Watch MINI machines in action

Meet MINI Cooper race car driver Grant Denyer!

KZ: How excited are you to be competing in the MINI Challenge?

GD: Like me, MINI's are small so it's the first car I've driven that I can see over the steering wheel in, which is quite nice.

KZ: Will you be competing in all the races?

GD: Yeah all the races every championship.

KZ: The MINI Challenge is already big overseas, do you hope it will take off in Oz too?

GD: What makes it good is everyone is in the same car. There's minimal changes you can make to the car so it really just comes down to the driver on the day and how hard you bump the guy out of the way in front of you.

KZ: What can you tell us about the cars?

GD: They're 1.6 litre, front wheel drive and turbocharged. And, 'cos they're so small, you can fit four of them into the first turn. It makes for stunning motor racing.

KZ: How fast do the cars go?

GD: They get up to about 220 km/hr!

KZ: Which do you prefer TV Presenting or race car driving?

GD: I've always been a race car driver first, ever since I was seven year old kid on the farm when I learnt how to drive a tractor. I've always had a love a machinery and always wanted to be a racing car driver and now I'm getting to live that dream.

KZ: How do the MINI's compare to the V8's when racing?

GD: They're absolutely, completely different. MINI's are front wheel drive, the V8's a rear wheel drive. One's got 150 horse power, the other's got 500 horse power. But the cool thing with the MINI is how well they brake. The can break so hard into a corner that the rear wheels come off the ground.

KZ: How do you think the MINI's will go tearing around the famous Bathurst circuit?

GD: They've got a pretty good history at Bathurst. It was 42 years ago that they finished in the top nine positions at the Bathurst 1000 so it's the first time they've come back on the track since then. It will be a magic reunion with the mountain.

KZ: How competitive is the MINI Challenge?

GD: It's pretty competitive. We've just had V8 supercar driver Jason Bargwanna, a Bathurst winner, come back and he's lifted the stakes a little. It's super competitive, if you're not careful you'll get bumped from behind and get bumped out of the way so you can go from first to forth very quickly and you've just got to get a bit nasty to get back up there. So it's super competitive.

KZ: And how do you reckon you will go in the MINI challenge?

GD: I'm currently leading the championship, which is quite nice but like I said it's very easy to go from hero to zero.