A legend of the sport, but Classic Monday last year - how difficult was the decision to retire?

I'd been thinking about it for some time, and I just felt like it was getting harder to go to the track.

Our deal with Monte Motorsport was that we wanted to race more and more but I know James wanted to race less and less.

Q&A with Hodges Motorsport's Scott McLaughlin

He was cooked when he came home from the (United) States after 90 races (on the World of Outlaws) and he wanted a breather and a holiday back home.

I didn't want to race with anyone else and I started to think about the future - and I knew that I didn't want to be laying under a race car in 10 years' time.

So I went and spoke to James face to face to tell him.

How difficult was telling James you were retiring?

It was the morning after last year's Classic where we finished second and that result still burns to this day.

I called James and said I needed to sit down and speak with him - it was one of the toughest things to do.

This is a guy who I have worked with for so long, we talked so much.

Q&A with Hodges Motorsport's Gerard Whateley

We talked racing but also everything other than racing - we were best friends.

He was obviously surprised but I felt that he was happy for me.

You don't get any younger in this sport and I just felt the timing was right.

The call to come out of retirement for this campaign - how did the team win you over?

The call came late and it was quite surprising when it did come.

I wasn't doing anything, I'd helped Monte get some of their gear ready for the new season, but to be honest I felt like a bit of a lost dog.

It was a tactical play by the team - James had called, then Dylan Willsher who is part of the crew came over for a wedding, and I think Dylan worked his magic to have us seated together.

He spent the entire night selling me the deal and then James texted me the next morning.

The deal appealed to me and I was keen.

Do you feel like Harry Hogge in Days of Thunder - coming out of retirement to run one more campaign?

(Laughing) A little bit I suppose!

It's a very hard sport to get out of, it's almost impossible to cut ties from it completely.

So when the opportunity arose I didn't want to die wandering, I was like 'why not have another crack?'

I did do some due diligence on the deal to find out who was involved.

It was a good deal, with good people and some big names and a great major sponsor.

We ran a few races over Christmas with some success - to win at Avalon was a cool deal, but I still feel like we have heaps to improve on, so I'm optimistic of what's to come.

And remember Harry Hogge and Cole Trickle won the Daytona 500, so hopefully we can emulate them.

This deal - what appealed to you?

I love that they had a limited schedule - I wasn't going to get back into it with a full summer.

I think it was the same with James.

The team wanted to aim at nothing else really other than the 50th Classic, so that worked perfectly for me.

I was able to have Christmas Day at home without travelling, same with James - it was the first time in more than a decade we had Boxing Day off.

Your relationship with James - why has it been so successful?

The good thing about James is that for six years we have never raised our voices with each other - which is just about unheard of in this game.

At the end of the day we're all striving for the same goal.

I trust James and it's the same coming back.

He has a tremendous feel for the car, so when he tells me what he wants, it's easy for me to go to work to make that happen.

It's a great relationship which I treasure - we've had lots of success, lots of wins, lots of big races but we've had a lot of great laughs along the way.

But equally we've had nights when we've been that bad we have sat in the truck and just laughed at things.

At the end of the day it's your life this game and it means everything to do well, and that I think is why we have clicked.

But I am unbelievably proud of him and where he's at with his career in the USA, and with (wife) Zoe and (their son) little Mav.

Winning the Classic - you've done it five times before. What needs to go right? What is the secret?

The lead up to the Classic is the biggest thing - you want to hit the event knowing you are fast and in some form.

I always think you want to be able to drive through the gates at Premier knowing you're a 50-50 chance to win the thing.

Then it's just small steps you have to focus on.

First, qualify well. Then concentrate on heat one.

Heat two is the biggest of the weekend when you start from down the back.

You just cannot get ahead of yourself.

At the end of the day the goal is to give yourself the best shot to win the thing - and that's starting somewhere in the first three rows for Sunday's final.

Your favourite Classic memories?

I love that I was able to take three guys to their first Classic title - Steven Lines, American Kyle Hirst and then James, who had been trying to win this event for so long and we were able to help him get it.

But winning with Kerry Madsen in 2005 remains a career highlight.

He destroyed the car in qualifying on night one but we were able to get it back on track and won the thing against all odds.

To win the 50th would be pretty cool, so I hope we can do it for James and for everyone involved with Hodges Motorsport.

The 50^th classic runs from Friday night to Sunday night.

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