Nicky Grist (born 1 November 1961) is a Welsh former rally co-driver and entrepreneur, born in Ebbw Vale. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1993 to 2002. He won 21 rallies with more than one driver.
Background[]
Nicky initially took up golfing upon being introduced by his grandfather to the sport at Monmouthshire Golf Club in Abergavenny, later leaving school at the age of sixteen after being offered a position as an assistant professional golfer. After watching a series of rallies near his place, he worked as a car salesman where he was given Sundays off. This gave him the opportunity to enter into the relatively inexpensive motorsport of road rallying.[2] Owing to lack of funds for maintaining his own rally car, Grist chose the job of being a co-driver, prefering to stay as such since.[3] His first rally was the George Ford Pips Rally, held in Caldicott in Wales, in a Ford Escort with Bryn Wiltshire driving.
Grist's first WRC win was in the Rally Argentina in 1993 with Juha Kankkunen, who at that time was a three times WRC champion. Grist and Kankkunen went on to win the 1993 WRC championship with Toyota. Grist stayed as Kankkunen's co-driver until 1997 when he joined Colin McRae with the 555 Subaru World Rally Team. Grist remained Colin McRae's co-driver until the Rally New Zealand 2002, during which time the pair two won 17 rallies, 27 podium finishes and gained overall 183 WRC points. Between 2002 and 2006, Grist and McRae also competed together in a number of one-off rallies. Together with McRae, Grist became well-known in the sim racing community for being the default co-driver in the Colin McRae Rally series, appearing in all of the games up to Colin McRae Rally 2005.
Appearances[]
Grist first appeared in Colin McRae Rally as the player's sole co-driver,[4] and in subsequent games up until Colin McRae Rally 2005; Derek Ringer took over the role as the default co-driver Colin McRae Rally '04, likely due to real-life disagreements with McRae and Grist, though the latter's voice set is also available (as "Co-Driver B"). Grist's voice clips from previous games were reused in the 2013 mobile game. He later returned to reprise his role in DiRT 4 as one of the co-drivers the player can hire to his/her team, eventually replacing Jen Horsey as the starting co-driver in the December 2017 Clubs Update.