Ford rival wary after Triple Eight's stumble

Penrite Racing might have been labelled the "benchmark" team in Supercars, and they might have opened up a 259-point teams' championship buffer, but they're only all too aware that Red Bull Ampol Racing continues to lurk.

It was far from a smooth weekend for Triple Eight at The Bend, Will Brown/Scott Pye going a lap down early before recovering to a stirring fourth, while Broc Feeney/Nick Percat never got in the fight at all when they were put several laps down in an early collision.

Penrite, meanwhile, were led by a strong performance from Kai Allen and Tim Slade, who finished second, while Matt Payne and Will Davison were another to recover from early dramas, finishing sixth after a post-race penalty.

Despite their teams' points lead effectively doubling, and Payne wresting the drivers' championship lead back off Feeney, Allen is wary that Triple Eight rarely have two bad rounds in a row, especially with Bathurst up next.

"We could be walking away with none of us leading a championship if we don't do our job properly. We've still got to hold on to our team's championship lead," Allen told Supercars.com.

"I'm sure the guys at Red Bull Ampol Racing will be pretty fired up after The Bend. Will was super fast, but I think they had a great opportunity to get a good result, and things didn't go their way.

"We can't let our guard down, we gotta keep pushing hard to make sure that we do everything right to allow ourselves to be in the best position for the first round of Finals."

Scenes of a jubilant Penrite Racing crew at the end of an extraordinary 2025 Repco Bathurst 1000 will go down in the remarkable lore of the Great Race.

However, despite Bathurst being the scene of Penrite Racing's finest Supercars hour yet, the team's relentless pursuit for performance continues at full pace.

With attention firmly now pointed towards Mount Panorama for one of Australian motor racing's crown jewels, it's a trademark meticulous approach from the Grove family's team, as they look to become the first team since Triple Eight across 2022/23 to go back-to-back.

"It's quite interesting. You know, you almost forget that the team won Bathurst, they're just head down as they normally are, and the boys are doing a lot of work on the cars and prepping as they normally would," Allen continued.

"We're not changing our procedures. It's been working for us this year, we just gotta keep doing what we gotta do.

"It's pretty cool to see that no one has an ego in the workshop. Everyone's working hard, still looking for all the one percenters, no one's backing off at all. It's really, really refreshing to see."

Now Penrite Racing are firmly positioned to potentially secure a championship sweep a little more than 12 months later, and return to Bathurst as the benchmark Supercars team, knocking Triple Eight off their long-time throne.

Returning to Bathurst, which holds happy memories for both Payne and Allen, who secured his shock 2025 Finals berth after a torrid 161 laps last year, could mark something of a symbolic moment, though they are playing down the notion.

"I'm sure Matt's gonna be pretty confident, obviously talking to him there's a lot that went right last year. I think he he knows that he did everything a good but there's a lot of stuff you know that but as a team we could've done better in the prep and leading up," Allen continued.

"We're working hard together as a team to make sure that we try and keep onto the [Peter Brock] Trophy. It's a lot easier said than done as the Bathurst God's can choose you if they want to and not choose you so.

"We just gotta make sure that as a team inside the Grove Racing HQ that we control what we can control, not leave anything on the table, and whatever happens happens."

On-track action in Bathurst commences on Thursday October 8.