Katie Ramsay-Gough: Dad's green Rover, Mum's sandals caused an accident and Driven Minds Mental Health in motorsport. S6E9

Welcome to my dad's car. Enjoy!

Welcome to My Dad's Car, a podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive nostalgia. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your dad's car. It can be your mum's, your grands, your parents, guardians, or even a neighbour's. If it made an impression, let's talk about it.

Good day to you. How are you doing? You alright? Alright, mate. Yeah, sorry. Oh, a minute late, not too bad. Busy, yeah. How's things? Yeah, yeah, we're we're alright, thank you.

Oh, I can't hear you. One second. This definitely will be on my laptop. It's definitely a me issue. Oh, I think I can hear you now. Can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, all good. We had um we recorded Johnny Smith a few weeks ago and we had a similar sort of technical gremlins.

Having good company.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Okay, we'll um yeah, we'll start. Um, for the benefit of the tape, we're joined by Katie Ramsey Goff, who um has been recommended to us after we did an episode with Faye Hatton, who's involved with Driven Minds, they reached out to us and said, We've got a whole load of people who are really cool and love to have a chat with you if you would like to speak to some of them. One of the people they suggested was Katie. So, yeah, here you are, Katie. Thank you very much for joining us.

No, thank you. Thank you for having me.

Um, before we get too into parents' cars, etc., do you want to tell us a little bit about Driven Minds?

Yeah. Yeah, about what we do. Yeah. So Driven Minds uh started in 2021, and essentially we are a mental health in motorsport community interest organisation.

Okay.

So our kind of core goals are providing mental health support in the racing paddocks throughout motorsport in the UK. Okay. Obviously, future ambitions we'd love to go worldwide, but we'd love to have in every motorsport paddock on a race weekend there's uh mental health first aiders and that support. And no matter if you're a driver or team staff, mechanic, photographer, you know, spectator, there's support available if you are struggling, having a tough time, or just need someone to talk to.

Yeah, it makes sense.

So we've got a lovely collection of ambassadors who all volunteer for us and they've all got different roles in motorsport. Like I said, we've got photographers, marshals, uh drivers, team staff, and we think that gives them the edge of being able to really relate to the people that they speak to and provide support to because they're in that same environment as well, and they're all mental health first aid trained.

Nice. Okay, cool. And is that an environment where is there a prolific mental health issue as such? Is it because it's maybe considered a predominantly male environment? And obviously, yeah, there's a lot said about kind of male mental health, or what's sort of yeah, what's the driving force?

Yeah, definitely. I think if we to roll back to how we first kind of started, so it was back in 2020. Uh I was working in motorsport, I had a day job as well, but did some motorsport work on the weekends, which is great. And then beginning 2020, that's what also had to fall apart with the pandemic. And everyone working in motorsport, a large majority of us, self-employed, own their own businesses, small race teams, that sort of thing, particularly in club racing. So when lockdown happened, all the work kind of disappeared. And it really kind of highlighted losing that financial stability, losing that kind of calendar. And yes, I've got all this work lined up and also kind of fall away, really opened up the vulnerability of that industry. And like you say, particularly being male dominated. And let's be fair, you know, men don't like to talk still about their mental health and their struggles. They have this perception, I guess, they need to be strong, be that kind of leadership figure. And in time, that maybe stops them from opening up and realizing, you know, I need to maybe get a bit of help. So a bunch of us kind of got together and, you know, we're lucky enough that we were able to sort of share our experiences and share the support. And then we've thought, well, we need to kind of go external as well. You know, we could actually create something for this and really provide this platform to really open up conversations and be able to signpost people to the right support.

Fantastic.

I think in general in motorsport, you know, very male dominated still, but also it's quite a high pressure environment. So you've got, you know, results and being in the top step of a podium, no matter if you're the driver, you're the team manager or mechanic, that seems to be like the sign of success. We're actually only one person can be in that top step. So you're setting yourself up for failure pretty quickly if that's the only goal that you have. Yeah. So, you know, type of support that we want to provide is how you define success as well. How do you define resilience? How can you create, you know, success over a race weekend, which isn't just a trophy at the end of it, but is it improving, um, overcoming adversity, all that kind of stuff can kind of bring together a successful race weekend.

And yeah, lastly, how do people find you? Are either kind of in a physical sense, at a track, and also, yeah, where can they find you if they're on the internet?

Yeah, so we're probably the most active on Instagram. So we've got Facebook pages, River Minds UK, and on Instagram as well.

Yeah.

I would say Instagram is definitely where we're most active, and people can message us on Instagram for support or some advice and guidance. Yeah. We're not obviously professionals, but we can definitely sign and post you to the right places. We have our website as well, and that has various sort of articles and what we're up to and a calendar of where we'll be across circuits for the upcoming season.

Sounds good.

And then actually at circuit, we wear polo shirts, they're black and yellow. They do attract the wasps and bees in the summer. So I have a massive fear of wasps. So you usually see me running around, and it's not running away from anyone. I'm usually running away from a wasp. So yeah, you'll definitely see us at track as well.

Yeah.

Okay, we'll jump into it. What's your earliest car memory?

Do you know? I have the worst memory. So I have a brother who is just 18 months older than me, and we've always been quite close. So dropped him a message and said, Let's talk about mum and dad's cars because they, you know, they weren't flashy. You know, my dad was on a graduate wage when we were born, and my mum didn't go back to work until I was about 10 or 11 years old. We saw that growing up around a single-income household and trying to get two young kids around, and my dad obviously working as well. Um, he remembers an oh god, a light blue Peugeot from around when I was first born. But my first memory for me was a Green Rover. So I'm trying to see if I can find what the make and model of it, but to remember it was an ex-company car, I believe, in my local car garage near to my grandparents. And it was falling apart at the seams when they first bought it. But it was this big enough car that could put in both parents, two kids, and all the kind of fun stuff that comes with carting around two young kids at the time.

Yeah. Cool. Was it an estate, a saloon?

Saloon.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, saloon. And the one memory I have of it was it must have been when they've cleaned the car when you go to collect it. And I do think trying to spruce up was probably setting themselves up to fail because it was, you know, battered and obviously well used. And it had this like I want to say it was like a cleaning product. They must have gone through the whole interior with it, but it left such a greasy residue.

Okay.

And my earliest memory of, you know, definitely you know, younger than 10 years old, and sort of every time I open and close the door, getting that grease on my hands. And they had that car for years until it ultimately gave up the ghost, and it was always greasy.

Okay.

And it definitely wasn't me from sweets and crisps and snacks in the backseat. It definitely came with the car. But um, yeah, I'll definitely remember that.

Did you say it was a company car of your dad's?

It was an ex-company car.

Right, ex company car, yeah.

Believe the garage they got it from just full of X Company cars. So it was a box standard model, uh, from what I understand. Probably like a 1.4, 1.6, something like that. Um, dark green, beautiful thing.

Was it always your dad behind the wheel, or did your mum drive as well?

Um, mostly my dad for long journeys. So both my parents are Scottish, so we would travel back and forth to East Club Ride, just outside of Glasgow on a regular basis. So my dad would always do the long journeys. My mum would do the potting around uh around town. Yeah, and she's had a number of bumps and scrapes. I hope she doesn't listen to this. Uh yeah, mostly relating to her footwear. I definitely have learned the lesson of wear sensible shoes when driving because there's been a few moments of foot slipping out the sandal, putting a foot back on the wrong pedal, and then sorry to the car in front, uh, getting a bit of a hit at the backside. So she's definitely known in our family of not being the best at driving.

That's the first for us, I think. Footwear-related injury. Yeah. Or incidents, so to speak.

I can't say I've ever been involved in in such a thing. Touch wood.

Yes. Since you're giving the heels up, you've been alright.

Yeah, yeah. I've had to give that up since I got married. Yeah. What came after the um after the rover? Do you remember?

I think it was the Bora. It was a Fort Second Bora, like a dark blue. Again, probably going along the theme of sensible car.

Yeah, yeah.

My dad, I think he's like a secret patch or head and didn't really get to really sort of divulge into that. My mum definitely not into cars. So things around practicality. So I remember being a Bora followed by a Passat. So very kind of box standard, get you from A to B, nothing particularly exciting. Apologies to any Passat drivers out there who I think I'm I'm bashing them. Um, and then it didn't really get exciting until he got his golf a couple of years after that.

Okay.

So it was just a two-litre golf diesel, but he definitely was able to, I guess, release some kind of I want to drive this like a proper car. Definitely not when my mum was in the car. With my brother and I, he did. With my with my mum, no, it was definitely sensible, but it kind of released a little bit of a speed demon out of him.

Nice. If you take us back to the uh to the rover, you said you were doing some obviously some long trips up to Scotland. Did you have the radio on or kind of cassettes or CDs? Yeah, what were you listening to?

Uh I think it was always radio too, possibly back then.

Okay.

What would typically happen is my brother and I would usually bicker in the back seat. So we went through phases. I think being close in age meant that we got on sometimes, and then when we started falling out, we'd really fall out. So a lot of the time it was um parents radio on in the front, and in the back we had our um remote cassette players, probably back then.

Like a Walkman, yeah.

Yeah, and then eventually upgrading to the CD Walkman era. So I was very much a Shania Twain, Britney Spears, you know, all that kind of cheesy kind of music, which I'm sure probably wouldn't have been played out loud in the car.

Fair enough. Um aside from your parents' cars, then do you recall kind of interesting cars in your street, or maybe friends or neighbours, or perhaps maybe grandparents? What were they driving back in the day?

No, I think I had a really sorry to my neighbours as a child, but I think you know, it was in a new builder's day, I think, at a time in a lot of young families, so everyone was just trying to sort of get by another, you know, mostly on one car, yeah, and nothing particularly exciting. It was only really, I guess, of starting to go to Alton Park as a child with my dad and my brother that I started to realize and see, I guess, there's more exciting cars than the Bora or the Rover that I grew up with.

What was it that took you there? Was that kind of your dad's influence, or was that kind of just the thought that you might enjoy it as a day out?

Yeah. So if I think back of how I got into cars and you know the the motorsport scene, I think at first it wasn't something that came naturally to me. My mum wanted me to be into dolls and Barbies and the more that kind of stereotypically girly stuff.

Yeah.

My dad wanted my brother to get into football, but my brother was very into anything mechanical and cars, and he was very, very early on. That was his interest. And at first I was thinking oh, cars are a waste of time, racing's boring, it's driving around in circles, and didn't really kind of buy into it until I kind of realised there was no one really around me that was into the things I was into, and I couldn't really, even myself, figure out what I was into. So I guess in a way to kind of fit in, I was like, oh, well, I'll go with my brother and my dad to Walton Park or I'll I'll go watch some racing, at least I'm out of the house. And I think that's when I slowly started to see the appeal, the adrenaline to it, the the competitive element to it as well. I think that's when it started to grow from something to do to try and fit into actually something that ends up taking up a lot of my my interest and time and and hobbies.

Yeah, yeah. What's your earliest Orton Park memory? Do you kind of remember what you kind of went to go and see?

It was always British touring cars.

Okay.

So I couldn't tell you who was racing. I've definitely got some old programs somewhere in the depths, I think, of boxes. Nice. And I just remember we'd always sit on the grass banking, you know, we'd get sort of bring obviously food into the circuit because even back then it was quite expensive. Yeah. And just spend the full day there. And we were so lucky that a lot of my memories were in the sun. It wasn't kind of horrible weather, it was nice, it was sort of spring, summertime, a lot more kind of a family day out. And then obviously in the background had the racing, and then obviously slowly starting to realise okay, this is something I want to want to be involved with.

Would your mum go with you or was it just the three of you?

I think she went a couple of times, but it's not not her vibe, I would say. No, I mean, if it was a Formula One hospitality suite, I think she'd be all there, you know, kind of champagne on tap, comfortable seat and kind of dip in and out of the racing as she pleases. I think that would really kind of be something she'd be bought into. But Anorax on, standing up all day, cheering drivers, not having big screens. So all you can see the cars, you know, going past and trying to figure out what overtakes have happened, which you haven't seen, just wasn't her wasn't her thing, but it definitely started to become mine.

Fade and water me and I'll come. She's one of those.

Yeah.

If I can wear my sandals, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, she can't wear heel sandals standing in the grass for eight hours now.

I've been to quite a few Goodwood events, and you kind of do feel sorry for yeah, wives and girlfriends who are there in heels at the beginning of the day. They've kind of done themselves up and you're like, You look lovely, but uh that's gonna hurt tomorrow.

Yeah, definitely. These are you know, I always feel self-conscious. I think going to these events and I'd be there in my Converse and trackies or Converse and jeans, and didn't feel particularly glamorous. I was definitely more of a tomboy growing up as well.

Yeah, yeah.

But obviously, I felt the benefit of my feet when it came to home time.

The good revival last year, Andy, you went, didn't you? We went on separate days, and that was an absolute mud bath, wasn't it? In the car park in particular. Yeah, it was very hard to navigate, sort of getting from your car to the actual event. Um, I remember just seeing loads of cars just getting stranded. Oh gosh, and like these really old Range Rovers and whatnot trying to tow people back to where they need to go.

We had um we had a similar experience, Silverston, for the Formula One back in 2012.

Oh, okay.

We got there on the Friday and it rained all Friday, all Saturday. We're in the car park that eventually they closed because it was just too flooded. Um, and then it came to race day, glorious sun, it was brilliant, but obviously the mud was and the flooding was still there. So we were like, how am I gonna get these cars out? My dad had an RDA five at the time, and we were like, This is just not gonna go anywhere. And they brought sort of like tractors from around a circuit and they were ripping off bumpers because they were just trying to get these cars out and they just weren't happening. So the local rugby team had come down to help, and it was two lads to a car and they were helping, pushing them out of the mud. And my dad used this in my uh wedding speech, I believe, and he wanted to get out of the car park. He was really scared about his car, didn't want a bumper getting ripped off or anything going wrong. No, and he said, We needed some help here. So I was in my lovely purple dress when I was thinking impressed Lewis Hamilton, as if he'd seen me from the stands, and managed to gather up a big bunch of these rugby players and was like, please can you help me get my dad's car out? So we had about 12 lads pushing this car out. And my dad and my brother were like, This is horrendous that we've had to ask you to do this, but it got us out and we were out in time, and the car survived.

So excellent, yes.

Not really championing women in motorsport at that moment, but it definitely did help help save the car.

Have you had a go at motorsport as such? Have you done kind of karting, or has your brother kind of done any of that? Or have you just stayed sort of spectator and then working in it?

Yeah, so my brother, bless him, always had ambitions to be a Formula One driver, but two things held him back, and that was definitely budget. Uh he's just over six foot four, so uh and rugby player type build, you know. So I think very early on it was yeah, I can't even fit in one of these things. So um he does a lot of sim racing. Okay. That's definitely where where he kind of sits, he's got all the kit and really gets into that, which is great.

Yeah.

I have done two track days. Okay. So my husband races.

Oh, cool.

So that's how we kind of met. So he was like, Oh, wouldn't it be really great to have like a team together and we race together? Wouldn't this be fantastic? And I wanted to really impress him. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, I can I can race cars. I've been around motor sport, I know what I'm doing. I I drive down the M6 toll on a regular basis. I know how to drive quickly and safely. Um, so first track day was at Donington. So he had at the time a citron C1 for endurance racing and an Audi TT as well, um, for more the kind of sprint side. And yeah, handled them both fine. The RDTT choked a little bit because apparently I was driving it too slow and he wasn't used to it. So I thought, well, it survived and it was my first track day, didn't crash it. Brilliant. Second track day for my birthday was Ulton Park in the Citrian C One Endurance. And to set the scene, it was a end of January. It was icy, it was cold. I was told that there was grease on the track, apparently, and um I went a little bit too hot into turn one, lost it, overcorrected, and as I was going backwards into the barrier, was apologizing to my old husband sat next to me, going, I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry, just as we smacked into the barrier. So um, yeah, I wrote that car off.

I know.

So that was not not great, and that was definitely my racing career over before it started.

Are you wearing sandals?

No, I wasn't. I think I was in Converse from memory, but um I definitely knackered my ankle from that, from one of the pedals smacking into it. Oh god, but obviously styled it out because I didn't want to really play what had happened. But the one, I guess, kind of good thing, maybe around motorsport being men and very male dominated is that when we got back to back into the paddock, the car came back looking absolutely so much sorry for itself. It was miserable, it was battered, completely written off. And everyone thought it was Nick, my husband, that had crashed the car because they wouldn't expect a a woman to be out on a track day in a race car. It was um obviously Nick that had that wrote it off. So he had a lot of no, it wasn't me. It was this one over here who's now hiding. But yeah, no, definitely staying away from the racing seat. But I've sort of you know done lots of roles kind of around motorsport over the years.

Are there any cars from your past or kind of your childhood, or maybe stuff you remember seeing on TV or something as a kid that you kind of think I'd like to get one of those as an adult?

Do you know what my the first car was like this will be like life goals if I get one was an Audi R8. So when they were first launched, okay, and I just thought it was absolutely stunning. And I was like, this is the kind of the car for me. And I think see my my dad was very career-driven and seen him going throughout the years, building his way up the career ladder and getting himself into a more successful position. I always kind of idolized that. And I kind of associated if I work hard, I can advance with my career, and then I can buy really nice cars, and that would be the thing that I'd really enjoy out of it. So I don't see a car as ever as being like an A to B. It was always sort of like a thing that I really want to indulge in, and it was my own kind of reflection to myself of I've done well, I've achieved this. And an Audi R8 at the time was this was the car that I really, really wanted.

Yeah, yeah. Have you bought an R8?

No, no, I haven't.

Um, I think that's not good news for your husband because uh have you ever sat in one, Andy? No, have you sat in one KT? Yes, I'm 6'4, and I had to do a relatively long journey in one once, and uh yeah, it was quite uncomfortable towards the end. You you're right in there, aren't you? It's uh I must admit that it is nice in there. It's a good yeah.

I did one of those driving experiences years ago in an R8 because obviously it was very well known amongst friends and family. It's the car that I wanted, so it's one of those. You turn up, you get a bit of tuition, and you get five laps and it's over, yeah, you know, in a moment. But that was my okay, at least I'd a driven one, and that was okay, yeah, but that buzz, and I know what I want to get. And then I guess not quite there yet. I have had some fun cars. My current car, I think, is probably the one that I'm the most in love with, and I think it's entirely ridiculous, but it gives me no end of joy driving it.

What have you got? Go on.

I have got a Ford Mustang V8.

Oh wow, a new one rather than the classic one.

Yeah, new one. So it's bright orange.

Okay.

Vicki's why not? You know, you get a silly looking car, you've got to get in a silly looking colour.

Fair enough.

So it really, really stands out. Racing stripe down the middle.

Nice, yeah.

450 brake horsepower is absolutely stunning. It definitely wants to kill me every time. Going the motorway when it's raining. Yeah, it's beautiful.

We've had another guest, haven't we, Andy, that had the same vehicle, I believe.

Yeah, my cousin Sally, we had on. That's it.

Yeah.

Yeah, she's had a couple of Mustangs, and yeah, she's Mustang Sally. Yeah, but indeed, yeah, big fan of them.

They do make a nice noise, I must admit.

They do, and they've got obviously there's little tricks in different modes, and you've got racetrack mode and the exhaust opens up and it's just absolutely stunning. So um, if it's a lovely kind of summer's day, dry on the roads, window down, just enjoy the sound of the car. So no music on, just really kind of enjoy it.

Yeah, yeah.

Weather, obviously, living up in the northwest, you can only really get a couple of days where you can really, really enjoy it. So when that happens, it's it's stunning.

Cool, fantastic. What does your husband race out of interest?

So last couple of years, he has been in constituency ones. I absolutely love them, even though I've written one off and I won't get back in one again. So he's done endurance racing in them. So typically anything between three, five hours, a 24-hour race a couple of years ago as well. Um, and he did sprint racing in the City Car Cup last couple of years, and then this year he's going back into endurance racing in one.

Okay, cool.

It's it's funny. So I am the series coordinator for the C1 endurance series in the UK. So I like to call it babysitting 60 cars and drivers on a race weekend because effectively it's what I spend my day doing. And we've had ex and current touring car drivers sit in the in the seats, and they all say the same thing. If it's a completely different ball game in terms of how you race them, it's all about keeping your speed. If you break too hard, you scrub off too much speed, you know, the rest of your lap is compromised. So it's all about kind of adapting your driving style to keep that momentum in the car, which is really interesting. So we've had, for example, Josh Cook, Jade Edwards, Tom Ingram. I've been in the car all last year, you know, at various points, and you can really see how they've had to adapt their driving style to be able to cope with the uh the 67 brake horsepower of a C1.

Yeah, that's uh there's not a lot of power. I spent the first five years driving a one-litre polo. So yeah, I got very used to momentum not breaking for corners and roundabouts.

Yeah.

Yeah, one day. I it's kind of bucketless thing to get my race license and do do something silly. I've not got the the money to go racing for a full season, but yeah, arrive and drive or something, maybe one day.

Definitely. I I definitely champion the the C ones. Obviously, working for them now, I think it's given it an extra kind of perspective on it and seeing the different characters that race in. Yeah, we call it the cheapest form of racing, and you get a lot of seat time for for the money that you pay for it.

Yeah, yeah.

Robin, who who runs the racing club, he's definitely of the mindset of um a bunch of mates getting together, lads and dads, you know, families and going out on a race weekend and and doing loads of laps and it enjoying it. So it's not so much about going for the win, but actually what can you achieve over the weekend, places you can gain. And I think a good example that I had was as a team manager for the 24-hour race, I had five drivers and a C1. None of them had either been around Silverstone before where the race was or had driven that C1 before. And they didn't tell me that until very close to the start of the weekend. And I thought, oh, this is gonna be terrible. Yeah, it's gonna be at the back and it's gonna be awful. And out of 60, I think it was like 63 cars, something like that, they qualified, I think, in the 50s. So it was not not kind of great going into the race. I was thinking this is gonna be interesting. But the one thing that Robin had said to me was it's not about lap times almost, it's about consistency. If you can have really great pit stops, really kind of well thought out strategy, you time it well, consistent lap times, staying out of trouble, you will find that they'll climb very, very quickly. And we were going on for a top five finish. Fantastic, you know, even sort of only a few hours before the end of the race. The only thing that scuppered that was um a stone.

Sandals.

No, not sandals. Thankfully, I checked all the teamware. Definitely no sandals. Oh, a stone in the radiator that punctured it, so it was spitting out water. So the car came in and it took about to be fair, it was very, very quick. We managed to get the radiator changed and refueled and back out in about 15 minutes. But by that point, you've you've lost a number of laps then. But we came in 15th, which to me I think is such a sense of achievement, and I think really highlighted the purpose of that type of racing is going out, having fun, enjoying it, and enjoying the success that you can you can find in it.

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, thank you very much for joining us, Katie. It's been a yeah, nice, nice chat. Good to hear about the uh the rovers and um hear about yeah, driven minds as well, and kind of obviously the work you're doing in the Yeah, the rovers, the sandals, and the driven minds. Absolutely. Yeah, that's the title sorted, isn't it? Are there any other bits you'd like to tell us about, kind of car-wise or kind of what you get up to work-wise?

Well, obviously, we're enchanting my brother yesterday. I think I need to do a shout out to him because he's kind of been the main person that has kind of fed into my interest in cars and racing. And I think I've been lucky enough to to work in racing, have these experiences because he kind of helped build that foundation. And I get a lot of my kind of knowledge and understanding from him. And I think, you know, when we're talking about this podcast, he said, make sure you credit me for for being any sort of anything that's car technical that I've been able to help you with. Um, and then we started talking about our sort of first car that we had together. So my mum and dad bought a Skoda Fabia years ago, back in 2001, I think it was. And my mum had that for a number of years again, battered and bruised because she's not the best driver. Um sorry, mum. And then when it came to my brother telling 17, the car was handed to him to learn and then to use drive to college. And then when I turned 17, it became this sort of shared car.

Yeah.

And it was really nice, kind of reminiscing in memories of having that car where he wanted to modify it and do things to it to make it faster and look cooler. And it was just everything I hated at the time. So he he put this awful exhaust tip on it, which didn't even fit on the car. So whenever you reverse off the driveway, it's scraped along the uh along the pavement. It was awful. And I just remember for months hoping that exhaust tip would come off where he would have a change of heart, and I'd be sat at traffic lights, you know, windows down, summer's day, and be like, what is that car making that noise? And then realizing it was me and feeling a little subconscious and hating it. And then I guess the gods or you know, the powers that would be listened to me because he was driving down the M56 one day and it just flew off.

Jeez.

Flew off the car, bounced down the hard shoulder and off it went, and it was gone forever. And he couldn't get it back, obviously. He'd driven off, and I was like, This is brilliant. I've been listened to the cars kind of back to normal, but that car was absolutely driven into the ground. So that I guess, you know, really kind of added into our kind of love of cars and kind of growing up together. And yeah, I've got a lot to thank him for for that.

You must have been out there with the spanners just loosening the the exhaust tip.

Yeah.

I think it was just gonna drop off one day. Like a relay batter, aren't they? Just like flying off down the motorway. Scary.

In hindsight, probably a little bit scary. Um, and yeah, he put stickers on the back of it, so it's like monster energy. And then we had this Colin McCrae quote, if in doubt, flat out, that was on that car, plus several others that we then got after that. So it was um yeah, lovely car. I don't know if you guys do it, but previous cars like to check if they're still running. So you check like when was the last MOT and what mileage it was on, is it still going? And we'd check for this Skoda for years and years afterwards, and eventually it gave up the ghost, probably about five or six years ago. And that was sad seeing that it was sworn off the road and it's completely gone.

But um I think I've likened that to looking up ex-partners on Facebook or something. Yeah. Not that I do that.

Oh, definitely. Yeah, just gonna just want to see what they're up to and hope that they're they're not having as much fun as I am these days. Um yeah.

Fantastic. Yeah, thank you very much, Katie.

No, thank you.

Yeah, people can go and look up driven minds, find out what you're up to, and uh if they're at a uh racetrack watching some uh racing or even taking part, then yeah, look out for you guys and uh come and have a chat.

Yeah, absolutely, definitely. We're definitely more than happy to speak to to anybody. Yeah, keep an eye out for the the yellow and black polo shirts, and yeah, definitely follow us on on socials. And the wasps, wasps and the wasps, yes. Uh, we just tend to follow me around.

Cool. Thank you very much. Nice to meet you, Katie.

Nice to meet you too. Take care, guys.

Cheers. Bye, bye. Bye-bye, bye.

Bye, right?

Cool, very good.

Yeah, but nice to have a chat. We were a little bit um light on the uh on the car content, but some some nice chats about other stuff anyway.

Yeah, yeah, not for the first time, I suppose. Light on the car content. There's a bit in it that reminded me to say about um you know, we're talking about your polo and you sort of using the weight, yeah, braking, all that sort of stuff. Remember uh a friend of ours that we used to work with at um he listens to this podcast actually. I remember he used to drive, there was a section of road that sort of fed down a hill to his house. It's probably about like less than half a mile, but he would sort of get to the top of the hill and just turn the engine off and just roll. Whereas looking back is absolute scary. It's just a coast it. Yeah, obviously leave the ignition on so you can still yeah, yeah, yeah.

You don't want to do that.

Yeah, I don't know why he used to do it, but he did use to do it, and it would literally sort of crawl up to his his house.

I just see if he could do it with momentum, yeah. Fair enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. An old Green Rover with Radio 2. That was kind of what we got, wasn't it, really?

Yeah, um yeah, that was the uh the extent of the the my dad's car element. Oh, and some newer stuff, but yeah, I suppose that's just the thing, isn't it? Of younger guests. When the car ends up becoming like a Bora. Yeah. Well it's a red flag is a bit of a red flag for us in a way, isn't it? So in racing terms.

Yeah, I guess we have a f a few years over Katie, but um yeah, yeah, it's all all the same, yeah. Very grateful for her to come on. Nice to uh support what they're doing with obviously yeah, mental health and kind of in specifically the uh the stuff around motorsport. Yeah, and yeah, that must have been hard kind of 2020 for a lot of people, but I guess that that kind of thing all just closed down. Yeah, certainly, yeah. If you're working in that industry, then um yeah, all of a sudden the rug's pulled from under you.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, yeah, anything to kind of help people who are in in any walk of life really, but in that sort of circle, then yeah, very good.

No, it sounds like it's uh doing well and yeah.

We have had a bit of fun slightly at our mum's expense with regards to footwear, so that's um that is something which kind of come out of it, which um yeah.

That's what usually happens, isn't it? There's one sort of talking point that then can be just sort of rinsed dry through the entirety. Yeah, sprinkling how we operate, isn't it?

Find something humorous, bring it up multiple times.

Yes, yeah, that's basically it.

Yeah, sorry guys, we're we're a cheap actor.

We are, we got nothing.

Yeah, very opaque. Um, okay, cool. Thank you very much, John.

Thank you.

Cool, we'll uh yeah, wrap it up. Roll the credits.

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