The 19-year-old drove Kai Allen’s Penrite Ford on Tuesday during an evaluation day in which Aussie young guns Oliver Wickham and Blake Tracey also turned laps.
De Haan, runner-up in this year’s Porsche Supercup, was in the country for a one-off Carrera Cup Australia drive with EMA Motorsport at the Adelaide season finale.
He scored pole position with a record-setting lap in Friday morning qualifying before crashing out of the weekend in that afternoon’s wet race.
Another international, Franco-Finnish driver Marcus Amand, contested several Carrera Cup Australia rounds this year but missed Adelaide after winning the Porsche Junior Shootout.
“We were going to run Marcus Amand,” Grove explained to Speedcafe of the Winton Gen3 test.
“I raced with him in Carrera Cup and couldn’t get over how fast he was at Bathurst. He’d never been there before, he went out and was faster than all the Pros in the wet.
“But we always knew it was subject to how he went in the Shootout for Porsche.
“I did Carrera Cup in Adelaide with [Robert] and to come to a track he’d never been and set the [qualifying] lap record really impressed me, so I just wanted to put him in the car.”
Grove gave a positive assessment of de Haan as well as the two Aussie young guns, Toyota GR Cup series winner Wickham and Trans Am star Tracey.
“It was about giving them some miles, not ‘can we sign one of these kids’?” said Grove.
“All the guys we tested went well. It was just good to be able to give them some laps.”
Wickham, whose Grove drive came about through team sponsor ACL, also drove an Erebus Camaro at Winton and is part of that team’s academy.
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