In 1986, Gosford businessman Graeme Bailey decided to build a brand-new Commodore and race under the brand of his family business Chickadee Chickens in selected local touring car rounds, with the aim of having a serious shot at the James Hardie 1000.
He secured the services of in-form gun driver Allan Grice, Victorian based race car prep and engine specialist Les Small and Peter Pattenden from Precinct Performance Gosford to bolt the Roadways Racing VK Commodore together – “strong enough so Gricey couldn’t break it”.
He also hired Denyer, who was well known in radio and motorsport media circles, as the PR/business manager for the season to maximise the returns for the family business.
Grice was racing in Europe at the time and missed his flight back to Australia because of a bomb scare at Heathrow Airport.
As a consequence he also missed the opening Thursday practice at Mount Panorama.
Retiring motorsport servant’s biggest achievements came at Bathurst
The following day Denyer made a deal with Bob Jane to rent his helicopter and fly from Bathurst and pick up Grice from Mascot Airport in Sydney hopefully to return in time for the morning practice session.
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The plan was a solid one until he woke the following morning to find Bathurst covered in fog.
“The pilot had a simple plan,” recalled Denyer.
“We will just go straight up, the fog will have to end somewhere.”
Ironically, that is exactly what happened with Denyer and Ian Maudsley, who coordinates the annual motorsport reunion lunch on the Gold Coast every August, strapped in for the ride.
The aircraft eventually broke through the low-lying cloud and followed the valleys back to Sydney where they finally met Grice, who was itching to get to Mount Panorama for his 15th start in the great race.
They fired back to Bathurst and Grice, with virtually no sleep and a 24-hour flight under his belt, set the fastest time in morning practice and did the minimum amount of laps to qualify for the race.
“After he was quickest, Gricey said to Graeme, ‘if I stick it on the pole in Hardies Heroes do I get the prize money?’,” said Denyer.
“Graeme suggested the cash would go into the team fund for the weekend so Gricey suggested he would put it on the front row and, ironically, that’s exactly what happened.”
It is now history that Grice and Bailey went on to win the race from the Holden Dealer Team Commodore of John Harvey and Neal Lowe and the factory-backed Nissan Skyline of pole-winner Gary Scott and Terry Shiel.
Dick Johnson and Gregg Hansford finished fourth in their Ford Mustang, while the super team of former rivals Peter Brock and Allan Moffat, who had won 12 of the previous 16 races at Bathurst, finished in fifth place one lap down in their repaired HDT Commodore after an oil cooler problem.
While Denyer pulled the deals together, he also filled plenty of gaps over the race weekend.
“That was certainly a highlight of my career,” said Denyer.
“Ironically, that car is regarded as one of the most recognisable winners in Bathurst history, which is quite remarkable when you look at all the brands that have been race winners at that place.
“Even though it will be 40 years ago next year, it has to go down as one of the last true privateer efforts to win the race when you consider we had absolutely no support from Holden, and a fitting tribute to Graeme’s commitment and investment to want to win at the highest level.
“He wasn’t the quickest on track, and only did one stint behind the wheel, but was savvy enough to know if he had the right people around him he might be able to jag a win on the day – and that’s exactly what happened.
“As a combo, Gricey and the car were so quick they put Brock’s team under pressure and they eventually cracked – handing Gricey and ‘Chickenman’ a fairytale win.
“Funnily enough on one of the pit stops during that race you can actually see me washing the windscreen of the car. Great memories.”
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