Walkinshaw Andretti United has released Supercars engineer Grant McPherson early to move to Grove Racing.

It emerged following the Sandown event that McPherson would be leaving the Clayton squad at the end of this year.

He has filled the role of WAU’s Head of Performance as well as Race Engineer on Car #2 of Nick Percat.

Team boss of the hiring side, Stephen Grove, was initially coy about the appointment of McPherson.

However, it became clear the latter would be moving to a technical role at the Groves’ Supercars team.

That has come sooner than expected, with McPherson set to start at Braeside next week after an early release from WAU.

“It’s in the best interest of both parties to respectfully shake hands and move on to the next chapter, and we wish Grant all the best,” WAU Team Principal, Bruce Stewart, confirmed to Speedcafe.com.

“It’s been an amicable and mature process on both sides of the fence.”

WAU has promoted Adam Austin to Percat’s Race Engineer, starting at this weekend’s Gold Coast event.

Austin has been with the team for three years and was previously in the role of a data engineer.

He was also Race Engineer for the team’s wildcard entries of Kurt Kostecki (2021) and Jayden Ojeda (2022).

“We are delighted to have Adam Austin promoted to Race Engineer on Car #2,” added Stewart.

“He has been a fantastic contributor to the team and has done a great job race engineering our wildcard entries over the last two years.

“We are looking forward to seeing him, Nick, and the whole team work together for the remainder of the Gold Coast weekend and Adelaide.”

Grove Racing Team Principal, David Cauchi, said McPherson’s early arrival – which he confirmed as Technical Director – will prove beneficial.

“We’ve signed a deal for Grant to come and join us as Technical Director, which is really important for building our engineering team,” Cauchi told Speedcafe.com.

“We’ve got some great engineers, but to have his leadership and his expertise is fantastic for us.

“Walkinshaw decided to release him early from his arrangement with them, so that means he can start with us.

“All teams have sort of shifted gear with Gen3, but obviously, it’s still important that we finish the year strong with these cars,” he added.

“It’s still important we go out there and do the best we can to represent Penrite and all our sponsors.

“Definitely we’ll be working away on Gen3, the whole team will be from an engineering and build perspective.”

The Supercars field will return to the streets of Surfers Paradise today for qualifying at 09:55 local time/10:55 AEDT.