Dennis Grant

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Dennis Grant (born 1970 in Quesnel, British Columbia and most recently a resident of Windsor, Ontario) is an auto racing champion.

As team principal, engineer, and driver of the [Far North Racing] Eagle Talon, he became the first ever Canadian to win an SCCA ProSolo Class Championship and a ProSolo Challenge Championship when he won the Street Modified Class Championship and subsequently, the Honda Street Challenge Championship, in 2002. In 2004 he brought his Street Modified car to the inaugural Canadian National Autoslalom Championship, entered in D Modified (that being the best fit for the car under the different Canadian rules) and won. Mid-season 2005 the team shut down for financial reasons, and Dennis retired from racing.

Career highlights

1998 SCCA ProSolo Rookie of the Year
2000, 2001, 2003 CENDIV Street Modified Divisional Champion
2000 BFGoodrich CENDIV Series Street Modified Champion
2002 SCCA ProSolo Street Modified Champion
2002 SCCA ProSolo Honda Street Challenge Champion
2004 Canadian National Autoslalom D Modified National Champion

Career Bio

1997: Dennis joined the Detroit Region SCCA and competed in several local autocross events in G Stock. Convinced to attend the 1997 National Championship, he drove the car out to Topeka, KS, bought his first set of race tires, and finished 44/45.

1998: Dennis was invited to co-drive with John McIver at the Peru ProSolo when John's usual co-driver, Jim Crider, broke his hand at the Detroit Grand Prix Trans-Am race. When John broke his Mazda MX-6 shortly before they were to depart, Dennis suggested they use his Talon instead, and John reluctantly agreed. Dennis, putting his former drag racing experience to good use, introduced the sport to the potential of the AWD drop-clutch launch, and won his first ever trophy, plus the event rookie award, despite the car being protested for a laundry list of imagined violations (the car was judged completely clean). John won the event, and the AWD revolution was on. The team picked up Renee Eady as a co-driver, attended the remaining ProSolo events, and came within a whisker of winning the overall Championship. Dennis won the Rookie of the Year trophy for his efforts (aided by a second place finish in the Club Challenge at the Finale) and Renee won the Ladies' Championship.

1999: At the request of sponsor David Buschur of Buschur Racing, Dennis converted the car to E Street Prepared. At the same time, ProSolo eliminated the "Pro" and "Club" classes, instead forming six new "P Classes" for Pros based on a new format. With the Talon classed in P2 with cars half its weight, the car was badly overmatched, and the season did not go well. In the fall of 1999, based partly on a desire to see a class that better reflected the state of typical street-driven, heavily modified cars, but also based on a hunch that the "P Class" experiment was going to be abandoned and would need to be replaced with a class that had some level of viceral specator appeal, Dennis wrote the rules for a new class "Street Modified" that would require basically stock chassis, but would completely open up the engine and suspension rules. To his complete surprise, the rules were adopted, and the class put on the books for 2000.

2000: Having been the principal author behind the creation of the Street Modified class, it seemed appropriate to tie his fate to that of the class, and the Talon was modified into a Street Modified car, with a great deal of help from Forced Performance. The car proved immediately quick right out of the gate, as did Kent Rafferty's Toyota Supra and Kent & Dennis spent the entire season within tenths of each other, with Kent always managing to get the upper hand. The team had better luck at the Divisional level, where Dennis won both the CENDIV Divisional Championship and the BFGoodrich CENDIV Series. Overall, this was the "bridesmaid" season with Dennis placing top-3 in 19 out of 20 events and never placing below 4th.

2001: With the car getting more powerful and the engineering getting more complex, this was a year of broken parts and wildly variable results, including an abbreviated National Championship Sept 11 when the World Trade Center attacks took place while Dennis was out on track. Notwithstanding the odd season, the team repeated the Divisional Championsip and Meridian National Tour wins, and right at the end of the season, made a huge step forward when they switched from Kumho to Hoosier tires.

2002: New tires, more power, and a revamped attitude lead to the team's first ProSolo win at the Ft Myers Pro, and win after win followed. With 5 major wins, including the ProSolo SM Championship, the Honda Street Challenge Championship, and the DSM Shootout "Ultimate DSM" award, this was the most successful Pro season the team ever had, and the most successful season by any Canadian or Eagle Talon/Misubishi Eclipse to date.

2003: With the arrival of Bob Tunnell to Street Modified, class wins started to get a lot more difficult, but the team still managed three wins, once beating Bob outright, and had a near miss at the National Championship, where Dennis was on track for a win but had the runs spoiled by rain and a poor tire choice. Attending the Divisional Championship again (the team skipped 2002) resulted in another win and another Divisional title.

2004: Another Pro win (again beating out Bob) and a spate of second place finishes meant the team was always in the hunt, but the year's biggest success was the win in D Modified at the inagural Canadian National Autoslalom Championship, making Dennis an international champion.

2005: The financial and physical toll of nine seasons of National-level ProSolo competition started adding up, and the SCCA's management, never good at the best of times, promised more of the same for this and subsequent seasons. With the rewards not getting any larger (and in fact shrinking fast) and with the cost of competition getting ever larger, the decision was made to stand the team down and retire from racing mid season. The car, at last report, was up for sale.

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