Transcript

Grant Denyer · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:12
I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
0:29
In this episode, I'm at Sydney Motorsport Park, affectionately known as Eastern Creek.
0:34
For a time, the circuit hosted the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, and it's known for being a great driver's track.
0:41
This weekend, there are enthusiasts and professionals competing in all sorts of national categories, from open-wheel single-seater race cars through to a four-hour endurance event for production cars.
0:54
Headlining the Lotus entry is Grant Denyer, a talented racer whose diversity is just as evident in his primetime TV success.
1:03
The Gold Logie winner basically inherited a generational love of riding and driving.
1:09
It's in the blood.
1:12
Our grandparents were the car lovers.
1:15
They were a farming family.
1:17
Farming in the 70s was pretty lucrative.
1:19
It was the only period in Australian farming that was lucrative.
1:21
So they always had new cars and hot rods and Falcons and the Subaru Falcon, which was pretty sweet.
1:28
And my grandfather had the most immaculate cars you had.
1:32
It might have only been a Toyota Crescita, but it had this...
1:37
like maroon velour interior that didn't have a speck of dust like or fluff inside it, which is hard when you've got a driveway on a country farm that's five kilometres of dirt, you know.
1:48
And so the pride for cars, I think, started with our grandparents.
1:51
You were born on the central coast just north of Sydney, but clearly I can tell from your heart and some of the great fundraising things you've been doing of late that when you spent that latter part, I guess the early part of your teens on a farm and things like that, that had a big impact on you, didn't it?
2:06
Yeah, very much.
2:06
Like I mostly grew up with my mum.
2:08
My mum and dad separated when I was 13 and the family farm was always that place that, you know, no matter what happened in your life, you know, no matter how much shit went wrong, you always knew that that was the safety net, you know, that was the place that we all called home and...
2:26
And I spent a lot of time growing up there every school holidays with the grandparents looking after me.
2:29
Like any kid, you know, the parents got to keep working through school holidays, so I get flicked off to the rellos.
2:35
But it just so happens it was a three and a half thousand acre farm and, you know, I had an old Kawasaki motorbike on there and some homemade go-karts and I just fell in love with machinery, whether it be, you know, I was driving at seven on the farm and in the tractor at 12 and...
2:49
I just got this, like, even when you're on the tractor, you just, you know, you're ploughing paddocks and you're just concentrating on perfect straight lines and magnificent corners.
2:58
Like, and motor racing's no different.
3:00
It's just driving a tractor, but at a much faster speed, 300 kilometres an hour.
3:05
Who taught you those early skills?
3:07
Was it your grandfather and were you... What was the paddock basher when you said you were seven?
3:11
What little things were you being let loose in?
3:13
Man, I bogged some cars in my time.
3:15
I remember once, whenever it would rain, I'd go, yes!
3:17
Because we'd only have like a little Suzuki Sierra, which has no horsepower, but when it rains, you can get that thing sideways around the sheds and it was magnificent.
3:25
So every time my grandma would put white linen like out on the clothesline, I'd come past and just spray two lines of dirt across it because I was never very popular.
3:34
I think I probably spent our entire fortune just on fuel, you know, just driving around the farm.
3:38
And I remember going down the paddock whenever it would get wet.
3:41
And I got bogged and I walked back and it took me, I don't know, an hour to walk back.
3:45
And then we bogged another four-wheel drive trying to pull it out.
3:48
Then we bogged our tractor and then we bogged our bigger tractor.
3:50
We had to get our neighbour's tractor.
3:51
So there was five vehicles all tied together to try and pull me out of a bog.
3:55
So that sums up my childhood on the farm.
3:57
Was the Kawasaki a bit of a special thing, a bit of pride and joy?
4:02
What was it?
4:02
What capacity?
4:03
What became of it?
4:04
It's a KE175, and it was effectively a road bike with knobby tyres that my old man won in a raffle.
4:11
Wow.
4:11
So he won a raffle for that motorbike, and then on the same ticket number for a different competition, he won an Alfa Romeo.
4:18
Oh, wow.
4:19
which he then traded to then go in the Alfa Romeo series of the 80s with Alan Grice and Colin Bond.
4:26
And so that was his kind of real first proper foray into motorsport.
4:30
So I remember he put it on the front row next to Gricey one year and, you know, I think he out-qualified Colin Bond.
4:37
Alan Jones might have made an appearance then as well.
4:39
And I remember playing with my toy matchbox cars on the hill at Amaru and everyone screamed and I stood up and said, what happens?
4:47
And then...
4:47
My mum said, oh, dad's rolled the car.
4:49
So he rolled it about eight times.
4:52
And that was probably my very first memory of motorsport.
4:55
And then I sort of went on to, you know, be a little pit lane warrior as a kid.
5:00
After an event there, I'd wander around the whole track and try and find as many parts of cars that I could.
5:06
like headlights, door sills, bonnets.
5:09
Did these live in your room?
5:11
What did you do with them?
5:11
Yeah, I'd try and convince someone who had a trailer to take it back to our house for us.
5:15
I'd beg and plead, and we were friends with a bike called John Burke at that particular point, and so I'd con him to dragging all these parts back to our shed, which, and the grand plan is if I found enough parts, I'd be able to put a whole car together.
5:27
Like that was in my five-year-old mind.
5:31
That's what I wanted to do.
5:32
So I remember taking these parts back to the drivers that owned them that came off the car, get them to sign it.
5:37
And then I was slowly accumulating an entire race car bit by bit, year by year.
5:43
Those early experiences at great places like Amaru and stuff, they obviously have had a lasting impression on you and a big influence on where you are today and what you're doing.
5:54
Who were the heroes for you back then?
5:56
In addition to watching your dad race and being proud of that, was it Peter Brock?
6:00
Was it Dick Johnson?
6:01
Who was it?
6:02
Yeah, I remember Peter Brock definitely.
6:05
I saw how he was with the crowd.
6:07
I know this has been said 100 times before, but he probably had taught me a thing or two about how to act as an adult, probably in the media game, watching him as a kid.
6:15
I remember...
6:18
going up to some of these drivers and asking for an autograph or taking up the door that fell off their race car.
6:25
And occasionally they'd just fob you off and they'd give you nothing and they'd make you feel little and small and insignificant.
6:30
And I always remember that that really upset me quite a fair bit.
6:34
So I always thought, you know what, if that was me, if I ever made it, I would never treat anybody like that.
6:41
Everybody deserves a minute of your time, no matter who you are, whether you're a five-year-old kid or a punter that's bought you a hat or someone who's just paid for a ticket to come through the gate.
6:51
So, you know, Brockie, I think I learned a lot of my professional ethic watching him at work, to be honest.
6:59
The karts you mentioned before on the farm, I guess, were about fun.
7:03
Yeah.
7:04
When did the first opportunity for you to go racing properly come about?
7:08
Was it karts?
7:10
Where did it start?
7:11
What was the go-kart?
7:12
And how did it all come together?
7:14
We had an old chassis of my old man's go-kart.
7:17
So I was three and he'd hung on to it.
7:19
And I was now probably about...
7:22
seven or eight, and we put some wheels, some bigger wheels to get some ground clearance, you know, because the rocks were too big on the farm, and we put an old motorbike engine on it, so it had some gears, and Dad sort of rigged up this system, so it became a bit of a homemade shifter cart.
7:38
And then I was really starting to crank that thing pretty hard around the farm.
7:41
I spent all my time sideways, and Dad was starting to get a couple of photos where I'm lifting wheels off the deck, and he's going, oh, this kid's having a crack here.
7:49
And then one year he took a photo, and he blew it up, and he took it to Alan Grice because my favourite...
7:55
I think a car of all time is the 1986 Chickadee Bathurst-winning Commodore of Graham Bailey and Alan Grice.
8:01
And he took it to Gricey and Gricey signed it.
8:05
We'd get that wheel higher.
8:07
Yeah, Gricey, keep it up.
8:09
And I was like, wow.
8:11
someone has recognised my skills.
8:14
And all of a sudden what I was just doing was pedalling around on my own on the farm was now, oh, maybe I should do it properly.
8:20
And then, you know, my dad sort of had the same realisation.
8:22
So even though we lived in different states, you know, he bought me a go-kart for my birthday and then started the torrid love affair with motorsport.
8:30
Amazing.
8:31
So where was the first race in Victoria somewhere, I imagine, and how did it go?
8:35
Yeah, it was Oakley Go-Kart Club.
8:38
I just started out and I had to try and find someone to get me to the track because my mum was working.
8:43
So she had a friend who owned a ute and he'd come on Sunday mornings at 5am.
8:47
It was a stranger.
8:47
I didn't even know who he was.
8:48
He was just in a favour for my mum.
8:50
He picked me up and he dropped me at the track.
8:52
And then you've got to beg people to help you lift it up onto the trolley and beg people to give you a push, you know, start the race.
8:57
I was doing it all on my own, working at Kmart and mowing lawns to try and pay for go-kart tyres.
9:03
And then I remember one year, and this is probably where my career started to parallel into media.
9:09
One day there was an old commentator there.
9:12
He must have been about 80 years of age.
9:14
And he'd sit up there every weekend in the commentary booth
9:17
just commentating these kart racers.
9:18
And so I wandered up one day and tapped on the tin shed and said, mate, do you mind if I have a go?
9:22
And he said, yeah.
9:23
And he wandered off and had some lunch.
9:24
So I'm in there, and here he comes now around the first corner.
9:28
Look at him go.
9:29
I had no idea who I was talking about or what I was saying or who the kart drivers were.
9:33
And then these two young kids went, oh, who's that?
9:35
It's a new voice.
9:36
And they came up and sat with me.
9:38
And we all called it together.
9:39
And you know who that was?
9:41
It was Jamie Wincup and Will Davison.
9:42
Oh, I love it.
9:43
And mate, they were rookies.
9:44
They would have been eight.
9:46
So it was, that was my first probably solo crack at media as well.
9:51
How did that then morph into a career?
9:53
Because in a former life, when I was working in Sydney radio, doing news and things, I can recall late one night after a bulletin, talking down line to a young bloke, maybe in Wagga Wagga, I can't remember where you were, Grant Denyer,
10:06
How did you get into radio?
10:07
Was that the first media thing?
10:10
And, you know, was clearly what happened with the commentary was a big turning point?
10:14
Well, it was simple as I was hanging around racetracks on race weekends, whether it was, you know, my dad was involved with motorsport, you know, a category called GTP in the day, which is production car racing, and then he came up with the idea for utes.
10:26
So I'd sort of just...
10:28
just basically hang with him on race weekends is a good way for us to catch up considering we're in different states.
10:34
And then it was as simple as, you know, one day I saw a cameraman trying to interview a driver, so I just went over and held the microphone for him, didn't do anything, just held it, you know, to the driver's face.
10:42
And he said, oh, thanks.
10:44
And then he saw me again and he goes, oh, can you hold it again for me?
10:47
I said, no worries.
10:48
And then I was a cocky little bugger, so I started asking questions of the race car drivers because the cameraman had no idea what he was doing.
10:54
And...
10:55
So then he just sort of used to get me to do his interviews for him and then, you know, all of a sudden I start getting asked to come back next weekend to ask a few more questions and it was just that chance.
11:05
It was that one little...
11:07
I just saw an opportunity and I didn't really know where it would eventuate but that was probably the beginning of me to head into professional broadcasting, you know, and then next minute I'm a pit lane commentator, you know, for support categories and then pit lane commentator for the V8 Supercast series with you and...
11:24
And had some amazing, wonderful experiences.
11:26
So I was able to talk about that love of motorsport that I have had.
11:30
Because all I ever wanted to do was be a racing car driver.
11:32
And I only got into media, really, because I thought we weren't from a wealthy family.
11:36
How do you kickstart a career?
11:37
And I thought, well, you've got to have sponsors.
11:39
Well, how do you get sponsors?
11:40
Well, if I'm on television...
11:42
That's probably a good way to find sponsors.
11:45
So I was like, oh, like a light bulb went off.
11:47
If I'm on telly, I'll be able to find the money to be able to go motorsporting to become a V8 supercar driver.
11:53
And that was the process.
11:55
I love it because we are both very fortunate in that sense to be able to talk about something you love.
12:00
Not everyone in life gets to do that.
12:03
I also recall that in that early phase, you and perhaps even your dad were...
12:07
We're very clever at understanding that in order to maximise that sponsorship, you had to do something that was a bit different to everyone else.
12:15
So in one broadcast, I want to say I was at Bathurst in a production car race, I wandered up the pit lane.
12:22
And were you getting a haircut before you got in the car?
12:24
Is that right?
12:26
You were sponsored by a JustCast or something like that?
12:27
I was sponsored by Just Cuts, who I've had for 20 years now.
12:31
I pushed a kid in a go-kart one, just gave him a couple of tips.
12:34
I was leading a New South Wales championship, and there was this kid, and I gave him a push, and I said, oh, what does your dad do?
12:39
Oh, he owns a Just Cuts store.
12:40
He goes, you should be the CEO.
12:42
Bang.
12:43
And I thought, okay, there's my entry into my first ever circuit race, which was, you're right, it was 1999.
12:48
It was the Bathurst 3 hour on the Saturday of the supercar weekend, and it was a Mazda 626, a super sexy race machine.
12:57
And that was my first ever drive.
12:58
And I had Just Guts and they funded it.
13:01
And I thought, wow.
13:02
And that was a really emotional day because everything that I'd ever worked for and dreamed of, I was now racing at Mount Panorama in a real car.
13:11
And I thought, how am I going to get these sponsors over the line to hang on to them forever?
13:16
I know, if I'm having a haircut...
13:20
Before I get in the car, because I was the second driver in the endurance race, if I get it on telly, I reckon these guys will be mine.
13:28
And so it was a terrible idea.
13:30
I got us on camera, which started this love affair that Just Cuts and I have had together for 20 years.
13:35
But now I got in the car just covered in hair.
13:40
So I had it down my race suit in the back, in my arm, driving around going, pfft, pfft.
13:46
Blowing it out of my mouth.
13:47
Itchy, sweaty.
13:48
Oh, that'd be awful.
13:49
It was horrid.
13:50
But that little point of difference, that little kind of creative spark to go, all right, how can I value add for this sponsor, is the approach that I had commercially from then on into the future.
14:03
And I've had them for 20 years.
14:05
Bathurst.
14:06
Your first crack at Bathurst.
14:09
Were you daunted?
14:10
Was it...
14:11
I mean, OK, you downplayed the car a little bit there a moment ago, but just to be there and drive a race car, for anybody, that's a huge thing.
14:18
I was in the same category as Greg Murphy and Stephen Richards, who were in a little asterisk, so I was like, not only... And I think they went on to win the next day in the 1000.
14:27
And so not only was I at the track, but these are my heroes.
14:31
Like, I used to sit on the farm with just tapes of Bathurst 1000s,
14:35
you know, almost up to the roof.
14:36
And I'd take my go-kart seat out of the go-kart and I'd put it in the lounge room and I'd take the steering wheel with me and I'd sit there and I'd turn every corner in the lounge room in my go-kart seat and steering wheel just watching Bathurst tape.
14:46
So the realisation to be there was incredible.
14:49
I remember I went out the very first lap and I came straight off at the chase and parked it into the sand trap and got bogged.
14:55
LAUGHTER
14:55
That was practice one.
14:56
Practice two, first lap, straight off the end of Conrod Strait, straight into the sand trap.
15:01
So I thought, I'm not up to a good start here.
15:04
And then the team I was driving for went down to the local toy shop and came back with a plastic spade and bucket and said, take this with you.
15:12
But, mate, once I sort of found my feet, we were as quick as anything.
15:15
And Richardson and Murph were on pole, and I remember I pulled them in.
15:22
We were 20 seconds behind.
15:24
When I got in for my stint, I pulled them in, and I finished right on their bumper.
15:28
So that was a really big moment for me.
15:31
Very cool thing.
15:32
And you talked about production car racing.
15:35
Your dad and a very good fellow by the name of Bill West then venture into...
15:40
a thing called V8 Utes.
15:42
Brutes, I think, was the Brute Utes to begin with.
15:45
Ford versus Holden, iconic Aussie machines.
15:49
And you go and you play in this series.
15:53
What was your nickname?
15:54
Because everyone had to have a nickname back then, didn't they?
15:56
And how did you enjoy racing them?
15:58
What was that like?
15:58
It was wild.
15:59
It was like the wild west of motorsport.
16:02
There were so many outlaws in this category.
16:04
It was designed for entertainment.
16:05
It was a brilliant idea.
16:07
Dad came up with it and then took it to a bloke called Ross Palmer, who then initially funded it, and then all of a sudden it's up and away.
16:16
I'd got VIP Pet Foods at that particular point on board.
16:19
Tony Quinn is his first ever sponsorship in motorsport.
16:23
And my nickname was Mad Dog because of the pet food connection.
16:28
And I remember eating the pet food.
16:31
You ate pet food?
16:32
Yeah.
16:32
Again, it was another pit lane TV moment.
16:35
It was like, I'll show how good this product is as I'm chewing down on this roll of fresh dog food straight from the factory going, what have I done?
16:46
And again, it's a relationship I've had for quite a long time with the Quinns.
16:49
I remember the first ever race was at Eclipse 500, and they decided for entertainment, you know what would be good?
16:53
If brakes fade.
16:55
If brakes fade, the racing will be great.
16:57
You know, folks will be going forward and backwards and making mistakes.
17:00
So we had these standard pads in.
17:02
You know that big hairpin at the back straight of Adelaide?
17:06
You can see on the telecast, my rear tube pads just disintegrate and explode and then just fall out of the car.
17:12
So then I get round to the final turn and there's no brakes.
17:16
There's no brakes at all.
17:17
And I had no experience to know what to do.
17:19
So the pedal's gone to the floor.
17:21
I'm narrowing in on the two cars in front of me.
17:24
And I had to pick a line.
17:27
If I looked left and avoided the cars, I'd head straight for a brick wall.
17:30
If I looked to the right, you know, I'd take out the leader.
17:33
So I just decided to nail the car in front of me, which is a bloke called Rod Wilson.
17:38
Because that was the only option, I suppose, wasn't it?
17:40
That was the only option.
17:40
I could see the unexposed or the exposed cement wall, and I thought, if I hit that in this road car, you know, that could be the end.
17:48
So I chose the car in front.
17:49
Now, what had happened was we'd forgotten to take out the...
17:53
the airbag fuse because we had standard steering wheels in so what's happened is I've hit the back of Rod Wilson the airbag's gone off right and it goes off so fast you can't tell but the airbag's stuck to my helmet, my visor so all I could see is this white glow so I've gone, all I'm seeing is white and I know I've had an accident I'm dead I thought I'm dead so I thought well at least it didn't hurt I seriously thought I'd crossed over
18:21
not knowing that this white thing was an airbag over my face.
18:23
Grant Denya, welcome.
18:26
It's your turn.
18:27
I've been waiting for you.
18:30
And then I sort of careered off into the distance and then hit a wall eventually, and then it sort of peeled off my face, and then the next person through the door was Rod Wilson going, mate, mate, are you okay?
18:41
And I remember going, God, is that you?
18:45
You look a lot like Rod Wilson.
18:47
God, why are you wearing a helmet?
18:50
The cars were, I mean, they did lots of great things to level the playing field.
18:54
What were the little idiosyncrasies of the utes like?
18:56
Was there certain things you needed to do to be quick in them?
18:59
Look, they were loose in the back, and that was by design because that was entertaining.
19:03
It looked good.
19:03
At that point in motorsport, everything was very processional and very, you know, to be fast in a car, you've got to drive them straight.
19:09
Supercars at that point were very quiet.
19:13
kind of sanitised.
19:14
The racing was at a point where one team would just dominate every weekend.
19:19
So there was a level of dissatisfaction in the quality of motor racing in Australia.
19:24
So the idea is we could at least turn on a bit of a show but make these things look wild, go sideways, passing everywhere.
19:30
There was also, they had a Chook Lotto grid system.
19:35
So you basically draw your number out of a hat as to where you start on the grid, which meant...
19:41
You know, the crazy guys in the middle of the field were now at the front, you know.
19:44
So there was carnage everywhere.
19:47
But it was so much fun.
19:48
I remember driving against James Brock once.
19:51
And he was a massive, like, death metal fan.
19:55
And he'd be on the grid and he'd have his crew around and the doors would be open, the windows down.
20:00
And he'd be just playing this most horrendous music.
20:03
LAUGHTER
20:04
at like 11, like just crank right up so loud.
20:08
And he'd be so fired up.
20:09
He'd be going, yeah, yeah, come on, boys.
20:12
They'd be so jacked up by this music that he'd get to turn one when the lights go green and he'd just be straight on because he's just, ah, he was just all aggro.
20:22
So they were really good days.
20:23
You know, Luffy was a great production car racer and he was brilliant in that series.
20:28
He took me under his wing and showed me a thing or two, and Damien White was another great character.
20:33
It was a really great period, and it brought a lot of different sponsors into the sport that never had been in motorsport before.
20:38
So it holds a very special place in my heart, and I went on to win a summer series of the Utes as well and set a few lap records and won a few races, so it was good.
20:48
That was my next question.
20:49
The 04 Summer Series win, how much did that spur you on and how much impetus came from that where you went okay?
20:55
Well, winning the Summer Series was where Dick Johnson sort of came up and tapped me on the shoulder and, you know, I'd been interviewing him at that point.
21:02
I was a sunrise weatherman and I used to love doing the weather from the racetrack, again, to kind of showcase the sport that I loved.
21:09
At that point it was on another network, but I'd still do the weather here from the racetrack just because I loved it and, you know, interviewing my heroes like Dick Johnson.
21:17
And then one day he tapped me on the shoulder and said, you know what, mate, you know, maybe you should come and oversteer one of our supercars.
21:21
And I was like, oh, my God.
21:23
I was like, yeah, we put a deal together to not only have a steer but then run, you know, the next year in the Development Series Championship.
21:32
And I remember I didn't get a chance to test the car beforehand because I was stuck in a cyclone up in Queensland and the only chance to test beforehand I missed.
21:41
So I arrived at Clipsall.
21:44
you know, a concrete line circuit, you know, a half a million dollar race car owned by my hero, Dick Johnson, with not a mile under my belt.
21:52
Like a big ask.
21:54
And I remember the first practice session, I was like, I don't know, fourth or fifth or something like that, going, oh, I'm going all right here.
21:59
Now in the utes, over the chicane in turn one and two, you can just jump it and keep your foot buried into the firewall.
22:06
No, no problem whatsoever.
22:09
Turns out the supercar...
22:11
You can't.
22:12
I remember I launched it and it came down on one wheel.
22:15
So 650 horsepower just through one rear wheel, just turned the car hard right in a nanosecond.
22:24
And I had a horrendous crash straight into the cement barrier in turn one and two and wrote the thing off.
22:32
Broke a bone in my hand, dislocated my shoulder.
22:35
And it did a lot of nasty damage.
22:38
And I was devastated because it wasn't my car.
22:44
I thought this was my professional breakthrough.
22:46
And now my career is over before it's even started.
22:49
And I remember going...
22:51
The ambulance was there and they said, we're going to have to take you to hospital.
22:53
And I was like, thank God, at least I don't have to see Dick Johnson.
22:56
So I stayed at the hospital for as long as I could, knowing I was going to have to face the music.
23:02
And I always felt sick to my stomach that I'd ruined my career.
23:06
And I remember getting back to Pit Lane and walking down Pit Lane doing the walk of shame.
23:10
And I could see Dick standing out in front of the garage waiting for me.
23:14
So like my heart in my throat, I've gone, I'm just going to have to face the music.
23:19
So I just walked up to him and I said, Dick, I am so sorry.
23:23
And he'd heard that I'd broken my hand.
23:26
He goes, mate, that's okay.
23:29
I've seen worse.
23:30
Put it there.
23:31
And he holds his hand out and he shakes my broken hand so fucking hard that I nearly cried but I didn't want to let him know.
23:41
So he shook it deliberately because I'd just unfortunately written off his car.
23:47
How do you bounce from that?
23:48
How does Grant Denny go, righto, this is pretty heavy.
23:51
How do you, you know, get everything back together and have another shot?
23:54
I think as long as you realise the mistake you make.
23:58
Like, I was able to analyse it pretty quickly what I did wrong.
24:01
If it was a mystery what I had done wrong, I think I would have been scared of motorsport forever and might not have even got back on the horse.
24:08
You know, it was a head-on hit at 180km an hour.
24:10
It's a sudden stop.
24:12
So it was...
24:14
I knew what I'd done wrong.
24:16
I knew I'd left the curb, kept it buried in like I did in the utes.
24:21
It's come down on one wheel.
24:22
A tire that big, of course, it was going to turn hard right.
24:24
So as long as I could break that down, have a look at the data, process it, then I could put it behind me as just something to learn, you know, because you learn just as much from your stakes as you do from your successes.
24:37
As it just turns out, I've made a lot of mistakes.
24:39
2002, we go to a little racetrack called Malala on the outskirts of Adelaide.
24:45
It's the day after a young Paul Dumbrell has won the Super 2 title.
24:50
You were there broadcasting for Trackside.
24:52
I think I was coming in to do a yarn for a show called RPM.
24:56
And we both got to drive his, I want to say, ex-Perkins or ex-Russell Ingle Commodore.
25:03
Was that your first drive of a supercar?
25:05
And even if it wasn't, recount where you were and your first experience driving a supercar and what you thought of it.
25:12
I think it might have been my second.
25:15
Yeah?
25:15
Or it might have been my first.
25:16
Did it blow your mind?
25:17
Oh, it was crazy.
25:19
I know that Brad Jones once said, hey, we're going to do the ride days that they do after an event, and they put like 120 people through.
25:25
He goes, do you want to come and have a steer of the thing on a ride day?
25:28
I think the ride day might have been my first ever V8 supercar drive.
25:32
So I pity the passengers they would have put in with me that day, because it wouldn't have been pretty.
25:35
They would have been crunching your gears and the wheels locking up.
25:39
So I think that was my second drive.
25:40
Wow.
25:41
And that was when I was like, this is what I want to do.
25:44
You know, I want to turn professional.
25:46
And then from that point on, having driven one, all you want to do is obviously be on the grid with your heroes at Mount Panorama and drive a V8 supercar.
25:53
So it consumed every waking moment, you know, of my life just chasing that dream.
25:58
And again, I enjoyed media, but it was a means to find me the funding and sponsorship to get me on the grid to get me into V8 supercars.
26:07
But it's not just been a hobby in that sense then, mate, because, I mean, you know, top 10 results in the great race at Bathurst, driving for Dick Johnson, you've recounted that.
26:15
You know, winning accolades like the Mike Cable Award, and that's named after a great Aussie motoring journalist, and he was big on promoting young talent.
26:26
And they're huge things, mate.
26:27
Yeah, it was.
26:28
I was driving for Dick Johnson at that point and then winning the Rookie of the Year for V8 Supercars was a really special one.
26:33
And Cam's Motorsport Personality of the Year in that same year.
26:37
And it just felt like everything was just starting to work.
26:41
It took me a while to come to grips with the supercar, but then I started to get a couple of race wins and...
26:49
I had a, everything was going really, really well, but unfortunately I had a crash in a monster truck just mucking around.
26:55
I was just doing it for giggles more than anything.
26:57
And I had a really heavy landing and I broke my back right when my motorsport was going really, really well for me.
27:03
And it was a long, slow recovery because we elected not to operate.
27:08
It was really, really bad.
27:09
I shattered my L1 into 11 pieces.
27:13
But if we, the surgeon let it, he goes, if we take the gamble of letting it heal naturally, there's a better chance of 100% recovery.
27:20
The problem is that's four months of lying on your back and that does crazy things to your mental state and the medication is something they never warn you about and the consequences and the effects that that has on you are horrific.
27:32
But what it did do is it...
27:34
It really focused me.
27:36
It was so horrible, that period, that motorsport was the light at the end of the tunnel to continue on, like to continue to look after yourself and get well again.
27:48
And I knew if I can get back in a race car and I can get another win again, I can put this whole shit period behind me.
27:54
You know, I knew that that's what I needed to do.
27:56
So I used that as my focus in the rehabilitation phases.
28:01
Now,
28:02
The medication was so bad.
28:05
I remember not being able to walk.
28:07
And then you never know your difference between your dreams and reality.
28:11
Every time you close your eyes, you go into the worst horrific dreams that you could ever imagine.
28:16
The things that you're most afraid about in this world...
28:20
happen every time you close your eyes.
28:21
And then when you wake up, you can't differentiate as to whether it's real or not.
28:24
I remember running down in the middle of the night, barely unable to walk, and thinking that there was a home invasion at home and my wife was being attacked.
28:32
So I was like, where are they?
28:34
Where are they?
28:35
And she's on the computer just tapping away on the keyboard going, who, where, what?
28:39
I said, I know they're here, where are they?
28:41
Just lots of incidences like that through the period that...
28:46
No one ever talks about it.
28:47
It was really quite a dark, horrible period.
28:52
I was due to drive in a Bathurst 1000.
28:55
I'd had a drive for, at that particular point, I think it was a Ford Rising Stars.
28:59
I was...
29:01
with Michael Patrizzi and I had to watch my car start on the Bathurst grid without me because it happened straight after the I think it was the Phillip Island 500 um and that that was horrible because my whole life had been trying to get on the grid at Bathurst and now I was watching my car start you know without me so that was that was quite a difficult thing but it was a really strong motivator for me to come back to motorsport and have a really good crack so when I did come back
29:27
I had more podiums than I'd ever had.
29:29
You know, I'd had five out of seven rounds, I was on the podium.
29:31
I had five round wins.
29:33
I had the best motor racing year of my life.
29:36
And that's when I decided
29:40
I can put that period behind me now.
29:42
I probably need to choose one or the other, motorsport or television, because I was getting to a point where I wasn't doing either to the best of my ability, so I had to pick one.
29:54
It was a hard decision, but I chose television for the longevity of a family and the future.
30:00
Unfortunately, I picked the two most volatile careers in the history of the universe, motorsport
30:05
television but I won that race that many races that year that I was like okay I've done what I needed to do you know I'm gonna give it away now
30:13
I want to go to the Sunrise chapter just briefly for a moment because it was massive for your career.
30:20
Did you kind of wander into it and think, no stunt is off the table here?
30:25
Because you did some unbelievable things, didn't you?
30:28
Yeah, they came to me and I was working at Channel 10 and I was a pit lane commentator and colour reporter for the Tubercar telecast.
30:37
And they said, look, we want you to be a weatherman.
30:39
I was like, I don't want to be a weatherman.
30:40
Weatherman, I was worried that the weatherman tag sticks forever and I wouldn't be able to live my broadcasting dream of perhaps, you know, being the Daryl Summers of, you know, tomorrow.
30:51
You know, I loved variety television.
30:52
You know, I loved Steve Izard and those kind of shows.
30:57
And so it was like, I think that's where I'd like to end up.
30:59
Weatherman, that's not a stepping stone on the way.
31:02
And then I thought about it and I thought, I went back to them and said, what if it's about anything else?
31:06
Other than the weather.
31:07
Would that be okay?
31:08
They said, mate, whatever you want.
31:10
So it became this little segment of adventure broadcasting.
31:14
You know, let's show you a place that you haven't heard of before or would ever get the chance to go to.
31:20
Or we do something so crazy that it's just...
31:22
unbelievably compelling.
31:24
And then every day we just made it a challenge to do something ludicrous.
31:27
You know, whether you're riding a bull, you know, in the outback or getting the world record for the world's largest tandem bungee jump, you know, live out of a helicopter over Bondi Beach.
31:36
And I remember that day when we were going for the record, I had the CEO of the network.
31:40
It was the middle of State of Origin.
31:43
And David Leckie, who ran the station at that point, rings me at half time.
31:48
I think he'd had a few.
31:50
And he's like, mate,
31:51
I know you do can I swear he goes mate I know you're doing that fucking thing tomorrow he goes I don't know what the fuck for sounds fucking stupid and I'm like wow this is the biggest name in media who's called me in the middle of the stage he was at the game he goes but me bloody legal team says I gotta let you know that you don't have to do it
32:10
What he wanted was to make sure there was no legal responsibility on the network.
32:13
He'd handed it over.
32:14
Good luck.
32:15
If I died.
32:16
Oh, no.
32:18
Because the record for the world's largest tandem bungee jump at that point was 150 metres.
32:22
And we decided to do not 10 metres more, not 20 metres more.
32:26
Let's double it.
32:28
So we did 300 metres.
32:30
And so having Leckie kind of got himself illegally off the hook, we did it anyway.
32:35
And I remember I did it with the guy who invented bungee jumping, AJ Hackett.
32:38
Hackett's been.
32:40
And he rocks up and he's had the biggest night I think I've ever seen anybody recover from.
32:46
His eyes are bloodshot and we're about to climb into this helicopter and go over the city to Bondi and then jump out live on television.
32:54
And it's at this point as I climb into the helicopter, I start to doubt whether we've made the right decision.
32:58
Because I thought, has anyone done the maths, like, on this?
33:02
And we had to hold this 300-metre bungee cord as we were going over the city.
33:06
We nearly fell out because we were standing on the skids of the helicopter flying to the beach.
33:09
We nearly fell out over the city.
33:11
If we had fallen out over the city, we just would have hit every building on the way through dangling from this rope.
33:17
And because we tried to yell to the chopper pilot to slow down and he couldn't hear us because he has noise-cancelling Bo's headphones on.
33:24
And we nearly fell out.
33:26
And so I had to throw something at the chopper pilot's head to get his attention to try and slow down because the wind standing on the skids at speed was just too much for us.
33:35
We eventually get to Bondi and AJ, I do a live cross from the chopper to caution you to mill.
33:42
I put the microphone down.
33:44
AJ can't hang onto the rope anymore.
33:45
I look around and his arms are all bloodshot.
33:48
And he goes, three, two, and jumped.
33:51
No instruction, no double checking.
33:54
At this point, it was so rushed, I didn't even know if I was tied on.
33:57
I didn't even know if the rope was tied to my feet.
34:00
He's gone.
34:01
So I've gone, I'll go with him.
34:04
So I've jumped after him and grabbed him and just pulled him in, falling, not knowing if I had been tied on.
34:12
No way.
34:13
Yeah.
34:13
It was the worst set of circumstances.
34:16
So on the way down, I'm thinking...
34:20
If I don't hold on to him when this pulls tight, I'm going to hit the water at a speed where I'm going to die.
34:24
So I just remember.
34:26
Grant, it's me again.
34:29
I'm ready again.
34:31
And the free fall felt like it took forever.
34:34
And then slowly, slowly the speed started to come out of the fall.
34:39
And I thought, I haven't slipped through his arms.
34:42
I'm good, I'm tied on, I'm tied on, this is great, this is good.
34:45
Yes, AJ, we're gonna get the record, we're gonna get his world record.
34:48
And then it starts to recoil and go back up, and go back up, and all I can see is these giant chopper blades above us, and we're recoiling at such a speed because the rope was so long, this is where I thought, this is where the maths hasn't been done.
35:03
I thought, what if we recoil further than our departure point?
35:07
That's a giant blender up there.
35:09
So the whole way up, I'm going, it's not the water that's going to kill me.
35:13
It's those giant spinning things up there.
35:15
So it was, it ended up being okay.
35:18
But it was the most, it was probably a live TV event that put me in another category, I think, for broadcasting.
35:24
And it was so much fun.
35:25
And then we sort of just went to try and up that and better that every single week.
35:29
It was crazy.
35:30
Wild, mate.
35:30
Wild.
35:33
This is Greg Rust and you're listening to Rusty's Garage.
35:36
More with Grant Denyer in a moment.
35:40
In this series, I speak to some of the most passionate automotive designers, collectors, riders and drivers I know.
35:47
Robbie Madison is known as the modern-day Evel Knievel.
35:51
Maddows jumped off buildings in Las Vegas, made the Guinness Book of Records by launching 100 metres on his dirt bike and played stunt double for Daniel Craig in the James Bond movie Skyfall.
36:02
His love of pushing the limits also extends to engineering.
36:06
You know, as a kid surfing on the south coast of Kiama, I'd always sit in the ocean.
36:10
I used to think, how good would it be to jump off this way to that one over there?
36:15
And now that's what my goal is.
36:16
That's my vision.
36:17
So I'm going to turn my KTM from 72 horsepower to 150 horsepower, supercharge it, and the thing's going to float, and we're going to be able to do freestyle motocross in the water.
36:27
Learn about the bike that floats in the full episode with Robbie Madison on Rusty's Garage.
36:38
At the roundabout, turn right, then right, then right again and test your drifting skills.
36:45
Was it a hard drug to stop then?
36:47
I mean, and I like the fact that now you still, it's more than a dabble really.
36:51
It's, you know, indulging your passion, which you can, you know, clearly from a work and time perspective do.
36:58
But that's obviously important to you because you enjoy it, don't you?
37:00
Yeah, I think it's important to do things that are good for your soul.
37:02
You know, motorsport is good for me.
37:05
I like it.
37:05
You know, it makes me feel good, you know, and it's important that you have things that are for you in this life that aren't just work or family.
37:13
I think you need that third element, and I think it's one of the key factors to a happy existence.
37:19
Motorsport can be dangerous, and we're aware of that, but...
37:23
Just enjoy it.
37:24
So I can do it for fun now.
37:25
I don't do it as a semi-profession like I was doing it, you know.
37:29
I remember getting to Bathurst, you know, that first time and doing a parade lap around the track, standing in the back of the ute.
37:35
And I think that's when it really dawned on me, man, I've bloody made it.
37:39
You know, from a kid sitting in a lounge room on the farm with piles of Bathurst tapes, dreaming in his go-kart seat and steering wheel, I'm here.
37:47
You know, that first Bathurst 1000, I did it with Alex Davison, and we were running third with 45 minutes to go.
37:53
We were about to be on the podium.
37:56
It was insane.
37:57
And then he came out of Forrest Elbow, and his seatbelts came undone.
38:01
Whoa.
38:01
Yeah.
38:02
And he tried one lap.
38:04
with him undone and he nearly came through the windscreen when he put his foot on the break you know at the end of the chase so he had to come in so we ended up finishing eighth but it was nearly a podium podium on debut which which would have been absolutely incredible so you know i had three great bathurst 1000s and and i think maybe when i got to the point of ticking that you know off off my list you know i was i was happy to probably give it away
38:27
You use that term ticking off the list.
38:29
Mate, there's been some fantastic things that you've had a crack at along the way from Bathurst 24 Hours in Nissans and Porsches.
38:38
The one that sticks in my mind is that you went with Tony Quinn to Nürburgring for the 24 Hour.
38:43
I mean, that legendary place, good car to go and tackle it in.
38:48
What was that whole experience like?
38:49
Yeah, it was a 997 RSR, crazy wings on it, amazing bit of kit.
38:56
I remember doing a lap around the track with a driving instructor and he said, what car are you in?
39:01
Expecting it to be like a Nissan Pulsar.
39:03
I said, this RSR Porsche.
39:06
He goes, holy hell, good luck, man.
39:09
An Aussie who's never seen the joint because it is the craziest circuit on the face of the planet.
39:16
There's nearly 100 corners.
39:17
It's 26 kilometres long in full length, including the GP circuit.
39:21
It's impossible to remember them all.
39:22
And night time.
39:23
And the Quinns, I drove with the Quinns.
39:25
They don't like to do hard work.
39:27
None of them wanted to drive at night.
39:30
So my first practice lap, and I only got two, was in night time.
39:35
And then the race started.
39:37
The sun drops and the Quinns are like, we're off to bed.
39:40
It's like, good luck, GD, this is yours.
39:43
So I do like the whole night stint with Craig Baer just doing a couple of swaps every now and then.
39:47
And there's like 300,000 mad Germans camped around this joint.
39:51
Now, what happens around the back parts of the circuit is there's barbecues and bushfires everywhere.
39:56
Now, we had these giant...
39:58
paws on our car for VIP pet food.
40:00
So we stood out, like bright fluorescent yellow paws on a black car.
40:05
Turns out that makes us a target.
40:07
Because what the mad Germans do is they fire fireworks at your car while you're driving around.
40:14
So you'd be driving around trying to figure out whether this next corner is left or right, and all of a sudden...
40:20
Like a firework shoots you at your windscreen and bounces off.
40:24
So you feel like you're under attack in a war zone whilst trying not to crash and win a race.
40:30
And it was insane.
40:31
We finished second in class and sixth overall.
40:34
And there were 300 cars in that race then.
40:36
Three.
40:37
Three hundred.
40:39
Like a scene out of Star Wars at the same time, isn't it?
40:42
What about the most embarrassing thing you've done behind the wheel?
40:45
It doesn't have to be racing-orientated.
40:47
This can be, you know, do you sing at lights on the way to work sometimes?
40:52
What crazy things have you had a moment where you haven't been able to fix a car on the side of the road and you've had to call someone or...?
41:00
I'm mechanically hopeless.
41:01
I do remember, I remember sharing a race car once with someone who peed in the seat.
41:06
Oh!
41:07
And I remember climbing in after a driver change and...
41:12
Heat and urine is a terrible combination.
41:16
It would sting my eyes and burn my nostrils for three hours in that race car.
41:20
And I'll never forget that person.
41:22
But it was the worst thing ever.
41:26
Hang on, this has just sent me to another direction.
41:28
In the New South Wales go-kart state titles, I remember being on the front row of qualified on pole.
41:36
Next to me was a person called Leanne Tander.
41:39
And Leanne Tander...
41:43
and I tell her this every time I see her because it still irks me, she punted me off in the first turn of the final of the state titles and I have never forgiven her since.
41:52
Really?
41:53
Yeah, and never will.
41:55
Garth loves it because he reminds me every single time I see her.
41:58
Remember that time my wife punted you off when you were on pole of the state titles?
42:03
You've had some diversity along the way.
42:05
You enjoy a bit of tarmac rallying as well, don't you?
42:08
How did that first start and what's been the most pleasurable sort of target thing you've done?
42:13
First time I ever try and I think tarmac running is possibly the most enjoyable form of motorsport I've ever done.
42:18
Why?
42:19
Not possibly.
42:19
It absolutely is.
42:21
Great roads, great cars, no cops, the safety of no oncoming vehicles.
42:26
It is the most purest form of driving pleasure.
42:32
um you're doing it with someone next to you as well you've got a navigator so coming from circuit racing you know you might pass two cars in one corner but you're the bloke that you're the only bloke that ever saw it you know what i mean whereas you get to share it with somebody great parts of australia and it's just it's very gladiatorial it's dangerous you you know i would have seen oh fuck
42:52
Five or six people die in tarmac rally accidents in rallies that I was in, including Peter Brock.
42:59
I was there that day that we unfortunately lost Peter, which was an incredibly difficult and emotional day for all of us.
43:08
And, but it was just gave me a rush like nothing I'd ever had before.
43:13
Motor racing is, circuit racing is very clinical.
43:15
It's very highly repetitive and it deals in millimetres and micro fractions.
43:20
And you've got 30 other cars that are so hungry to just punch you off into the third row of the crowd.
43:26
It's just very aggressive.
43:28
and intense and hard work.
43:31
But Tomek Rallying was just for the sheer pleasure of turning a steering wheel on a nice road and manipulating a car to dance and move underneath you and not knowing what's around the corner was exciting as opposed to a circuit that you just go round and round and round and round repeatedly just trying to find a millisecond.
43:51
So it was really raw and real and in great countryside and over a span of a week.
43:56
So I...
43:57
I enjoy it so much, so much, you know, but it, unfortunately it all, and I'd always had a feeling in the back of the mind, my mind, I'd seen too many people to die and I knew the danger.
44:09
Uh, and it doesn't always necessarily mean how good you are or how safely you drive.
44:13
There can be so many factors that can bring you undone.
44:17
And, uh, unfortunately last year, um, you know, I, I, I came off the road at 160 K an hour and, and, and hit a tree head on, um,
44:27
and there was nothing I could do.
44:30
And it was God calling again.
44:35
Grant, I've got a hotline for you.
44:40
Victoria, you were in an event down there.
44:44
You're with Dale Moskett, who's been a co-driver at World Rally Championship level.
44:48
You're in a quick car, good car, a Lotus.
44:51
What went wrong that day, mate?
44:55
And how did it hurt you?
44:56
Because, I mean, the vision, if people go and Google this now and find it on YouTube, it's pretty frightening.
45:02
Yeah, it was frightening.
45:03
It was...
45:06
It was nothing I could do.
45:08
It was out of my control, unfortunately.
45:10
And the car just left the road and I wasn't able to bring it back on.
45:16
The hardest part in the world was having, you know, one of your best mates beside you.
45:19
And I'll never forget the noise that Dale made.
45:22
You know, he's a professional who's done so many years of World Rally Championships and he's been in some big crashes.
45:27
But, you know, you never want to hurt, you know, a friend.
45:30
And he made this noise as we left the road that, you know, will haunt me forever.
45:34
It was...
45:35
I think he thought that potentially it might have been the end for both of us.
45:40
And I did my best to avoid a tree.
45:44
And when I realised I couldn't get it back on the road and I was losing the battle, I turned out of the fight and turned into the bush to try and avoid a big tree that was coming up.
45:55
And at the point where I thought I could have...
45:58
that's the best I can do.
45:59
It's time to close my eyes and see what happens.
46:01
And at that point I closed my eyes and there was a hidden tree root, which I didn't see, and that picked the car up and shot it into the giant tree that I was planning on missing.
46:12
And thankfully, you know, we sort of barrel rolled and tumbled and then came to a stop and Dale's kneecap was up around his hips.
46:22
He'd broken his back.
46:24
I'd broken a few bones.
46:26
Yeah.
46:28
And I think the only thing that saved us was the fact it was a rear engine car.
46:32
You know, there was no metal in the front of the car.
46:35
So we centre-punched that big tree, as it turns out, and most of the car did the absorption, and thankfully the Lotus has an incredibly strong monocoque, an aluminium monocoque, and, you know, that sort of kept us alive.
46:46
But, you know, climbing up out of that ravine to go and flag down some help was, you know, it was a horrible, horrible scenario, and thankfully help came pretty quickly, and Dale's OK today, but...
46:56
You know, there's probably two moments in motorsport, you know, that I think, unfortunately, I don't want to remember forever, but I will.
47:01
You know, that was one of them.
47:02
And the other one was David Reynolds was in a tarmac rally crash.
47:07
I think it might have been at Mount Buller.
47:08
And it was wet.
47:10
And he was in an open top car.
47:12
and I remember going past just as Davey had climbed out of this ravine, he'd manually just climbed up the hill and the car was down the hill and I'd never seen the look on someone's face so terrified in my life and his co-driver had been killed in a crash and I just, his eyes I will never forget so it's
47:32
Whilst being one of the most enjoyable things you'll ever do in a race car, I think the consequences are possibly a little too high for me in this stage of my life with a young family.
47:43
Getting healthy and well again is the most important thing.
47:46
As you and I sit and talk here now, you're racing again at Sydney Motorsport Park, which is great.
47:50
Dale is off co-driving again, which is tremendous.
47:54
Because you and I both work in TV, I know that...
47:57
and particularly at your level, you're right up there, mate, it then becomes a worry...
48:02
for the network, doesn't it?
48:03
Because you're a major face for them, a major asset for them, but they know you love doing this.
48:09
Does that lead to difficult conversations and, you know, how does that all sort of pan out?
48:15
Well, I think that was the day of the Melbourne Grand Prix, that day I had that accident in the tarmac rally car and the Lotus, and the first word out was that I'd died.
48:24
So I remember Channel 10 were getting word from emergency services that I'd been in an accident and I was killed,
48:33
to talk about it i know matthew white was facing the decision of do we announce this right now and live on television or not it turns out obviously it was mixed messaging and i wasn't killed and i was expecting 10 to make the call and go look you know we need you to give it up we you know we got too much invested in the shows that you make with you in them we need you to give it up um thankfully my boss is mark scape's wife
49:00
So I am off the hook.
49:03
Look, Channel 10 knows that I come with emotional baggage, that is motorsport, and thank God Scafie married correctly.
49:10
So Tony, you know, Tony's been around motorsport for a long time, and you and I both worked with her when she was the production manager of the V8 Supercar Telecast, and, yeah, they know it's part of what makes me tick.
49:22
Grant, I'll call you back.
49:26
You've driven some fantastic race cars during your career.
49:29
There's a national GT endurance title there as well, from Porsches to V8 Supercars, McLarens.
49:36
Is there one that you have a soft spot for?
49:39
Is there a race car that, you know, maybe because of the success or because of the way it drives, that you think, yeah, that's the one of all of them that I've driven so far that stands out?
49:49
Yeah.
49:50
Yeah, obviously driving a DJR car, that was a made-it moment for me.
49:57
I remember, oh, that's a really good question.
50:04
When I decided to give up motorsport, I walked away from it completely.
50:08
So I broke my back, came back, had one year in the development series, won all those races and then gave it away.
50:14
I didn't go to a racetrack once.
50:15
in four years, didn't watch it on the telly once.
50:18
No way!
50:19
Never spoke to anybody who went to a racetrack.
50:21
Was that hard?
50:22
Withdrawal symptoms?
50:23
I think I had to.
50:24
I think I just needed a cleanse.
50:26
I knew I'm a terrible spectator, so if I wasn't going to drive and I was going to walk away, it needed to be a clean break.
50:34
So I completely pretended motorsport didn't exist and I just got on with the business of making television.
50:39
I think that's the only way I was ever going to be able to
50:42
put it behind me and properly focus on media.
50:45
So one of the coolest cars, and I think something because it helped me find the fun in motorsport, probably more than ever in my life, was I decided now there was room for motorsport back in my life.
50:57
This is 2015, and I drove a Marinello Ferrari in the Australian GT Championship with Tony Delberto, and we won nearly every race.
51:06
We missed the first round, but we nearly won every race, and we finished second in the championship.
51:11
I didn't know if I could still do it.
51:12
I didn't know if I'd still love it.
51:14
I didn't know if I was fast anymore.
51:16
I wanted to evaluate how I felt about motorsport again in my life.
51:22
And I just had the best time.
51:25
Circuit racing, particularly as you're trying to become a professional, like I said before, so much hard work and so intense that it's almost quite at times unenjoyable.
51:34
Now this is just about turning the steering wheel of a car
51:37
wicked looking car winning races and it was the easiest and most enjoyable car I've ever driven it was a weapon and what it did is it kind of reshaped my idea of what motorsport means to me and how much it means to me so it was just about having some fun again and I've never had so much fun in my life
51:56
We're at Eastern Creek now, Sydney Motorsport Park, with the Simply Sports Cars guys driving a Lotus.
52:02
Share with our listeners a bit about the car and what it's like, you know, lightweight, horsepower.
52:07
Tell us a bit about it.
52:08
It's cool, you know.
52:09
It's obviously quite a world-famous brand, which is cool.
52:13
You know, when I talk about the Ferrari just a moment ago, that was another one of those moments where you go, oh, my God, there's a prancing horse on the front of this thing, and I'm driving with an Italian called Tony Dalberto.
52:21
You know, give me a latte now.
52:23
Like, this is as authentic as it gets.
52:26
Lotus is a great international brand.
52:28
They're such a cool little car.
52:30
1,000 kilos, 350 horsepower now.
52:33
So they've got a little 3.5 litre V6 in them.
52:36
So they've got good grunt.
52:39
They break so late, you know, under brakes, which makes them so fun.
52:42
But they're quite a lively experience, quite a raw experience.
52:45
There's not much to them.
52:46
They're pretty basic.
52:47
But, you know, I haven't shifted a manual gear stick in probably 10 years.
52:52
And I miss it.
52:53
It's so much fun because you're really manhandling the machine.
52:56
Proper driving.
52:57
Yeah, you're not just...
52:58
flicking paddles or, you know, in a GT car, as fun as they are, the car is doing so much of the work for you, whether it be in the electronics or the amazing amount of downforce, whereas this is just raw and unhinged and fun.
53:10
And it's really – it's grassrootsy and it's, you know, there's so many different other types of cars out on the track at the same time.
53:18
So there's traffic and there's battles.
53:20
It's really –
53:23
raw and and rewarding to the point where you drove it for two hours and won a race at winton last time out well done on that one of the key things about this podcast is the garage so let's get to the denier garage firstly what's the daily driver
53:37
We've got a Toyota Land Cruiser.
53:39
We live on a farm in Bathurst, so we thought we'd do the farmer's thing, and I'm a fake farmer, so I'm trying to give myself authentic credits, so I drive a Land Cruiser.
53:48
It's good for the kids.
53:49
I've never really had exotic road cars.
53:52
I think because I race cars on a track...
53:56
I don't feel the need, I don't see the value in someone spending extraordinary amounts for a road car because you can't use it.
54:02
Like, where do you use it and not end up in jail in this country?
54:05
So, I just kind of like simple things.
54:08
Although I do, I gave myself a project when I broke my back.
54:10
I knew I was going to be on my back for a while so I thought I'd find myself a project car.
54:15
So I bought myself a 1965 fastback Mustang.
54:21
Where did you find it?
54:22
What state was it in and what have you done to it?
54:24
Well,
54:24
I'll tell you what state I was in.
54:25
I was high on morphine.
54:27
And stupid me thought, I found this woman who was bringing it into Australia.
54:32
She'd never done it before.
54:33
She had an American boyfriend who found the cars and got them ready.
54:36
I paid her up front while the car was still in America.
54:40
I don't know what I was thinking.
54:41
She could have run off with my money.
54:43
She probably should have run off with my money, quite frankly.
54:44
I deserved it.
54:46
And I thought, anything could have turned up.
54:49
But because I was on that morphine drip in hospital, I thought, yeah!
54:54
And what turned up was this magnificent Mustang in beautiful condition, ivory green with these two vintage white stripes over the top with the hood scoops like it's a 350 GT.
55:06
You know, it's I just find the Mustang, the classic Mustang is such a timeless, sexy shape.
55:11
The 60s was such a great period in automobile design.
55:15
Like I just I love it.
55:17
Have you done anything to it since you acquired it?
55:20
What mods have you made?
55:22
Yeah, it looked good, but it handled like shit.
55:24
It wouldn't turn or stop.
55:26
It was like a boat.
55:27
So I had all the suspension done by a race tuning mob, which is good, which just sort of made it safe to drive, and it gave it a brake upgrade as well because only the rear brakes worked when I got it.
55:37
So if you drove it and you pulled up to a set of traffic lights, you'd only ever arrive with the rears locked, sliding sideways up to the traffic lights.
55:45
It was lethal.
55:47
You wouldn't drive it in the wet.
55:49
So I just got it, you know, I needed it to be safe so I could take a family member in the car.
55:54
You know, I lived dangerously enough on the race truck.
55:57
It didn't need to be the road as well.
55:58
Very cool.
55:59
That's not the end of your resto projects, though, because there has been a two-wheel resto project.
56:05
And I wanted to get to this because I've had this discussion with Merrick Watts.
56:09
I owned a Honda CT110, a postie bike as well.
56:12
And before I moved last year, I sold it.
56:14
And I actually kind of regret that now.
56:16
Mine was just bog stock standard, beautiful.
56:19
But you have done some cool things to yours.
56:22
Just tell us about it.
56:23
Where did you find it?
56:24
And how hands on were you with this?
56:27
Well, I just left Channel 7.
56:28
I was doing a show I wasn't really into.
56:31
And it wasn't for me, and I kind of walked away from it, and Channel 7 wasn't very happy about that.
56:37
So I had a little bit of time on the sidelines, so I needed a project.
56:42
And I loved the idea of a posty bike so much that when I was on Sunrise...
56:48
I decided to ride across Australia on a postie bike.
56:53
So I decided I'd go from the most eastern point in Australia, which is pretty much the Byron Bay Lighthouse, to the most western point in Australia, which is a point somewhere I can't quite remember.
57:02
You are mad.
57:03
Yeah.
57:04
But through the middle, like not on a tar road, we went the dirt way, like through stations and properties and kind of like almost in a northern crossing.
57:15
Wow.
57:16
A stupid idea.
57:18
Stupid idea.
57:20
So to make the trip, because it took us about three weeks, so to make the trip go a little bit longer, I changed the gear ratio, you know, and got a special jet for the carby to see I got a little bit more.
57:29
I got an extra 5K an hour out of it because I'd done the massive.
57:32
If I got an extra 5K an hour out of it, it should chop off about three or four days.
57:39
It was the craziest adventure, just in the middle of nowhere.
57:43
I just remember getting chased by brown snakes and goannas and emus and with this little CT-110 maxed out trying to run away from a creature.
57:54
It was a wild adventure.
57:57
Did you keep that bike and is that what became of the project or you bought something new?
58:00
That's what inspired, I think, no, I had to give that one back and then I bought one and I thought I want to trick it up a little bit.
58:07
So I stripped it all apart, took every single bolt out of it.
58:11
I had no idea what I was doing.
58:13
All the wiring.
58:15
There was no way I was going to remember how these things were going to go back together.
58:18
And then I painted it.
58:19
So I gave it this candy apple red.
58:22
I wanted to kind of still be true to a postie, but just slightly coolified.
58:26
Yeah, awesome.
58:27
It's this candy apple red, again, with a vintage white stripe down the middle.
58:31
I took all the accessories and bags and racks and stuff off it and stripped it right back.
58:36
Took all the lights off and just made them into tiny little LEDs.
58:39
They're real subtle.
58:40
Put ape hanger bars on it.
58:41
I love it.
58:42
I love it.
58:43
So the thing's got eight hanger bars on it, so my arms are up above my head riding a postie bike.
58:48
Have you changed the carby?
58:50
Has it got an air filter and a pipe?
58:52
What have you done?
58:53
Yeah, I gave it a carby increase.
58:55
I bought a different crank for it, which basically makes it rev a little bit harder, and also I put an aftermarket exhaust on it, so it sounds really tough.
59:04
And changed the gear ratio so I could get it up to 105 on the freeway.
59:09
Yeah, it's a bit of kit.
59:11
And I got like a bobber seat on it.
59:14
So I got the seat shaved down, the original seat.
59:17
I got it shaved down and re-upholstered in this beautiful tan leather.
59:21
Yeah, it's cool.
59:22
I'm picturing Grant Denyer in like World War II fighter pilot goggles going down to somewhere in Bathurst for a coffee.
59:28
How often do you ride it?
59:30
I don't get out on an offer enough, only because I don't trust my mechanical skills that I've put it back together properly.
59:37
But I take it out every now and then.
59:39
It's a lot of fun, man.
59:40
It's cool.
59:41
A couple of good ones to finish.
59:43
Any unfinished business in motorsport, an event, something that you'd like to do?
59:48
I'd like to go back to Europe.
59:48
I'd love to do Spa, like the GT race.
59:51
24-hour race in Spa would be unreal.
59:52
Nürburgring was by far probably the greatest experience, you know, circuit racing experience in my life.
59:56
It was just incredible.
59:59
You know, some overseas races would be great.
1:00:01
You know, I was really happy with winning the GT championship in 2016.
1:00:06
That was enormously rewarding.
1:00:08
I might do a little bit more next year, but I'm just going to keep it at fun.
1:00:11
Keep it at fun for now.
1:00:12
I'm really in a fortunate place in my career at the moment where TV-wise it's going really well.
1:00:16
I've got a couple of new shows out, and I just took a gold trophy from the industry as well.
1:00:23
You know, I've just got to keep it in perspective that motorsport is now just a thing of fun for me.
1:00:28
Proud dad, couple of young kids.
1:00:30
Do the deniers road trip and is there a piece of road or a place you like to travel?
1:00:35
Some really good roads around Bathurst.
1:00:36
There's this one great road between Goulburn and Bathurst that I discovered by accident.
1:00:41
and it is one of the greatest bit of Tars.
1:00:43
It goes through this beautiful terrain, up and down these gorges, great sweeping bends.
1:00:49
So I love to drive.
1:00:51
Like, I really do love to drive.
1:00:53
So much so that I decided once to drive across the Nullarboard plane in a golf buggy.
1:00:58
Once again, it was still a very stupid idea.
1:01:01
So I got this golf buggy, and again, they only do 35 kilometres an hour.
1:01:05
So I found some bigger tyres, different gear ratio from the States, and we did it, and it was a terrible idea, pretty much because a little golf buggy driving along a 100-kilometre-hour road, when you have a road train that's coming the other way, road trains move a lot of air.
1:01:26
The road train would go past and I'd spend like the next three minutes trying to catch the golf buggy as it's swaying all over the road, trying not to tip it over.
1:01:34
I spent a whole day driving across the Nullarbor plane once in the nude as well.
1:01:38
So it was like...
1:01:40
There's a mental image for our podcast audience.
1:01:43
We could probably do it without.
1:01:45
Things happen on the road, man.
1:01:46
Can I just say, things happen.
1:01:48
And that's when I decided it's time to get off the road.
1:01:51
The girls are great supporters.
1:01:53
When they phone, do they get more excited about Dad with a good race result or Dad on TV?
1:02:00
I think they dislike it when Dad comes home.
1:02:03
I remember the first time I did Family Feud, my little daughter, she was sitting next to me and she would have been...
1:02:11
four and she looks at the television and i'm on it and then she looks at me i'm sitting on the couch next to her she looks back to the television she looks at me she goes i've got two daddies i said can you do me a favor when you go to preschool tomorrow can you tell them that because they'll think some really funny things about your mum they'll think that when i'm away mummy's got another special daddy that comes along
1:02:37
But they love coming.
1:02:38
I take them to my workplace.
1:02:41
I think it's important for your kids to know what it is you do because it helps them understand that when you go away, and the unfortunate thing about what I have in my life, as many people do, and fly-in, fly-out workers are the same, when you go away, there's a big impact on those kids and it's also a big impact when you come back because you really disrupt the rhythm.
1:02:58
So I like them to know where it is I go and what I'm doing.
1:03:00
So we bring them down to the TV sets every now and then so they can just visualise what it looks like when Daddy says he's going away.
1:03:06
And that sort of helps them understand and comprehend.
1:03:08
But, yeah, I'm just a dad to them.
1:03:10
They don't care.
1:03:11
You said before you don't necessarily get off on the idea of a Ferrari at home in the garage or whatever because you probably get it out of your system in many respects here at the racetrack.
1:03:21
If money was no object, what's the grail car for Grant Denya?
1:03:26
That's a really, really good question that I've never, ever been able to answer myself.
1:03:31
And I sit about it and I think about it all the time and I just can't decide.
1:03:35
Is the Mustang right up there in that sense, given that you've already got that in the garage?
1:03:39
Yeah, look, I like it because it's timeless.
1:03:41
The problem is with a brand new car is they're superseded the moment the next model comes out.
1:03:46
Just as you think, this is my forever car.
1:03:50
to say it's the new McLaren, to say that's your, oh, I could own this car forever.
1:03:55
Then you see the next one, you go, oh my God, that is so much sexier than the last one.
1:03:58
Well, I have.
1:03:58
You've got to, yeah.
1:03:59
So it's kind of like a bottomless pit.
1:04:01
You're never satisfied.
1:04:03
So I can't resolve that in my mind.
1:04:06
Because I know that if I forked up, and I never would, a crazy amount of dough for a car, I'd only see the next model and then be disappointed with the one I got.
1:04:13
So I don't start that process, you know.
1:04:15
And I'd be happy, and in fact, I enjoy it more than anything, just driving a crappy old manual Corolla around the road.
1:04:22
Because...
1:04:23
To get a bit of speed out of it, you've got to manhandle it a little bit.
1:04:27
And you've got to grab it by the scruff of the neck.
1:04:29
And that's more fun than trying to drive a supercar that's designed to go 320 kilometres an hour at 50 in suburban streets.
1:04:39
So I just don't have that desire to have something in my garage.
1:04:44
Thank Christ.
1:04:46
Road rule or driving habit that drives you mad?
1:04:51
People who beep...
1:04:53
When the lights go on green and they're behind you, you know when you're up green?
1:04:56
Because I'm not in a hurry on a road.
1:04:58
Like, I'm patient, I'm slow, I'm courteous, I let people in.
1:05:02
Maybe it's because I get out of my system when I'm on a racetrack, but I'm very calm on the road.
1:05:09
And then I'm waiting for the traffic light to turn green, so you know the guy behind you?
1:05:12
It's like a nanosecond and he's in the horn.
1:05:16
Oh, my God, I would get out and smash your windscreen in.
1:05:18
If I wasn't 5'5 and you weren't tonguing, I'd be at you.
1:05:24
All right, you touched on it before.
1:05:26
Congratulations, mate, on the gold Logie win.
1:05:29
That is mega.
1:05:31
Has it sunk in?
1:05:32
And please, please, please tell us that you're not using it as, like, a wheel chock in the garage for the Mustang.
1:05:39
Doesn't Scotty Cam use them as doorstops at home or something?
1:05:41
Yeah, you know what's funny?
1:05:42
I never understood why people dissed it like that.
1:05:45
Like, it was funny to say it was a doorstop or it was a stubby opener, as Scotty Cam said, and...
1:05:51
There are so many people that went the too cool for school route when it comes to winning one.
1:05:58
And to be honest, mate, I've been in television for 20 years now.
1:06:00
I learnt so much under you and watching the way you work and the way you handle people and your work ethic is the best I think I've ever seen anywhere in any field.
1:06:12
And you just have a lot of pride, you know.
1:06:16
As you should, mate.
1:06:17
You're welling up a little bit here.
1:06:19
Clearly it's meant a lot to you.
1:06:20
Yeah, yeah, it's... Not much.
1:06:23
Because you've gone through a lot, mate, to get to that point, haven't you?
1:06:30
Yeah, there's been a few lows and a lot of highs, and it's nice to come out the other side and recognise your mistakes and a few close calls and to just, you know, to...
1:06:45
I think I got to a point where I just wanted to be a bit of a better person and wanted to have a bit more of a positive influence on the people around me.
1:06:53
And I was very grateful to get to where I was.
1:06:57
So to win that award was...
1:06:59
It snuck up on me, what it meant to me, to be honest.
1:07:02
And I knew it would be nice.
1:07:03
I didn't realise how much it would mean the moment that it happened.
1:07:06
And kind of like...
1:07:09
getting back behind the wheel after I broke my back and winning races.
1:07:13
You know, winning that gold Loki was exactly the same thing.
1:07:16
It was the bookend of what was a bit of a bad period for me.
1:07:21
So I was back on my feet.
1:07:24
You know, I was making good television.
1:07:25
I was enjoying life.
1:07:27
You know, I was being kind.
1:07:29
And, yeah, it was just I'd kind of rebirthed myself, if you like.
1:07:34
So it was, you know, I struggled with the idea of no motorsport in my life for a while.
1:07:37
Like, I didn't handle it very well.
1:07:41
When you dedicate your life to one particular aspect and then you remove it completely from your life, you know, it's like quitting smoking.
1:07:50
There's a massive withdrawal that happens.
1:07:52
And I think that that hole that was left behind...
1:07:58
you know, it wasn't a very healthy one for me.
1:08:01
So I had to try and fall back in love with life without motorsport again, and I managed to do that.
1:08:06
So winning, having a show like Family Feud and then winning a Logie for it was kind of like I've come full circle.
1:08:13
Well done.
1:08:14
Congratulations.
1:08:15
I mean, richly deserved.
1:08:16
You've got some great new stuff in the pipeline, which you talked about before, and you've been doing some wonderful things for Aussie farmers, mate, at a critical time of drought.
1:08:24
in Australia.
1:08:25
Well done.
1:08:25
Thanks mate.
1:08:26
I really appreciate it.
1:08:27
It's been great to talk to you.
1:08:28
Thanks mate.
1:08:34
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me Greg Rust.
1:08:38
Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
1:08:41
Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
1:08:51
Listener