Business of Speed Podcast - Tom Blomqvist: Rally Royalty, Red Bull, and Two Rolex 24 Wins

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Tom Blomqvist has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona twice, claimed the IMSA DPI championship, and raced in DTM, Formula E, and IndyCar. He also broke Lewis Hamilton's record as the youngest Formula Renault UK champion. In this conversation with Lali Michelsen, he tells the full story for the first time in one sitting.Tom grew up between England, Sweden, and New Zealand as the son of World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist. He talks about what his father actually taught him (it wasn't driving technique), how a surprise birthday party in Indonesia rescued his entire career, and why a single crash in IndyCar became the most embarrassing moment of his professional life.He also explains why New Zealand keeps producing world-class drivers from a talent pool of 20 kids, what Balance of Performance actually does to manufacturer competition in IMSA, and why grassroots racing costs have gone from expensive to genuinely absurd.Plus: the motorsport marketplace he's building, breaking a rib playing golf, and why Max Verstappen is the most naturally gifted driver he's ever raced against.0:00 Growing Up the Son of a Rally Legend4:07 Two Schools of Racing Dads7:06 Why New Zealand Produces So Many Elite Drivers9:23 From Karting to Formula Renault: Breaking Hamilton's Record16:21 The Brutal Economics of Junior Racing21:51 A Birthday Party That Changed Everything28:47 DTM, Formula E, and the IndyCar Reckoning37:15 IMSA, Meyer Shank Racing, and Two Rolex 24 Wins41:26 Balance of Performance: The Real Story45:37 Life Beyond Racing: Investing, Golf, and a New Venture51:46 Favorite Track and the Most Talented Driver He's Faced

Hola, Vincenzo. Lali, it's so good to see you. So nice to see you. How are you? I'm great, although I'm a little bummed because I didn't get to record this next guest. I wasn't on the show. We've done that a couple times where Lali got a chance to record and I didn't.

But, yeah, I don't know. So who was the guest? And, yeah, tell us about who it was. So the dead giveaway should be the Rolex 24 hats that we're both wearing. I was so, so happy. I was able to speak with Tom Blomkist, someone that I really, really admire because he's a guy who's raced in everything. Alvin Chenzo's wearing his Meyerschenk racing hoodie that I made him buy

in Daytona because as soon as I saw it, I'm like, it looks fire. You have to buy it. Tom is a guy who's raced. He grew up racing in single-seaters in Europe. And the story we've heard before, Alvin Chenzo, you get to a point in the career and you've sort of run out of money and opportunities and there's very limited funding and seats and so then he went and he raced in DTM he's raced in WEC he's raced uh Formula E he's raced IndyCar he now races in IMSA so this is a really well-rounded racer which is something I always admire in race car drivers is when they're they can sort of conquer different disciplines so yeah it was an absolute pleasure to speak with him he was lovely the chat is really insightful he has some great stories to tell and we were bummed you couldn't

join us i still get i still get to watch the episode because someone's got to edit it but i want to know one thing before we go into it one thing that you learned about tom or in the conversation that maybe you didn't know before or you were surprised by so something that's a great question vincenzo because something that i find fascinating in general is athletes but we'll speak directly to about drivers who have a parent who was a very successful driver this is something I find fascinating because I feel that there's a really strange family dynamic in that right we see with Michael Schumacher and Mick we've seen it with Marco Andretti and Michael Andretti and Mario Andretti it happens in racing right sure so so Tom's dad Stig Blomqvist was a very very

successful rally driver he was Swedish champion seven times he won the world rally championship so he grew up Tom in this family right so something I find quite interesting first of all is that dynamic in general he's quite close friends with Carlos Sainz who also had a very successful rally uh driver dad or has still and Tom at some point says that he almost wishes his dad had been a little harder on him that would have pushed him a little bit more um that if perhaps the dad was too easy and I found I found that very interesting because probably when he was a kid he wouldn't of wanted that and now he he wishes he had yeah we I as as as now a parent but obviously as once a child and now growing up you think to yourself in the moment depending on where you're at you

want the opposite of what you're getting in that moment right if your parents were were tough on you my parents were very tough on me and I wanted more lenient and then as I grew up I'm like thank goodness they were like that because I wouldn't have learned any other way uh but vice versa, I have friends where their parents were very lenient and they probably were happy with it in the moment. They probably didn't want anything more in the moment. Although some have expressed in the moment too, we're like, oh, I wish my parent cared more. That's what they would say. And then as they grow up later, they're like, man, I really wish I was tougher or whatever. So it's really, it is cool to hear that from a driver, you know, someone who we see these guys

race at the limit of, you know, what's humanly possible week in and week out. And those that had the opportunity to grow up with a parent like that you would think I mean we see we hear stories of like Max Verstappen and and you hear if you're watching Formula One you hear that story a lot they talk about Yost all the time and he was extremely tough on him and Max has never really expressed regret from it he's like no I this is how I got to be where I'm at because I had that so it is cool to hear it is cool to hear that and I am excited for others to to hear it in Tom's story. So yeah, enjoy Tom Blomqvist and Lali. Enjoy. Welcome to the Business of Speed podcast. Tom Blomqvist, how are you?

Doing well. Thanks for having me on the pod. So let's set the record straight. How do we pronounce Blomqvist? Tell everyone, please. Let's start with that. That's a great question because honestly, I don't even pronounce it correctly myself. So obviously that's not a good good start i just say blomqvist in sweden they you know they're a bit more a bit more flair to it it sounds a bit more like blomqvist but uh yeah i just go with uh blomqvist so uh i mean most people don't even get the spelling right they obviously put a u behind the q so but i do want to start with with sweden and and uh your dad of course legend of

rally racing stick blomqvist um he won the world rally championship seven times swedish rally driver how was so you were like exposed from birth to this how was that how was life growing up because it's different than growing up with a dad and single seater so it's a different lifestyle tell us about that a little bit yeah I mean from my earliest you know memories I can just remember what I really remember is him you know for example early childhood memories I used to be away a lot obviously you know traveling racing earlier I remember you know whenever we would come kind of home so i grew up in the uk we used to have a little like bit of land uh in the countryside and outside stands at the airport in the uk so i just remember he used to come home and

it'd always be little toy cars or something like that right and uh i think that's all he knew as well any little gift we he would have for us was was only ever related to to racing and then you know starting with remote control cars and then before you know it with yeah i think i was two three years old i had a corn bike we had a like i said a bit of land so i was i was playing around in the fields i even we even remember this mess of like bar and for whatever reason sometimes you'd even have like rally cars there and stuff like that i i don't remember going to many like events or rallies when i was super super young that was maybe more when i was you know coming up towards four five six years old i mean probably i don't even have memories before that anyway but see i

always grew up around it i mean i remember you know i used to do the driveway on his lap drive the car back to the house once we get into the driveway we had a long driveway and yeah it was i guess it was inevitable at some point that i would uh get into the motorsport considering that's kind of like my whole child was revolved around that in a way i mean he had a lot of trophies i remember that they were like still with this area of the house there was trophies and then old you know memorabilia and yeah i guess we were you know i've got a younger brother we were obviously huge fans of him and and just of his racing he used to watch the formula ones i remember the tally text remember that on the tv back in the day yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean we'd

always be looking at like results of of racing events and and stuff like that we used to watch formula ones together when we were very little and he had thousands of dvds of you know crash for any pressures and you know all sorts yeah it was a hugely instrumental in my early early early years so we i found that there's two sort of schools with with sons of drivers one is the the dad who puts the kid in the cart from an early age just really focused on on their son or daughter becoming a race car driver and then the other one who's like kid you really have to want this you have to pursue it because it's such a tough path in life so which one was your dad yeah good question my dad was honestly I guess he put us into that but I

and like that was kind of all he knew so I think that was the only way he kind of knew how to um almost connect with us was you know things he kind of thought were fun and I mean don't get it wrong they're obviously great for us you know we had quad bikes and all these fun cool little toys when we were super young and I think that developed us yeah I'm speaking obviously you know my brother he went through the same sort of thing early days as well but he was actually very chill he was he wasn't super pushy at all I mean there's times now when I look back and maybe I wish he was sometimes a bit more pushy but I think ultimately he had a huge effect on me because he was so disciplined and very like focused and

like almost yeah like OCD and I think I have a lot of that when it comes to to my racing and and you know what I expect of of my like equipment or you know whatever it may be and that's something he really drove hard on us when we were younger yeah we moved to New Zealand or you know obviously you're aware of that as well i moved to new zealand when i was young um and and kind of grew up there in a way and did all my go-karting there and i just remember he used to come up like so he was living still back in in sweden then and but he would come you know a number of times throughout the year and spend a couple of weeks with us but he wouldn't leave our garage you know he'd just be working non-stop on our go-karts and uh you know i was always i

would be excited to come home from school and and then go and help him in the in the garage and work on the go-karts until you know dinner time sort of thing and just his kind of attention to detail and that work ethic and you know that i think rubbed off on me massively and and yeah i'm quite yeah i don't know if a perfectionist is the right word but very you know i like things being you know as good as they can be or in the best you know condition possible and that's something that definitely has rubbed off from from his expectations from from you know what yeah what he expects among people or just you know kind of the work he put in himself as well that that was i think that's had a huge effect on on who i am as a driver and and you know person maybe in a way

i'm glad you mentioned new zealand because recently i was i've been going on this rant about what is in the water in new zealand that it produces for such a small country you guys have just like actively right now dixon mclaughlin marcus armstrong uh shane van gisborne liam Lawson Nick Cassidy Mitch Evans how many racetracks are we talking about per capita New Zealand that you guys are producing this top top elite talent year over year no it's it's impressive I mean obviously I moved there when I was I was six years old you know Nick and and Mitch Evans you know they're two of my oldest and closest friends still to this day you know I met them when I just got into the they were already casting there you know I started maybe a year after I'd been in New Zealand

like seven or eight years old um and yeah i've been friends with them basically since seven years old and it's pretty incredible to see like just us three who are like best friends ever growing up um also you know come to europe and have you know made careers of what we did growing up and loving in this tiny little country in in new zealand you know we might have been racing against like 20 other kids max right and um you know three of us uh and i've gone on to um have you know decent careers and then not only that you know a couple of guys younger obviously Marcus, Liam and then you know generations older like Shane, Al Bamba, Brendan Hartley I mean there's a lot of them so it's it's pretty um you know it's pretty incredible really Scott McLaughlin he moved to Australia but

still nonetheless I mean it's it's pretty wild when you think about it I guess I don't know what it is I think it's a bit like also the culture of people personalities and I think you know we're quite i guess they're pretty strong you know mentally strong hungry i think that probably has an effect as well i find it i just find it uniquely interesting because it it really is i think per capita it would be if we did could do the math it's extraordinary so i love that so so you're in new zealand you're growing up you're carding you decide to go into single cedars at that point do you have to go back to europe to really get into single cedars cedars and start going up the formulas yeah so i started in new zealand from early 2000s through

basically 2008 yeah i was pushing my dad he's he was he's he was back in europe now so my mom and dad split up when i was young hence why we moved to new zealand and my dad stayed back in uh in sweden but i remember yeah i was always pushing him when i was getting older i said i want to get to car racing on eight minute to car racing obviously i was unaware of how expensive it was but nonetheless you know that's that wasn't going to be my problem initially so i was always you know pushing to try and you know go race in europe and blah blah blah but you know thankfully or you know i was fortunate enough that my dad knew a few people early doors and and i was able to go race so my first year trying out cars was in sweden which is small little championship you know

formula renaissance which was very low-key and not it's not expensive at all um you know really kind of family teams and and and so on you know i was 15 years old so they were a rule in sweden where you can start most countries you can't really start racing cars until 16 unless it's specific categories yeah they had a rule where you know the year you turn 16 you can start racing and I'm uh my my birthday's in the end of November so I'm basically a whole year of being out of race in Sweden at 15 years old and my dad knew one of the guys who owned one of the teams and and I went and tested there I think end of 2008 and yeah surprisingly not too bad so my dad was like okay like maybe you know maybe there's some talent there somewhere crap now we gotta finance this

yeah maybe there's some talent here somewhere and and yeah we managed to figure out a way to go race and the Formula Renault in Sweden in 2009. And yeah, I went pretty okay. I finished third. And then, yeah, that's kind of how it all started. And then I went to the UK, did some testing at the end of the year and did a couple of races in the Formula Renault UK

like winter series. And I won both of the ones I was allowed to do because I had to get dispensation because in England, you couldn't drive before you're 16. I think I remember the winter series was just before turning 16. so i got dispensation and yeah i won the both two races and i was like well okay and i think there was another one like okay maybe we need to give this a go yeah that's when we realized

obviously it was very expensive thankfully my father had a you know we had a few contacts and here and there and i was able to get a bit of support from from people who had supported him at times and yeah we found a little bit of cash to then go race formula renault uk um the following year and then yeah I managed to win that in my first year and then kind of wrestles history in a way but also like that's when don't you have a record of being the youngest who won I think so I think so actually you know who had the record before you yeah I do remember that because I remember it was a thing at the time yes it was why don't you tell people well uh it was Sir Lewis Hamilton actually Sir Lewis Hamilton had the record he had won it when he was 18 and then

along came tom yeah i just i didn't i don't know if i won it before i turned seven because i can't remember when the last race was but um yeah i guess i've just been yet 16 or just turned 17 um see that was that was really good and then i thought yeah for my one i was here i was you know 16 years old i was like oh this was this wasn't too difficult um you know formal income at me so to speak uh i mean that's kind of when you know the reality of of the industry kind of saddened you know for me and and you know i didn't realize obviously one i thought my parents were probably wealthier than they were two it was um you know the sport was just incredibly expensive i had some people helping me as well at the time and you know that

obviously i just kind of thought yeah well i did well like should they be able to find some money to go racing and and just take the you know the next sort of logical step which would you know either be Formula 3, you know, British Formula 3 or European Formula 3 and, you know, go with the best team and, you know, Korea's obviously got some talent here to be able to do something with it and that's

kind of where my career kind of took like a bit of a well, I'd say a massive really stall in terms of that, you know, chasing that kind of Formula 1 dream. You know, I didn't have the budget to go and race, you know, where I wanted to race. We ended up you know, racing in

German Formula 3 with a with a good team don't go as a solid team obviously it's not where i want to be in terms of the championship but that's kind of where i had to had to race and actually had a tough year didn't didn't go super super well well like one race maybe only but i broke my back that year towards the end of the season so i didn't even finish the year so i broke my back i missed the last couple of races and then yeah that kind of like in into uh your international and they offered me to drive for free in german at three and i won like six races um with them and then through that sort of connection i got red bull for 2013 but under the provision that you know i'm going to

race with this team they wanted to move up to a former three and long story short that that you know we we struggled a lot for performance you know that didn't work out at all we had a pretty you know rough year you know we were struggling for pace a lot that's 2013 i was with red bull that year then similar thing in 2012 actually you know just kind of scrapping together to put some budget together i worked with a team that never done former three um before and euro former three again we you know were super competitive had some good results here and there but nothing like that was you know gonna set the water lights yeah just 2012 13 was just pretty average years for for my career i didn't really kind of make any sort of progress yeah that was obviously a

bit of a wake-up call those sort of years after you know winning straight away and thinking you know this thing's gonna be easy you know hopefully I'll be able to make Formula One in no time but you know that's just being a kid and being a little bit delusional right yeah but also Tom there's something very first of all I always like to say this is like one of my signature catch races racing is a fickle mistress it is such a it's so unique in that in most sports if I'm if I'm top in the world at tennis I'm gonna go win tennis tournaments right racing is so unique that There's so many factors that come into it. You need sponsors.

You need a great team. You need the car. It's such about timing, about the seat being open when you're free and out of contract. There's so many variables. We spoke to Connor Daly on the podcast previously. And he says he remembers exactly, I'm going to call it F2, but it was GP2 at the time, where he was on the cusp of could maybe Formula One, maybe, maybe not, you know. But he needed to score the points because money, money, money.

and he had a crash someone crashed into him i think it wasn't even his fault and he remembers specifically in the moment basically as the car is spinning thinking that's it no formula one for me it's done yeah that's the end of my dream he remembers the exact moment yeah it's uh i mean i think that's what's so difficult for in our sport is there's so many you know variables that are outside of your control right that's why i like actually enjoying you know my spare time you know i get into like sports where it's literally like just you know which you can and so there's that sometimes yeah sometimes i wish racing was just me i wish i could just call up some like my guys and be like guys we're going to the track today

you know it's it's not going to cost any money but we're going you know practicing and we're going to go and do that you know i'll be out there all the time trying to you know get better or improve and you know group team whatever but that's just not the reality of our sport it's also obviously extremely expensive and for me what's wildest is in today's like world of racing i mean it's just not even on in the same ballpark as when i did it like when i did it i felt like there were yeah i mean obviously it's you know people have it's a i guess a sport of privilege in a way you know if you're not connected in the sport you know through racing families like like myself or or others who have you know come before or after me you know most of it is pretty wealthy

you know you know wealthy families or successful you know people who are behind these these kids and but back in my day there was a bit more normality there now it feels like it's just taking us to a whole different league i mean it's just it's unbelievable what you know something that costs 150 200 000 but in 2010 is now you know like a million or even more and for me that's just ridiculous it's ridiculous when we were at daytona um and we talked a little bit with oriole serbia and he he gave a rough number that for a kid to be in competitive karting today like elite karting is three to four hundred thousand dollars a year it's just that's mental yeah that's I mean it's it's just a different level of you know who's competing like it's not even

it's just wild now wow yeah it's interesting to see you know just I mean it feels like there's more drivers than ever you know what I mean it's true where's all this money coming from Because you heard the number thrown out there, what it costs Lando Norris to become world champion, something 30, 40 million dollars. I heard a French interview with Isaac Hadjart just to get to Formula One cost his family like six or seven million euros. That is not anything that 99 percent of the population can afford, even if their kid is elite. No, exactly. and i think the problem now is obviously that stuff you don't even see you know most kids now are you know they are you know more a bit more privileged maybe you know but not obviously

through any fault of their own it's more the fact that i think they don't even get the chance in go-karts unless you're in that position right so like the crop of talent is already that that's already where they're at so it's just that's just how it is how it's moved on i think obviously the popularity of the sport um you know some of the people that potentially have come through successfully before have you know potentially set a precedent there and that's how it's supposed to be done now apparently and that's what these teams are they can demand that and that's just the nature of our sport and what it's become i mean don't it's it's becoming even where i'm at now it's it's had a huge benefit like the popularity sport formula one obviously leading

the way there but that there's been a trickle-down effect across across the board and yeah i think that's great for motorsport you know no matter what way you look at it right it's good for everyone we're seeing a resurgence people are showing so much interest in in imsa nascar indycar there is a massive there's a there's a massive surge and i agree with you the tide has turned and people who are interested in one racing are becoming less and less snobby about being open to learning and and following other series and so i'll go back to you for a bit because you then after this you you did dtm for a bit right so transitioned into from single seeders how is that uh yeah so i feel like i've done every series under the sun like literally

and nesca literally i think they're the only ones i haven't done um yeah i've been been been all over the show uh yeah so that kind of obviously that whole thing developed from you know years earlier in 2014 i managed to um have kind of a pretty surreal experience to get i mean this is actually a good story in itself how i ended up you know kind of i guess getting my career on track in a way i was racing against uh i just thought of an indonesian family the galile family in 2014 so i was fortunate enough to i was actually 2013 i was racing against uh sean and at the time his family was was also paying for the racing of uh antonio givernazzi so uh i just remember i was friends with the driver coach and uh we're at one of the races in july like back end of july

maybe august september whatever it was and uh i was just having lunch with him and um one of Sean Lotto the family sort of helpers he was kind of doing a lot of day-to-day you know work behind the scenes for the family and you know saw the insurance racing out came over to me and was like hey uh don't like you know what's your email address okay it's all right here's my email address and and then the the driver coach who I knew was like oh yeah they plan they want to plan like a surprise birthday party for Sean at the end of the year and they want to you know invite as many drivers as possible you know the kid doesn't know about it dad wants to surprise them blah blah so okay that sounds pretty cool i haven't i didn't interacted with with him or

or any of them really um that season yeah i did terrible i was having a bad year with with my team and yeah i didn't obviously i was relatively shy guy but like i wasn't yeah wasn't friendly with them at all anyway a couple weeks go by and i did this email with like you know itineraries for this birthday party and uh well that looks pretty cool like that looks like an awesome trip in the meantime though i had uh because i had such a bad year i wanted to go to do macau the big you know formula three race with uh with a better team and and so i managed to get a seat with um fortek and uh but i need to find a little bit of cash for that so you know i think my mom chipped in good old mom that's her i had some small little sponsor coming but anyway i

managed to get the cash to go and do it and i remember telling them like hey like i think i'm going to go to this birthday party which is you know the whole plan of the birthday party was to like a lot of the drivers go to indonesia like the week two weeks before macau and then they'd fly around to macau so you know kind of like it's on the way you know and they were a bit against it they're like oh no we think you know i think it's a good idea you should you need to focus on the race and blah blah blah and i was like yeah okay fair enough but also equally in this like birthday itinerary that came through was like a once in a lifetime experience for me you know it was it sounded pretty insane so anyway i was like you know what i was kind of umming and ahhing and

i didn't know if i was gonna go or not but eventually i was like you know what screw it i'm gonna go so i said i was late i was like guys i'm i'm gonna yeah can i still take you up on that offer and i think i flew out there like a day late anyway i went straight to the birthday party and long story short this was like an insane trip i met john and donio kind of properly for the first time and we started getting on really well and then you know i met the father and the father's basically saying hey i want to sponsor you know more drivers next year i want to go to this team and blah blah i was like okay like that sounds pretty crazy but all right you know i'm just kind of you know i've kind of i'd heard you know this stuff before from from people

were helping me and say yeah yeah it's you know we'll pay for you blah blah blah and obviously things didn't eventuate but yeah i come to the end of the trip basically and the father's like hey tom like we you know we're not messing around here we're serious like you know pay for your racing we want you know another driver to to come together with sean and antonio and you know we want to go to the best team and yeah like i'm serious and i was like okay uh yeah technically i was still with red bull and i hadn't yeah i knew it wasn't going to continue for the year after but i couldn't really commit there and then went to macau did macau and then obviously after that i told i knew yeah red bull i wasn't going to continue red bull for the year and i called

back if i was like hey yeah i'm good and he's okay cool yeah sounds good and like a week later i'm carl and called me and they're like hey can you come and like down and test the new car for next year and i guess this thing is happening yeah then that's basically the rest is history So that family paid for my whole racing in 2014. I went with Colin, you know, had a great year, finished second in the championship. The two guys who, one was ahead of me, one was behind me, you know, those guys are both in Formula One. Mr. Ben O'Connell won and then Max was third and I was second.

So it was a pretty good year, but that's what led then, you know, I had opportunities after that year. um bnw basically got in touch and like hey do you want to come uh test test the dtm car so i'd always actually had a relationship with audi as well a little bit growing up um you know also through my dad and just being with informals we were volkswagen for many years and i tested with them a few years earlier but it was more like a kind of junior sort of thing and and they'd also reached out but bnw were offering a seat for the following year so i uh i went and tested with ben like it was like a two-day sort of shootout kind of style test and and yeah i basically did pretty

well there in the dtm car and and and that's where i that's the route i decided to take i actually had you know the family was willing to pay for me again to just take the next step up so i think we're going to do world series by reno first before like f2 but i had opportunities to stay and try and chase that problem one dream but i you know i had something kind of on the table there to turn you know become a professional racing driver and obviously at the time DCM was was was big was a big thing you know and a good career there yeah so I took that that opportunity and then haven't really well I did drive a single-seater two years ago now but since then I hadn't really you know that was you know over 10 years ago now when was the last time I was kind of yeah so that

was me so I think that one of the the the morals of the story is that FOMO yeah you need to lean into the FOMO because you leaned into it you never know what's going to happen like I mean without that who knows what would have happened right I mean chances of me being able to showcase my talent you know like a good team and a good you know who who knows what would have happened I'm sure I think you know I'm a big believer of you know the cream eventually rises to the you know top regardless like it was just you know on what time scale right so yeah I will touch on the return to single-seaters for a bit because it is part of your story and Yeah. So for people that don't know, Tom did Formula E. He did IndyCar as well. Maybe not to the success that you would have hoped for or expected. Obviously, we've spoken earlier about circumstances, teams, budgets, etc. Right. So maybe I'll just let you speak to both of those single seater experiences coming back to that. And I'm sure there's even even in the in the bad results, there's always lessons or what that taught you about what you wanted to do with your career.

just touch on that a little bit yeah so i mean on on the single seater side of things that first opportunity arose still through my deal with bmw i was one of the younger guys they had on the books and you know with probably some of the most let's say um yeah most formal experience you know not going back so many years so just really so they were and they were preparing to going to formula they partnered with uh andretti for for that program and they were pushing to get me involved in in that so i was like yeah hey let's let's do it so they put me in for a couple of races uh with andretti but it was tough i mean that series is is is extremely challenging especially getting like thrown in the deep end there it's it's quite a unique style of driving

style of racing and i must admit you know the package we had was was was not good at all you it was it was not a great quick or strong car and my teammate at the time was antonio felix who had been in the championship since day one so he had you know and i was coming in four years later so he had a ton of experience you know exactly you know how to get the most out of these cars and i was actually quite quick on the qualifying lap but i would always be trying a bit too hard and just you know making like small mistakes and just couldn't really put it together and then the race was a different story you know that was that was so difficult so I really struggled there and didn't really enjoy it that much because obviously when you're not doing well

it's not never fun so I didn't even that only lasted a few races and then I went back and did I went back into kind of the work and GT stuff and then you know a number of years later I ended up going back to Formula E and I went with NIO the Formula E team NIO and at the time you know they'd been struggling a lot um you know with their package and we were really not competitive at all but you know i had a couple of good races and good results uh throughout the year there for what for what we had like it wasn't too bad um and yeah it wasn't it was it was enjoyable to a degree but i mean it's not fun when you're you're kind of like you feel like you're a great job you're still like a second off we just the performance isn't there and at the end of that yeah that's

when I actually ended up joining Ashain Racing. I dovetailed my 2021 Formula Experience with the WEC. Again, with the Galah family. They wanted to go and do some LAP2 racing. So I dovetailed it. And then, yeah, I enjoyed that much more. I did really well. My performances were really strong.

And that kind of got me opportunities. And anyway, I ended up going down the Smoltska route. and that made it into my other you know my another step back in the single-seater world in indycar yeah i always followed indycar growing up obviously growing up in new zealand scott nixon was a big thing when we were when we were little so like it was always and i was on tv at reasonable times in new zealand because of the time so so i always followed it always watched it and then obviously being part of my shake racing and being closer to you know they had the team with it and I was always keen to give it a go and yeah I managed to get that opportunity

they gave me a shot you know at a full season and in 24 and honestly this is this was uh something I mean I don't know if I regret you know it would have been maybe in hindsight I would have liked to have seen at the time I wasn't you know really worried about it but maybe it would have been nice to see if I would have eventually figured it out I mean that's is going to be a what if right but i just struggled like i i felt i just couldn't get my head around you know and it's the the car and i couldn't get the car to do what i wanted to do and it was um this is just in general like in the street and road course racing i couldn't get it to do what i wanted to do and i just it was you know frustrating i felt like every time i yeah

okay i figured it out i did something good but i was still like you know three times off and and that championship was so close like you know if you're one or two times off you know that's the difference between you know making into the top 12 or and then you know you know i mean it has a huge effect just being like a supremely competitive championship yeah tiny bit off and if you're just missing those kind of attempts on a regular basis like it just makes your life very difficult and uh so i was you know i was struggling like it was it was hard work and then obviously the ending thing was just that was just like obviously a bad bad day um for sure one of my most embarrassing moments in racing i'm sorry to hear that you know when you're when you're

seeing something like that tom i'm gonna be honest no one thinks like everyone feels bad everyone feels bad for you nobody's like oh what did he do it i think that while while the driver might feel embarrassed the people you're just crushed because we know what it means so yeah no of course everyone's like well you don't even know what to say to you right like it's i mean you thought like you did it on purpose yeah so yeah that was and then i mean i was glad i wanted to end it was just not fun I was not enjoying it I mean the thing if I look back and you know if I did that 10 years earlier I think it would have been a different story if I came out of Formula 3 gone straight in there would have been a natural you know progression you know I was a

lot younger I had nothing to lose you know I already you know had been racing professionally for 10 years before I had that opportunity I had money in the bank so to speak I had a career I you know it wasn't like this is this is it or it's this or nothing it was obviously a huge you know great um opportunity given to me and i wanted to to make the most of it because i felt like i you know i felt that i had the talent growing up to you know had all the stars aligned that i could have made it to formal one right that was my belief you know back when i was young so i felt like yeah i should be able to make the most but i don't know if it was just 10 15 years or 12 years or 10 years or I guess you know different a slightly different you know skill

set or you know driving style that had made me so good in the prototypes that's something I obviously spent you know develop I guess naturally maybe just over years and years of driving such different cars that it was just a bit more difficult to adapt you know I was actually always kind of proud you know I was proud of myself and that I was growing up at me so I was always pretty good at least when I was at BMW I could jump in things and be pretty decent pretty quickly and so I was like I'll figure it out like it's just a matter of time but it's just taking longer than I anticipated so and that was getting frustrating yeah but I'm like I'm not mad about it I mean it's just maybe there's the slightest what if but you know it's not gonna it doesn't

changed my life um you know i really enjoy that sports car racing i'm super comfortable i feel like i can extract you know performance yeah so that's why we're gonna move on to happier days we'll move to happier days in imsa where you're absolutely awesome you won the dpi which is the precursor to the the gtp championship in 2022 you've won the rolex 24 twice are you wearing your rolex do you just walk around like this rolexes no rolexes that's a nice cap though so you really did adapt quite well to these cars you've it seems like you formed a really great partnership with uh colin brown so so tell us about that the partnership how it is how you how much you enjoy this kind of racing yeah i love it i got my first taste of it uh obviously

when i was with bnw i did some endurance racing in the gt program i enjoyed it but i never felt like i never loved gt racing i never loved you know i'd come from obviously a former single seater background you know much faster cars lighter cars more nimble cars you could attack the cars a lot harder and then when i got back in a lmp car lmp2 car 2021 to do the lmp2 like i was just straight away oh my god this is much nicer like i i just gelled with it clipped with it straight away so and then when i joined my racing in 22 you know i just kind of got on with the car and we just had success from from on the word go yeah i i love it i really enjoy that kind of racing i enjoy the cars i enjoy really working with with my team with with my gym with everyone

at HRC as well like that has been a great uh great time working with them like you know they're great people and and I really enjoy the the way they work and and kind of the openness and and yeah no no bullshit there which is fantastic you know in our sport um so I think that's enabled me to get the most out of me uh personally and and then obviously working with Klan yeah he started with Boston 23 we had a great year in 23 and then the program you know didn't happen in 24 and that's kind of you know obviously that played a part in me going to IndyCar but I also you know kept my foot in the door and with the program with Action Express so yeah I've always enjoyed it and every time I used to come back to that I remember in 24 I'd come back to Action Express now I knew how to

drive is in you know it was kind of refreshing yeah i've thoroughly enjoyed working uh with the team i think you know having a team around you that you know trusts you and and you know believe you can do the job and then equally like vice versa it's it's it has a huge effect on on a driver and i i yeah i've just really enjoyed the environment and i've enjoyed racing in imsa now the last years really loved that you know style of racing and yeah it's just been good fun And now, obviously, there's been a bit of success along the way. So that makes it always a little bit more enjoyable. So you won the Rolex 24.

You won Petit Le Mans. But there's one that has eluded you so far, and it's the 12 Hours of Sebring. You've qualified well in the front. The race is coming up. Is this sort of your next want-must-have win? Of course, I'd love to win it. It's always been a bit of a bogey track for us. We've never been quick enough.

sport we've also had a lot of bad luck there so i hope this year it just kind of that would be fantastic but i think it's it's always a challenging one you know this year as well i think it's going to be tougher than ever we got new new kind of cars or new tires as well and it's it's definitely thrown thrown a little bit of a curveball at everyone to try and understand those and so yeah there's there's a few more unknowns going into the race this year i think just to know how we're gonna fare but yeah obviously it's it's one that you know i'd love to win and and but it's always been a bit of a bogey track for us so i'm hoping we can uh you know kind of turn that one around well maybe this is your year i'm excited maybe maybe maybe hey what are your

thoughts i wasn't even gonna ask you this but i just thought of it what are your thoughts on on the bop and maybe explain to people what that is yeah so basically what it is is um i mean it's called balance performance it's it's a tool that i guess the championship corner the rule makers and even the manufacturers i mean ultimately you know most of them think it's a good idea obviously if you've got the best car you probably don't but regardless of that it's it's a tool just to kind of balance out the field and make sure you know no one's um you know goes away and kind of dominates which fair enough i mean i think that ultimately for all the stakeholders it's probably the right thing to have you know everyone unless you don't really mess up your car like

everyone should have a fair shot at having a chance to compete for victory from time to time i mean if not just you know you need to do better and have a better car i mean it's not ridiculous it's not like but it is i think it's just a function of endurance racing it's always kind of been there for most of i mean at least in most categories you know i think in the lmp one days back in the day it wasn't really there um but but then again you know they were spending you know five times what we're able to go racing at the top level today so it's it's kind of it has a you know i think at times it can be painful especially when you feel like you know you've got a really good car but ultimately that's just the nature of endurance racing and that's something

you know we have to deal with and i think ultimately i think the pros outweigh the cons in a way because you know i think without it you probably have less manufacturers maybe in the sport um you know it definitely allows the manufacturers who maybe don't have the same budgets as some of the others to compete at the same level and i think ultimately that's a benefit but yeah it can be obviously very frustrating at times it's it's lovely to see we when we were at the at the rolex 24 we interviewed uh john dunan live during the race from his bus um it was quite the experience and it and he's quite passionate about it also but you've touched on something it brings in more manufacturers it evens out the playing field so despite some people because

some people are very quite um against it but i just like your take your take seems like a very neutral uh yeah i know non-haiti take on it which is no i mean i can't because there's there's uh there's like rules in place like i can't even speak about it but i see you have to be careful you could tell me but you'd have to kill me yeah exactly no no it's i i am of the belief that it's uh i think ultimately it's it's good for but i you know i'm old enough wise enough now to know that it's you know for the big picture and and you know the more manufacturers in the sports better for me uh you know it's better for for my career so ultimately it's it's a good thing and it Yeah, but there's times, obviously, when every driver or every team

might be a little bit frustrated. They thought they would, you know, get the right end of it. But that's just, you know, it comes and goes. And sometimes you're good, sometimes, you know. But that's just how it is. You know what I'm saying? That's just how the cookie crumbles. Exactly.

It's been in the sport forever. I think IMSA does a fantastic job with that. You know, John and the team have done a fabulous job with the series as of late. yeah i think it's you know yeah oh it's so like it's in total growth mode it's fantastic at business speed we're big big fans of of imsan sports car racing and it's so incredible to see you guys getting your your day in the spotlight finally and yeah these are world-class elite drivers that have grown up racing against names that you're perhaps more familiar with but that you

were all in the same cohorts and finally you're getting your flowers and i love that no good on exactly no no 100 i want to talk to you a little bit about what your life looks like when you're done racing i'm i don't know anything about what your interests i'd like to know are you um are you already like planning are you an entrepreneur do you do more investing like what does life look like yeah i'd say i'm more on the um somewhat passionate about you know investing and things like that i do a little bit of that stuff on on the side i try to take care of my uh capital so to speak yeah so i'm i'm quite passionate about that i spend a bit of you know spare time looking through those sorts of things whether that's you know public public markets or you know having

access to private markets as well and private deals that's you know something that you know i guess you know i'm fortunate to sometimes get access to which is which is always good so yeah i do quite a i would say a lot most of my not most but i mean it doesn't take up a lot of a lot of my time but you know i i'm passionate about it so i'm i'm interested about it i i keep you know i'm quite uh well read let's say i keep up to date with with a lot of um especially you know latest you know news i guess or especially technology news you know following things there just to see how that you know can affect you know my my portfolio or whatever it may be so that's that's a small passion of mine then i've got like non you know i guess business ones

i've picked up golf and i'm like trying to i hate being bad at something so i'm like fully all over that trying to get better but that's frustrating but they say it's the most frustrating of sports and the hardest to pick up later in life like absolutely a nightmare i mean i broke my i broke a rib plan because i like obviously embarrassing is that yeah because i went from zero to 100 obviously as i kind of that's just kind of my personality like if i pick something up i'm going to go all in but i think my body wasn't used to rotating ever so uh yeah a fraction i got a stress fraction i was like what's this pain i had this pain for months i couldn't fix so i finally went and got an mri and they're like oh yeah you got a you know fraction

basically rip or back of the rib so yeah that's anyway put that aside breaking news i'm actually breaking rib pain golf so that's pretty embarrassing but then uh No, I've got a few friends here. We're actually, we're working on something at the moment. You know, I mean, I can't really say too much about it, but we're trying to build, you know, something actually for, in a way, for the motorsport world, more for like grassroots racing. Long story short, I mean, it's basically what we're trying to do

is build like a more dedicated, you know, I've got a good buddy who's built, who's in the tech, I guess tech world, but he's built, he's got his own online marketplace for a niche industry. niche sport he's a huge like racing fan motorsport fan him and his father actually recently just got into the whole track day thing so they're they're big on that but yes we're putting together something to that you know can focus on on our industry but more you know to bring to help or you know it's more for grassroots kind of racing or at least a given avenue for some

of the bigger teams to to you know get rid of stuff sell stuff offload some of their old equipment and kind of funnel that down through the lower ranks of our sport. Because being at my level, you don't really see. Motorsport is actually relatively large. And in America here, there's like, I went to a track day with him the other day and couldn't believe how many people were there, you know, just with their race cars and all sorts. It's huge.

Can you show up at a track day and just troll everybody and they don't know who you are and you're like, hold my beer. do i did jump in a car and one guy wanted like it was it was quite funny actually one of the um like track marshals and during the lunch break like trapped down like our little pit thing that we were using it's like who's driving the blue car and they were like he's like man that guy was unbelievable i think it was it was hilarious and i was like yeah that was they're like they're just not laughing have you seen that viral ollie berman video he shows up at a carting track with makeup like an old man but it's like perfect and he's like walking and he

does it he's like a really good actor actually he does it so well and then he jumps into the cart and he just flies like he think and everybody's like who's this old geezer and yeah so that's kind of you it's like the guy in the blue car who's that exactly that that was me but yeah so there is that's something that's um we're working on as like at the time being basically trying to build like a marketplace specifically for you know motorsport enthusiasts and stuff whether that's selling you know memorabilia or i mean you know parts and used parts from you know that's kind of like the the gist of it when can we look out for an announcement on that like how far out are you hopefully in the next like month wow you're close yeah it's pretty pretty we're pretty

far down down down the road with it um so hopefully we can get the website um live in in like a month or so uh i mean that's that's the target i mean then it's obviously the next thing is going out and getting you know obviously we need to build build the listings and stuff and getting inventory there on the site um and then yeah getting people to come use it so that's that's something i'm kind of we're working on a little bit down in the background on the side but yeah so there's there's enough there to to still have time to enjoy my life i think i'm very fortunate to do what i do and you know get enough time to myself as well which i think yeah it's very good work life balance let's say that's good yeah before before i let you go we always ask two last

questions and my like i said my wonderful co-host vincenzo could not be here but i'm gonna ask his question for him no worries so you have raced in everything and everything basically so you are familiar with a lot of race tracks specifically for racing which is your favorite track to race at in the whole world what racing so in terms of racing you mean like not to go visit and not to go watch a race but actually to be on track in any car like that you love racing you're like oh man this track's amazing so i've i guess there's different like experiences from a pure driving adrenaline pleasure sort of thrill to do a lap for me what is the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

I mean, it's no doubt about it. That's the most sort of, even in a GT car, G3 car, super high speed track. So it really makes those cars feel pretty cool and like pretty, pretty special. That's the most fun or sort of focused, like a pleasure I've had like driving a racetrack. Then one that you get quite excited about

when you do like a really good lap, because you feel like you have to take a lot of risks in attack was when i used to do macau and that whole event like that whole event was so different and so unique so that event was was epic so i think for everything maybe that one's pretty special and then and then yeah and then i enjoyed le mans i i like that track as well uh so they're probably my top three i think nord's life is the most fun pleasure i have driving a race car because it's like eight minutes long exactly that's the other thing it's like yeah it's not one a minute 30 and you're done you're going eight minutes full-on

concentration through forests and then and then macau as well because again it's it's high speed but it's like big commitment and closer to that one was was it was so thrilling and then i just enjoyed the flow of them on like it's kind of long straights but into like fast like it's just i enjoyed the flow of that track but yeah definitely launch life number one okay so i need you to put aside hardware championships wins whether they got a break or not maybe they never made it out of f3 who's the most naturally gifted driver you've ever raced against naturally gifted driver i mean honestly it has like it has to be like the most impressed i've been out of seeing someone as max because i raced against like i mean it's boring one because it's everyone's

seeing that but no one said him that you're the first person who says max so there you go i've not many people already yeah unless you're an f1 like not many people have raced against him because he only did one year of uh car racing but that was the most impressive but pressed up being about like he was super young as well at the time um but it wasn't like i never i always felt like in quality like i could he wasn't he was young like he would just kind of try too hard back then but it was more when um you know rain for example it rained or like tricky situations we went to i remember the street track and it was kind of like a guy was just unreal i mean he ended up crashing but like before yeah it was just like an amount of fp1 practices where he was fastest was impressive

as well so that was like the most i mean everyone's that talent center to be seen but you know obviously i've rated myself pretty highly but he was just that was you know seriously impressive so i mean he's he's yeah he's certainly yeah i've i've never raced against him i mean being a huge fan is uh i felt like uh you know shane venusberg and that guy's got so much like just a natural talent car control feel you know i'm a big guy that was something my father always kind of you know instilled in me he was you know having a lot of feel for the for the car but he is like he's like he's got that in abundance so yeah yeah I'd be good to see him in an IndyCar test.

It would be nice to see Shane in an IndyCar test. Yeah, he's just too big, isn't he? He's just got like, that just hurts. In anything outside of formula where you're not, you know, hindered by weight. Like in our category, he'd just be four temps behind before he leaves the pit lane. So he's got to make up, you know what I mean? Like it's just too big. But yeah, he's got serious bucket loads of natural talent as well.

Lovely. Well, listen, it was a pleasure to talk to you. It was a pleasure to meet you. we will be rooting for you in sebring i really hope you can get your get your 12 hour win thank you thank you no thank you for joining us thanks for having me yeah and hopefully down the line we'll do a part two definitely definitely all right thank you have a good day