The off-track sign that Grove Racing is joining the big time

That is, the size of its fanbase.

It is now almost two-and-a-half years since the Groves took full control of what was once Kelly Racing.

Since then, they have continued to invest heavily in personnel such as Team Principal David Cauchi and Technical Director Grant McPherson – both former Triple Eight engineers – as well as an extensive renovation of the Braeside workshop which came with the team.

On the track, 22-year-old Matt Payne has two pole positions in the last four races – not to mention his breakthrough win at Adelaide at the end of the 2023 campaign – while Richie Stanaway is fourth in the championship, a quarter of the way into his first season back as a full-time driver.

Payne only burst onto the Super2 scene less than three years ago while Stanaway hardly endeared himself to Supercars fans during his first stint as a championship full-timer.

The evidence from their home event, last month at Taupo, shows the profile which they and the team are starting to build, according to Grove Racing CEO Brenton Grove.

“It’s cool to see – whether it’s on-track performance or off-track performance – every week, we seem to be making a step,” he said in the first episode of the team’s Ned Whisky Review video series.

“We tend to focus only on on-track performance, more often than not, so to go to New Zealand – which we thought would be a big round – and to have the support which we had, to have the amount of merch we sold and the lines to meet the drivers, is cool.

“I think it shows we’re on the right journey and we’re not far away, so we’ll keep doing the strategy we set in place a couple of years ago and follow on that because it seems to be working.

“But it’s nice that we can start to reward some of our fans that have been with us – and, before us, the Kellys – for a long time, and get some results that I’m sure they’re thirsty for.

“Because it’s not just us, day in, day out, that are working to grow the team, it’s also our fanbase, and they do a phenomenal job at supporting us when we’re not performing and when we are performing.

“So, I think for the whole team it was a good reminder that it’s bigger than just us and it was cool for the drivers to see how much support they have.”