Early years 1985–1989

Grist started his career as a golf professional at the Monmouthshire Golf Club,^[2] and then joined a local car sales centre, where he was given Sundays off. This gave him the opportunity to enter into the relatively inexpensive motorsport of road rallying. His first rally was the George Ford Pips Rally, held in Caldicott in Wales, in a Ford Escort with Bryn Wiltshire driving.^[3]

• 1982 Competed in the Welsh 1300 Road Rally Championship with Steve Davies and won the 1300 class that year
• 1983 Competed in the Welsh Road Rally Championship in an Escort RS 2000 with Steve Davies and won the overall championship
• 1984 Competed in the Motoring News Road Rally Championship in the same Escort RS 2000 with Steve Davies. Won the Agbo, Eagle and Cilwendeg Rallies.
• 1985 Competed in the Vauxhall Nova Junior Cup, his first stage rally championship, with driver Steve Davies. He also competed in his first WRC rally, the Lombard RAC Rally, with Stuart Nicholls in a Vauxhall Astra GTE
• 1986 Competed in the British National Championship with Steve Davies for the Volkswagen Junior Rally Team in a VW Golf GTi. He also competed in British Open Championship in an early Group A Toyota with Graham Middleton as driver.
• 1987 Competed in the British Open Championship with driver Graham Middleton, in a Group A Toyota Corolla, ending second in class.
• 1988 Joined Vauxhall driver, Harry Hockley, in a development programme of the Group A 1600 Vauxhall Nova. Competed in the British Open Championship, finishing with a win at the Lombard RAC Rally, in a Group A 1300 version of the Nova.
• 1989 Competed in the British Open Championship with driver Dave Metcalfe, in the Vauxhall 1600 Nova developed the previous year. In this year Nicky earned his first wage as a co-driver.

World Rally Championship

2003–2005 Television

In 2003, Grist began working for TV, on the programmes that produced the rally coverage for broadcasters around the world. He primarily worked for two different programmes, Speed TV in the US and the other the review programme that went out worldwide for all the WRC rounds. Grist worked as the presenter of the programme for Speed TV, explaining the rules and showing why a particular stage is a challenge. With the review programme, Grist worked as much behind the scenes, helping recce the rallies for great TV positions, planning the overall programmes, identifying the splits so that journalists can ask why a particular competitor did well or not.^[6]

2005–2006 WRC

In 2005, Grist again joined Colin McRae as co-driver, in a Škoda Fabia WRC, for the Rally GB. It was in this rally that Markko Märtin's co-driver Michael Park, from Newent, Gloucester, a long-term friend of Grist's was killed when their Peugeot hit a tree. Grist and McRae finished 7th just ahead of fellow Brit, Mark Higgins with Sébastien Loeb refusing the ten points from that stage win, in respect for the loss of his friend. Later that same year they raced the Skoda in Rally Australia, and in some stages leading the way, however, team mechanics issues resulted in the two having to retire.

2006–2007

In 2006 Grist joined McRae for X Games 12 in Los Angeles, America, and throughout the televised event they fought for the lead, however on the last jump they landed badly, popped a tyre and then rolled but still managed to right themselves, losing only 2 seconds in the roll, getting to the finish line just over half a second behind Travis Pastrana and Christian Edstrom, and in front of Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino, bringing them to the attention of many Americans who had never heard of them before. The last WRC rally together was at the Rally of Turkey, in 2006, the last competitive WRC event for both Grist and McRae, but they were unable to finish and retired on the last stage, due to alternator problems with their Citroen Xsara WRC of the Kronos Citroen World Rally Team.

On 15 September 2007, McRae and his 5-year-old son, Johnny, with Graeme Duncan and Johnny's six-year-old friend Ben Porcelli were killed in a helicopter crash, piloted by McRae, near his home in Lanark, Scotland. The funeral for Colin and Johnny McRae took place on Wednesday 26 September at Daldowie Crematorium near Glasgow where McRae and his son were cremated in the same coffin.^[7]

2007–today

Grist regularly sits in the co-drivers seat for various drivers such as the Roger Albert Clark Rally amongst other events, but has mostly retired from co-driving and is now heading his own motorsports business. Nicky also appeared in a special episode of the British automotive magazine show Fifth Gear alongside Mark Higgins, instructing the hosts as they participate in a rally.

In 2019 Grist participated in the non-competitive Eifel Rallye Festival as a driver in his Celica GT4 ST185, his first event since 2001's Omloop van Vlaanderen where he also took the driver's seat.^[8]

Colin McRae Rally

In 1998, whilst racing with Colin McRae, Codemasters developed a game for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows entitled Colin McRae Rally, in which Grist lent his voice and likeness as a co-driver, guiding players around various special stages in eight countries. The game used real drivers and their cars from the 1998 WRC and featured McRae and Grist's Subaru from 1998 on the front cover. Through this Grist's voice has become familiar to many who played the game.^[9][10] Colin McRae Rally was soon followed by Colin McRae Rally 2.0, with subsequent games featuring Grist until Colin McRae Rally 2005. Grist later reprised his role as one of the default co-drivers (alongside Jen Horsey) in Dirt 4.^[11][12]

Nicky Grist Motorsport

In 2006, Ludovico and Elena Fassitelli, the Italian owners and creators of Stilo helmets, approached Grist to become the sole UK distributor of the Stilo range and through this he set up Nicky Grist Motorsport, based near his home in Pontrilas, Herefordshire. Through this retail outlet, Grist stocks quality racewear and accessories for all rally, road and track competitors, as well as providing all competitors with Stilo helmets, intercoms and HANS devices. With customers such as Petter Solberg, Ken Block, Kris Meeke and Sébastien Loeb, Grist is still in touch with all that is happening in the WRC. In addition, Grist is unofficially a consultant to the FIA WRC, concerned with matters of safety, helmet and HANS device regulations to the British sport. As a Welshman, he gives talks to business through the Welsh Assembly, and is a regional judge for the F1 in Schools competition.

Co-Driver Academy

Added to his development of the Nicky Grist Motorsport business, Grist is looking to start a co-driver's academy for young co-drivers to develop their skills and become experienced and skilled co-drivers.

Other events

More information #, Event ...

#	Event	Season	Rally Driver		Car	Team	Y/E Position
–	Tudor Webasto Manx International Rally / ERC20	1989	Dave Metcalfe		Vauxhall Nova GTE	Vauxhall Dealer Sport	4
–	24 Heures d'Ypres / ERC20	1995	Juha Kankkunen		Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD	Toyota Castrol Team	Ret
–	Rallye International du Valais/ ERC5	1995	Juha Kankkunen		Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD	Toyota Castrol Team	Ret

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More information #, Event ...

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car	Position
15	Omloop van Vlaanderen[15]	2001	Yves Preal	Ford Puma Kit Car	41
12	Eifel Rallye Festival[15]	2019	Phil Hall	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD	N/A (show event only)

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