Denyer delivers Podium Three-Peat at Sandown

Grant Denyer delivered his third consecutive podium appearance over the weekend when the Crimsafe Ford finished 2nd overall in Round 4 of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Sandown Raceway. To prove the trophy appearance was no fluke, he also won Race 2 and claimed the overall round win for the MINI Challenge Series in the Decorug Mini.

“It was a tough weekend in some respects – we had to fight hard all the way in both series to get the result, however to come out of the weekend in a stronger position in both Championships was rewarding,” Denyer said.

Practise for the Fujitsu V8 Supercars series didn’t go to plan with problems in both sessions. In P1, the car was losing brake pedal pressure constantly, which was finally traced to a weeping bleeder valve on the brake caliper. However, by the time this was rectified, a shower of rain removed any chance of some decent track time.

In P2, the Crimsafe Ford also struggled for grip, which was traced to a broken front anti roll bar, again costing valuable track time.

“When you lose two sessions like that, you are always on the back foot and for the rest of the weekend it was just a matter of maximising points. We knew we didn’t have the speed to win outright, however 2nd was a fantastic result and we just played for the best result we could.”

Grant qualified 10th and finished 10th in Race One. He led Race Two until a safety car restart saw David Russell slip by, however Grant still finished second. In Race three he finished fourth overall, to remain 4th in the series pointscore.

Qualifying was tight in the MINI Challenge Series, with Grant taking pole by 7/10,000ths of a second from Nathan Caratti. Carrati won both MINI races from Grant, however Carrati was stripped of his Race 2 and overall round win when post race inspections revealed the car had brake pads fitted which where ineligible for the category. This reinstated Grant as the Race 2 winner and winner overall for the round, moving him to second place in the series behind team mate Paul Stokell.

Following the podium celebrations, Grant flew straight back to Sydney to replace David Koch as anchor of SUNRISE this week, while Kochie climbs Mt Kilimanjaro.Next week, Grant heads to the deep Congo in Rwanda Africa for a feature story for SEVEN’S Sunday night programme.

As long as he isn’t adopted by King Kong, swallowed by an Anaconda, bitten by the TseTse Fly, or captured by a Pygmy Tribe and revered as “The Tall One”, he should be back in time for Round 5 of the series at Queensland Raceway on August 21.