Grove Racing will step away from the Dunlop Super2 Series at the end of this year to focus on Gen3.
The team currently fields Matthew Payne in Supercars’ second tier, however, the New Zealander is poised for a promotion to the Grove’s main game squad in 2023.
Payne will take over the seat of the retiring Lee Holdsworth, while David Reynolds is expected to remain at Penrite Racing for next season.
Coupled with the arrival of Gen3, team owner Stephen Grove says the Braeside operation will funnel all its efforts into the Repco Supercars Championship.
“Our 2023 programme is purely just main game,” he told Speedcafe.com.
“I’ve made the decision that we won’t do Super2, we’ve just got to focus on Gen3, focus on the new car, and focus on building our team and infrastructure.
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“We won’t be doing Super2.”
Payne currently fields a Nissan Altima, which will not be eligible in Super2 next year, with only the Gen2 Holden ZB Commodore and Ford Mustang permitted.
Grove explained that the need to source a car for Super2 was not a factor in the decision, while the family’s GT and Porsche Carrera Cup programmes will continue.
“We could have sourced one of our current cars if we wanted to do [Super2],” he said.
“But for us, I just want the whole organisation focusing on Gen3 and the main game.
“We’ll reassess at the end of 2023 if we want to do it in 2024.
“We’re still run our GT programme and our Carrera Cup programme but that’s more of my racing, it’s not a part of the programmes that we want to bring young kids through.
“We’ve just decided that we’ll focus one hundred percent of all our energies, efforts, and infrastructure on Gen3.”
The team’s driving line up is yet to be officially confirmed, though Grove didn’t leave any room for doubt, painting a clear picture.
“For us, it’s a formality,” he said of contract talks.
“Dave’s got another year on his contract so Dave will certainly be in the car and Matty Payne will certainly be in the other car.
“That’s locked in now. We’ve got an experienced hand and we’ve got a young guy coming through that we think has huge potential.
“If we take that mix and the people in the team that we’ve got we just want to do two cars and we want to do it really well.”
Supercars’ New Zealand round is taking place this weekend, with Practice 2 at Pukekohe Park Raceway scheduled for Saturday at 11:35 local time/09:35 AEST.
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