Commentator's Corner

Episode 63 - Hugo Goncalves

We all have our own path to tread on this world, some frought with more difficulties than others. This is very true of a good friend and supporter of the podcast - Hugo Goncalves from SimRacingHQ, who hosts the GearHeads Podcast.

Originally from Portugal, he now lives just outside Silverstone, and is a very happy character. But it hasn't been easier for Hugo, especially with significant life-changing health problems, which include battling cancer.

But he has battled his way through it and has kept so incredibly positive with the welcome assistance of his wife Kristina, who has been his rock. It's strange to see one podcast host interview another, but it is one of the very best episodes I've recorded so far. Muito obrigado, Hugo!

You can find Hugo on the following socials:

X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/SimRacing_HQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simracing_hq/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugo-goncalves-b6b2932a1/

Watch the GearHeads Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF5xghjNHgUzdjiFj0tK7S9nTJ7QiEOk6

You can find me on the following socials:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexGoldschmidtMMC

X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/AGoldschmidt77

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexgoldschmidt77

Broadcast on:: 15 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Well, for episode 63 of Commentators Corner, we head back to another favorite realm of mine. It is, of course, sim racing. And I have got the man who is behind sim racing HQ and the, well, acclaimed gearheads podcast. Welcome to Commentators Corner. Hugo Goncalves, good to see you Hugo. And finally, we get round to actually talking to each other. We haven't, we haven't really met in real life, but we've been talking a lot through Twitter DMs, but how are things, buddy, how are you keeping? - Thanks so much for having me. I think it's, for me, is good because the first time that I'm on the other side is always different. Like you say, we've been talking for many months. We cross already. I know that we cross already been already on the same place. Many of the time, I think we cross already faces, but we never interact on the, on any way, on that face-to-face, but we always been helping each other. I think your podcast is one of the underrated podcast that is inside of the community between motorsport, simracing. So because you have people from both sides here, and I think the way that you develop, the way that you bring the interviews are really good, much better than mine, I must say. So I'm quite surprised that you never kick it, the level that you need it, but I really hope that soon your podcast creates the level that you deserve. - Yeah, I think that's why I went about the, the refresh with episode 60 with George Morgan, you look new intro, making it a bit more catchy. Of course, yes, we have to deal with the famed algorithm. It always happens, but I have to congratulate you on your recent success, of course, hitting over, I think, what was it, 50,000 views or something like that on the gearheads podcast or something, so congrats on that one. Here you go. I really want you to sort of cast your memory back. What was, because obviously I do see the nice little McLaren cap that you're currently wearing at the moment. When was your first involvement as a fan within motorsport in general? - You know, my father was always a big motorsport fan. F1 and Raleigh, Portugal, Raleigh, as you know, is on our blood. The Raleigh was coming always near my town, near Guimba, Erganil is the area that normally was there. So the Raleigh always been there. So from young, I had always a little bit of involvement with that. After Formula One was on open channels in Portugal, on the time. So on Sunday lunch, Formula One would be always on the TV. So I grew up always having on the back. Even if you are not looking while you are eating, you are hearing the names, you are seeing what's happening. So I grew up with Ed, and of course, gaming. After gaming come, you know, my father bought me a PS1. I cannot tell you the time, I don't know, '98, '99. I don't remember when it was. Gran Turismo 2 was one of the games. And you know, as a kid, you just passed hours and hours. And from them, you know, it's like you found something that you like it, even if you don't have the knowledge. So Tokyo 2 race driver was one of the games that was always been played. And all of these types of things started to develop. And, you know, my dream was always been a driver that I could never achieve, because family do not have the money or the possibilities to do something there. So sim racing was a way to do it. Yeah, I think it's become more prevalent in this day and age, obviously, with when we had COVID-19 here. I used to remember the time when we had the second lockdown. Funnily enough, I was in a party mail for the Rotax International Trophy, the Kato Dromo International, Dua Algarff. And then we were waiting because everything had been rescheduled that year. The International Trophy was meant to be at the Lamar-Karting circuit right inside the Porsche curves, at the Sekri Dilla South. And then we get a notification. We then get told that week, well, the Portuguese government and every other government is shutting everything down. So no sports. We would choose to have two weeks later, party mail, the grand finals, which were originally scheduled to take place that year in Bahrain. And, like, everyone who had, you know, really, really worked hard in what was a very compressed season was very, very difficult. And I remember going back home from, I think, I funny enough, I flew via tap Portugal. And it was the first time I'd ever been on a, you know, like I flew from Farrato-Lusboa. And then flew back to, I think it was Heathrow. And I remember getting on the propeller plane and I went, this feels really, really weird that I'm flying during a very, very difficult time with regards to the biggest global pandemic and over a century. And I'm flying on a bloody propeller plane through tap Portugal. Get to Lisbon, get my connecting flight and then go, ah, some normality resumes. I'm in a normal plane. I don't have this constant droning by the side of my ears. Like, oh, that you hear from the propeller planes. But, you know, lockdown for us all was very much a, a defining time for, for sim racing, obviously, because you're based out these days in the UK, now in Northampton, she's just outside of Silverstone. When we had those infamous words muttered by a certain UK president saying you must stay at home, that person will not be mentioned on this podcast at all. For, I'm not, I'm not someone who gets involved in politics in any way, shape or form. - I mean either. - I don't think politicians deserve to be name checked on a podcast like this. Because before we started recording, obviously you've been very, very open about your health, which is something I wanted to get into first of all, really to, for people to understand how you can come back from severe adversity to really sort of enjoy what you do. Just give us the background on your health dramas since 2020, when COVID first hit, because you were going through treatment for cancer at that time. - Yeah, so, yeah, previous 2018, I had the colon cancer. So I stay all year, close indoors, doing like classic kinder therapies and everything. And I get a Logitech G29 to try to start playing, but I never had the strength or the power to, and everything stay in the corner. Come 2020, come COVID as we speak. As I was one person, I was living in Cheltenham on that time. I was a person of risk. So I remember my doctor calling my executive chef, 'cause I was a sous chef on a restaurant, and he said, look, is race week, horse racing week in Cheltenham. Government are not closing the doors yet, but Google cannot go because it's gonna be a very high risk for itself. So they sent me home, and after the race, horse race finished, the government closed everything. So I lived to people to think what was more important was health or the money that we make with the horses races, but yeah, it's 'cause it's politics. During that time, I had already advanced some sim racing, so I started getting a little bit more sick, but I didn't want to close the sim racing, so I get full sim racing, the rigs start playing a little bit more. And while I was playing, I started feeling like I told you some pains on my chest, always at the same period of time. So around after nine o'clock, I started feeling something on my chest. I call a friend that his father was, my friend was living with me and his father was a doctor. I asked him, can you just give a call to a father, check what's happening? He said to me, look, I think he's a type of virus. I got to doctor, doctor say, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a virus, nothing wrong. As soon as it was next day, I wake up with a bicep of Arnold Schwarzenegger on my arm. So the bicep was big, means that the cancer have cells that mutate to my arm. And as you know, where everyone knows, NHS was completely close. They make some tests, they say, yeah, it's cancer, nothing we can do, go home. And that's it. So during first COVID, during second COVID, there was no treatments available on UK for new patients. If it was something that they cannot treat 100% without big chemotherapy and everything, as you know. So I was pushed to the back, to the back, to the back, to the back. From 2022, on the final of the year, I started having problems on my hands. I started having my hand was going numb. I started having problems filling my fingers. I go back to the doctors and they say that the cancer was brushing the, or destroying the nerves. Nothing they can do. Cancer F mutates to the leg, from the left arm to the right leg, near the hamstring. And F appear on my lungs, very small. That automatic swap for a group four, because it means that you have different types of cancer in different locations. So automatic is a group four. And after NHS said it's nothing they could do, or will be cut limbs. But they say even that when they don't know if it will work, because it was already spread on the body. So who not probably sold it out and nothing, as everything was already going too big. The leg was big, arm was big. The chest was getting a little bit bigger. So I've been told nothing we can do. And the cancer started mutating a little bit more, creating dementia. I forgot what it was. I forgot who my wife. I forgot things normally or daily by daily. So I would say 50% of the day, I would not know what I was doing. I would stay home, looking to a wall. Most of the time my wife will have cameras everywhere to check if I was safe. But all of the time I would be not doing nothing. And the time that I will remember what was, I started the podcast. No, no way to keep my mind active. Because during the podcast, you have to write a script. You have to write something. So will remember me how to write, remember me how to do something, and after will obligate me to speak. Because if you go to the first episodes, you're going to see that my voice is very slarish. I hate the syllables. I forgot words. I have a lot of feeling words. I repeat a lot of stuff. And that is because of the cancer. So Gerez podcasts come because of something bad on life. After everything gets sold out by private doctors that come to my life. And very fast, it sold out everything. It's been a difficult process because I've been already two times operated. But the thing is, I have a harm. I have a, I feel my hands. Not properly, but I feel. I walk, I do my life. Not working anymore as a chef, because unfortunately I cannot work anymore as a chef. It was one of the things. But, you know, I work at Silverstone. And that's a dream. You know, every day I go, or I've been already two months there. And I, it's not been a day that you don't have goosebumps of enter on the racetrack, you know. So, you know, on the line of the day, from all the adverses, I am happy. I have a podcast that I'm proud. And I have a job that I'm proud. - What exactly is your job at Silverstone? Because I've always wanted to ask this question. Go on, hit me with it. - Okay, so I work for the private, not private, the hotel, the new hotel in Silverstone. It's calling escapades. So when you go to the corners, you're gonna go to the corners of Meggets and Beckets. You have now a new residential hotel there. You have 29 track side houses or calling residences, private residences, that are owned by people. And after you have insights, you have the rest of the total of the houses. That makes 60 houses. You have two bedrooms, and you have some apartments with four bedrooms. The track sides, you have four bedrooms, three bedrooms, different ones. But they are owned by people, but the people don't own them own full. So it works as a hotel too. So the person they bought it, they get a couple of days. They have days, they have access to all the Grand Prix, everything. And after, they are not there. The house is rent. And they get the percentage from when the house is rent. So literally, you are on the corner of Meggets, but you can have a view for every part of most of the circuit, because you can see the wind, you can see the loop coming, you can see the car's going to Brooklyn. And after you see the car come from corpse and all that way. So you have a view from everything, a little bit like you are on Silverstone 6. - Yes. - If you know the stand that you can see the six corners, is a little bit what we can see. - Wow. - Yeah, it's something that's going to open now for the open now on Formula One, but the main open will be during the MotoGP. So the week of MotoGP is the main. So everyone is welcome to come because you have a restaurant, when the hotel is not full, the restaurant can have capacity to take people from outside. So people can come, enjoy the meal with a view to Meggets. You know, it's always track days, it's always something up in there. So for sure, any day that you go there, you're going to see cars on track. - Well, if you are there, I will hit you up and I will definitely come. - For sure. - And we'll definitely have to do, we'll have to film some like collab content or something, just. - For sure, you're going to enjoy it. - Definitely, definitely. I mean, one of the things that, I want to sort of take a little bit of a backtrack here. Well, first thing, congratulations on the roll there. Here you go. No wonder there's a big cheesy grin on your face every time you let it go. Like I work at Silverstone now, but I'm a British motorsport at the Escapades facility. But you said that you were a sous chef, an overview is obviously before the cancer treatment started. How did you get involved in sort of being, you know, working in a restaurant and ending up, but you know, because a sous chef role is something not to be trifled with at all. There's quite an important role in the kitchen in a restaurant as well. How did you get started when it came to like your, your chef career, which you've had to sort of say goodbye to, but obviously this new stage now of your life is something that you're also deeply proud of. - You know, a little bit of my father put some pressure because I was not a kid that I like school. I never liked school. I always never feel that not because I was, I was performance bad because I was not, not going to school. But as soon as I found something that I was good that was cooking, I went to culinary school and my grades completely come and shining. So, you know, it's not, it was just my father say, you need to, you need to do something. Why don't try something at an culinary school? Was something that I say, okay, I want to try this one. - I went, I really enjoyed it. Was two years of professional culinary school that lead you to a bachelor on university. Like one year, bachelor, nothing major. But it's something that proud. And after from there, I went straight away to stage in, so while I was in school, I was taking a stage in the one mission at Star Western in Portugal on that time on Lisbon. So I was, for the people that don't know, my town is like one hour and a half from Lisbon by car. The same distance by train, if probably two hours by train. So I was starting working there at 10 o'clock in Lisbon from Thursdays. So I was leaving school on Wednesdays, wake up at seven o'clock in the morning on a Thursday, pick up a train, go to Lisbon, work for Lisbon three days on the stage. After pick up a bus, 'cause it was cheaper, go back to Portugal, go back to Queensborough and go back to school. And I started like this one. And after from there, the guy enjoyed me, enjoyed what I was doing. Was one of the biggest chefs in Portugal. Sent me to Spain, again, to work in a, I work in two missions at a restaurant. I work in a one mission at a restaurant. From there, I can Portugal go back to work in some two missions at Star. Go Germany, work for probably one of the best restaurants in Germany that was on the time Aqua in Vosburg on the auto start of Vosburg. Volkswagen, yes, exactly. Yeah, exactly. So it was a private restaurant inside of the hotel that was owned by Voswaggen Group on the first factory of Voswaggen. And from there, after I worked at different restaurants again, always mission-star, I came to UK and I put mission-star a little bit on the side because I was a little bit tired, honey. And they pay very bad sometimes. So we need sometimes more money. I need to create some back accounts. And I work for many years as sous chef, et chef, depending on if it was a pub, or sometimes I was taking the et chef role or et chef role in some hotels. And after sous chef, et chef jumping a little bit around, but the last job I was sous chef. And that's it, was enough for me. I cannot do it anymore, but I miss it in some ways. I enjoy it, but yeah, it's part of the past. - Now, for those people that might have said, perd where Hugo is actually originally from in Portugal, it's the same locality as a certain very fast sports car driver who was actually part of the Red Bull Junior program fully Balbacuric, who is also a guest, has been a guest of yours on the the Gearheads podcast. And that's, you know, I've always had a love for, you know, people from Portugal. Of course, with the Rotax Grand Vitals, the organizers are not Rotax. It's actually Corridas in Portugal, who actually run the Spanish and Portuguese Rotax Max challenges, and it's so cool to catch up with my friends like Louisa Robby, who's part of the team at SRO, along with being part of the team at Corridas. Remiro Brito, he's been the race director for the Grand Finals for the last just over a decade. And he's traveled the globe, being a race director here there and everywhere, but also a lot of the people that I work with at Corridas also have full-time jobs, along with the motorsport. I mean, the thing is that you've had Philippe on your podcast, of course, also a man who is a bona fide legend in his own right, Antonio Felix de Costa. I think you might remember correctly, season six Formula E Champion with, at that point, the Estachita now running alongside Pascal Véline with Porsche. It's really good to have drivers like Philippe and Antonio on the podcast, because they both use the sim to a great effect, because obviously, back in the days of the '80s and the '90s and Formula One, everyone had no limits on testing the cars and going round to tracks. But now it's a very different opportunity because Formula One teams, all of them, have their own in-house, four-motion access simulators. What was the biggest thing that you found with Philippe and Antonio, and you were also having your, well, a good friend of both of us, Mr. Random call sign on the podcast asking the questions. What was the biggest thing that both yourself and Ricardo actually took from Philippe and Antonio when they were talking about how being on the simulator helps them in their actual on-track activities in motorsport? - You know, that's quite tricky, because both Philippe and Antonio have completely different feelings from the sim racing. And that's why I like to do with real drivers, even with young kids and everything. I think everyone have a different perspective of where sim racing can help and where sim racing cannot help them. On time of Philippe, Philippe said that he don't like to do more than 20 minutes, because he gets used to something funny. The sim racing line, that is not the actual line, because he say on his own words, I think I'm gonna paraphrase him perfectly. For example, Daytona changed a lot depending of the GT class, where they break it, where they don't break it. The grip will change it. So they need to look always constant to where they need to change on turn one. So this one don't happen on sim racing. Our lines could be always constant. And after that, the part that he mentioned was he was driving with Phil Anson. Of course, we will be a United Auto Sport. And Phil was doing on the ride on the parabolic. I was using the sim racing line for four laps. And he had to call him and ask him, why he keep using this line? So, listing this one on the podcast is super interesting. But after you have, yeah, for the other side, you have Antonio Phallaxo Costa that is a driver that you sim racing to the compress, to keep his competitive level, to know what's happening on trucks, to get either an ambassador for a red line, or still is the one in ambassador for red line, team red line. And he shared completely different opinions from flip. Of course, he still agreed that tire management or the tire model is completely horrible on sim racing is not near what should be. But that means that as a sim racers or the developers sim racers are doing something good because you have professional drivers that are enjoying sim racing. And I have to tell the stories that are unique, like tell that Max Verstappen called his engineers on Red Bull last season at three o'clock in the morning because he wake up and he said, look, I need to change my things because I don't know if my tires think it's gonna be okay, I need to change to a different one. So everyone have to wake up at three o'clock in the morning, go back, go back because Max went to try a new stint that probably would say, I would say probably 40 laps to whatever the stint that you need to do with, to do a full stint on a sim to check if that tire will be the best tire or not. That's something that you're never listening on, outside of the podcast, you know, the drivers never share these type of things. - Yeah, I think it's always good to have, you know, differing inputs from varying personalities that we know that do go into both. But then of course you've spoken to a man who has made his transition from sim racing and got into real life racing. Of course, that is the legend from GT Academy. Cardiff's very own Jan Mardenborough, whose story has been put into the Gran Turismo film based on a true story. So there was a lot of Hollywood-esque creative living used, including what Le Mans look like. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna blast them for that because the way that the film was presented, but of course, the biggest thing that people know about with Jan apart from his racing in Japan in Japanese Formula 3, then becoming a Nismo works driver in Super GT and in the top tier class, GT 500, which runs to the class one regulations that was from, I remember being around in the DTM paddock when class one was being talked about BMW and Yen Smart Quad was saying, yeah, we're ready. We're ready. We've got so much from a technological standpoint. They were, they had even started doing their, their 2L inline force and a turbo charged engine for class one. Audi were pretty much also there as well. Mercedes were sort of like saying, no, we'd like the format as it is. We like the cars as they are, and then decided to believe class one, class one had a very short lifespan in DTM just two years. But Japan kept that on, but Jan is a very unique, character in the fact that you look at who else has made the transition and has made a successful career, not just Jan, but also Lucas Autodonez. You look at him. I mean, Lucas now is from being one of the people that qualified from GT Academy, goes on into sports cars, then goes back full circle in a way and Jan is the expert, like the color commentator for the Spanish broadcast for GT World Series, which starts up again, I think, very soon in Montreal for this season. What were the most interesting things that you found out from Jan about his journey in real life motorsport? Because obviously, Sim Racing, his father, funnily enough, who played for culture's United Football Club, which is 30 minutes down the road from where I live, and then played for Cardiff United. What were the most interesting things you found out from Jan when he talked about his journey in motorsport? - It's a couple of them. The first one was that when the story came about him, he said he had to go on the story. So for me, that's the most important thing. So, depending of the story, timeline is not the same that Jan had as a career. They take that part, but the main parts are there. And the other thing was the way that he talked about Gran Turismo 5, Gran Turismo 4, teach him how he will manipulate the cars. So he said that when he jumped on the GTR, or that 350Z that they have on the academy, he was ready to know how the system will work. And the same he said on the other, the same that he's talking about the BMW, the way that the other four wheels work on the car is completely accurate on Gran Turismo. And very difficult, you see someone with this level of name on a pro driver will come and say, no, Gran Turismo can do this. I was quite surprised for someone coming and defending, of course, Gran Turismo changes live, but if you understand me, very difficult, you see this one. 'Cause we came back with talking before, we come on a sim racing community that everyone is, like you say, keyboard warriors, everyone are gonna say something about. And if you are a person that enjoy Gran Turismo, a lot of the times the big sim racing community is gonna say, oh, it's not accurate, or it's still an arcade game, depending on the point of views, it's not the best game that I racing is the best, or of course, it's the best, or if you know what I mean. And after you have a pro driver that say, no way. When I drive a BMW on the game, and I jump to my BMW, and I try to do, the system will work the same way. I mean, if I go on a GT-R, and you just remember, E1, the final race on the GT Academy, with eight seconds on advance. Eight seconds is huge, is huge. - I mean, it's, you know, when you look at the work that Yamauchi-san, 'cause I know the Yamauchi, the man behind Polyphony Digital, he creates it, Gran Turismo. I mean, that guy is, you know, he wasn't just a game designer, folks, he was also actually a racer, and he would get into the cars, and for someone who really had this attention for such detail. And I think without a series like Gran Turismo, and without Kaziamauchi not taking that to such level of detail, it was a case of, we would not see people like Lucas O'Donne is, or Jan Marnebra, or anybody else. I mean, Danny Dusse lost to Mark Gasner in GT Academy Germany, and we've both had him on our respective podcast as well. Danny's a great guy, and it was, it was just the, you know, you look at what Kaziamauchi has done in racing. He actually, he decided to go into the VLN for round eight in 2009, running in an SP8-class Lexus ISF. He also ran at the 25 hours at Thunderhill in a spoon sports Honda Civic. So, the guy knows exactly how to pilot a car, can understand from a true driver's perspective. So Yamauchi-san Doarigato, you know, like literally without him, we would not see these people come through. And Gran Turismo has evolved to the point where we are seeing major manufacturers. And this is something, I think it's actually quite a good talking point here, Hugo, it's the fact that there have been so many GT concept visions. I mean, Skorden now coming out with one. You've had all the major manufacturers, you know, Hyundai with their hydrogen powered sports car, you had Persia with something that was absolutely crazy. Mercedes, like literally every manufacturer can think of. - Porsche, Porsche, yeah, BMW F. - A is something on Gran Turismo that people forget is, I think all the team of Gran Turismo is persons that have a huge passion for cars and for the detail or cars. It's no game that I ever saw that have so much detail on, on wow, how the cars are. You already saw some shots now on the, the new Seto Corsa Evo. And the interiors looks really beautiful, but Gran Turismo done this one four years ago. Yeah, and you see that if you pick up VR, you put your VR on Gran Turismo 7, you see the detail is something completely unique. You jump, I jump on car that I own it, and I was feeling that I was inside of the car, the details, all the things, the small things are there. And this is something, you know, that's only, I think only Gran Turismo in a moment can do and can provide them, I think the team is amazing. And like I say, the visions, everything is something unique. You know, it's a vision, how many visions they put a year? Five to six? Well, I lose count. I lose count every single year, but I think, I think it's the regularity, you know, they, the Japanese are a very, very proud nation when it comes to, you know, saving face in there in their mantra, in the way that, you know, they've been brought up. And I think also the fact that they have consistently tried to, it's not been a revolution, it's been an evolution. Every single time we've got a new Gran Turismo title out, which is, you know, without Yamauchi-san, we wouldn't see Gran Turismo being a big proponent of people wanting to get into sim racing. It's very, very accessible. You know, when you look at sim racing in general, folks, there are so many tiers. You've got games on your phone. You've got games on consoles. You've got games on laptops. You've got games on PCs and, you know, like say, for instance, one of the titles that I'm current, well, I've got two titles, two racing game titles that are on my library, on my iPhone 14, one of which is need for speed, no limits. Well, they've just done an update, bringing in the R390 GT1 from Gran Turismo onto that. And then also Grid Autosport, where you can do a career. So it just goes to show how far and wide you go that sim racing really is, even though it might be just a title where I'll just go, where there's no skill involved. Well, yes, there is actually skill involved if you take off the auto play function, folks. So if you don't want to get into gaming, you can use your smartphone. I think what was it? There was a title, I can't remember the name of it, but it did actually open up a competition where you could compete for prizes. But-- - Yeah, I think it was real racing. I think it was real racing. - Real racing. Real racing three, no? - Real racing three, that was one that was on my phone for quite a long time until it started overheating the battery. And I was like, no, no, no, I don't want to have like a phone that's going to be like about-- - Is there heavy game? - Is there heavy game? It does take a lot of processing power. But, you know, to have that still on something like these smartphones nowadays. Also, before we get on to gearheads and sim racing HQ, of course, we've had another guest a couple of episodes ago because traction is back finally. - Yeah. - When I lights your suite that you put on May the 30th, saying, I feel that today we shouldn't post anything about sim racing to let traction shine. I'm so happy to see John Monroe, Tom Harrison Lorde and Ross McGregor, where they belong. And then the next bit made me laugh, which was, I will now lose my podcast subscribers, but they will be in good hands. - That was a joke. - Welcome back, guys, I mean-- - That was a joke. - I know it was a joke, but I think it was just the way that you said about it. I think for a lot of us, everyone were really, really bummed in November of last year when traction under MSGM had gone. But now we're after racing and Gridfinder have stepped in and said, well, we wanna bring them back. And I remember saying to John, I said, you know, what was it like for when you asked, and he said, I had this great opportunity with the race anywhere, but I had to be completely upfront and honest with him. I wanted to go back to traction. And I've had multiple conversations with Tom Harrison Lorde, Tom. You are coming on the podcast. John's already been on the order of the next casualty, sorry, guest from traction to come on this. I always do that in joke when I say casualty victim, and then I say, jokingly go, yep, guest, I mean. I think it was a welcome relief that everyone went, yes, great, we've got a source that everyone knows. And since they said, yep, folks, we're back. My notifications for traction, I might have to switch them off at one point because they are literally at least two or three times, maybe four times a day, I'm getting a ping. But what were your first thoughts, apart from obviously putting out that tweet that they were back? - I gotta tell you something. I was writing a script for a video because I don't like to do so many videos because it was a time that our opinions on sim racing, everyone was saying something, they would get pinned. You have gamer muscle that say the tire model not racing was bad and it gets pinned. You have a random call sign saying something on the podcast and you get pinned. So it was a time that I was filming that sim racing community was getting only bad. We just was receiving a dark size, if you want to know what I mean. And when Cam tracks you, all of these bad mouth rings disappear because was missing something on the sim racing community. Overtake is doing it, but overtake I think is more on the east side of Europe because they have a very big German community, they have a very big East European community there. So I feel that strikes you with a little bit more global. Not, I don't say that one contact is better than the other ones. I'm just, I say the message is a little bit more global when we come to home. And was missing that voice of sim racing is always good sim racing need to help the devs, we need to help these, we need to make this happening. And when tracks you've announced it, you see that you don't see any morons on the tweets of these guys say these one or them, these person is, that things disappear. Could be not connected, could be connected, but I think we was going on a spiral of not having anyone comment about the games, not having anyone comment about what's happening on the on when sim racing. And now when we have it, we stop the discussion, still it exists discussion, but we don't go anymore to the Twitter insulting anyone. And I think other thing is the way that Thomas, John and Ross, everyone was left, was not that they went to part away, was something was cut from them, from the moment. So I feel that depending off what gonna happen in one or two years, they have to come back to Truxio, they have to feel back that they will do whatever they need to do, but you know, Truxio is an IP, probably the most strong IP that we have on sim racing in terms of news, reviews, 'cause you have random consign that have 70,000 followers, you have sim racing C04, you have so many channels that do review, so many big boost media and everything, but Truxio have grew up so fast inside of the community that it needed, and you can see on the podcast, you put a podcast that they done it with the Luma Ultimate, the amount of people that are there comment is nuts, 'cause people listening, what they do. So you know, I think was something that was missing on sim racing, and I take my head to Tom Burden for do it this, 'cause I know that they suffered a little bit of criticism when a company was acquired by Rafa for that one million sterling pounds, or I don't remember if it was women in gold, you know, selling pounds, but I feel that that money was already to counterpart, that they will take care of Truxio, and I feel that with Tom, have Tom is a businessman, and you know that Tom is, he's not, I don't say Tom is the best sim racer guy, but he's the best business guy when he comes to the way that he exponents a grid finder is doing something, or will do something huge, I think they are just touching on now on the top of iceberg, contract with Imza, contract with Suellio, I racing, so I feel that it's gonna be big, and I feel they will put Truxio in the levels that we never imagined that's gonna be possible to achieve. - Yeah, I think obviously with MSGM, they were allowed to do their own thing, and this is something that is very, very crucial, folks, and this is just for me to give you all a little bit of an understanding. When it's a media source, a media source is better propagated when they have carte blanche, when they are able to go out there and find the information from the horse's mouth, because sometimes, as we all know, and I have mentioned this so many times, and you've actually brought this up indirectly here you go with the amount of negative toxicity that exists in current social media. I'm always of the opinion that if you have got nothing nice to say, sometimes you better off not saying it, because it really does come to the fact of what do people want to say that is gonna be so, you know, yes, it might be a little bit of gratification like saying, yes, I've made my point. Yes, everyone can see it. Fine, understandable. You can have an opinion, but there are times when people will disagree to agree, and as you said, because of that six month void of traction not being there, and with my role as Southwest Vision, as head of communications, and this is something that I put in the, as my statement, saying that traction has been the heartbeat of the sim racing community, and that is very true. Yes, I know Renee, I know Janne can, a few of the team over at Overtake, but they're very much, as you said, continental Europe centric, whereas traction is more of the global platform that where people respect, understand, and appreciate what traction stands for. And it is basically what's on all. And so I say, this is what we like, but this is what I personally didn't like. So people like John, people like Thomas, people like Ross are able to voice their opinions without being subjugated to comments that are directed, whether it be at the publisher, whether it be at the game, whether it be at the people reviewing it, it doesn't really matter. But they have this, there was this respect over the first two and a half to three years where traction was really gaining momentum. And I remember meeting Thomas for the first time at Nuremberg at the sim racing Expo, which was my first onsite Expo. I'd, and I'm really looking forward to this year's Expo because I'm gonna make a little bit of an announcement here that I will be a guest on the GearHeads podcast, and we will be doing it at the same racing Expo, which I'm really looking forward to. So I thought, well, it'd be better to get here. - Will the camber not getting warm? - Yes, yes, yes. So apologies for that. - I'm sorry for that. - Hey, look, as I say, shit happens. I'll do swear on my podcast, I have had guests swear as well. So, you know, at the end of the day. - Yeah, we can swear in Portuguese. - Yeah. - You know, it was very important to you. (laughing) - You can put, can I, you know, that is not right. - Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, don't get me started. It's always about foreign languages. Whenever you learn, whenever they always go the best words of the swear words, and like, oh yeah, it's the ones that everyone learns first. - Yeah, it's the first ones. (laughing) - But obviously, sim racing HQ and the GearHeads podcast, I mean, you're close, you're getting, you're over four and a half thousand subscribers now on the YouTube channel, which is really, really good. I have to say, I've thanked this man previously, but now I can thank him on air. Thank you for the shout out on the news bit that you did quite a while ago, and you sent me the link for it when you shouted out my podcast. - I always, I always try to do this. - Hugo is one of the most regular commenters on every single episode, so, you know, it's like when with the one with regards to traction, we've got us to John, and John and I, I'll be completely honest with you, we recorded that before time, because I knew it was happening. I'd spoken with John for, I think, probably the best part of three months, to get him on the podcast, but it was a case of how do you wanna do it? And I went, well, we know what's going on, let's just talk about it. And so, waited until the week before it happened, or the week after it happened, episode went live, and it's even had Mr. Bunted himself, comment on it as well. But the podcast itself, I mean, I think you've done quite a few episodes. Obviously, there are times when your health has to take priority, and you're always up front and open, but honest about it, and I really do appreciate you telling the story to the folks at home about, you know, how you've come back from it. But, you know, we're pretty much level on episodes that we've recorded so far. We're randomly in the 60s. - Episodes wise, on beginning, like I say, it was to create a podcast and keep me occupied, keep my mind working, because I was getting the dementia caused by the cancer and all these shenanigans. But after I was talking about motorsport, talking about the results that happen on F1, the results on racing, and I always found that people was dropping away. You know, when I was looking on the audio, it was no video, I was doing just audio, and you could see on when I was going to Spotify, podcast that, oh, five minutes, something I started speaking about this one, people go down, and after 10 minutes, something people was coming back. So it means that people was skipping until I stopped talking about it. So, and after I started having the guests, and talking guests and news, and the podcast will go one hour 20, one hour 30, and I start feeling that was not the best way. So, when I start doing video, I start saying, okay, I need to change it, and let's go, and let's do guests one time, one week, next follow week, talking about what's happening on sim racing, or a topic, or whatever, and as to go back to a guest, and that will give me more time to approach guests, because otherwise, if you do it the 54 weeks here, you need 54 guests. So we're talking about a lot of emails, a lot of going around, try to guest, you know, always. - I know, I know, it's ridiculous sometimes. And it's working this way. I'm looking now on my phone, podcast with Philippaukkirk, I've reached 26,000 views, that's completely bananas, but I've reached these numbers, because I need to be honest. So, one of the partners of the podcast is Samsung. Is Samsung not Samsung, all they say, all they say, because of the monitors of sim racing, is Samsung as an old company. And the way is, because people probably don't know, Samsung do a lot of medical equipments. They do X-rays, they do CT scans, they do a lot of equipments that are used for cancer treatments. So, when I approach them, I say, look, I'm going to the cancer, they have this podcast, I'm surviving all the cancer. I don't want many, many from you guys, but you can use this one as your part of medical, for the sake of our Samsung medical equipments, are working somehow. And they enjoy it. They send me, of course, after they send me, I always say, 49 inch monitor that is here, that I use it that I'm really happy for that. But what they done was the last two weeks, they put on their newsletter that go of Samsung company, not Samsung only phone, or Samsung only. They put on using the letters as a creator of the week. And they put the podcast with the, for the cause, they put the podcast with the flip. And that's been, you know, the other global company. So, it means that people receive an email, something there with me to click on YouTube. So, you know, that's probably bringing that's being expansion on the podcast on the last month, because we've been receiving a lot of followership on the last month. We, I changed, I was, I had 1000 something, and now I'll go to 4000 followers. And this crazy number is due to them. So, I have to say thank you to Samsung for believing on something that's completely out of that type of company. And not for the partnership as sim racing, but partnership as a global brand. And they put me for the last two weeks. I don't know if they're going to put me on the next week, depending on if yes or not. But yeah, that's why the podcast has been pushing so, so I lately, it's take, it's take to them. - Yeah, I kind of understand, I mean, the, I think the best performing episode of commentators corner funnily enough was the first one into 2024. Zana Clemens from Cartchaser, which has had so far over 400 views. And Cartchaser trying to bring carting to the masses through live stream broadcasting in the USA. And it's, it's just like I'm looking, yeah, 427 views. Then I had D.J. Leveres, a good friend of mine who, I come and take through him. I've had one of the best performing shorts talking. And it was me talking about the Halo car of Porsche that I'd 11, why they want to keep that alive. That's had over 1200 views and that is climbing. I'm still trying to get my head around on what works for my podcast and what doesn't work for my podcast. - Yeah, I, when come to Reels, I'm honest, I, I ends down, I don't understand. Sometimes I take up a part that I feel that is the best part on the podcast. I put it and PIP and you have 1000 views, 2000 views. I put one of our guests tell that even like, I'm racing, I feel that Zana Corsa is the best, best tool for him, for coaching, because he drives cars, he drifts cars and everything. And that short of 26 seconds, have gone already over 120 views, 130,000 views on Instagram. So for me, it's something like completely abstract and crazy how something just normal can go so high. And after you have an 20,000 cost of talking about Maxfest happen and you don't reach not even 1% of the numbers. So when come to, to Reels, I think, just keep putting them. I think, I think it's the best thing you really need to do. You just keep putting them. I, I don't put enough. I have a lot of them editing and I don't put them. Sometimes I get scared, but I, I need to stop, get scared and just put it. 'Cause I think you don't want to lose. Someone gonna see it. And I think the best way of break the algorithm is, it's be present, no, I, I will assume. But, yeah, I'm not the expert. - Yeah, no, neither am I. I mean, that the, you know, with my calendar at the moment, I mean, July is gonna be crazy. I mean, this week, well, as we're recording this episode, I've got motorsport.tv, UK commentary GCs on stock car pro series in, in velocita. So the likes of Nelson, PK, junior Ricardo Zonta, if anyone might remember that name from Formula One and also a man. (speaking in foreign language) - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Doni Kanan, - You're not doing this, is it? - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Tony went, it was quite funny because I follow TK and I've met TK and his, his one old wife Lauren. They, they came over to Nuremberg in 2022 because he was with Gomez in some industries. So he flew all the way from Indy to Germany. And the week before we'd had the Rotax Grand Finals, I met Ruby and, and, and, that week. And I said, God, the way I introduced myself to Tony was a complete icebreaker, but it made him be the cheeky, cheeky guy that we know. And I said, God, I can't believe this. One week, I see Ruben's Barry Keller, the next week, Tony Kanan. What's going on in the world? And he said, are you met Ruben's last week? Poor you. I said, hi, Tony, how you doing? We both started laughing. So it was a complete icebreaker and it got exactly the reaction that I wanted. Well, Tony, even though he's got his sporting director role at Aram McLaren SP, he actually came out of retirement because he was racing. Fun enough, Esteril last week. - Yeah, for the Porsche Cup. - Yeah, for the Porsche, Porsche Cup. - For the City Cup. - Yep, yep. And yeah, you could tell that Tony hadn't been in for a, in a car for a while because he put a 30-minute video on his YouTube quite recently. Link for that is in the description down below of where, he didn't have complete control of the car a couple of times. They had to do an engine change, but I'll leave it for you all to have a watch because the link will be in the description down below. But yeah, TK, complete enough to character. And my friend, Janik did an interview with Tony at the media lounge and it was so funny because one of the waitresses dropped this big steel tray and it made this huge, clanging noise and Tony stopped dead in his tracks and went, no, no, I'll start again, complete pro. Complete pro. And I went, and I said to Janik, well, the thing was Janik and I were meant to do the interview together with Tony, but because I had to do quite a few other things that year at the Sim Racing Expo in Nuremberg, I had to do VTs for the live stream and everything. And yeah, let's just say the exhibitor party the night before, I think everyone enjoyed themselves a little bit too much and they went, well, we need a five in it, VT, we need a 15 minute VT. The first one, three and a half minutes went, no, that's it. Second one, eight and a half minutes and I went, I'm done. I'm done. I just want to concentrate on the digital GT500 when my head's a little bit clearer, but yeah, what a, what a, what a great guy. I mean, yeah, it's, it's like you say, it's being present. The thing is I've got four vlogs from this year that I've yet to publish because it's, sometimes it's not just about being present, it's also having the time, you know, because with my role at South Wales Vision, then yeah, the next, the next five weeks, mama, well, actually no. All I can say is from now until the, I'm not gonna have to refer to my phone for this 'cause sometimes I can't always remember. So I got stock car pro series this week, heading to South Wales Vision's office in Firth and then being a spectator at the Norris Ring on the Saturday for the first time being a spectator, I think for about three years. Then I'm off to Malaysia for Yammer Series Asia. I'm not, the day after I've, I land at Heathrow, I'm flying to the Netherlands to drive to Gank for Yammer Series Benlax. Come back on the Monday, Thursday, fly out to Denmark for the classic car race 100 CC Grand Prix. I think the week after that, I've got Rotax Lithuania challenge on the Saturday, then the three week road trip. So Germany, Belgium over those three weeks. - It's a busy man, this man is always busy. - Oh man, like the, like September's crazy, October's crazy, things calmed down. I think I've got some stuff happening late November, early December and then the week before Christmas, I've got another trip overseas. So 41 events this year, 41. - Yeah. It's crazy when people say to me, how can you be so busy? Well, if I didn't have the love, if I didn't have the passion for what I do. - Exactly. - It's a full time job. Why would I do it? - Yeah. Same thing you like to speak about kitchen. So when people ask chefs why you can work 16 hours, 12 hours a day. Sometimes it's just a passion, you know? Okay, when you like something, you put the time, you found the extra hours that the day needed to be done. And you do with everything that you need to do for make sure that you are doing the most, the best job. And you are doing what you like it. 'Cause if you do something on your life that you don't like it, on the end of the day, you are not doing nothing. 'Cause you can do it, but gonna be an A. And when you can deliver something that is an A plus, if you understand me. So, you know, I have this view of you, you need to do what you like it. That's why, for example, we come to Silverstone and change down, yes. To do something that can be completely unique. And I say, I need to try, I need to, one time, be working with something related with cars. I might not like it, I might not like, or I like it, but I need to try. And so far, so far, so good, as I can say. - Of course, your wife is very, very supportive of your endeavors. - Yeah. - What does it mean to have her support personally? Because obviously with everything, the hardships that you have both been going through as a couple, it never is easy. But you always know that you've got that shoulder to lean on or to cry on if you need to. - Yeah, it's not only of Christina is, that's my wife, she's not only my wife. She is my best friend, she is over there. Christina is the person, you know, she never, she never cut the dreams. She let the dream go until when the dream is possible. Yeah, she will push the reality. But I will not be here talking with you if it was not her. Of course, doctors have a great path, but you have to remember that I survived from December until August, that was the time that I had my operation without any income. And I have to use all my income to pay my medical bills. From that time, Christina have to work, take care of me because a lot of times I need help for shower and it help to have food because I could not cook. 'Cause if I forgot what I was doing with gas, not be something safe, you know. So it's a lot of things that people don't know that Christina's been doing it. We went to Germany to see my racing expo last year. I was not walking properly, I had to have a walking stick 'cause my leg was not strong enough. Christina went all the way with me to Germany. She stayed there all the time. She was all the time with the cameras, all the time trying to do and support something that I love. No means that she liked it 'cause I don't think she likes him racing. She enjoyed it for five minutes, but as she get bored, it's a game. For her, it's a game. But I keep saying this to everyone. If not, it was Christina, I would never be here. Because I don't know if I have a different person in my life if I would be or not because you are guessing, but I'm telling if I not have Christina on that period, probably I wouldn't be here. Gearheads exist because of Christina. 'Cause Christina say, let's do it. So podcast exists because Christina, sim racing HQ exists because of Christina because even when I feel that because you have to feel it when you do something, sometimes sim racing the channels and they don't go so well. And I go, I say, oh, sorry, fuck, I'm dumb. My nobody is listening or nobody is seeing me. What the fuck I'm doing wrong? - Yeah. - She is the first one to support and is not on the mother support, if you understand me. Because she don't wanna say, oh, everything is okay. She will sit down and she will see the episode. And she say, oh, yeah, you fucked up here. Why didn't he run? - Yeah. - And you know, she gave me the slap that is needed, but if she was not with me, I wouldn't be here, 100%. I, that one, I can tell you. - Yeah, she gives you the kick up the arse when you need it. - Yeah, she's from Estonia, you know? She's from Estonia, she had all that because family are from X, YSS. So they come from some parts of Russia, some parts, Estonia, some parts, even Ukraine. So their family have quite a little bit, was a little bit sparse space on the YSS front line. And you know, being Estonia, on Estonian, she had the education of a little bit of the, how can I say, communist is European. There is, even if Estonia was already free, they still was, and I didn't know, even if you are in Lithuania in Latvia, they still have a little bit of that mentality. So she is a person that, you know, they are strong, strong minds, strong body. Nothing, nothing, I would say nothing break, though. Break, I can break it up. Her, but she has some things that she gets down to, but yeah, she's strong. - And also one of the things about people in the Baltic regions, because obviously, with my travels, having gotten to Lithuania, Latvia. Of course, Ragnar Verus, Estonian DD2, grand finals, world champion from last year. I said to him on the previous podcast, I said, one of the things I like about you people in the Baltic region, you're very much like the Dutch. You, you're direct, you don't, you don't go round the houses. - No. - I can appreciate and understand why someone who is a strong will, strong minded as Christina is alongside you, because as you said, she, she go like, yeah, you, you, you have it up there. Why didn't you take it this way? - I mean, she, she, she don't want to tell me why you don't do this way, because she, she's not a editor. But she say, this is wrong. I don't like it. And when it's good, she, she like it. For example, now I'm using this camera. And I know that this camera have a different color tone from the other camera that we was using. So my face is not so bright as was on the other camera. So she, when she going to say, she say, why, why don't put the lights more white to material? - You know, she, she knows this type of thing. So she will straight away, she will point to my face that, hey, this is wrong. I don't like it. - Well, Christina, please accept my since serious apologies on behalf of your hubby, 'cause we have had technical difficulties. She'll understand. - And now is my, is my, is my thoughts, she knows. - I don't realize like, like close a little bit the door. So the air is not coming so much. So this new, new house is, is an old building. And the sun, when I was, when I was building the sim racing room and the studio. And of course, if you're talking about Christina, everything here is almost Christina. Christina is the person that buy all the die casts. (laughs) So we have a auto-tanac there. And you have a couple of more. - Yes. - And all the, all the Legos is Christina. Christina is a big Lego fan. So she, she buy it for me, but she built it. - So this, there's a little bit of passion from Christina. I like, I like that. It just goes to show that there are folks we, we as part of the human condition, there are so many different reasons for how our background looks. The reason why I've got a Red Bull picture up there is actually a pride of place. I worked with a framing company in, in, in Colchester. And they actually had this print available and it is from 2012 from the European Grand Prix, Valencia, and the car, I, I would like to pan it, but it puts my angle for the, for the show out of sync is a picture of Sebastian Fettle on his way to pole position. And it's just got the driver completely focused, head, you know, blinkers on, concentrating on the task at hand. And the background is a little bit out of focus, but you've got the air box, you've got the FOM camera on the top and everything, including Sebastian Fettle's helmet is completely 100% in focus front of shot. So it's, I mean, like I've got so many, actually, funnily enough, of course, 30 years ago, a certain Brazilian that would end up becoming a Formula One World Champion. Well, one of my friends gifted me this. - Yeah, same thing is the upstairs there, Christina. - Yeah. - Christina, F to buy it. - Yeah, and I, I got it given to me courtesy of a good friend, Max Johanova-Hoff, who last year won the Project E20 World Title in Bahrain. And him and his dad gave me that, they gave me a nice little like coffee mug, which I am not using, but it's got like doughnuts in the Homer Simpson style on it. And then it's got a speech bubble with something about doughnuts in it as well. So that is part and parcel of everything I've got here. Like I've got so many different books that I, I've got, I've got also, if you folks haven't picked up this from Miss Almeida. - Yeah. - And Swelio, out of the kindness of his heart, gifted me one, and then personally signed it. So Swelio, I need to get you on the podcast, buddy. 'Cause that man has been-- - You need, you need-- - He's been doing so well in the radicals over in, over where he lives. He's been doing fantastic job. - I had Swelio work. I would say, probably already a year ago, I would say. And I wasn't ready to interview Swelio. Now, yes, but on that time though. I didn't interview with great because it's just an audio, but I didn't have the knowledge, or I wasn't ready for the knowledge that Swelio will bring to the podcast. I think he is, and like you said, the radicals now he's been winning and everything. I think Swelio can be the next really big start of sim racing to real. We have, like you say, young Martin Borro that was the only time you have looked as ordinary as. You had James Baldwin that is back to trucks. This weekend on Spa, finally, I think. He deserves so much. - And Jans also on the grid. - Yeah. - Which is crazy. - Yeah, he's been with the team NRJ. I think he's NRJ, no? - I just don't remember now. - Yeah, I think so. I've been with him on the British GT when it was-- - Yeah, that would have been RJM then, which is-- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're gonna be on the same team. It is good, but I think Swelio will be the next one that will, when you have a chance to jump to GT3s or a rather serious economic jump, he will stand completely out of the crowds because he is, I think, he can cross his ability to sim racing to real very, very well. And you know, some people born to do something and Swelio born for this pick. If Swelio had the money on the time, he would be a professional driver when the percentage, 'cause he is on his blood. If you understand me, he is so good, so good. - I still remember the amount of banter between him and Cameron Dazz at last year's Expo when they were trying to outdo each other on each of the Sims. (laughs) And that video, folks, is an absolute classic. - Yeah. - You know, it's just one of those things where we do have, and I'm gonna sort of go back a little bit in time here when we had the first ever land event for Wrenchport and the SLR one, where people were like saying, "Oh yeah, it's gonna be great. "We're gonna get some storylines. "We're gonna hear about all these battles." And then they started asking the drivers questions. It's like, "Yeah, it's okay." It's like, "Hang on, I've just asked you an open question. "You've given us a three-word answer. "What's going on here?" But then you see people like Swelio and Cameron who have gone on their YouTube journey and they've really sort of put their heart and soul into it. I mean, Cameron's currently doing a tour of Japan at the minute in a drift car that he's actually bought. And Cameron, for a number of years, was racing in single-seaters, but now has found his niche to be very much part and parcel of road trips, drifting, sim racing. And so many other things that, I think one of the beautiful things about sim racing in motorsport, Hugo, and I'm sure you'll agree with me, is the amount of quality content that there is out there that actually encapsulates and crosses over to so many different genres within sim racing, within motorsport. I mean, myself personally, I'll be completely honest, folks. I did use the script commentator's corner, but now I don't. And the reason being is that it felt the first 10 episodes, for me, felt forced. They really did. And I wanted for this podcast to be as organic and as true to life. And yeah, if technical difficulties do happen, it's happened to me. It's happened to Hugo, for example. - For sure. - So what you see is what you get. And a lot of, you know, my family watches the podcast. They go, how can you be so calm, composed when you're doing these podcasts? And I go, well, the first couple of questions are the icebreaker. It's then-- - One hundred percent. - And then everything after that, folks, is a general conversation. I ask a question, Hugo answers, we then have a discussion. We have a little debate. It's all nice and comfortable. It's not like we're under pressure to hit a certain time scale. You know, however long the podcast is gonna be. Adam Weller currently holds the record. I think we might be, at this rate, we might end up breaking it, Hugo. The way we're going to get-- - It's the technical problem, I'm sorry. - Yeah, look, the thing is, this is why for you people out there that haven't become a guest on commentator's corner, hit me up on one of the social media links down below, and we'll arrange a date, we'll arrange a time, where it's easier for myself and my guests to talk. I've got a few other people confirmed, because there has been some big news dropping in the sim racing world, but I'm not going to reveal who the guest is. I've got commentators, I've got other people. I am going to reach out to Philip and say to him, let me know when there's a date and time in your schedule, when you're back in Coimbra, and we'll have a chat on the podcast. - Yeah, one hundred percent. - So, Felipe, open invitation, buddy, open invitation. So, with regards, well, I think really, you know, we are coming really to the end of this episode of Commentators Corner and Hugo. Thank you so much for finally being able to have a chat with me. But I've got one final question. Now, this is the one that I always leave to the end of every episode, and this man will know what I'm talking about. So, Hugo, in your own time, with no budget limitation, unlike the cost cap in Formula One, and that is a running gag that always happens whenever I ask this question. You have a choice of a road car and a race car. So, you can pick your road car of your choice, a race car of your choice, and then decide where you are going to drive each respective vehicle. Now, the second phase of this is that I will wait for Hugo's answer and then make my own response to end the show. So, Hugo, or is yours, my friend? - So, road car, I have to go for something that when I get sick, I have to sell it and it will cost me a little bit. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I had a Mazda RX-8 R3. So, the last version of the rotary R8. And the 2011. And that, depending on what people say, I had put 80 something thousand miles of that car and I have to change the engine, but because I want to put three rotaries instead of two, not because the engine broke and the car was always, always working. I have that in cost starts, I then all starts, the car was always. So, it's one of the things that I miss it and because I have to lost it for some properties on life. So, that's gonna be my, my road car. - Okay. - My truck car, I have to go to a, and you can see there on the back. Or I go to a classic DTM, Opel. Or I will go to the, I will go for that one. I will not go to the Laguna. I'm, I, I love touring cars. I love formal one. But I in terms of racing, stock car Brazil, touring cars, classic DTM, BTCC, still the watt crush by my heart. - Okay, so you're talking Renault Laguna. Now folks, there were multiple liveries. Now, is it gonna be the, the British Racing Green? - Green. - Yeah, let's go with the Nest Cafe blend. - Yes. - Which was, saw the debut of a certain Jason Plato in the British. - Yeah, he's what they have there. - Yeah. - If you, if you cannot see, I can bring to you. - Yeah, I remember that one. Blend, yes. The Nest Cafe blend 37. They did run with the Elf Callen delivery as well. There you go. - Yeah, this, this was my Christmas present from Christina last year, so. - Yeah, so. - You know, she know me, she know me well, you know. (laughs) - Okay, that's a, where would you drive that, the Nest Cafe blend 37. - I, I, I know that I work on Silverstone, but I have to go to Donton Park. - Okay. - I love the track. Is, is one of my favorite tracks in the world. I don't know, is something about the track. That, you know, it's, you can raise any type of different cars there, you know, because it's always space for different types of race. Even if you use the national or the international, you know, the last turn, the last big turn. I don't care, I, I love it. - Okay, sounds like a very, very good call there. So where would you drive the RX-8 R3? - Oh, any place. I would like, I would like to drive it in Portugal. You know, if you were talking about Pertimo, the all-guard coast is underrated for summer trips. I think people, is a little bit different from Nice. When you people go to the south of France and, and because we don't have the beach on the same way that they are on the south of France. It is more rocks and a heavy, heavy rocks to the sea. So it's a different type of view. But believe me, if you have a chance to go from Sagrès, that's the sort of point to the after, to the frontier of Spain, just going near the sea with a car, you're going to be bus family. It's, it's crazy, it's gorgeous. - Yeah, okay. Here are my responses. - Okay. - So there was a particular three-door hatchback that hot hatch that was released in 2008, that became a rival to the Mazda RX-8. Well, the higher performance versions didn't come later on until about, well, it did actually come through in 2009. You say Mazda RX-8 R3? - Yeah. - I say, Volkswagen Shirocco R. 265, well, 260 brake horsepower, two-litre, EA113, that would be my road car. If I wanted to drive that anywhere, now I've got a green notch lifer to always fart in, but maybe you have Nisha Sheridan taking the wheel of the car. (laughing) - I don't know, man, it's much now, he has such a crazy accident. - I know, I know, I know. Well, I'll make sure he's, I'll make sure I'm, you know what, in that case, I'll make sure I'm in the driver's seat, he's in the passenger's side, giving me the coaching. - Yeah, exactly. - And also, well, British Touring Cars, there's another iconic car, well, there's actually a couple I could choose from, from 1997, in that same year, that Renault Laguna was there. I'm going with the number three Volvo S40 of the legend that is Ricard Rydell. And you know what? Should we have a race at Donnington Park? Because I'd be up for it. (laughing) - I think so. I think for the people at home, we have to say this one, the classic era from BTCC from, and the DTM from, let's put in, it can put from the 90s to 2000s, 2005, is one of the most beautiful areas on the type of TCR cars. If you pick, you can pick any car on the BTCC, and you're gonna be amazing cars. You have a form on the old, that Mansell Drowoff, you have the Volvo, you have even the Peugeot, I think it was 406. - Yeah, Tim Harvey and Patrick Watts drove that. - Yeah. - And it was the S on Ultron, team Peugeot. - Exactly, it is crazy. It is all that cars that are there are crazy. Now if you go to DTM, all the DTM cars on that era are iconic cars. - I think the one that sticks out for me is, Timo Shider's car where he won, back-to-back DTM titles. And I think for quite a time, he was, well, I'm actually gonna look up some DTM history because up until a certain point. - Looking about the black Mercedes, no? - Black Audi. It was the... - Black Audi, okay. - Yeah, because for many a year, a lot of drivers had tried to beat, yeah, so Timo Shider, one with absotline in the Audi A4 DTM. And this is when they were still using the sedans, as opposed to the Kuberays, when BMW came back in 2012. But Timo's record stood for 10 years because Renee Rast, for Team Rosberg in 2019 and 2020, became the next back-to-back champion. And then 2020 picked up his third title, so. But yeah, I still remember the days when you had, and this is how far I go back. I mean, I followed DTM for quite a few years, back when you had absotline with Laurent Iello and the Audi TTRS with the very, very elongated wheel-based, to make it fit the regulations with the Hasselberg delivery on it. - To be fair, it was quite a strange car because the back was huge, just to put the aero. That was something. - It was crazy. - But you know, it was working. - Yeah, and yeah, I still remember being at Mark O'Vittman's celebratory party when he was with Team RMG in 2016. - And Philippo Kirk and Antonio Feltzerkorte. - Oh, yeah, well, I have. - They've been there. - I know, I know, and Daniel was partying with Marco and they were partying hard. They were actually on the dance floor. Like, I hate to think what time they got to bed, but Marco misses breakfast TV appearance. And the thing is, you know how we always have the educational bit of clickbait news? It happens in IRL motorsport. And Sport Ointz, which is one of the biggest media outlets in Germany. - Yeah, in Germany. - Sport basically went that DTM Mercedes had crashed the party, which was BS because I was in, I was there as a reporter for touringcars.net. And Marco said, you know, I'm really, really happy to get the second title. I would like to invite everyone to the, to the celebration party at the, the BMW, a hospital. And I remember walking past Oli Fritz, who was being to the Mercedes end of season dinner, had had quite more than just a couple of drinks. He was singing out a tune. And I thought someone was strangling a cat. Maxi Gerts ended up with the, the three pointed star on his, on the outside of his hoodie. It was gaffertaped to his hoodie. And he had the snap back. He had the, his Air Jordan's on jeans. Then you had Mauro angle looking like a fashion model. I mean, Mauro, whenever you see him outside of a race car, he's always very, very well dressed. Gary Paffet was there. And also a good, a good friend of mine, who unfortunately passed away. He was the former communications head for DTM for Mercedes Bend, Oli Capfincinine. And we'd found out that not only had Maxi Gerts ended up with a three pointed star, you know, the Mercedes three pointed star on his chest. Two of the receptionists from the hospitality from Mercedes had stolen the other one on the outside. And then proceeded to stick it to the outside glass on the top floor of the BMW, possibly right by saying the poster had said, "Congratulations Marco on your second title." And so they stuck it on the inside of the glass. And Oli and I are outside and I've taken a photo and I showed him and I said, "Oli, look at this. "Imagine the headlines tomorrow, DTM news for 2017. "Vitman switches to Mercedes." So like, we'd both had a couple of drinks. We were both laughing ourselves silly. But yeah, I think, and that was the weekend where Antonio was on pole position for both races if I remember correctly. And I managed to, and I thought, "I've never done a selfie with the driver on a grid." And Tony was the first one. So Antonio, I'm really, really sorry if I jinxed you that weekend. 'Cause he was, he was rapid as hell. He was rapid as hell. - And Tony is a funny guy. Tony is one of the funniest characters on the racing. And he don't take, you don't take him so serious when he's, when he's, he takes serious racing, but he don't take so serious if you understand me when he's out with a helmet. So I think he's, he's, let's say, a Danny Riccardo of the Formula E on the moment. And he's one character and a driver that they need to have it because he brings a lot of people to see the races. So I hope he's stayed there for a while. And let's hope if he come back to the WEC 'cause I think it would be nice to see him back on the Porsche. - Yeah, well, Hugo Goncalves, Moito Obrigado. Thank you very much. - Moito Obrigado. - And, well, that's it for episode 63, don't forget. You can find out everything about gearheads, YouTube channel is in the description down below. Sim Racing HQ, so on. I think it's Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. - Yeah, he did. - Links in the description down below. But Hugo, thank you so much, buddy, for taking the time despite the technical difficulties we've had during this episode. Christina, please don't give him a slap or a kick up the backside at us. - I'm already waiting. (laughing) - But that's it for episode 63, more guests coming up. And Hugo, looking forward to catching up with you in person at Sim Racing HQ 2024 in Dortmund. So look after yourself, we'll catch up with you soon. And folks, well, race hard, race fair. And if in doubt, flat out, we'll see you next time. Goodbye. 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