GROVE Racing has confirmed it will part ways with David Reynolds at the end of the current season.
The news, by now, is no surprise with Reynolds set to join Team 18 next year in place of Scott Pye.
Team 18 has made no such announcement as yet, although its owner Charlie Schwerkolt did say his 2024 driver line-up would be made official shortly after the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend.
Grove Racing is understood to have been willing to sign off-contract Reynolds to a new one-year deal, but the 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner was looking for multi-year security.
“Penrite Racing will not be renewing David Reynolds’ contract for 2024,” the team confirmed in a short statement.
“We wish Dave the best in his future endeavours.”
Two key questions remain to be answered relating to Reynolds’ departure.
The first being whether title sponsor Penrite will follow the 38-year-old out the door, having attached itself to him when he moved from Erebus Motorsport to what was then known as Kelly Grove Racing in the 2020/21 off-season.
The second appears more clear: that his long-time race engineer Alistair McVean will stay put at Grove, rather than being part of a package deal for Team 18.
As for Grove’s future driver situation, the Ford team is now poised to move to an all-Kiwi combination, with talented rookie Matt Payne staying on and Richie Stanaway tipped to be his next teammate.
Stanaway has not raced full-time in Supercars since 2019; he is contesting the upcoming Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000 as Shane van Gisbergen’s co-driver at Triple Eight.
Stanaway has kept his eye in this year with sporadic appearances for Triple Eight in the Australian and Asian editions of GT World Challenge, and has the support of Jamie Whincup to pursue a main game comeback.
“For sure. We’re rapt to have Richie onboard for the enduros this year, and I know he is actively looking for a full-time gig,” Whincup told V8 Sleuth.
“We couldn’t supply it to him, so hopefully someone picks him up in pitlane.”
Four rounds remain for the Reynolds/Grove partnership, which has thus far netted 10 podiums.
That nearly became 11 yesterday, Reynolds only losing third place to Chaz Mostert on the final lap of Race 2 at The Bend.
