Four-time Bathurst 12 Hour class winners Grove Racing will compete in the GT3 ranks for the first time at next year’s Mount Panorama sportscar enduro.
Stephen Grove and son Brenton will again be joined by British sportscar ace Ben Barker, the trio which has won Class B for the last two years, but this time in a Porsche 911 GT3 R.
It will be run in the Pro-Am subclass by a combination of German outfit Herberth Racing, which prepared the same car for Stephen and Brenton when they took Bronze in this year’s inaugural FIA Motorsport Games, and Grove’s local crew.
The latter includes John Russell and Jarrod Bowles, who have worked in engineering roles in the Supercars Championship and Formula E, and this year with Brenton at Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Super2 Series.
“Herberth’s head engineer will come over as crew chief and work with alongside their regular German mechanics and our local engineers, John Russell and Jarrod Bowles,” explained Brenton.
“Those guys are hugely experienced both with the team and long-distance races at Mount Panorama. Having completed a full program with them this year we know each other extremely well and definitely talk the same language.
“Ben (Barker) is always strong at Bathurst and I strongly believe he should be able to run with the factory drivers at the event.
“We’re getting great support from Porsche, so hopefully we can be consistent and do our jobs to bring home a strong result.
“It’s hugely exciting for the team to make the step up from running for a class win to be competing with factory teams and all the brands that want to win at Bathurst.
“It’s one of the most exciting things we’ve done as a team and we’re all really looking forward to it.”
Class B of the Bathurst 12 Hour had been the domain of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Cars but will be held for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo next year.
The 2020 edition of the once-around-the-clock enduro will be held from January 31-February 2.
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