James Golding & Aaron Cameron | Part 1 - The Blanchard Racing Team pairing join us in studio

A list-snuff production.

A automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.

Hi everybody and welcome to our latest feature app of Rusty's Garage.

For this one I've bent the rules or broken the mold a little as they say.

I was originally going to interview Aaron Cameron from the Blanchard Racing Team one-on-one as we traditionally do.

But then Mitch Britain, the team's commercial manager called and said,

Hey, what if we bring both drivers in and make it a longer convo on their careers

and the recent success the team has enjoyed and more?

I didn't overthink it, which I'm probably a bit prone to doing and I'm pleased

that I just went with his recommendations.

So Jimmy Golding is joining us too.

We all sat around our Melbourne listeners studios, the three of us.

It's a great chat as you'll hear from their respective paths that they took in their motorsport journeys early on.

The race cars in the Cameron family garage.

Has he driven them?

The roles both of them had, beyond the driving, at Gary Rogers Motorsport.

Nick Names, DJing Skills does any of that even correlate to motorsport.

Jimmy's Bathurst podium and how he feels about the 2025 race with some time to look back on it now.

The turning point for Aaron at BRT and how much Golding is enjoying his new home.

Plus Aaron shares an inspiring story on his dad and his mum for that matter really.

Keep an ear out for that or an eye out for it if you're watching us on YouTube.

Hope you enjoy the conversation.

Hello you two.

Where have you been before?

Listen, look at the DJ here on the buttons already.

What are you doing at justing volume?

It's not going down.

It's not going down.

You want me to adjust the volume for you.

There's a two loud.

It gives the dad a high-testing one, two, three, four, five.

This is the James Golding.

You found it?

He's fine.

You're happy.

I'll just stick to my expertise.

I just have some water.

There's a lot of good kid outside that you would probably like to tinker with.

I'll DJ Jimmy.

A few buttons.

A few buttons.

There's never enough buttons.

Never enough buttons.

When did you develop that kind of passion that love for that?

It was in COVID.

Was it stuck at home?

Yeah.

Just tinkering?

Like just mucking around.

Yeah.

Well, I just wanted to do it fun.

We just still do it fun.

But a little bit more seriously.

Same with racing, I suppose.

Starts office fun, doesn't it?

Don't undeply that.

You start office fun.

Starts office fun.

And now it's not fun.

No.

You guys are having a great run.

Actually, on the DJ thing, I mean, you DJed enough to party at Darwin last year and stuff like that.

I know in these moments when we're doing podcast stuff that you prefer to talk racing, obviously.

But you clearly do get a lot of enjoyment out of that, don't you?

Yeah.

It's good to have another outlet.

Something you can also focus and get better on.

It's actually got a lot of similarities to racing.

It's really probably wouldn't think about.

But like the Tommy and like decision-making and all that sort of stuff.

Obviously in Mix and Tracks, you've only got so long on plays for.

So you've got to pick the next track in time.

And that depends how you do it.

But that's how I like to do it.

I have a big playlist with Heaps of Tracks and just pick on the fly.

And you've got to pick the right track that everyone wants to hear.

Now, in MCing, when you're learning a bit of that stuff,

they teach you about reading the room and stuff too.

You have to do a bit of that, don't you?

What music resonates?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, places that I play out, it's kind of a bit more, you know, you sort of know the crowd.

Yeah.

So it makes it easier.

It's the go-to at the moment.

Have you got go-to tunes at the moment or artists?

Oh, not really.

I've got a pretty big library.

But yeah, we've been making a few tunes recently.

So on the don't think Spotify, look it up, don't think.

Don't think, okay.

Don't think, just look it up.

Have you got a hidden superpower like that?

Do you get subjected to this in the car on the way to the track?

Whatever.

Yeah, it's been a big learning process.

I'd say this year.

I mean, JC used to just put on whatever music and this year's Jimmy's.

Yeah, constantly changing the song.

He can't seem to, he's got to find the right vibe of the song of what he wants.

No, it's, it's a big change.

And the song I don't care about.

No, I've finished Jimmy, but yeah, that's his domain and he can, he can be the car.

So what you already been.

What's your thing?

Do you have one?

Do you have time for one?

I don't probably say I do really.

I mean, I've got the go-to cut scene that I don't do.

There's nothing else you do that's not motorsport.

No, I've got a mountain bike riding love that.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah, so I do a fair bit of that, like all the time.

So I think me and Mattie Payne ride the same track and in, in Listerfield, they're not together.

Not together.

I, I sort of brought it up and he ploughed it declined to go riding with me.

So he must.

They're awkward.

He must say.

No, I'm fully okay with that because I reckon he'd be a beast on the bike.

I just like to just slowly gently go down and try not die each time.

For people that don't know, tell them more about the karting side things.

Obviously you have a background in that now you're playing in that space a little bit.

Yeah, the karting stuff just sort of happened before.

I got the super car, main game driver.

Just one car chop sort of closed down and then there's a few customers that all sort of wanted to have someone run a team.

And yeah, just I'd do another guy Cooper and it's fully Victorian state-based stuff.

And I just have so much fun just going on the car tracks, trying to teach kids the basics

and really focused on not spending heaps of money at karting level because it's so early in your motorsport career.

And easy and easy to do.

It's easier to spend so much money now when they don't...

Yeah, trying to get them to understand that you need it all for a lot later.

It only gets more expensive.

And now I'm just trying to help a few of those kids trying to get them on a path to super cars

wherever they want to go without spending millions of dollars.

That's my priority.

How much of that is you with advice around gearing whatever

and how much of it is kind of driver coaching?

I'd say we vary across all of that.

But probably not heaps of the set up gearing sort of stuff.

I try and focus on mindset of racing, of like when you should and shouldn't make a pass

and what to do at starts, when to block, when not to block.

And it's probably like we'll probably get to at some point my incident with Brody at Sydney

where my mindset's so much about thinking and trying to think ahead and prevent things from happening.

And obviously I'll learn a lot from that incident at Sydney.

But trying to help these kids understand what's going on in the races,

you don't always have to be the fastest car or car on the track.

Do you set a learn thing to mindset stuff?

And that's open to you as well.

I mean, do you do subscribe to a bit of that?

Yeah, I'm subscribed to Aaron's tips there.

Obviously I should probably take note after you bet me off the line at Sydney.

Yeah, I think it's something you're constantly learning and adapting.

It's always going to be different as well.

Like you can't go, I just got to do that every time because you're always in new situations

where actually it's a bit of a different scenario with how the track went or it was a similar corner

as a couple of rounds ago.

Same thing, so I'll buy a side.

But this one, you can't say it on the outside because it's too slippery.

So yeah, you're constantly learning and getting better at that.

I think that's probably the biggest thing that changes in racing or reckon.

That and also learning the like set up stuff with the car and getting better at that with feedback.

You're still immensely young and hard mate, but you turn 30.

I think if I'm right in, in January.

Don't say too loud.

No, I'm not.

I've got to meet just the number.

How different is James Golding now to when James Golding kind of first started out as a race

and in that mindset stuff that you're talking about?

Yeah, a lot different.

I wish, as a lot of people would say, I knew what I know now back then.

Yeah.

But yeah, I'd say that's probably the biggest difference.

I think a lot of us obviously get to the top level.

I've got the skill to do it, but it's all those other bits and pieces.

The in-betweens working with the team.

All that mindset stuff Aaron's talking about is what makes a difference?

The early days can I come to a little bit of that for both of you and feel free to dive in here?

For you, I think the family got a bit of history.

Your mum race some cool stuff.

Was it Tyrannas and things?

What was she driving?

I'm trying to remember.

Yeah, she was in the historic group CNA stuff.

She raised the L34 Tyrannas and another family friend raised out in her next Tyrannas.

Big involvement back then and that's how I got my start in learning about motorsport.

Can you remember that?

Can you look at what you're doing?

Yeah, I remember some early parts.

She had quite a big crash in her next U1 back then, which was quite a scary time.

When she broke her wrist and I realized motorsport.

She had some risks to it, which probably intrigued me a bit more.

Yeah, that was the first part of getting involved and seeing what it's all about and living the dream now.

I think.

You two have got a cheeky way about you with that.

There's always a bit of underlying.

We did that.

What about, I actually don't know with you.

My old boss, David White, shared that you were both involved in.

In fact, that lovely Gary Rogers tribute pod that I did last year.

He reminded me about a great story of you and being on a train.

I think it's a teenager and making your way into Gary Rogers motorsport and kind of doing the hard yards.

How did it all kick off for you?

Yeah.

Well, going back into karting, I think it really started when my cousins, they were racing just like club level.

We went to watch them, dad and I, and then he asked if I wanted to give it a go and then got a couple of carts, got into it.

Then my sister started as well, not too long after.

Then my mom even raised as well.

So all four of us were racing.

One of the years of the club champion.

They made up like a lady's class for the wives and girlfriends.

So mum went in there.

My poor stress for dad on the hip pocket.

She had the same kart.

They were bolted and led on and off.

So they had different weights for each class anyway.

And then that year, we were all literally lined up to win the championship.

Club championship, dad in over 40s or sister in junior national anyway.

And before the last round, my mum actually fractured a rib in the go kart.

And she couldn't, she couldn't race the last round.

So she had like D&F or D&S, everything.

No points.

Still finished second and all the rest of us won the championship.

So we all would have won it.

But yeah, I don't let it live it down now.

I'll say sure you could have just dealt with the pain.

And what transition from there for you in terms of ultimately,

I mean, there's been a formula forward in there and what have you.

But leading into to Gary's made.

How did the introduction to GRM come about and all that sort of stuff?

Yeah, there was, there was a bit of sort of coming in from both directions to get in there.

I actually knew Scotty McLaughlin already mates with him for a go karting.

And then also happened to be my next or neighbor.

His dad or his grandfather was like best mates with Gary.

Just like coincidentally, they were growing up next to.

So you leveraged that.

Yeah.

So I actually started my sudden apprenticeship working for ballons in the formula forward team.

Just wanted to learn more about the cars and stuff to have with my driving.

And then only a few months into that.

Basically, I got the gig at GRM and continued my apprenticeship there.

And yeah, I didn't have a license back then.

So I was only 17 and just rode my bike to the train station.

Trained from Morrigal down to Denon South.

Back on the bike.

Rainhalla, Sean, I was getting drenched by trucks in the middle of winter and ever then.

You know it.

What were you doing?

I'll comment what you're doing.

Because he always gave everybody a job in the works.

Was it fabrication?

Where were you?

I was in subassembly.

Subassembly.

So all the drivel and parts are bright.

You still handy?

Like if someone said to you today, can you give us a hand at PRT?

Yeah.

I don't want to interrupt any of the boys.

They've got their jobs and I'll leave them to it.

But if anyone's stuck, I'd definitely give a hand.

Coming back to the karting stuff.

I think you're about age 11, Oakley.

Did Dad take you out and you were Morrigal is hooked from there?

Yeah.

We went and watched Junior Topcans big like Junior's only event start of the year.

What year was that?

2011.

You probably.

Were you racing?

Yeah.

It's the year I won the national one.

Oh, so I was going to listen to you today.

So I wanted to be watching Jimmy Golding and then I was like, I was just hooked from there.

I was like, I love it.

And that was my last year in kart.

Was it?

Yeah.

Now I went to Formula Four the year after.

It led to.

Like literally a week later, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I can't remember the exact time.

But pretty soon we got a car after that and then next minute we were, you know, hooked

just at the track every weekend and just cutting laps and trying to really get home the craft

and catch up because a lot of kids started at seven or eight and I'm already three, four years behind.

So it was, yeah, we had a lot of work to do early on there.

Did it come naturally as they cited it?

Was there a phase of hard?

Oh, there would have been a phase at the start where I was just absolutely useless.

I can guarantee that.

It must have come pretty naturally because I remember, like, after the first, like second

year in, we were already winning the club championship stuff at Todd Road.

So yeah, just, yeah, had an absolute, that was the most fun times.

That's what I tell the kids in the kart team now.

Enjoy this now.

Enjoy this now.

Fun you'll ever have.

After that, it just gets a whole lot more expensive and a whole lot more pressure.

So enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Something happens here around like year 11 and you have a serious conversation with mum

and dad like, I'm done.

I want to go racing.

I don't forget school kind of thing.

Was it along those lines?

Yeah.

I wasn't very that good at school.

I wasn't very interested.

So at the end of year 11, I pretty much just said to him that I have no interest in going

to university or doing any further education and racing is what I want to do.

So, like, I don't, there's no point doing year 12.

I'm just going to go there and if you want me to pass, I'll pass.

But I'm not getting any time.

I'm not going to uni.

So you go further than me.

I'm the Didier 10.

Oh, so I look good here.

You reckon that's a great one for all the kids that are listening.

Don't you reckon that's a great thing?

Like, I'm on self-taught when it comes to broadcasting.

I'm last bastion in that sense.

I didn't go to uni or whatever.

It's not to say that you wouldn't recommend in some careers that people should go to uni

for.

I think if you know where you want to go and you can do it by just getting into it, then just do it.

Exactly.

But if you're still unsure, your maize will just keep going and learning.

But the secret to both of you then is clearly application, tenacity, don't die wondering.

Like, get in and give it your absolute all.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, the things you learn firsthand, practically, with racing, especially karting and all that.

Like, you know, you come up through the ranks and drive with different teams in that.

You work with different people and a lot of the people that have raced themselves

of that dungo karting speedway.

They're all just so much more dulled into what you're talking about when you're talking about the car

or even just working on the car.

They just get it.

And they may have been like me, dropped out of your tan and they've just been working on it ever since.

Yeah.

No reason you can't succeed.

I don't believe it holds you back.

I'm happy to cut this out if you don't want to talk about it.

Because it might be quite a personal thing.

But I gather mate, your dad is vision impaired.

He's quite an inspirational man from what I can gather with marathon running around the world this year

and stuff like that.

And does your mum more or less talking through some of the races and things?

Is that what happens?

Yeah.

I'm racing these days.

I don't exactly know what happens.

But the general idea is, yeah, she's got to talk him through what's happening on the race.

Whether it's good or bad.

So you learn to become quite a good commentator for the whole man,

whether it's for me watching F1 or whatever watching.

So, yeah.

Now, he's been an inspiration for me for ages.

He's had sight and then lost it.

Funny enough once I got was born.

He decided he didn't want to see anymore.

So it's so they got worse from there.

So it just got worse and worse.

And then he's just gone from strength to strength.

I think in that persistence in finding what he loves.

And he was big into his bike riding, riding bike nationals.

And all this stuff.

And now he's riding into his marathon running, trying to do the...

Is that the seven or eight marathon you do around the world?

And you get a special medal, right?

New York and stuff like that.

Yeah.

I think he's done New York.

He's got a couple more to do now.

And then he's got to do Sydney.

Yeah.

Look.

And with a guy like that, as your dad, it's like...

Yeah.

He thinks I'll achieve it.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I don't have excuses to not go out and try and do my best

and everything that I can.

So, yeah.

It's a real inspiration for me.

And I think everyone around him just makes us all very accountable.

And he was used around your own form of the Fords and stuff, too, didn't he?

Yeah.

Yeah. He worked at my Formula Four.

So it was...it's all in my go-karts.

Like he ran...

We had people help us to get there.

But he was mechanically working.

So, my mom would change the gear ratios in the Formula Four.

We had one time where if you got to put a washer in in the gearbox

and we learned pretty quickly, put that washer in because it was gears everywhere.

But after that, we were checking it and...

Yeah.

He's an incredible, incredible guy.

I love that.

I love that.

Thank you for sharing it.

People along the way in your journey, whether it's parents or whatever,

are important.

You've talked about Gary already.

What was the first kind of introduction for both of you?

Like you talked about the connection and maybe, you know,

friends or family and whatever, helping you to get there.

Can you recall the first kind of meetings there?

Yeah.

It would have been at JRM.

The interview kind of thing.

Were you on the forward foot picking up the phone?

Can I meet you?

What, how did you do that?

I don't quite remember that part.

I think I just sort of got the interview and then he was there.

And, you know, he's like, he's a pretty forward for one guy.

Yeah.

I was pretty scared.

The meetings were short often.

Yeah.

Doesn't last long.

That's all it is.

And off you go, you kind of think.

So, um, yeah, but he said a good, uh, good precedent for the whole team

and for myself and, yeah, the things that I learned there.

I've definitely carried on for the rest of my career.

The nicknames were for everybody.

Did he give you a believer or where did that come from?

He gave it to me.

So, yeah, at the time when I started, my hair cut was similar to Justin B.

It was that hair flick he had gone on.

And then, like a year after, he had the bleach blonde shaved head.

But it just stuck.

And I'm like, well, I don't even look like him now.

But it sticks.

Yeah.

It always sent me articles of stuff that he was in the news for.

Like, oh, what have you done here?

So good.

Much misty sense of humor.

Can you remember your early interactions?

Yeah.

You picked up the phone quad early on, didn't you?

Maybe.

Yeah, I think it was the end of, no, it's before the first year of TCR.

2018 or something, or 2019?

Yeah, started 2019.

Roman Cloud called him first for me.

And then I spoke to Gary on the phone.

And it was, the conversation wouldn't have gone 30 seconds.

Right.

Yeah.

We'd come in for a meeting and it was just so fast.

And I didn't know if that was good or bad at the time.

And when it had the meeting.

And again, that probably lasted all of three minutes.

And he didn't have a drive for me anyway that first year.

And he planted a seed though, mate, didn't you?

Yeah.

And he already knew before that meeting that he didn't have a drive for me,

which was fine.

But he was just wanting to meet me and see what I was about.

And then I come back to next year and played in my case.

And I'd had a pretty good year.

Then probably had four or five of the best years in my life.

I reckon it was just such a fun team and good vibes.

If Aaron and Jimmy's recollections of working with the late Gary Rogers

have struck a chord, you might enjoy the tribute episode

Rusty put together on the Hall of Famer.

A series of fresh interviews with people that knew him best,

including Bathurst winner Lee Holdsworth,

who they called lethal at GRM.

I think I was the only one that walked in and said,

he said, right, I watch your nickname.

And I said, lethon, he goes, right, oh, that's your nickname.

Caruso walks in.

He says, watch your nickname.

He says, uh, Caruso.

And he goes, Robbo.

As in Robinson Caruso.

That's you.

You're Robbo from now on.

And Caruso, that's again, Caruso hated it.

The Gary Rogers tribute episode has nearly two hours of memories.

Some emotional and lots of laughs too,

just as Gaz would have wanted.

Back to a couple of GRM protégés now,

Aaron Cameron and James Golding.

I've missed in the timeline a couple little things in your careers.

I don't know that that necessarily matters.

Can I come to the TCR thing?

Because it's, it's NPC.

I think it first for you, isn't it with the, with the V-Dub?

Did you enjoy that? Well, I mean, those, I mean,

that whole series for whatever reason even globally has gone through

some tough stuff, maybe covert or timing or whatever.

I don't know.

But, but, um, that a good fun little jigger.

Well, oh, that were awesome at the time.

We had, I had so much fun.

I hadn't really done any front wheel drive stuff.

I mean, things, especially not on slick.

So then trying to understand,

uh, getting the retires hard and, yeah,

you see the development that everyone in the category had

from the first round to the end of the year.

It was, yeah, just so much fun.

And I just, I love those cars.

We had some great, the BOP, the variation in the cars,

just made the racing really, really cool.

So I feel like you clicked with it pretty fast too.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Especially, and then obviously we had some great drivers

that would come through like in MPC.

We had Russell Engel, Garth Tander, Land Tander.

There's, there's a list.

And then we had that European guy come out for a round.

It was just the learning that I had in those in that year

with MPC was incredible.

Just with some, looking at really accomplished people,

their data just helped me progress so quick.

And then I was able to go to GRM.

So you followed him up basically?

Did you with the...

Yeah, that next year, because I had nothing else.

Like it was, it was the one and done with MPC.

He had some great support from the category.

And then my parents put in a lot to make that happen.

It was like, yeah, as I said, one and done.

And then I had to follow up with Gary and hope

that he'd give me a crack that next year.

And thankfully did because, yeah, I don't,

I still don't see myself here today in Supercars

without the support of Gary.

Gary and especially Barry back then as well for me

was really good.

It became a great playground for both.

You've been with all the different things

that they had there.

I mean, even, you know, for you,

ultimately getting a Guernsey, you know,

you know, Volvo at Sandown and, you know,

it's Trans-Am and all sorts of stuff.

From S5000.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, even obviously I got in full time

in the Supercars with the GRM,

but getting the opportunity, really,

to make that step towards it from Formula Ford.

Gary gave me the offer to go into Supertune

and run with them.

And that's been a huge, well,

probably the main pivotal part in my career

because I wasn't really sure what was going to happen

that year was tossing up to try and go and do IndyCar

and try and go down that path.

How close did you get there?

Well, we didn't bother because it was like,

I would go over and leave in America

and try and, you know, win the scholarship thing

to get the budget to go to the next level,

starting off with USF 2000.

I think it was back then.

Did you talk you out of that or what did they have?

No, he left it.

I said it.

I said that that was what I was thinking about doing.

And he said for me to do what I want to do.

But then it was like, you know,

you obviously got to live over there.

Your whole lifestyle changes.

And I was like, you know,

this is a pretty good opportunity

and I can stay at home in Australia.

So that's what I chose to do.

And then, yeah, even obviously getting into full time Supercars,

but when they even pulled out,

it was like, I didn't lose my driver.

It was like, I will put you in an S5000 now,

I kind of think so.

And that kept me sharp

and gave me the next opportunity

to get back into Supercars,

because without that,

I would have been kind of off the market a bit

and sort of in the background people

forget about you pretty quick,

but that kept me exposed and sharp.

What were those things like?

S5000.

Leafle.

It's probably the best way to describe it.

Just a big go-kart,

but big heavy thing like it was,

not nimble at all,

you had to manhandle it.

And that was like,

I'd say most of the time,

most people would say it was driving you,

you weren't driving it.

They were all in the early days.

Yeah, early days,

the amount of people that were crashing them

and doing stuff in them.

But the tyres,

I love the tyres back then,

everyone had them,

because they didn't come up to 10 quick and I'd tyre.

But you kept like,

building and building in a qualifying session,

I just found that so much fun,

just to keep trying to find those limiting the car,

because it's not a car you go out on track

and just bang it for a lap,

like we do on a supercar now,

just do one and done,

and you can find the limit.

That thing you need,

laps and laps and laps to fly.

A lot of time qualifying,

I was just different cars popping up.

A pop up.

A pop up,

A pop up, I was like,

who's going to get it?

Yeah.

So especially like Bathurst,

that we went to Bathurst,

that was...

That was...

Mega that you got to drive them to.

Oh, so cool.

Yeah.

That was scary on the top.

Yeah.

But, yeah.

It's sketchy.

Yeah.

It's a lot of fun for you.

Can we talk a bit about that?

I mean, it's gone through immense growth in this country,

and maybe it was just a fun element

that gave you just more miles,

generally, which is pretty good.

Did you enjoy?

Yeah, definitely.

It's been really good for me,

just to keep more laps on me

about between supercars,

and it's something that

you've got to manage a lot of things in supercars.

You're managing a lot of things with the tyre

and brakes,

and all that sort of stuff.

But a trans-M's,

obviously a little bit rough around the edges,

is not quite as expensive to build one of those cars,

so they're a little bit sensitive,

I guess you could say,

so you've really got to look after it

and think about what you're going to do

when in terms of the braking,

like the brakes,

are really probably too small for the car,

so they get hot quick.

And if you don't get your brake marker right,

and your brake's hot,

it doesn't matter how hard you press.

The thing just slows down the same rate.

So if you miss that point,

you're coming in,

and there's no stop and sort of thing.

So it teaches you a lot of forward thinking,

and also just hard racing,

like you can rub doors.

Good caliber of competition demand.

That's right.

A lot of fun, everything, you know.

Yeah, exactly.

There was people from all different backgrounds

I sort of felt doing it was a real good in between category,

but just hard racing,

a lot of the guys,

just really there for the fun side of racing,

and not too serious,

but it's also kept you sharp

and kept you exposed,

ready for the next opportunity.

You both brought up Super 2 there before,

I don't know, that's a very expensive outlaw for people and so on.

But when you think about where you are now,

and I guess what message maybe it sends to the main game,

how important is it for people to play in that championship,

and what did it do for you, respectively?

Yeah, I think it's definitely important, obviously.

I think the whole grid now has come for a Super 2, isn't it?

That was saying this year.

So yeah, it's,

as close as you can get as the cars we're driving,

and in a couple of years,

there'll be the same cars.

So for a lot of the guys,

around that 17, 16-year-olds,

even jumping into basically the same cars,

what we're driving,

it's a huge thing,

and it's such a big step

from, say, like Formula 4 or something like that.

It's so much to get used to.

Instead of be able to drive basically the same cars,

and really get a feel for it for trying to get in full time,

is massive.

You know, a lot of guys have got experience

in lots of other categories,

but until you really get in a Super car,

you don't really know how you're going to go,

and that's why it's hard for a lot of team owners

and stuff to put someone in that hasn't had experience,

unless they've been around for years and years

and raced in lots of endurance racing or whatever.

For a young kid coming through,

it's pretty pivotal to be able to race Super 2, I think.

But also, I believe that

to have the experience of different cars,

like Formula 4, Trans-Am, all that sort of stuff,

it teaches you a lot more about like the mechanical side,

and how things work to get to that point.

Just an alternative thinking car.

Yeah, and I think that's really important.

I think that's something that's really helped me.

For you, it's been pivotal to where you are now with BRT.

It hasn't had a significant commitment to do that.

Yeah, like really, I don't, yeah,

with the way the Super License points on it,

I don't know if they'll change now again,

but back when I was doing it, we had to do the six rounds,

I believe in Super 2 to get into Enduro's

and with the Blanchard, that's what we agreed to do.

Prior to that was, if I could do them,

that they'd give me the Enduro seat,

and thankfully they still took by their word

and did that for me.

So, yeah, and I just think,

I've done a lot of categories,

and they're all valuable,

but I think just doing that,

I'd just jump straight from TCR or whatever I was racing,

S5000 at times, straight to Super Cars,

that the step is huge.

Even when I did that, started last year,

the step, it just bloomed, blew me away.

I thought there was a few guys that I was just going to knock off

and be smoke him straight away,

but it's, yeah, the step's a lot bigger than a lot of people think,

and I think Super 2 still,

yes, that it's very different with the Aero to our current cars,

but it just gives you that basics of,

like the sequential shifter and right-hand drive,

just everything is still pretty much the same,

so I still believe it's going to be quite a,

it's a necessary step for a lot of kids.

Does that sort of underscore what a lot of men with the internationals

used to come with the Gold Coast and so on?

They were always really impressed with the level in Super Cars,

the quality of, you know,

in the 20-plus drivers that are in it,

the quality of the talent in the, in the field,

is it really?

Yeah, 100%.

It's, yeah, I've probably been a bit naive,

just to how good some of these guys are,

and I have so much more respect for the whole grid now about the level

that we're all at to perform,

and especially in these Gen 3 cars,

when we're all, we've all effectively got the same equipment,

it's becoming more important,

like our qualifying laps are all just got to be perfect,

you can't afford to make any little mistakes,

set up wise or anything,

like it's just the preparation for the tyre for the lap is,

just a lot of emphasis on everything we do now,

where, back a few years ago, it's 5,000, pretty simple,

we just rolled out, that's fine.

Yeah, tyre pressure is right,

and drive good lap, and you got something.

Yeah, it's pretty tight still in that.

I had some pretty good battles with Joey Morse in there for pole positions and stuff,

but yeah, like Aaron's saying,

the level that Supercars is at,

is just crazy, it's so tight.

I think everyone out there is good enough to have a great result at any point.

It's just getting her right every weekend or every day.

It's always a moving target.

Everyone's fighting little intricacies here and there,

and you can't just keep doing the same thing

and think that it's going to work,

you've got to keep looking and finding the next thing to make a difference.

Keep going on the BRT stuff for you if you don't mind.

I feel like you're a more relaxed racer,

maybe a little bit this year.

Where's that come from?

Adelaide was a break-out moment for you last year and so on.

Yeah, getting thrust into a main game seat last year.

This week, Tony's time last year for AGP was pretty wild,

so just had so much, I'd say,

calming down to do in that first half of the year.

Come back one step.

Where were you when you got the call?

Can you remember that?

I think I was,

we had the Victorian State Champs on that weekend for the go-kart team

and I just crushed my toe in the back of a truck door and broken it.

You didn't tell them that, Tony.

No, no, I didn't tell Tim that.

When he said, I've got it, I was like,

yeah, I'm good, I'm good, so.

And then word quickly got around.

Everyone told me they weren't going to tell Tim,

but he knew already anyway, so.

Yeah, that was...

The toe was it.

Ah, the big toe on my right foot.

So, did you break with that foot?

Yeah, yeah.

Still, it was a point you put on and things like that.

Yeah, it was,

and that injury carried on.

Yes, the toe healed,

but then it was Darwin still that,

a bit gruesome here,

but there was some other stuff still going on at Darwin with the foot

and with how hot it was.

It wasn't very nice down there.

Trees grown down there.

Yeah, it was here.

Yeah, it was a bit grim, so.

Had to trim him back before quality.

Yeah, it kept that pretty low key.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm not here to complain about some

a little toe injury that's affecting my performance type things.

So, yeah, I've still got a performance.

Yeah, it just took me a while to calm down, especially after Darwin.

We had some real good chats with Tim

and some putting some more things into place

for the later part of the year

and the results got a whole lot better.

And then especially at Adelaide.

Yeah, there was just...

I thought we had a pretty good car in practice,

but we were still like 18th.

And I was saying the car's perfect.

And Tim's like, well, if it's perfect, why aren't you first

or at least better than 18th.

And then, yeah, we did the wet race on the Friday night.

And, yeah, beforehand,

we sort of agreed that we weren't going to push.

And then during the race,

some of the communication was I needed to push more.

So, there was a bit of a miscommunication call.

And then we had some really good chats on Friday night

about what I needed to go better for.

For the rest of the weekend.

And they just gave me the team granted me the freedom

to do that.

To go out and not crash the car,

but really go and try and find those last 10s.

Because when you look at these guys

who are really good at shooting at shootouts like Fini

and Ryan Wood,

and probably Chasmost at Waters,

like they are just out there hanging out out

and go on for it.

And, yeah, the team gave me that freedom to go and do that.

And I wasn't worried about crashing the car

and bang, we were on the front row on the Saturday there.

And then for me, that's carried into this year.

Just having the team are probably around me

just go out there and do whatever I need to do.

And sometimes we're going to crash.

That's just is what it is.

In their defence too,

I mean, they made a big commitment to car,

solid change.

And probably there's a build in that for them

as an organisation.

I think to begin with,

there's someone described it to me that,

you know, a race team in a workshop

adjacent to Cool Drive,

it was changing, wasn't it?

Yeah, there's so much going on with the team,

like everything in the background,

obviously me replacing someone after the first round

is a bit awkward and just,

yeah, we didn't have heaps of sponsors

to keep the whole thing rolling

and everyone was just trying to keep the whole thing afloat.

So, and I'm very aware of that.

I'm not out there just to go and crash the car

every race just for the heck of it.

Great fight, both ways.

Yeah, exactly.

They'll fight to back you and then, yeah.

Yeah, so then, yeah.

And then just going forward,

we just, yeah, it was just so good to have that open

on this communication about what both sides needed

to perform and I think it's paid off

and we got Jimmy this year or another James coming in

and we can both just go out there and have a crack

and it's clearly working for both of us so far.

When did the kind of opportunity perhaps open

to come and play here for you

and how you felt about that given that you'd

shine some good form of premiere and things like that?

Yeah, I can't really remember exactly,

but it was probably around the mid-year.

There was discussions starting

and obviously I'd put a lot of time

and effort into premiere,

moving up to Queensland and all that sort of stuff

and ideally, you know,

I'd rather commit to a team early

and stay there for a longer term

and really work towards something.

But it obviously wasn't really working out there.

We struggled a lot last year

and this opportunity come up.

Could you tell that it was growing,

changing on the improved sort of stuff?

Yeah, definitely.

There was a clear plan of what they wanted to achieve,

things they were doing,

what they were putting in place to get there as well

and just what I've seen from Tim

and how they were going about it,

the people that had in the team,

the people that were getting on board.

There was a lot of positives

and I really found it hard to find a negative.

So I thought it was a great opportunity

and yeah, really just took it with both hands

and believed in it.

I had a few people in my corner to help me out

and be a really grateful to them

and also just everyone else that's got me

to this point along the way.

You know, through Carding

and you have all different people help you out

and form a lot forward

without any of one of those people along the way.

You wouldn't be here.

And I really feel like I've found my home now

that I'm going to be here for a long time.

Nice. Nice.

You almost came with,

you know, I met you on a Baptist 1,000 trophy.

Did you?

How do you feel about that now

with the benefit of time and stuff?

Still podium.

What are we nice?

The salary would have gone up a bit

a few hundred thousand.

Yeah.

It was just, honestly,

it was great to be a part of it,

to be honest,

to race for the lead in that race

is something I dream of doing.

As a kid, the first time I went...

And tricky conditions too, mate, and all sorts of stuff.

Yeah.

It's something I dream of doing

from the first time that I ever went to a Baptist.

And that was with Gary Rogers as well.

I just remember him saying to me that,

as we were driving around the track on the bus,

he said, see, that concrete wall there?

That used to be a barboy offense.

I'll never forget that.

That he was racing around there.

That's what it was.

So it was just unbelievable.

Regardless of the actual result,

it was just stoked to be a part of it.

And to have a crack at the lead,

I think anyone would, you know,

accept the DNF to attempt to win that race.

So to be able to still stay on the podium was awesome.

Do you feel it?

I'm like, which is going to come and play to this year?

Richie's down away too.

Is it going to be a nice fit for him, do you think?

Yeah, really good.

So it's been awesome having Richie on board already

at the test earlier this year.

And being part of round one with us,

it's been a good help.

And I think we're really going to be in a good position

heading into the Enduro's this year.

Richie's a weapon driver.

We all know what he's capable of.

And I think with the right environment,

which we have, it's going to be fantastic.

That's the end of part one of my podcast

with the Blanchard Racing Teams,

James Golding and Aaron Cameron.

There's a part two all set for you to enjoy.

We published it at the same time as part one.

So no delays or waiting a week or two for it to drop.

Jump back to the garage library,

fire it up whenever you're ready.

There'll be moments where the intensity

of the Supercar's competition this year

makes for a tough round or a tough weekend.

Equally, that second half of the pod

will give you a sense of this crew's commitment

to ensuring that what happened at round one

at Sydney Motorsport Park isn't just a one-set.

And that the ingredients are in place

to help them be in the fight on a regular basis.

It's all ahead here on Rusty's Garage.