 Come back to the Sportsmax zone, Jamaican rally-cross driver Fraser McConnell continues to celebrate his second victory in the Extreme E Championship season. McConnell's latest win came in round eight, which was held in Sardinia, Italy, last weekend. McConnell and his Spanish teammate Cristina Gutierrez produced a scintillating performance to secure victory ahead of the Rosberg X racing team. McConnell and Gutierrez currently represent the X-44 Vida Carbon Racing team, which was formed by seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton. They currently sit on 87 points to occupy fifth place in the 10 team standings. Fraser now joins the studio to discuss among other things his latest victory in the Extreme E Championships. Welcome to our brand new studio, Fraser. How are you doing? Good. Good. Thank you for having me, Sam. I like what you guys have done. This is a new look, a good look for the zone. Yeah, and it fits you very well. Well, I want to start by saying congratulations on your second Extreme E win of the season. I was reading an article on Sportsmax.tv and they described the win as flawless. I have to agree. What say you? Well, you know, definitely a dominant win. I don't ever like to talk and sound overconfident or cocky, but, you know, we definitely went out there and executed perfectly. We took the start around the outside. You know, the outside of the first corner is always, you know, not necessarily the best. You can make it work, but you're not favored in the best position going into the first corner on the outside. But just trust the nine sinks, trust in the car, and I knew there was a little space behind one of the bushes that no one was really using all weekend. So, saved it to the final, took the lead in the start and just kept pulling away. You spoke about the start, right? And everybody felt as if you executed that start perfectly because they're looking on the outside. But in a lot of your interviews, you mentioned the use of tricks. You just spoke about the bushes, things that people don't notice. Talk to me about those tricks that you were talking about. Well, it's such a competitive feel that you need to find any little trick like, like, or, yeah, you know, it's all in the rules. It's all legal. But if you can find that you can do something or find something that makes you a little bit better than the rest of the competition, you're going to put yourself ahead. And, you know, in that same race was one of my, one of my childhood heroes Sebastian Lofi, nine-time World Rally Champion, nine consecutive championships. And growing up as a kid, I would have never taught in a million years that I would be standing above him on a podium. So that was a big thanks to X-44 viewer coming racing team and Louis Hamilton in particular, bossman for giving me that opportunity to jump in the car and even have the chance to go on the same start tonight as them. Yet alone be able to finish in front of them. So it's a big stage that we're on and I'm just grasping the opportunity with both hands and going for it. It must be an honor representing for Louis Hamilton because he's somebody we usually watch on television, you know, you read about him, you hear about him. But Fraser, you've been blessed to be able to represent him and his team. What I like about X-treme, though, is the fact that it's racing for a cause. So it represents highlighting global issues. How do you feel about that? Well, my favorite part is the gender equality. You know, it's using racing to promote all of these things. Every team consists of one male, one female. Yes. And, you know, the girls are serious business. They're super fast. They don't mess around, you know. They don't care if they're racing. They're going to, if they can't get in that inside line and push off, they're going to do that. And, you know, thankfully, I have a great teammate with me, Christina Gutierrez. She's the current champion. She won last year with Sebastian Loeb, actually. He was, that's who I replaced. But yeah, it really brings a huge team dynamic to the racing, to the race that you don't normally get. It normally is just one driver, one start. You race until the finish flag and you kind of call it a day. But now we have a male driver doing two laps. You come in, you switch, you do the female driver, two laps. The mechanics are involved with what they call the switch zone. Where did they actually do the changing of the drivers? Well, 45 seconds from when we come into the pit to jump out, make the other driver jump in, buckle up safely, net everything, and then go back on the road. So, you know, mechanics are a part of that. And it really feels like a huge team, team vibe in during the race, which is incredible. You mentioned the switch and you're explaining it to me. And I can just picture everything happening. Do you think that switch moment is a make or break in any of the races? Because so many things could happen in that 45 seconds, Fraser. Yeah, so you're not allowed to go before 45 seconds. So it's more so a place where you can lose than gain. Everyone practices to get it right on the dot of 45. And yeah, so if you rush and make a mistake, you're more so going to lose time. You can never go faster than 45. So just making sure it's perfect, mistake-free. And making sure that they're safe before they go again. Yeah, one of the things in my previous interviews with you, you've always stressed, is your team that ensures that the car is prepared and that you are ready to, of course, give your best. Tell us a bit about that again. No, always. You have to take one race at a time. And, you know, you never know when your next race is going to be at this, at such a high stage. So it's been my dream as a child to race professionally. And, you know, now I'm being able to do that. So every practice session, every, you know, walk to the track, every time I put on my suit, I really just embrace that moment. And when I'm not at the race track, I'm trying everything I can do to better my craft as a driver, improve every single time I go out on track, never make the same mistake twice. And just evolve as, you know, you learn from mistakes, you get better. And make use of your talent and go for it. And prepping the car for this event, any things that happened that stood out for you behind the scenes, because I know sometimes we see you all winning. And there are so many things that happen behind the scenes, hurdles that we're not aware of with this particular event. Anything? Nothing that stands out really, you know. It's a spec series that everyone is racing in the exact same car. The only difference is the stickers. OK. And the cars all get transported around the world by the series ship. It's called Santelena. So there's no time for the teams to really work on the car in between races, kind of get to the race, prep it for three days, race it and then put it on the boat. And it drives around to the next part of the world. So, you know, we just always stayed on our game. We've been very good all year. The team has put everything into it and so have the drivers. And sometimes just bad luck comes you in. You have to just take it on the chin. I even said to my team boss on Saturday, we had another day and the car broke. Someone hit into us and broke the regular. I said, Steph, you know, what do we need to do? We must be doing something wrong, because we can't just keep getting bad luck like this. She said, no, for us, don't change anything. You've been doing great every single race. You're super fast. You're making smart decisions in the car. Your race graph is good. You're such a good team morale bringing up the spirit. So just don't change anything. So listen to her and the next day we went out on the one. So it's very high stakes, so difficult to do well. And yeah, when everything comes together, you just have to give thanks and keep going. Yeah, it looks like pure perfection. Your next extreme event is in Chile in December. But before we talk about that, Friso, what's coming up before that for you? So before that is rounds four and five of Nitro Cross, rebranded from last year's Nitro Rally Cross, now owned by Dana White and the Fruture Brothers who they've bought, they're who brought UFC to where it is now. They see a lot of those elements in Nitro Cross now. So they think it's going to be a super dominating TV sport that people are going to be really, really willing to watch. So encouraging that they've come on board. And yeah. So you have that in November? That's coming November 10, 11. All right, so we can catch you on that. And then talk to me about what do you have to do now to be prepared for Chile in December? Is it a lot of tweaks that you have to make, or is it that after November you just get ready for that? Well, you always need to stay sharp physically and mentally. So always in the gym making sure our bodies do go through a lot of abuse during those races in the car. Big bumps, big jumps, people crashing into you. So you need to have a strong core. Your spine gets a lot of that impact. So you need to be fit inside the car and fit to the point where you don't get tired in the car. I'm not going to say racing is as difficult or exhausting as track or football or another sport. But you do get tired when you're driving. The driving is so intense. And when you get tired, you lose the mental sharpness. So that's what you don't want to happen in a car. When you're really super fast in the corners, taking big risks, you need to be able to stay sharp mentally. And fitness is a key part of that. Yeah, Frieza, you've been dominating in your different competitions that you've taken part in. I remember attending your family's event when you came back, that homecoming event, the celebration. What do you think keeps you so focused? Just thinking back to how much I've wanted to do this for such a long time. Growing up in Bogwok, watching rally Jamaica go past, the property always looking. And you smell the racing fumes. And you look at the cars. Wow, this is so wicked. And being a little youth saying, one day I want to be a race car driver. And having that competitive spirit, having all our siblings, they build that competitive spirit into yourself. Always looking for another challenge, something bigger. And now we're at the top. And just trying to be as, you know, leave a legacy. Yeah, and you're young. And you have a lot of time in front of you. What type of legacy would you like to leave? One that I definitely want to be able to get across is opening a door or creating a path for other Jamaicans or Caribbean to go into a motorsport career, whether it be a driver or a mechanic engineer. There's no one from Jamaica or the Caribbean that's gone to the lengths I have with motorsport. So when we first started, they would look at the Jamaica flag on the entry license and say, you know what, what Jamaica doing? Not again. Now they know we will mean business. So it's hopefully that that will last and, you know, I'll be able to create a path for people that want to do the same. Yeah, especially the youngsters looking on. And they won't have to go through what you went through, thinking that we don't belong here. They now think that they belong. Well, Fraser, as usual, it's a pleasure when you join us on the Sports Mac soon. We want to congratulate you again. And don't be a stranger. We'll chat again soon. I look forward to it. Thank you for having me. Which means you have to keep winning. Because you only come out when you win. Deal. All right. To make a rally-cross drive for Fraser McConnell, of course, visiting us here in the Sports Mac Studio, we'll take a quick break and when we come back, we have a lot more on the channel just for you.