Stephen Grove has ruled out the idea of his Penrite Racing Supercars team switching from Ford to Chevrolet.
Speculation swirled during and after the Sydney Motorsport Park event that one of the Ford teams was mulling over converting its Mustangs to Camaros amid a highly lopsided performance from marque to marque so far in the Gen3 era.
With Dick Johnson Racing being the Blue Oval’s homologation team, Tickford Racing having a longstanding connection with the brand, Walkinshaw Andretti United having only just made a high-profile switch from the General Motors camp, and the Blanchard Racing Team then in the process of building another Mustang, that left Grove Racing as the most obvious option.
The Braeside-based squad is essentially a Ford team by default given the Groves gradually completed a full takeover of Kelly Racing, with that team having switched from Nissan Altimas to Mustangs in 2020 in response to new engine regulations.
Speaking recently to Speedcafe, however, Stephen Grove reaffirmed his commitment to the marque.
“Yeah, 100 percent, we’re sticking with Ford,” he said.
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“It’s not part of our agenda to move at all. We believe in the Ford and we believe in the process.”
Grove Racing enjoyed an upturn in performance in the previous event of the season at The Bend off the back of an under-the-radar test day.
It has since given French enduro co-driver Kevin Estre an Evaluation Day at Winton, followed by a full standard ‘VCS Test Day’ for both of its Mustangs and all four drivers.
The Porsche factory steerer will pair up with Matt Payne in Car #19 while David Reynolds is joined in Car #26 by fellow Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander.
Next year, Payne will share a garage with fellow New Zealander Richie Stanaway, who is co-driving for Triple Eight Race Engineering in this year’s enduros.
Practice for the 2023 Penrite Oil Sandown 500 starts this Friday.
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