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Grove Racing will introduce one of its favoured numbers to the Repco Supercars Championship next year, with recruit Lee Holdsworth to don the #10.
The #4 and #10 are the numbers most deeply associated with Grove Racing, but the former is already used elsewhere by Jack Smith at Brad Jones Racing.
With David Reynolds to retain the #26, it means both Rick and Todd Kelly’s numbers, #15 and #7 respectively, have effectively been retired.
Grove Racing entered into partnership with Kelly Racing earlier this year, the latter having been on the grid since 2009.
It was announced in July that the Kelly family would step away altogether at the end of year, with the Groves taking full ownership.
The number change for new Bathurst 1000 winner Holdsworth has thus been made with two-fold intentions: to give the outfit more of a Grove identity for the team’s new era, and to ensure Todd Kelly’s number is “preserved”.
“There will be a number change, which will be #10 next year,” team co-owner Brenton Grove told Speedcafe.com.
“For us, it’s a number we have run in the past and I’ve run in Super2 and Matt [Payne] ran in Super2.
“It’s a number that’s synonymous with us – the other number is #4 but that’s already taken so we couldn’t run #4, so we wanted to run #10.
“And I think it also just gives us an identity as well – #7 had been with Todd for a long time and we thought it was best that we use a number that’s synonymous with us but also didn’t want to disrespect the #7 that Todd had run because that’s something really important to him and something we’re quite big on keeping preserved.”
Andre Heimgartner had run the #7 since being handpicked to succeed Todd Kelly, when the Bathurst 1000 winner called time on his driving career at the end of 2017. Heimgartner will drive for BJR next year.
A point noted by fans was that Holdsworth was dressed in Penrite colours for his announcement imagery. The oil company is a long-time supporter of Reynolds, following him to Braeside at the start of the year.
Ned Whisky has been the major backer on Heimgartner’s Mustang for the past two seasons and were said to have re-signed with the team for 2022.
Pressed on whether the images reflected a change in either more Penrite branding, or less Ned, Brenton Grove replied: “I wouldn’t read into anything that. That’s just what was there on the day.”
Andrew Thompson is the most recent driver to have run #10 across a full main game season, that being in 2010 for Walkinshaw Racing.
