It’s early days for Grove Racing in the Repco Supercars Championship, but team principal David Cauchi says he’s buoyed by the squad’s “genuine” podium pace.
David Reynolds led the charge at the Tasmania SuperSprint, bringing the team its first podium under the Grove Racing banner.
Although he was spun out of contention in Race 3, the #26 pilot bounced back for finishes of third and fourth in Race 4 and Race 5 respectively.
Team-mate Lee Holdsworth enjoyed a solid weekend too, claiming finishes of ninth, ninth, and 14th across the three 44-lap races.
Speaking with Speedcafe.com, Cauchi said he was overjoyed by the team’s Tasmania performance.
“Today’s results, there was no luck involved,” he said at the close of play on Sunday.
“It was genuine car pace, good pit strategy, and good management from the drivers, and good pit stops.
“We earnt those positions on genuine pace and genuine hard work. That absolutely is the most encouraging thing.
“I can’t ask for anything more from the team. I’m just rapt and really happy that we could show what we’re here to do and I’m looking forward to the future.
“The race engineers have been working really hard in the background, the whole engineering team, to understand the car better, understand some of the things last year, and how we can use that to make the right decisions this year,” he added.
“That’s all starting to come together. It’s a long process. There’s still a lot of work we need to do on the car in terms of set-up and the way we operate, but those things will come in time.”
Although Cauchi is conscious the team has room for improvement, the breakout podium represents the first major achievement since he joined the team.
The race engineer-turned-team principal was long part of the Triple Eight Race Engineering fold, enjoying two championship wins working directly with Jamie Whincup and one with Shane van Gisbergen.
Reynolds’ Race 4 podium saw him finish only behind the two Red Bull Ampol Racing cars of van Gisbergen and rookie Broc Feeney.
Cauchi said he’s happy to have ticked that first box, now the team needs to do it again.
“This weekend we got a podium, so that’s set the benchmark,” he said.
“Anything less is going to be a disappointment, but podiums don’t come easy.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do before we can be consistently getting podiums every weekend, but we’ve proven that it’s possible.
“If we do our homework right and execute our weekend right, if we can do all those things right absolutely we can be on the podium, and we’ve proven that this weekend.”
Cauchi is one of a handful of changes to the team year-on-year.
Lee Holdsworth joined the Braeside-based operation in place of Andre Heimgartner, race engineer Will Davidson taking Dilan Talabani’s place.
Cauchi said he’s been encouraged by the team’s cohesion early on.
“We’ve got a new driver in Lee, a new race engineer, some new staff, obviously myself being new to the team, so everybody is still learning each other, learning how to work with each other,” he said.
“It’s just really positive. Everybody has got a really good vibe at the team. Everybody is working together to help move these cars further up the grid and further up the pit lane. It’s awesome to be a part of.
“Everybody has been working hard in the background and everyone is starting to work really well together. The drivers are doing a great job. The race engineers are working really well together. It’s all these little things.
“We got some really positive results we can use to motivate us for the next few months.”
Grove Racing will continue its 2022 Repco Supercars Championship season at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix across April 7-10.
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