The V8 Sleuth Podcast Jun 4, 2026

The Undercut – The Chevy Situation

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62:11

Place

Simmons Plains

Simmons Plains is a race track where motorsport events happen. The host is talking about how well the teams did there on Saturday.

Person

Chas Mostert

Chas Mostert is a professional race driver. Here, the host is saying he did well—starting from pole and then winning.

Term

pole position

Pole position means the driver starts the race from the very front. It usually comes from being the fastest in qualifying, so they get a head start compared to everyone else.

Person

Andre Heimgartner

Andre Heimgartner is a professional race driver. The host is praising him for winning races and doing very well in qualifying.

Company

BJR

BJR is a racing team. The host is saying BJR is partnering with Toyota to run cars this season, which is why their results matter.

Term

in-cam waters

“In-cam” means the broadcast shows what’s happening from a camera mounted on the car. The host is referencing a past debate about certain drivers and how the coverage made them stand out.

Term

dry conditions

“Dry conditions” means the track isn’t wet. That usually makes the car easier to drive consistently, and it can highlight how well someone performs when it’s not raining.

Term

pole sticker

“Pole” means the driver was fastest in qualifying and gets to start first. A “pole sticker” is just a sticker on the car showing they earned that top starting spot.

Concept

“Cash on the line” describes bonus prize money or incentives tied to race outcomes (like wins, pole, or championship performance). In motorsport, these payouts can materially affect team strategy and driver motivation across the season.

Concept

driver's contract

A driver’s contract is the agreement between the driver and the team. It can include extra money for certain results, like qualifying well or performing well in races.

Term

Trans Am Pole

“Pole” means you qualify fastest, so you start the race from the front. “Trans Am Pole” is the same idea, but for the Trans Am racing series.

Car

Ford Falcon

This is a race-prepped Ford Falcon. It’s built and supported by teams (here, PerTech and Stonebrothers) to compete in V8-style touring car racing.

Term

V8 supercar

A “V8 supercar” is a race car category built around a V8 engine. It’s known for hard, close racing—especially in Australia—rather than being a typical street supercar.

Term

ride car

A “ride car” is a race-prepped car used to give passengers rides at events. It’s set up so people can experience the track without needing to drive themselves.

Term

prepped

“Prepped” means the car was set up and checked so it’s ready to run on track. Think inspection and setup work so it can be driven hard safely.

Term

livery

A “livery” is the car’s paint and sticker design—its look. In racing it often includes team colors and sponsor logos.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is a performance car made by Ford, famous for strong engine power and a sporty look. People talk about it a lot because it has been used in racing and has a big history in motorsport. That’s why it shows up in stories about drivers and cars.

Place

Sydney Motorsport Park

Sydney Motorsport Park is a race track in Australia. They’re saying Brock did really well there, including winning and looking strong.

Topic

AGP

AGP is shorthand for a particular race weekend in the series they’re talking about. In this discussion, they’re focusing on how that weekend’s format changed how much a bad result would hurt.

Brand

Red Bull Racing

Red Bull Racing is a well-known racing team brand. They’re using it as a reference point for what kind of results the driver is expected to deliver.

Topic

Jason Richards trophy

The Jason Richards trophy is an award given in that racing series. They mention it to show Brock was doing well overall, not just having one good race.

Term

DNF

DNF means the driver didn’t finish the race. Usually that happens because of a crash or a car problem, and it usually hurts their points for the weekend.

Term

points

Points are how racing series keep score over the whole season. If you finish well you get more points, and if you don’t finish (like a DNF) you usually lose out.

Term

four race format

A “four race format” means there are four races across the weekend. Because there are more races, one bad race (like not finishing) can hurt less than it would if there were only one or two races.

Brand

Triple 8

Triple Eight is a racing team. The host is saying their past results in Tasmania are so strong that they expected a Triple Eight car to win.

Term

Friday practice

Friday practice is the early testing session during a race weekend. It helps teams adjust the car, but being best in practice doesn’t automatically mean you’ll win the main race.

Place

Tassie

“Tassie” is short for Tasmania, and it’s a place where the track can be tough on braking. If a car isn’t stable when you slow down, it shows up more clearly there.

Concept

make their car better, especially by Sunday

They’re talking about how teams improve the car over the weekend. They test and adjust during practice, then try to have the car working best by Sunday for the main race.

Term

in-car stuff

“In-car stuff” refers to onboard footage and telemetry-style views shown during broadcasts—things like steering inputs, braking points, throttle application, and how the driver manages the car. It helps viewers understand why a car feels unsettled or stable at specific moments.

Term

instability under braking

It means the car feels a little “out of control” when you hit the brakes. Instead of staying stable and straight, it can wiggle or slide, which usually points to a setup problem or tires not working well under heavy braking.

Place

Darwin

They’re talking about Darwin as a race location. The idea is that the conditions and race length there tend to favor the kind of car and driving style the team has been showing.

Place

Townsville

Townsville is another track they’re looking ahead to. They mention it alongside long races, meaning it’s more about staying consistent for a long time than just being fast for a few laps.

Term

sprint weekends

A sprint weekend is a race event where there’s a shorter race before the main one. That short race helps decide where cars start for the big race on Sunday.

Term

Park Fermi rules

These are race rules that affect what tires teams are allowed to use. The big idea is that it can force teams to deal with more than one tire type, which changes how they set up the car.

Term

two different compound of tires

Tire compounds are different types of rubber. One type usually grips more but wears faster, and the other lasts longer, so the car setup that works best can change between them.

Term

soft

“Soft” is a tire rubber that usually sticks to the track really well. The tradeoff is it tends to wear out faster than harder tires.

Term

back to back qualifying

This means qualifying happens in quick succession. If you don’t have time to change the car much between sessions, you need a setup that can work for more than one run.

Concept

you can't be great at everything

In racing, you can’t make the car perfect for every situation. If conditions change, the setup that’s best for one part of the weekend can be worse for another.

Term

parody formula

They’re talking about “parity,” meaning the rules are meant to keep different cars fairly matched. If one car starts to get too strong, the series may adjust things so the competition stays close.

Car

Chevrolet Camaro

The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car made by Chevrolet, designed for performance and driving fun. The podcast is referring to updates that were made after it first came out. Those changes can be things like adjustments to how it drives or how it’s set up.

Term

controlled spec car

A “spec car” is a race car where the rules tightly limit what teams can change. That helps keep cars closer in performance without constantly adjusting the rules.

Term

homologation

Homologation is the official approval process that makes a race car eligible to race under the rules. Teams then try to get every possible advantage while still staying within those rules.

Term

race averages

Race averages are a way to look at results over many races and see the overall trend. It helps you compare teams, but drivers and teams can still change the outcome.

Term

delta change

“Delta change” just means “how much it changed” compared to before. Here they’re talking about the size of the update to the car’s aerodynamics.

Term

aerobalance

Aerobalance is the balance of aerodynamic forces—mainly downforce and drag—between the front and rear of a car. When the host says there’s a “delta change” in aerobalance, they mean a measurable shift in how the car’s aero affects handling, which can change lap times and tire wear.

Term

qualifying performances

Qualifying is when drivers try to set the fastest lap before the race. Your qualifying result usually decides where you start on the grid, so it’s a good clue about how fast the car is in a single lap.

Term

consistency

Consistency is about doing well again and again, not just having one great race. In a points-based championship, finishing strong regularly can matter as much as outright speed.

Concept

sample size

Sample size just means how many examples you’ve looked at. If you only have a few races to judge from, it’s easier to be misled by short-term results.

Term

finals

In some racing series, there are early rounds and then a later “final” stage. The point is that you have to perform well enough earlier to qualify for those last races.

Term

wheels interlocking

This is when two cars bump so closely that their wheels get tangled together. When that happens, the cars can’t move normally and the damage can be hard to recover from.

Term

red diffuses

“Red diffuses” sounds like a race-car part that helps shape airflow. If it’s weak and gets damaged in a big hit, the car can feel worse for the rest of the race.

Term

safety car

The safety car is a real car that comes out to slow everyone down when something unsafe happens on the track. It keeps drivers from racing at full speed until the track is clear again.

Concept

rookies

“Rookies” are drivers who are new to the series. New drivers often make different choices under pressure, so it can affect how many crashes or incidents happen.

Term

wind tunnel

A wind tunnel is a controlled test space where air is blown over a car shape. Engineers use it to see how the car cuts through the air and how much “push down” it gets for grip at speed.

Term

front sensitive

“Front sensitive” means the car’s handling depends too strongly on what the front tires are doing. That can make the car feel unpredictable or less stable when you turn in or slow down for a corner.

Term

Entry and stability

“Entry” is how the car feels when you first turn into a corner. “Stability” is whether it stays predictable and planted instead of sliding around or changing behavior unexpectedly.

Term

front grip

Front grip means how much traction the front tires have on the road. If the front tires grip well, the car can turn in and stay controllable even when you brake hard. They’re saying this track rewards that kind of front-end traction.

Term

downforce

Downforce is the “suction” effect from the car’s shape that presses it onto the track as you go faster. More downforce usually means better tire grip and more stable handling. Less downforce can make the car feel looser, especially at speed.

Term

braking stability

Braking stability is how steady the car feels when you hit the brakes hard. A stable car won’t suddenly feel like it’s sliding, spinning, or getting “wobbly” under braking. They’re saying their changes made the car behave better when slowing down.

Term

open tyre era

It means the rules about tires were more flexible than usual. Teams could often choose different tires, so tire grip and how you manage them during the race mattered a lot.

Brand

Bridgestone

Bridgestone is a well-known tire brand. In racing, the exact tire model can change how much grip the car has and how long the tires last.

Term

progressive grid

“Progressive grid” is a race format where your result in one race affects where you start in the next. So if you do well earlier, you get a better starting position later.

Place

Oran Park

Oran Park was a famous race track in Australia. Saying someone was a “guru” there means they were especially good at driving that track.

Brand

Castrol

Castrol is a company that makes car oils and other lubricants. Here, it’s the brand behind the old commercial they’re showing behind-the-scenes.

Car

Holden Tarana GTRX-U1

This is a particular Holden performance car variant from Australia. In the episode, it’s mentioned because a Castrol ad used this car as the featured vehicle.

Company

GMH

GMH is short for General Motors Holden, a big car company in Australia. The hosts mention it to explain who the commercial was supporting through dealers.

Place

Amaru Park

Amaru Park is where they filmed part of the old commercial. It’s mentioned so you know the production happened at a specific real location.

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Hey everyone, welcome along.

It's time for the undercutter game this week.

He's going back to back with episodes.

James Moffitt, welcome to you.

Thank you for having me back.

It's very easy.

You are part of the family.

You are part of the team.

Small problem for you today though before you got to the studio.

What did you do to yourself?

Problem in my 41 years, I managed to finally lock myself out of the house, which contained

the car keys.

Small problem.

But still made it on time.

Got it resolved just on time, like to be a bit early to do some prayer, get it mentally

prepared.

Well done.

You made it.

I'm here.

I'm impressed.

The show can go on.

The show will go on later on.

The show will be joined by DeWalt Racing's Anton DePascuali.

We'll get to the bottom of that when we catch up with Anton a bit later on.

We've got a bunch of burning questions thanks to MotorCraft.

But as always from the undercut, we start with the Castrol performer of the week.

Of course, Castrol make the good oil.

You've got to get some Castrol in your motor.

Who was your performer of the week, Moff, from the last week or so of motor racing from

around the world?

Well, my performer of the week was the Toyotas.

There's Saturday performance down at Simmons Plains.

It was pretty good.

Pole position in both races, Chas Mostert, Andre Heimgartner, both respectively then

went on to win each of those races.

So I think that was a pretty dominating performance for the manufacturer.

That's still only, what, fifth event in.

So very impressive effort in my opinion.

And anytime Chas gets up for a win, he's an old teammate of mine and a friend.

So I'd always love seeing that.

We will cover off Toyota and its three wins so far this year.

Remember, Ryan Wood won the first race in New Zealand to open the account for those guys

and what we expected last year to what we're starting to get so far this year.

But I think Andre Heimgartner and BJR to get that win.

I mean, there was a nice irony to all of that or a nice, not irony, but a full stop.

It was Tazzie last year where they announced the deal that BJR would become the other

Toyota team for this year.

And here it was at Tasmania where they have it won for, I think it was 2013,

the last time they'd won there.

They rolled out their first win and a dominant one.

And it was kind of, remember, there was that fight about B grade drivers with

the in-cam waters.

I think we forget sometimes how good Andre Heimgartner is because he's not in one of

those, you know, a grove or a triple eight or one of those top tier teams fighting for

the championship.

That was a nice reminder.

Yeah, he's a quality driver.

There's no doubt about that.

And when he's got the car underneath him, he's proven in the past and he proved

down at Tasmania that he can get the job done.

So yeah, but I think probably what made the Andre and BJR performance even more

impressive is, respectfully, they haven't even looked close to winning a race for

quite some time.

Yeah, there was a Toyota or not.

So to break through for a win.

And as Andre sort of highlighted, his first win in dry conditions.

So, you know, that's nice to also, you know, tick off any time you get to put

those little stickers, you know, on the car, the little pole sticker and all the

race wing stickers.

That's a nice feeling to check.

The poll checks used to be nice, but they don't seem to be appearing anymore.

But yeah, they do.

They still get paid.

Yeah.

At the start of the year, they tweaked the poll money and it was going to be

really unloaded from a lot of races.

But I think they've reloaded them now.

So yeah, there is cash on the line, obviously fantastic support back in and

really stuck behind it this year.

But actually, we should tell viewers about that.

Like you've been in race teams in the past.

What's the deal when you get the poll, do you get the money?

Or is it different deals in different situations?

Really sort of depends on each individual driver's contract.

What about your deal?

If you get a Trans Am Pole, is there any money on the line?

Trans Am Pole, I don't know if there is.

I haven't had it.

It has been in the past.

But usually that sort of just goes into the Christmas party fund.

Fair play.

Helps out the crew.

Exactly.

Hey, my Castro performer of the week is a guy who has raced a V8 supercar that

never races a V8 supercar.

Interesting.

You might not have heard of this gentleman, but he drives a PerTech Stonebrothers Falcon.

OK.

His name's not Marcus Ambrose.

His name's Justin Shepard.

And I wanted to highlight him as my Castro performer of the week because he's

potentially the newest V8 supercar, supercars ambassador in the United States.

He's from Richmond, Virginia.

He's a tragic for V8s.

He desperately wanted to get one of these cars over the years.

He's not just got one car now.

He's got two cars, Moff, in the US.

He's had them out at various events in the past.

And if you caught up on socials a bit this week, it was starting to get around

because I had everyone sending it to me.

Yeah.

I was across what he was up to.

So do you remember Stonebrothers had a ride car?

The three up.

The three up car.

Yeah, yeah, the one in the middle of the back.

I think they had a seat in the back of that thing, like the HRT code.

Yeah, yeah.

Dedicated ride car.

Wasn't a converted race car built purposely for being a ride car.

He's ended up acquiring that car, taking it to the US out of New Zealand,

getting it prepped.

It's in a per-tech livery and he's been running it at various tracks in the United States.

And I thought, you know what, as the ambassador unofficially for V8 supercars

in the United States, I'd like to nominate Justin as my Castro before the week to

get some old V8s over there and running around.

He's got an old WPS car as well that last I saw it's in Vodafone livery,

which is a bit of difference, but hey, it looks pretty cool.

So for me, Justin Shepard is my Castro performer of the week.

And of course, Moff Castro, super supporters of us here at the undercut and at V8.

It's great to have the team on board again this year.

But it's time now for the burning questions.

Burning questions.

Thanks this week to Motorcraft.

It's great to have Motorcraft on board with us here at the undercut.

Of course, such an amazing history Moff in motor racing,

your old man's Transat Mustang, Dick Johnson's Mustang.

And of course, they're backing the new Mustang Cup that you've had a run in

already this year. So super brand with Australian motor racing.

Yeah, plenty of heritage.

So fantastic to have Motorcraft on board.

Thank you very much for your support.

Great to have them on board.

They're OEM engineered, trusted by Ford, everything from spark plugs to brakes.

Batteries get on board.

Look it up now.

Motorcraft is what you need to get amongst just so many cars with

motorcraft stickers from over the years.

Even the Ford laser series back in the day, Scafi and David Brabham.

That was motorcraft, too.

They needed a lot of their parts.

Yeah, for the Ford motor, series back in the day, too.

They needed a lot of laser parts back in the mid 80s.

First burning questions with thanks to Motorcraft.

Does Brock Feeney's Championship Challenge start right now?

Because I reckon his charge begins and it's underway.

Yeah, that's a

I find that a bit of a tricky one to answer because we forget he came out

and won a race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

So and looked pretty dominant up there as well.

So obviously the AGP didn't quite go to plan for him.

And for Brock and Red Bull Racing standards,

the New Zealand swing was relatively quiet for them,

even though he won the Jason Richards trophy.

So his consistency has been there the whole time.

So far this year in 2026, that one DNF at the AGP,

which was obviously well spoken about.

At least it was in a low points race, though, four race format at the Grand Prix.

So if you DNF one, you didn't lose as many points as you could have in other weekends.

Exactly. So look, his performance in Race 16

was sort of what we've come to expect from from Brock.

Oh, well, I had that penciled into because Triple 8 in Tassie in a long

84 lap race there, their history is phenomenal.

They won more of them than anybody else in the last I think it's 15 odd years.

So I kind of had penciled in a Triple 8 car to win that Sunday race,

because it's like the longer you make these races,

their approach to race weekends and races of OK, you don't have to claim

all the headlines in Friday practice, but the longer the race,

if you go back over the past, Triple 8 will win those races more often than not.

Yeah, for sure.

And really down in Tassie, their ability to make their car better,

especially by Sunday, was was very impressive.

Like their car on Friday, just watching it.

It's a bit of the in-car stuff that was on the broadcast.

It was not a very nice car to drive.

Browns looked really good.

Yeah, they were quite unsettled and a lot of instability under braking,

which, you know, you need very good stability down at Tassie under brakes.

So their improvement over the weekend was impressive.

But just the way Brock goes about it, just his sort of workman like attitude.

You know, it's hard not to be impressed by that.

And when he performs like that, it's hard to see who can knock him off really.

So ahead where we're going.

I mean, Darwin has been dominant.

Stranglehold on that joint the last couple of years.

You've got some long races coming up there.

Townsville, you get the 200 K races.

You start to get the stuff that really starts to suit Triple 8 cars and Brock Feeney.

So what is it? Four wins now.

Brody's got five, but had a really rough one in Tassie,

where the wheels kind of fell off a bit there.

Got sent a punch by Reynolds.

Clearly that car wasn't right after that, and he had a bit of a rough weekend.

So he's dropped some ground, but he's not out of play here

with the way that the finals will work later on.

But building momentum, building trophies, building opportunity to have, you know,

if you have a bad round, you've had so many good ones that it doesn't hurt you so much.

But I feel that Brock Feeney's charged with the championship.

I think he's going to light it up in the next few rounds.

I think he's going to be the guy that really gets back to a bit of that 20-25 form now.

Well, it's coming.

Question two on burning questions.

How many wins for Toyota this year, Moff?

And there's a caveat on this,

because we asked ourselves this question on the show last year.

Yes, we did.

I said two.

Right.

I've already busted.

I've busted already.

So they got one and then they got two.

So they're at three already and we're 16 races in

and we've still got a chunk of stuff to go this year.

So I'm going to re-ask the question.

Yep.

How many wins for Toyota this year?

Well, I think on that show that you're referring to last year, Nunes,

I think I predicted between seven and ten.

Whoa.

We'll have to get the Texan who's behind the camera to

we might have to dive into the archives to see if that's factually correct or not.

But we will check if I'm if I'm my prediction at seven

to between seven and ten, I'm pretty happy with the three wins so far.

I'm looking OK.

They've got to win four more to get into your window.

I mean, you picked a window.

I picked a specific number, which I think that, you know,

that's not out of the question.

Very solid.

The thing for me is will BJR get any more wins

or will the wind tally just be walking short?

TWG racing would expect it to be walking short.

But going to Tassie, would we have penciled in Andre to Paul?

And we're definitely not with the form that he's had so far in the year.

There wasn't much to really gauge that off.

So but that's kind of the nature, isn't it now of Gen three?

It's talking to people in Tassie, like, oh, man, you know what?

This is so people focused now because you don't have the flexibility

technically that you used to have with being able to develop parts,

outspend other people.

OK, there's all different little idiosyncrasies,

but at the core of it, it's getting good people.

Yeah, 100 percent.

And that's but really that's been the core of professional sport,

not just motor racing forever.

You know, more exactly.

Yeah. And I think also with the sprint weekends

that we've seen the Park Fermi rules in place,

that clearly with the two different compound of tires,

the soft and the super back to back qualifying

and not being able to change your setup that some cars

definitely are suited more to the super soft tire as opposed to the soft tire.

And we saw that with with Andre, obviously qualifying and on pole

for the super soft race and winning.

And then on Sunday, soft qualifying, he was sort of back down the field.

It's kind of that you can't be great at everything.

No, you can't.

It's engineered and built in a way which is good.

Yeah, that you're going to pick which bit you're going to be good at

because you're probably not going to be good at the other bit.

Like, there's only so much you can and can't do.

So all right, you're not moving.

You're seven or ten.

I'm between seven and ten.

Well, I'm going to have to revise because two blown away already.

What are you coming up 55

OK, I think there's three more definitely.

Just thinking about some of the tracks ahead, some of the situations at play.

Maybe I might have to revise that to six.

I go six. OK. Yeah.

But I've had to like revise.

So that's never good if you've had to revise on the run.

But anyway, Moff parody.

It's one of those words.

It's the topic that we'll never get away from in supercars

because it is a parody formula.

But where does it end?

I mean, we've had a couple of tweaks already to the Camaro.

It was declared last year.

We're all good. It's all, you know, we've got parody.

Everyone's happy, yet there's a system where by every six races,

there's, you know, numbers looked at and there could be things change.

Doesn't mean they will be even if the trigger is triggered.

Like, I understand the frustration, though, from the fans

because it's kind of like, hey, we were told it's all good.

Now a few things have been tweaked.

So it must have been quite right.

So where I don't know, where does it end?

Well, until you have a controlled spec car

across the whole field, like Carrera Cup,

parody will never end.

So that's just, that's the fact because each body shape,

each engine configuration,

they're all going to have their subtle differences at some

and some will perform better than others at certain tracks.

That's just how it is.

So, yeah, and don't forget the homologation teams

in this whole process are always going to try and manipulate

course to their advantage.

Of course, that's their job.

That's the game.

I'd be disappointed if they weren't.

They have to do that.

So, of course, I mean, look at, look at some of the numbers.

We've got some of the numbers here.

If you look at the race averages for the Chevy's and bearing in mind,

there's team and driver elements at play in all of this.

But in the first 13 races of the year before we went to Tassie,

the best chef was averaging sort of sixth.

The third best chef, 11th, all finishes 14.3.

So you go to Tassie, the best chef has a very good weekend there.

It's generally closer to the front down there.

Yeah, but the third best chefs further back.

So it's really it's Anton and Dave Reynolds at team 18

who are kind of always generally the guys up there.

And the rest of the chef driver lineups quite young.

Like there's a lot of rookies.

There's a lot of young guys in there learning their way.

This is the little snapshot of where they sit looking at the round

results from five rounds.

Deeper Squalys top eight at every round.

And he's got a surname that doesn't fit in the room there.

So that's why we called him Anton.

LeBrock's had a pretty good year so far.

He's been top 10 every round, except for Tasmania.

He had a bit of a battle down there.

Didn't he have some issues with the car?

Yeah, he's toughest one of the year.

O'Jade has been outside the top 10 every round by Tassie,

but starting to find some ground and find his way.

Reynolds had been outside top 10 every round, except for Sydney.

podium in Tassie, but tough for the rest of the weekend.

And then Zach Bates, Declan Fraser, Cooper Murray, Job Stuart.

Declan's not a rookie his second year, but he's sort of a bit of a rookie.

They've been outside the top 13 between them all every round for the whole year.

Now, there's a balance there of team performance, of driving experience

and learning their way.

And, you know, I know Erebus have said that, you know,

now that the balance changed in the Camaro, what we had work in work

and we've got some young guys, a second year driver and a rookie in Cooper and Job.

So that's kind of where it sits for Shebbie at the moment in terms of their numbers.

But we've said it, you know,

a lot already this year in terms of driving driving depth,

Shebbie, a little bit up against it.

That's just a fact.

So that's going to hurt those averages as well.

But yeah, probably the thing for me that is

most curious out of all the parody chat

is how we got to a point and was obviously signed off by by General Motors.

But but how we got to a point where that Shebb was actually changed

like that that car hadn't changed for.

It was the baseline. Exactly.

It was compared to.

So from what I can understand, why did we not come to that with the other two cars?

Well, from what I understand, they weren't able to get the other two cars to match it.

So then they matched it backwards to.

So you've got a scenario where you've had.

The last few years, the Ford Mustang changing seems like, yeah.

So many times, it's exactly how it's hard to keep count.

Yeah. And the Chevy has just remained constant.

So, you know, the first time that the Chevy teams are a delta change

in terms of their aerobalance, probably another question, though,

if Triple A remained a Chevy team and it rolled out the way it's rolled out

that there was a tweaked Camaro, would they be winning?

I think they would be. Yeah.

Well, they certainly find a way and they would still certainly be performing

at a high level. There's no doubt about that.

It's if spots and maybe.

But I think if if Triple A were still the homologating team for

Chevy would have changed.

That's probably more the point.

It's a good point.

Hey, your former teammate, Cam Waters,

you've shared plenty of injuries with him over the recent past.

Yeah. He's just sneaking up on this championship.

He's barely been spoken about this season, good, bad or indifferent.

He's fourth in the championship.

It's like he's he's stealth.

He's under the water and no one's really paid attention to him at all.

He hasn't really stood out, apart from his qualifying

has been at its poorest in about six years for the averages.

But when you look at the numbers here, like he's not been out of the championship

top five all year, he's been as high as second

after the last race in Melbourne.

He's been fourth off the back of Tassie, fourth off the back of Rue Purna.

He generally moves forward in races from where he qualifies.

Is this enough for him to win the championship?

And we are not paying him the attention that we should be right now.

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For me, the consistency is definitely keeping him in that top four,

top five at the moment.

And I think probably we're seeing a bit of a change in Cam

in maybe his approach.

I think in years gone by, he would have found himself in an incident

which would have been a race ending incident or he would have dumped a heap of points

and he wouldn't be sitting fourth, you know, because he's frustrated.

She might have got the better of him.

Is this those days when you just fold your cards and you know what?

My car's good enough for sixth bank.

The six don't try to grab the fifth and maybe have a drum.

Yeah, exactly.

So I think that's definitely a change in his approach.

But the speed just isn't there at the moment for that.

You know, at best, they're probably edge of the top 10.

On average overall.

You go back through his qualifying performances this year and he is traditionally great qualified.

Low digits, low single digits.

You go back over the years, 7, 6, 20, 8, 11, 8, 10, 13, 10, 14, 11, 12, 8, 9, 11, 13.

There's a lot of double digit numbers in there that you don't normally ever see.

And, you know, probably by this point of the championship,

we would have had Cam for down for at least 34 pole positions.

But why is no one talking about him?

Well, I don't know.

But the new car, Tassie, didn't sort of have an immediate impact

on their speed performance.

But to be a factor in the championship, you're going to need speed.

The consistency will get you so far that at the moment,

based on what we've seen, the sample size we've had this year,

they're not good enough to win the championship.

We saw them drop away late.

It's kind of we knew going to sand down.

And I think deep in their hearts, they kind of knew too

that they weren't going to get through that to get cars into the finals.

Well, they're going to have to do this year.

So, you know what, putting more focus on later in the year we saw last year

is the way to win this championship or at least contend for the championship.

For the Tickford fans out there, maybe that's what they're doing down at Tickford.

I don't think they can't be playing possum though.

They'll still be trying.

Oh, absolutely.

But right now, it wouldn't be the Panic Stations

now under this format compared to the old format.

If it was the old format, we'd be going, whoa.

Yeah, you're just sort of hanging in there.

But he's just hanging in there.

So it's been impressive, but it's been so up and down for everybody else

that he's been able to kind of just stay in the middle of it.

So it's him to do it.

But for them, it won't be much.

It, you know, there won't be a civil bullet that gets them back

to where they want to be.

It'll just be something small.

And yeah, yeah, we're talking very, very small margins as we always do.

So they've had a world endurance championship experienced engineer

join that team in the background and the things I'm hearing out of there

that he's been really impressive to.

So beefing up their manpower behind the scenes is also impressive.

You know, different thinking.

It's always it's always a good thing to have.

I think he's probably seen that with Riccardo and Coyella.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the King of Chocolata as we said in the last show, last show.

Next burning question with thanks to MotorCraft.

How long do we give premier racing?

They've been in the game a while now, Moff.

They've done a lot in terms of changing the chess pieces, Roland Danes in,

Pete Vales in, they've had some driver changes along the way.

Here's where they've sort of slated themselves over the journey

over the five years that they've been in the game.

2022, the last year of Gen two, Gary Jacobson.

That was a swap part way to James Golding, who took over that car.

2023 made headway with Tim Slade coming on board with Golding.

2024 was their best year, Golding with that poll in Darwin.

Odeum at the Sand Down 500 with Dave Russell.

Seventh in the championship was was fantastic.

Tim Slade had a rough run stepped out after there.

Golding crossed the line first at Bathurst.

Eleventh in the championship, Richie Stanaway.

That didn't work.

So in for a year out for a year, Declan Fraser's in, O'Jada's in.

So you've got a rookie and a second year driver in here.

Triple eight hardware, triple eight gear, triple eight support in previous years.

I'm not putting the blowtorch on them because I reckon J.

No, Jada is going in the right direction.

But how long do we give them before we go?

This is not working.

Is this is I mean, this is not working.

Yeah, it's a that's a tough question to answer really noons.

And certainly O'Jada, like you said, he's starting to show the signs

of promising science.

He's a star that's going to be something he's on the way.

You know, that qualifying performance down in Tassie was was impressive.

He obviously just let himself down with a dodgy start.

So he needs to sort of get on top of that quickly.

Because he's just salvaged a six. Absolutely.

So had he not qualified third and fallen, if he'd started six, finished six

or started ten, finished six, we'd be lauding.

Yeah, absolutely.

About so that was just the one little blip on the road.

Probably the biggest thing that maybe will help them take the next step

is just a bit of continuity in everything.

There's been a lot of change, not just driving line up,

but they've had a personal journey and engineering changes.

But they look like they've got a pretty settled, sorted line up.

Yes. But so on face value, having Roland there,

if there's anybody that's going to be able to

pull it all together, then it's Roland Dane.

So he's got a very different, very different scenario.

He does. He does. 20 years ago.

But, you know, he's got the runs on the board.

True. So if he can't do it again.

Exactly. Interesting to see.

But I keep an eye on Joe.

No, Joe, that graph's going in the in the right direction.

Certainly, Declan Fraser probably needs to step it up.

Yeah, he's got to go along with him now.

He's before he's behind here, if just can really get a real role.

I mean, he's performance in Tassie with a 10th, a 48 and a six.

He's the top place rookie in the championship so far this year

and pretty strongly. All things considered.

So I'm not concerned.

I'm not putting on the warning bells about Premier,

but just interested to see where that trends

in the next couple of rounds and how they're able to perhaps move forward.

Next one, dear James.

Is supercars racing getting too good?

I mean, we don't see too many tear ups in terms of mechanicals.

We don't see big retirement rates.

We're not seeing big dramas.

OK, there are dramas.

Cars make contact.

Drivers have collisions in one way.

There's an argument or the other.

But I mean, when you look back over the history of the sport here,

there were more breakdowns.

There were more crashes.

There was more drama in terms of that stuff.

The game's got so good now that it's kind of hard to pick apart.

No, you're exactly right.

You know, the cars are just incredibly reliable these days,

almost auto line bulletproof that we don't see any real mechanical issues.

You know, it's very rare, in fact.

So, you know, we have an issue with probably the wheels interlocking

that, you know, create issues when we do have a fix come for that side by side contact.

Probably the only other thing that I see that, you know,

if somebody gets whacked up the ass hard enough, you know,

that the red diffuses are quite weak and, you know, you sort of suffer

for the rest of the race.

But apart from that, yeah, we we're not seeing the intervention

of the safety car that much.

I think it's been six races out of 16 so far this year.

And most times one appearance.

Like the whole safety cars breed safety cars kind of hasn't been a thing.

So I think on the whole with quite a few rookies and second year drivers

in the field, the quality's been generally pretty good for race impacting scenarios.

So it's probably it's a feather in the cap of the whole sport

that it's got to that point now.

But in a way, it's too good.

Well, and, you know, we we talk about rookies.

But a lot of the time these guys getting to supercars,

they've got a lot of racing behind them.

So they're not actually like proper rookies.

You know, they're not rookies to racing.

Yeah, they've done a lot of, you know, talk about a Jada like his GT3

experience over the last few years.

And, you know, he finally gets a chance.

But he would have what done?

He did solo.

He did solo wildcards with well controls.

Yeah, there's a fair bit of experience on the board

there before you get into a supercar.

But one of the little quirky things is always something quirky.

But May seems to be the month in the era of Gen 3 that no one loses their brains.

Whenever there's a round in May, the safety car barely ever appears.

How much racing have we done in May, though?

Not much, but whenever it's May, we tend to not have too much of a safety car.

But anyway, I think it's it's the game's got so professional

and everything's at such a high level that it doesn't take much.

So sort of even.

That's like the same with NASCAR, you know,

gone are the days of the big wrecks on, you know,

we're just high retirement rates, exactly.

Like mechanicals and, you know,

because people were pushing the boundaries on stuff that sometimes stuff went wrong.

But now they can't really push too many boundaries

because a lot of the componentry is controlled.

Even that's just how it is.

And then further to that, you could say Formula One, you know,

the retirement rate at Formula One is nowhere near what it used to be.

20 years ago. Formula One this year.

I know we don't. That's a whole other show.

But still, the reliability of Formula One,

modern day Formula One is impressive.

Yeah, compared to the old days.

It is. So plenty of burning questions.

Technology has made things too good, noons.

So DTEC a little.

DTEC a little. OK.

I don't know. Back to the old analog.

Yeah, analog.

I want an odometer in your car.

No, I think some things end up where they end up for a good reason.

So they are our burning questions with thanks to MotorCraft.

In this break, though, I tell you what,

Winter Festival of Speed is coming up late July.

There's a bunch of Group C, Group A cars.

There's Group N touring cars.

It's a massive event for Group N.

There's a whole pile of really cool stuff.

And they're looking to get on board a bunch of other cool cars.

Old Aus cars, Nations Cup cars,

TCM cars that don't race in TCM anymore.

They've really opened it up.

They want to get them out of Sheds as well.

It's July 23 to 26.

It's just a bit of flavour of what you can look forward to

for the Winter Festival of Speed this year.

Well, Chevy fans have had a bit to be happy about so far this year.

Moff, we've got a guy who's been a winner in a Chevy.

Anton Di Pascuali, welcome to the undercut.

Good to see you.

Thanks, fellas.

Good to be here.

Good to hang out with you.

That's not what they all say.

Few big questions to ask, but Moff,

I don't know if you pick this up in the telecast from Tassie,

but D-Walt.

D-Walt, yeah.

You've got to run a lot.

No, this was up on the D-Walt, wasn't it?

There was a lot of bit of D-Walt.

Is it D-Walt or D-Walt?

Or are we confusing Di Pascuali with D-Walt?

I don't know.

I'm D-Walt.

I had to think about that present.

He's a D-Walt guy.

So you're D-Pascuali in the D-Walt car,

not D-Pascuali in the D-Walt car.

Maybe that's the blend.

The little E gets in the way.

Like, I've got the same issue, maybe.

There's just too much D.

You look like you found a happy home at Team 18,

second year in now.

What is it about this place that's kind of worked for you?

How's it all worked together?

Yeah, it's going really good.

Obviously, joined there at the start of last year.

And you never know what you're going to expect

when you walk into somewhere new.

It's always something different, different people,

different cars, different philosophies.

But there was a really opportunity

to sort of build the team up myself and Dave

and create something to where we are today.

And obviously, we aspire to be still better than that.

We don't think our sort of journey has stopped.

So yeah, that was the most exciting part.

And it takes people.

It's a real Gen 3 is created a people sport.

So for me, really good relationship with the whole crew.

And we've sort of just stuck to our guns

and sort of learned along the way.

And I think the thing that's sort of helping us

is I feel like we're everything we're doing.

It's making sense and we can go back and we can understand it.

We know why we're doing what we're doing.

And it takes time.

It takes years to get to the front.

But yeah, we're getting better and better.

And obviously, had some goods and bad this year,

but we still feel like we're a long way ahead of Evan last year.

So it's gone really good.

Well, one of the things that I've loved

in the last little while,

if there's been a knock on this guy in the past,

that he doesn't race quite hard enough.

He gets tongue tied here and there

and he gets hung out to drive in there.

Did you see him in Tassie?

Did you see him in Will Brown?

It was on.

It was good.

Like there was genuine get in or stuff going on.

But I guess you wouldn't have expected Dave Reynolds

to be one of the guys that was firing up the inside

at one of those other opportunities.

So there was there's a bit of friendly action going on there, too.

Yeah, I mean, it was I was out there.

So I would you would have done the same.

He would have done a hundred percent.

Hundred percent.

Have we said on the track walk early,

if you're on the outside of here, you're halfway to the fence.

So I think you were halfway to the fence.

Yeah, look, I didn't I was out there

and you're sort of in in a vulnerable position.

So shouldn't have put myself out there, I guess, in the first place.

I thought I had Chas covered enough and just didn't.

So just had enough on me, which I didn't think he had.

So that was looking back.

But we also didn't have the car that race

with the Park for May rules and all the stuff

our car didn't transfer over racing back on the soft

and qualifying super soft really well.

So then when we could reset overnight

for the next two races, my car was amazing.

So wish we had that then.

And I probably was getting off the hairpin a lot better

every other race.

And I was thinking if I had this

if I had this yesterday, I would have got there.

So yeah, that's how it goes.

That's racing. It's all good.

But I mean, Will had a pretty good battle.

I think I passed him like three or four times in the one race,

which is not a good thing.

It means we kept losing time in the pits to him.

So yeah, it was fun.

But yeah, we'll we'll sort of in the hunt all weekend,

which is Ross was probably our weakest track last year.

So for that is is good science.

What's been the biggest change that you've noticed in the team

since gaining the role of my legation team

for the GM side of things?

Has there been any change that you've noticed?

I'm sure there probably has.

Yeah, there's changes, but for different things,

obviously, there's the alliance thing.

So you get access to a little bit more data

and some information across the other teams,

which can be good.

But really, it's it's motivation.

You sort of end up in your own little world

no matter what.

And myself and my race engineer, Andrew,

we sort of focus in on what we think is is helping.

And that process and I think where

will be hasn't changed too much.

Obviously, there's a lot of the responsibilities

is a lot of hard work for the guys going over to America

and doing all this other stuff that we didn't have to do.

So you hear about that all the time.

So that puts a lot of pressure on the team time

and you know, all these things,

which is you don't have a lot of anyway.

But for us and racing at the track,

it's not changing too much.

Just switching gears to a topic that's kind of kicked in

after the Tassie round.

Has Craig Baird ever called you grubby?

Not publicly at least.

I reckon maybe on a night out somewhere, maybe.

No, not directly.

I don't think not to my face anyway.

It was one of the situations.

I mean, it came out after Tassie.

He made some comments through News Limited Press about,

he was talking about his time in that driving standards

advisor role, which is a really hard role.

Like I don't think anyone really wants it.

You damned if you do, don't.

He made a comment referring to Ryan Wood in Adelaide

last year and like the term, you know,

when you've been a grub or a bit grubby,

he's used that with you as a driving group

in meetings and stuff regularly.

That's not new to you, that vernacular.

No, not really.

I mean, it's sort of, it always happens in the sport.

Stuff that happens in a room ends up out really easily.

He was probably a little naive though

to mention that to a journalist though.

For sure, for sure.

But I feel like, you know what?

It was like a size one penalty that got a size 10,

or a size one misdemeanor that got a size 10 penalty

with an official statement and a retraction.

It all felt like a little bit overboard

to what had actually been done.

Maybe you just need a little tap to say,

hey mate, you don't need to go that far with that stuff

in the future, it's probably not the role.

But he's been so good to the media for so long

in giving us access and insight.

I mean, we did a podcast with him for a while

about the reasonings, why things are.

I mean, you both are footy supporters.

We've talked footy together privately for plenty of years.

You know what the umpire's called

because you can hear it, they're wired.

Now we're in a position where I've asked motorsport Australia,

well, moving forward, what's the deal?

Can we get access to Craig to ask him questions?

Will there be statements given on why penalties were given?

That was last week I asked that.

And I was told at the start of this week,

we would have a note with an idea of that moving forward.

I still don't have it, no one's got it.

So I'm a little bit in the dark here

on where we're going to go here.

That seems a bit right from Motorsport Australia Nunes.

Yeah, it's a bit of a shame.

I would have thought that we might have got that sorted out.

But yeah, I just felt that that whole situation

was a bit overblown from what it should be.

Yeah, it'd actually come out of nowhere too, right?

I don't think anyone was expecting it.

It's almost like it's in the past.

Let's move on.

Like, yeah, we all know what happened at Adelaide.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's just...

Yeah, I think it's just probably a little reminder for Ben

overreaction, I think.

You know, that's sort of an in-the-room chat

with the driving group, which I know he loves you boys.

He sees you as his boys.

Like, he's there to try to help you,

not try to constantly be fighting against you.

Definitely.

And he's the first to say, you know...

And you know as a driver...

You know when you've done the wrong thing.

Yeah, and when it's 50-50, I feel like

when you're in those rooms and you're having no discussions,

he gives you the benefit there to argue your point.

And you know sometimes when you're pushing the limits.

And he knows when...

Because he's been there.

He knows when you're fighting a fight that you know is not right.

He knows.

And he knows.

We can argue with the best of them.

We talked about the homologation team stuff.

Do you feel a little bit of a pressure now?

Because you're kind of the focal guy.

You're the guy getting the results in a Camaro.

Do you feel that as an external pressure,

an internal pressure?

Because kind of anytime anyone's referring to the top chef,

it's you.

Not really.

I mean you probably should.

But do you like it?

Do you like that expectation or outside pressure?

I don't feel like I've never not had pressure or...

It's just something that you're sort of involved in.

When you're racing go-karts, you have the pressure.

You know, if dad's driving you a track,

you want to get a trophy.

You know, your mum's flying you to the former Ford round.

You want to go good.

Like you know people spending money.

It's just something I think you're growing around.

Then if you don't have the pressure even from yourself,

the worst feeling is when you do a quality lap

and you've made a mistake in your 20th,

you just feel embarrassed.

Like it's that feeling all the time.

So adding in brands and other people's opinions

doesn't really change that too much for me.

Because you want to win.

You want to win every session.

You want to do a good lap every lap.

So someone telling you that they think you're sure

doesn't really change that too much.

I guess, but the responsibility is you have to deliver.

It's not a one-two.

It's more of a half-two.

So that's cool.

We enjoy that.

Pressure creates opportunity.

Yeah, we as a team, our mentality is slowly shifting.

You know, you go when you first join, you're top 10.

Yep, that's good.

Make the shoot out yet.

Cool.

Okay, first podium.

That's amazing.

And he shoots out kinky.

He just keeps on getting in him and does good stuff.

Like he's not gets in it, runs 10th, gets in it.

Top four, usually top five, top three.

But that's not always me.

That's something that even my race engineer,

it's honest.

He, when we met our first couple last year,

we didn't do too well.

And then we spoke about it.

We understood it.

Now we've learned more about the tire pressures

and all this stuff for shootouts.

And he's the one that sort of half gets me there.

You know, you do a run and make an adjustment.

I don't ever know about it.

Sometimes bang, you're in there.

You know, thanks, mate.

That's good.

And then, you know, then we have all these Park for Maze

and stuff.

And you got to bleed ties and use, use and use new.

And yeah, it's a, it's a whole team thing,

but love a shootout.

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I want to talk to you about parody.

Oh, here we go.

Parody changes.

Could you expected it?

Could you honestly feel the difference

or the changes at Tassie?

And is it enough?

But then the final part to the question is,

does the parody chat give you the shits?

It does give me the shits,

but not from a point of like,

I just forget about it.

Because we want, I think the sport

and everybody should want parody

to be as good as possible.

Because it makes the racing better.

And that's just how it is.

So I guess the biggest concern

and I haven't been too vocal publicly about it,

but internally what we ended last year with

and you know what Brock was winning

all those races with and stuff,

that's not the car that we started this year with

and that's not the car we have now.

But GM signed off on that.

That's the whole thing, right?

So I guess the process, I wasn't involved in it

and I think just the way the wind tunnel

and everything happened,

we ended up in an aero balance

way different to the other guys.

And to match the other cars

rather than them matching you.

Yeah.

And that just put us way too front sensitive to lose.

You can't win supercar races with no regret.

Like that's just how it is.

Entry and stability, you know, all these things.

So I remember the first time driving S&P this year

for the practice was just like,

mate, what is this?

What's going on?

What's that different?

That different.

This is terrible.

And then we worked at it and I think-

You made it all right.

It worked okay.

Made it all right.

But that is a track where if you've got a bit of front,

you can get away with it, you know, brake hard,

you know, the front grip does help you there.

And that's sort of proven over the years.

So then it is better than what it is.

We've gone a bit rearward.

We haven't added any.

I think we've lost a little bit of downforce total, apparently.

That's where you move it.

But the balance is closer to where the other guys are.

We're sort of in that same window.

And that helps.

And we feel that.

We think our braking stability is a bit better.

And some areas where we're from last year to this year

that haven't correlated a closer, it is still different.

So we haven't heard the end of it.

Is that what you're saying?

Well, I don't-

It's never going to be perfect.

It's impossible.

I think we'll dial and we'll be a good test.

Longer corners, you know, entry to term one,

you know, the back section,

that's a little bit more aero demand than Tassie.

But, you know, both myself and David towards the front,

Jayden was as well, but the others weren't.

So I think it's still not-

It's not a magic bullet.

I think we made our car a lot better as well.

And I think in the process of fighting the demons

that we've had the start of the year,

I think we've learned some stuff about the car as well.

So those hard days you learn as well.

So I think it's not a blessing, but I think we're probably

more experienced and have a bigger toolbox because of it.

So if we can get it all in the right window

and we feel like we're even, they'll be great.

So are we there?

Not sure, we'll find out.

I think we're closer though.

One thing we've seen this year with the gaps in the calendar, mate,

is that a lot of other drivers have been doing other racing,

other programs, a bit of GT, some TA2.

We sort of haven't seen you pop up doing anything else.

Are you open to doing some other stuff?

Are you trying to do some other stuff,

given that the calendar is so spread out,

or is it just a case of keep your eyes on the prize

and what the day job is?

The day job's priority, obviously.

Driving good cars would be great.

I've done heaps of it in the past and

I think it's really beneficial,

but it's quite difficult to just do a race a GT car.

You got something like that.

Like it's not an easy thing.

So I was going to pay.

Yeah, well, and then you go do some stuff overseas

and then all your license grading and stuff

makes it really difficult for us to do that.

And then you want to go do some wildcard stuff in America.

That's expensive, it's not an easy thing.

And yeah, always open to it.

Like I love driving cars and racing and racing new things

and love new tracks.

That's why Rapuna was so fun.

Like just learning a new track and a car

and trying to work out your way around it.

That's sort of the stuff we don't get to do that often.

So when we get to do it, it's fun.

But yeah, we never do enough.

I don't think we race enough even just as a category ourselves.

We're still a fair few rounds short.

I reckon of a good season.

So that's another chat.

Yeah, that's a whole lot of that.

That's a whole other topic.

Been over that a little bit.

Yeah, we have touched on that just a little bit.

Great to catch up with you.

All the best in Darwin.

And we hope those Chevy's go well on a straight line up there.

Cheers, thanks.

Anthony Pascual here on the undercut.

Great to have him with us.

As I mentioned, Darwin is next at Hidden Valley.

We've got some numbers to crunch

as we get ready to go to the top end.

We're crunching numbers as we head to the top end, dear Moff.

And we talk proccfini.

And I'd like to present a graphic to you.

That is one where he could really move up here

amongst some big names of the sport.

So he's one of the last five races in a row, mate, in Darwin.

If he wins all three in Darwin this year,

he rockets to second on this list.

For most consecutive race wins at one track.

Well, he doesn't even need to win all three nons.

He just needs to win the first race.

Yeah, he wins the first one.

He will get there.

But look at that.

So Craig Lowens, we've got to cover that off.

Yeah, that's...

He won 12 in a row.

That is actually stupid.

But there's an Asterix or two on that.

Because he missed 1997.

He was in European form of 3000, international form of 3000.

So he wasn't there in 97.

So we've just counted that off races he actually started.

Yeah, that he attended.

Yeah.

But the other caveat was he was driving a HRT car.

Pretty damn good in that era.

Yes.

On Bridgestone tyres in the open tyre era.

Reasonably handy tyres.

Pretty handy.

But it was 20 minute sprint races and it was progressive grid.

You started the next one where you finished the previous one.

So you won, you got pole and you just pressed on.

And as you can see, he pressed on.

So I would say if Feeney can get to second on this list,

in the modern era where you've got to qualify for each race,

rather than just start where you've finished,

belong to distance races, pit stops.

There were no pit stops here.

More variables.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

I reckon he's effort, if he can get 67 or eight in a row.

Equal to.

He's all better.

Better than most of those there.

Yeah, it's hard to disagree with that.

Well, Scaife was a guru at Oran Park.

He won a lot there.

But that's progressive grid era.

Jamie Winkup in Bahrain straddles the progressive grid era.

The other thing with Scaife too is in 2000,

there was a reverse top six race.

So how do you click that win in?

Which I think Russell Ingle won.

That would have been a streak of 10.

So he wasn't far away from gnarling it.

QR 2011 and 2012, that might have been qualifying for each race.

It was by then.

I think in 2011 we did have a start where you finish for one of the days.

But regardless, to just keep winning at a certain track is phenomenal.

And what Brock's been doing in Darwin has been great.

So we'll see how he can roll there.

He'll certainly be happy that they're going there next after.

Yeah, perfect place to go.

Race 16 at Tassie, that's for sure.

And the other thing, Moff, is he's made the last 18 shootouts.

I think it's 18, 17 or 18 in a row.

The record, he's in the top five or six of the overall list for most in a row.

But 35 is the number to beat.

And Van Gisburgen did that across stones.

Just over half way there.

So he's got a bit of time to get to that one.

When you look at the success levels in Darwin over the journey,

it's a staple part of the calendar now.

I remember a couple of rounds up there during the COVID years.

So that sort of helped inflate numbers for a few guys.

But Feeney's got the ability here to become the most winning race driver

in Darwin of all time.

Scaffin McLaughlin up the top, Lowndes and Winkup next.

Russell Lingle always had a good run there over various years as well.

So really big chance here for Brock.

He and Chaz are the only current guys on that list

because we've had such a change in the last year or two.

Opportunity now for some younger guys to get up there.

If you look at the podiums too over the journey,

it's the familiar suspects over the course of time.

Winkup, SVG, Frosty always a factor up there.

I mean, Feeney, look at that.

He's got the ability now to really rise up here.

And you know what?

After Tassie, when he's got this thing

where his poles and his race wins keep matching,

he gets one, he gets the other.

Like he's 30 and 30 now.

He's a quarter of the way to Winkup's record.

And I would say that he's the sort of guy

that I would see being in supercars for at least that next 10 years.

I can't see him leaving triple A at any time soon.

Is he the guy that could break Jamie Winkup's record?

Because I reckon he can.

Well, hasn't he come out and said that he looks at records to be broken?

So that's clearly on his radar.

Fees, age, his ability, the team he's in.

It's all ahead of him.

The time frame is not left.

And that podium's by driver.

So that's impressive at this early stage of his career.

Yeah.

And so that obviously shows that of eight of his podiums,

six have been the wins.

Yeah.

So when he goes good, he goes right.

So obviously very well.

Reynolds there with six podiums.

He's always had a good Darwin.

He's always gone well up there and we'll move on to it.

But four pole positions as well for Dave Reynolds up there and Darwin.

So coming off the back of Tassie,

where he obviously snagged that podium on Saturday down there.

Yeah.

Darwin's one of his tracks.

Darwin's one of team 18's tracks in the past.

So yeah, it will be interesting to see how Reynolds goes.

And Feeney's got a chance here to bounce the pole record in Darwin too.

I mean, McLaughlin seven, Will Davo with six.

Feeney, of course, his era was rounds.

So he only had one chance every weekend to get a pole.

So he's always probably the equivalent of McLaughlin seven

or there or thereabouts.

Whereas say somebody like Will Davo.

He's been in between those, hasn't he?

But really became a factor more in his career once we went in 2009 to qualify for each race.

Whereas before that, he was kind of still on the way up with DJI.

You've raced in Darwin plenty of times over the journey in supercars.

Transamming in Darwin.

Yes, we transammed there last year.

Which is, you know, it's not been a common place for you guys over the years.

No.

But having another crack.

But keys to Darwin in any race car.

What's the go?

What do you need to go?

Well, it was probably the number one key is driver cooling.

Keeping the driver cool is very, very helpful up there.

Well, it's been an issue this year.

Yeah.

It's been an issue for a number of teams this year.

Most notably probably the Red Bull Racing guys.

So they'll want to be on top of those cool issues.

Well, we have to be in a position of a sport where that is sorted.

Where if your car goes over a certain degree point, black flag.

Yeah.

We cannot cook drivers anymore.

I mean, do you remember in Adelaide those years ago with Steve Owen in the auto barn car?

Yeah, where he had a little bit of a nap.

He was in La La Land driving around at half pace

and wouldn't talk on the radio because he was fried.

And the poor guy ended up passing out in the car.

Yeah.

I worry for some of those guys, for some of the situations they've been in

and what that means long term.

I mean, we know Greg Grick's scenario.

While these guys are young and fit, it sort of brushed off.

But I worry about the effect down the track and it catches up.

So as a sport, it's really important to get on top of that now.

Personally had back in 2014 in the Nissan, I had a cool suit failure.

And I can tell you, it's far from a pleasant experience.

So yeah, keeping the driver cool, making sure all that is running as optimum as it can is,

in my opinion, very important.

But the other sort of key things you want from a car, you need good front grip.

You need it to turn well.

You need it to turn long in the corner because there's a lot of corners that

long radius turn, you know, come back on themselves.

And then the other one is good for racing.

I think it is good for racing and, you know, breaking stability,

particularly into turn one is very critical there because, you know,

long straight and turn one is just fire up the inside of the parcel.

Okay. Problem solved.

Problem solved.

Are we a clean sweep of transam wins for you?

Well, we won a couple of races there last year in the round.

So we'll be going up there to do the same this year, noons.

But like the way you approach it, I don't know how many entries there are.

There'll be enough people to cause drama.

Exactly.

Moff, you were very good on the last episode.

Thank you very much.

It's time for the workbench and I've got some more trivia and curly ones for Moff to tackle.

Last step on the workbench, we had James Moff at Tackle Supercars Fines.

Moff, this week, it's Supercars Average Speeds on Circuits.

I want from you the top six on the calendar this year go.

Average lap speed.

Average lap speed in terms of the average speed kilometers per hour.

Okay. Well, I'm going to start with Bathurst.

That'll have to be one.

Number one.

My answers will be in no particular order, by the way.

In no particular order.

I'll give you the order if you can get them.

So it's number one, average speed of 180 Ks now.

There you go.

Well, the AGP has got to be up there because especially with its new configuration.

Yeah, it's number two at an average of 179.

There we go.

But you're in order.

Good.

Or I'm thinking probably Sandown Raceway.

It's the two long straights.

Fifth on the list.

164

The home of Horsepower at Sandown.

Horsepower Heaven out there at Sandown.

Yeah.

Where we've just been as the championship Simmons Plains.

A couple of big drag strips down there.

Yeah, number three.

I was just trying to put a bit of doubt in your mind.

170, average speed.

So you're four of six so far.

56.

You haven't missed.

Yeah.

And I think the next one would be or should be in there would be QR, Queensland Raceway.

Fourth, 165.

All right.

And now.

Wanted to come to get the top six.

Well, for me.

And it just scrapes in by one kilometer per hour.

Right.

Well, then I'm going to give you both.

No, no, no.

I need the sixth one here.

Oh, well, I'll pick one.

I'll go for Wanaru Perth.

You picked the seventh one.

Well, then my seventh was the bend.

You're right.

It's the other way around.

The bend is sixth.

Wanaru is seventh.

The bend, 163 kilometers average speed.

Wanaru, 162.

So you've got a top seven.

But is Perth post or pre resurface?

Because if it's post resurface, it'll be up on the bend.

I guarantee you.

I'd just go with the numbers I get given, James.

Don't try to get technical on this.

You should be happy you got seven in a row.

For those who are playing along at home

and want to know what the actual rest of the order is.

Darwin's eighth.

The Gold Coast is equal ninth with Sydney Motorsport Park.

Adelaide Street Circuit equal 11th through the Rapuna.

Townsville and Topor are the slowest average speeds

on the Supercast calendar in 2026.

You're in good form.

I think you did even better on this one than you did on the fines.

We're going to have to bring another top quality workbench

for you next time that goes a bit faster

because that went pretty quick because he got them all.

So well played to you.

Well played to you to Castro and our new partners at MotorCraft.

Great to have you on board with the undercut in 2026.

Hey, plenty of stuff coming up too.

The new issue of V8 Sleuth magazine

is out very, very soon featuring Greg Murphy

and that amazing lap of the gods with some insight

from the guys behind the scenes

that you might not have heard from before.

Garth Tander's got a new book coming out too, by the way.

Yeah, do you know who put that together for him?

Some guys been helping him with it in the background

for a little while now.

You were teammates together.

Yes.

What's the chapter in a Garth Tander book

you're most looking forward to reading?

Probably his HRT chapter, to be honest.

Yeah.

Pretty long chapter.

Yep.

What about the chapter of you guys being teammates for a year?

Oh, I don't know if that'll get much of a run to be honest.

Well, it was only one year, so we had a bit of fun

and he was incredible to learn off as well, Garth.

Unfortunately, things ended for me at the end of 2017

and not long after that for Garth,

but just the opportunity to work with him for a year

was something that I'll always be fond of.

It's been really good fun going down memory lane with him.

That book's out at the end of September.

You can pre-order it now from the V8 Sleuth Superstore

where, of course, you can also get a copy

of the V8 Sleuth magazines.

The latest ones in news agencies in the middle of June.

You can buy it in select airports too

while you're flying around the country,

but also if you miss any of the existing episodes

or episodes, what am I talking about?

Magazines, editions, issues, all that stuff,

you can get them on our Superstore.

Now, last episode of the undercut,

we featured a great old Castrol ad from the Files,

Colin Bond and the Holden dealer team, Tarana.

To finish the show this week,

we've gone back into the vault

and we've found the vision of behind the scenes

of the making of this ad.

Thank you, do you find, sir?

Go well in Darwin.

We'll see you again soon here on the undercut.

Enjoy this piece from the vault of Colin Bond in action

and how to how the action was made back in the day.

We'll see you next time.

This film was specially prepared

to enable you to see what went into the making

of a Castrol commercial

featuring the Holden Tarana GTRX-U1

and to show how Castrol support GMH and their dealers.

Filming was carried out at Amaru Park

by Amalgamated Pictures Australasia,

the driver Colin Bond,

outright winner of the 1969 Hardy Ferrodo 500.

We used a crew of 15 and over $60,000 worth of equipment,

including the remarkable DynaLens camera

for vibration-free motion shots.

Now let's have a look at the action shots

used in the commercial

and some of the methods used for making them.

Here's one of the special rigs we developed for this commercial.

You'll notice that it's attached to the car

by suction caps.

These caps will support a heavy camera

while the car is being driven at high speeds

without damaging the bodywork.

The rig can be mounted anywhere on the car.

In this case, we are using a rear rig.

Here's the action seen through the camera.

And here we have the front rig.

And the wheel rig.

The next take was made with the DynaLens camera

mounted on a high-speed special-purpose vehicle.

These shots, together with many others,

gave us the final commercial,

which will run from now until the day

of the Hardy Ferrodo 500

on 41 television stations across Australia.

It's estimated that during this period

it will reach an audience of over 5 million.

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 campings 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

The Undercut – The Chevy Situation moves from Winton Festival of Speed hype into a deep dive on why Chevrolet’s package has “remained constant” while rivals chase changes. Hosts weigh qualifying versus race consistency, pole incentives, and how rules like sprint weekends and Gen 3 constraints limit development. They connect Tasmania and upcoming long-race weekends to setup and aero balance, including braking stability and front sensitivity. The conversation also touches on reliability trends, safety-car frequency, and parity debates—then closes with a Castrol commercial vault segment.

aerobalance Amaru Park Andre Heimgartner back to back qualifying BJR braking stability Bridgestone cash on the line Castrol Chas Mostert

Chevrolet Camaro Ford Falcon Ford Mustang

Original notes

The Undercut is back, breaking down the latest happenings in the world of Supercars racing! Aaron Noonan is joined in the studio by James Moffat, along with Chevrolet’s leading light, Anton De Pasquale. Is Broc Feeney starting his championship charge now? Can Cam Waters win the title by stealth? How many more wins are in store for Toyota, and where does parity end? In Number Crunching, we look forward to the next round of the title chase in the tropical north of Darwin, where Broc Feeney can make a very special place for himself in the history books. This week on The Workbench, Moffat is put to the test – what are the fastest tracks in Supercars racing? There’s a brilliant behind-the-scenes clip from the HDT 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! Like some of the stuff in our studio? Check them out in the V8 Sleuth SuperStore below! V8 SLEUTH MAGAZINE: ⁠https://bit.ly/47XVTxz⁠PERKINS MOTORSPORT: ⁠https://bit.ly/4mPNFfl⁠MODEL CARS: ⁠http://bit.ly/4678VH3⁠BOOKS: ⁠http://bit.ly/4pfnZLC⁠APPAREL: ⁠http://bit.ly/4pblOIQ⁠ Our thanks go out to Castrol - unlock the very EDGE of performance today, for more, check out: ⁠https://castrol.com.au/edge⁠ Also, to our new Burning Questions partner, Motorcraft - the best choice for parts when it comes to your Ford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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