06 – Day 2 Thursday – Subaru’s Safari Special – Sunraysia Safari 2025

[Music] Back in the old days, you must remember a lot about the rallies in Africa. >> I do. The East African safaris and things. That's what got us all motivated in the early days. Yeah, I do remember that. Is >> this a bit of a throwback? >> Absolutely. Absolutely. the uh the Subaru boss has said we wouldn't mind seeing a little bit of a throwback to the the 80s and the service vehicles and the uh the running lights and the and the snorkels and the the animal bars on the front. So, no, it's just an adventure and we just thought why not dress up the WRX and just apart from being lowered and going circuit racing, you can jack them up just a little bit and go and do some desert racing as well. [Music] [Applause] How have you enjoyed that first day out there? >> I enjoyed it when I got to the end of it. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face cuz I was glad to get the end of it. It was really a baptism of fire for for that car. That car was um I said in an early interview that it might surprise and it surprised me that uh it was doing as well it was doing. But we were struggling, everyone was struggling and we were just happy to get to the end and we didn't have an issue with the car. Uh so uh the whole thing was a surprise. It was very very slippery. >> I'm sure the biggest surprise though was the position. >> Yeah, that's a little bit of a surprise. Um that was helped slightly by the fact that we caught a competitor at a gate and he led us through. But we've done that plenty of times over the years, but you have to catch the competitor in front to be able to take advantage of that. And it was a surprise that we were catching them and it was also a surprise that someone else wasn't catching us. We knew we'd done a reasonable job cuz we passed a couple of cars in the stage and they were seated in front of us. The combination is going okay. The car is pretty good, but we knew the car. It's a fast car. DX is a fast car. But can it be related to being fast in really slippery dangerous conditions? That's the thing. And it was very slippery. And it probably suited me because I grew up on a farm that's mud and clay and and I grew up in WA rallying with ball bearing gravel and a lot of clay. But I don't think it really suited anybody. But the fact that we didn't do didn't make a mistake. Chris and I worked well as a team. The old adage go fast when you can and go slow when you can't. >> A lot of us spend our lives almost looking for our father's approval and our I guess the compliment from them about that for you. Is it a little bit the other way around? >> Yes, it is. I mean, in the early days, he was probably seeking my approval, but they took a bit of a punt asking me to curtail my caravanning and come back and maybe help put the finishing touches together on a Rex with a bit of a safari bent. And they said, "Just give some thought to whether you'd like to drive it in a safari." So, it was a show of faith by Subaru Austral and Dean at Maximum Motorsport to um to invite a 71-year-old to come back and have a bit of a dab. But a few people had said, and I thought I was probably the right person to be driving it in those sort of conditions because I've got a lot of experience, I suppose. Um that's that's about the best thing I can say. Whether I can keep this speed up and whether I can keep this position up is another thing, of course. Did you ever think back then that you might be here now, dare I say it, all these years later? >> No, I didn't. I didn't even think I'd be competing in a single safari, let alone this is my 10th safari rally because I came at the latter end of the wind safaris and then they become the Australian safaris and they were long tough events. But we punched well above our weight in the very early days. We got second outright in the second one we did up in the northwest of WA and no one ever saw that coming. the stages had to come to us a little bit. Some of the really rough stuff uh you know we struggled on but if it got a little bit smoother and opened up a little bit we were not only competitive we could win the stages and we went very very close to winning the inaugural Sunray Safari. As you remember we had an 8-minute lad with one day to go and I lament that that's the only longd distanceance rally I've never finished and I had an 8-minute lead. So um I'm trying to make amends for that. >> Yeah. There's one important point though between you and that first position and that's your son, isn't it? >> It could be a little bit like McLaren, couldn't it? >> I think >> so. So, you say you're Lander or you are you are you Lander or you Oscar? >> I suspect that I'm that I'm No, I suspect that I'm Oscar. And um Dean has a very good relationship with Super Australia because he's an ambassador for them and and between them they do great things. So, I I'm just a bit of an outsider on the We'll find out which which I am later in the week. But I hope it doesn't come to team orders. I'd be thrilled to be in a place where it'll even get considered and I'm thrilled to be in the place we are now to have to be running two and three after that stage. Um because it was a it was a bit of everything in the stage. So it gives an indication of what might be coming for the rest of the week.