HE may not have done much racing in the past 18 months, but Perthville’s Grant Denyer showed he hasn’t lost his touch as his blistering opening lap helped to set up victory for his team at the Queensland Raceway on Sunday.
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Denyer joined Tony D’Alberto behind the wheel of the Class A1 #10 Simply Sports Cars Lotus Exige for the second round of the Australian Production Car Series at the Queensland Raceway.
The format of the weekend saw teams tackling a pair of 300 kilometre races – Saturday’s run under lights and dubbed the Fight in the Night.
Denyer and Alberto earned pole for Saturday and got a good jump to lead the way, but a slow puncture forced the team to make extra pit stops and they dropped back down the grid.
The honours in that race went to Orange’s Tim Leahy who shared the #23 BMW M3 with Beric Lynton.
“It was probably a bit intimidating starting on pole position with a brand new car and a brand new program. This is very new for Lotus, it’s a production car race, so we didn’t really know what to expect, we don’t know all the strengths and weaknesses of the car yet,” Denyer said.
“We didn’t know if they could do 300 kays and what might break in the process. So it was a nerve-wracking experience and it turns out we blew a tyre.”
On Sunday morning Denyer and D’Alberto’s Lotus was hampered by an ABS sensor failure and come race time, their entry was 20th on the grid.
But Denyer peeled off a spectacular opening lap – driving his way into the top five – and by his third lap the #10 Lotus Exige had the lead.
From there the pair went to to claim the chequered flag ahead of the #1 Sherrin Rentals BMW M4.
“It was a good opening lap, I really enjoyed myself out there. But we took a gamble not to put tyres on today while everyone else did, it was a little bit of a lose call and it was line ball, but it paid off,” Denyer said.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done any circuit racing, so it's good to partner with this bloke [D’Alberto], he’s the shortest bloke I know and that’s the only requirement for driving with me.
“To notch up it’s [Lotus’] first win is a pretty special feeling, you know we are up against some remarkable brands and cars and drivers so to stand on the top step of the podium is a pretty special one. It’s lovely to be back and winning another race again, it’s been a while.”
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The outright round win went to Leahy and Lynton after placing fourth in Sunday’s race and they also hold the series lead.
Denyer and D’Alberto are expected to be near the pointy end of the field when the series continues with round three at Winton with a pair of two-hour races.
However, the Perthville driver admits the overall series honours may be beyond the reach of himself and D’Alberto.
“I don’t think we will figure in the championship as we unfortunately missed the first round due to the accident and then we had a tyre failure in race one here,” he said. “We are fairly behind in points, there is a lot of pride that goes into winning races, there is a lot of team effort that goes on behind the scenes. So this is very much for them at this particular point, we will hopefully sneak a couple of wins where we can.”
