Sept. 19, 2025
What Racing Teaches You When You're 9,000 Miles From Home
Send us a text At age nine, Veronica McCann received racing gear for her birthday. Now, decades later, this Perth, Western Australia native is still pursuing her passion across two continents. Nicknamed "Red Hot Ronnie" for her distinctive auburn hair, Veronica brings a refreshing perspective to dirt track racing that bridges Australian and American motorsports cultures. From winning a track championship at Perth Motorplex at just 19 to placing third in prestigious Australian series for thre...
At age nine, Veronica McCann received racing gear for her birthday. Now, decades later, this Perth, Western Australia native is still pursuing her passion across two continents. Nicknamed "Red Hot Ronnie" for her distinctive auburn hair, Veronica brings a refreshing perspective to dirt track racing that bridges Australian and American motorsports cultures.
From winning a track championship at Perth Motorplex at just 19 to placing third in prestigious Australian series for three consecutive years, Veronica's competitive spirit is matched only by her willingness to learn. She candidly shares what drove her to pack her bags at 21 and fly alone to America to chase racing opportunities, describing the courage required to leave her close-knit family and how this journey transformed her personally and professionally.
The conversation reveals fascinating contrasts between Australian and American dirt track racing approaches. While her home season follows a regimented schedule from October through April, Veronica's recent Tennessee racing adventure introduced her to the more spontaneous "winging it" style of American racing—deciding where to compete just days before events based on tire compounds and prize purses. This adaptability has expanded her racing toolkit in unexpected ways.
Now balancing her own dirt late model team in Australia with a professional role managing speedway operations at Perth Motorplex, Veronica embodies how racing passion evolves throughout life's seasons. Her story resonates with anyone who has stepped outside their comfort zone to pursue their dreams, proving that racing's greatest lessons sometimes happen far from home. Follow her continuing journey on Facebook at Veronica McCann/Red Hot Racing as she takes what she's learned from American dirt back to the Australian racing scene this October.
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00:00 - Introduction to Women's Motorsports Network
00:56 - Meeting Australian Racer Veronica McCann
01:55 - From Junior Racing to Sprint Cars
04:29 - Family Influence and Racing Beginnings
07:25 - Challenges of Finding Sponsorship
13:02 - The Competitive Spirit and Learning Process
17:45 - Racing in America vs. Australia
27:36 - Racing Setup and Team Dynamics
35:12 - Racing Challenges and Ongoing Motivation
43:33 - Working in the Motorsports Industry
51:28 - Episode Closing and Final Thoughts
WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, the show that puts the spotlight on the incredible women who fuel the world of motorsports, from drivers to crew members, engineers to fans and everyone in between.
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We're here to celebrate the trailblazers, dreamers and doers shaping the sport we love.
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Each episode we share inspiring stories of females of all ages, from every corner of the motorsports universe, past, present and future.
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It's a journey through the seasons of life filled with heartfelt moments, laughter and a whole lot of horsepower.
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So, whether you're a lifelong fan, a racer yourself or simply curious about the extraordinary women behind the wheel, settle in, relax and enjoy a fun and uplifting ride with us.
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This is the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, connecting and celebrating women in motorsports, one story at a time.
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Let's hit the track.
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Hello everyone, this is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network podcast, and today my guest is Veronica McCann.
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Hopefully I said that right, veronica, and if not, you can straighten me out in a little bit.
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Veronica is joining us today.
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I'm happy to have you on the show, so would you first start by telling us a little bit about yourself?
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Yeah, definitely.
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So.
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My name is Veronica.
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I am actually from Perth in Western Australia.
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Right now, though, I am based out of Tennessee, because I'm over here doing a little bit of racing, some dirt track racing.
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My background is all dirt track, all in Australia, a little bit of overseas racing, yeah.
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Awesome, and did you race dirt in Australia?
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Is that how you ended up coming over here, or is this something new for you?
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no, so my, my whole background.
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I started racing when I was nine years old, so many many years ago now.
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Uh, my, all dirt track racing, so all speedway oval track.
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Um, I came over to the US in my my early 20s and and tried to make a bit of a swap over to asphalt racing, so moving into paved ovals, and then I went back to Australia again, continued on with dirt track racing.
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So that was to summarize it.
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It's through junior categories, then moving into a senior category, I stepped into sprint car racing and it's sprint car racing that ultimately led me over here to the US, just to to follow the path of some other guys that have done it prior to me doing it.
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And, yeah, I still race dirt track in Australia and it's super cold at home now so, and it's nice and warm over here.
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So I've got a car owner over here who reached out to me last year and, yeah, we just decided to put a little bit of a holiday together for me and a little bit of a program together, and I've just done my fifth week racing over here in the US and I'll head home shortly.
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Okay, I wonder.
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I was going to ask you how much longer were you going to get to be here?
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One more week?
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Oh, so you're almost done.
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Almost time to go home Almost yeah, yeah, unfortunately Now when you go back home, will it be?
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how soon will it be race season there?
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For it'll be a while yet no, so I'll get home in.
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I'll get home mid-september, uh, and then our season starts.
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Our actual racing season starts second week in october, um, but prior to that we've got a rebuild to do on.
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So I own my own Dirt Lake model team in Australia and we've got a little bit of work to do on that prior to the season starting new colours and wrap and rebuild of the car, which isn't a massive rebuild this off-season.
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And then we've got some media stuff to do a bit of a media day, a launch as a part of the series that I compete in.
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That's all prior to the season starting.
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So when I get home, it's going to be busy, busy yeah, it's that.
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It sounds like it's going to be busy, busy, and I always laugh because people who are not in motorsports talk about the off season and there really is never an off season.
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It's if you're not racing, you're doing other things.
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It's, it's continuous, for sure, yeah correct, tell me about?
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Tell me about your car.
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What kind of car is it?
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You know um how fast does it go?
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And you're?
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You're obviously racing for someone.
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You're racing someone else's car here and then when you go home.
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So tell me about both of those cars.
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So dirt light model racing they're, um, if, if you're not familiar with it, it's an american-based class.
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Uh, they run them regionally and nationally here in the us.
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We in australia we adapted the national rules, um, in australia, so the national rules that they use here in the US were probably about 20-odd years ago and the class is, you know, continuing to grow.
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It's very strong in my home state and basically that means that we can load a container with a couple of cars and ship that out to Australia and race the cars as is.
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So JetLight Model Racing is what it is.
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I run a different brand of chassis back home, so I run a rocket chassis over here in the US I'm running.
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This is a Team Zero car by the late Scott Blomquist, who passed away last year, unfortunately, and engine wise, the engine rules are fairly open in the in the category.
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So at home it's, and here it's essentially like an old school push rod carburetor setup.
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So you can have anything from a CT525 crate engine, which some guys do and I run back home in Australia.
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To you know, you can have a 410 cubic inch, 430, 450 wide bore, you can have whatever.
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So that's the beauty of the class when it comes down to track changes over the night.
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That's where the horsepower aspect kind of gets taken away.
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So hence why you can kind of have an open engine rule.
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Yeah, yeah, that's.
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That makes a lot of sense.
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It sounds like it's a pretty exciting life that you have.
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How did you end up, you know, getting into motorsports?
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Who exposed you to the world of motorsports?
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so we blame mom and dad for that.
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Um, my dad is a.
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He's a ex motocrosser and enduro rider.
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So I I don't really remember I got I was obviously went to the track when I was little, um, but I don't really remember going there.
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But I do remember my dad had a fantastic group of friends that he used to race with, and most of the guys there they had kids that were mine and my brother's age.
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So we grew up around this amazing group of people and I felt like if we weren't at a racetrack or watching some form of racing on TV with these other families, we were away camping with those families.
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So I feel like I had such an awesome childhood that was definitely motorsport related.
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I've got a brother who's three years older than me.
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He started racing cars.
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My dad was looking for something for him to get into and the usual sports sort of didn't fit the bill for him.
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So, um, and he kind of took a liking to racing this junior category that was based in New South Wales, in Sydney, new South Wales, which is where I'm originally from.
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Uh, and then at the time I actually couldn't start racing straight away because there was a, an age, a starting age limit on it.
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So I had to wait about a year to be able to do it.
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And then, as soon as I turned nine, my ninth birthday, um, my presents were, you know, helmet, gloves, race suit.
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So I was, I was, you know, I was in heaven and I finally got to start racing.
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So that is that's where I started, so just just just kind of grew up around it.
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I didn't really know any different.
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My parents certainly got me into other sports, you know, through school, and I was a ballet dancer right through my my schooling as well.
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So it's just that racing cars kind of was the one that I couldn't live without, was the one that I couldn't live without.
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Yeah, it gets in your blood.
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That's what we say about this sport.
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You can't deny that for sure.
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So is there a specific moment that you remember, when you first started racing, even as a little girl, that you knew this was something you were going to do for a long time?
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I reckon I was 13 or 14 when I probably was like, okay, I'd actually like to make a career of this.
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And so I reckon, 14 years old, the goal was always to come over to the US and try and race.
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Reckon, 14 years old, the goal was always to come over to the US and try and race.
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Um, how you do that as a 14 year old?
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Uh, the age differences between Australian uh drivers and and US dirt track drivers over here in the US they start them a fair bit younger, um, whereas you know, 14 was quite young for me to probably turn around and go yeah, I want, I want to race cars and I really want to give it a shot overseas.
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So, yeah, I reckon it was a 13, 14 age bracket where I just sort of went I love this, I don't want to not do it, and you know we'll figure out a way to always make it work.
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And then it's always very different when you hit your you know the, the years where you transition out of a junior category to a senior category and sometimes the funding from you know, mum and dad normally fund the junior career for most people.
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And then when you transition into a senior career and you start having to find funding yourself.
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And you know I was very fortunate, uh, with mum and dad.
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We went into sprint car racing straight from my junior career, uh, and then when I came over to the US, then that's when they decided to you know, this is back in early 2000s um, they decided to.
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You know that they were going to sell up because they had, um, you know, funded my, my sprint car racing, you know, modestly.
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So it wasn't.
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You know, we weren't a super hollywood team or anything like that.
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Um, but you know we had good equipment and some good spares and and, and that was it.
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But, um, yeah, when I kind of started coming to the US in the early 2000s, I guess I figured I'm going to have to try and make something of this and figure out how I can run my own deal back home in Australia.
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And that's what I ended up doing.
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I run my own team now and it's been.
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It's hard work, but it's very exciting now, and it's been.
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it's hard work but it's very exciting.
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Was it hard for you to find sponsors coming to the United States, where maybe you weren't known very well yet or you know?
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It was kind of a learning curve, I'm sure, for you to race in the United States somewhat and then to find sponsors.
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So how difficult was that.
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Very my trips in the early 2000s.
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I was surrounded by a small but very good group of people who assisted me to be able to get my foot in the door.
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Lynn St James was a massive mentor for me in in the early 2000s.
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Um, you know, she allowed me to stay in her apartment, uh, while I sort of chased this dream and those kind of things are priceless right, because there's a living cost that's then taken away so I really only needed to.
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You know, when I was back home in australia, I was working and I really only had to try and save up money for food and travel and that while I was over here.
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And then, you know, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time where we spoke to some people from the IRL and then that's how I got my foot in the door for Indie Lights, what was Indie Pro at the time.
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But as far as the searching for sponsorship side of things, I because I haven't done I essentially haven't done very much racing in the US so when I was chasing the pavement pavement deal, um, you know, I we went to a sports management company, uh at the time and that kind of they they had a.
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There was another sport that was having a bit of an issue, so they kind of dropped all their other categories at the time.
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So that was a bit of a letdown but they were fantastic, you know, with handing me my information and that.
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But to try and find sponsorship from the other side of the world to do something, you know, on the opposite side is just it's hard, um, it's it's very hard and and motorsports a very financial sport.
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It takes a lot of money to to move up.
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Um, so ultimately for me, uh, I ended up going back and and racing in Australia.
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So I did another season, uh, back home in a sprint car at the time, and then I took a few seasons out.
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Personally, um, you know, because it was I spent a lot of time going back and forth between America and and Western Australia and I'd raced non-stop from nine till, let's say, 23 at that stage so, and not really had a break, um, so I took some time out.
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When I finished up in the US and I had a couple of surgeries on my back from a back injury that I had sustained racing cars and and that was sort of my time to grow up and go.
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Okay, if I'm going to have the surgery on my back, I probably need to be grown up about this and actually take some time out and let myself properly recover.
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For if I do want to get back into it and then bad thing having time out of the sport, but the good thing was is that it lit the fire in me again to to want to go back in and give it another shot.
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So that's when I actually started up.
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My I think I had about five years out of the sport and just giving my body a fair bit of time to recoup and then also letting that at that passion sort of come back, and it came back in a big way and I started my own team and, um, you know, ultimately that's led to the opportunity to come over here and and just you know it's not fair.
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I'm certainly not making any money from it, um, but it's just to come out here and have it skid in on some dirt tracks and I tell you it's been so much fun.
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I've had an absolute ball over here.
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Yeah, you know.
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So I grew up around asphalt okay, there really were.
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There's only one dirt track that I can remember where I grew up, which was in West Central Illinois, and then I moved to Michigan and it's all it 99% asphalt.
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So that's what I'm used to.
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But if you're not, if you've not grown up around it, and then you get introduced to it.
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It's addicting as well because it's so fun to watch and you know the way they slide and the and just all the things, the way they take the corners and things.
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You just have to love it.
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And I, you know the way they slide and just all the things, the way they take the corners and things.
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You just have to love it.
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And you know I have flow racing.
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Well, I have a bunch of streaming, but flow racing I just there's nothing good on TV in the summer.
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And I'm on flow racing watching all kinds of tracks all over the country that I could never go to on a weekly, monthly basis.
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And yeah, I'm so, I'm so spoiled that I get to watch all that.
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And then I've, you know, I I come across names like Veronica McCann and different people and and I'm like, wow, that's cool, there's a young woman that's racing and and I love seeing that, um for sure.
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So you'll go back to Australia.
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You're going to fix your car now.
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What kind of car do you race in Australia?
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so the same kind, same class, um, basically, that I'm racing over here, it's just a different brand of chassis, um different engine combination as well to what I'm racing over here.
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So you know small differences, um, but essentially same class.
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Uh, and you know, if I I essentially could ship my car over here, or this car that I'm running back home and race it yeah, okay, and so tell me about your your successes and then your frustrations, because one thing we do know is that every night at the track is not a success, unfortunately, but yet there are nights that are surprisingly successful.
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So tell me about that part of your journey.
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What do you do when you have a bad night?
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And then tell me about some of the successes you've had.
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Bad night is always a learning night, unless, I don't know, unless you do something drastically wrong.
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You know you try.
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I think you know most people who you know and I'll say you get to get to my age and they've been racing for a long time.
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You don't do it just to make up numbers, you do it because you're competitive.
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So I still feel very competitive.
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I feel very competitive at home.
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Um, coming over here was was an eye-opener and I wasn't oblivious to that.
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Um, these guys over here get to do so many more laps than than what we get to do in Australia, so our season's quite restricted compared to over here.
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So you know, coming over here is like a you know arse whooping pretty much.
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Sorry to say that, but it's you know.
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They just get so many more labs and if you can't learn from the experience then you're probably not doing it right.
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You know, like I know that I'm going to driver than what I came over as.
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And I feel, you know, like I said before, I feel like I'm competitive at home, as it is across the country, so not just in my state, but across the country.
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I learn from the guys who are better than me all of the time at home, and then what I've learned here in the us, uh, you know I, I know I'm going to be able to use those skills and and go back home and, and you know, hopefully be a better driver.
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But as far as the frustrating stuff, I'm uh, I'm a bit of a I.
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I do dwell on things, um, because I'm competitive and it's it's incredibly frustrating if you're having multiple races in a row and then, and then you're one before you know a week's break is your bad one, because I feel like I dwell on that a whole bunch more and you can't go and rectify it right.
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So if you're racing back to back to back, you have enough, enough shot the next night to make up for that.
00:19:52.192 --> 00:20:03.007
And when you have the bad night on your final night before a break, that's what's tough, like I struggle with that Definitely.
00:20:03.186 --> 00:20:05.532
Yes, successes.
00:20:05.532 --> 00:20:08.008
Yeah, successes over my career.
00:20:08.008 --> 00:20:22.813
Yeah, successes over my career, like as a junior, I won series championships, track championships, titles, and that's, I guess, what helped me progress straight into the sprint car ranks.
00:20:22.813 --> 00:20:32.299
I think it was in my second season in a sprint car I won a track championship at the Perth Motorplex, which was pretty damn cool.
00:20:32.299 --> 00:20:38.287
I think I'm one of the youngest in the country to do that, which is also pretty damn cool.
00:20:38.287 --> 00:20:40.027
I think I'd won that at 19.
00:20:40.027 --> 00:20:47.814
And then we have a very prominent series in Western Australia.
00:20:47.814 --> 00:20:57.512
The sponsorship of that series changes over the years, so it was called something different when I ran it, but these days the Mannington Toyota Sprint Car Series.
00:20:57.512 --> 00:21:06.623
I ran third in that series three years in a row, which is all a nice little tip to have on your racing resume.
00:21:06.702 --> 00:21:10.269
So I've had some decent successes.
00:21:10.269 --> 00:21:14.262
Have I won a whole bunch of feature races in multiple categories?
00:21:14.262 --> 00:21:33.756
Um, you know, no, but championship wise, I feel like I've always been, you know, a half decent championship contender, um, but I'll always credit where credit's due for the guys who, who you know, can win championships and feature races.
00:21:33.756 --> 00:21:39.932
And you know, and because you can only learn from that, you can only learn from them and what they do.
00:21:39.932 --> 00:21:54.300
So I'm just I'm, you know I'm in my um, you know appreciating everything for for what it is phase of my my racing career and I'm not doing this to become a professional.
00:21:54.300 --> 00:21:58.730
I've just turned 42, so I'm not doing it to become a professional.
00:21:58.730 --> 00:22:00.480
I do it because I absolutely love it.
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:15.433
My life has been around it since I was a baby and I really enjoy doing what I do and the fact that I've got to come overseas and do this has been pretty special and something I'll always remember.
00:22:16.661 --> 00:22:27.092
Yeah, because you know, just going to another country to get that experience and you know, even like I'm a huge NASCAR fan.
00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:36.529
So, Shane Van Giddensbergen, you know, came over and, and he, you know, I I just love hearing him talk about the things he had to learn.
00:22:36.529 --> 00:22:39.342
That are different, and he was very successful.
00:22:39.342 --> 00:22:41.207
I'm sure you know, you're aware of him.
00:22:41.207 --> 00:22:42.871
He was very successful.
00:22:42.871 --> 00:22:54.275
But when he came over here, things are so different and and yet you know he's learned so much and he's, and, and yet you know he's learned so much and he's he's progressed so much in the short time that he's been in NASCAR.
00:23:03.299 --> 00:23:10.744
And then if he went back and started racing again, you know in New Zealand or where I'm sure I thought that's where he came from, but whatever, he would have things to take back with him that those drivers have an experience, and that's what you're going to do.
00:23:10.744 --> 00:23:19.903
You've learned from the bank and are banging and bumping, you know of the American dirt car racing series.
00:23:19.903 --> 00:23:27.746
And then you'll go back home and you'll have more time under your belt, more experience and more things that you've learned.
00:23:27.746 --> 00:23:30.761
That's just going to make you that much better back there.
00:23:30.761 --> 00:23:33.410
So I bet they're not looking forward to you coming back.
00:23:35.864 --> 00:23:39.328
I think I've always said laps are.
00:23:39.328 --> 00:23:42.574
You know, I call it laps, so laps are so hard to beat.
00:23:42.574 --> 00:23:58.013
And when there are quite a few Aussies that do come over here, especially in dirt track racing, that come over here in the sprint car ranks and not so many in the late model ranks that I'm from, but you know we definitely do have, you know, one or two come over every Australian off-season.
00:23:58.013 --> 00:24:11.628
They'll come over and get laps over here whilst everyone else is at home and they've got their cars stripped down ready for, you know, their off-season servicing and prep and laps are so hard to beat.
00:24:11.628 --> 00:24:16.878
So when, yeah, yeah, I can't say it any better than that.
00:24:17.461 --> 00:24:22.104
No, that's true, and you know we call it seat time, the more seat time you have.
00:24:22.104 --> 00:24:25.261
That's really what it is, so how do?
00:24:25.261 --> 00:24:25.563
You.
00:24:25.563 --> 00:24:28.371
You know I've got so many questions.
00:24:28.371 --> 00:24:37.093
I'm so interested in all the things you're doing, so tell me first what series and where are you racing here in the States.
00:24:40.085 --> 00:24:52.028
So this is the very different thing that I'm not used to and you were just talking about Shane Van Gisbergen and the things that he had to learn so quickly and I'm telling you, it's not necessarily the things in the car.
00:24:52.028 --> 00:24:58.904
For me, a lot of it, the inside, the car part, was the most comfortable of my whole experience here in the us.
00:24:58.904 --> 00:25:01.891
It's the, everything else that goes on.
00:25:01.891 --> 00:25:14.535
So I'm so as an with our season, it's very regimented as far as I know where I'm racing at home, from October right through to April or May.
00:25:14.535 --> 00:25:50.035
Even so, my calendar is basically set, whereas over here so because I didn't follow a national series I stayed in the Tennessee and Kentucky area Over here you have your choice of, especially in the category that I'm running over here you have your choice of, especially in the category that I'm running over here, you have your choice of five to ten tracks that you can go and race at and, uh, you know, on a wednesday, a tuesday or wednesday night, here we're sitting in the shop and then we're looking at okay, so what tires do we have, what series do we want to go do what?
00:25:50.035 --> 00:25:52.642
Because different series run different tire compounds.
00:25:52.642 --> 00:25:58.673
So we're looking at that, then we're looking at just a normal, a regular dirt track show.
00:26:00.021 --> 00:26:02.887
So it wasn't a particular series that I followed.
00:26:02.887 --> 00:26:05.593
It was a a lot of winging it.
00:26:05.593 --> 00:26:07.701
I've called this this whole time I've been here.
00:26:07.701 --> 00:26:22.839
I've said we're winging it, we're winging everything, because you've just got so many choices as to where you want to go and if you want to follow a, you know for the car owner, a prize purse or um tire compounds or whatever you want to follow.
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:28.469
You've got your choice of what you want to do, so the options are endless.
00:26:29.309 --> 00:26:35.490
And then that's a learning curve for me, because I wasn't given a schedule prior to coming out here.
00:26:35.490 --> 00:26:42.209
So I had nothing set in stone as far as I knew I was going racing and I knew I was going to be able to go racing multiple times a week.
00:26:42.209 --> 00:26:51.434
But it was very foreign for me to not have a schedule set out.
00:26:51.434 --> 00:26:58.208
You know from July through to September and me know exactly what tracks I'm going to be at, where and when.
00:26:58.208 --> 00:27:01.094
I guess you could do that.
00:27:01.094 --> 00:27:09.019
But the issue is, you know your tires that are left over and the compounds to run.
00:27:09.019 --> 00:27:15.113
Whatever series you want to run or follow, you know for that Wednesday night or Friday night or Saturday night, and so it's.
00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:20.721
It's like I said, it's been very foreign for me and that's been a learning curve, but it's actually been.
00:27:20.721 --> 00:27:28.529
It's been a whole lot of fun, because a lot of the time you don't even know what other competitors are turning up, depending on what series we were going to.
00:27:28.529 --> 00:27:32.221
We didn't know you know who was going to turn up.
00:27:32.221 --> 00:27:37.330
You roll up to a track and you know there could be 18 cars, there could be 35 cars.
00:27:37.330 --> 00:27:44.811
So yeah, it's been, it's been interesting, it's been a learning experience, but it's yeah, like I said, it's been, it's it's.
00:27:44.992 --> 00:27:50.150
I've had so much fun so how so is this where your car owner lives?
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