Garage 66 | EP#2 DICK BENNETTS

In this Garage 66 podcast . We’re marking 20 years since Jonny Reid first raced A1GP for Team New Zealand—in the car Kiwis came to know as Black Beauty.The team’s seat holder was Sir Colin Giltrap, whose backing and belief put New Zealand on the grid and on the map…and in the process turbo charged our nations belief that we could take on and beat the world's best.7 A1GP race wins across 2006–08, two runner-up championships, and promotions that stopped traffic—from blasting over the Auckland Harbour Bridge to a runway drag race against an Air New Zealand Boeing 777.A couple of decades on Jonny is a family man – raising three children with wife Monique… he still races…and has dominated the national endurance scene for several years.I’m Shaun Summerfield – and welcome to Garage 66.

Paul Radisich was born into motorsport – both his dad, frank, and mother, robyn, raced  - but his first competition was on two wheels – in motocross.When he did start racing cars, the results came – first in touring cars – and then in open-wheelers, taking him to british f3 as teammate to future F1 world champions – Damon Hill.despite success, including victory in the australian f2 grand prix and the new zealand gp in 1988, but without the budget, he turned back to touring cars, finding success in btcc, and then claiming back-to-back world touring car championships.By the late nineties, he had become a regular in australian touring cars, which became supercars, winning several races, and twice runner-up at bathurst…but mount panorama would prove the end of his career, twice in factFrom the golden years of british touring cars – to teaming up with the likes of Denny Hulme, Petter Brock, and even Nigel Mansell…it has been amazing…and at times a wild ride for the boy from west AucklandI’ve known paul for more than 20 years – working alongside him as a broadcaster – he is sharp  - insightful…but also extremely affable…nothing like the ruthless image he had as a racer.

For more than 40 years, Dick Bennetts has been one of motorsport's most successful engineers and team bosses – playing an instrumental role in the careers of some of the sport’s greats, including Ayrton Senna.But due to his success, and huge success at that—in Formula 3 and British Touring Cars — and not in the likes of F1 or even supercars, his name isn’t known outside the paddock.Despite 53 years in the UK – Dick remains a proud kiwi.

This weekend in Melbourne, New Zealand’s Liam Lawson will start his first Formula One season, but he won’t be a rookie. Instead, he debuts as a Red Bull driver after a what seemed like F1’s longest and at times most controversial audition.In our first Garage 66 podcast – we talk to Liam about his competition on the f1 grid, and he shares his incredible journey from Pukekohe and a broken-down kart…to being max Verstappens team mate at red bull racing.Garage 66 is available as an audio podcast, or as a video on YouTube at Giltrap TV.