Craig Denyer | Part 2 - Brute Utes, TA2 & plans to break a record

A Listener Production

G'day it's Rusty here all set for part two of my feature episode with Craig Denier.

If you've somehow found yourself landing, arriving here before giving part one a run

you are missing out on some fantastic chat.

Growing up in the country and the lasting impact that racing at the hume we're had on him

and the legend that he saw racing there back in the day.

How his personality was tailor made for some commentary moonlighting as a teenager.

His first race car for Speedway where the inspiration for its colours came from.

Jumping into the media and why it seemed like a perfect fit.

Plus the connection it created with a famous rally on the New South Wales Central Coast

and the A-Listers that he would help to draft into the starting line up.

And playing PR and commercial manager for a bathest winning campaign in the 80s

which was almost derailed by a bombscare.

We begin this second part with a focus on category admin

and the classes that would perfectly fill some voids in the Aussie offering.

When did the whole idea of category management for you really shift into gear

and you talked about Billy West there a moment ago.

Around the turn of the century I think it's 2001.

There's this idea that comes to fruition around iconic V8 Aussie youths holding V Ford

and we're going to put them on a racetrack battling each other with some drivers

with fun nicknames and so on.

Look it was again it came out of a very very simple conversation

and I was looking for a category for Granter Racing.

It raced in the GDP 3R in the Mazda 626 with Tom Watkinson

and I was looking for a category to race in but we couldn't afford anything.

There was nothing affordable.

This was before Aussie racing cars, touring car masters,

even the supercar development series, even before Carrera Cup.

So there wasn't a lot of choices and I was looking for kind of something

that I thought we could afford for him to compete in.

That's kind of what stimulated the conversation.

Ian McAllister was a Ford dealer and a good mate

and Paul Ryan who now works in the US doing media PR for motorsport

was doing PR then for Ross Palmer

and we were just kicking around having a beer one day

and we were talking about these fantastic new sports suits,

the new Holden SS Commodore and the Falcon AU XR8 that just came out

and we thought what a great idea for a low cost series

and so I put the idea to Ross Palmer.

I said what do you think about this?

Ian McAllister said I can get help from Ford

and we thought well we've only got to approach Holden.

We should be able to get some support from them

because V8 Utes were very much part of their marketing budget at the time

and my idea was to basically have a stock standard Ute

with no real modifications and so I went and saw Wayne Park

who was looking after the Ferrari that John Bauer had been racing

along with a few other people

and we decided that Wayne should build a prototype

which basically I funded so I painted and built

the very, very first V8 Ute prototype

and that was kind of how the series started

and of course it came out of the blocks so quickly.

It was at the right time.

Ford and Holden's Ute marketing spend was huge.

Everybody loved them.

With you a Ford or a Holden man you either love the blue or the red

and it just took off.

We launched with nine cars at the Clipstall 500 in late in 2001

and that was where Grant had his biggest crash

and we rode off the very, very first Ute that was ever built

but that started what was a fantastic series

that we thought we might get two or three years out of

but in essence it lasted 17 years

and I think was probably some of the most

enjoyable motor racing entertainment

as opposed from pure motorsport because we positioned it

as the world championship wrestling in motorsport

and that was how it was basically sold

and that's how our guys got sponsors.

They were very, very popular, extremely popular.

One of the most popular support categories on the Supercar program

all the drivers had nicknames so we had to create

our own personalities because we didn't really have any name drivers

so we had Grant, Mad Dog, Denia, Damien, Ice White,

Charlie, Handelbars, Kovacs that had a big Handelbars moustache

and created these personalities in their own right

and then turned on some fantastic racing for the next 17 years.

I love the parallel there with world championship wrestling

and standing out from the motorsport offering at the time

in a different fashion.

Plus they moved around a lot.

The cars were spectacular to watch in that sense, weren't they?

They were.

They were pretty much stock standard.

They had a Motec so we could see the ECUs.

They had a suspension package but they did race

on basically R-Spec tyres

and after Grant's big accident at the Clipsoil 500

we upgraded the great package because I didn't want good brakes.

I wanted lots of passing.

I want brakes fading, drivers to take advantage of that.

Not thinking for one minute my son would be the R&D dummy

that put the whole category through it.

So what happened was it was a night race at the Clipsoil 500.

I think that was the second or third race of the weekend

for the V8 Brutes and I was watching on a television monitor

and I was watching Grant and I saw, as he came out,

it might have been turn 13 or 14,

I saw the left hand front brake pad fall out of the car.

I physically saw it on television

and I knew before he knew that he had no brakes

and so he's arrived at the last corner

before they turn on to the main straight at the Adelaide 500,

absolutely no brakes, warp speed, flat out in fourth gear

and to slow the car down he's actually lined up

Rod Wilson's Commodore and gone straight into the back of it

and they both spun off

and anyhow the car was totally destroyed

and what had happened is that Wayne Park had not disconnected

the airbag, so the airbag had gone off

so Grant had thought he'd gone to heaven

because all of a sudden the vehicle had stopped

and there's just this white cloud all around him

and he had no idea where he was, if I'd died or what's happened

Rod Wilson to his credit had stocked his car,

jumped out, raced back to Grant's car,

pulled down the net to make sure the kid was okay

and he's peeled the airbag off Grant's helmet and face

and there's Rod Wilson staring at him in the window

and Grant said, well I knew I hadn't gone to heaven

because I didn't figure Rod Wilson was God

You talked about Billy West there before,

when does he arrive on the scene

and the peer review in this category administrative capacity

were kind of great, Yin and Yang weren't you mate,

it worked so well together

It did, I mean Westy had been working for,

he was involved in the original Gold Coast Indie syndicate

with a guy called Terry Robertson on the Gold Coast

and Westy had come back from New Guinea

and was working full time for Terry

and in the end I think Terry realised that as an entity

they needed government support

so they basically moved the entity into Queensland Events Corps

a government funded thing

so Westy and I met when he was running Indie lunches and stuff

to get money to keep seeding and funding the development of the event

and so he went then to work for Ross Palmer full time

and so when I basically had left CFM and had nothing to do

he said, oh why don't you come and do some work for me

do some commentary and help me find some sponsors

which basically started our long friendship right through

to this very very day

and so that was Procar then

I think Westy left Procar at the end of 2000

and he moved to Adelaide for the race of a thousand years

and he was the marketing director for that event over there

along with Liam Kirkpatrick's father

and so I continued to run Procar

Nations Cup came along, four out of three was part of it

V8 Brutes became part of it

and then of course the two 24 hour races as well

and then when Procar withdrew from motorsport

and the V8 Ute series was hanging with nowhere to race

I went and saw Wayne Caddock and said

tried to patch up the relationship that Ross had kind of fractured along the way

with Tony Cochran and Supercars and I said we've got this great category

you know can we come and race with you guys

and to their credit they welcomed us with over arms

and we signed a three year deal for V8 Brutes to support Supercars

and Tony Cochran said you can come with us

but just remember you've got to stay down the shallow end of the pool

so meaning that you do what you're told

you stay out of trouble, you don't create any waves

and we'll all get on happily ever after

and that's exactly what happened

and so at that stage then there was no running V8 Brutes

but I had invested in it

Alan Grice had bought a Ute, there was a heap of other guys

and we decided to put together a syndicate

to start the V8 Brute Company if you like

as shareholders the 32 guys that owned the Utes

and we set up a board which included Ian McAllister, Dennis Criven

and a few other guys, Kimmy Jane of course

and then I brought Westie in

we started a company called Spherex

to basically manage the V8 Utes series on the shareholders behalf

and it was at that point I said to Grant

you can't really continue to race in the series while we're running it

because of perceived conflict of interest

and so at that stage I knew Dick Johnson

I gave Dick a call and said is there any chance

you'll give him a supercar test

which they did

but we did run one year as a two car team with Alan Grice

which was great fun with less more preparing

both Grant and Grice's Utes

and they debuted at Iron Park with a team 1-2

and that was pretty special as well

Absolutely, I won't have the duration right here

what did the category live for?

It was like 17 years or something wasn't it?

17 years it was

and look it was only killed in the end

because basically Australia

I guess motorsport Australia at that stage

wanted to have a more of an eco-friendly position

V8 Utes stopped being manufactured in Australia of course

with the seizing of Ford and Holden manufacturing

supercars under John Casey at the time

who was their marketing manager wanted to get into the SUV type world

diesel SUVs

Westie and I didn't believe that that was a commercial success

or a business case at all

and so at that stage we said

well if there's no position for V8 Utes

then there's nothing for us to really do anything with

so we basically handed the Ute franchise to supercars

and they ran it as it was for a year with Kim Jane

winning the championship

and then they converted to diesel Utes

and we all know how spectacularly successful that became

and of course now they're back to V8 Utes

with reasonable fields and good racing

So what's the zenith moment for you?

I mean that's an incredible chapter really

anything longer than sort of 15 years like that

what's the sort of highlight do you reckon in that

Utes Brutes chapter?

There's so many of them

so many of them Rusty when you think that like Alan Jones

raced a V8 Ute

you know say then with us

Brad Jones raced a V8 Ute

Peter Brock raced a V8 Ute

some James Brock raced a V8 Ute

Alan Grice raced a V8 Ute

and thoroughly enjoyed it

back by Akubra who was his longstanding sponsor

we took V8 Utes to New Zealand

and we did a wonderful event over at Manfield

which was a two driver event

we had Graham Crosby who was a world superbike champion

or driver at that stage

Racer and all his other wonderful names from New Zealand

that became part of it

which led to the launch of the New Zealand V8 Ute series as well

we did a street race at Hamilton which Chris Pither won

it led to so many more moments I guess

and when you look at the talent that came through Utes

Damien White was a quick driver

Chris Pither won a New Zealand Championship

and an Australian Championship

there was so much talent that came through

Dean Cando, Warren Lough won two V8 Ute championships

I mean we didn't need a driving standards advisor

until Warren Lough joined the field

but Warren found out the quickest way to the front

was the bump and run

and he used it on everybody

so that changed the driving dynamics quite radically

on how we had to handle that moving forward

Fantastic, before we come to TA2

can I ask you just around Grant's own career

you mentioned about having that conversation with him

so that there was no perceived conflict of interest

to move into supercars and contacting Dick Johnson and so on

he went on, Craig, from top 10 finishes at Bathurst

to Mike Cable, Young Gun Awards and more

Yeah, look Grant was always interested in the sport

and probably because I dragged him around

when I was doing commentary, the Sand Down 500 commentary

and other events like that, Gold Coast in the event

he was always there as part of it

so I guess he got the hook because of being exposed to it

through what I was doing at the time

he was living in Melbourne with his mother

and I said to him, look, he was struggling a bit

with his grades at school

and I said, if you pick up your grades

I'll buy you a go kart

and we'll go go kart racing

and to his credit he did

and so I bought him a kart off Drew Price

we ran the Australian National Series

he raced against Wind Cup

Will Davison or Oakley in Melbourne

as they were growing up as young kids as well

and then I took him to the Dubbo Nationals

and he raced in the National Series at Dubbo

and then he ended up winning in the New South Wales

what was called the New South Wales Country Series

so that was kind of his entree into the sport

and then he kind of wanted to develop that and move forward

so he was lucky enough that he was in a business at the time

his television career was going very very well

and he had to balance the two

he had, as most people know

it probably got to the crossroads where

he had to make a decision in TV or racing

and I think he probably knew he was not the next

the next Rick Kelly or the next Brock Feeney

but he was a good steerer

but what did happen, he broke his back in a monster truck crash

and that put him out of motor racing for 12 months

because he was racing development series at the time

and then it took a while for him to come back

from that physically

but when he came back he again won races in the DVS series

and I think in his last year he finished fourth outright

so that was probably the moment where he had to make a decision

about what career was going to pay the bills

and what career he had to let go

so the kind of idea of a full-time motor racing career

at that stage fell away

but he continued to race where he could

and he finished second in the Bathurst 12 hour to Damien White

when it was a production car event

he won the Australian Manufacturers' Championship with McLaren

with the final round at Highlands Park

he's had a 22 year association with Tony Quinn

and they still race together now

like they rest together in the Bathurst 6 hour last year

in the game over Camaro

he's racing again in the Bathurst 12 hour

with Tony Dalberto

in the Adrian Deetz Lamborghini again in two or three weeks time

so he's had some great opportunities

out of everything he's done he went and raced Mini Challenge

in Europe against Alex Zanardi

and he was leading the Mini Challenge series in Australia

from Paul Stockel when he had the monster truck crash

so for a guy that's one would say only races as a weekend warrior

I think he's very very competitive and very very good

and you know to jump in a Lamborghini once a year

which is about how often he races

and do a 206 around Bathurst is not a bad effort

he's been to Suzuka in more recent time

he went with the Queens to Nürburgring

he's picked some bucket list stuff along the way

what about though when he wins a thing called a Gold Logie

and he's fronting primetime game shows

and things like that is there kind of a little surreal moment

for you as a dad and all that I mean he's done it

you know off his own bat through his own personality

and hard work and so on what that mean?

Yeah yeah look that's always a special moment

when you're recognised

but it all comes down to hard work

and what Grant did and still does he works very very hard

yes he's got some natural ability

he's got nice teeth which I paid for

he's got the hair that I didn't have

and you know he looks good on television

and so but he's made the best of it Rusty

and what you see with Grant is what you get

and you I mean you've worked with him you know him as well

but I think you know it's a special kind of person

that can jump off television at one moment

and then jump into a 280 kilometre an hour

run down Conrad straight in another car

and be on the pace and competitive and safe

and do it you know not every weekend

like everybody around him does it

but does it as a once or twice a year

you know it's quite an exceptional ability

Importantly he loves it

and he the you know that infectious

love of the game rubs off on everybody

because he's always having such a good time

when he does this stuff

now he's a proud dad with kids

are you pop are you granddad

what are you in all of that

I'm Yoda

that's in fact you'll probably find as a

yeah there we are

I never wanted to be called grand

grandfather or granddad

because I was far too young

so Grant said well what do you want to be called

and I said one of the kids just call me Yoda

and so Yoda has stuck

so to everybody around here

kids and grandkids yeah I'm Yoda

great stuff let's talk to you

let's talk to you now and how that all

came together

that that class on both sides of the ditch

is doing some fabulous things at the moment

Craig and you were there as it as it

properly kind of shifted into gear weren't you

yeah it it had it had exploded

and and it and it will continue to

to grow I think and it started by

there's a guy called Peter Robinson

who is a New Zealander

that moved to Australia with his wife

and won $10,000 in lotto

and they had no money

and so Peter said well I've either

go on a holiday or start a business

you know he did the smart thing

and he started a hydraulic business in

Queensland that ultimately ended up

servicing major pumps and oil rigs

and major hydraulic facilities

you know all around Australia quite a

unique business and yeah Peter

decided at 50 plus years of age

that you know he always was

interested in Speedway when it was in New Zealand

and had a lot of mates in that that he'd go racing

so he bought an Oz truck

and he raced around with Freddie Willis

and a few other blokes Steve Calder

that had Oz trucks at the time

and then he decided that he wanted

to replace his Oz truck with something else

but he had no idea what category he wanted

to race in so he went to

America to a

motorsport show over there called the PRI show

and he ran into Chaz How

and Chaz How through How Motorsports

big Speedway family

in the US had built a lot of cars for over

55 years and at

this show there was this magnificent

essentially TA2 car

and Chaz had built it

for the American

Trans Am owners

to have a look at this as an option for a

one make style Trans Am

type series and Peter

thought what a beautiful looking car

and anyhow the deal with

Chaz and Trans Am didn't move the way

Chaz wanted to go so

the car was for sale so Peter bought it

brought it back and you know for

damn near under $100,000

landed this 550 horsepower

V8 four speed gearbox

old school 15 inch

rag tire car

arrived in Queensland

and then of course two or three of these mates

were all in one of those so

Craig Harris bought one

Ian McAllister bought one

Freddie Willis bought one and they had

five or six cars within a short period of time

just basically doing local events

in Queensland and that's how

TA2 started and

I got involved with Ian McAllister

rang me and said you should meet

this guy he's got this series that I think

he's got some legs you might be

interested in helping him with it so

I went and had a meeting with Peter

and Mo at Main Beach we had a coffee

and for a guy that had not

been heavily involved in motorsport

he was so onto it and he had

picked such a gap in the market

that no one in the business

had even thought about or seen

and he made it happen and that's basically how

TA2 grew from that

one original car that he brought into

over 130 in the country now

and now moving to New Zealand

this year to its own standalone series

as well. It's got

some grunt over here

Craig it's like

you can tell what has transpired

in Australia with all of you there

is very quickly rubbing off

here and they're starved of a

kind of Premiere V8 class

and that you will fill that void I genuinely

believe that. Yeah we did two rounds

in New Zealand a couple of years ago as you know

and I believe then that the time

was right for this series to become the Premiere

V8 touring car series and

even look at when you see what's

happened in Australia now with

guys like Brody Kostecki

that have had a drive in TA2

Van Gisburgens had a drive

in TA2 even though it was

a test. You've got Todd Haselwood in there

James Moffat, Tim Slade

a heap of guns that are now

at the Tram Dam level

that have made the series

a super competitive series but

less than half the price of doing a Super 2

development series

drive and then you've got

TA2 which is I guess

the more gentlemanly spect of the category

so you've got Trans Am which is morphed out of

TA2 and TA2 offering

two distinct positionings in the business

but you can cross over at any time and race

in either because the specs of both cars

are the same as they are in New Zealand

so it yeah I mean

full credit to Pete, to Cam Sendil

who was his technical manager to his

daughter Dana that put all the nuts and bolts together

and they brought me on board to help

take it on to a national level

and you know eight years down

the road we're extremely happy with

where the series now sits. Both series

are back under the one ownership of

H double C which is Mark Crutcher, Graham

Cheney and Paul Hadley, three very very

dedicated competitors

and they've got some fantastic vision to take it

even bigger and better.

Music

Craig's love of Gold Coast Indy

and working at that event is echoed by some

international stars in our garage library too

including Max Pappas

who fondly recalls those cars

when they were at the peak of his special chapter

Chemcar was a dream car

fastest car

driver could make a big difference

manual gearbox

no power steering

1000 horsepower

check out Max's feature EP

if you haven't already

his passion for the sport is infectious

Craig might be scaling back but he still loves it too

keep an ear out for a special

project he's working on as we get back

to the Convo

I love the fact that you've embraced

my good friend in Matt Nolte

who's doing a superb job around commentary

for you guys because as you've

come to do so well

in your career you realise

that old line about

the sizzle in the cell don't you

so having someone like him who A

goes and

he's a great custodian of all your statistics

around the racing itself

but then he's got this zing in the way

that he commentates it as well so

it adds to the showcase doesn't it

it's all part of the growth factor

Rusty I mean we started with

when we started TA2

we started with a little guy called Dewey Jones

who was out of basically

a high school and 18 year old kid

and he loved motor racing and his father

raced Historic Trans Am

and so he started to shoot stuff on a weekend

on a handy cam basically or an iPhone

and showing my age there handy cam

so he started shooting it

on an iPhone and so

we would put together

after each race meeting a little video package

now what would happen over the weekend

Dewey would move from corner to corner

and shoot the vision

and then basically edit it all together

I would do the voiceover and we'd end up with a 5 minute

package that basically covered

every corner of the track lots of interviews

in between and a storyline

now that was how TA2 started

to get some commercial legs

amongst you know

and also exposure amongst drivers

and stuff like that but to think now

the series has 8 hours

every round

live free to wear on SBS

similar cast on Fox Sports

and KO

is fantastic it's one of the best domestic

motorsport TV packages

around and of course Trans Am

as well now this year

is doing 5 rounds on the supercar platform

as well so they were their own media platform

as part of the supercar world so you've gone

from basically guy with an iPhone

and an old worn out radio bloke

doing the voiceover stitching it all together

with lots of nice graphics and interviews

to this national television coverage

now which has allowed both series

to expand quite dramatically

also goes to air on MAV TV

and the US as well Sky Sports in New Zealand

so it's a great package

it's a fantastic media package

with as you say

Matt Nolte leads that

and he's lifted it

just his intensity, his knowledge

his professionalism has lifted it

immensely in the past year

that he's done it which is fantastic

and all of those things

collectively are great for the health

and shape of it all but I know there's still

immense potential in it but it's doing

it's doing terrific things

Matty McKeldin's moved in there now

in a managerial role

what does that mean for you because I gather

you're still very much

in a mentoring capacity for the

for the business are you?

Matty and I go back a long way because

he was around in the V8 youth days

as promotions manager for Freddie

Willis when he was running

the Grow Fruit You

Racing team

Matt and I always got on well together

we sparred a lot, we liked each other

and then when Bill West and I

had Sphirics we brought Matt in

as a commercial manager if you like

and he developed partnerships

with Armourall

and with many challenge pizza capers

and a number of high profile clients

as part of the

the V8 Youth and Sphirics days

we ran GT series

for Tony Quinn for a year as well as

as many challenge and then

Matt moved as general manager of Speed

Cafe

then when we got

involved with Trans Am and TA2

he'd moved on to

real estate and had the white shoes

and the gold chain was doing very very well

in the Gold Coast real estate market

and

then he said to me one day

when are you going to retire

and I said oh look

you know we don't want to do it anymore

when I've had enough or when I think there's someone

that can do the job a bit better than I can

and so we started the conversation

and I had said to Peter Robinson

and these delightful daughter Dana

that there was coming a time

then I probably wanted to whine back

and so Matt came in

and

basically what happened at that time

was TA2 was run by Peter

and Dana Robinson and of course

Trans Am through their association

with Motorsport Australia was run by

Gary Rogers through ARG

and

while it could have been quite acrimonious

when the two series divided

originally

all heads

kept calm and cool

and we all worked together to build both

Trans Am and TA2 without

necessarily crossing paths

and running on two separate programs

Double ASA sanction for

TA2 and Motorsport Australia

for Trans Am

so that was going very very well

and then I think Gary and Barry Rogers

found that running five cars

in Trans Am and being

the series owner was creating

some perceived issues of conflict

and favoritism which they

weren't comfortable with and at that stage

Peter Robinson

who started this as a hobby for three or four

his mates just to go racing had decided

this thing is bigger than what I can

you know I ever believed

it would be perhaps it's time to hand it over

to someone that can take it to the next level

because I want Dana and the family to focus on

our real estate

our property development arm

and so Crutcher, Cheney

and Hadley bought the series and then very

quickly did a deal with Gary and Barry

to buy Trans Am and bring it back all under

the one roof which is now fantastic because

anybody can cross

Ender and Polite for either series

which has always been the case anyhow

but both series now can grow in their own right

and serve two very very different

pools. At that

stage it was good to bring in Matt

and Matt came in and we spent

the last 12 months together

he very much put his own stamp on the series

which is great and he's done

you know he's even impressed me with the way

he's gone and done a far better

job than I ever hoped he would

so both series are in extremely good

shape I think it's time for me

to take a step back and let some of the

young guns have a go

and I think probably the time is right

for Matt to have his head

and I'll always be there to

help them if they need it but they're

big boys now quite capable of doing it on their own.

Love it.

55 incredible years

around motor racing. Can we

kind of wrap this up with

a couple of things. Firstly

it can be a brutal

and a very tough business be it

be it politics, be it how expensive it is

whatever

before I come to

a moment you're most proud of

what do you reckon is the toughest one that you've had

to deal with along the way?

A couple of deaths.

Stewie McColl at Phillip Island

was a tough one because I was

running GTP at that time

and I wasn't actually at that event because

I'd come down with a nasty virus so

Mark Bereta

was down there

and covered a lot of the legwork for that

and that was a tough time.

I think

anything that involves the driver's health

or potential

fatality

hits its mark and there's been

a few of those along the way

in terms of

difficulties. I mean

motorsport is tough. You've always got changing rules

you've always got strong personalities to deal with.

I think Ross Palmer

should be given an enormous amount of credit

for what he did for the sport

and in the end

he said

we've got all these categories

we can run a great Bathurst event

and I said well there's no point

doing what they're doing

we should do something different.

He said well what do you have in mind?

I said well you've just come back from Nebergring

the 24 hour race, you do 24 hour races over there

I said why don't we do a Bathurst 24 hour race

he said great idea

go and make it happen

and so

without a word of a lie

and there was a pilot strike

for whatever reason there was no planes flying

and so I had to charter

a plane to fly Ross and I

from Brisbane to Bathurst to meet with Ian McIntosh

who was the mayor

and I think David Shirley at that stage might have been

the assistant mayor or something

and so we pitched this idea of a 24 hour race

and I thought this will take

three years to happen

this will take red tape, OH&S

this won't happen

and now three months later

they came back and said yeah it's on

we're happy to do that

it's on

and so that started it

and of course then we had to make it happen

and

we rightly or wrongly

Ross decided to hold a press conference at the Adelaide 500

and announce it

and of course that's Tony Cochran's pet event

and I remember

Cocker standing down the back

of the press conference

with tears streaming down his face

because Ross had the audacity

to launch this 24 hour

Bathurst race at a supercar event

and yeah

it all moved on

and moved forward

and the two events happened

they were great races in their own right

the Tuvenaro 427s were born

unfortunately it needed

one more year of consolidation

and then it would have flown

but I think Ross realised he couldn't

fund it for another year

but we had live television coverage

on Seven

and I remember doing the deal with Kerry Stokes

he was the owner of Seven at the time

we bought John Cowley on to

help run the event

John had been a former chairman of the Gold Coast Indie event

was Ken Cowley's brother

had a great association with Kerry Stokes

I said we need live TV

so he said I'll set up a meeting with Kerry Stokes

so Ross Palmer

John Cowley and myself met with Kerry

pitched the idea of a 24 hour race to him

because at that stage Seven had no motorsport

they'd let it all go

and Ten had all the motorsport

and within a week

Kerry had come back and said yep

we'll do it and we'll contribute some money to

the production costs

but there's a young bloke called Mark Beretta

we think he's got a bit of potential

we'd like him to host it and be part of it

can that happen

and that's how it did happen

and so those two 24 hour races were really

quite special in their own right

and as I said one more year

and that would have continued on

and been one of the great races of the world

thankfully the 12 hour race came back

which Westie and I brought back with James O'Brien

when we were with Sphyrix back in

2009 or whatever it was

and that's grown to become

a world class international event

in its own right now

there's been plenty of lows

but there's been lots of highs along the way

Rusty and it's been a great ride

it really really has

and it's been a massive

I guess there's been one of the key things about it

I talk about you know it's time to move on

and let the young guard have a go

and I think some of the things that make me

happy along the way are some of the people

that I've met and been able to help

you know like Mark Scafe as a 14 year old kid

he and I raced in the same karting team

and then you know Tugio sponsored

his first ever Tarana XU1 drive

at Amory Park when he got his license

Neil Crompton I said earlier

we sponsored his Mitsubishi

Coria

Chris Piver lived with me here in this very house

for 18 months when he first

came across from New Zealand as an 18 year old

and I rang Gary Rogers and said

I've got this kid here you should have a look at him

and of course he got some drives with

GRM out of that

I remember

Wade Ornger you know auditioning for the first V8

you'd call it at AVE

where obviously you started your

commentary career as well

Wade and I are still great mates

he's still one of the world's greatest motorsport commentators

Young Craig Nader who runs

some Porsche Carrera Cup these days

he'd live with me in this house

when he first came across from Adelaide

and then of course he went on to run

Toyota 86 with Neil Crompton and now

is head of Carrera Cup and the Mitsula

Sport Challenge Matt McKilden

I remember introducing Richard Krell

to Murray Lomax saying here's this commentator

I think it's got a bit of potential

have a listen that's been as probably

as much of a bonus of seeing these young kids

get a break and move through the sport

as it has been part of it myself

I think you realise at a point

I'm 73 years of age now

and as I said I've had a long climb

from the bottom to the middle

but I think you get to the point where you know it's time

and it's best to go out gracefully

knowing that you've achieved as much

if you possibly could

still connected through the sport

through your own son still racing

and still being involved

when great mates with Matt McKilden

and Mark Crutch and all those people that you met along the way

Dick Johnson and Alan Grice

and all those kind of guys

so it was never

a path rusty that I

I firmly set myself on

but motorsport was a passion

and I'm lucky that I've been able to blend that into

more or less a career which is at least

paid for a house and brought up some kids

and can still put

three meals and some dog biscuits on the floor

for the dog

I love that you went after it mate

and that you are still as passionate about it all these years on

can I finish

Grant I know

has had a Mustang in the garage

he loves a bit of two wheel stuff

have you got a guilty pleasure car of some kind

a resto project

or is there something now that you'd like to get your teeth into

if you don't

well funnily you should say that

because about five years ago I decided

probably just before

TA2 came along not a bit more

that I needed a retirement project

and I'd always wanted a T-Model Ford

so I decided that I would

build

buy or make a T-Model Ford

and so

I didn't know much about them so I

I knew a guy called Doug

Huntington or his son Bruce who raced NASCAR

in Australia and I knew he was

associated with T-Model Fords so I rang

Bruce he said you need to talk to my dad Doug

he's at Allera now Doug

has Australia's oldest racing car

it's a 1922 Wichner

raced at the first ever Maribra Speedway

race meeting he still has it today

and it is

logbooked as Australia's oldest racing car

with a T-Model Ford engine

transmission and diff

in fact I've got a picture of it

right there

he says spinning around amazing

I went and met with Doug up at Allera

and we formed

a bond very very quickly because he'd been

involved with Dick Johnson racing

doing all the shell merchandise for years

his son Bruce raced Formula Ford and NASCAR

we formed a bond and I told him what I wanted

I said I want to build a Ford

speedster that will do 100 mile an hour

and he said

I love you he said

you're my man

and so anyhow

I knew nothing about T-Model Fords but anyhow we ended up

buying a rolling chassis

of Bob Travane at Lismore who was a Ford dealer

down there and Doug

said you've got to have if you want to go fast

you've got to have what's called a frontenac head

and I said well what's a frontenac head

and he said it was a head made in

1919 by the Chevrolet brothers

for T-Model Fords to race

in the Indianapolis 500

you've got to have one cross-flow overhead

valve head so for 12 months

I searched the world for one

Model T forums eBay

everywhere I finally found one on

Gumtree in Victoria

bought it

brought it up here put it on the T-Model

and so now we've got the basis of

100 mile an hour T-Model Ford

the fastest ever recorded

official recorded time for a T-Model

is 91 mile an hour set by

Henry Ford himself in 1909

but that was not a production T-Model

it was a race special so my plan

is to take our T-Model

which is a 1915 car

to the Lake Gardner Speed Week

in South Australia on the Salt Flats

and try and do 100 mile an hour

in it and become

the world's fastest idiot

I love that

that is a great story

and I know there will be a bit of traction

around that in our industry

thank you for sharing it mate

this 90 minutes has flown by Craig

it's been a joy for me along the way

just little moments along the way to have

called some stuff and worked with you

to see what you've done in category

management to see

grants, career

flourish congratulations

55 amazing years

thrilled to have had this chat with you

and to try and tell a little bit of your

story and some of the fun stuff along the way

thank you for coming on the garage today

good on Russie and well done to you too mate

I mean we started together calling Super Touring

all those years ago we worked

together at AVE and it's great to see that your career

has taken you where you are

and now happily living their life in New Zealand

which is fantastic but still very much

a part of Australian Motorsport

you deserve it mate well done

Rusty's garage

is written and presented by me

Greg Rust

series editor and producer

is Joel Harrison

audio production by Link Kelly

if you've got a guest suggestion

get in touch with me on social media

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it's where a journey begins

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Craig Denyer | Part 2 - Brute Utes, TA2 & plans to break a record

About this episode

Mazda 626

Ford Falcon

Holden SS Commodore

prototype

V8 Ute

Holden

Motec

R-Spec tyres

brake pad

Adelaide 500

supercars

SUV

Graham Crosby

DVS series

Bathurst 12 Hour

McLaren

Bathurst 6 Hour

Chevrolet Camaro

Mini Challenge

Nürburgring

PRI show

How Motorsports

Chevrolet Beretta

Porsche Carrera

Toyota 86

Ford Mustang

Ford Model T

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