July 21, 2025 • 51 mins
In this episode of Screen to Speed podcast powered by INIT eSports, the Lyubov interviews Bex Betman, a New Zealand native who shares her lifelong involvement in motorsports. Bex discusses her early years growing up around cars due to her father's and stepfather's influence, her transition from Speedway to circuit racing, and her love for Japanese cars. The conversation covers Bex's experiences in various motorsport disciplines, including time attack, drift racing, and her plans to enter endurance racing with her Mitsubishi Evo. Bex also talks about her daughters' involvement in racing and how she balances family life with her passion for motorsports. Additionally, she touches on the supportive racing community in New Zealand and her aspirations to drive on international tracks. The episode highlights Bex's practical approach to car building and modification, her experiences with different racing events, and her stance on the representation of women in motorsports. So buckle up – Screen to Speed starts now!
===== (Oo---x---oO) =====
00:00 Meet Bex Betman 01:36 Dirt Racing in New Zealand 08:26 Time Attack and Drag Racing 11:30 Balancing Family and Racing 15:07 Community and Events 18:56 Challenges and Gender in Motorsport: Her Daughter's MX-5 Racing Journey 26:58 EVO Build and Racing Duties 29:41 Plans for Upcoming Racing Season 33:57 Endurance Racing Aspirations 42:25 Dream Tracks and Future Goals 47:38 Final Thoughts====================
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Copyright INIT eSports. This content originally aired on the INIT Talks livestreams via Twitch. This episode is part of the Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Screen to Speed,powered by Init eSports.
In this podcast, we dive into thejourneys of remarkable individuals
making waves in sim racing andbridging the virtual with the real.
From the thrill of digital circuits to theroar of real life racetracks, we explore
the passion, dedication, and innovationthat drives the world of motor sports.
(00:20):
We'll hear from athletes, creators,and pioneers sharing their stories,
insights, and the powerful ways simracing is connecting communities and
creating pathways into motor sports.
So buckle up screen to speed starts now.
(00:49):
Happy to see you on any talks today,and we got, uh, beautiful Bex Betman
today with us, uh, welcoming Bex.
Hi.
Nice to be here.
Yeah, nice to meet you too.
Uh, so hope you're doing well today.
And, uh, let's start, uh, from where,where are you from, first of all?
Uh, because I, I can see you goodmorning, also as I in Kazakhstan
(01:12):
and it's, uh, 6:00 AM right now.
Um, well, I'm from New Zealandand we're a little island in
the Pacific Ocean, miles away.
And yes, it is one, uh,1:00 PM here Friday.
So the future looks good, everyone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(01:33):
So yeah, it's winter for us.
That's nice.
Uh, so let's start with basic, uh,so how you get into motor sports,
how you get involved into this.
Uh, so where your, uh, journey started.
Um, I sort of had no sayin it when I was younger.
My dad was a mechanic and I was justsort of brought up around cars and
(01:54):
then my stepfather was the same.
And I sort of grew up at theSpeedway Track, which is a dirt
track here for um, new Zealanders.
And then as I got older, I was sortof determined I didn't really like
Speedway as much and I wanted to givethe tar sales stuff a bit of a go.
So I think even as a young teenager,we all had cars and were driving around
(02:14):
and we all sort of, um, we're a countrywith a lot of, um, Japanese cars.
Mm-hmm.
So in the early nineties.
So we sort of had every Japanesecar available and that's sort
of what we grew up driving.
Honda Civics.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
The old sky.
Yeah.
I learned to drive in my mom's skyline,so it was kind of just stemmed from
(02:34):
my childhood really, of what optionswere there for us to drive around in.
And being a girl from thenineties, we all drove manuals.
Mm-hmm.
And.
That's sort of where it started.
That's really cool.
You know, I think that, uh, somepeople will be jealous that you got
all these, uh, Japanese cars and,uh, they, uh, really, you know,
(02:54):
available not really far away from you.
It's really cool, uh, becauseI bet so many people, like in
United States and Europe also, uh,struggling to find a decent like
skyline or something like this.
So it's really cool.
Yes, they definitely do.
We didn't sort of realize howgreat we had it back in the day.
Mm-hmm.
And like back then you wouldn'trealize, like with the internet
(03:17):
now, everyone knows everything.
Back then you didn't realize actuallyhow fun it was to be honing around
and what we were growing up in.
Mm-hmm.
And as I say, my daughter, her,her daily driver now is a skyline.
So they're still very common here.
Mm-hmm.
And we wonder what.
Yeah, we, we know now why they get a bitjealous 'cause they are great with cars.
(03:39):
We get jealous.
We didn't get a all muscle cars.
That's true.
Okay.
And also another one thing you, youtold me that, uh, you got dirt ovals.
In New Zealand, uh, this is reallysurprising me because, you know, usually
you're thinking like, oh, in UnitedStates, uh, this kind of racing, this
category is really popular, but you'renot thinking that somewhere else on, on
(04:02):
our planet, uh, this can be popular also.
So can you tell me more about thedirt rolls and, uh, like how people
get, get here and, uh, like how bigthe community in New Zealand also.
Speedway is huge in New Zealand.
Um, there's a lot of sponsors andall sorts that go into Speedway here.
(04:23):
Um, basically every town in NewZealand has a speedway track as to how
big depends on the size of the town.
Mm-hmm.
But there's always dirt tracks.
New Zealand for people to go on.
Depends how well, how big yourbudget is really in terms of a lot
of motors sport in New Zealand.
But I don't have a lot to dowith the Speedway community now.
(04:44):
But the events that I'vedone out at Speedway recently
are the demolition Doobies.
Mm-hmm.
So you get an old car.
Normally an old Japanese car, sorry,America, but um, and you hang around, they
put a ramp in it and you go over the rampsand you crash into each other pretty much.
And that's done on thedirt track and I love it.
(05:04):
They do one here on Boxing Day,and that's my biggest stress
relief at the end of the year.
Year.
Mm-hmm.
Was to go out and just match up acar and drive around in circles,
not not care in the world.
After those you come on.
Oh,
so yeah, no, dirt racing is very big here.
(05:25):
Yeah.
Uh, sprint cars mainly, there's a lotof money tied up in the sprint cars
here and I think my uncle used toactually build them some for some time.
And, um, no, it's just, I sort ofsteered cleared a, because once
I found my we community, I, yeah.
Sort of fell in love with what I do now.
Yeah.
But no Nelson's Speedway, Speedway around.
(05:47):
I better say that for my cousin.
Yeah, I can agree with youabout, uh, demolition derby.
I didn't try this in real life, but Itried so many times in breakfast with
community and with other streamers.
It was, uh, like ton of fun.
So it's really cool.
(06:07):
Uh, category.
I like it.
Highly.
Yeah.
Highly recommend trying one.
All right.
And stressful, as I'm aware you withMitsubishis right now with evil.
Yeah.
And, uh, so what drew youinto, uh, that car and, uh,
like switch sky into this one?
(06:28):
Wow.
My Evo, I have three daughters.
Mm-hmm.
Mitsubishi Evo.
Mm-hmm.
Is a reliable family car,
reliable.
I will refuse to have apeople mover or a big wagon.
When I had daughters, I'm like, no,you'll never see me drive people
(06:50):
mover like a big car, like a. Mm-hmm.
And I considered my Evo firstoff to be a good family car.
Mm-hmm.
Needed a bigger motor,it needed a bigger turbo.
I needed to modify it, and then itbecame not such a reliable family car.
(07:10):
Mm-hmm.
That's really cool.
So yeah, my journey.
Yeah.
That's nice.
You, you balance with, uh, with motorsports and, uh, family life and evil.
Just perfect car for this.
I dunno, my daughter might disagreeabout the room in the back seat, but
(07:34):
she might not agree.
But we managed to squeeze the car seatsin and yeah, they, they had a ball.
Years, no.
Yes.
Cards prior to the poor Evo,but um, yeah, it's boroughs.
As I say, we're veryJapanese car orientated here.
(07:55):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, everything was sort of Japanese.
It was just a normal car thatyou would drive every day.
Mm-hmm.
Um, the trucks like a Toyota, theToyotas, again, Toyota had a Land Cruiser.
Mm-hmm.
UX has a Toyota Hilux.
So yeah, they're very common here.
We've had several arguments with theAmericans on what we call the vehicles.
(08:17):
Mm-hmm.
Because they all have different namesfor all these different vehicles.
Yes.
All right.
And, uh, you actually start, uh, totake apart in time attacks, uh, events.
Uh, so can you tell memore about this also?
That seems to be my genre of racingat the moment is the time attack.
(08:39):
So it's one lap.
One lap matters.
Mm-hmm.
So you do need power thathas got enough power.
That's all to do with the arrow andthe downforce and how you can quickly
get that one as quick as you can.
So if you blow up afterthat lap, who cares?
Yeah.
With my background being firstoff drag racing, I built my
(09:03):
evo say for, um, drag racing.
Mm-hmm.
So my goal is to do aten second quarter mile.
Mm-hmm.
So we do quarter miles here.
That's a 10 10 like and fastand furious ten second run.
Mm-hmm.
So I did ten second run and thenI was like, oh, that goal's done.
What do I do now?
So I went into more time attack'cause I like running, doing laps.
(09:25):
Mm-hmm.
So that was sort of how we builtthe time attack car really.
And I like the engineering side ofit in terms of like the body and the
function of the cars and vehicles.
Mm-hmm.
So I. Lot of time sort of designingdifferent parts of it and different
downfall, different ways to mm-hmm.
Make it faster.
Pretty much.
(09:45):
Yeah.
That's nice.
Uh.
Was it how I got involved with, yeah.
Uh, was it really hard for you to likeswitch categories and, uh, actually, uh,
get used to, uh, this fast times with, uh,with corners with everything and working
on the corners, working on your lineand, uh, to be, uh, the fastest on track?
(10:09):
Yeah.
I'm still working on it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
But yeah, I think you can never, everstop learning or never stop progressing
with it with yourself and with the car.
Mm-hmm.
I've had issues years and years withthe car, and then that's made me
fail as a driver because when thecar's not playing ball, neither am I.
(10:29):
So when you go home and your car'shad a bad day, so have I. Mm-hmm.
And then when you are on.
Car's not, it's heartbreaking, but yeah,it comes with the territory and sadly
it comes with your budget too, here.
And I'm really happy to have a fewsponsors on board who have been
great and getting the car running andkeeping things going, keeping me going.
(10:51):
Mm-hmm.
And.
Like you couldn't do it here in NewZealand without a bit of help and yeah.
That's how a lot of people here endup just going out street racing.
They probably do in every country.
Mm-hmm.
But I say to anyone, just stick at it.
Keep going.
And you, you get there,you learn a lot as you go.
Mm-hmm.
I think, you know, racing andlike motor sport is so expensive
(11:16):
everywhere and it's really cool thatyou having the support, uh, people
around you, support you in your, uh.
Like racing career, let's say like this.
Uh, and it's, it's really nice.
Uh, can you tell me more about, uh, howis it for you to race with your daughters?
Uh, so you mentioned, uh, before that,uh, they also race and, uh, how is it?
(11:41):
Um, my youngest, she's a twin.
She's just getting involved in itbecause I do a lot with the drifting.
Mm-hmm.
With helping.
But she wants to be thedriver, so she's determined.
She's only just turned 16, so she has onlyjust really got her actual road license.
Mm-hmm.
And she doesn't.
Events are motors, so itlearns a lot of cone work.
(12:05):
Teaches her how to maneuverthe car and handle it.
And she's progressing thatreally well this season.
And she's actually won thefastest female, I think it was
for the season, in her events.
So she's stoked with that.
So she's gonna keep going and progressing.
Mm-hmm.
And then.
And yeah, she will move into drifting and,but sadly, I just, it's, it's the budget.
(12:29):
Understand she's, she's doing this,
it's fantastic.
But yeah, you can only enter so manythings before you just can't afford.
So we spend on.
But as I said to her,that's how you learn.
That's how you learn.
When she breaks something, I wouldlike her to be able to help fix it.
(12:52):
Mm-hmm.
Not just hand it to someone else.
So yeah, she'll learn the hard way.
All right.
Uh, so how you balance, uh, being aparent, uh, also like mentor and, uh,
like racing driver with your daughters,how you balance this in your life?
(13:13):
Well, I'm sort of the mom that if I canafford to do it, I'll probably say yes.
Mm-hmm.
There's really nothing my girlshave thrown at me that I've gone,
oh no, I won't let you do that.
Mm-hmm.
So, anything they wanna,this one's laughing at me.
Have I just said no to you?
(13:33):
Can I go to America?
Yeah.
Can I go to America?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, yeah, I, I wouldnever say no to my girls.
There's not a lot thatthey'll come at me with that.
I'll go, oh, actually no,we're not gonna do that.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's right in them.
It's given them their independenceand it's teaching them they
(13:53):
have to earn it however.
Mm-hmm.
I think they can give everything a go.
I mean, some things are gonna bevery risky, but I'm yet to get a
moment with them where I've gone,oh no, we better not do this.
Mm-hmm.
Because, I mean, for me, they seeme do it, so I think, well they, I
might as well let them do it too.
(14:14):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's molded when a bit older to go out andget jobs, careers to then go, Hey, I don't
think nothing's gonna hold them back.
Mm-hmm.
There shouldn't be an obstacle.
For anyone to do it.
So you, I look at myself too,like, um, I'm my biggest critic.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm the only person in my life thatoften goes, oh, I shouldn't do that.
(14:37):
When everyone else is saying, go for it.
Mm-hmm.
So to them, I'm.
All the ones saying don't do it.
'cause I probably know that insidethey saying, should I be doing this?
So I think the best wayis to say it and do it.
She often only dents a panel or twoor what did she break the gearbox?
Yeah.
(14:59):
They're still making gear boxesfor MX five, so that's all right.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Uh, tell me about your, uh, favoriteracing events, which you take part in and,
uh, maybe together with your daughters.
Also, like the same track.
There's so many.
(15:19):
There's so many.
It's whether I'm helping out withthe event, being an official mm-hmm.
My daughter comes along down and helpsme with the drifting events for drifting.
I've sold my drift car.
We are building another onethough, so coming out of a timer.
But, um, my daughter comes along andshe runs the grid, so she helps get the
(15:40):
drivers ready to go and do their thing.
It's just great that she'sout there helping me too.
But the events themselves, there's soevery season, every event's different.
Every event someone else wins.
There's, you can have thesame winners, same losers.
You get your favorite drivers andwhatnot when you're helping out,
(16:00):
but you can't play favorites.
Mm-hmm.
But, um, so you makedifferent memories every time.
And I love just seeing every otherperson out there when they win,
all their crew, come together.
And how they celebrate.
Mm-hmm.
And you just become part ofthat vibe too, like when they'll
celebrate and when they're aboutto win, especially in drifting when
it's down to like the top four.
(16:20):
Mm-hmm.
And they're going into battles.
You just become part of that scene.
You just become part of thatlove that you want 'em to win.
Like you cry afterwards when they winand you partners the kids, all your
kids come together and just have anawesome time watching dad or mom.
There's some lovely moms out therewith their kids out there too.
(16:40):
Mm-hmm.
And it's just such a community,such a vibe to be part of,
to watch other people win.
Then I go him smiling because I'm like,wow, he's just had the best day ever.
Mm-hmm.
And then now my daughter's doing ittoo, and I can see that in her as well,
that she's just happy for other peopleto be out there doing it and she's
happy to support them and then go, wow,I'm, I'm gonna do this one day too.
(17:04):
Mm-hmm.
And then she'll get the support too.
So it's really awesome to be part of.
But I must admit, the latestevent we went to, and they call
it Highlands Motorsport Park.
Mm-hmm.
It's a very, very nice looking.
It'll be, if we got ever gotF1, it would be where we put
the F1 here in New Zealand.
Mm-hmm.
(17:25):
And it's, they don't like drifters though.
But this one event, they finally openedit up for a drift day and the track
got absolutely shooted up in tires.
Mm-hmm.
But.
Day ever.
And my daughter got to interview one ofthe, the famous guy who hosted a Mad Mike.
I dunno if you know him.
Um, a lot of people might know.
(17:46):
Mad Mike.
Mm, yeah.
Yeah.
My daughter.
I know him.
Do you know him?
And my daughter interviewed his son.
She always had this goal.
I want to talk to him andask him some questions.
Mm-hmm.
And he was more thanhappy for her to, to him.
So she's topped her bucket list,so she needs some more goals.
Mm-hmm.
(18:07):
Yeah.
So that was a very good eventto go to and be part of.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It's nice that you got, uh,seems like really friendly and
like family, family based, uh,community in New Zealand and racing.
Uh, it's really cool, uh, because I thinkit's, you know, it's really warm and, and
(18:29):
cozy when you got, uh, families and just,uh, it's really, uh, good atmosphere.
You got around.
Uh, it's, it's really nice.
Oh, it is.
Yeah.
And that's, yeah, that's sort of thewhole part of it that we do enjoy.
Is that you can go out therewith the family, with a group, a
group of your friends, your petcrew, and just have a good time.
Really?
Yeah.
(18:50):
It does sort of become wayfast and furious families.
As we, we talking here a lot about,uh, you know, how to be a girl in,
uh, motor sport community, in racingcommunity, uh, how is it for you,
uh, to be mom with daughters, uh, inthis racing community in New Zealand?
(19:12):
Uh.
Like, uh, do, do you, uh, have any issuesor maybe, uh, like no issues with this?
I don't as such, but I know itprobably does happen out there.
But if you go along to an eventand your main focus is just to have
good time, enjoy yourself, compete,help out, it doesn't matter whether
(19:36):
you're male, female, cat, dog.
Mm-hmm.
I think New Zealand.
I don't think we have this as much.
I may be wrong.
There could be people out there thatdo experience the female thing, but I
think in our community you are respected.
If you get out there and you'rejust doing what you wanna do.
Mm-hmm.
Once you put the helmet on, doesn't matterwhat's between your legs, literally.
(20:00):
Earn that respect for men and women andyou're just out there doing it because
you genuinely love what you're doing.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm, but it probably doeshappen, but I wanna say maybe not
so much in the actual racing sector.
Mm-hmm.
I'm guessing in the cast.
No, like we meet some things thatmay do, but I go to meet some,
(20:22):
we, um, women, men, we all justhave a really good time as well.
Mm-hmm.
And yeah, I think very lucky in NewZealand that we haven't got that stigma.
Mm-hmm.
Our stigma is that you, um, basicallyus old Japanese JDM people, we get a bit
ganged up on by the muscle car people.
Mm-hmm.
I think New Zealand's conflict iswhat you drive, not who's driving it.
(20:45):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And playing with the differentracing, like the Speedway boys
don't like, you know, people.
So I think that's our biggestbattle in New Zealand is
that we're a little country.
We've got some very talenteddrivers here, but, um, yeah, I think
it just matters what you drive.
You get a bit ganged up on whenyou're driving EVO and not a V eight.
(21:09):
Mm-hmm.
All right, so you got morebe battles about, uh, what's
better, like Subra Mitsubishi.
Yeah.
Yes.
That is horrific.
Those are the worst.
This is actually really, yeah.
You know, it's, it's really nice becauseI've been into carting from nine years
(21:31):
old and then I've been into open wheelersand formalists, and I can tell you that,
uh, carting and open village community.
Really toxic.
So they really care about like,oh, you, you like overtook me.
Like, oh, that, that's girl.
Oh no.
Something like this.
(21:52):
Yeah.
Even our open wheeler, boys andgirls, there's a lot of females
coming through from New Zealand.
Mm-hmm.
There's some awesome talent.
Our country, not to brag, butin both sixes and in a lot of
competition, we've got a lot ofpeople hitting off to like mm-hmm.
F1 or whatever you call earlyF1 development teams and that.
(22:13):
Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of Kiwigirls and boys coming to.
Yeah.
So I think if you can overtakeanyone, just just do it.
Make the pass.
Yeah, it's really nice.
You know, I moved to sim racingand, uh, I kind of see the same
thing as, uh, you know, a lot ofpeople, uh, racing in sim racing.
And, uh, particularly I'm in a racing and.
(22:35):
Like, you know, people usually reallywelcome to newcomers and, uh, they trying
to help you, trying to give you advice,and it's really easy to get into endurance
team if you want, uh, to be a part of it.
And, um, yeah, I'm just, I, Ireally enjoy this compared to
real life racing, which I had.
(22:56):
Uh, but once again, there was,you know, really competitive cars,
really competitive, uh, open wheelersand yeah, people, uh, you know.
Like fighting for their life on the track.
Oh yeah.
It's a battle every day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Something like this.
Yeah.
Was mostly with the car.
The car has to perform.
(23:17):
Mm-hmm.
You do have to know what every noise is.
Why is it doing that?
What's wrong?
How's this working?
Mm-hmm.
So you do, you have to spend hoursbehind the scenes with it too working.
Or Yeah.
So yeah, your pet creware your best helpers.
You're just the driver.
(23:38):
Mm-hmm.
But they make everything work for you.
Yeah.
You're lost without your helpers.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Fingers.
And I do, I, I take off to allyou some races 'cause I am shit.
Yeah.
The ripples, nothing feelsquite realistic enough.
And I, I, I'm, I'm, shit,
(24:01):
we wanna get one so thatmy daughter can learn.
The girls are like convincingme that it's a good move.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, we had a group of drifters, get realdrifters, get on them for a competition
night and yeah, we, we were, shit.
Yeah.
You know.
Um, I'm just thinking that, uh, you got,uh, really good involved, uh, from, uh,
(24:25):
GDM, uh, culture from Japan and, uh.
Actually, anime is reallypopular in, in Japan as well.
And you know, they really don't care aboutlike, who's, uh, behind the helmet, as you
said, and just take, take care about cars.
Yeah.
Yeah, you get picked on for what coloror what brand you represent most.
(24:47):
Alright, I got it.
Uh, we have big competitionover what ECU you run
and what tire.
If you're not running a certain tire, you.
All right.
And speaking about cars, uh, areyou working on a car together
(25:08):
with your daughter or likesomeone help you from your family?
Like, how you doing this?
Just one car or the lot?
Uh, like all cars, which you got, how,how you prepare them for competition.
Well, at the moment I've gotone another Evo being built.
(25:29):
Mm-hmm.
And that's gonna be a dedicated track car.
Mm-hmm.
Because my car currentlyis road legal to an extent.
Mm-hmm.
But now I've decided, right.
I wanna push myself that much further.
So I need a dedicated track car.
So that's, um, at tuners now, sothat's not far off being complete
and I've got a lot of the bodywork to still complete with that.
(25:49):
So that's when I'm hoping that mydaughter, she's taking an interest
in it, so she's looking at jumpingon board too and just helping out.
Mm-hmm.
Just learning a lot as she got.
Because then the next car weare building is in Nissan.
Nissan 180.
I've always wanted to own a dedicatedtrack, one of those, and we've got one,
and we're just gonna build that up oversummer, which will be your guys' winter.
(26:12):
Mm-hmm.
And, um.
And that's gonna be basically her, herand my drift car to start using again.
Mm-hmm.
So that's on the build.
Her actual dedicated track builds.
And then my daughter's got an MX fivethat's still, she races that now.
So that's what she's using.
Um, so then now we just need to tidythat up a bit for her because when
(26:35):
she does get her actual road license,she'll be driving it on the road.
Mm-hmm.
So she's gonna be learninga little bit more about.
How to fix that andcorrect things with it.
And, um, she busted her radiator,so she actually did that.
I watched, but she didthe bulk of it by herself.
Mm-hmm.
So at 15 she was turning, when youbreak something, you need to fix it.
(26:57):
Yeah.
But, um, the EVO builds sort of takenup a lot of our funds this year.
Mm-hmm.
So that's why I haven't been.
Racing, but I've been doing moreof the official duties this season.
But, um, not everyone's very excited forthis Evo to come out, so I'm excited.
Too nervous.
You're always nervouswhen you got a new car.
(27:18):
It's like when you go somewhereand you hope you've worn the right
outfit kind of thing, I guess.
Mm-hmm.
It's a lot of pressure on gettingthe right color or the right.
Oh.
Can't turn up for too manyevents with the same card.
Be like wearing thesame dress again again.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that old thing.
(27:38):
Oh, she needs a new one.
So, no.
So there'd be a lothappening for us over summer.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
No.
All right.
Uh, what color are youplanning to dye your, uh, evil?
(27:58):
Or maybe it's alreadyin the, in, in color.
Yeah.
Um, we've ganged with a sortof a family color theme.
We've thought my current VOis the gray, like the nto.
Mm-hmm.
Um, Audi Gray.
Mm-hmm.
So I've had that color on thatone, but I've gone with just black.
Mm-hmm.
Pouring old black.
(28:19):
But I'm a bit annoyed because I'vealso done a lot of like powder
coating and spray painting to mastera fluro yellow, so that stays.
Mm-hmm.
It's a very hard to getunless you're wrapping them.
So I've gone, right.
I wanna go fluro yellow.
So I've done helmet, I've done a lotof all my gear, and then I hate to say
it, but now I've seen Orlando Norrisis walk rocking flu yellow, isn't he?
(28:47):
Son and he stole my color.
Gonna be black with flu or yellow.
And then my daughter's doing blackand with a green like a mm-hmm.
Old greeny color.
So yeah.
Well we're sticking with black just'cause it's easy when you dent panel
and you break something, you can justquickly spray it black, can't you?
(29:10):
Yeah.
That, that's really cool.
Uh, so you're really practical.
Yeah, we have to be, and like I say, withthe Japanese cars, they were cheap here,
but parts are becoming very expensive.
Mm-hmm.
So the 180, we haven't gone throughtoo many guards and pieces off it.
(29:30):
I like doing a bit of fiberglass workmyself, so at least I can sort of.
Myself here and there.
Two years.
All right.
So you already already told meabout, uh, plans about cars.
Uh, what events are you planningto do, uh, when the racing
season, uh, will be here?
(29:50):
Um, just not aware.
You, you said that, uh, uh, it willbe summer for you when, uh, it's going
to be winter for us and it's, it'sactually winter for you right now, right?
Yes, we are the middle of winter.
Mm-hmm.
So winter's, let's build a car time.
Mm-hmm.
There's not a little on, so mydaughter's still doing things
(30:11):
throughout the winter season.
Mm-hmm.
And coming up to summer, not puttingmy name to a series in, I'm waiting.
Mm-hmm.
Because there's a lot of d. I cando, so I'm gonna try and get the car
dialed in first and sort any littleteething issues that I may have.
So I might just be doing test days andthings in it just to walk, get it used
(30:31):
to life and myself again, because I'll.
Last summer I had pretty major surgery,so I thought, oh, I'll wait and see if
I can bounce back that, which I have.
I'm doing good.
So, but um, yeah, Iwon't race a series yet.
There is a series herefor the endurance racing.
(30:51):
Mm-hmm.
So I do wanna get an, and then theycall a, oh, what would you call SS cup?
They call a series, which is basicallyjust open class saloon racing.
So most them are like a JDMshower with a motor, and you can
sort of be a bit unlimited withyour power in your vehicles.
So it's sort of likehandicapped, if that makes sense.
(31:12):
Like a handicapped class racing.
Mm-hmm.
If I go out there with 800 horsepower,I'm not gonna penalize a dude
just in a 200 horsepower car.
So it's pretty fair,pretty fair for everyone.
And that's sort of based on your lap time.
So I'll look at goinginto something like that.
Even in New Zealand, we might be a littlecountry, but it's still a lot of travel
(31:33):
to get to the other part of New Zealand.
Mm-hmm.
So it can cost a lot.
So my major plan would be hopefullyone day keep one of the cars on
the other island, go up north.
North we say, because they go up north.
So I'll leave one car upthere and then have one here.
Mm-hmm.
To sort of use going forward.
We do wanna branch out.
We've heard it now New Zealand.
(31:54):
I do wanna go up north.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And um, we've, I've talked and spoke withand met a lot of lovely people even within
New Zealand, who I haven't met, so mm-hmm.
It would be nice to go off and meetall these people and waste them mm-hmm.
In my mouth,
(32:15):
so, yeah.
So there's plenty to do and I, I mightbe 42, but, um, I think I've still
got a few years left in me to do it.
I, I, I think that, uh, it doesmatter, uh, like what age you got.
You just, if you got like, uh, physicallyyou can do this and, uh, like you
(32:35):
got motivation, this is all you needto go through and to keep going.
And in racing, in motor sports orin any other, uh, stuff in life.
I think so, yes.
Feel 10 years younger kids keep me young.
That, that's really cool.
Yeah, especially, you know, whenyou got the, your family, your kids,
(32:59):
and the same hobby which you doing.
It's, it's great.
It's just the dream.
We had an event not long ago.
I hosted an event and just like a hardpark where people come and park up
and even my mom came and got involved.
Mm.
(33:23):
You, you tell me about,uh, endurance event.
Yeah.
Uh, how long this endurance, uh, will be.
I'm just curious because I amjust in love with endurance event.
I really like, uh, to do thisteam event in some racing.
Uh, because usually working not only goingfast, but you also have to save fuel.
You have to work on a strategy,uh, work with the, like
(33:46):
steam schedule with the team.
It's really interesting.
Thing, uh, to do all the time.
And, uh, so, uh, what kind of formatof endurance event, uh, are you
planning to take apart in enduranceRacing is probably, it is quite
big in New Zealand and Australia.
Mm-hmm.
So like, if you're familiarwith series supercars Yes.
New Zealand and Australia have supercars.
(34:07):
Mm-hmm.
So.
They race against each other.
There's teams.
So there's a lot ofstrategy between the teams.
They keep changing the rules.
They change rules every season to do withhow they race and what they're doing.
Every race, I think, has different,like, sort of like F1 two with
different fuel, um, uh, pit stopstrategies and things like that as
(34:28):
to what the race is gonna entail.
Mm-hmm.
Here in New Zealand, um, we do,it's a south island endurance.
I wanna give a go.
Mm-hmm.
So within the one.
Your five different classes.
Mm-hmm.
So being in an evo, I'll be racingagainst like brand new McLaren's,
the new Aldis, all the Porsche GTthrees and, but due to being in an
(34:50):
evo, I'll be in the bottom class.
Mm-hmm.
If you don't mind, 'cause you'restill against some really awesome
top drivers and the main one theydo is one hours and three hours.
Mm-hmm.
Which is.
Standard, pretty standard timesfor most even our supercar series.
But, um, that's what I wanna getinvolved with more, is doing a
little bit more long-term racing.
(35:12):
Mm-hmm.
But sadly, when you're.
Car to be a time attack car.
You've gotta definitely change yourstrategy of how your car's even mate,
because my car will last what, two laps?
It won't last hundreds.
Mm-hmm.
It is very much also you and it'sdown to your car, how your car's gonna
be set up and built to handle it.
(35:32):
Mm-hmm.
So I'm hoping an hour one ago.
And then see what, see what happens.
That's why I wanna do a lot oftesting this season to try and get
myself and the car dialed in togo, yeah, I can, I can do this.
Mm-hmm.
And then go from there.
Um, 'cause there's some phenomenaldrivers, some phenomenal guys
in New Zealand that come outof endurance road racing.
(35:53):
Mm-hmm.
And that's what we love.
We don't have like NASCAR and America,the big ovals, we don't have that here.
I'd love that here.
'cause that's what I love doingin America, or that's what I
loved about going to America.
Mm-hmm.
But we do road courses here, so to turncorners and do everything like that.
And that's the endurancepart of it as well.
(36:14):
And that's part of it is youhave to be physically fit
to sit in the car for hours.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Um, our legend at the momentis we've got Shane Van Bergen.
They call him SVG OpenAmerica at the moment.
And he's winning all the road coursesbecause he is just, he can turn a corner.
He, it's how he breaks, it's howhe drives that car that's excelling
(36:37):
him against these guys who arejust racing oval their whole life.
So love him or hate him.
He's doing bloody well.
Yeah.
You know.
Like Supercars V eight.
Uh, for me, this is like top series in theworld, uh, together with like Porsche Cup.
Um, because these cars are sohard to drive, like no traction,
(36:59):
no a, b, s, and it's really cool.
All drivers from Supercars arereally fast and, uh, talented.
They are.
Yes.
It's hard to believe that in from twolittle islands across the Pacific Ocean,
we can produce such talented drivers.
Mm-hmm.
And have such an awesome that Yeah.
Can compete against the rest of theworld and shock them like they like.
(37:21):
He is
phenomenal.
I remember meeting him one nightin the pub after a drifting event.
Yeah.
But no, no.
Endurance is incredible.
(37:42):
Yeah.
Incredible.
And same again, with the vibe ofthe people that do that as well.
Mm-hmm.
And you're as strong as your teamand those you have around you.
Yeah.
To sort your car out.
Yeah.
Or to be picked to drivesomeone else's car.
That would be my goal or for mydaughter one day to have someone say,
right, can you come and drive for us?
Mm-hmm.
(38:02):
Yeah.
That's incredible for New Zealandersto get an opportunity to do.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, so this endurance went, you saidthat there'll be one hour in three hours.
Yeah.
Uh uh.
Are you going to drive alonein the car or are you going to
have a teammate in your car?
Four to one hours.
So for this season, for it,you do two one hour races.
(38:25):
Mm-hmm.
And then there's a three, so you can pick,I mean, I've gotta work out how it fully
works, but, um, when the three, you, youcan have a co-driver even in the hour.
But then the three hour Yes.
You, you, yeah.
You, you have a co, youhave a co-driver as well.
So you, the one hour, it's still an hour.
(38:45):
It's a lot.
Not of a lot.
We're probably gonna stick withour, and yes, I do have a friend
in mind for the co-driver.
Mm-hmm.
So my best mate willprobably be co-driver.
He's happy to do that.
His car's definitely built fortime attack or um, drag racing.
Mm-hmm.
So we'll definitely be for this, butit is something that we both wanna give
(39:09):
a go and yeah, so we'll probably doa one hour and see how that goes, and
then work our way up to the three hour.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
You, you took part in, uh,like time attack, drifting.
Uh, you're planning to do endurance.
Yeah.
Uh, what other motor sportdisciplines, uh, which you
(39:31):
secretly wanted to try one day?
Like I know maybe, um.
Motorcycle racing, maybe somehardcore drag racing in the United
States, something like this.
I feel like I'm a little bit too oldto be getting back on a motorbike now.
Mm-hmm.
But, um.
(39:52):
I honestly, I've neverdriven in an open wheeler.
Mm-hmm.
So, yeah, they're here, they race.
I've got a friend of mine who herhusband does them, and I've always said
to her, I said, how much is it gonnacost me to get a drive in one of these?
So I'm hoping I can tick thatoff my bucket list one day.
And my daughter would be quitehappy in pursuing having a go in one
(40:14):
of them too, to see how she does.
Mm-hmm.
So that's probably my bucket list,is to get in an open wheeler,
a formula 5,000, they are here.
And there's smaller categoriesthan that, but I'd just like to
give it a go in a single seater.
Mm-hmm.
I've never driven in one.
My dream is, of course, NASCARand the Oval, but it's a lot
that'll never come to New Zealand.
(40:35):
Sadly, we're not gonna be ableto get tracks like that here.
Um, the coolest thing was inVegas going to the NASCAR place.
That was very cool to see.
Mm-hmm.
It was closed.
The whole track.
We had the whole facility to herself.
The lady just said, yeah, go have a look.
Didn't have to tell me twice to drivearound the oval in the rental car.
Mm-hmm.
(40:56):
But it'll be cool to go to those events.
Yeah.
But, um, no.
Yeah, definitely the singleseater would be a goal of mine.
And if my daughter got into one ofthose and excelled and wanted to
keep doing that too, I'd be morethan happy to support her with that.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
(41:16):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're goingto like open V because it's absolute
different feelings, which you get.
I still remember guys, uh,uh, like, uh, came to our box.
Uh, they've been driving thePorsche GD three arrest and the
racing track to get it with me.
Like, uh, we had a practice, um, and.
They just, uh, came, came to me and theytried open v uh, this day and they told
(41:41):
me like, how you going fast with this?
It's, it is like, it's crazy.
You, you're sitting, you'resitting on your butt with a tarmac,
you know, really close to you.
Like, it's, it's crazy feeling.
So Yeah, it is.
I can imagine.
Yeah.
Yes.
So, no, that, that would bea very cool goal to, mm-hmm.
(42:01):
Yeah.
One.
It is very expensive.
You sort of gotta narrowdown what you're gonna do.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's expensive.
Yeah, really.
Uh, but I, I think worst try it, uh,definitely because completely different
feelings, uh, of what you getting fromthe like road car, uh, compared to it.
(42:25):
Can you tell me now, uh, what's,uh, your dream circuit to visit?
Uh, like for maybe time attack,maybe some road racing endurance.
Uh, so what's your dreamtrack you would like to visit?
Like in the future?
I would still have to say,uh, more of the NASCAR ovals.
Mm-hmm.
(42:45):
That fascinate me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To actually see them race and do whatthey do, the drafting, do everything.
Mm-hmm.
Would be fascinating.
Yeah, I still, yeah.
'cause we don't have that here.
Mm-hmm.
So it is something.
Like, that's so foreign tous that it would be cool.
And because I did go to one and Igot the buzz just from the empty
(43:08):
stadium, to see that packed outfor a race would be phenomenal.
Mm-hmm.
So any of the na, any ofthem, we went to Vegas.
But um, yeah, to go to any of thosetracks, Indianapolis, places like
that, that would be very cool.
Yeah.
Alright.
And then as my doctor.
I have to say, she would say we haveto go to every Formula One most.
(43:34):
She's a huge Daniel Ricardo fan.
Probably have to saythat too, for her sake.
She would love to see him come back.
But yeah, to go, we're gonna go tothe Melbourne F1 next year, so mm-hmm.
That would be pretty, that'lltake that off her bucket list.
So yeah, that would be pretty good.
(43:56):
All right.
And, uh, what trackwould you like to drive?
Maybe, I know, maybe Mount Panoramabecause, uh, for me, when I'm like
thinking about, uh, this part ofthe world, I've been into Malaysia
so many times, it's a punk,absolutely beautiful, wonderful trek.
Love it.
Uh, but you know, mydream, uh, will be like.
(44:16):
Drive Mount Panorama, at least forone lap because it's, uh, so exciting
with this app, heels and downhillsand also va supercar, uh, racing here.
So it's really cool trek.
Um, so what, what's your dream trackhere, like to drive by yourself?
Yes.
Um, I've driven around there.
(44:37):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That's really cool.
I'm jealous.
Is it's a public road.
It's a public hill.
So people live there.
Mm-hmm.
And then they just have the race.
It's set up as well throughout the year.
But yeah, it is a public road,so the people who live there get
awesome views of the Bathurst race.
(44:57):
They either go away for the week'cause it's absolute carnage, like
it's Oh, the drinking, yeah, the hangon the racing culture of Australia.
So a different breed.
Yeah.
'cause when I was little, mydad used to go quite a bit too.
Mm-hmm.
And back.
Was always the highlightevent of the Yeah.
(45:20):
Of the calendar.
So, no, um, yeah, that would be good.
Again, and, 'cause Iwas born in Australia.
Mm-hmm.
So, yeah, I grew up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, no.
Yes, but I dunno, an individualtrack, I, I'm still being way
away from anywhere in the world.
(45:41):
Us Kiwis.
Want to go and see all the otherworld tracks that you guys sort of
take for granted or see often enough.
Yeah.
I've got a friend now who's overin Europe and of course they've
gone to a few of the, I'd like togo to that good visit it Goods,
wood, the festival that was just on.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, it, it's Goodwood, isn't it?
Goodwood?
(46:01):
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that would be cool to go to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it'd be more, not so much a track,but more the event, which would be good.
Mm-hmm.
Alright, got it.
You know, in Australia Ilike also Philipp Island.
Great, great track.
Um, you know, not.
(46:22):
A big fan of, uh, European tracks.
Uh, not a lot of them.
Uh, you know, reallyinteresting to drive a thing.
Uh, I like App Hills, downhills,uh, tracks like this where,
where you got, uh, blind corners.
Uh, it's so exciting toraise them all the time.
Uh, so yeah, maybe one day I'll go,go to Australia for some racing, uh,
(46:44):
because you, you got really cool tracks.
Yeah.
Yes.
My daughter's like, they've beento Flip Island one a few times.
Mm. Yeah.
And the good news for us here, and I livein Christchurch and our local track, so
the track I help, I work at, um, we aregetting around the supercars next year.
Mm-hmm.
(47:05):
So supercar.
To our home track.
So that's gonna be really good tohave it here on the local track that
I drive every week sort of thing.
Mm-hmm.
So to have that event come to us isgonna be really great for next March.
Yes.
So yeah, I hope we offerthem a good, um, good race.
(47:26):
Good.
Mm-hmm.
Our track's very narrow here.
Our local track comparedto some of the other ones.
But yeah, it makes for someinteresting driving, some interesting
spots to have to try and overtake.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
And, uh, the last one will be.
Where people can find you, uh, onsocials and, uh, like to follow
(47:47):
you because you got a lot of plans.
And I'm really curious, uh, to see youin endurance racing and, uh, maybe, maybe
even in VA supercar, like in the future.
Who knows?
Oh wow.
A lot of my stuff is quite,um, humorous to say the least.
(48:08):
There's a lot of epic failsthat go on in the garage.
I. Of it.
If you can show your failures, then youcan definitely show when you succeed.
Mm-hmm.
Um, my known one is my Instagram.
Yeah.
I'm also known as b to Miss Prime.
Yeah, just uh, drop thelink to the chat guys.
(48:31):
I've always had a lovefor Old Optimist Prime.
I'm a bit robotic myself.
Um,
so yeah, so no BEUs Prime.
We, we have a TikTok.
Me and the girls post a lot of stuffto TikTok and you're only Instagram.
At the moment, there's a lot of stuffabout them learning to drive on the road.
Mm-hmm.
(48:52):
Because it's quite challenging nowto cross back over from racing on
track to learning the road rules.
Yeah.
So they battle a bit.
All right.
But yes, I'm not gamingstuff yet, but yeah.
One day I'll, I'll takethat off my bucket list.
You have to.
(49:14):
Alright.
It was, uh, nice to meet you.
It was.
So fun to talk with you, and I'm sohappy that you got a lot of plans,
uh, for your future in your life andyou're really motivated about it and
also your family involved into racingand it's really, uh, cool to see.
Definitely.
So thank you so much, Bex.
(49:35):
Taking your time.
Lovely.
I look forward to.
Yeah, some more progress.
Thank you so much.
Uh, guys, thank you so much for watching.
Uh, hope you had fun with us.
Uh, so we'll see you next time.
(50:02):
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Welcome to Screen to Speed,powered by Init eSports.
In this podcast, we dive into thejourneys of remarkable individuals
making waves in sim racing andbridging the virtual with the real.
From the thrill of digital circuits to theroar of real life racetracks, we explore
the passion, dedication, and innovationthat drives the world of motor sports.
(00:20):
We'll hear from athletes, creators,and pioneers sharing their stories,
insights, and the powerful ways simracing is connecting communities and
creating pathways into motor sports.
So buckle up screen to speed starts now.
(00:49):
Happy to see you on any talks today,and we got, uh, beautiful Bex Betman
today with us, uh, welcoming Bex.
Hi.
Nice to be here.
Yeah, nice to meet you too.
Uh, so hope you're doing well today.
And, uh, let's start, uh, from where,where are you from, first of all?
Uh, because I, I can see you goodmorning, also as I in Kazakhstan
(01:12):
and it's, uh, 6:00 AM right now.
Um, well, I'm from New Zealandand we're a little island in
the Pacific Ocean, miles away.
And yes, it is one, uh,1:00 PM here Friday.
So the future looks good, everyone.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(01:33):
So yeah, it's winter for us.
That's nice.
Uh, so let's start with basic, uh,so how you get into motor sports,
how you get involved into this.
Uh, so where your, uh, journey started.
Um, I sort of had no sayin it when I was younger.
My dad was a mechanic and I was justsort of brought up around cars and
(01:54):
then my stepfather was the same.
And I sort of grew up at theSpeedway Track, which is a dirt
track here for um, new Zealanders.
And then as I got older, I was sortof determined I didn't really like
Speedway as much and I wanted to givethe tar sales stuff a bit of a go.
So I think even as a young teenager,we all had cars and were driving around
(02:14):
and we all sort of, um, we're a countrywith a lot of, um, Japanese cars.
Mm-hmm.
So in the early nineties.
So we sort of had every Japanesecar available and that's sort
of what we grew up driving.
Honda Civics.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
The old sky.
Yeah.
I learned to drive in my mom's skyline,so it was kind of just stemmed from
(02:34):
my childhood really, of what optionswere there for us to drive around in.
And being a girl from thenineties, we all drove manuals.
Mm-hmm.
And.
That's sort of where it started.
That's really cool.
You know, I think that, uh, somepeople will be jealous that you got
all these, uh, Japanese cars and,uh, they, uh, really, you know,
(02:54):
available not really far away from you.
It's really cool, uh, becauseI bet so many people, like in
United States and Europe also, uh,struggling to find a decent like
skyline or something like this.
So it's really cool.
Yes, they definitely do.
We didn't sort of realize howgreat we had it back in the day.
Mm-hmm.
And like back then you wouldn'trealize, like with the internet
(03:17):
now, everyone knows everything.
Back then you didn't realize actuallyhow fun it was to be honing around
and what we were growing up in.
Mm-hmm.
And as I say, my daughter, her,her daily driver now is a skyline.
So they're still very common here.
Mm-hmm.
And we wonder what.
Yeah, we, we know now why they get a bitjealous 'cause they are great with cars.
(03:39):
We get jealous.
We didn't get a all muscle cars.
That's true.
Okay.
And also another one thing you, youtold me that, uh, you got dirt ovals.
In New Zealand, uh, this is reallysurprising me because, you know, usually
you're thinking like, oh, in UnitedStates, uh, this kind of racing, this
category is really popular, but you'renot thinking that somewhere else on, on
(04:02):
our planet, uh, this can be popular also.
So can you tell me more about thedirt rolls and, uh, like how people
get, get here and, uh, like how bigthe community in New Zealand also.
Speedway is huge in New Zealand.
Um, there's a lot of sponsors andall sorts that go into Speedway here.
(04:23):
Um, basically every town in NewZealand has a speedway track as to how
big depends on the size of the town.
Mm-hmm.
But there's always dirt tracks.
New Zealand for people to go on.
Depends how well, how big yourbudget is really in terms of a lot
of motors sport in New Zealand.
But I don't have a lot to dowith the Speedway community now.
(04:44):
But the events that I'vedone out at Speedway recently
are the demolition Doobies.
Mm-hmm.
So you get an old car.
Normally an old Japanese car, sorry,America, but um, and you hang around, they
put a ramp in it and you go over the rampsand you crash into each other pretty much.
And that's done on thedirt track and I love it.
(05:04):
They do one here on Boxing Day,and that's my biggest stress
relief at the end of the year.
Year.
Mm-hmm.
Was to go out and just match up acar and drive around in circles,
not not care in the world.
After those you come on.
Oh,
so yeah, no, dirt racing is very big here.
(05:25):
Yeah.
Uh, sprint cars mainly, there's a lotof money tied up in the sprint cars
here and I think my uncle used toactually build them some for some time.
And, um, no, it's just, I sort ofsteered cleared a, because once
I found my we community, I, yeah.
Sort of fell in love with what I do now.
Yeah.
But no Nelson's Speedway, Speedway around.
(05:47):
I better say that for my cousin.
Yeah, I can agree with youabout, uh, demolition derby.
I didn't try this in real life, but Itried so many times in breakfast with
community and with other streamers.
It was, uh, like ton of fun.
So it's really cool.
(06:07):
Uh, category.
I like it.
Highly.
Yeah.
Highly recommend trying one.
All right.
And stressful, as I'm aware you withMitsubishis right now with evil.
Yeah.
And, uh, so what drew youinto, uh, that car and, uh,
like switch sky into this one?
(06:28):
Wow.
My Evo, I have three daughters.
Mm-hmm.
Mitsubishi Evo.
Mm-hmm.
Is a reliable family car,
reliable.
I will refuse to have apeople mover or a big wagon.
When I had daughters, I'm like, no,you'll never see me drive people
(06:50):
mover like a big car, like a. Mm-hmm.
And I considered my Evo firstoff to be a good family car.
Mm-hmm.
Needed a bigger motor,it needed a bigger turbo.
I needed to modify it, and then itbecame not such a reliable family car.
(07:10):
Mm-hmm.
That's really cool.
So yeah, my journey.
Yeah.
That's nice.
You, you balance with, uh, with motorsports and, uh, family life and evil.
Just perfect car for this.
I dunno, my daughter might disagreeabout the room in the back seat, but
(07:34):
she might not agree.
But we managed to squeeze the car seatsin and yeah, they, they had a ball.
Years, no.
Yes.
Cards prior to the poor Evo,but um, yeah, it's boroughs.
As I say, we're veryJapanese car orientated here.
(07:55):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, everything was sort of Japanese.
It was just a normal car thatyou would drive every day.
Mm-hmm.
Um, the trucks like a Toyota, theToyotas, again, Toyota had a Land Cruiser.
Mm-hmm.
UX has a Toyota Hilux.
So yeah, they're very common here.
We've had several arguments with theAmericans on what we call the vehicles.
(08:17):
Mm-hmm.
Because they all have different namesfor all these different vehicles.
Yes.
All right.
And, uh, you actually start, uh, totake apart in time attacks, uh, events.
Uh, so can you tell memore about this also?
That seems to be my genre of racingat the moment is the time attack.
(08:39):
So it's one lap.
One lap matters.
Mm-hmm.
So you do need power thathas got enough power.
That's all to do with the arrow andthe downforce and how you can quickly
get that one as quick as you can.
So if you blow up afterthat lap, who cares?
Yeah.
With my background being firstoff drag racing, I built my
(09:03):
evo say for, um, drag racing.
Mm-hmm.
So my goal is to do aten second quarter mile.
Mm-hmm.
So we do quarter miles here.
That's a 10 10 like and fastand furious ten second run.
Mm-hmm.
So I did ten second run and thenI was like, oh, that goal's done.
What do I do now?
So I went into more time attack'cause I like running, doing laps.
(09:25):
Mm-hmm.
So that was sort of how we builtthe time attack car really.
And I like the engineering side ofit in terms of like the body and the
function of the cars and vehicles.
Mm-hmm.
So I. Lot of time sort of designingdifferent parts of it and different
downfall, different ways to mm-hmm.
Make it faster.
Pretty much.
(09:45):
Yeah.
That's nice.
Uh.
Was it how I got involved with, yeah.
Uh, was it really hard for you to likeswitch categories and, uh, actually, uh,
get used to, uh, this fast times with, uh,with corners with everything and working
on the corners, working on your lineand, uh, to be, uh, the fastest on track?
(10:09):
Yeah.
I'm still working on it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
But yeah, I think you can never, everstop learning or never stop progressing
with it with yourself and with the car.
Mm-hmm.
I've had issues years and years withthe car, and then that's made me
fail as a driver because when thecar's not playing ball, neither am I.
(10:29):
So when you go home and your car'shad a bad day, so have I. Mm-hmm.
And then when you are on.
Car's not, it's heartbreaking, but yeah,it comes with the territory and sadly
it comes with your budget too, here.
And I'm really happy to have a fewsponsors on board who have been
great and getting the car running andkeeping things going, keeping me going.
(10:51):
Mm-hmm.
And.
Like you couldn't do it here in NewZealand without a bit of help and yeah.
That's how a lot of people here endup just going out street racing.
They probably do in every country.
Mm-hmm.
But I say to anyone, just stick at it.
Keep going.
And you, you get there,you learn a lot as you go.
Mm-hmm.
I think, you know, racing andlike motor sport is so expensive
(11:16):
everywhere and it's really cool thatyou having the support, uh, people
around you, support you in your, uh.
Like racing career, let's say like this.
Uh, and it's, it's really nice.
Uh, can you tell me more about, uh, howis it for you to race with your daughters?
Uh, so you mentioned, uh, before that,uh, they also race and, uh, how is it?
(11:41):
Um, my youngest, she's a twin.
She's just getting involved in itbecause I do a lot with the drifting.
Mm-hmm.
With helping.
But she wants to be thedriver, so she's determined.
She's only just turned 16, so she has onlyjust really got her actual road license.
Mm-hmm.
And she doesn't.
Events are motors, so itlearns a lot of cone work.
(12:05):
Teaches her how to maneuverthe car and handle it.
And she's progressing thatreally well this season.
And she's actually won thefastest female, I think it was
for the season, in her events.
So she's stoked with that.
So she's gonna keep going and progressing.
Mm-hmm.
And then.
And yeah, she will move into drifting and,but sadly, I just, it's, it's the budget.
(12:29):
Understand she's, she's doing this,
it's fantastic.
But yeah, you can only enter so manythings before you just can't afford.
So we spend on.
But as I said to her,that's how you learn.
That's how you learn.
When she breaks something, I wouldlike her to be able to help fix it.
(12:52):
Mm-hmm.
Not just hand it to someone else.
So yeah, she'll learn the hard way.
All right.
Uh, so how you balance, uh, being aparent, uh, also like mentor and, uh,
like racing driver with your daughters,how you balance this in your life?
(13:13):
Well, I'm sort of the mom that if I canafford to do it, I'll probably say yes.
Mm-hmm.
There's really nothing my girlshave thrown at me that I've gone,
oh no, I won't let you do that.
Mm-hmm.
So, anything they wanna,this one's laughing at me.
Have I just said no to you?
(13:33):
Can I go to America?
Yeah.
Can I go to America?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, yeah, I, I wouldnever say no to my girls.
There's not a lot thatthey'll come at me with that.
I'll go, oh, actually no,we're not gonna do that.
Mm-hmm.
And I think that's right in them.
It's given them their independenceand it's teaching them they
(13:53):
have to earn it however.
Mm-hmm.
I think they can give everything a go.
I mean, some things are gonna bevery risky, but I'm yet to get a
moment with them where I've gone,oh no, we better not do this.
Mm-hmm.
Because, I mean, for me, they seeme do it, so I think, well they, I
might as well let them do it too.
(14:14):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's molded when a bit older to go out andget jobs, careers to then go, Hey, I don't
think nothing's gonna hold them back.
Mm-hmm.
There shouldn't be an obstacle.
For anyone to do it.
So you, I look at myself too,like, um, I'm my biggest critic.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm the only person in my life thatoften goes, oh, I shouldn't do that.
(14:37):
When everyone else is saying, go for it.
Mm-hmm.
So to them, I'm.
All the ones saying don't do it.
'cause I probably know that insidethey saying, should I be doing this?
So I think the best wayis to say it and do it.
She often only dents a panel or twoor what did she break the gearbox?
Yeah.
(14:59):
They're still making gear boxesfor MX five, so that's all right.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Uh, tell me about your, uh, favoriteracing events, which you take part in and,
uh, maybe together with your daughters.
Also, like the same track.
There's so many.
(15:19):
There's so many.
It's whether I'm helping out withthe event, being an official mm-hmm.
My daughter comes along down and helpsme with the drifting events for drifting.
I've sold my drift car.
We are building another onethough, so coming out of a timer.
But, um, my daughter comes along andshe runs the grid, so she helps get the
(15:40):
drivers ready to go and do their thing.
It's just great that she'sout there helping me too.
But the events themselves, there's soevery season, every event's different.
Every event someone else wins.
There's, you can have thesame winners, same losers.
You get your favorite drivers andwhatnot when you're helping out,
(16:00):
but you can't play favorites.
Mm-hmm.
But, um, so you makedifferent memories every time.
And I love just seeing every otherperson out there when they win,
all their crew, come together.
And how they celebrate.
Mm-hmm.
And you just become part ofthat vibe too, like when they'll
celebrate and when they're aboutto win, especially in drifting when
it's down to like the top four.
(16:20):
Mm-hmm.
And they're going into battles.
You just become part of that scene.
You just become part of thatlove that you want 'em to win.
Like you cry afterwards when they winand you partners the kids, all your
kids come together and just have anawesome time watching dad or mom.
There's some lovely moms out therewith their kids out there too.
(16:40):
Mm-hmm.
And it's just such a community,such a vibe to be part of,
to watch other people win.
Then I go him smiling because I'm like,wow, he's just had the best day ever.
Mm-hmm.
And then now my daughter's doing ittoo, and I can see that in her as well,
that she's just happy for other peopleto be out there doing it and she's
happy to support them and then go, wow,I'm, I'm gonna do this one day too.
(17:04):
Mm-hmm.
And then she'll get the support too.
So it's really awesome to be part of.
But I must admit, the latestevent we went to, and they call
it Highlands Motorsport Park.
Mm-hmm.
It's a very, very nice looking.
It'll be, if we got ever gotF1, it would be where we put
the F1 here in New Zealand.
Mm-hmm.
(17:25):
And it's, they don't like drifters though.
But this one event, they finally openedit up for a drift day and the track
got absolutely shooted up in tires.
Mm-hmm.
But.
Day ever.
And my daughter got to interview one ofthe, the famous guy who hosted a Mad Mike.
I dunno if you know him.
Um, a lot of people might know.
(17:46):
Mad Mike.
Mm, yeah.
Yeah.
My daughter.
I know him.
Do you know him?
And my daughter interviewed his son.
She always had this goal.
I want to talk to him andask him some questions.
Mm-hmm.
And he was more thanhappy for her to, to him.
So she's topped her bucket list,so she needs some more goals.
Mm-hmm.
(18:07):
Yeah.
So that was a very good eventto go to and be part of.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It's nice that you got, uh,seems like really friendly and
like family, family based, uh,community in New Zealand and racing.
Uh, it's really cool, uh, because I thinkit's, you know, it's really warm and, and
(18:29):
cozy when you got, uh, families and just,uh, it's really, uh, good atmosphere.
You got around.
Uh, it's, it's really nice.
Oh, it is.
Yeah.
And that's, yeah, that's sort of thewhole part of it that we do enjoy.
Is that you can go out therewith the family, with a group, a
group of your friends, your petcrew, and just have a good time.
Really?
Yeah.
(18:50):
It does sort of become wayfast and furious families.
As we, we talking here a lot about,uh, you know, how to be a girl in,
uh, motor sport community, in racingcommunity, uh, how is it for you,
uh, to be mom with daughters, uh, inthis racing community in New Zealand?
(19:12):
Uh.
Like, uh, do, do you, uh, have any issuesor maybe, uh, like no issues with this?
I don't as such, but I know itprobably does happen out there.
But if you go along to an eventand your main focus is just to have
good time, enjoy yourself, compete,help out, it doesn't matter whether
(19:36):
you're male, female, cat, dog.
Mm-hmm.
I think New Zealand.
I don't think we have this as much.
I may be wrong.
There could be people out there thatdo experience the female thing, but I
think in our community you are respected.
If you get out there and you'rejust doing what you wanna do.
Mm-hmm.
Once you put the helmet on, doesn't matterwhat's between your legs, literally.
(20:00):
Earn that respect for men and women andyou're just out there doing it because
you genuinely love what you're doing.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm, but it probably doeshappen, but I wanna say maybe not
so much in the actual racing sector.
Mm-hmm.
I'm guessing in the cast.
No, like we meet some things thatmay do, but I go to meet some,
(20:22):
we, um, women, men, we all justhave a really good time as well.
Mm-hmm.
And yeah, I think very lucky in NewZealand that we haven't got that stigma.
Mm-hmm.
Our stigma is that you, um, basicallyus old Japanese JDM people, we get a bit
ganged up on by the muscle car people.
Mm-hmm.
I think New Zealand's conflict iswhat you drive, not who's driving it.
(20:45):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And playing with the differentracing, like the Speedway boys
don't like, you know, people.
So I think that's our biggestbattle in New Zealand is
that we're a little country.
We've got some very talenteddrivers here, but, um, yeah, I think
it just matters what you drive.
You get a bit ganged up on whenyou're driving EVO and not a V eight.
(21:09):
Mm-hmm.
All right, so you got morebe battles about, uh, what's
better, like Subra Mitsubishi.
Yeah.
Yes.
That is horrific.
Those are the worst.
This is actually really, yeah.
You know, it's, it's really nice becauseI've been into carting from nine years
(21:31):
old and then I've been into open wheelersand formalists, and I can tell you that,
uh, carting and open village community.
Really toxic.
So they really care about like,oh, you, you like overtook me.
Like, oh, that, that's girl.
Oh no.
Something like this.
(21:52):
Yeah.
Even our open wheeler, boys andgirls, there's a lot of females
coming through from New Zealand.
Mm-hmm.
There's some awesome talent.
Our country, not to brag, butin both sixes and in a lot of
competition, we've got a lot ofpeople hitting off to like mm-hmm.
F1 or whatever you call earlyF1 development teams and that.
(22:13):
Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of Kiwigirls and boys coming to.
Yeah.
So I think if you can overtakeanyone, just just do it.
Make the pass.
Yeah, it's really nice.
You know, I moved to sim racingand, uh, I kind of see the same
thing as, uh, you know, a lot ofpeople, uh, racing in sim racing.
And, uh, particularly I'm in a racing and.
(22:35):
Like, you know, people usually reallywelcome to newcomers and, uh, they trying
to help you, trying to give you advice,and it's really easy to get into endurance
team if you want, uh, to be a part of it.
And, um, yeah, I'm just, I, Ireally enjoy this compared to
real life racing, which I had.
(22:56):
Uh, but once again, there was,you know, really competitive cars,
really competitive, uh, open wheelersand yeah, people, uh, you know.
Like fighting for their life on the track.
Oh yeah.
It's a battle every day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Something like this.
Yeah.
Was mostly with the car.
The car has to perform.
(23:17):
Mm-hmm.
You do have to know what every noise is.
Why is it doing that?
What's wrong?
How's this working?
Mm-hmm.
So you do, you have to spend hoursbehind the scenes with it too working.
Or Yeah.
So yeah, your pet creware your best helpers.
You're just the driver.
(23:38):
Mm-hmm.
But they make everything work for you.
Yeah.
You're lost without your helpers.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Fingers.
And I do, I, I take off to allyou some races 'cause I am shit.
Yeah.
The ripples, nothing feelsquite realistic enough.
And I, I, I'm, I'm, shit,
(24:01):
we wanna get one so thatmy daughter can learn.
The girls are like convincingme that it's a good move.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, we had a group of drifters, get realdrifters, get on them for a competition
night and yeah, we, we were, shit.
Yeah.
You know.
Um, I'm just thinking that, uh, you got,uh, really good involved, uh, from, uh,
(24:25):
GDM, uh, culture from Japan and, uh.
Actually, anime is reallypopular in, in Japan as well.
And you know, they really don't care aboutlike, who's, uh, behind the helmet, as you
said, and just take, take care about cars.
Yeah.
Yeah, you get picked on for what coloror what brand you represent most.
(24:47):
Alright, I got it.
Uh, we have big competitionover what ECU you run
and what tire.
If you're not running a certain tire, you.
All right.
And speaking about cars, uh, areyou working on a car together
(25:08):
with your daughter or likesomeone help you from your family?
Like, how you doing this?
Just one car or the lot?
Uh, like all cars, which you got, how,how you prepare them for competition.
Well, at the moment I've gotone another Evo being built.
(25:29):
Mm-hmm.
And that's gonna be a dedicated track car.
Mm-hmm.
Because my car currentlyis road legal to an extent.
Mm-hmm.
But now I've decided, right.
I wanna push myself that much further.
So I need a dedicated track car.
So that's, um, at tuners now, sothat's not far off being complete
and I've got a lot of the bodywork to still complete with that.
(25:49):
So that's when I'm hoping that mydaughter, she's taking an interest
in it, so she's looking at jumpingon board too and just helping out.
Mm-hmm.
Just learning a lot as she got.
Because then the next car weare building is in Nissan.
Nissan 180.
I've always wanted to own a dedicatedtrack, one of those, and we've got one,
and we're just gonna build that up oversummer, which will be your guys' winter.
(26:12):
Mm-hmm.
And, um.
And that's gonna be basically her, herand my drift car to start using again.
Mm-hmm.
So that's on the build.
Her actual dedicated track builds.
And then my daughter's got an MX fivethat's still, she races that now.
So that's what she's using.
Um, so then now we just need to tidythat up a bit for her because when
(26:35):
she does get her actual road license,she'll be driving it on the road.
Mm-hmm.
So she's gonna be learninga little bit more about.
How to fix that andcorrect things with it.
And, um, she busted her radiator,so she actually did that.
I watched, but she didthe bulk of it by herself.
Mm-hmm.
So at 15 she was turning, when youbreak something, you need to fix it.
(26:57):
Yeah.
But, um, the EVO builds sort of takenup a lot of our funds this year.
Mm-hmm.
So that's why I haven't been.
Racing, but I've been doing moreof the official duties this season.
But, um, not everyone's very excited forthis Evo to come out, so I'm excited.
Too nervous.
You're always nervouswhen you got a new car.
(27:18):
It's like when you go somewhereand you hope you've worn the right
outfit kind of thing, I guess.
Mm-hmm.
It's a lot of pressure on gettingthe right color or the right.
Oh.
Can't turn up for too manyevents with the same card.
Be like wearing thesame dress again again.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that old thing.
(27:38):
Oh, she needs a new one.
So, no.
So there'd be a lothappening for us over summer.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
No.
All right.
Uh, what color are youplanning to dye your, uh, evil?
(27:58):
Or maybe it's alreadyin the, in, in color.
Yeah.
Um, we've ganged with a sortof a family color theme.
We've thought my current VOis the gray, like the nto.
Mm-hmm.
Um, Audi Gray.
Mm-hmm.
So I've had that color on thatone, but I've gone with just black.
Mm-hmm.
Pouring old black.
(28:19):
But I'm a bit annoyed because I'vealso done a lot of like powder
coating and spray painting to mastera fluro yellow, so that stays.
Mm-hmm.
It's a very hard to getunless you're wrapping them.
So I've gone, right.
I wanna go fluro yellow.
So I've done helmet, I've done a lotof all my gear, and then I hate to say
it, but now I've seen Orlando Norrisis walk rocking flu yellow, isn't he?
(28:47):
Son and he stole my color.
Gonna be black with flu or yellow.
And then my daughter's doing blackand with a green like a mm-hmm.
Old greeny color.
So yeah.
Well we're sticking with black just'cause it's easy when you dent panel
and you break something, you can justquickly spray it black, can't you?
(29:10):
Yeah.
That, that's really cool.
Uh, so you're really practical.
Yeah, we have to be, and like I say, withthe Japanese cars, they were cheap here,
but parts are becoming very expensive.
Mm-hmm.
So the 180, we haven't gone throughtoo many guards and pieces off it.
(29:30):
I like doing a bit of fiberglass workmyself, so at least I can sort of.
Myself here and there.
Two years.
All right.
So you already already told meabout, uh, plans about cars.
Uh, what events are you planningto do, uh, when the racing
season, uh, will be here?
(29:50):
Um, just not aware.
You, you said that, uh, uh, it willbe summer for you when, uh, it's going
to be winter for us and it's, it'sactually winter for you right now, right?
Yes, we are the middle of winter.
Mm-hmm.
So winter's, let's build a car time.
Mm-hmm.
There's not a little on, so mydaughter's still doing things
(30:11):
throughout the winter season.
Mm-hmm.
And coming up to summer, not puttingmy name to a series in, I'm waiting.
Mm-hmm.
Because there's a lot of d. I cando, so I'm gonna try and get the car
dialed in first and sort any littleteething issues that I may have.
So I might just be doing test days andthings in it just to walk, get it used
(30:31):
to life and myself again, because I'll.
Last summer I had pretty major surgery,so I thought, oh, I'll wait and see if
I can bounce back that, which I have.
I'm doing good.
So, but um, yeah, Iwon't race a series yet.
There is a series herefor the endurance racing.
(30:51):
Mm-hmm.
So I do wanna get an, and then theycall a, oh, what would you call SS cup?
They call a series, which is basicallyjust open class saloon racing.
So most them are like a JDMshower with a motor, and you can
sort of be a bit unlimited withyour power in your vehicles.
So it's sort of likehandicapped, if that makes sense.
(31:12):
Like a handicapped class racing.
Mm-hmm.
If I go out there with 800 horsepower,I'm not gonna penalize a dude
just in a 200 horsepower car.
So it's pretty fair,pretty fair for everyone.
And that's sort of based on your lap time.
So I'll look at goinginto something like that.
Even in New Zealand, we might be a littlecountry, but it's still a lot of travel
(31:33):
to get to the other part of New Zealand.
Mm-hmm.
So it can cost a lot.
So my major plan would be hopefullyone day keep one of the cars on
the other island, go up north.
North we say, because they go up north.
So I'll leave one car upthere and then have one here.
Mm-hmm.
To sort of use going forward.
We do wanna branch out.
We've heard it now New Zealand.
(31:54):
I do wanna go up north.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And um, we've, I've talked and spoke withand met a lot of lovely people even within
New Zealand, who I haven't met, so mm-hmm.
It would be nice to go off and meetall these people and waste them mm-hmm.
In my mouth,
(32:15):
so, yeah.
So there's plenty to do and I, I mightbe 42, but, um, I think I've still
got a few years left in me to do it.
I, I, I think that, uh, it doesmatter, uh, like what age you got.
You just, if you got like, uh, physicallyyou can do this and, uh, like you
(32:35):
got motivation, this is all you needto go through and to keep going.
And in racing, in motor sports orin any other, uh, stuff in life.
I think so, yes.
Feel 10 years younger kids keep me young.
That, that's really cool.
Yeah, especially, you know, whenyou got the, your family, your kids,
(32:59):
and the same hobby which you doing.
It's, it's great.
It's just the dream.
We had an event not long ago.
I hosted an event and just like a hardpark where people come and park up
and even my mom came and got involved.
Mm.
(33:23):
You, you tell me about,uh, endurance event.
Yeah.
Uh, how long this endurance, uh, will be.
I'm just curious because I amjust in love with endurance event.
I really like, uh, to do thisteam event in some racing.
Uh, because usually working not only goingfast, but you also have to save fuel.
You have to work on a strategy,uh, work with the, like
(33:46):
steam schedule with the team.
It's really interesting.
Thing, uh, to do all the time.
And, uh, so, uh, what kind of formatof endurance event, uh, are you
planning to take apart in enduranceRacing is probably, it is quite
big in New Zealand and Australia.
Mm-hmm.
So like, if you're familiarwith series supercars Yes.
New Zealand and Australia have supercars.
(34:07):
Mm-hmm.
So.
They race against each other.
There's teams.
So there's a lot ofstrategy between the teams.
They keep changing the rules.
They change rules every season to do withhow they race and what they're doing.
Every race, I think, has different,like, sort of like F1 two with
different fuel, um, uh, pit stopstrategies and things like that as
(34:28):
to what the race is gonna entail.
Mm-hmm.
Here in New Zealand, um, we do,it's a south island endurance.
I wanna give a go.
Mm-hmm.
So within the one.
Your five different classes.
Mm-hmm.
So being in an evo, I'll be racingagainst like brand new McLaren's,
the new Aldis, all the Porsche GTthrees and, but due to being in an
(34:50):
evo, I'll be in the bottom class.
Mm-hmm.
If you don't mind, 'cause you'restill against some really awesome
top drivers and the main one theydo is one hours and three hours.
Mm-hmm.
Which is.
Standard, pretty standard timesfor most even our supercar series.
But, um, that's what I wanna getinvolved with more, is doing a
little bit more long-term racing.
(35:12):
Mm-hmm.
But sadly, when you're.
Car to be a time attack car.
You've gotta definitely change yourstrategy of how your car's even mate,
because my car will last what, two laps?
It won't last hundreds.
Mm-hmm.
It is very much also you and it'sdown to your car, how your car's gonna
be set up and built to handle it.
(35:32):
Mm-hmm.
So I'm hoping an hour one ago.
And then see what, see what happens.
That's why I wanna do a lot oftesting this season to try and get
myself and the car dialed in togo, yeah, I can, I can do this.
Mm-hmm.
And then go from there.
Um, 'cause there's some phenomenaldrivers, some phenomenal guys
in New Zealand that come outof endurance road racing.
(35:53):
Mm-hmm.
And that's what we love.
We don't have like NASCAR and America,the big ovals, we don't have that here.
I'd love that here.
'cause that's what I love doingin America, or that's what I
loved about going to America.
Mm-hmm.
But we do road courses here, so to turncorners and do everything like that.
And that's the endurancepart of it as well.
(36:14):
And that's part of it is youhave to be physically fit
to sit in the car for hours.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Um, our legend at the momentis we've got Shane Van Bergen.
They call him SVG OpenAmerica at the moment.
And he's winning all the road coursesbecause he is just, he can turn a corner.
He, it's how he breaks, it's howhe drives that car that's excelling
(36:37):
him against these guys who arejust racing oval their whole life.
So love him or hate him.
He's doing bloody well.
Yeah.
You know.
Like Supercars V eight.
Uh, for me, this is like top series in theworld, uh, together with like Porsche Cup.
Um, because these cars are sohard to drive, like no traction,
(36:59):
no a, b, s, and it's really cool.
All drivers from Supercars arereally fast and, uh, talented.
They are.
Yes.
It's hard to believe that in from twolittle islands across the Pacific Ocean,
we can produce such talented drivers.
Mm-hmm.
And have such an awesome that Yeah.
Can compete against the rest of theworld and shock them like they like.
(37:21):
He is
phenomenal.
I remember meeting him one nightin the pub after a drifting event.
Yeah.
But no, no.
Endurance is incredible.
(37:42):
Yeah.
Incredible.
And same again, with the vibe ofthe people that do that as well.
Mm-hmm.
And you're as strong as your teamand those you have around you.
Yeah.
To sort your car out.
Yeah.
Or to be picked to drivesomeone else's car.
That would be my goal or for mydaughter one day to have someone say,
right, can you come and drive for us?
Mm-hmm.
(38:02):
Yeah.
That's incredible for New Zealandersto get an opportunity to do.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, so this endurance went, you saidthat there'll be one hour in three hours.
Yeah.
Uh uh.
Are you going to drive alonein the car or are you going to
have a teammate in your car?
Four to one hours.
So for this season, for it,you do two one hour races.
(38:25):
Mm-hmm.
And then there's a three, so you can pick,I mean, I've gotta work out how it fully
works, but, um, when the three, you, youcan have a co-driver even in the hour.
But then the three hour Yes.
You, you, yeah.
You, you have a co, youhave a co-driver as well.
So you, the one hour, it's still an hour.
(38:45):
It's a lot.
Not of a lot.
We're probably gonna stick withour, and yes, I do have a friend
in mind for the co-driver.
Mm-hmm.
So my best mate willprobably be co-driver.
He's happy to do that.
His car's definitely built fortime attack or um, drag racing.
Mm-hmm.
So we'll definitely be for this, butit is something that we both wanna give
(39:09):
a go and yeah, so we'll probably doa one hour and see how that goes, and
then work our way up to the three hour.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
You, you took part in, uh,like time attack, drifting.
Uh, you're planning to do endurance.
Yeah.
Uh, what other motor sportdisciplines, uh, which you
(39:31):
secretly wanted to try one day?
Like I know maybe, um.
Motorcycle racing, maybe somehardcore drag racing in the United
States, something like this.
I feel like I'm a little bit too oldto be getting back on a motorbike now.
Mm-hmm.
But, um.
(39:52):
I honestly, I've neverdriven in an open wheeler.
Mm-hmm.
So, yeah, they're here, they race.
I've got a friend of mine who herhusband does them, and I've always said
to her, I said, how much is it gonnacost me to get a drive in one of these?
So I'm hoping I can tick thatoff my bucket list one day.
And my daughter would be quitehappy in pursuing having a go in one
(40:14):
of them too, to see how she does.
Mm-hmm.
So that's probably my bucket list,is to get in an open wheeler,
a formula 5,000, they are here.
And there's smaller categoriesthan that, but I'd just like to
give it a go in a single seater.
Mm-hmm.
I've never driven in one.
My dream is, of course, NASCARand the Oval, but it's a lot
that'll never come to New Zealand.
(40:35):
Sadly, we're not gonna be ableto get tracks like that here.
Um, the coolest thing was inVegas going to the NASCAR place.
That was very cool to see.
Mm-hmm.
It was closed.
The whole track.
We had the whole facility to herself.
The lady just said, yeah, go have a look.
Didn't have to tell me twice to drivearound the oval in the rental car.
Mm-hmm.
(40:56):
But it'll be cool to go to those events.
Yeah.
But, um, no.
Yeah, definitely the singleseater would be a goal of mine.
And if my daughter got into one ofthose and excelled and wanted to
keep doing that too, I'd be morethan happy to support her with that.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
(41:16):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're goingto like open V because it's absolute
different feelings, which you get.
I still remember guys, uh,uh, like, uh, came to our box.
Uh, they've been driving thePorsche GD three arrest and the
racing track to get it with me.
Like, uh, we had a practice, um, and.
They just, uh, came, came to me and theytried open v uh, this day and they told
(41:41):
me like, how you going fast with this?
It's, it is like, it's crazy.
You, you're sitting, you'resitting on your butt with a tarmac,
you know, really close to you.
Like, it's, it's crazy feeling.
So Yeah, it is.
I can imagine.
Yeah.
Yes.
So, no, that, that would bea very cool goal to, mm-hmm.
(42:01):
Yeah.
One.
It is very expensive.
You sort of gotta narrowdown what you're gonna do.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It's expensive.
Yeah, really.
Uh, but I, I think worst try it, uh,definitely because completely different
feelings, uh, of what you getting fromthe like road car, uh, compared to it.
(42:25):
Can you tell me now, uh, what's,uh, your dream circuit to visit?
Uh, like for maybe time attack,maybe some road racing endurance.
Uh, so what's your dreamtrack you would like to visit?
Like in the future?
I would still have to say,uh, more of the NASCAR ovals.
Mm-hmm.
(42:45):
That fascinate me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To actually see them race and do whatthey do, the drafting, do everything.
Mm-hmm.
Would be fascinating.
Yeah, I still, yeah.
'cause we don't have that here.
Mm-hmm.
So it is something.
Like, that's so foreign tous that it would be cool.
And because I did go to one and Igot the buzz just from the empty
(43:08):
stadium, to see that packed outfor a race would be phenomenal.
Mm-hmm.
So any of the na, any ofthem, we went to Vegas.
But um, yeah, to go to any of thosetracks, Indianapolis, places like
that, that would be very cool.
Yeah.
Alright.
And then as my doctor.
I have to say, she would say we haveto go to every Formula One most.
(43:34):
She's a huge Daniel Ricardo fan.
Probably have to saythat too, for her sake.
She would love to see him come back.
But yeah, to go, we're gonna go tothe Melbourne F1 next year, so mm-hmm.
That would be pretty, that'lltake that off her bucket list.
So yeah, that would be pretty good.
(43:56):
All right.
And, uh, what trackwould you like to drive?
Maybe, I know, maybe Mount Panoramabecause, uh, for me, when I'm like
thinking about, uh, this part ofthe world, I've been into Malaysia
so many times, it's a punk,absolutely beautiful, wonderful trek.
Love it.
Uh, but you know, mydream, uh, will be like.
(44:16):
Drive Mount Panorama, at least forone lap because it's, uh, so exciting
with this app, heels and downhillsand also va supercar, uh, racing here.
So it's really cool trek.
Um, so what, what's your dream trackhere, like to drive by yourself?
Yes.
Um, I've driven around there.
(44:37):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
That's really cool.
I'm jealous.
Is it's a public road.
It's a public hill.
So people live there.
Mm-hmm.
And then they just have the race.
It's set up as well throughout the year.
But yeah, it is a public road,so the people who live there get
awesome views of the Bathurst race.
(44:57):
They either go away for the week'cause it's absolute carnage, like
it's Oh, the drinking, yeah, the hangon the racing culture of Australia.
So a different breed.
Yeah.
'cause when I was little, mydad used to go quite a bit too.
Mm-hmm.
And back.
Was always the highlightevent of the Yeah.
(45:20):
Of the calendar.
So, no, um, yeah, that would be good.
Again, and, 'cause Iwas born in Australia.
Mm-hmm.
So, yeah, I grew up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, no.
Yes, but I dunno, an individualtrack, I, I'm still being way
away from anywhere in the world.
(45:41):
Us Kiwis.
Want to go and see all the otherworld tracks that you guys sort of
take for granted or see often enough.
Yeah.
I've got a friend now who's overin Europe and of course they've
gone to a few of the, I'd like togo to that good visit it Goods,
wood, the festival that was just on.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, it, it's Goodwood, isn't it?
Goodwood?
(46:01):
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, that would be cool to go to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it'd be more, not so much a track,but more the event, which would be good.
Mm-hmm.
Alright, got it.
You know, in Australia Ilike also Philipp Island.
Great, great track.
Um, you know, not.
(46:22):
A big fan of, uh, European tracks.
Uh, not a lot of them.
Uh, you know, reallyinteresting to drive a thing.
Uh, I like App Hills, downhills,uh, tracks like this where,
where you got, uh, blind corners.
Uh, it's so exciting toraise them all the time.
Uh, so yeah, maybe one day I'll go,go to Australia for some racing, uh,
(46:44):
because you, you got really cool tracks.
Yeah.
Yes.
My daughter's like, they've beento Flip Island one a few times.
Mm. Yeah.
And the good news for us here, and I livein Christchurch and our local track, so
the track I help, I work at, um, we aregetting around the supercars next year.
Mm-hmm.
(47:05):
So supercar.
To our home track.
So that's gonna be really good tohave it here on the local track that
I drive every week sort of thing.
Mm-hmm.
So to have that event come to us isgonna be really great for next March.
Yes.
So yeah, I hope we offerthem a good, um, good race.
(47:26):
Good.
Mm-hmm.
Our track's very narrow here.
Our local track comparedto some of the other ones.
But yeah, it makes for someinteresting driving, some interesting
spots to have to try and overtake.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
And, uh, the last one will be.
Where people can find you, uh, onsocials and, uh, like to follow
(47:47):
you because you got a lot of plans.
And I'm really curious, uh, to see youin endurance racing and, uh, maybe, maybe
even in VA supercar, like in the future.
Who knows?
Oh wow.
A lot of my stuff is quite,um, humorous to say the least.
(48:08):
There's a lot of epic failsthat go on in the garage.
I. Of it.
If you can show your failures, then youcan definitely show when you succeed.
Mm-hmm.
Um, my known one is my Instagram.
Yeah.
I'm also known as b to Miss Prime.
Yeah, just uh, drop thelink to the chat guys.
(48:31):
I've always had a lovefor Old Optimist Prime.
I'm a bit robotic myself.
Um,
so yeah, so no BEUs Prime.
We, we have a TikTok.
Me and the girls post a lot of stuffto TikTok and you're only Instagram.
At the moment, there's a lot of stuffabout them learning to drive on the road.
Mm-hmm.
(48:52):
Because it's quite challenging nowto cross back over from racing on
track to learning the road rules.
Yeah.
So they battle a bit.
All right.
But yes, I'm not gamingstuff yet, but yeah.
One day I'll, I'll takethat off my bucket list.
You have to.
(49:14):
Alright.
It was, uh, nice to meet you.
It was.
So fun to talk with you, and I'm sohappy that you got a lot of plans,
uh, for your future in your life andyou're really motivated about it and
also your family involved into racingand it's really, uh, cool to see.
Definitely.
So thank you so much, Bex.
(49:35):
Taking your time.
Lovely.
I look forward to.
Yeah, some more progress.
Thank you so much.
Uh, guys, thank you so much for watching.
Uh, hope you had fun with us.
Uh, so we'll see you next time.
(50:02):
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while maximizing audience reach acrossmultiple sports industries and platforms.
Innate eSports is a woman-led companywhere diversity, equity, inclusion, and
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Be sure to log on towww.initesports.gg or follow them
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Join their discord, check outtheir YouTube channel or follow
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This episode has been brought to youby Grand Touring Motorsports as part
(50:45):
of our Motoring Podcast network.
For more episodes like this, tune in eachweek for more exciting and educational
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