Erebus and Triple Eight, between them, swept the major honours in 2023, with the former winning the drivers’ and teams’ championships and the latter prevailing in both enduros.
Grove, on the other hand, experienced a mid-season slump during which it underperformed even in comparison to fellow Ford teams, but was fastest of the Blue Oval contingent come enduro time.
It went on to finish the season with a win in each of the latter two events, with David Reynolds getting up on the Gold Coast and Matt Payne in Adelaide, following a parity change to the Mustangs.
Payne is joined by 2023 Bathurst 1000-winning co-driver Richie Stanaway this year in the Braeside-based outfit, which Dane expects to figure at the pointy end of the field much more often than it did last year.
“Yes, it is Grove’s, unquestionably,” the former Triple Eight boss declared on the KTM Summer Grill.
“I mean, I’ve said it for almost two years; just give it time and having the right people in the right place, and it will be Grove’s.
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“Now, there are some very good people there who have been to university at Triple Eight, and they know what it takes to make a winning team tick.”
The Grove family gradually bought Kelly Racing in its entirety and has since signed up David Cauchi as Team Principal after he won three championships as a Race Engineer at Triple Eight (with Jamie Whincup twice and with Shane van Gisbergen in 2021), and Grant McPherson as Technical Director after he won a drivers’ championship and a Bathurst 1000 there (with van Gisbergen).
Dane highlighted the importance of leaving such figures to do what they do best.
“I think the key’ll be Stephen Grove investing in it – which he’s not scared of, at all – but then allowing the racing people to run the race team,” he said.
“Because, Stephen is a very good amateur racer, et cetera, but he’s not a motor racing person from the ground up; he hasn’t worked in it all his life.
“He’s been massively successful by not working in motorsport all his life – he’s got a great business in Grove Hire – but he has to allow the professionals to run the team.
“I hope that’s what happens because they will, for me, undoubtedly be the main force for Triple Eight and for Erebus to have to fight with [this] year.”
Payne was a rookie in 2023 but steered the #19 Penrite Mustang to his first race win in the top tier on the final day of the season at the Vailo Adelaide 500, with Dane describing the 21-year-old as a “major talent”.
The former Triple Eight boss also recounted how he recommended that team sign Stanaway as van Gisbergen’s co-driver after witnessing him up close during the 2022 Bathurst 1000, the enigmatic New Zealander’s comeback to motorsport after a period in exile.
That Great Race weekend, Dane had been drafted in to manage the Banyo squad’s Supercheap Auto wildcard entry, which so happened to share a pit bay with the Erebus wildcard driven by Stanaway and Greg Murphy.
Stanaway’s performance earned him a co-drive with Triple Eight in 2023, as well as appearances in its GT World Challenge programme, with Grove then snapping him up.
“For me, that all started, actually, with talking to Murph on a boys’ weekend in Queenstown in September ’22, and Murph telling me, ‘Pay attention to Richie at Bathurst in the wildcard,’” recalled Dane.
“And then I was running the Supercheap wildcard, so we were together, and I said that evening coming out of that weekend, to Shane and Jamie, ‘If Garth [Tander, then van Gisbergen’s co-driver] goes off and does television…’ – I didn’t know he’d go off to Grove’s – but, ‘If he goes off and does television, get Richie ASAP in with Shane for next year; he’ll be good,’ and that’s what happened.”
For more from Roland Dane, check out the full episode of the KTM Summer Grill.
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