Le Mans ‘Last Item on the Bucket List’ for Grove

Stephen Grove has described his upcoming debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans as ‘the last item on the bucket list,’ having recently made his first FIA World Endurance Championship appearance as part of the preparation program for the French endurance classic.

The 58-year-old has been entered as the mandatory Bronze-rated driver in Iron Lynx’s third Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for the event, sharing the No. 63 machine with son Brenton and factory driver Luca Stolz.

Grove, who has spent the vast majority of his GT3 tenure driving alongside his son, noted that a debut at Le Mans is something ‘he thought he wouldn’t get an opportunity to do’ after a career that began in Porsche Carrera Cup competition in his native Australia.

After that, he became a regular fixture at the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, taking four class victories in Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machinery. An additional GT3 Pro-Am win followed in 2020.

Since then, the Groves have also repeatedly competed in other Intercontinental GT Challenge rounds, including a pair of CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa appearances, while he has also made guest starts in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, most notably at Monaco.

“I’ve been lucky over the journey to do a lot of different racing,” Grove told Sportscar365.

“For me, [Le Mans] is probably the last of the bucket list [items]. It’s something I thought I probably wouldn’t get an opportunity to do and to do it with my son…

“Brenton’s pretty active in the business. He’ll probably continue racing a lot more than I will.

“I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve been doing. So we’ll just get Le Mans done and then tick that off and be really happy.

“I’ve managed to race twice in Monaco. I’ve been sort of pretty well everywhere. Supercup was a great experience. Done a lot of GT racing now. So yeah, it’s good.”

The 6H Spa, for which Grove stepped in to replace Claudio Schiavoni, marked the most significant step to date for the Le Mans preparation program, which also featured a one-off appearance in the International GT Open in Portimao.

Notably, the Groves were originally set to contest this weekend’s Michelin 12H Misano alongside Iron Lynx boss Andrea Piccini, but plans for that were replaced by the WEC round at Spa once an opportunity for that race came up.

Grove noted that “everything we’ve done has been tailored towards Le Mans,” with the experience of multi-class racing gained at Spa likely to be particularly valuable as this is something he’s previously lacked.

While the Bathurst 12 Hour has traditionally always featured multiple classes, Spa marked the first time Grove has had to learn how to deal with Hypercar traffic, something he says is a significant challenge.

“Once they’re actually behind you and you see that they’re behind you, it’s too late,” he said.

“We can brake as good as them or they carry more speed, but their braking zone is sometimes a little bit before ours. And their corner speed’s not that much faster, if at all faster.

“But the closing speed down the straights and the high speed corners, so you get the warning inside the car and you get the blue flags, but you need to be conscious of where you think they’re going to meet you.

“You can’t compromise your race. So if you can get to the apex and run your racing line, especially on the high-speed corners, you need to do that.

“If you can’t, you need to lift and let them through. It’s quite a judging game.

“In a GT3 car, your objective is to pass the car ahead of you, whoever it is, and keep the car behind you. That’s it and you don’t really worry about much else.

“Now, we have to worry about everything because they’re just so fast and they just keep coming.”

Groves Take on Iron Lynx as New Operational Partner

Grove also confirmed that Iron Lynx has been brought on board as the new European operational partner for the team, effectively replacing 2 Seas Motorsport after just a single race.

2 Seas first operated the Groves’ European-based Mercedes-AMG chassis at the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours last December after the switch was made from long-time partner stable Earl Bamber Motorsport.

At the time, Grove indicated that the reason for that switch was because of 2 Seas’ expertise with Mercedes-AMG, but the Australian told Sportscar365 at Spa that the two sides have parted ways.

“2 Seas were really great, it was just a good opportunity with Le Mans,” said Grove.

“And then you want to build a relationship with a team because you get to know the mechanics and the inner workings of the team.

“So at the moment, we’ll continue to work with Iron Lynx but 2 Seas are a great operation.”

Meanwhile, the team’s second Mercedes-AMG, based in Australia, will continue to be operated by the Grove Racing squad that competes in the Repco Supercars Championship

“We just want to focus on the Supercars team,” said Grove.

“We’re quite busy commercially in our businesses. So for me, it’ll probably be a little bit more of a step back. And there’s a lot going on in our operating businesses and our Supercars team. So you need the expertise over here to run your races.”

When asked whether the Grove-Iron Lynx combination could contest further races this season, Grove replied that a decision on that will be made after Le Mans.

“I made a decision to just focus on Le Mans,” he said.

“Everything’s been about Le Mans. After Bathurst, I couldn’t drive for a bit so I spent a lot of time in simulators and everything’s just built for Le Mans.

“Once we finish Le Mans then we’ll sit down and [see]. We’ve got a car here, we’ve got a car in Australia and we’ve got a great relationship with Iron Lynx so we’ll just develop what we want it from there.”