Walkinshaw Racing will provide Grove Racing with support for its engine programme in the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship, Speedcafe.com can confirm.
Walkinshaw Racing currently supplies engines to Walkinshaw Andretti United and Erebus Motorsport as well as to various teams in the category’s feeder series.
This year marks the first for Grove Racing as a standalone Supercars entity after taking whole ownership of the Kelly family’s stake in the Braeside business.
When Kelly Racing moved from the Nissan Altima to the Ford Mustang in 2020, the team built its own Blue Oval engines.
Grove Racing will continue to use those Kelly Racing-built engines but will receive technical support from Walkinshaw Racing instead.
It marks the first time Walkinshaw Racing has provided support for a Ford team.
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“Walkinshaw Racing and Grove Racing are in a technical alignment,” team principal Bruce Stewart told Speedcafe.com.
“Walkinshaw Racing is working on adding extra value and assisting their current programme at Grove.
“Obviously, Walkinshaw Racing has a proud history and an engine department that works for WAU and other Supercar teams and other Super2 teams.
“It’s a separate entity from WAU, so it’s a separate business, an engine business. Recently, we’ve tried to be really proactive in diversifying it with Gen3 coming down the pipeline.
“We want to really find other revenue streams across many categories and manufacturers to keep a proud business going.”
Last year, the engine house announced it would be expanding its offerings in the wake of Supercars moving to a control engine supply for Gen3.
That will see KRE Race Engines and Herrod Performance Engines supply power units for the Chevrolet Camaro and new-look Ford Mustang respectively.
That will duly bring an end to the current era of Walkinshaw Racing and Tickford Racing building engines for the championship.
Already, Walkinshaw Racing has begun working with Grove Racing, attending Tuesday’s pre-season test.
“Walkinshaw Racing has got a proud history in the engine side, and that knowledge and IP is invaluable, particularly for a team like Grove Racing,” said Stewart.
“Walkinshaw Racing is happy to help, and that’s part of that company’s diversification with Gen3 coming down the line and unfortunately the end of our normal Supercars engine programme.”
It marks the second major shake-up in the engine department this year.
Earlier this month, the Blanchard Racing Team announced it would switch from Tickford Racing-supplied engines to Herrod Performance Engines units.
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