James Golding & Aaron Cameron | Part 2 - determined to prove SMSP was no fluke!

A list-snuff production.

G'day, it's Rusty here all set for part two of my podcast with James Golding and Aaron

Cameron.

The BRT Supercars drivers coming into the studio for a fun roundtable convo that will give

you an idea of just how well this pair is getting on, and the off-season step that the Blanchard

racing team has made, a little lit, I guess you could say, on over-enthusiasm or great

expectations, there is real positivity in that squad.

If you haven't caught part one yet, jump back to the library, give it a listen, because

it sets up the early career paths that Jimmy and Aaron followed and the hard yards that

both did to make a life in motorsport genuine hard yards too.

We have a few laughs along the way, you'll enjoy listening into the conversation, but if

you are all up to date there's only one thing to do.

Let's launch it to part two then, here we go.

I'm told, reliably, you're very inch-perfect with some things, some might even say a

little OCD.

Is this true?

Is this true?

You mean CDO?

OCD now has been a lot of.

Very good, I like that shit.

No, I don't think I'll do that.

Definitely a little bit, but yeah, I think for me it's obviously my background as a mechanic

from Garroge's, the feedback I believe that I can give to team of what's going on with

the cars.

Pretty handy, I've also, that's something that as we started the conversation and mine

said in all that early days, there was times where I was probably getting too involved,

thinking too much about that when I needed to be thinking more about the driving and really

found that happy medium over the last sort of five to six years of where that needs to

be and being able to give the team the info they need to make the car as best possible

for me.

Then obviously working with Aaron as well, he's super fast.

I knew that going into this season was going to be a good combo because we'd go about

it a bit differently and I know that Camo kind of jumps in and just sends it, which is

good too.

He doesn't think too much about the technical side of it because sometimes you can be thinking

about that and if you have someone just go out and drive fast, they can prove whether

it's, you know, it's good or bad thing, they might not be able to tell you when, well,

how it happened.

But it's just another, you know, it's a lot of data and then I can sort of back up what

I'm feeling to him as well.

So I think that's going to make us a strong combo as well.

Do you feel like this is a yin and yang thing that you're working quite collaboratively

working well, the pair of you?

It seems like you are.

Yeah, I reckon it's going to grass.

These are where we don't use often enough anymore.

It's just such a good, like the way he described it so well that, yeah, he's probably more

into describing it perfectly where I'm a bit more laid back and don't really.

Obviously, I care about the result, but I just want to get in there and just, I'll just

drive the car to whatever it's got and then give some basic feedback and then afterwards

me and him and the team can really decipher about what's going on and look, it's probably

the same with, I felt a big difference with Richie coming on board for the weekend.

I've got Zach Bess as my co-driver, but just having those guys around and that extra

feedback with someone of Richie's experience has been a big help and, yeah, I'm really

excited.

It's only where any one round in, but I'm really excited for what we're all going to do

this year, I think.

I really believe in this team.

I often overuse the word ingredients for it, but it is the sum of all these different

parts from understanding maybe, let's say, like, triple eight traits, let's say the

investment by the blanchards, let's say the personnel involved.

And we always say one percent is doing the one percent is better, but it seems like

over some are there's been this another step at BRT.

Yeah.

Yeah, 100%.

I think we got a lot of people on board during last year and figuring it all out, but

it's, when you're in the middle of a race, it's hard to actually implement a lot of big

change.

So the boys have haven't had much break over the Christmas, so they've, yeah, completely

stripped the cars back to just chassis only.

A lot of teams just go by a new chassis, but we believe in supercars and the original

chassis wasn't everything.

It wasn't like everything.

The whole thing completely just steel got repainted and, yeah, they've just built everything

and both mechanics on each car working on both sides, just making sure the cars are

exactly the same.

And I think that's a big part of why our feedback is so similar is because the cars are exactly

the same, except for some buttons that Jimmy keeps moving in the car, a few colors here

and there that aren't.

I mean, it's not that long with the rainbow.

When did you think then, I mean, it's only one round and that's your little caveat,

right?

But when did you realise, hey, we've clicked here, we might be on to something good for

Sydney Motorsport Park.

Was it Thursday?

Was it before you even got there?

When did you?

When we were starting on the front row, we were going to get up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I actually, I had a good feeling heading into the first round and I thought that we're

in a good place.

We're going to have a good round.

To do that round one as well.

Like, honestly, I was heading into this year hoping that we'd be, I was targeting where

we are now at the end of the year.

So to roll out there, I don't know, it's only one round, but pretty impressive, though,

my prediction.

Yeah.

And, you know, day after day, we had the pace.

It wasn't like we just got it right and we, we changed one instance.

Yeah.

There was no time last year with BRT that I believe that both cars made the top 10 in every

qualifying session during the weekend.

And yes, we had some mistakes in the race.

We've got to, we've got to work, we still got plenty to work on in the race and the

strategy and making sure we're maximising it, but to have pure speed or weekend was, yeah,

just big satisfaction for us.

Yeah.

Tour of air was brutal for you too, mate.

Were you able to park that and just sort of like, right, like I've got a reset here

for, for SMSP?

Yeah.

I did.

It was, um, it was pretty full on, um, not something you want to remember, but, um, I was

lucky to get away, basically on the scale from it.

I think I'd just few bruises here and there and just lucky the angle that went in, um,

embraced myself well before it as well, just without thinking about it, put me head back

and that sort of thing.

So it was like reduced any weird blaster or anything that could happen.

Yeah.

Um, but yeah, after obviously it was, it was difficult to go through that and then know

that I had to launch into round one of the supercars and basically nail it straight

out of the box with that being the last time I drove.

Um, um, but yeah, having the test day and when I first rolled out the feeling I got

in the car, um, was so good that I knew that we were going to be in a good position

for that round.

I just, I just felt the car and knew that regardless of, you know, where the setup was

and getting it exactly right, I knew we're going to be there about because I felt a good

car underneath me.

Excellent.

Strike over that kind of confidence.

So now that means like in the wake of round one, we're talking on the eve of the, the

Grand Prix.

Does that mean your expectations are great or it's just about replicating the same thing

again?

What approach are you taking into Albert Park?

I think it's, it's a bit of both.

I mean, it's set up a bit of a precedent, but, um, I think what we've got is we've got

a good base that that's kind of going to be the target now.

It's not, it's not like, oh, I hope we can get it right this weekend.

It's like, it's there.

We're just got to get it in the window.

It's not like if we don't get it right, we're going to be down the back.

It's like, we don't get it right.

We're going to eat that, you know, that's the feeling I'm getting with the car because

all the work that's gone in, um, to get it to where it is is, um, is what's made the

difference and, you know, the setup stuff is, is just those last little bits in the

lap.

So yeah, it's, it's a huge confidence boost and that's another good thing as well.

I wasn't into this round.

Everyone's got confidence.

What's the reaction been like internally for all the, you know, you talked about all the

hard work over at summer and stuff and that must have been a great boost for the guys

and girls there.

Yeah.

I think it is like having been there for like a little bit longer than Jimmy and we, and

they've done a couple of seasons now and when you come back, it's, and you do all the

work and then potentially you don't have a great result round one.

It doesn't inspire you necessarily to keep working hard and keep doing the extra hours

that these mechanics and, and crew do.

But then when you come back with a couple of trophies, a pole position from Jimmy, it just,

I mean, it gives a crew a really good boost to keep working hard and making sure we are

absolutely nailing and it just validates all of the work that they're doing behind the

scenes.

So like me and Jimmy are working hard and we always do well, but so much of it comes down

to what the cars they can build and I don't even know how to describe it.

Jimmy's more of a mechanic than me, but like all these 1% of stuff that is just making

a huge difference for us and, and our job this weekend is to go out there and, and consistently

being that, I think in that top 10 group, we don't have to win, we don't have to get podiums

sort of thing, but we just want to have the speed to be able to, but we could.

Yeah, we could definitely, I'll take a podium if it's there, but we just, we just want

to, I really want to just validate that kind of thing.

Yeah, I don't want it to be just a flush in the pan of, yeah, well, could it Sydney?

It needs to, we need to back it up with some solid speed.

So what have you done in the gap between us and Miss Pee and here do you get a chance to

relax?

Is everyone sort of redoubling their efforts?

Because they want that to keep going.

How do you find that little balance in all of that?

I think it's not about trying to reinvent the wheel too much.

I think it's, take the positives, definitely fix as much of the negatives that we had.

To be honest, from my side of it was actually a pretty average round in terms of things

going wrong.

So we actually had a fair bit of bad luck and to come out of around, you know, 11th in

the championship and that was what felt like a bad round.

Obviously, the raw pace of the car is what gave us a lot of those points, but, you know,

if it was a smooth week and I honestly felt there was three podiums there comfortably.

So yeah, to have that as like, oh, that was not too great in terms of things happening

that didn't go away was, was a really positive thing.

And I think, yeah, now we've got to not get too carried away and think that, oh, you

know, it's going to be easy now.

But also, don't try and reinvent the wheel.

We know we're capable of doing it.

Just make sure everyone's doing everything right, then we can replicate it because that's

really what makes a difference, like Camo is saying about everyone in the whole team.

Everyone's jobs just as important as far as I'm concerned.

It's about getting all those little things right and I really feel like the team has come

together and people from all different teams as well, different experiences, different

cars, all that.

And it's all just jowled right at the right time.

You brought up the Brody scenario before, I mean, share what you feel comfortable with

how you've, you know, debrief that in your mind.

Yeah, oh, look, it's, yeah, have you spoken to it?

Oh, we spoke on the mind there at the right day, but that was nothing really.

We both said our comments in the media or whatever and for me, it's the incident happens

and there's probably stuff that I'll do differently next time and just disappear into space.

Yeah, I think you've got a doubt I reckon.

Yeah, yeah, I don't, I'm trying not to go into it too much because it's, it's something

that happened at Sydney.

We've all set our sides of it, but there's no point, if I say something about it again,

he's going to get someone to ask him that question and we're just going to keep, I love

what super cars have done about making it into something for the media and for everyone,

but there's no need to hop on about it.

Yeah, exactly.

That's great, but that's a smart choice for you to apply it that way.

Yeah, so look, we'll, yeah, just go out there this weekend and do the best we can and

look, my mindset changes about a bit about the way Brody races and I understand his

mindset now.

So I think that's going to put me in a better position for next time we're on track together.

If you like your super cars, there's lots of guests to keep you entertained in the garage

library.

Over summer Rusty spoke with Will Davison, who looked back on both his stints with DJR

and why the first one is special to him.

Only time in my career, I still say to this day, I felt like I was myself, like I'd go

in every day and I, I can never get back to who I was then.

I don't know, the sport damaged me or let me put my, this shield up, I've just never

felt like I've been out would have been myself since.

It's part of a two-part feature episode with Will, who is relaxed and open in the

Convo, a bit like Camo and Beaver really.

Let's get back to that Convo now.

What have you two done today?

Do you, do you want a bit of pre-events?

Plenty of flying.

Plenty of flying.

I flew in for starters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, um, yeah, don't to fly myself.

Yeah, we went down to I fly in, in Essendon here and the guy tried to teach me to fly and

that's kind of.

Indoor Scott.

Like three-four in color.

Yeah.

Like internally within the, yeah.

Yeah.

And yeah, I'm just not very good with.

Are you a control freak?

So you're not, you're not coping well with?

I just couldn't put my hands in.

Yeah.

And he was spinning around and didn't know why.

Exactly.

I was just spinning around at the moment and then it was just like it was stuck in a washing machine.

Yeah.

I couldn't tell, my brain was telling my legs to do one thing, they weren't doing that

and then the guy was just like, you're just hopeless and then, he wasn't that bad.

He's not going to say how worse it was.

Did you not do it?

Did you not do it?

Did you not do it?

Yeah.

Not before though.

So.

Yeah.

He had a leg up.

Jimmy was, I think, really solid.

Yeah.

But then the guy got in at the end, the instructor dude.

And made me look like I've never done it before.

I've never done it before.

He was insane doing these flips and going all the way up to the real thing.

It was like, we thought he flew out the top of all the way back.

Yeah.

That's how high I feel.

See, yeah.

I'm not going back there again.

The wind speed, I think, and the max is out at like 280 clicks and I think we had it

on like 100.

Yeah.

And I still couldn't control myself.

120.

I swear my arms were like laying out straight and this diamond platform like he told me

all this blah, blah, blah.

I'm seeing a bit more of a perfectionist side and you're actually not happy and like he

thought you were doing all the right things.

Yeah.

Oh, I trust me.

I come off relax.

I did miss an apex and I'm still 20.

Yeah.

That's what I'm hearing.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

We had so much fun at eye fire this morning.

It was incredible.

It's crazy how much like tiny little moves in your arms.

Oh, perfect.

What it does.

So how much has Sydney maybe changed things for BRT and for yourselves in some ways?

It's not like you weren't known, but great performances.

Front row.

Everyone talking about it kind of thing as it made phones light up a bit more.

You don't mitches in here at the moment.

Are you doing a bit more in the way of PR and things?

What's it done?

Yeah.

Mitch is making his work hard.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

He's pointing at the merch.

We sold out a merch, which is the first time for BRT.

On the Friday too.

Yeah.

We didn't get to the weekend.

Oh.

I had some of the guys I deal with in the commentary team there.

They were like, people were in the lane.

I go, who are you supporting?

What are you?

Oh, no.

We're going to be out there.

We bought the merch and dice.

We're supporting them for this weekend, you know?

Exactly.

We were last in pit lane.

And after we'd have a good qualifying result, we usually have to qualify.

Jimmy, there's no one at the back of our, like on the back of pit lane area.

After qualifying, we'd have a good result again.

And there's just people everywhere.

It's signing organized autographs, taking photos just to get to the truck.

I love the truck.

It's love an underdog story, don't they?

I mean, it's got a bit of growth coming out of that sort of situation, doesn't it?

Yeah.

That's good.

Yeah, it's good to be a part of it.

And I think, yeah, it's just going to keep growing.

So any support we can get.

Thanks everyone for that.

And, yeah, hopefully these can come with a journey with us to the top.

Talk about the journey to the end of the year then.

Let's hope that they could look back at the end of 2026.

What would you have loved to have chalked up along the way?

Dream would be a bathist or, you know, more race wins and things.

I think to have both cars into the finals and at least one of us into the top four would be pretty big.

That'd be huge.

Yeah.

That'd be amazing.

Like, I think I'm probably definitely a winning one.

Yeah, all right.

At some point.

It's the whole final series.

Maybe talk to you guys and the whole, maybe the whole paddock about, you know, a way to approach it this year and so on.

Maybe a minute ago.

That's not a criticism.

That's not a criticism.

That's not me.

It's not just saying like about the way you might go about the year or is it just just keep doing what you did at City Motorsville Park in that sense.

Well, I suppose from my point of view, I don't think it has the racing still just as aggressive as ever.

At City Motorsville Park with Brody on that last lap.

Like, it's.

Yeah, no one's just going to collect points.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And the move.

I mean, Kai Allen round the outside at turn one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Pretty big.

I don't think he was like, oh, the second's good enough.

Hmm.

He was, he was willing to not finish.

I think to win that.

So, um, which is awesome.

That's what you want.

That's what we want.

Yeah.

Just one of the most.

And obviously their bonus is a bigger if they win.

Obviously.

What has been at the pointy end of BRT from the, the Blanchards themselves?

What's been the reaction to the past couple of weeks?

Oh, I reckon JV like John Blanchard, he was just the whole weekend just in this state of

shock almost.

Yeah.

I just didn't.

Obviously we was even that shocked.

He sort of lost his marbles a bit because he picked up my phone off the bench pretty pocket.

And I'm running around before the race.

Oh, he's got the phone.

He's got a phone ringing it.

I've got the bloody phone my phone on.

It's nearly called the police.

Yeah.

And then he's picked up.

Oh, what's this?

Oh, it wasn't buzzing saying what's phone on it.

Oh, hang on.

It's not mine.

With that though, we nearly missed the race just because Jimmy had lost his phone.

We did not.

Oh, everyone had to stop what they're doing just to find Jimmy's phone.

It was, yeah.

There was a lot of important things going on, but Jimmy's phone was more important.

More important.

But no, JV yes was, yeah, I don't know why you grabbed your phone.

So I haven't figured that out.

I think, yeah.

John and Tim are both, both pretty stoked.

I think they're just, they're not getting too carried away because they want to see it again.

Yeah.

Pressures on us.

Which is same with us.

It's, it's just so good for them.

Like they're, they've put so much into this sport and not just in super cars,

but all the other categories they support people in and to have an Australian business,

like cool drive, just back arson.

Now Jimmy, this year to make it all happens.

It's incredible.

I'm so happy for him to get the reward because it is easily could have been another year

of just us just cruising at the back.

Yeah.

It's not going to be that.

Can I wrap up with a couple of things here?

This has been great just to sort of shoot the breeze with you both.

Thank you.

Firstly, over summer, we had a couple little DMs whilst working on the series in New Zealand

and so on.

You've got a broad love of motorsport.

Even some of the young guns that were coming through, you asked me about Freddie Slater

who's now got an Audi junior development contract and so on.

You got quite a broad following of it, do you?

Yeah, I love watching.

I love watching all sorts of motorsport, including motor bikes, motor GP and,

I don't know.

I love the stories that go with that.

I did some stuff over in the Middle East this time last year and Freddie was racing a new

go.

Then I had some British mechanics now telling me all about Freddie and what he's going on

doing.

They really, the British guys really believe in Freddie to make it to F1 and be the next sort

of Lando Norris.

That was Hamilton's sort of spec, guys.

That's why I was so intrigued and I really wanted to do it.

You did get him on for a little short cast podcast.

Big podcast, guys.

As well as you, as you can tell, so it's so cool to hear some of your story.

Cool.

We'll get to see him in Formula 3 this weekend.

Are you, are you Indycar Formula 1?

Do you do it?

Look at that stuff where you took up a take a breather for.

F1 bit of Indycar.

Not, I'm not sort of every session kind of guy.

You're just still on the decks tuning your DJ music.

Is that what you say?

No, not really.

No.

I like to just mix it up.

Yeah.

I don't, I don't have a real consistent.

I do a little bit of everything.

Can I finish with maybe a little project that you either have and are working on or

would love one day?

I quite often ask guests if they've got a Murth built that and had some assistance with it.

That amazing Dodge Charger.

They're like lots of the drivers.

I've got a little project car or one on the wish list.

Have you got something that you, maybe an old go kart that you've restored or something or other?

Have you got something like that?

I've got multiple.

I've got my Shane title winning KZ kart, which is still in pieces and I need to put back together.

So I've been put on the wall.

That's awesome.

And then my dad's still got one of the old Tarana and an X-Race cars that I have left in the shed

for a while and it needs an engine and all sorts of different pieces.

Yes, I drove them for a bit when I was younger, but I have a bad history of, I'm not very mechanically.

I was trying to be like the mechanical sympathy type thing, but I just can't do it.

Every time I got them things, I'd either blow an engine, blow gearbox.

I literally welded a diff together.

We had to grind the thing out.

We had a welder.

Yeah, exactly.

It was just incredible how I do these things.

You were very good in the fab shop, mate.

Is this true?

Exactly.

Don't ask the boys and me in the fab shop.

That was shocking.

I was just welding to get the old bits of metal and I still couldn't do that.

Love it.

What about you?

Have you got a little something like that or maybe something you'd like to do one day when Tom permits?

I would mind doing an old go kart.

Have you kept one?

Or you haven't knit-knit?

No.

Actually, I've still got my Australian championship winning car.

That's on the wall in Dad's shed.

But yeah, I wouldn't mind doing an old Ford Mustang.

Shall we?

You see seven kind of thing.

I wouldn't do an original crank it up a bit.

Probably like a burnout car or something.

Summon it.

We love that.

Tom is going to be to see you've got a massive schedule.

I hope that the merchandise sells out again this weekend.

I hope you both have the same kind of form that you took into City Motorsport Park.

Rapidly you're both looking so happy, enjoying the environment.

Have an awesome 2026 and I look forward to catching up with you both along the way.

Thank you for coming in today.

Thanks, Matt.

Appreciate it.

Thanks Greg.

Cheers.

Rusty's garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.

Series editor and producer is Joel Harrison,

audio production by Link Kelly.

If you've got a guest suggestion, get in touch with me on social media.

The garage, it's where a journey begins with a tank full of passion-fuel stories.