The team’s two Ford Mustangs continue with major backing from Penrite and carry the oil firm’s traditional black, gold and red colours.
Grove’s biggest change comes in its driver line-up having opted to replace Richie Stanaway with Super2 star Kai Allen.
The recruitment of Allen, 19, to team with Matt Payne, 22, marks the youngest combined age for a two-driver Supercars line-up in almost 20 years.
That stretches back to 2007 duo Shane Price and Jack Perkins at Perkins Engineering; the team which Grove Racing evolved from.
While Price and Perkins were both rookies in what turned out to be a difficult campaign that year, Payne is entering his third season with high expectations.
The Kiwi finished sixth in the 2024 standings with a single race win to his name, scored mid-season at the Townsville 500.
Click here now.
“I’ve had two full-time racing seasons now in Supercars, but I’m definitely still hungry for more,” he said.
“[We’ve] been really locked in here in the workshop, just trying to nail every little detail we have.
“Every race counts, we cannot afford to leave any points on the table.”
Payne scored one of his four podiums for 2024 at Sydney Motorsport Park, the scene for next week’s season opener.
Allen meanwhile is embarking on his rookie Supercars Championship season following endurance outings with Dick Johnson Racing in each of the last two years.
He also made an early single-driver race start in Adelaide’s 2024 finale after Richie Stanaway was ruled out with concussion.
“It’s what I’ve been working towards my whole life, getting into Supercars,” said Allen, who completed a rookie test with Grove Racing at The Bend last Monday.
Allen won the 2023 Super2 Series title before returning to finish third last year, driving Eggleston Motorsport Holden Commodores on both occasions.
Payne and Allen will be joined for the Endurance Cup by co-drivers Garth Tander and Dale Wood respectively.
Discussion about this post