday afternoon. No, no, no, sorry, leaving to go to Darwin.
And, you know, we were just having a quick chat and he sort of emphasized to me
that, you know, how competitive it is at the moment and how hard it is.
And, you know, it was sort of bemoaning the fact that it had been 18 months
since they last won a race.
So when they did get that win on Friday night, I quickly text Potsy and said,
oh, well, clearly all we have to do is just bump into each other at the airport.
Absolutely. Yeah, 100 percent.
But to roll on to Anton.
Well, I think he is maintaining the rage and I've got some stats to back that up.
You sort of quickly touched on it before, but in the last six races,
average finishing position of fifth, that's versus Brock at five point five.
So and he is the only chef out there.
He's their only.
He's the one that even looks close to winning a race and has obviously won two now.
So they they look like they are building into something,
but it takes time to build into a championship caliber team.
We saw this in the back end of last year, didn't we?
I mean, he nearly made it out of the finals to progress from the Gold Coast
that run in with James Courtney.
But he clearly had to make a move and had a crack.
Sand down, he's up the front.
And then this year they've won.
So they've stepped up team 18.
They have definitely delivered on what they need to be doing
as a homologation team to be the real deal for Chevy.
But outside of that dual Chevy.
Well, actually, it's the cub cadet Chevy for the next round in Townsville
and Bathurst later in the year, too.
There's no Chevy that looks like it's going to win a race any time soon.
It's pretty much all on ADP.
But you said before, I think you think about Townsville moving forward.
Both Cam and Anton have got great records there in the past.
And I mean, the numbers.
Cam has been top four in four of the last five races in Townsville.
And that includes two wins and three podiums.
And he's qualified top three there for eight of the last 10 races.
So you'd have to expect that that's the track that they'd pencil in and go, OK,
is a chance to score back some more points on Red Bull.
And Anton was third, sixth and sixth in the races last year there.
So yeah, that's where you go.
They can and should maintain the rage into Townsville to keep this rolling.
But it's such a tight championship now.
I mean, it's it's so hard.
It's so hard. Yeah, totally agree.
So like I said, you know, before the weekend,
I don't think anybody would have seen the results from Cam and Tickford.
You would have expected Anton more than Cam.
Exactly. So, you know, that just goes to show him we've spoken about this before,
that, you know, it'll just be something small
that the teams will find in their setup that turns it around for them.
So, you know, and it's not to say that somebody else might not do it.
You know, the Toyota's had a relatively quiet weekend up in Darwin.
So, you know, they could just as easily turn up to Townsville and turn it on.
So, yeah, there's still a lot to play for me.
Anton is really well placed.
It looks like they are building some good momentum and consistency
and come the enduro's when he teams up with Lee Holdsworth.
That is a combination, you know, serious, serious combination.
So I'm looking forward to how that side of things progresses up to the enduro cup.
We've got three rounds of the Red Coast Spring Cup to go
before we get to the Ryco enduro cup.
Anton has Lee Holdsworth, the other car Dave Reynolds has James Courtney stepping in.
So the combos there are pretty strong.
Is night racing, James, the shot in the arm that the Darwin round needs?
That was announced in the lead up to the weekend that next year onwards,
there'll be a night race Friday night by the sounds,
twilight Saturday daytime activity at the track on Sunday.
I think this is the shot in the arm that this round needs
because it's been not floundering.
That's a very harsh word.
The crowds have been clearly down no matter what the numbers are
in recent years compared to perhaps the glory days.
I think this is great. This is what this round needs.
Yeah, I was certainly interested to read that apparently the crowd figures
of the weekend just gone were complimentary.
It didn't really feel like that that, you know, the fan didn't feel like
there was as many people as might have been reported.
So I think, yeah, hopefully this is definitely a positive.
The key is obviously getting the timing right of the race
or to go back into the East Coast is often our time difference.
East Coast to Darwin, clearly a night race under lights.
Same as football. I think that that'll that'll work well.
But the other thing to know,
free to wear television for the day around that probably didn't help things.
Yeah. And the cost of travel used to be so many fans.
The pencil in Darwin in June dry season.
That's when we're going to make a trip to go and watch the V8s up north.
Good weather week away, go and do some other tourist stuff.
But the cost to go to Darwin flight wise, then you add accommodation
and high cars and all the the costs of travel.
It's way more expensive now to do than it perhaps once was.
So those whole people that would be attracted to come and visit the NT.
That's a bit of a harder sell.
Yeah. So I think definitely the free to air coverage is crucial in all that.
So whether Darwin becomes another free to wear around next year.
Well, the TV deal is locked in now of how many free to wear around seven can have.
And they're not going to give up Gold Coast and Adelaide and some of the others.
So I'm entirely sure that the viewership will increase
based on it being a night race, if it's not on free to wear.
Oh, it depends what it's up against.
Yeah, in terms of what you can certainly have to be clear of of the the footy codes,
AFL and an NRL depends where they're playing and who's playing and where they're playing.
But it might draw more of a local crowd.
Yeah, locals might be more interested in it.
It's been different 30 years in a row, basically 30 events.
9098 onwards hasn't had a year missed.
Even in Covid, there was a couple of rounds up there.
So if you've sort of seen it, you've seen it before.
So let's give him something new.
Even the local fans who've not seen the night race.
And it might just attract a different demographic and some people have not been before.
So and we know one thing for sure.
The cars look spectacular under lights.
Would the racing be better there if it's cooler?
Potentially. Yeah, potentially.
Obviously, the driver comfort stuff, which will come on.
The driver comfort level will be a bit more enjoyable.
But yeah, I think so.
Conditions can't hurt.
Can't hurt.
Next question on the burning questions, Moff, a little bit connected.
Racing on Friday, which we had in Darwin, we're going to have it in Townsville as well.
Are you a yay or a nay?
Because when I ask people about this, it's very one way or the other.
Uh, I'm not really fast either way.
I just really think similar to to the night race concept.
It's just the timing of the races is crucial, clearly.
So is it a case of you've got to know what you catering for to do this?
Yeah, definitely.
So Darwin was 532 Eastern Standard Time on a Friday afternoon.
Yep. That's a bad time.
That is not a good time.
Yeah. The crowd reflected it at the track.
And who's watching it?
Apart from the absolute hardcore tragics on TV on a Friday at 530.
People are trying to get home from work.
They're on a train.
They're in their car.
They're picking up their kids.
They're doing whatever they're doing at the end of a long working week.
If you're going to do a Friday night race, you've got to go into the actual
night when people can actually watch it.
Yeah. Otherwise, if the tree falls in the woods, does anyone hear it?
No, you're right.
And then, but the other thing to that is.
What's it like for the teams is a Friday night race better than having
the two back-to-back races on a Saturday from a workload point of view?
Because the reality is a Friday night race more than likely ends to a late Friday night.
You're still getting up and coming to the track on Saturday.
So I haven't really spoken to any of the teams about that, but it would be
interesting to canvas that to see.
Well, probably the turner.
And if you go Twilight Saturday to daytime Sunday, if you're going to have
a night event, just make it a night event the whole way through.
Yes.
Because then you're going to burn up the crew members when you do have
the inevitable nighttime finish into regular day, the next day type situation.
You kind of need to just keep it flowing.
Like, what do you think about it?
Are you are you or I'm yay to Friday, but on the basis that it's at night
because that's when the most amount of people can see it at the track and
view it on TV, you're talking like a seven o'clock race or something like that.
7730
I mean, Sydney Motorsport Park was 753 local time this year.
That's under lights.
That's tick.
That's absolutely in the perfect window.
Dale and I said was 532
The Townsville race that's coming up will be 415 local time.
So who's home to watch?
Who's home to watch that on a Friday?
If you're in commuter time, school pickup time.
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I know that on Fridays, a lot of school kids are at the rounds in supercars,
but surely by that part of the afternoon, they're heading home when they're already done.
Friday's Adelaide Grand Finale race last year was at five o'clock local time.
And I think Adelaide's probably just a little bit different because of its status as the Grand Final.
It's a big event.
There's no and the other element to this under the current TV deal again,
Saturday, Friday races, I should say, even if a free to air rights hold a seven has that round that weekend.
They don't have the Friday race, so it will still be only on Fox and KO.
So if you're going to have it, I'm OK with the Friday race,
but you've got to have it at a time that makes it make sense.
And 530 in Darwin didn't make sense.
And if it is free to air coverage as well, well, that has to be shown.
It can't be. Well, you need to change it.
But they need to change the deals locked.
The deals locked in for however many more years to come.
So that's a mistake then. That's a whole other topic.
That's another burning question for another time.
My next one is Moff.
The heat obviously was a factor in Darwin as it is most years,
but should the heat number be a lower temperature?
That's the number that triggers the rule around the driver cooling
being in place at a certain level of I think it's 25 degrees.
Yeah, look, was this a rule that was made for the optics of making a rule
versus actually a rule that would be implemented regularly?
Not knowing the complete ins and outs
and the politics potentially behind all that news? Yes, maybe.
I see this as it just can't be a supercar's issue.
At some point, accountability has to fall back on the teams as well
because safe working environments for employees slash contractors.
Exactly. So I think maybe as an industry.
We need a new approach to this as an industry,
the way we think about this stuff, maybe.
But, you know, the fact is motorsport is dangerous.
Yeah, true.
The fact is the cars are just hot. OK, you'll never make them.
You'll never make them. No, we don't run air conditioners.
Yes, we have equipment in the cars like the dry ice systems,
cool suits, helmet air.
That's all well detailed.
And that's come a long way.
And absolutely it has.
And the cars are sealed up to within an inch of their life
for performance reasons, OK, for safety reasons.
So, you know, people can sort of sit back and maybe say,
oh, well, I just ripped the windows out in the cars.
Well, the teams are never going to want to do that because
makes it slow down the straight. Exactly.
Right. But I can tell you from my experience in the Trans Am car
that has no windows.
It's just as hot in that car with no windows anyway.
So, you know, when you're going up to places like Darwin
that are let's just call it 30 degrees every day of the year
that we go racing there, it's hot.
That's just a fact.
And as professional drivers and teams,
you know that going into the event, you know, as a when you're a full time driver,
that's what you put all the preparation into.
That that's why you do it.
That's why you train. Yeah.
And but the hardest thing is to always replicate
or be able to replicate the heat that you have in the race car.
So for simple terms for people listening out there,
if you just really basically want to say a general rule of thumb,
whatever the ambient temperature is or at a minimum,
it would be 25 degrees hotter in the race car.
And I often say to people, you think, OK, so 30 degrees day,
55 cabin temperature, not driving around
with the air conditioner on in your shorts and T-shirt.
Yeah, you've got a three layer race suit.
You've got full length head to toe, fireproof underwear,
balaclava, gloves, race boots, helmet.
So it's already an uncomfortable environment.
But you're a professional athlete at the same time.
But what are the professional athletes expected to perform
in those sorts of temperatures? No, exactly.
That's what makes motorsport unique, you know, professional sport is hard.
Yeah, it doesn't be easy. Exactly.
I'm not for making it easy.
But but surely when.
But so the rule, though, Moff is that the forecast has to be 32
point nine degrees or above via the bomb predicted that morning of that event.
Yeah, if it doesn't trigger in Darwin, it's never going to trigger really.
It might take a really hot day in Adelaide, maybe a Western Sydney
sultry day at City Motorsport Park.
Gold Coast tends to not get to that level of temp.
Yeah. So if it's not triggering in Darwin, where's it going to trigger?
Well, that's that's a good point, Nunes, because again, what's the number?
That's also the issue. Yeah, exactly.
I remember, you know, there's been some Adelaide events more so when it was
in March that, you know, the high thirties almost 41 year.
And then we had a couple of belters that at home bush.
And yeah, it's it's uncomfortable.
Absolutely, it's uncomfortable.
There's nothing. What's the worst you've ever been in your super car days
in terms of the heat, the effects?
Have you ever stopped to ponder any long term effects of getting
cooked by basically the race car effects?
But yeah, I've certainly had cool suit failures.
I've had one in Darwin and, you know, like most drivers,
we've all had them fail.
And a lot of the time, the problem is when they fail, you're still wearing
the vest and the water within the tubes.
Obviously starts to get hotter.
It's just not having an unnecessary fire.
Yeah. So, you know, I think maybe the one saving thing for Randall
and I haven't spoken to him about it, but I understand that his cool suit,
one of the the lines actually broke.
So if that is actually the facts, then the water would have drained out.
So it wouldn't like it had been he was insulating himself in terms of with
with hot water, hot water.
Yeah. But, you know, clearly he was really, really affected.
So what do we do?
Should this number be lowered to isn't it funny?
When you make a rule around things, teams will step in line.
If it means that cars are suddenly going to be black flagged off the track
and out of races or drivers benched or whatever it might be.
If you I hate to be one to keep on making new rules all the time.
But if they lower the number here to try to make this trigger a little bit
more often to help out the drivers along the way, teams will have to step in line.
I'll have to make sure that these systems don't fail
because at the end of the day, it's a driver health responsibility
that might not show in the next week, month or year.
But I mean, have a look at Greg Crick and the situation that happened
to him at the 12 hour and he's comments earlier this year after Sydney.
He was really worried about what he saw in Will Brown and Dave Reynolds
and Brock Feeney and those guys getting out of the car.
He knows better than anyone what this sort of stuff can do to you in an extreme level.
But like I just can't think of another sport where I mean, there's been huge
advancements in racetrack safety, car safety, driver cooling.
But at what point do we make it a little bit more serious
and try to move that number down to get this rule to kick in a little bit more often
and kind of just help the drivers out more than anything.
And that's where it's difficult, Nunes, because these these cooling systems
that they aren't bulletproof.
So, you know, it's there's a process and all the little details add up.
But I know, you know, it's it's a.
And this is not an issue of drivers being soft.
No, we see it all the time on socials and you actually go the other way around.
It is because, you know, you don't want to be seen to be giving up.
So that's where it's a really, really sort of almost sensitive issue
because, you know, as an athlete, you want to obviously push yourself
to the limits and you don't want to be seen to be giving up.
And in no uncertain terms, am I
saying that Thomas and Brodie have given up for not, you know,
if anything, you could look at it the other way.
What if I'm putting my hand up going up and we've heard that Brodie's back
was also an issue on top of him being ill and certainly when you're in the heat
of the moment, you can you find ways to get through.
And that's a personal choice.
Yeah. But yeah, I just I don't really like the narrative
that it seems like super cars are the ones getting bashed on this whole issue.
I think at some point, the teams really need to be accountable and say, no, OK.
They're employees.
Well, you know, more often than not, the issue is a team related issue.
They're car, their system.
Yeah. So if it's failed, if it's been in the state, find a way, find a way.
Yeah. Replacement drivers came into Vogue big times with Mark Winnebottom
swapping his microphone for the steering wheel of the Castrol Mustang,
as you mentioned, Thomas Randall sideline.
This is a topic we mentioned last year on the undercut.
Should replacement drivers be nominated per round?
I am absolutely yes.
We should have before the round, we should know if anything does happen
in the unlikely scenario, we know who will be driving for which team, when and where.
Well, OK, you've come out with a big, big yes.
You're on board.
I'm not saying we need to go and spend thousands and thousands of dollars
and fly them all around the country and have them stand around all day.
Darwin's a great example to go. OK.
If Tickford need a driver, can they call on a super two driver?
Well, it's going to depend on when in the weekend that happens and can we tick it off?
Really, super two events, those drivers, they're ruled out
because the way that supercars have the schedule, the super two race
precursors, the main races.
So in that case, you would have gone into the weekend going, OK,
if anything does happen, Mark Winnebottom is our guy.
He's there already, driver, coach at Tickford and part of the supercars
telecast crew, you look at Groves, Will Davison and Tim Slater, both driver,
coaching in super two, they're there.
Brad Jones racing, OK, they have super two drivers, but Bryce Fullwoods,
they're driving his improved production Commodore Cup car.
You name it, just about anyone.
Team 18 James Courtney's on site with the TV broadcast.
There just should be a scenario where this needs to be better planned
and it's a published list and it's nominated before every round.
Just so as then we know where we're going.
It's like the emergencies in the footy codes.
You have named emergencies and look, it's extreme with Darwin and Townsville.
Travels difficult, a race in a metro, Mark, it's probably a little bit easier.
But this whole last minute dash and rush, OK, it's a bit of theatre,
but actually let's just it would give us more content in the lead up to a weekend.
I mean, we're wanting content.
This is a pretty easy way to get it.
The thing for me is obviously pretty unique
circumstances up in Darwin to have two drivers go down.
The one for me was that Todd wasn't completely organised with these shell racing.
He will be now.
So he will be now and so used and even used his Trans Am helmet.
So that wasn't obviously in their thinking in the lead up but winter bottom.
He was strangely enough did have his load is here,
which I found a little bit unusual.
So why should that be unusual?
That should be the norm for a professional race team.
They have all these situations ready to go.
Some some kudos to Tickford in that regard, if that is a scenario
that they had thought through.
So I think every team should think through it.
But you being the the super statsman that you are, when was the last time
that a substitute driver was called on mid event?
There's been a few over time.
Jack Birkins, the James Courtney when the helicopter blew that board at Sydney
was at 15, Cam McConville down in Tassie for Brad Jones Racing.
Look over from Jason Brite without qualifying, jumped in and got the job done.
There's been a few incidents over the years where it's been that last minute.
Hurry, Flurry.
I mean Adelaide when Richie Stanaway wasn't cleared.
It was going to be Coyle and then it couldn't be.
Then it was Dale Wood and then it could be Coyle on the next day.
So there's been a bit of that over the over the journey.
I think we could just clean it up.
I think it's pretty easy to do.
So anyway, but they are off.
Plenty of burning questions for Motocraft here on the undercut.
As always, there's always plenty to talk about.
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Well, he's the Super Saab, and he's subbed in today here on the undercut.
His work was not done, Moff, on Sunday afternoon in his Trans Am car
and his supercar as well.
Todd Hazelwood, welcome to the undercut.
Gee, are you charging overtime to Brodie Kosteke for further work this week?
I know he's booked out my whole week now.
So I'm going to have to have a little chat with him.
But hey, great problem to have.
You know, anytime he gets to jump behind a wheel of a supercar
is a good day at the office, so certainly no complaints.
Wanted to check with you.
Is it common practice that your Shelby power race suit
and gear travels with the DJR transport around the country?
Because if it doesn't, it needs to from now on, just in case.
It's funny news because it's actually one of the first rounds
where I actually haven't had my race suit and helmet with me for DJR.
So I think it was quite ironic that I actually left it all at home like,
no, I don't need that.
I'll save the weight.
I was trying to put everything into one race bag.
So I skimped a little and turns out I needed it that weekend.
So yeah, it's definitely going to be apparently packed in the truck
moving forward, but I certainly think it puts emphasis on, you know,
especially the way the heat, you know, these hotter events
and with drivers moving forward into the future that, you know,
maybe there's a bit more attention put into this sort of reserve driver
role, if you call it, for a rainy day when you because you just
damn know when you're going to need them.
Todd, it's Moff here.
Firstly, you know, well done.
All tip of the hat to you, mate.
That all happened pretty quickly for you after the the Trans Am Race had finished.
I wanted to ask you, though, obviously, it was no one that Brodie was sick
in the lead up to the event.
So based on that, did you have any discussions with DJR
that you might need to be on standby or was it literally just that last minute
call call up after the race, the Trans Am Race?
Yeah, no, thanks, Moff.
Appreciate it, mate.
It was, yeah, I know Brodie pretty well and we hung out
leading up to the event at Darwin and picked up that he was a little bit ill,
but, you know, nothing that was going to fluster him too much.
And then, yeah, when he when he travelled up to Darwin coming off the flight,
he went downhill pretty quick.
So, you know, naturally just jumped in for the track to town to try and give him
one less commitment to sort of rest up.
And they all sort of thought it would be all OK.
But, you know, as we know of the heat in Darwin, it's notorious.
And when you're when you are sick, you fatigue even harder.
And, yeah, it was just deteriorating at a rapid pace.
But, you know, they were pretty confident, even after the Saturday race with Brodie.
You know, once he saw Dr.
Carl and got his fluids restocked, he sort of was on a on a road to recovery.
So there was never a really an inkling of me being required
certainly in the race car.
And it's funny because I actually gave Brodie the ultimatum on
was after the track to town on Thursday.
So look, you know, for a bit of motivation, if I have to drive the supercar,
you've got to drive the Trans Am for me.
So, yeah, I think I was like straight away.
Well, I'll just drive the supercar.
So, yeah, he waited until the last race and then I had to jump in anyway.
But actually, yeah, the first time I was made aware of it when I was actually
sitting on the pre-grip with you, my for our final race Sunday morning,
Tom Moore, the team manager from Shelby Power Racing Team,
literally come up to my door up to the window and he said, hey, after the race,
don't go too far because we may need you.
It's unlikely that we may need you for today's race.
And that was really the first time I was like, oh, man, really?
Like, do I have to be ready for this?
I'm certainly not ready at all.
So, yeah, sure enough, fast forward 30 minutes coming after the race.
And Tom Moore was there in park for me.
So I literally left the Trans Am car, ran up to the supercar paddock
and got myself scaled, got myself weighed, had a quick chat with Brody.
And before you know it, I was jumping in the supercar for qualifying.
So, yeah, as far as being aware and preparation, it was almost none.
Just back in over what you said before, Todd, and what we've said about on the show.
Do you feel we're in a situation now as a sport and as a championship
that we probably just need to be a bit more pro about this?
And there should be a set nominated reserve driver, emergency driver.
Call it what you will.
Nomination list heading into a weekend where a team has told the world
that if we have a drama, we're picking this guy or that guy.
Now, I'm not all, you know, clearly it would start costing huge money
to fly people all around the country.
But there are people at tracks who are already there for other purposes
who could build seats.
Do you think we're at that point that we we should be doing that as a championship?
Potentially no.
It's like I think us as drivers are all pretty hard, hard skinned
and we never wanted to step away from the race car.
I think what we're seeing now is probably the introduction of some new rules.
Like we saw Adelaide 500 last year with the concussion rule.
We saw two drivers sideline from that.
And now obviously if they're going to start to introduce this potential
of, you know, the risk assessment of heat and heat stroke and, you know,
the chat that's going on with that, that might that might have to force teams
to start thinking about a reserve driver role.
But I don't think it certainly doesn't need to have the same tacky vibe
that say Formula One reserve driver has where you're basically standing
at the pits like a lost soul weekend pretending that you're going to be driving
the race car. I don't think we should be going down that that hard.
I think, yeah, like you said, be aware of the situation.
You know, like, you know, Brodie, I knew Brodie was was ill,
but never thought I'd be jumping in the car.
But at least like as you said, at least I was there ready and able to do the job.
And I think most sort of co-drivers went in.
Most teams now sort of traveling around with the circus to some degrees,
whether it's in support categories or other commitments within the sport.
Everyone's pretty proactive.
So yeah, maybe we'll watch the space, I guess.
But I think it's probably more will be more governed
if the rules start to change and that will probably move the goalpost,
depending what teams have to do.
Yeah, well, DJ are really probably dodged a bullet in that respect
because without Todd being there.
If that's not a Trans Am around, that car doesn't run.
You're probably unlikely to be there.
Yeah, so could you have got a call?
You've driven there before, surely?
You know, you had nothing else to do.
It's been a while, noons.
But the reality is, if Trans Am wasn't there, I wouldn't have been there.
So we've been hard to get a call.
Trans Am saved supercars in Darwin, basically.
Exactly. They saved DJR, at least.
So, but Todd, I want to move on from that.
Obviously, this year you've started up your own Trans Am team.
So just tell us a little bit about how that came about
and what the motivation was.
Yeah, thanks, Moff.
Yeah, it's been a pretty crazy start to the year.
I'm not going to lie.
Yeah, I guess for me, you know, I had two really good years of TFH racing.
They were brand new to Trans Am, including myself at the start of 2024.
And that was a really cool journey to, I guess, help work with them,
grow the capability of the team and get it to the point where we're
winning races and then winning championships, which was, you know,
all happened in a short space of time.
But like anything, all good things come to an end sometimes.
And, you know, Brett and the whole family at TFH,
I got along with them still really well.
But yeah, they just had a new direction, a new opportunity,
and they went Porsche racing.
So for me, I was sort of, well, what do I want to do?
I still want to keep racing.
I love the Trans Am product.
You know, it's it's loud, it's proud, good racing.
And for me, it was like, well, I was sort of at that point
where I was thinking about doing something of my own.
I've been dreaming about the concept of Tod's Garage for quite some time,
basically, since COVID.
And I guess the reason I wanted to make it Tod's Garage was that it was
across all demographics of automotive.
So, you know, whether it's not just motorsport, it's, you know,
the classic car scene restoration and the tuning scene with street cars
and so on.
So that way, I wasn't putting all my eggs in a one basket just with motorsport.
But to have a race car in my name, you know, number one on the door.
And obviously, the icing on the cake was introducing four and 20
to the program as well, to kick off the partnership.
So it's been a lot of work, you know, obviously getting started,
you know, building the capability of the team, the business, working on the car,
doing all the mechanicals myself.
It's it's been a huge undertaking, like every day has been a big day this year.
But I'm probably a bit of a sucker for punishment.
I guess I enjoy the challenge and I've always, you know,
probably haven't really been hard on at all since super two days,
whereas, you know, prepping the car and all sort of stuff.
So to go full circle now and still enjoying it and but also the opportunity
to maybe turn it into something in the future, you know,
maybe the opportunity to grow Tod's Garage with a two car outfit maybe next year.
So if you're looking for a fast teammate, Moff, just give me a call
maybe at the end of the year or something, we can do a deal.
See how much.
I don't know if there'll be enough pies to go around for both of us though, mate.
You never know.
That could be dangerous.
That could be dangerous.
Hey, Trans Am is not racing in Townsville, which is the next super cars event,
but you don't need to worry about being flowing in at the last minute or anything
going on because we can confirm you will be there and you are already
locked into driver race car.
So you there in case need be the car 17.
But what are you driving?
Why are you doing it?
Because there's no V8 under the bonnet of what you're driving in Townsville.
No, exactly right.
The backup plan is activated noon, so we're ready to go.
But yeah, much competing in the Toyota GR cup at Townsville.
Brand new challenge for me, I guess, you know, I just love driving race cars.
It's a great problem to have.
And yeah, the team at Toyota approached me at the start of the year
and wanted me to come along as one of their guest invite drivers,
working with the young kids, helping the category.
And yeah, I love love Townsville, love the circuit.
I've really missed not racing there the last couple of years.
Obviously, as a as a co driver, you don't get to go to some of the cool tracks.
So in Townsville has always been a bit of a happy hunting ground
for me in previous life in super cars.
So yeah, can you go up there, you know, get amongst with the kids and just have some fun.
What are you thinking?
Moving forward, Todd, obviously the enduro's fast approaching.
Taylor Benford, you and Brodie last year was, you know, very, very strong.
And, you know, Bathurst in the lead up was all looking very, very strong as well.
So expectations, I'd imagine nothing but sort of top step this year.
Oh, look, you always want to win, right?
But I think, you know, the practice and the preparation that's going on
behind the scenes has been squeaky clean.
You know, we've seen Brodie has been at the front of the field every round this year.
You know, to be fair, last year, I think the team was still trying to find the feet,
trying to work out who's who in the zoo.
Obviously, massive staff turnover at the start of last year.
So by the time we got towards the end of last year,
I feel like things were slowly starting to click.
Whereas this year it really is stuck.
The gel is really sticking now and Brodie's on a roll, which is cool.
And, you know, I think the cool thing is that Brodie and I
both like the same things in the car, which is why I think we work quite well together.
And, yeah, hey, look, we've had a pretty good run in the last couple of years.
You know, it would be selfish not to try and keep the good times rolling,
but as you know, I'm well aware that, you know,
you need so many things to go to go well on that on race day.
And, you know, we've been fortunate.
We've had a good team and good opportunity the last couple of years.
But everyone's working hard behind the scenes as well.
So, you know, fortunately for Brodie and I, we've got that continuity.
And I think that's also really strong.
And for me, just trying to keep myself race sharp as much as possible.
I think it really proved particularly the Ben last year being on the full circuit.
I think guys like yourself and me, where we're racing a lot,
doing Trans Am and other bits and pieces where we could jump in the car
and be, you know, strong straight out of the box.
Whereas I think a lot of people last year at Tail and Ben struggled to get up to speed
and probably only were really ready to come race day at Bathurst.
So, yeah, we'll make the most of that.
The preparation hopefully will take care of itself and we'll see what we can do.
A few more spring cup rounds before we get to that Ryco Enduro Cup.
When are you due, due, officially due to get back into car number 17 before the Ben?
Yeah, so actually doing a sponsor ride day at Perth.
So I'll be sticking around after my Trans Am round for that one and do a few laps.
So it's funny how you get quite excited to do laps as a co-driver at ride days
because you can sort of blow the cobwebs out and pull you and get yourself back sharp again.
But our first official duties will be the test day post round at Ipswich there.
And that's basically our last little preparation before we go straight to Tail and Ben.
So with the new testing rules for supercars, it's getting harder and harder for co-drivers
to make sure they're sharp for round one of the Enduros.
So, yeah, looking forward to the challenge.
Well, we'll let you go and press that Shelby Power Race suit.
Get it nice and preened.
Pack it in the truck down at DJR and get it ready for whatever you might need it next.
Todd, great job in Darwin, just on the fringe of the top 10.
With virtually 30 minutes notice, congrats, well done.
And we were sure the best for the rest of the Trans Am season.
Thanks, Neal. Thanks, Moff.
Always great to chat. Cheers, guys.
There he is, Todd Hazelwood here on the undercut.
He will be in action Moff in Townsville on board the Toyota GR Cup,
mixing it up with all the young guns.
So all the cylinders under the bonnet for him when he rolls around, reed park.
Next up, it's time to go number crunching as the supercars roll into Townsville here on the undercut.
We love crunching numbers here on the undercut.
Moff Townsville is coming up.
And I think the thing that springs out to me about this place,
and I don't know why, maybe you can shed some light, but not many teams win there.
43 races at this place have been won by just six teams.
And two of those teams have only won recently in the car of the future.
What am I saying? The Gens free era.
So I mean, have a look at the numbers.
Triple eight.
Own Townsville.
24 wins.
That's crazy.
DJR slash DJR, Penske 77 at Tickford.
Three for Wolken Shores, which that's back to the Holden racing team days.
This is unique.
There's no other track where the win ledger is so heavily slanted to
not just one team, but probably those top three teams.
So. Triple eight, DJR and Tickford between them.
38 of the 43
That's pretty crazy.
Yeah. And so DJR straight off the top of my memory.
James Courtney won very first year there.
2000 and nine.
The Sunday race blew up on the Saturday.
Yeah. And I would have said then the bulk of the other wins
would have come from McLaughlin, Penske era, Penske era.
Anton had a win in 2023
Remember when he had more tires to play with on the Sunday
because he'd retired on the Sunday. That's right.
Yeah, I remember that.
Yeah, that sort of came out of being strong in Gens race.
Mustang was never going to win a race in three and they went out and did that.
Erebus had a win with Will Brown there in 23
and Groves won with Matt Payne on Sunday in 24
But why is it?
Is there any theories from US to why there's only a handful of teams
that have got results, winning results at this point?
Well, it's a bit of a hybrid of a circuit in terms of street circuits.
It's like a mini Elbert Park.
A little bit, you know, it's quite there's sort of a little bit
of flowing sections around the back of the circuit, but also very tight, technical.
You need a car that rides the kerbs well,
puts its power down well, brakes well and looks after its tires well.
So there's, you know, a lot going on.
And, you know, engine performance around there is actually easily overlooked.
So especially coming off that last corner, you're exhilarating from very low RPM.
Down and turn to exactly.
So, you know, triple eight, definitely have the secret source around there.
But we said that, you know, the biggest challenge that they're going to face
heading to Townsville is clearly going there with the four gen three package.
But I still feel like they have to start as the benchmark team.
It's just who can challenge them the most.
But this event last year was the first time we saw Brody Kasteki get that
win for DJR on the Friday race.
So that probably 12 months on will be a good indication to see how far they've come.
Yeah, true.
If you're a triple eight fan and you think, wow, I'm not so I'm not feeling
so good about Townsville after Darwin, even though they've won there the most.
Have a look at this one.
It's triple eight country in Townsville for more reasons than just their wins.
Not only have they won so many times, but they've punched out 812 results
up there in Townsville.
They've got the last 81 twos of any team up there.
You've got to go back to 2015 with Mark Winterbottom and Dave Reynolds
in the pro drive days of what's now Tickford to find a team finishing one.
To I mean, have a look at looking at my screen here.
But SVG and Winkup pretty much the combo to do it.
And then they've got the rent.
They've got the mortgage.
They've got everything.
And then they did it last year with Brock Feeney and Will Brown.
So that further underlines their sheer performance of not just one car,
but two cars around there.
But another guy I wanted to focus in on Moff is Chas Mostert and the reigning
champ and Toyota with engine dramas.
And they've had a few engine dramas.
Ryan Wood in New Zealand, Chas in the last round in Darwin.
They clearly know what it is.
It's something in the top end.
There's parts coming.
Their big thing is to make sure that they're ready for five Toyotas.
All the spares be approved by supercars in time for Bathurst,
because that's the big one on their radar.
But I wanted to put Chasie under the microscope for Townsville, too,
because have a look at this.
Is it Chasie's time?
Not for that hairdo this year, hopefully, but 11 podiums in Townsville.
Number of wins, Zilch.
That really surprised me, actually, you know, because I would have said,
if you had said to me without seeing those stats, so I would have 100% said
yet he's definitely had at least one win up there because he, in my mind,
always typically is strong there.
And, you know, that is obviously the case with 11 podiums just across
different teams, different eras, different car platforms.
He's led races there before.
I mean, you can see it on the graphic there, 72 laps that he's led.
That's actually not the record for most laps led in Townsville
without winning in Townsville, though.
I would have thought it was, but we've had Shane Rogers, our A&1
data engineer, go through the numbers.
Dave Reynolds has led 107.
Louns, he led 96 and never got a win there and Chasie 72.
But his record's unbelievable, Chas.
35 races up there.
He's finished all but once.
11 top three is 28 in the top 10.
One poll, but he's got five podiums from the last seven races there.
So I reckon judging on that body of work, you think he's due?
I think he's got to be due.
There's got to be something in this for Chasie across the course of Townsville.
He'll be competitive, you would expect, at the very least, because he's done it
in boards, oldens, Mustangs, Gen 3, Car of the Future, all of it.
So it makes sense.
If you had to say the team always performed well on street circuits,
clearly Chas does himself.
So they have history of that team doing good things in Townsville.
There was a period there with Garth and Cortney, where they could be
sort of going performing nowhere and then they turn up to Townsville
and they're right amongst it.
Yeah, Adelaide and Townsville were the tracks that you were just about.
He penned some of the HR teams that they were going to be competitive,
even if they were going no good anywhere else.
I wanted to put the microscope to on a guy who James has driven with over the journey.
James Golding, a big congratulations to him.
He will start his 200th Supercars race.
So hang on a second, is intending to and scheduled to?
Because remember that Dave Reynolds is going to be 500 races in New Zealand.
And it sort of got delayed a little bit.
But Golding hits 200 races.
You were there when he started.
I was.
First race, he was your co-driver.
That one didn't last too long for us, though, all of about five corners.
Oh, that was the Volvo at the end of the back straight.
It's like modification.
Yeah, I think he definitely felt the crutch strap put it that way in that one.
But yeah, that was unfortunate.
But that's where it all started for James Golding.
So to get to 200 races is nothing to be sneezed at.
And, you know, I'm sure he's got at least another couple of hundred left in him.
Yeah, I mean, he's had two polls in his career, one this year in Sydney,
one in Dona a few years ago.
He's been on the podium twice this year, Bathurst last year, which was talking about him
as a Bathurst 1000 when it couldn't be quite easily.
We absolutely easily could be.
But just while we talk about James Golding, we saw the great start
to Blanchard's team this year.
They've sort of slipped a little bit as the years gone on.
But would you say he made the right call to the jump to Blanchard's
when he was kind of waiting on a premiere deal, the drive and line up
confirmation was being put off for a while.
He couldn't wait around when did the deal with Blanchard's to replace James
Courtney? I think that probably proves to be a savvy move in the grand scheme
of things, regardless of where Premier do or don't get to.
He's certainly not in a worse position.
No, no.
So, you know, sometimes you just have to make a call on your own,
you know, personal career, what's best for you.
And clearly at that point, you know, James needed to make a decision
and the opportunity was there to join the BRT operations.
So triple ending.
Yeah, exactly.
So, you know, he's making the most of it.
He's probably got that sort of team leader role if you like.
What's your favorite James Golding story?
Have you got anything from over the years that springs to mind about him?
Oh, look, what don't we know about him?
Oh, well, he's obviously.
Probably a lot of people don't know his nickname, Bieber,
which Gary gave to him for a long time.
He did, yeah.
So that's, you know, if you've been around JRM, that's sort of you got a nickname.
Yeah, exactly.
So I don't think he particularly enjoys that nickname.
There's a lot of people call him Jimmy, obviously.
Makes sense.
But yeah, I just always think of him as Bieber because, you know,
when we did drive together, that was Gary's name.
Exactly.
A qualifier is always important in supercars.
And we sort of broke a streak in Darwin
because Kai Allen became the first driver to win a race this year
from outside the top four on the grid.
Have a look at the season so far here of those Boost Mobile poll awards
and the cash that's gone with them.
Common thread, fourths, polls, seconds.
No one's actually won from third so far this year,
but Kai went, no, until Anton did it in Darwin, I mean.
But Kai's gone and got it done there.
So proof that this is a championship
where you just have to really keep qualifying well.
You don't tend to race your way through here.
No, no, we're not sort of saying that at all, are we?
So there's a clear, clear trend there, noons,
but it kind of feels to me like we're doing Kai Allen a bit of an injustice
by not even mentioning him so far on this episode.
Yeah.
Very, very impressive effort to chalk up his second race victory.
Clearly, there was a bit of driver management happening there
and team strategy at play, but combined, they both made it work.
And a win for another new car.
Exactly.
So all four growth cars that have ever raced now won in supercars,
which is kind of a cool thing.
Neat stat.
Yeah, not bad.
Not bad.
He's a neat stat to see you at the finish wheel, Brown,
because we've got a bit of a trend, guys.
Sorry to cut you off.
No, you're not sorry.
Our guests, our studio guests are going OK.
So Anton came in here.
So anyone out there that wants to win a race will make you win.
Come come come in studio and so we'll get you across the line.
So Todd Hazelwood by coming on the show here will win in the GR Cup in Townsville.
Yeah, well, I'll be happier if you give that's his next race.
So you don't want to win the Trans Am.
He's done enough of that.
So fair play, fair play.
Will Brown's got a nice streak going here, too.
He's got the best active streak of finishing races.
He's up to 77 now, and that goes back to Adelaide 2023.
Equal best, eighth best streak in Champ history.
Long way to go.
Winkup holds a record at 135.
That's a lot of finishes without.
Well, he's basically halfway there, then over halfway.
So just keep going, no pressure, no stress.
Streaks are made to be stopped, though, but we'll see how that unfolds.
But he's going very well at the moment.
That's Will Brown, 77 finishes in a row.
Coming up next here on the show, it's time to workbench.
Time for the workbench here on the undercut
and it's brought to you this week by ACL Race Series.
Superstars, Moff of Engine Bearings.
Based down in Launceston in Tassie, they've been punching out plenty of bearings
for plenty of years for Repco Brabham's back in the day.
Jack Brabham, Denny Holm.
They have.
Long history in the sport.
And, you know, they're with the Groves now in supercars
with Larry Perkins for a long time, through to the Kellys, Groves.
Long time partners, they're parts in motorsport art.
But they've been around for so many years and they continue to deliver in so many aspects.
They back Ollie Wickham in JR, Carp Harrison Sellers in Transam as well.
We're thrilled to welcome ACL to part of the undercut family.
They are presenting, James, our workbench segment.
And you've been pretty good.
Your form's been solid for recent weeks.
Yeah, yeah, solid, very solid.
Better than average.
Better than average.
Quiz time.
Quiz?
Right on.
This week, James, your challenge is this feels like mastermind, doesn't it?
Who has got the most championship race wins in the history of Australian touring cars
and supercars championship without winning the championship?
I've got the top eight here on my list.
You start giving them to me and I'll cross them off as you go.
All of current active drivers straight off the top.
Active, non-active.
It's of everybody.
Australian touring car championship or supercars all the way through.
Geez, right.
That's going to really.
It's not as hard as you think.
Not as hard as I think.
Well, straight off the top of my mind,
I'm going to go with Brock Feeney.
Number one, 30 wins.
Cam Waters, it have to be there.
He's number six with 18 wins now.
Will Davidson, I've got there.
I've got him too.
He's third with 22.
He chalked up some wins over the years without a championship.
Jason Bright.
Jason Bright's fourth with 20.
You people have forgotten.
OK, you're not just solid.
You are playing very, very well.
You're off to a good start.
Don't fall apart now.
Don't fall apart.
How could I leave this person out?
The great prince, the king, sorry.
The king of Pukka Kaui.
Oh, Greg.
Greg Murphy.
Greg's second on the list of 28.
Got close a couple of times to the championship.
Now, this is where I might be starting to fail a little bit.
So how many have I got?
You've got to find three.
Three more.
You've done one through to four and six.
OK.
One of these guys used to be a team out of yours.
Well, I would say maybe Stephen Richards.
Not on the list I have in front of me.
Oh, Richard won.
No, not quite.
Good amount of races.
OK, right on.
Used to be a team, mate.
I think paid you as well.
He'll be paid me.
Oh, he's family, dude.
Oh, of course, I should have.
How could I forget?
Because he actually won more races than his brother,
even though his brother won the championship.
Todd Kelly.
Yep, 19 wins, fifth on the list.
Well done.
There you go.
Two to five.
Thank you for those payments, Todd.
Appreciate that.
Oh, yeah, right.
Two to get.
One more recent and one legend who raced against your dad.
Oh, legend that raced against my dad.
Might have had a similar name.
Oh, well, OK.
Ella Grice, who gave that up.
Yeah, I know.
I was just trying to move things along.
OK.
Eighth with 12.
So we're looking for the person who is seventh on the list
with 15 wins and no championship victory.
I think this is a bit of a long shot,
but based on his couple of wins already this year,
would Anton be sneaking into that?
No.
No.
OK.
Not on that list yet.
Well, sorry.
I don't have an answer for you.
He will be in the Enduros.
Enduros.
Yeah.
He's from New Zealand.
Then again, half the field is from New Zealand,
pretty much, aren't they?
Yeah.
He's a former Carrera Cup champion.
Off.
Babs.
Babs.
OK.
Yeah, fair enough.
Seventh with 15.
So how many did he split between?
Bulk with him would have been with Team Penske.
Quite a few with Team Penske.
But he would have snagged a few with BJR.
Got a few with BJR.
They got him going on the wins list.
But the bulk of his were with DJR Team Penske.
So yep, you're right.
So to recap, the most championship race wins
without winning the championship.
And look, there's two of these guys who could
get themselves off this list.
Brock Feeney with 30.
Greg Murphy with 28.
Will Davison with 22.
Jason Bright 20.
Todd Kelly 19.
Thanks for the checks.
We're off.
18 for Cam Waters.
15 for Fabian Coulthart.
And 12 for Alan Grice.
There you go.
I think you were better than solid this week.
Oh, thank you.
I think you've done very well.
Oh, you gave me two there.
Well, you know, we had to keep it moving along.
So no, I think you've done very well.
That's the workbench for ACL with the best
bearings in the business.
Thanks to ACL for jumping on board with us here
on the undercut.
A big thank you to Todd Hazelwood,
to Castro, to Motocraft, to ACL.
V8Sloot Superstore's humming you can see behind me.
The new issue of V8Sloot magazine.
I didn't want to give away one of the answers
to our ACL workbench because I was feeling like
he's kind of right behind me looking over my shoulder.
Greg Murphy, the lap of the gods,
Commodore, the deep dive on Bathurst 2003.
That's in the mag.
It's out now in all the news agencies
and you can get it through our online Superstore as well.
V8Sloot podcast is back powered by Paramatta Toyota,
a big two part chat with Mark Scaife.
You can catch that wherever you listen to your pods.
He opens up quite a bit too.
Moff on the latter years of HRT and when he knew
it was time that he was going to stop driving.
It's a really interesting insight.
And I've sat down with a guy that you shared
your first Bathurst with.
Richo.
Richo, Steve Richards.
Good chat.
Four hours at the kitchen table.
It's a bulk three parter.
It's out in July on the V8Sloot podcast.
Get it wherever you get your pods.
What's next for you?
What do you got on Transam in Perse?
Transam in Perse, end of July,
start of August.
So a little sort of five or so week break
and we'll be back into it.
What about your key situation from last time
on the show where you locked yourself out of your house?
Are you good?
No, I can confirm I managed to not lock myself
out of the house this time.
Good.
So I was ahead of schedule.
I was here early.
I wasn't in a rush.
So yeah, I'll make sure that that doesn't happen again.
Well played.
We're hoping to get Jack Perkins back very soon
on another episode of the undercut.
He is a very busy man.
He is hard to track down and hard to nail down for time.
But we'll get Jack back in the studio very, very soon.
To finish out the show this week,
we have got some classic vision.
You love Formula 5000 cars?
I do.
Oh, you'll love this then.
Let's go back into the vault.
The big bad open wheelers at Big Bad Sanddown.
Enjoy this action from the vault.
We'll catch you next time right here on the undercut.
See you then.
Flying around the outside as they storm down into the pit
straight and up towards Toronto corner with the
Rebco Manage A53 and Frank Manage in the lead.
Yes, it's Nell Manage.
Followed through by Gatham.
Then McCormick plays for again.
Kenny Valenian for revision.
And just but it's John Walker in sixth place.
Ryan Lawrence has moved up in front of Mike McKeown.
That's the first change in the race.
But it doesn't seem to be slowly managed now.
Then it comes McCormick and John Walker moving down
from the inside of Teddy Valet.
Walker goes up into the third fourth spot now.
A great drive by John Walker.
He's flying up there and trying to narrow the gap
down to John McCormick.
McCormick still on McCormick.
The racetrack you see in the most demanding test
of automotive equipment that man has ever devised.
Great again from the UK in the Chevron.
He's done it and very nicely driven too.
Looks pretty good.
And second place home, Graham McCray.
The Winton Festival of Speed is back for 2026
with new dates, new events and new cars.
Over 500 racing display cars will gather across three big days
as racing history takes set a stage.
The legendary heritage touring cars are back.
There's touring car legends, touring car tributes,
classic sports cars, Formula Ford historic touring cars
and the Fitzy Cup for Porsches in honour of Peter Fitzgerald.
It's an event for fans of all ages.
Get your tickets at the gate or online now via Humanityx.
Kids under 17 free.
Single day passes from $30.
Two day passes from $50 and camping is also available.
And if you can't make a trackside,
catch the two day live streaming coverage
on Blendline TV via YouTube.
Pencil it into the diary, July 24 to 26
for the Winton Festival of Speed.
About this episode
Heat, rules, and race-weekend logistics collide as the V8 Sleuth Podcast tackles “How hot is too hot?” in Darwin—down to the cooling-trigger temperature and why teams rely on sealed cockpits and dry-ice-style systems. The hosts also unpack officiating and momentum stories, from a mechanical black-flag exclusion to Grove Racing’s performer-of-the-week shoutouts, plus scheduling talk about Friday-night under-lights racing. Winton Festival of Speed promo and a few championship “cut line” realities close things out.
The Undercut is back for another week, downloading a hot weekend in the Top End for Supercars!
Aaron Noonan is joined in the studio by James Moffat, with our special guest, DJR super-sub, Todd Hazelwood!
Does Triple Eight have the wobbles? Will Waters and De Pasquale maintain the rage? Friyay or Frinay races? Is night racing the tonic to spark the Darwin trip? Plus, much more!
In Number Crunching, we look forward to Townsville – can Chaz Mostert break Triple Eight’s stranglehold on the Queensland streets?
This week on The Workbench, Moff is once again put to the test – who has the most race wins without a championship title to their credit?
There’s a brilliant behind-the-scenes clip from the Amaroo Park archives, and a whole lot more.
This is V8 Sleuth’s look at the world of Supercars, with the
angles you don’t and won’t get anywhere else, with the analysis and numbers to
back them up!
Agree/disagree with our takes? Let us know in the comments!
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Our thanks go out to Castrol - unlock the very EDGE of performance today, for more, check out: https://castrol.com.au/edge
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