Grove Commits to Full Season with Mercedes-AMG

Grove Racing has committed to a full season in Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS with its Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, as well as selected overseas events.

In January, the team revealed its plans to switch from Porsche to Mercedes machinery for the new season, kicking off its campaign with its new car with outings in the 24H Series Hankook 6H Abu Dhabi and 24H Dubai in partnership with Earl Bamber Motorsport.

Now it has been revealed that the father-and-son duo of Stephen and Brenton Grove will contest their first full season in Fanatec GT Australia since 2021.

In addition, they will contest next weekend’s Sepang 12 Hours, with the Groves being joined for that race by the team’s Supercars driver Matt Payne, as well as the 24H Portimao in May, the Indianapolis 8 Hour in October and the Gulf 12 Hours in December.

EBM will continue to provide at-track and logistical support, while Grove will also draw on engineering and technical expertise from its Supercars squad, which operates under the Penrite Racing banner.

Brenton Grove commented: “We’re really excited to do some domestic racing, which has been rare over the past few years.

“We haven’t ever done a full season in GT World Challenge Australia, however after a lot of the changes that have been announced over Christmas and knowing how SRO work, we couldn’t help but commit to the full season.

“We’re utilising the race engineers from our Supercars program throughout the season, so it’s really exciting to grow Grove Racing’s presence further. We’ve competed in GT for many years now, however it’s the first time that the Supercars operation has had any real involvement.

“From what we’ve seen it appears the field is quite competitive. This is another bonus as we want to be racing the best. The better the field, the bigger the show and that’s important during this growth period of GT racing in Australia.”

Brenton’s father Stephen added: “I really love the car. It’s great to drive and to have one here in the Australian championship and one for our overseas races is super exciting.

“Brenton and I have raced together for so long, and it’s fantastic that we can continue to do that amongst a very competitive local field.

“Some of the other Pro-Am cars have gold or platinum rated drivers, usually drivers from Supercars or overseas imports. That puts a lot of responsibility on Brenton and myself, so it just means we need to work hard.

“We’ll see how we go, but I’m looking forward to doing it again in a new car.”