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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's trying to read of the engines. This weekend,

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Speaker 2: the Baptist one thousand makes its return. It's a big

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Speaker 2: one for champion Craiglounds after twenty one years. He's taking

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Speaker 2: his final lap with his current team Race Engineering, but

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Speaker 2: far from the end for him. Next year he's moving

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Speaker 2: to Team eighteen, continuing to race in the Super Cheap

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Speaker 2: Auto wild Card and he joins us now.

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Speaker 3: Craig, Hello, good morning, how are you going great?

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Speaker 1: This is like a yearly chat with us.

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Speaker 4: I think I've spoken to you from when you first

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Speaker 4: debuted all those years ago, when you went from Holden

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Speaker 4: to Ford and now this. It feels like we've had

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Speaker 4: this like highland or existence in our relationship over these years.

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Speaker 3: Look, it has been I think the interesting thing is

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Speaker 3: is I've been around for such a long time. So yeah, look,

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Speaker 3: it's been a great journey. It's something that's as you mentioned,

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Speaker 3: like at the end of a chapter for me in

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Speaker 3: the sense of Triple eight I've been with him now

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Speaker 3: for two decades, and even in that I've gone from

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Speaker 3: Ford to back to Holden. So it's been a great journey,

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Speaker 3: as I said, and you know, this weekend, the last

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Speaker 3: time I actually get to drive a triple A car,

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Speaker 3: which is a little bit sad in one regards, but

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Speaker 3: hopefully we can finish that chapter off with a great result.

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Speaker 2: You've done this ray so often, but are the nerves

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Speaker 2: the same every year?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely? I think if you don't get those butterflies

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Speaker 3: where you don't get those nerves at the beginning, or

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Speaker 3: even even today, like yesterday it was wet, today is

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Speaker 3: much nicer and we got to you know, build up.

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Speaker 3: That's the whole thing is when we get through these

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Speaker 3: practice sessions and then got into qualifying and then of

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Speaker 3: course you get to Sunday the actual start of the race,

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Speaker 3: and the nerves will be there. If you didn't have them,

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Speaker 3: I think you need to retire like Mark Scaife did.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what's your favorite part of the track?

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Speaker 3: Every part of this track. I did a track walk

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Speaker 3: earlier in the week and again, doesn't matter how many

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Speaker 3: times you come here, you still walk around it. You're

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Speaker 3: still amazed by how the altitude, like the uphill side

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Speaker 3: of it coming out of turn two, and then you

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Speaker 3: go across the top of the mountain, the skyline from

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Speaker 3: skyline down to forest Elbow, there's just the elevation change

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Speaker 3: is like huge, and you know, it's just an incredible circuit.

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Speaker 4: And you appreciate how steep the dipper is when you

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Speaker 4: go when you walk through it, you go to get

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Speaker 4: this big steep.

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Speaker 3: Oh absolutely yeah. And it's one of those things that

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Speaker 3: when you go around that right hand before the dipper,

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Speaker 3: you actually got to turn it in early because you

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Speaker 3: got to remember them. When you actually turn it in,

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Speaker 3: you actually then sort of fall across to the right

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Speaker 3: when you drop down through the dipper. And so all

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Speaker 3: those little things you've got to remember every time you

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Speaker 3: do a lap around here. But it is, I said,

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Speaker 3: every little part of it. Once you get to Forest Elbow,

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Speaker 3: you can actually take the breadth because you've done all

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Speaker 3: the hard part across the top. There is no room

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Speaker 3: for error. If you make a mistake across the top,

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Speaker 3: you make friends with a concrete wall. So when you

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Speaker 3: every time you get to Forest Elbow, it's like a

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Speaker 3: all right, I've done that lap less than another.

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Speaker 1: So that's what happened with Dick Johnson.

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Speaker 4: Remember that time you had that massive crash at Forest Elbow.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he did. He sort of come out of it

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Speaker 3: clipped the right hand concrete wall. It broke the suspense

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Speaker 3: and it put him down into the trees. And that's

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Speaker 3: famous like that. That's one of those iconic moments where

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Speaker 3: you talk about and you look back on, and there's

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Speaker 3: been a lot of them over the years that we've

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Speaker 3: been here, and for me to even I was growing

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Speaker 3: up watching it, wanting to be part of this event,

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Speaker 3: even watching that, so it does. It's got its own

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Speaker 3: stories every year.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of stories, Craig, this weekend, you're racing with young

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Speaker 2: gun Zach Bates. His mother, Ali Droa was a friend

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Speaker 2: and colleague, just passed away last week. He's doing a

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Speaker 2: beautiful tribute for her.

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Speaker 3: When we were at the Bend three four weeks ago,

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Speaker 3: we knew that she was ill and you could see

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Speaker 3: it on his face and Ricky's dad and his husband

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Speaker 3: was with him at the Bend. But obviously, yeah, as

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Speaker 3: you said, passing his mom. He's got a beautiful sticker

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Speaker 3: on the car and a tribute to her people. If

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Speaker 3: you haven't seen it, it's a photo of Zach in

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Speaker 3: the middle of his mum and dad and yeah, look

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Speaker 3: it's going to be like this is one of the

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Speaker 3: probably the toughest years for me. As being I suppose

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Speaker 3: a mentor to the young guys coming through with this program,

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Speaker 3: because he come here with obviously a heavy heart. But

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Speaker 3: as I said to him, we've spoken a lot, and

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Speaker 3: as we get through these next couple of days, I'll

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Speaker 3: keep talking to him. But she's here in spirit with him,

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Speaker 3: and he's determined, you know, he wants to make sure

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Speaker 3: he sends I suppose what he was hoping she would

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Speaker 3: see off in a positive way and a great result.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot to cheer for with you guys this weekend.

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Speaker 1: And as I said, mate, you're doing it for Ali.

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Speaker 1: She was such a good friend of ours, and so

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Speaker 1: I've got a bit emotional. Yeah, and he'd be. But Craig,

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Speaker 1: good luck, good luck on the track.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, thank you very much. I'm looking forward to

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Speaker 3: I think that we always say that the mountain chooses,

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Speaker 3: and hopefully it chooses us this year.

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Speaker 2: All right, Craig, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.

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Speaker 3: No thanks, guys, thank you,