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Speaker 1: The big motorsport prize for this country is race for

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Speaker 1: this weekend at Highlands at the seventieth running of the

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Speaker 1: New Zealand Grand Prix, part of the new Next Gen

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Speaker 1: New Zealand Championship competition. If you've been following that over

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Speaker 1: the past couple of weekends, it's been at Tea Tonga

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Speaker 1: and Hampton Town's and Taupo the twenty twenty four when

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Speaker 1: a Liam's skeets has been handled the last minute wildcard,

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Speaker 1: so he I'm Assumer's excited and as well as Liam. Morning,

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Speaker 1: Good morning Mike, Happy New Year to you. Are you

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Speaker 1: at Highlands as we speak?

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Speaker 2: Yes, I am on down Cromwell. It's a beautiful morning

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Speaker 2: here this morning. Read it's roup into the weekend.

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Speaker 1: Good Is the forecast good for the weekend? Given what

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Speaker 1: happened to in Vericago last weekend?

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Speaker 2: Yes, luckily it is. There looks no chance to rain.

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Speaker 2: I'm actually pretty happy. I wasn't even able to track

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Speaker 2: with a load of the car It's cheris on the

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Speaker 2: last weekend and then Vericago. So yeah, it's looking good

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Speaker 2: for this weekend.

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Speaker 1: How does that mess with you? Because I watched quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of I've watched all of it over the

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Speaker 1: last couple of weekends. But I watched quite a bit

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Speaker 1: last weekend and the race that you're in, or the

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Speaker 1: races or the cars you're in, was the feature race

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Speaker 1: of the day at the end on Saturday. It got

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Speaker 1: red flagged. It wasn't race. How does that stuff mess

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Speaker 1: with your head?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very tricky. I mean, of course, first of all,

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Speaker 2: as a driver, you potentially might think of a safety

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Speaker 2: kind of element where you know, there's the water detracts

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Speaker 2: basically flooding the spray from the car. The heavy you

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Speaker 2: means there's little to no visibility, So so that part

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Speaker 2: messes with head and at the same time and miss

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Speaker 2: all that, you're still trying to go as fast as

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Speaker 2: you can and win the race. So it's yeah, it's tricky,

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Speaker 2: but I guess in those kind of conditions, whoever's got,

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Speaker 2: you know, the most confident and can adapt the best

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Speaker 2: as normally the man that comes out on top.

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Speaker 1: Work for non officionados of racing. Why are you in

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Speaker 1: a wild card and how does that work?

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm jumping in for this weekend, just just

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Speaker 2: this race. I mean, this championship has been going on

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Speaker 2: for three weekends prior to this coming weekend. How it

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Speaker 2: came about was twelned in New Zealand's kind of been

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Speaker 2: in my ear occasually saying hey, we want you to

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Speaker 2: jump in for the Grand Prix again, being the twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four winner and a Kiwi driver, And yeah, it

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Speaker 2: was just late last week, super last minute. They managed

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Speaker 2: to raise the majority of the money the funding required

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Speaker 2: for me to jump in, and an opportunity presented itself

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Speaker 2: and of course I'm not not going to hesitate to

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Speaker 2: take it. So yeah, I'm jumping in thanks to my

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Speaker 2: partner's cash roll and tour in New Zealand for this weekend.

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Speaker 2: It's not going to be easy, as I said, jumping

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Speaker 2: in right at the end of the championship. And you

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Speaker 2: know this is my first race weekend, but you know

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Speaker 2: this is everyone else's fourth, so but anyway, it doesn't matter.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I've spent two years in these cars, in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four, and of course

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Speaker 2: I won here in twenty twenty four in this exact track,

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Speaker 2: so I'm feeling.

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Speaker 1: Confident, fantastic. How's the muscle memory on that sort of thing?

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Speaker 1: So yes, you haven't got the experience of the last

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Speaker 1: couple of weekends. But how instant is it?

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Speaker 2: I guess we'll find out more today. But to be

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Speaker 2: honest with the yesterday was day one of being out

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Speaker 2: on track for practice, and the first session I did

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Speaker 2: feel a little bit out of it in some sense.

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Speaker 2: Everything was happening a lot faster than I would have liked,

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Speaker 2: and I was just having to kind of settle back

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Speaker 2: into things. I mean, the last time I drove around

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Speaker 2: Hireland's motorspat Park was when I won the race. And

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Speaker 2: this track is very high risk kaikermitmon, It's a high

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Speaker 2: speed circuit, so yeah, it's not the easiest places to

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Speaker 2: try and find you fit in and get comfortable in.

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Speaker 2: But by the end of yesterday I felt kind of

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Speaker 2: back at home again. And today's a really important day,

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Speaker 2: big day. It's the final day of practice before qualifying

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Speaker 2: tomorrow morning, so this will be where it really matters

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Speaker 2: to really step up my game and start driving fast.

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Speaker 1: Very interesting Phil Ryan Woods in there, and I mean

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Speaker 1: what sort of skills required? You know, so he comes

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Speaker 1: out of a supercurrent into a single seat. I mean,

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Speaker 1: can everybody basically do that? Or you know, very individual

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Speaker 1: skills required?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what, he's done a great job this season. I mean,

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Speaker 2: look last year wool Brown and brock feed Need, two

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Speaker 2: supercar drivers as well, jumped in and they were right

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Speaker 2: at the front and fast. So these cars, yeah, they're

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Speaker 2: difficult to drive, probably definitely not as difficult as a

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Speaker 2: supercar although, but no, Rhyme's done. Ryan's done a great job.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, he's going really well and it will be

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Speaker 2: interesting to see how I stack up against him and

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Speaker 2: the other key he's this weekend.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, have you got an observation of the quality of

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Speaker 1: the field. Have you been impressed with what you've seen

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Speaker 1: these last few weekends?

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Speaker 2: I have to be honest, I've been very impressed. I've

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Speaker 2: been driver coaching three international drivers myself, but yeah, to

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Speaker 2: watch the races, the level was high. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: don't know if there's a handful of of Formula one

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Speaker 2: junior drivers and then there's what is the supercars driver

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Speaker 2: and Kelly Robin Pira the two tumb w r c

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Speaker 2: m in So yeah, the field is pretty stacked. To

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Speaker 2: be honest, it looks tough. So I'm just so hungry

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Speaker 2: to get amongst it and riff into it.

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Speaker 1: Super exciting. Have you got stuff lined up for the

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Speaker 1: year beyond this weekend on Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Not yet, not yet this weekend. I'm really grateful to

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Speaker 2: have this opportunity because this could open some doors for me.

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Speaker 2: If in the event I can, I can perform and

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Speaker 2: execute and do a really good job. So yeah, we'll see.

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Speaker 2: But at the back end of last year, did a

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Speaker 2: supercar test, jumped over into a tim top with a

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Speaker 2: roof over my head so for a very for the

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Speaker 2: very first time, so that that was an experience and

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Speaker 2: that went really well. So looking more towards that direction,

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Speaker 2: away from the single seat of direction, because that career

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Speaker 2: path looks more to be more achievable requires this money.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm always looking out there for opportunities on

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Speaker 2: the world stage, and hopefully being able to go two

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Speaker 2: straight wins this coming weekend that will really help me

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Speaker 2: and put me in a good position for an opportunity

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Speaker 2: for the risk that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all I can do is wish you the best,

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Speaker 1: might go well. Liam skeets this weekend well well worth

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Speaker 1: watching at Highlands. So previous winners of this Cup, just

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Speaker 1: to give you an indication of the prestige of winning

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Speaker 1: the Grand Prix. He obviously won it in twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: somebody called Liam Lawson won it, Jack Brabham, Brendan Hartley,

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Speaker 1: Will Brown as he mentioned, Denny Holme, Lance Stroll, Mitchevan

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Speaker 1: Zell Bamba locals of course, and somebody called Lando Norris

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Speaker 1: not that long ago won the New Zealand Grand Prix,

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Speaker 1: and then Zach ring him up and the rest, as

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Speaker 1: they say, is history. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio