Grove Racing ponders what could have been

Grove Racing believes it is “very disappointing” to only walk away with ninth from Bathurst after losing further ground in the teams championship.

Spearheaded by Matt Payne, Grove Racing was one of the fastest teams across the opening days of the Bathurst 1000 weekend with the #19 taking provisional pole.

Richie Stanaway also showed speed, shooting up to fourth in the Shootout and even challenging for the lead on the opening lap.

But as the opening stints unfolded the Grove Mustangs dropped away from the leading pack.

Payne and Tander’s race ended up in the Cutting fence, creating the only Safety Car after crashing from eighth.

There was also late-race pain for Stanaway and Wood. The pair were safe in sixth, only for to run out of gas on the final lap.

As a result they lost valuable points and dropped to ninth.

Now Penrite Racing has slipped to sixth in the teams championship, having been fourth and not far from third after the Sydney SuperNight with only two top fives across the last five races.

As a result Grove Racing team principal Stephen Grove believed Bathurst was another missed opportunity and has work to do to retake the spots lost to DJR and MSR.

“It’s a very disappointing weekend for us. We came here thinking we had an opportunity to get onto the podium and we didn’t achieve it,” Grove said.

“It’s another weekend that just didn’t deliver the results we had planned. We should have been fifth and ninth.

“Early on we just didn’t have the pace, but all the drivers did really well even if Matty Payne made a mistake.

“Richie Stanaway drove great. It was probably his best performance with the team and Dale Wood was great as well.

“Looking at the teams’ championship we’re aiming for fourth and we have to really work hard in the next two rounds.

“But it’s still disappointing when the ambition is fourth, when we should be shooting for first.”