 |
Greg Rust | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gregory Paul Rust 19 July 1970 |
| Nationality | Australian |
Gregory Paul Rust [1] (born 19 July 1970 in Sydney) is an Australian motor racing journalist and presenter. He has previously worked for Network Ten, the Nine Network [2] and the Special Broadcasting Service [2] (SBS) as a freelance commentator/reporter/presenter, mainly covering motor racing.
Rust was born in Sydney Australia on 19 July 1970. Rust has a brother and sister. [3] Born into a family with a genuine love for all forms of motorsport, he was a regular at the Sydney Showground Speedway as a child and competed as an amateur racer in karts. After leaving high school, he worked on a cadetship program with ANZ specialising in home loans. [4] In his late teens and early twenties, Rust enjoyed some class wins as a driver in rallysprints and khana-crosses after buying a modified Mitsubishi Galant with several close friends. [4]
Rust worked for three years with the Macquarie Radio Network stations 2GB and 2CH in Sydney initially as a sport reporter and later became a daytime news reader. [5]
After cutting his teeth with SBS motorsport program Speedweek , Rust was drafted into Channel 9's commentary team for the final Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Eastern Creek Raceway in 1996. He called the support races with 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones.
In 1997 he was hired by Ten to host the Australian Super Touring Championship for 2-litre Touring Cars - a position previously held by his close friend Leigh Diffey, who had moved on to Network Ten's V8 Supercar coverage. Rust commentated the Australian Super Touring Championship for 2 years before starting work as V8 pit reporter late in 1998. He was a part of Ten's V8 coverage for almost 10 years - even hosting and anchoring the commentary on occasions. During this period the station won numerous Logie Awards for its broadcast of the famous Bathurst 1000 and Rust developed a reputation as a pit specialist also working on the Gold Coast Indy 300 and the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Despite an offer to join the Seven Network in 2007, Rust stayed with Ten to front the station's MotoGP and F1 broadcasts and its long running magazine motorsport show RPM . He also hosted and commentated Ten's coverage of the Red Bull Air Race series.
Outside of motorsport, Rust worked alongside Sandra Sully and former 2GB colleague Jason Morrison assisting in Channel 10's initial coverage of the September 11 attacks by logging footage and by writing and voicing a 5 minute snapshot story on what had unfolded for a special breakfast bulletin, working until sun up. [4] [6] Rust also worked on One's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics. [7] and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. [8]
In 2015, the V8 Supercars television rights moved to a shared broadcast between Fox Sports and Network Ten. [9] The broadcast shared a common commentary team, produced by V8 Supercars Media and headed up by Rust and Neil Crompton. [10] Rust also began hosting Fox Sports' new V8 Supercars panel series ‘’Inside Supercars’’. [11] He fronts the coverage for various international networks and in 2016 made a return to pit reporting for the races. [12] alongside commentating the Super2 Series, with four time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy. At the end of the 2017 season, Rust announced he would be leaving the Supercars television broadcast team. [13]
Rust is currently married to his wife Sarah and has two daughters, Georgie who is a model and Stella. [4] They reside in New Zealand, living near Supercars legend and close friend Greg Murphy. [4] Rust has also driven V8 Supercars, Formula Holden, Formula Ford, Toyota Racing Series and Speedcars/Midgets for story research. He is colloquially known as "Rusty" or "Thrusta" [14] (a nickname given to him by the late Barry Sheene a former World Motorcycle Champion and Network Ten colleague). [5]
The Supercars Championship currently known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.
Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as automotive-focused programs.
Leigh Diffey is an Australian-American auto racing and track and field commentator. He is best known for being the lead play-by-play announcer for much of NBC Sports' motorsports coverage, currently calling NASCAR Cup Series and IMSA sports car races for the network. Before this, he was the lead voice of NBC's Formula One and IndyCar Series coverage. Diffey has also worked play-by-play for NBC's coverage of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, most notably becoming the network's lead track and field sportscaster prior to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Mark Stephen SkaifeOAM is an Australian former racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bathurst 1000 winner. On 29 October 2008, he announced his retirement from full-time touring car racing. Since retiring from driving, Skaife has worked as a commentator and presenter for the series for both the Seven Network and Fox Sports Australia.
Cameron Eric "Conkers" McConville is an Australian racing driver and motorsport celebrity. While retired from full-time competition, McConville still races occasionally and is an in-demand endurance event co-driver. McConville spent 14 years as a professional driver, ten of those in the largest Australian domestic category, Supercars Championship. McConville has also written for several magazines and presented several television programs and up until the end of the 2009 season was the colour commentator for Network Ten's Australian coverage of Formula One. McConville announced his retirement from full-time racing for the end of the 2009 season. He is also rumoured to be The Stig in Top Gear Australia.
Sydney Motorsport Park is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek, New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Western Sydney International Dragway. It was built and is owned by the New South Wales Government and is operated by the Australian Racing Drivers Club. The circuit is one of only two permanent tracks in Australia with an FIA Grade 2 license and is licensed for both cars and motorcycles.
Russell Peter Ingall is a former full-time Australian V8 Supercar driver. He won his V8 Supercars title in 2005, and finished second in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2004. Ingall has also won the Bathurst 1000, in 1995 and 1997. His particular driving style earned him the nickname "Enforcer".
Matthew White is an Australian sports broadcaster, television executive, television presenter and journalist at Network 10, where he returned to in 2014. He has previously been Network 10's Head of Sport and host of the motorsports panel show RPM.
William Woods is an Australian television journalist, radio and television broadcaster, and author. He is best known as the presenter, alongside Sandra Sully, of Network Ten's Ten News at Five in Sydney and Sports Tonight. He co-hosted Bill & Boz on Fox Sports News.
Jamie David Whincup is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden ZB Commodore, won a record seven Supercars championship titles, four Bathurst 1000 victories, and a Bathurst 12 Hour victory. Whincup is the all-time record holder in the Supercars Championship for race wins, at 125 career wins. He is also the first driver to win the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy twice at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Auckland, New Zealand.
Neil Crompton is an Australian former racing driver, Supercars presenter and commentator.
The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, Australia. The race was first held in 1991 for Series Production cars and moved to Sydney's Eastern Creek Raceway in 1995 before being discontinued. The race was revived in 2007, again for production cars, before adding a new class for GT3 and other GT cars in 2011. This has led to unprecedented domestic and international exposure for the event. In all, twenty one races have taken place; twenty at Mount Panorama and one at Eastern Creek Raceway.
RPM is an Australian motorsports and automotive television program that airs on Network Ten. The show returned to Ten in 2015, after originally airing from 1997 to 2008 on the same network, as well as in 2011 on sister channel One. The show currently airs on Sunday afternoons, having held a variety of timeslots over the show's history.
The 2007 V8 Supercar season featured the ninth V8 Supercar Championship Series which began on 1 March and concluded on 2 December. This championship consisted of 14 rounds covering all states and the Northern Territory of Australia as well as rounds in New Zealand and Bahrain. The series also carried the Australian Touring Car Championship title, which was awarded by CAMS for the 48th time in 2007.
Mark Andrew "Larko" Larkham is a retired Australian racing driver, former racing team owner and television commentator.
The 2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was an Australian touring car motor race for V8 Supercars. The race was on Sunday, 9 October 2011 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia and was Race 20 of the 2011 International V8 Supercars Championship. It was the fifteenth running of the Australian 1000 race, first held after the organisational split over the Bathurst 1000 that occurred in 1997. It was also the 54th race for which the lineage can be traced back to the 1960 Armstrong 500 held at Phillip Island.
The Supercars Challenge was an annual non-championship motor racing event held for cars from the Supercars Championship, and formerly from V8 Supercars, the Shell Championship Series and the Australian Touring Car Championship. The event was held on the Albert Park Circuit in Albert Park, Victoria, Australia as a support event to the Australian Grand Prix.
Shannons Legends of Motorsport was an Australian motor racing television series that aired on 7mate. First aired in 2014, each episode featured a particular topic from the history of Australian motor racing, with a focus on touring cars. The show included a mix of interviews, analysis and historical footage.
There have been numerous video games which have included the drivers, teams, cars and circuits from the Supercars Championship, the leading touring car category in Australia. Several of these games were officially licensed by Supercars. From 2011 to 2014, an online championship sanctioned by Supercars was contested on iRacing. In 2017, Supercars launched an esports competition, now known as the Supercars Eseries, using Forza Motorsport 6 and Forza Motorsport 7 until 2018 and iRacing from 2019.
Inside Supercars was an Australian television series, based on the Supercars Championship, that aired on Fox Sports.