V8 Supercars
Grant Denyer: Driver BIO
If you haven't heard of Grant Denyer then you either don't watch television, or you are not into motorsport.
Grand Denyer is one Channel 7's most loveable Host's, recently hosting 'Australia's Got Talent' and 'It Takes Two'.
What some may not realise is that the former Network Ten V8 pit reporter is one of Australia's brightest up 'n' coming driving talents.
Denyer, grew up driving cars at the age of seven on the family farm in the Riverina area in NSW and yearned to be a racing driver.
At age 15 he started racing Go-karts, where he won several regional races. He qualified in the top ten for the Australian National Class titles at Geelong, qualified on pole for the NSW State titles at Grenfell NSW, and won the NSW Go-kart Country Classic Championship in 1997.
During this time Denyer also embarked on a career in the media, securing a position at PRIME TV in Wagga Wagga as a news reporter and journalist. In 1999, aged 21, Denyer became a full-time news reporter for Network Ten. Thanks to his racing background, and his obvious talents behind the camera, he was soon given the opportunity to work on the station's V8 Supercar coverage as a pit reporter.
While with Network Ten, Denyer's first touring car race was in the GTP 3 hour race at Mt Panorama in a Mazda 626..He finished second in his class, s behind V8 Supercar stars, Greg Murphy and Steven Richards who won the Class in a Holden Astra and went on to win the Bathurst 1,000 the following day
2001 was an important year for Denyer. His father, noted motorsport authority Craig Denyer, helped set up the V8 BRute Championship, a series for V8 Utes. Dencomm Racing purchased the very first car and Grant became the series' Rookie of the Year thanks to his fourth placing overall.
With his skills as a driver improving, Denyer won four rounds and secured two lap records during the 2002 series. He also drove to second overall in the V8 BRute Bathurst event.
Outside of V8 Brutes, Denyer competed in the 2002 Bathurst 24-hour Endurance Event in a Nissan 200 SX and backed that up in 2003 in a Porsche GT3. A fantastic drive saw him come second in his class, sixth overall, and saw him step onto the famed Bathurst podium again, for the third time in his career. The 2003 BRute series saw him victorious at the Tasmanian round at Symmons Plains and he won races at Oran Park and Indy.
Because of work commitments Denyer has never completed a full season of racing, and in 2004 this was no different. Denyer competed in only five of the seven rounds and was sitting inside of the top 10 going into the final event of the series. Unable to compete in that last event he finished in 11th place overall.
With the V8 BRute Championship over for the year organisers made a decision to run a Summer Series. This was a two event Championship that ran as a support category to the V8 Supercars at Symmons Plains, in Tasmania, and Eastern Creek, in Sydney's west.
Of the six races that made up the two event series, Denyer won three of them, put his car on pole for the final round and recorded the fastest lap. Denyer was the class of the field and won his first series title, the Dunlop Championship trophy.
His performance at these two events caught the eye of Dick Johnson Racing, which was planning its Development Series attack for 2005.
After weeks of talking Grant Denyer would be swapping cars and series, but not manufacturers, in 2005. With his V8 BRute career over Denyer was now a V8 Supercar driver. Throughout his career, he has had two major dreams; to win at Bathurst and to drive a V8 Supercar, at last one of these was coming true.
Driving with one of his idols, Dicko Johnson, Denyer drove the entire 2005 Supercar Development Series.
He quickly adapted, with a 2nd place at one of the rounds and never really outside the top 5 in results.
His impressive debut landed him the coveted 'V8 Supercar Rookie of the Year' title and CAMS' publicly voted 'Motorsport Personality of the Year'.
Dicko Johnson had the confidence in the pocket rocket to hand him the dream opportunity of his first drive in the Bathurst 1000, as the partner of Alex Davison, grandson of the famous 3 time Australian Grand Prix winner, Lex Davison.
The two young guns, peddled their DJR Falcon outstandingly. They were running 3rd in the final hour and a half of the endurance event when, Zlex's seat belts undid themselves and forced them to make a hurried final stop. Denyer recovered to finish an amazing 9th on debut. He was the first rookie home in the famous race.
2007 brings some change, Sponsorship woes at DJR wound up their Development Series program and Grant was invited to join the brand new and exciting Ford supported V8 Supercar junior team called, the Ford Rising Stars.
Denyer teams with Karting champion Michael Caruso in the Sydney based team, which has a close relationship with Ford Performance Racing Team, as their junior squad.
As a major Ford ambassador, the TV presenter signed for WPS Racing for Sandown and Bathurst for 2007, retiring from Sandown with engine failure while running eighth and finishing 15th at Bathurst after starting the race from pit lane following gearbox problems in qualifying. Grant is currently working on his plans for the 08 racing season, including more tarmac rally events.
He finished in the top 20 at this years Targa Tasmania event driving a Mini Cooper S, (was running 10th but clipped a chicane on the final stage to get a time penalty), went on to finish second in the Suncoast Rally, finishing ahead of veteran Porsche driver Jim Richards. Driving a Subaru run by the Les Walkden team, Grant was running second to Richards in Rally Tasmania, only to have brake issues on the last day, firing off the road and into a tree. The car was damaged and didn't finish the rally.
