Grove Racing to field Payne in 24H Dubai

Matt Payne will join Stephen and Brenton Grove in their new Mercedes-AMG when they tackle the 24H Dubai later this month.

After an association of several years with Porsche, the Groves have switched to the Three-Pointed Star in GT3 competition, starting with a pair of 24H Series enduros in the Middle East.

First, they will contest the 6H Abu Dhabi on January 20-21, when fellow Australian Driver Jordan Love, nowadays a Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver, joins the squad.

A week later, they will head to Dubai for a twice-around-the-clock encounter, when Payne and Phil Keen will complete the driver line-up.

It comes after Payne’s future Supercars team-mate, Richie Stanaway, made his first competitive Grove Racing Audi at last month’s Gulf 12 Hours.

Brenton Grove said of their brand-new Mercedes-AMG GT3, “To head into another season with a new brand is incredibly refreshing.

“Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing have been a pleasure to deal with and we’re excited to see what we can do together.

“There’s no need to explain the pedigree the brand has within motorsport, and we can’t wait to be a part of that.

“It really is the World’s Fastest Family.”

Love is the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup Silver champion, while Payne scored a maiden Repco Supercars Championship race win in the final encounter of the season on the streets of Adelaide.

Stephen Grove is a podium finisher in the 24H Dubai, which takes place at the Dubai Autodrome, although his recent outing at Yas Marina, which will play host to the 6H Abu Dhabi, was a less than stellar experience.

Then, he was fortunate to walk away from a monster crash in the Gulf 12 Hours which was caused by an apparent ABS issue for the Porsche which the team was fielding.

Brenton, his co-driver then and now, said, “We’ve tried our hand at Dubai a few times before and have been super close.

“With the line-up of car and driver that we have this year, there’s no hiding our ambition to go one step further.

“To head back to Abu Dhabi after the issues the team had to deal with last time is going to be a blessing.

“We can’t wait to get a big year of racing started.”

The 24H Dubai was originally scheduled to run on January 13-14 but was pushed back a fortnight due to a shipping delay.