BY now, Grove Racing’s willingness to be ambitious in its march up the Supercars pecking order is no secret.
It has invested heavily, changed the complexion of what was once known as Kelly Racing, and recruited the likes of team principal David Cauchi, technical director Grant McPherson and mentor/co-driver Garth Tander.
So, it figures that the Ford squad could be a factor in the upcoming silly season, especially with question marks lingering over the contractual status of an A-grade driver like Cam Waters.
However, Stephen Grove claims his team is unlikely to dip into the market, hinting that rookie Matt Payne is already tied up and at a probable extension for off-contract David Reynolds.
“We’d be happy to keep the same driver line-up,” Grove told V8 Sleuth.
“Matty Payne’s contract has still got a long way to go so that’s something that we keep working on, and Dave we just need to sit with him.
“He’s pretty keen to stay, is my understanding, and we’re pretty keen to keep him so we’ll just start working through that process.
“We don’t see any issue or any risk or any surprises there. We’d be very confident of having the same drivers next year.
“Continuity is pretty important for us.”
It should be noted that Grove has history at bombshell moves though, such as ahead of its maiden standalone season (2022) when it allowed Andre Heimgartner to walk and instead signed Lee Holdsworth as a stopgap before blooding protégé Payne.
But Reynolds is a popular figure at Braeside with results on the board – and with close connections to key engineer Alistair McVean and naming rights sponsor Penrite.
Triple Eight Race Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing and Erebus Motorsport have already locked in unchanged rosters for 2024.
