Put simply, it doesn’t get more iconic than Mick Doohan. Even take away the obvious bias that I have as an Australian and that opening line still stands… Add in the Australian bias and it hits even harder.

I say it all the time that there are bucklist podcasts that I want to do but I can’t even claim that Mighty Mick was one of them, it just seemed really far gone. He comes from a generation that doesn’t have a lot to do with the internet let alone podcasts and at the level he’s on in life, I doubted that a podcast with me would ever be something on his radar when I started the podcast late 2017.

Lifes a funny thing though… While I was toiling away during my last stint in the US, my brother Matty was working away here helping a young Jack Doohan as he finished his carting career and looked to move onto bigger and better things. I first met a very young JD while we were shooting some content for him in his cart at home and over the years we have all got to watch him go from super grom with a ton of potential, to a young man who’s making good on his potential. Over these years spending time with JD he’s become like a little brother to us and Mick has become somewhat of a mentor in business and in life to a certain extent.

Like so many of the great episodes of the podcast, the idea was thrown around loosely a couple of years ago, but as per; they always seem to work out better when they percolate. With this being said, it’s actually not a podcast that I felt like needed to happen. Believe it or not I don’t expect that everyone should do an episode of Gypsy Tales or would even want to, and would never take it personally if that was the case. 

Mick Doohan fit into this category… If he wanted to do it one day, stoked. If he didn’t then I would feel super lucky that we got to spend time with them each year around the Christmas holidays when they returned home drinking stupidly expensive wine and hearing epic stories about the past or soaking up the free game on offer whenever Mick talks about his current business dealings.

I can’t lie I was definitely intimated by Mick for a while, even through the years that we got closer and closer to Jack. There are very few people I have met in my life (and I’ve met a lot of mother fuckers) that have the kind of ora that Mick has… If there was to be a photo in the urban dictionary next to ‘Big Dick Energy’ it would be a photo of Mighty Mick holding an Australian flag doing a victory lap around Philip Island on a fire breathing NSR 500 2-stroke. Fuck me I got half horn just typing these words.

While you still know you are around one of the baddest dudes to ever ride a motorcycle, the intimidation factor has worn off a little over the years. This year over Christmas when the crew returned home from a super successful year in Europe, the podcast talk fired up once more and Mick seemed really keen to jump on for a yarn.

While we didn’t get into it in part 1 of the podcast, Mick is an uber successful businessman post racing. If he’s working on deals for Jack as he moves to F2, he is selling private planes or financing god knows what. It’s the reason why we had to split this podcast into two parts and something I am really looking forward to diving into for part 2.

While we wait for that, wet your whistle with the first half of CHAPTER 202… We start at Cockroach Crt on the Gold Coast, Mick’s infamous residence on the precipice of his half of fame career in the 500GP category. Being only kilometers away in our Burleigh studio it only seemed to make sense. From here we talk about Mick’s rise to the top from obscurity, taming the 2-Stroke 500 machines and the mindset it took to win 5x 500GP World Titles.

Mick Doohan is an Australian hero and a motorcycling immortal and it’s a pleasure to bring you this podcast with one of the biggest legends I know.

Gang.