Denyer takes 9th Outright in Nurburgring 24 Hour Enduro

 

Driven by Tony and Klark Quinn, Craig Baird and SEVEN TV Presenter Grant Denyer, the Porsche started 32nd on the grid after missing the first qualifying session due to gearbox failure, however ran strongly all race to finish 9th outright against a brace of factory backed Porsches, Audi’s, BMW’s, Aston Martin and Dodge Vipers.

 

The Nurburgring track known as “The Green Hell” features 172 different corners in a 23 kilometre lap and is renowned as the most demanding racetrack in the World.

 

Over 200 entries start in the annual 24 Hour race, which this year saw the debut of the new 3 car Audi R8 Sportscar team to challenge the Porsche domination of the race in recent years.

 

Both German marques staged a race long battle, which was only resolved in favour of Porsche during the last 90 minutes of the race with the 2008 winning Manthey Porsche Team of Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Marcel Tiemann taking the flag by just over a lap from Christian Abt, Jean-Francois Hemroulle, Pierre Kaffer and Lucas Luhr with their Abt Sportsline Audi R8 LMS.

 

The VIP Petfoods Team finished in the Top 10 in 2007, retired with crash damage last year, however bounced back for stunning Top 10 result over the weekend. The team also won the Dubai 24HR race in the same car in 2007.

 

“It was our aim to finish in the Top 10 - when you look at the depth of the driver talent, and the budgets of the factory backed teams we were competing against, Tony’s VIP team has done an incredible job to achieve such a result against the most competitive sports/touring car enduro field in the World.” Denyer said.

 

“We had a small hiccup in the first qualifying session with the gearbox, which meant we started from position 32, lower than we would have liked. However the car ran strongly all weekend with the exception of 2 sets of tyres that de-laminated and gearbox gremlins meant we really couldnt use 3rd gear for the last 5 hours. While it slowed our pace it wasn’t enough to threaten our top 10 position. There wasn’t a mark on the car at the end of the race and Craig Baird brought the car across the line at 4pm German time with all the team hanging over the fence to cheer him on”

 

It was Denyer’s first major overseas enduro event and comes off the back of his win in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar finale at Winton Raceway recently. Despite the pain of breaking his back in a monster truck accident only 7 months ago, he had regular physio sessions in between driving stints to ease stiffness and allow him to be comfortable in the car.

 

“This is every young boy’s dream - to do this world famous race in a Porsche with a bunch of mates, and finish in the top ten. I can’t thank Tony and the Team enough for giving me the chance.”

 

With no time for celebration, Grant flies straight into Symmons Plains Tasmania this weekend for Round 2 of the MINI Challenge Series.