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Speaker 1: Another name to add to our collection of the young New

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Speaker 1: Zealand motor races going place. Jacob Douglas competes in the

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Speaker 1: USF Pro two thousand circuit in America. Basically it's the

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Speaker 1: road to Indy. His seasons just wrapped. He finished fifth

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Speaker 1: over there, already had a win and eight podiums and

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Speaker 1: Jacob Douglas as well as Jacob morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Good morning Mike. How you're doing very.

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Speaker 1: Well and did good to meet you sixteen years old?

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Speaker 1: You were when you left for Indy as a move

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Speaker 1: as a thing. How big a deal was that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, it was a pretty big deal. In

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Speaker 3: the moment, it was really really cool, and I was

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Speaker 3: kind of just, you know, another key we going off

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Speaker 3: overseas to chase my goals in sports. But now they

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Speaker 3: look back at it, I feel, you know, I see

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Speaker 3: how crazy it really was moving away to America at

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Speaker 3: sixteen on my own. But it was a great experience,

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Speaker 3: and yeah, I loved every minute of it.

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Speaker 1: Is each year getting better and easier with experience.

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Speaker 3: Yes, definitely. Yeah. I meet more people over there, get

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Speaker 3: to grips with everything, and then of course as I'm

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Speaker 3: getting older, there's more things I can do.

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Speaker 2: It makes it easier.

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Speaker 3: This year, for example, I could rent a car, which

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Speaker 3: was the first time, whereas otheriars have hit uber so,

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Speaker 3: so that made it a lot easier.

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Speaker 1: Just talk to it for non motor racing followers, the

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Speaker 1: USF Pro two thousand. What sort of car are we

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Speaker 1: talking about it? It looks to me like a single seat,

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Speaker 1: like an F two single seater. But you explain it

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Speaker 1: and how far off the big dance are you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's a single seater.

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Speaker 3: It just looks like a junior if one car, if

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Speaker 3: you like, we're probably about a little of a ten

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Speaker 3: seconds off IndyCar.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, we have.

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Speaker 3: Kind of all the bells and whistles. I guess they

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Speaker 3: go pretty quick. We get up to around two hundred

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Speaker 3: and sixty kilometers at the end of the straightaways, and yeah,

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Speaker 3: we go pretty quick.

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Speaker 1: The is it directly connected to the Indie circuit? I mean,

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Speaker 1: are you on the circuits and the ovals and the straight.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So we we have six out of our eight

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Speaker 3: rounds are with IndyCar, like on the same weekends, on

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Speaker 3: the same tracks we we race on ims. So on

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Speaker 3: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, we don't go on the oval

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Speaker 3: there just on the road pust but all of our

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Speaker 3: tracks that we drive at all IndyCar circuits.

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Speaker 1: And yet your story so you I'm assuming, like everybody

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Speaker 1: else in this country in a motorsport generally started in

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Speaker 1: a cart.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that's right.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I started out in a in a go cart

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Speaker 3: at Cars Road and Houswell, christ Church.

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Speaker 1: How was it immediate? How did that? Is there a

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Speaker 1: family connection to karting or you just thought you'd like

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Speaker 1: karting or and when did the magic kick in?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: So my dad was always into all things kind of motorsport.

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Speaker 3: He did a little bit of racing himself back in

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Speaker 3: the day, but definitely there was nothing write home about.

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Speaker 3: And yeah, so I started out on a motorbike and

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Speaker 3: then we went out to the go kart track one

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Speaker 3: day to have a look and someone offered me a

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Speaker 3: go and it kind of all went from there.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic and it felt natural right from the start.

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Speaker 3: I was actually pretty pretty average to start with, so

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Speaker 3: there was a lot of improvement, but I got there eventually,

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Speaker 3: so I wouldn't say I was a natural from the

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Speaker 3: get go.

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Speaker 1: Did you have mentors or people who advised you? I mean,

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Speaker 1: how did you get good.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. I had some mentors I had and go karting,

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Speaker 3: Matt Hamilton and Tiffany Chittenden.

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Speaker 2: Who helped me out a lot.

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Speaker 3: They helped the likes of Marcus Armstrong who's an Indy

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Speaker 3: car at the moment. They are great people and helped

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Speaker 3: me a lot along the way and still.

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Speaker 2: Do at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Tiffany's amazing, isn't she huge? I mean, Lord knows how

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Speaker 1: many people she's helped over the years. So from karting to.

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Speaker 3: What karting and then into Formula Forward locally around New Zealand?

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Speaker 1: Is that worth it? Somebody offered me a drive and

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Speaker 1: a Formula Forward the other day. I've never been in one.

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Speaker 1: Would that be the thrill of my life?

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Speaker 2: I reckon you should do it.

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Speaker 3: I think it would be pretty cool that the old cars.

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Speaker 3: But but they're good fun. It's got a four speed

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Speaker 3: hpatt and gearbox and they're pretty tricky to drive.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, I reckon you should do it.

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Speaker 1: They look they look tricky from Formula Forward to what.

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Speaker 2: And then then to Formula for in America.

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Speaker 1: Wow, so you skipped the eighty sixs and all that

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Speaker 1: sort of stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I did it.

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Speaker 3: I was I was kind of in a tricky, tricky

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Speaker 3: time period because it was right in the middle of COVID,

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Speaker 3: so a lot of the things in New Zealand got

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Speaker 3: shut down, so I kind of had to make them

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Speaker 3: move over quite early.

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Speaker 1: Jacob, the team you're in pepst am I pronouncing that

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Speaker 1: it's a famous racing name. Are they good people?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're great people.

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Speaker 3: They do a lot for their drivers and for the

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Speaker 3: sport and helping out Yeah, people as much as they can.

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Speaker 1: The school thing, when you left to go to Indy

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Speaker 1: at sixteen, where were you at school? How did you

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Speaker 1: handle that with your parents? Did you have qualifications all

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Speaker 1: that that? I mean, what was thinking? What was the thinking?

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Speaker 3: Yes, I was at christ College and I was in

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Speaker 3: year eleven and I yeah, left school and I kind

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Speaker 3: of had a year off school and then I enrolled

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Speaker 3: in online.

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Speaker 2: School, which was a tricky. I was kind of just

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Speaker 2: doing it.

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Speaker 3: On my own over there, with no one kind of

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Speaker 3: forcing me to do it, so it took a while

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Speaker 3: to get it done.

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Speaker 1: So you got twelve year, twelve and thirteen, so you

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Speaker 1: got in CEA or university entrance or whatever it was

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Speaker 1: you were chasing.

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Speaker 2: Ah, Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, So what's now that you're at this USF

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Speaker 1: Pro two thousand, what's the plan for the next season.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so next year I'm heading back to do another

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Speaker 3: year of USF Pro with a goal to win the

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Speaker 3: championship and the scholarship into Indie Next, which is one

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Speaker 3: level below IndyCar. So then all goes well, We'll win

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Speaker 3: that scholarship, move into Indie Next, and hopefully then into IndyCar.

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Speaker 1: So Indie Next is Callum Hedge Liam Skeets there currently

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Speaker 1: in that side it, where's the money fit into it?

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Speaker 1: How hard is money and how hard is the hustle?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's a problem every driver faces unfortunately.

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Speaker 3: The funding side of it, Yeah, I've got to work

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Speaker 3: hard to find sponsors and stuff. We have a unique

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Speaker 3: way of trying to fund my motorsport career. So we

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Speaker 3: have a company called JAD and Properties. And JAD and

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Speaker 3: Properties is our funding pathway from my career. So my

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Speaker 3: parents come from a background and property. Yeah, so it's

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Speaker 3: a way for us to be able to offer a

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Speaker 3: return on the money invested into JAD and Properties, with

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Speaker 3: the remaining profit going toward my motorsport career and helping

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Speaker 3: on the road to IndyCar.

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Speaker 1: Is that working, Yeah.

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Speaker 3: It is working, and it's a way we can we

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Speaker 3: don't have to ask for something for nothing, which is

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Speaker 3: a lot of what sponsorship is unfortunately, so we can

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Speaker 3: offer a return on the money with the investor making

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Speaker 3: someone on top of that.

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Speaker 1: So, like all of you guys, your parents are they're

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Speaker 1: and they're fully supportive and they're along for the ride.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, my parents are amazing. They've always been supportive of

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Speaker 3: me since they won, both my mum and my dad. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: they work really hard to give me the opportunity. So

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Speaker 3: I'm really grateful for that.

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Speaker 1: How close to Dixon McLaughlin those guys, I mean, do

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Speaker 1: you do you share the paddick? I mean are you

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Speaker 1: in there or is there you know, is there any

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Speaker 1: sort of contact there or not?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely they're really great guys. All three of the

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Speaker 3: keywis over this are both Scott's and Marcus. I go

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Speaker 3: to the same gym as Scott Dixon actually, so I

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Speaker 3: see him every now and then occasionally occasionally get a

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Speaker 3: workout and together, which is really cool. And then Scott

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Speaker 3: McLoughlin is.

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Speaker 2: A great guy.

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Speaker 3: He offers a lot of guidance, a lot of advice

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Speaker 3: is always.

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Speaker 2: There to Linda Linda Eyre whenever, whenever.

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Speaker 3: I need, so it's always cool when I catch up

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Speaker 3: with him as much as they can on the race weekends.

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Speaker 1: No one seems to be a prick and motorsport do they.

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Speaker 3: No? No, Yeah, everyone's great people and they're all there

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Speaker 3: to help, which is really cool.

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Speaker 1: Well, good on you. And so between now and the

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Speaker 1: next season, what do you do? You just hang in

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Speaker 1: New Zealand? Do you drive a lot?

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Speaker 3: I drive as much as I can, so we'll be

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Speaker 3: out in a go card at Cars Road hopefully twice

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Speaker 3: a week.

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Speaker 2: And then I own one of the old model.

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Speaker 3: Tier Risk cars, so I'll drive that out at Roy Puna.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, trying to stay sharp.

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Speaker 1: Fantastic Go well mate, and I wish you all the

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Speaker 1: very best and we'll stay in touch. Jacob Douglas, who

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Speaker 1: was part of the USF Pro two thousand and yet

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Speaker 1: another QN we flying the flag internationally and we wish

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Speaker 1: them all the very best. For more from the Mic

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Speaker 1: Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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