Gricey: The story of Allan Grice OAM, by Stefan Bartholomaeus, and produced with the full support and involvement of Grice and his family, tells the unlikely story of how a pastry cook from Maitland who grew up with no interest in cars or motor racing went on to become one of our greatest touring car drivers ever.
It charts Grice’s progression from rookie racer through to open-wheelers in the 1960s and early ‘70s before he finally transitioned to touring cars, where his forceful driving style made him a polarising figure – among both fans and his rival competitors.
Grice never won the Australian Touring Car Championship, but came close in 1975 – bowing out in controversial style after being disqualified (and suspended) for a technical infringement. He went on from that to score an impressive privateer win at Bathurst in the Chickadee Commodore in 1986, before accompanying Win Percy to victory with the Holden Racing Team four years later in what many regard as Holden’s finest Bathurst win.
Grice's five-decade career featured several international campaigns, including an against-the-odds European touring car assault in a Commodore VK in the ’80s, a short Euro stint with Nissan in touring cars and sports cars, and starts in the Le Mans 24 Hours and NASCAR.
The book is filled with in-depth reflections and ripping anecdotes told in trademark straight-talking Gricey fashion – brutally honest and always entertaining.
The 300-page book features lots of previously unpublished photographs, both from a range of Australian motorsport’s greatest photographers as well as from the Grice family’s personal archives.
Gricey: The story of Allan Grice OAM is available now from v8sleuth.com.au at $69.95.
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