CHAPTER 200 has to be a big one right? Does Australia’s current Formula 1 hope Daniel Ricciardo suffice? I wish I could claim it as scheduling brilliance on my behalf, but the reality is we can thank WA’s insane Covid restrictions for this one! 

Danny Ric and I have been wanting to get together for a podcast for over a year now, and originally we said we would wait until we could do it in person. The premiere of WA had other plans though when he decided that even a double vaccinated DR3 still had to do his 2 weeks hotel quarantine while trying to return home for the first time in 2 years. So we decided to make hay while Covid shit all over Danny’s Christmas plans.

It turns out DR hadn’t been able to see his family since the canceled Melbourne F1 of 2019. I was there doing the podcast for Red Bulls ‘Talking Bull’ and I had hoped that would be the first time me and Danny got to actually hang in person. I had heard through the grapevine that he had listened to the show and was a huge fan of the MotoSpy series that Jeremy and the Red Bull crew were putting out at the time. I have obviously been a massive fan of DR since his first seasons in F1 and I had always hoped that we would be able to do the podcast at some point. I think it’s safe to say that he is about as good of an ambassador for Australian Motorsports as we could hope to have.

We didn’t end up getting to meet at F1 in the end. As it turns out that event in particular will go down in history as the tipping point for the world descending into Covid chaos. It was the first global event that was halted mid way through and the eyes of the world watched to see if it really was time to pull the pin on the old normal, and enter this strange new Covid world.

Hundreds of thousands of fans were left at the gates, DR was loaded into a private plane and we were left standing in the Red Bull trailer wondering what the fuck just went down.

I flew back to the Gold Coast and after a couple days of ‘what-are-we-going-to-do’ I decided that if any business was able to succeed during Covid it was a business like this. I got back to the grind more determined than ever to ride out the storm that was the Covid-19 pandemic. It was post Melbourne F1 that I got a DM from DR out of the blue, basically saying that he was bummed that we didn’t get to meet in Melbourne and that he was a fan of the show and hoped that the next time he was in Oz we would get the podcast done. If I’d have him… Yes mate, pretty keen aye.

It feels weird writing this a couple of years later. As of right now, he’s a guy I consider to be a good mate. At the time though he was just a guy that I had looked up to for years and hoped that one day we’d get the chance to hang and do the show. I knew DR liked bikes, but I didn’t know DR lovedddd bikes. With the complete fuck around that Peacock was for anyone not in the US trying to watch Supercross, I ended up sending copies of the race for Danny and Blake to watch while they were traveling around on their insane schedule. Some of the best bench racing I have had these past couple seasons has been with Danny and a lot of the ‘hot takes’ that I ended up making it into conversations on the podcast came directly with post race banter with DR.

While we didn’t get to make good on doing it in person, we did manage to pull off the podcast while Danny was locked in a hotel high above his native Perth. We decided that we would try put in a solid stint at 4 hours and my goal was to give the great man a chance to put that Supercross knowledge on display.

I spoke about it in the Casey podcast, but I had some legitimate anxiety around putting out this podcast. From our conversations this year, I really didn’t want to do the F1 thing. He is by far the most interviewed person I know and after the release of ‘Drive to Survive’ it’s only gotten worse. In my head I committed to trying to talk mostly about the stuff I know he’s interested in outside of 4-wheels but it felt risky. I also wanted it to feel just like a conversation between two mates, not an interview. Realistically though, that’s always the goal with Gypsy Tales… The thing that creates the anxiety though is when you have a guest that is going to bring a lot of new eyeballs to the show that dont understand what we do here. But, you live by the sword and die by the sword.

In the end I really didn’t have anything to stress about. As I write this the show has been out for months, got a bunch of downloads and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Right now it looks like Danny might be able to call into the studio before the Melbourne GP BUT as always there is no pressure from me. It’s crazy to think that we’ve had to wait almost 3 years to watch the big man do his thing at home, but guaranteed I’ll be there with my merch on fanning out.

During the podcast we also touched one a little idea that I am trying to make happen… DR has always said in interviews that he would love to race Bathurst, so I have proposed teaming up for the Bathurst 12-Hour the year he retires. While it’s still in the joke phase, best believe I am taking it seriously ha. One of the things I love the most about the podcast is how saying super dumb shit like this can actually turn into a reality. See 2021 Manjimup. See 2022 Manjimup/Finke. I love the accountability that comes with saying something on the podcast and then needing to make it happen as a result. This might be my biggest stretch thus far, but I am taking steps to make it happen.

Another big plus is how many people who listen to the podcast are down to help out. Since we released the episode the crew at JAMS Motorsports in the Bend have told me they are down to get me some seat time in a GT3 car and Jack Doohan (who might end up being our third driver) has also committed support to the cause.

Make my words. We will be on the mountain with a dope looking McLaren GT3 car, some gangster kits and I plan on being fast enough to give the boys a shot!

Thanks so much for reading and supporting the site. Look for some more content with Daniel Ricciardo in 2022 and beyond. He’s a good cunt and we are lucky to have him in our little Gang.