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Penrite Racing has announced its driver pairings for this year’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
The #26 Ford Mustang will be driven by two Great Race winners, with David Reynolds to be joined by Garth Tander.
Championship rookie Matt Payne will share Car #19 with Kevin Estre, a debutant in Supercars but highly experienced in GT competition and currently driving for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Grove Racing Team Principal David Cauchi said, “I don’t think you could ask for a better endurance line-up.
“The experience that both Garth and Kévin possess is world class and we can’t wait to kick off our endurance campaign with them alongside Matt and Dave.
“Garth has been working with us from the start of the year; his feedback has been fantastic as we learned more about the Gen3 cars.
“Kévin brings with him phenomenal racing experience and impeccable driving skill which has brought him a great deal of success. So, we are excited to have him driving our Mustang with Matt.”
Grove revealed the prized signing of Tander just months after he won the Bathurst 1000 for a second time in three years as co-driver to Shane van Gisbergen with Triple Eight Race Engineering.
The five-time Great Race winner has been part of the team’s testing programme throughout the year although, even after Estre was announced as its other enduro co-driver in March, final pairings were left open until now.
Payne said, “It’s really exciting to paired with Kévin Estre. He is a bit of a global superstar with a mega amount of experience under his belt.
“He’s someone I am looking forward to working with and learning from as we head into the enduro rounds.”
“I have done some endurance racing overseas myself last year and always saw his name at the top of the timesheets so it will be great to combine our experience and see what we can do in the back half of the year.”
Estre, whose triumphs include a 24 Hours of Le mans victory, remarked, “Really pleased to share the car with Matt. He’s a talented young driver and has showed his speed many times in his career already.
“He’s a rookie in Supercars but I’m sure that he’s going to help me a lot to be on pace as soon as possible! I can’t wait to be racing with the whole team.”
The Sandown 500 takes place on September 15-17.
