Screen to Speed: Bex Betman

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Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Welcome to Screen to Speed, powered by Init eSports. In this podcast, we dive into the journeys of remarkable individuals making waves in sim racing and bridging the virtual with the real. From the thrill of digital circuits to the roar of real life racetracks, we explore the passion, dedication, and innovation that drives the world of motor sports.

We’ll hear from athletes, creators, and pioneers sharing their stories, insights, and the powerful ways sim racing is connecting communities and creating pathways into motor sports. So buckle up screen to speed starts now.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Happy to see you on any talks today, and we got, uh, beautiful Bex Betman today with us, uh, welcoming Bex. Hi.

Bex Betman: Nice to be here.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: [00:01:00] Yeah, nice to meet you too. Uh, so hope you’re doing well today. And, uh, let’s start, uh, from where, where are you from, first of all? Uh, because I, I can see you good morning, also as I in Kazakhstan and it’s, uh, 6:00 AM right now.

Bex Betman: Um, well, I’m from New Zealand and we’re a little island in the Pacific Ocean, miles away. And yes, it is one, uh, 1:00 PM here Friday. So the future looks good, everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it’s winter for us.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s nice. Uh, so let’s start with basic, uh, so how you get into motor sports, how you get involved into this.

Uh, so where your, uh, journey started.

Bex Betman: Um, I sort of had no say in it when I was younger. My dad was a mechanic and I was just sort of brought up around cars and then my stepfather was the same. And I sort of grew up at the Speedway Track, which is a [00:02:00] dirt track here for um, new Zealanders. And then as I got older, I was sort of determined I didn’t really like Speedway as much and I wanted to give the tar sales stuff a bit of a go.

So I think even as a young teenager, we all had cars and were driving around and we all sort of, um, we’re a country with a lot of, um, Japanese cars. Mm-hmm. So in the early nineties. So we sort of had every Japanese car available and that’s sort of what we grew up driving. Honda Civics. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The old sky.

Yeah. I learned to drive in my mom’s skyline, so it was kind of just stemmed from my childhood really, of what options were there for us to drive around in. And being a girl from the nineties, we all drove manuals. Mm-hmm. And. That’s sort of where it started.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really cool. You know, I think that, uh, some people will be jealous that you got all these, uh, Japanese cars and, uh, they, uh, really, you know, available not really far away from you.

It’s really cool, uh, because I bet so many [00:03:00] people, like in United States and Europe also, uh, struggling to find a decent like skyline or something like this. So it’s really cool.

Bex Betman: Yes, they definitely do. We didn’t sort of realize how great we had it back in the day. Mm-hmm. And like back then you wouldn’t realize, like with the internet now, everyone knows everything.

Back then you didn’t realize actually how fun it was to be honing around and what we were growing up in. Mm-hmm. And as I say, my daughter, her, her daily driver now is a skyline. So they’re still very common here. Mm-hmm. And we wonder what. Yeah, we, we know now why they get a bit jealous ’cause they are great with cars.

We get jealous. We didn’t get a all muscle cars.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s true. Okay. And also another one thing you, you told me that, uh, you got dirt ovals. In New Zealand, uh, this is really surprising me because, you know, usually you’re thinking like, oh, in United States, uh, this kind of racing, this category is really [00:04:00] popular, but you’re not thinking that somewhere else on, on our planet, uh, this can be popular also.

So can you tell me more about the dirt rolls and, uh, like how people get, get here and, uh, like how big the community in New Zealand also.

Bex Betman: Speedway is huge in New Zealand. Um, there’s a lot of sponsors and all sorts that go into Speedway here. Um, basically every town in New Zealand has a speedway track as to how big depends on the size of the town.

Mm-hmm. But there’s always dirt tracks. New Zealand for people to go on. Depends how well, how big your budget is really in terms of a lot of motors sport in New Zealand. But I don’t have a lot to do with the Speedway community now. But the events that I’ve done out at Speedway recently are the demolition Doobies.

Mm-hmm. So you get an old car. Normally an old Japanese car, sorry, America, but um, and you hang around, they put a ramp in it and you go over the ramps and you crash into [00:05:00] each other pretty much. And that’s done on the dirt track and I love it. They do one here on Boxing Day, and that’s my biggest stress relief at the end of the year.

Year. Mm-hmm. Was to go out and just match up a car and drive around in circles, not not care in the world. After those you come on. Oh,

so yeah, no, dirt racing is very big here. Yeah. Uh, sprint cars mainly, there’s a lot of money tied up in the sprint cars here and I think my uncle used to actually build them some for some time. And, um, no, it’s just, I sort of steered cleared a, because once I found my we community, I, yeah. Sort of fell in love with what I do now.

Yeah. But no Nelson’s Speedway, Speedway around. I better say that for my cousin.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I can agree with you about, uh, demolition derby. I didn’t try this in real life, but I tried so many times in [00:06:00] breakfast with community and with other streamers. It was, uh, like ton of fun. So it’s really cool. Uh, category. I like it.

Bex Betman: Highly. Yeah. Highly recommend trying one.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. And stressful, as I’m aware you with Mitsubishis right now with evil.

Yeah. And, uh, so what drew you into, uh, that car and, uh, like switch sky into this one?

Bex Betman: Wow. My Evo, I have three daughters.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm.

Bex Betman: Mitsubishi Evo. Mm-hmm. Is a reliable family car,

reliable. I will refuse to have a people mover or a big wagon. When I had daughters, I’m like, no, you’ll never see me drive people mover like a big car, like a. Mm-hmm. And I considered my Evo first off to be a good family car. Mm-hmm. [00:07:00] Needed a bigger motor, it needed a bigger turbo. I needed to modify it, and then it became not such a reliable family car.

Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s really cool. So yeah, my

Bex Betman: journey. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s nice. You, you balance with, uh, with motor sports and, uh, family life and evil. Just perfect car for this.

Bex Betman: I dunno, my daughter might disagree about the room in the back seat, but

she might not agree. But we managed to squeeze the car seats in and yeah, they, they had a ball.

Years, no. Yes. Cards prior to the poor Evo, but um, yeah, it’s boroughs. As I say, we’re very Japanese car orientated here. Mm-hmm. Yeah, everything was sort of Japanese. It was just a normal [00:08:00] car that you would drive every day. Mm-hmm. Um, the trucks like a Toyota, the Toyotas, again, Toyota had a Land Cruiser.

Mm-hmm. UX has a Toyota Hilux. So yeah, they’re very common here. We’ve had several arguments with the Americans on what we call the vehicles. Mm-hmm. Because they all have different names for all these different vehicles.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yes. All right. And, uh, you actually start, uh, to take apart in time attacks, uh, events. Uh, so can you tell me more about this also?

Bex Betman: That seems to be my genre of racing at the moment is the time attack. So it’s one lap. One lap matters. Mm-hmm. So you do need power that has got enough power. That’s all to do with the arrow and the downforce and how you can quickly get that one as quick as you can.

So if you blow up after that lap, who cares? Yeah. With my background being [00:09:00] first off drag racing, I built my evo say for, um, drag racing. Mm-hmm. So my goal is to do a ten second quarter mile. Mm-hmm. So we do quarter miles here. That’s a 10 10 like and fast and furious ten second run. Mm-hmm. So I did ten second run and then I was like, oh, that goal’s done.

What do I do now? So I went into more time attack ’cause I like running, doing laps. Mm-hmm. So that was sort of how we built the time attack car really. And I like the engineering side of it in terms of like the body and the function of the cars and vehicles. Mm-hmm. So I. Lot of time sort of designing different parts of it and different downfall, different ways to mm-hmm.

Make it faster. Pretty much. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That’s nice. Uh.

Bex Betman: Was it how I got involved with,

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: yeah. Uh, was it really hard for you to like switch categories and, uh, actually, uh, get [00:10:00] used to, uh, this fast times with, uh, with corners with everything and working on the corners, working on your line and, uh, to be, uh, the fastest on track?

Bex Betman: Yeah. I’m still working on it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm.

Bex Betman: Yeah. But yeah, I think you can never, ever stop learning or never stop progressing with it with yourself and with the car. Mm-hmm. I’ve had issues years and years with the car, and then that’s made me fail as a driver because when the car’s not playing ball, neither am I.

So when you go home and your car’s had a bad day, so have I. Mm-hmm. And then when you are on. Car’s not, it’s heartbreaking, but yeah, it comes with the territory and sadly it comes with your budget too, here. And I’m really happy to have a few sponsors on board who have been great and getting the car running and keeping things going, keeping me going.

Mm-hmm. And. Like you couldn’t do it here in New Zealand without a bit of help and yeah. That’s how a lot of people here end [00:11:00] up just going out street racing. They probably do in every country. Mm-hmm. But I say to anyone, just stick at it. Keep going. And you, you get there, you learn a lot as you go. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I think, you know, racing and like motor sport is so expensive everywhere and it’s really cool that you having the support, uh, people around you, support you in your, uh.

Like racing career, let’s say like this. Uh, and it’s, it’s really nice. Uh, can you tell me more about, uh, how is it for you to race with your daughters? Uh, so you mentioned, uh, before that, uh, they also race and, uh, how is it?

Bex Betman: Um, my youngest, she’s a twin. She’s just getting involved in it because I do a lot with the drifting.

Mm-hmm. With helping. But she wants to be the driver, so she’s determined. She’s only just turned 16, so she has only just really got her actual road license. [00:12:00] Mm-hmm. And she doesn’t. Events are motors, so it learns a lot of cone work. Teaches her how to maneuver the car and handle it. And she’s progressing that really well this season.

And she’s actually won the fastest female, I think it was for the season, in her events. So she’s stoked with that. So she’s gonna keep going and progressing. Mm-hmm. And then. And yeah, she will move into drifting and, but sadly, I just, it’s, it’s the budget. Understand she’s, she’s doing this, it’s fantastic.

But yeah, you can only enter so many things before you just can’t afford. So we spend on.

But as I said to her, that’s how you learn. That’s how you learn. When she breaks something, I would like her to be able to help fix it. Mm-hmm. Not just hand it to someone else. So yeah, she’ll learn the hard way.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. [00:13:00] Uh, so how you balance, uh, being a parent, uh, also like mentor and, uh, like racing driver with your daughters, how you balance this in your life?

Bex Betman: Well, I’m sort of the mom that if I can afford to do it, I’ll probably say yes. Mm-hmm. There’s really nothing my girls have thrown at me that I’ve gone, oh no, I won’t let you do that. Mm-hmm. So, anything they wanna, this one’s laughing at me. Have I just said no to you? Can I go to America? Yeah. Can I go to America?

Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, I, I would never say no to my girls. There’s not a lot that they’ll come at me with that. I’ll go, oh, actually no, we’re not gonna do that. Mm-hmm. And I think that’s right in them. It’s given them their independence and it’s teaching them they have to earn it however. Mm-hmm. I think they can give everything a go.[00:14:00]

I mean, some things are gonna be very risky, but I’m yet to get a moment with them where I’ve gone, oh no, we better not do this. Mm-hmm. Because, I mean, for me, they see me do it, so I think, well they, I might as well let them do it too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It’s molded when a bit older to go out and get jobs, careers to then go, Hey, I don’t think nothing’s gonna hold them back.

Mm-hmm. There shouldn’t be an obstacle. For anyone to do it. So you, I look at myself too, like, um, I’m my biggest critic. Mm-hmm. So I’m the only person in my life that often goes, oh, I shouldn’t do that. When everyone else is saying, go for it. Mm-hmm. So to them, I’m. All the ones saying don’t do it. ’cause I probably know that inside they saying, should I be doing this?

So I think the best way is to say it and do it. She often only dents a panel or two or what did she break the gearbox? Yeah.

They’re still making [00:15:00] gear boxes for MX five, so that’s all right. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. Uh, tell me about your, uh, favorite racing events, which you take part in and, uh, maybe together with your daughters. Also, like the same track. There’s

Bex Betman: so many. There’s so many. It’s whether I’m helping out with the event, being an official mm-hmm.

My daughter comes along down and helps me with the drifting events for drifting. I’ve sold my drift car. We are building another one though, so coming out of a timer. But, um, my daughter comes along and she runs the grid, so she helps get the drivers ready to go and do their thing. It’s just great that she’s out there helping me too.

But the events themselves, there’s so every season, every event’s different. Every event someone else wins. There’s, you can have the same winners, same losers. You get your favorite drivers and whatnot when you’re [00:16:00] helping out, but you can’t play favorites. Mm-hmm. But, um, so you make different memories every time.

And I love just seeing every other person out there when they win, all their crew, come together. And how they celebrate. Mm-hmm. And you just become part of that vibe too, like when they’ll celebrate and when they’re about to win, especially in drifting when it’s down to like the top four. Mm-hmm. And they’re going into battles.

You just become part of that scene. You just become part of that love that you want ’em to win. Like you cry afterwards when they win and you partners the kids, all your kids come together and just have an awesome time watching dad or mom. There’s some lovely moms out there with their kids out there too.

Mm-hmm. And it’s just such a community, such a vibe to be part of, to watch other people win. Then I go him smiling because I’m like, wow, he’s just had the best day ever. Mm-hmm. And then now my daughter’s doing it too, and I can see that in her as well, that she’s just happy for other people to be out there doing it [00:17:00] and she’s happy to support them and then go, wow, I’m, I’m gonna do this one day too.

Mm-hmm. And then she’ll get the support too. So it’s really awesome to be part of. But I must admit, the latest event we went to, and they call it Highlands Motorsport Park. Mm-hmm. It’s a very, very nice looking. It’ll be, if we got ever got F1, it would be where we put the F1 here in New Zealand. Mm-hmm. And it’s, they don’t like drifters though.

But this one event, they finally opened it up for a drift day and the track got absolutely shooted up in tires. Mm-hmm. But. Day ever. And my daughter got to interview one of the, the famous guy who hosted a Mad Mike. I dunno if you know him. Um, a lot of people might know. Mad Mike.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm, yeah. Yeah. My daughter.

I know him.

Bex Betman: Do you know him? And my daughter interviewed his son. She always had this goal. I want to talk to him and ask him some questions. Mm-hmm. And he was more than [00:18:00] happy for her to, to him. So she’s topped her bucket list, so she needs some more goals. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So that was a very good event to go to and be part of.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: It’s nice that you got, uh, seems like really friendly and like family, family based, uh, community in New Zealand and racing. Uh, it’s really cool, uh, because I think it’s, you know, it’s really warm and, and cozy when you got, uh, families and just, uh, it’s really, uh, good atmosphere. You got around.

Uh, it’s, it’s really nice.

Bex Betman: Oh, it is. Yeah. And that’s, yeah, that’s sort of the whole part of it that we do enjoy. Is that you can go out there with the family, with a group, a group of your friends, your pet crew, and just have a good time. Really? Yeah. It does sort of become way fast and furious families.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: As we, we talking here a lot about, uh, [00:19:00] you know, how to be a girl in, uh, motor sport community, in racing community, uh, how is it for you, uh, to be mom with daughters, uh, in this racing community in New Zealand? Uh. Like, uh, do, do you, uh, have any issues or maybe, uh, like no issues with this?

Bex Betman: I don’t as such, but I know it probably does happen out there.

But if you go along to an event and your main focus is just to have good time, enjoy yourself, compete, help out, it doesn’t matter whether you’re male, female, cat, dog. Mm-hmm. I think New Zealand. I don’t think we have this as much. I may be wrong. There could be people out there that do experience the female thing, but I think in our community you are respected.

If you get out there and you’re just doing what you wanna do. Mm-hmm. Once you put the helmet on, doesn’t matter what’s between your legs, literally.[00:20:00]

Earn that respect for men and women and you’re just out there doing it because you genuinely love what you’re doing. Mm-hmm. So I’m, but it probably does happen, but I wanna say maybe not so much in the actual racing sector. Mm-hmm. I’m guessing in the cast. No, like we meet some things that may do, but I go to meet some, we, um, women, men, we all just have a really good time as well.

Mm-hmm. And yeah, I think very lucky in New Zealand that we haven’t got that stigma. Mm-hmm. Our stigma is that you, um, basically us old Japanese JDM people, we get a bit ganged up on by the muscle car people. Mm-hmm. I think New Zealand’s conflict is what you drive, not who’s driving it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And playing with the different racing, like the Speedway boys don’t like, you know, people.

So I think that’s our biggest battle in New Zealand is that we’re a little country. We’ve got some [00:21:00] very talented drivers here, but, um, yeah, I think it just matters what you drive. You get a bit ganged up on when you’re driving EVO and not a V eight. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right, so you got more be battles about, uh, what’s better, like Subra Mitsubishi.

Yeah.

Bex Betman: Yes. That is horrific. Those are the worst.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: This is actually really, yeah. You know, it’s, it’s really nice because I’ve been into carting from nine years old and then I’ve been into open wheelers and formalists, and I can tell you that, uh, carting and open village community. Really toxic. So they really care about like, oh, you, you like overtook me.

Like, oh, that, that’s girl. Oh no. Something like this.

Bex Betman: Yeah. Even our open wheeler, boys and girls, there’s a lot of females coming through from New Zealand. Mm-hmm. There’s some awesome talent. Our [00:22:00] country, not to brag, but in both sixes and in a lot of competition, we’ve got a lot of people hitting off to like mm-hmm.

F1 or whatever you call early F1 development teams and that. Mm-hmm. There’s a lot of Kiwi girls and boys coming to. Yeah. So I think if you can overtake anyone, just just do it. Make the pass.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, it’s really nice. You know, I moved to sim racing and, uh, I kind of see the same thing as, uh, you know, a lot of people, uh, racing in sim racing. And, uh, particularly I’m in a racing and. Like, you know, people usually really welcome to newcomers and, uh, they trying to help you, trying to give you advice, and it’s really easy to get into endurance team if you want, uh, to be a part of it.

And, um, yeah, I’m just, I, I really enjoy this compared to real life racing, which I had. Uh, but once again, there was, you know, really competitive cars, really [00:23:00] competitive, uh, open wheelers and yeah, people, uh, you know. Like fighting for their life on the track.

Bex Betman: Oh yeah. It’s a battle every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Something like

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: this. Yeah.

Bex Betman: Was mostly with the car. The car has to perform. Mm-hmm. You do have to know what every noise is. Why is it doing that? What’s wrong? How’s this working? Mm-hmm. So you do, you have to spend hours behind the scenes with it too working. Or Yeah. So yeah, your pet crew are your best helpers.

You’re just the driver. Mm-hmm. But they make everything work for you. Yeah. You’re lost without your helpers. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Fingers. And I do, I, I take off to all you some races ’cause I am shit. Yeah. The ripples, nothing feels quite realistic enough. And I, I, I’m, I’m, shit, [00:24:00] we wanna get one so that my daughter can learn.

The girls are like convincing me that it’s a good move. Mm-hmm. Oh, we had a group of drifters, get real drifters, get on them for a competition night and yeah, we, we were, shit.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. You know. Um, I’m just thinking that, uh, you got, uh, really good involved, uh, from, uh, GDM, uh, culture from Japan and, uh. Actually, anime is really popular in, in Japan as well.

And you know, they really don’t care about like, who’s, uh, behind the helmet, as you said, and just take, take care about cars. Yeah.

Bex Betman: Yeah, you get picked on for what color or what brand you represent most.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Alright, I got it.

Bex Betman: Uh, we have big competition over what ECU you run

and what tire. If you’re not running a certain [00:25:00] tire, you.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. And speaking about cars, uh, are you working on a car together with your daughter or like someone help you from your family? Like, how you doing this?

Bex Betman: Just one car or the lot?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Uh, like all cars, which you got, how, how you prepare them for competition.

Bex Betman: Well, at the moment I’ve got one another Evo being built. Mm-hmm. And that’s gonna be a dedicated track car. Mm-hmm. Because my car currently is road legal to an extent. Mm-hmm. But now I’ve decided, right. I wanna push myself that much further. So I need a dedicated track car. So that’s, um, at tuners now, so that’s not far off being complete and I’ve got a lot of the body work to still complete with that.

So that’s when I’m hoping that my daughter, she’s taking an interest in it, so she’s looking at jumping on board too and just helping out. Mm-hmm. Just learning a lot as she got. Because [00:26:00] then the next car we are building is in Nissan. Nissan 180. I’ve always wanted to own a dedicated track, one of those, and we’ve got one, and we’re just gonna build that up over summer, which will be your guys’ winter.

Mm-hmm. And, um. And that’s gonna be basically her, her and my drift car to start using again. Mm-hmm. So that’s on the build. Her actual dedicated track builds. And then my daughter’s got an MX five that’s still, she races that now. So that’s what she’s using. Um, so then now we just need to tidy that up a bit for her because when she does get her actual road license, she’ll be driving it on the road.

Mm-hmm.

Crew Chief Eric: So she’s

Bex Betman: gonna be learning a little bit more about. How to fix that and correct things with it. And, um, she busted her radiator, so she actually did that. I watched, but she did the bulk of it by herself. Mm-hmm. So at 15 she was turning, when you break something, you need to fix it. Yeah. But, um, the EVO [00:27:00] builds sort of taken up a lot of our funds this year.

Mm-hmm. So that’s why I haven’t been. Racing, but I’ve been doing more of the official duties this season. But, um, not everyone’s very excited for this Evo to come out, so I’m excited. Too nervous. You’re always nervous when you got a new car. It’s like when you go somewhere and you hope you’ve worn the right outfit kind of thing, I guess.

Mm-hmm. It’s a lot of pressure on getting the right color or the right. Oh.

Can’t turn up for too many events with the same card. Be like wearing the same dress again again. Mm-hmm. Oh, that old thing. Oh, she needs a new one.

So, no. So there’d be a lot happening for us over summer. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: No. All right. Uh, what color are you planning to dye your, uh, evil? Or maybe it’s [00:28:00] already in the, in, in color.

Bex Betman: Yeah. Um, we’ve ganged with a sort of a family color theme. We’ve thought my current VO is the gray, like the nto. Mm-hmm. Um, Audi Gray.

Mm-hmm. So I’ve had that color on that one, but I’ve gone with just black. Mm-hmm. Pouring old black. But I’m a bit annoyed because I’ve also done a lot of like powder coating and spray painting to master a fluro yellow, so that stays. Mm-hmm. It’s a very hard to get unless you’re wrapping them. So I’ve gone, right.

I wanna go fluro yellow. So I’ve done helmet, I’ve done a lot of all my gear, and then I hate to say it, but now I’ve seen Orlando Norris is walk rocking flu yellow, isn’t he?

Son and he stole my color. Gonna be black with flu or yellow. And then my daughter’s doing black and with a green like a mm-hmm. Old greeny color. [00:29:00] So yeah. Well we’re sticking with black just ’cause it’s easy when you dent panel and you break something, you can just quickly spray it black, can’t you?

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah.

That, that’s really cool. Uh, so you’re really practical.

Bex Betman: Yeah, we have to be, and like I say, with the Japanese cars, they were cheap here, but parts are becoming very expensive. Mm-hmm. So the 180, we haven’t gone through too many guards and pieces off it. I like doing a bit of fiberglass work myself, so at least I can sort of.

Myself here and there. Two years.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. So you already already told me about, uh, plans about cars. Uh, what events are you planning to do, uh, when the racing season, uh, will be here? Um, just not aware. You, you said that, uh, uh, it will be summer for you when, uh, it’s going to be winter for us and it’s, it’s actually winter for you right now, [00:30:00] right?

Bex Betman: Yes, we are the middle of winter. Mm-hmm. So winter’s, let’s build a car time. Mm-hmm. There’s not a little on, so my daughter’s still doing things throughout the winter season. Mm-hmm. And coming up to summer, not putting my name to a series in, I’m waiting. Mm-hmm. Because there’s a lot of d. I can do, so I’m gonna try and get the car dialed in first and sort any little teething issues that I may have.

So I might just be doing test days and things in it just to walk, get it used to life and myself again, because I’ll. Last summer I had pretty major surgery, so I thought, oh, I’ll wait and see if I can bounce back that, which I have. I’m doing good. So, but um, yeah, I won’t race a series yet. There is a series here for the endurance racing.

Mm-hmm. So I do wanna get an, and then they call a, oh, what would you call SS cup? They call a series, which is basically just open [00:31:00] class saloon racing. So most them are like a JDM shower with a motor, and you can sort of be a bit unlimited with your power in your vehicles. So it’s sort of like handicapped, if that makes sense.

Like a handicapped class racing. Mm-hmm. If I go out there with 800 horsepower, I’m not gonna penalize a dude just in a 200 horsepower car. So it’s pretty fair, pretty fair for everyone. And that’s sort of based on your lap time. So I’ll look at going into something like that. Even in New Zealand, we might be a little country, but it’s still a lot of travel to get to the other part of New Zealand.

Mm-hmm. So it can cost a lot. So my major plan would be hopefully one day keep one of the cars on the other island, go up north. North we say, because they go up north. So I’ll leave one car up there and then have one here. Mm-hmm. To sort of use going forward. We do wanna branch out. We’ve heard it now New Zealand.

I do wanna go up north. Yeah. Yeah. And um, [00:32:00] we’ve, I’ve talked and spoke with and met a lot of lovely people even within New Zealand, who I haven’t met, so mm-hmm. It would be nice to go off and meet all these people and waste them mm-hmm. In my mouth, so, yeah. So there’s plenty to do and I, I might be 42, but, um, I think I’ve still got a few years left in me to do it.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: I, I, I think that, uh, it does matter, uh, like what age you got. You just, if you got like, uh, physically you can do this and, uh, like you got motivation, this is all you need to go through and to keep going. And in racing, in motor sports or in any other, uh, stuff in life.

Bex Betman: I think so, yes. Feel 10 years younger kids keep me young.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: That, that’s really cool. Yeah, especially, you know, when you got the, your family, your kids, [00:33:00] and the same hobby which you doing. It’s, it’s great. It’s just the dream.

Bex Betman: We had an event not long ago. I hosted an event and just like a hard park where people come and park up and even my mom came and got involved. Mm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: You, you tell me about, uh, endurance event. Yeah. Uh, how long this endurance, uh, will be. I’m just curious because I am just in love with endurance event. I really like, uh, to do this team event in some racing. Uh, because usually working not only going fast, but you also have to save fuel. You have to work on a strategy, uh, work with the, like steam schedule with the team.

It’s really interesting. Thing, uh, to do all the time. And, uh, so, uh, what kind of format of endurance event, uh, are you planning to take apart in

Bex Betman: endurance Racing is probably, it is quite big in New Zealand [00:34:00] and Australia. Mm-hmm. So like, if you’re familiar with series supercars

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yes. New

Bex Betman: Zealand and Australia have supercars.

Mm-hmm. So. They race against each other. There’s teams. So there’s a lot of strategy between the teams. They keep changing the rules. They change rules every season to do with how they race and what they’re doing. Every race, I think, has different, like, sort of like F1 two with different fuel, um, uh, pit stop strategies and things like that as to what the race is gonna entail.

Mm-hmm. Here in New Zealand, um, we do, it’s a south island endurance. I wanna give a go. Mm-hmm. So within the one. Your five different classes. Mm-hmm. So being in an evo, I’ll be racing against like brand new McLaren’s, the new Aldis, all the Porsche GT threes and, but due to being in an evo, I’ll be in the bottom class.

Mm-hmm. If you don’t mind, ’cause you’re still against some really awesome top drivers and the main one they do is one hours and [00:35:00] three hours. Mm-hmm. Which is. Standard, pretty standard times for most even our supercar series. But, um, that’s what I wanna get involved with more, is doing a little bit more long-term racing.

Mm-hmm. But sadly, when you’re. Car to be a time attack car. You’ve gotta definitely change your strategy of how your car’s even mate, because my car will last what, two laps? It won’t last hundreds. Mm-hmm. It is very much also you and it’s down to your car, how your car’s gonna be set up and built to handle it.

Mm-hmm. So I’m hoping an hour one ago. And then see what, see what happens. That’s why I wanna do a lot of testing this season to try and get myself and the car dialed in to go, yeah, I can, I can do this. Mm-hmm. And then go from there. Um, ’cause there’s some phenomenal drivers, some phenomenal guys in New Zealand that come out of endurance road racing.

Mm-hmm. And that’s what we love. We don’t have like NASCAR and America, the big ovals, we don’t have that [00:36:00] here. I’d love that here. ’cause that’s what I love doing in America, or that’s what I loved about going to America. Mm-hmm. But we do road courses here, so to turn corners and do everything like that. And that’s the endurance part of it as well.

And that’s part of it is you have to be physically fit to sit in the car for hours. Mm-hmm. Yes. Um, our legend at the moment is we’ve got Shane Van Bergen. They call him SVG Open America at the moment. And he’s winning all the road courses because he is just, he can turn a corner. He, it’s how he breaks, it’s how he drives that car that’s excelling him against these guys who are just racing oval their whole life.

So love him or hate him. He’s doing bloody well.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. You know. Like Supercars V eight. Uh, for me, this is like top series in the world, uh, together with like Porsche Cup. Um, because these cars are so hard to drive, like no traction, no a, [00:37:00] b, s, and it’s really cool. All drivers from Supercars are really fast and, uh, talented.

Bex Betman: They are. Yes. It’s hard to believe that in from two little islands across the Pacific Ocean, we can produce such talented drivers. Mm-hmm. And have such an awesome that Yeah. Can compete against the rest of the world and shock them like they like. He is

phenomenal. I remember meeting him one night in the pub after a drifting event.

Yeah. But no, no. Endurance is incredible. Yeah. Incredible. And same again, with the vibe of the people that do that as well. Mm-hmm. And you’re as strong as your team and those you have around you. Yeah. To sort your car out. Yeah. Or to be picked to drive someone else’s car. That would be my goal or for my daughter one day to have someone say, [00:38:00] right, can you come and drive for us?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s incredible for New Zealanders to get an opportunity to

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: do.

Bex Betman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Uh, so this endurance went, you said that there’ll be one hour in three hours. Yeah. Uh uh. Are you going to drive alone in the car or are you going to have a teammate in your car?

Bex Betman: Four to one hours. So for this season, for it, you do two one hour races.

Mm-hmm. And then there’s a three, so you can pick, I mean, I’ve gotta work out how it fully works, but, um, when the three, you, you can have a co-driver even in the hour. But then the three hour Yes. You, you, yeah. You, you have a co, you have a co-driver as well. So you, the one hour, it’s still an hour. It’s a lot.

Not of a lot. We’re probably gonna stick with our, and yes, I do have a friend in mind for the co-driver. Mm-hmm. So my best mate will probably be co-driver. He’s happy to do that. [00:39:00] His car’s definitely built for time attack or um, drag racing. Mm-hmm. So we’ll definitely be for this, but it is something that we both wanna give a go and yeah, so we’ll probably do a one hour and see how that goes, and then work our way up to the three hour.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. Okay. You, you took part in, uh, like time attack, drifting. Uh, you’re planning to do endurance. Yeah. Uh, what other motor sport disciplines, uh, which you secretly wanted to try one day? Like I know maybe, um. Motorcycle racing, maybe some hardcore drag racing in the United States, something like this.

Bex Betman: I feel like I’m a little bit too old to be getting back on a motorbike now.

Mm-hmm. But, um. I honestly, I’ve never driven in an open wheeler. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, they’re here, they race. I’ve got [00:40:00] a friend of mine who her husband does them, and I’ve always said to her, I said, how much is it gonna cost me to get a drive in one of these? So I’m hoping I can tick that off my bucket list one day.

And my daughter would be quite happy in pursuing having a go in one of them too, to see how she does. Mm-hmm. So that’s probably my bucket list, is to get in an open wheeler, a formula 5,000, they are here. And there’s smaller categories than that, but I’d just like to give it a go in a single seater.

Mm-hmm. I’ve never driven in one. My dream is, of course, NASCAR and the Oval, but it’s a lot that’ll never come to New Zealand. Sadly, we’re not gonna be able to get tracks like that here. Um, the coolest thing was in Vegas going to the NASCAR place. That was very cool to see. Mm-hmm. It was closed. The whole track.

We had the whole facility to herself. The lady just said, yeah, go have a look. Didn’t have to tell me twice to drive around the oval in the rental car. Mm-hmm. But it’ll be cool to go to those events. Yeah.[00:41:00]

But, um, no. Yeah, definitely the single seater would be a goal of mine. And if my daughter got into one of those and excelled and wanted to keep doing that too, I’d be more than happy to support her with that. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’re going to like open V because it’s absolute different feelings, which you get.

I still remember guys, uh, uh, like, uh, came to our box. Uh, they’ve been driving the Porsche GD three arrest and the racing track to get it with me. Like, uh, we had a practice, um, and. They just, uh, came, came to me and they tried open v uh, this day and they told me like, how you going fast with this? It’s, it is like, it’s crazy.

You, you’re sitting, you’re sitting on your butt with a tarmac, you know, really close to you. Like, it’s, it’s crazy feeling.

Bex Betman: So Yeah, it is. I can imagine. Yeah.

Yes. So, no, that, that would [00:42:00] be a very cool goal to, mm-hmm. Yeah. One.

It is very expensive. You sort of gotta narrow down what you’re gonna do. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah. It’s expensive. Yeah, really. Uh, but I, I think worst try it, uh, definitely because completely different feelings, uh, of what you getting from the like road car, uh, compared to it. Can you tell me now, uh, what’s, uh, your dream circuit to visit?

Uh, like for maybe time attack, maybe some road racing endurance. Uh, so what’s your dream track you would like to visit? Like in the future?

Bex Betman: I would still have to say, uh, more of the NASCAR ovals.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm.

Bex Betman: That fascinate me. Yeah. Yeah. To actually see them race and do what they do, the drafting, do everything.

Mm-hmm. Would be fascinating. Yeah, I still, yeah. ’cause we don’t have that here. Mm-hmm. So it is something. Like, [00:43:00] that’s so foreign to us that it would be cool. And because I did go to one and I got the buzz just from the empty stadium, to see that packed out for a race would be phenomenal. Mm-hmm. So any of the na, any of them, we went to Vegas.

But um, yeah, to go to any of those tracks, Indianapolis, places like that, that would be very cool. Yeah. Alright. And then as my doctor. I have to say, she would say we have to go to every Formula One most.

She’s a huge Daniel Ricardo fan. Probably have to say that too, for her sake. She would love to see him come back. But yeah, to go, we’re gonna go to the Melbourne F1 next year, so mm-hmm. That would be pretty, that’ll take that off her bucket list. So yeah, that would be pretty good.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: All right. And, uh, what track would you like to drive?[00:44:00]

Maybe, I know, maybe Mount Panorama because, uh, for me, when I’m like thinking about, uh, this part of the world, I’ve been into Malaysia so many times, it’s a punk, absolutely beautiful, wonderful trek. Love it. Uh, but you know, my dream, uh, will be like. Drive Mount Panorama, at least for one lap because it’s, uh, so exciting with this app, heels and downhills and also va supercar, uh, racing here.

So it’s really cool trek. Um, so what, what’s your dream track here, like to drive by yourself?

Bex Betman: Yes. Um, I’ve driven around there. Yeah. Oh

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: yeah. That’s really cool. I’m jealous.

Bex Betman: Is it’s a public road. It’s a public hill. So people live there. Mm-hmm. And then they just have the race. It’s set up as well throughout the year. But yeah, it is a public road, so the people who live there get awesome views of the Bathurst race. They either go away for the week ’cause it’s absolute [00:45:00] carnage, like it’s Oh, the drinking, yeah, the hang on the racing culture of Australia.

So a different breed. Yeah. ’cause when I was little, my dad used to go quite a bit too. Mm-hmm. And back. Was always the highlight event of the Yeah. Of the calendar. So, no, um, yeah, that would be good. Again, and, ’cause I was born in Australia. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I grew up. Yeah. Yeah. So, no. Yes, but I dunno, an individual track, I, I’m still being way away from anywhere in the world.

Us Kiwis. Want to go and see all the other world tracks that you guys sort of take for granted or see often enough. Yeah. I’ve got a friend now who’s over in Europe and of course they’ve gone to a few of the, I’d like to go to that good visit it Goods, wood, the festival that was just on. Mm-hmm. Oh, [00:46:00] it, it’s Goodwood, isn’t it?

Goodwood? Yeah.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re right. Yeah,

Bex Betman: yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that would be cool to go to. Yeah. Yeah. So it’d be more, not so much a track, but more the event, which would be good. Mm-hmm.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Alright, got it. You know, in Australia I like also Philipp Island. Great, great track. Um, you know, not. A big fan of, uh, European tracks.

Uh, not a lot of them. Uh, you know, really interesting to drive a thing. Uh, I like App Hills, downhills, uh, tracks like this where, where you got, uh, blind corners. Uh, it’s so exciting to raise them all the time. Uh, so yeah, maybe one day I’ll go, go to Australia for some racing, uh, because you, you got really cool tracks.

Yeah.

Bex Betman: Yes. My daughter’s like, they’ve been to Flip Island one a few times. Mm. Yeah. And the good news for us here, and I live in Christchurch and our local track, so the track I help, I [00:47:00] work at, um, we are getting around the supercars next year. Mm-hmm. So supercar. To our home track. So that’s gonna be really good to have it here on the local track that I drive every week sort of thing.

Mm-hmm. So to have that event come to us is gonna be really great for next March. Yes.

So yeah, I hope we offer them a good, um, good race. Good. Mm-hmm. Our track’s very narrow here. Our local track compared to some of the other ones. But yeah, it makes for some interesting driving, some interesting spots to have to try and overtake.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Mm-hmm. All right. And, uh, the last one will be. Where people can find you, uh, on socials and, uh, like to follow you because you got a lot of plans.

And I’m really curious, uh, to see you in endurance racing and, uh, maybe, maybe even in VA supercar, like in the future. Who knows?[00:48:00]

Bex Betman: Oh wow. A lot of my stuff is quite, um, humorous to say the least. There’s a lot of epic fails that go on in the garage. I. Of it. If you can show your failures, then you can definitely show when you succeed. Mm-hmm. Um, my known one is my Instagram. Yeah. I’m also known as b to Miss Prime.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Yeah, just uh, drop the link to the chat

Bex Betman: guys.

I’ve always had a love for Old Optimist Prime. I’m a bit robotic myself. Um, so yeah, so no BEUs Prime. We, we have a TikTok. Me and the girls post a lot of stuff to TikTok and you’re only Instagram. At the moment, there’s a lot of stuff about them learning to drive on the road. Mm-hmm. Because it’s quite challenging now to cross back over from racing on track to learning the road rules.[00:49:00]

Yeah. So they battle a bit. All right. But yes, I’m not gaming stuff yet, but yeah. One day I’ll, I’ll take that off my bucket list.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: You have to. Alright. It was, uh, nice to meet you. It was. So fun to talk with you, and I’m so happy that you got a lot of plans, uh, for your future in your life and you’re really motivated about it and also your family involved into racing and it’s really, uh, cool to see.

Definitely. So thank you so much, Bex. Taking your time. Lovely.

Bex Betman: I look forward to. Yeah, some more progress.

Lyubov Ozeretskovskaya: Thank you so much. Uh, guys, thank you so much for watching. Uh, hope you had fun with us. Uh, so we’ll see you next time.[00:50:00]

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