Grant Denyer and another driver have been taken to hospital after they had a frightening crash at Bathurst’s famous Mount Panorama track.
The Channel Ten star was competing in the Bathurst 6 Hour event on Sunday when his Camaro collided with the Volkswagen Scirocco of Richard Barram at the start of the climb up the mountain.
Denyer was attempting to pass Barram on the Griffins Bend corner while that area of the track was under a double waved yellow flag because a Mazda was stranded on the circuit.
Barram appeared to veer into Denyer as he tried to avoid the stationary Mazda, with the contact sending him straight into the crippled car.
The impact destroyed the front of Barram’s car, while Denyer’s front left tyre was ripped away as both vehicles came to rest on the right of the circuit.
Denyer was taken to Bathurst Hospital for observation with a possible shoulder injury while Barram was taken to Orange Hospital for observation with a suspected ankle injury, according to broadcaster Fox Sports.
Pictured: The moment the Volkswagen Scirocco of Richard Barram (left) collides with Grant Denyer’s Camaro during the Bathurst 6 Hour race on Sunday
Denyer’s car is pictured being taken off the track after the collision
The Channel Ten host (pictured at a previous event at Bathurst) was taken to hospital for observation with a possible shoulder injury
It was initially reported that both drivers were in a stable condition.
Matt Kiss, the driver of the Mazda, avoided serious injury.
Denyer has a long history in Aussie motorsport.
In 2023 he revealed how close he came to making a living racing for one of Australia’s top V8 Supercars teams.
The talented driver – who has raced in three Bathurst 1000s, won the V8 Utes Summer Series title in 2004 and came first in the 2016 CAMS Endurance Championship – was on a knife edge when Dick Johnson Racing offered him a drive in 2009.
At the time the former Sunrise and Family Feud star was starring in the second-tier V8 series for Johnson’s team when the motorsport legend gave him the chance to step up to the big time.
‘I had to make the toughest call of my life, which was, I think, about my long-term future and think about my future family –- and I gave the sport away and put all my eggs in the television basket, which is emotionally a very difficult decision,’ he told Wide World of Sports.
‘It was the hardest and almost worst decision of my life, because the heart said motor sport and the head said television, and when the thing that you live for is no longer in your life, that’s quite tough to navigate.
The Bathurst crash isn’t the first time Denyer (pictured with wife Chezzi) has been hospitalised in a motorsport incident gone wrong
The Deal or No Deal host was lucky to escape permanent nerve damage after crushing vertebrae in his lower back in a Monster Truck accident in 2008
‘What gets you out of bed every day? What makes your heart sing? If you’re no longer able to do that, then everything else just suddenly becomes not as fun.’
Denyer also revealed that his efforts to forge a TV career were actually driven by his love of racing as he wanted to increase his profile to attract sponsors in order to fund his love of motorsport.
‘TV was a way to try and fund my passion and my dream, which was motor sport, and it managed to get me all the way to the Bathurst 1000,’ he explained.
In 2022 he revealed he was getting back behind the wheel at the Targa Tasmania rally because he felt like something was ‘missing’ from his life.
‘I don’t know what I get out of my system when I race, but it’s something that’s important and I know my make-up requires that,’ he said.
Denyer suffered a serious back injury when a monster truck promotional event went badly wrong in 2008.
His vehicle landed heavily while jumping over cars and he crushed vertebrae in his lower back, but was lucky to escape without any permanent nerve damage.
