Grove: Penrite Racing hasn't lost any car speed

Stephen Grove insists Penrite Racing hasn't "lost any car speed" despite the Ford squad encountering a tricky weekend, headlined by Kai Allen's surprise elimination.

Matt Payne's podium in the rain-affected Saturday race was a clear highlight amid a weekend of poor results for Allen, who failed to replicate his 2025 Grand Final heroics.

Allen was undone by an alternator issue on Saturday, consigning him to 24th and last. On Sunday, needing a big result, Allen slumped to 22nd in qualifying. 13th in the race wasn't enough to reach Sandown.

Surprisingly, Payne missed a Shootout for the first time since Gold Coast 2025, qualifying 12th on Sunday. He recovered to sixth, but only retained the lead after Jarrod Hughes stopped in the closing laps.

On race pace, Payne was ranked second on Saturday, and ranked equal seventh on Sunday. Allen, who was in the wars on Sunday, was ranked 17th.

“Not a great weekend with losing Kai Allen from the Finals,” Grove said.

"You always want to have two cars still in contention, but we still have Matt Payne and we leave the Gold Coast leading the championship.

"Kai did a great job to come from 21st back to 13th on Sunday, but we just weren’t good enough this time in the changing conditions.

"We haven’t lost any car speed, so we need to re-group for Sandown and then the Grand Final in Adelaide."

Penrite Racing's teams' championship lead over Red Bull Ampol Racing has been slashed from 259 to 102 points in two rounds. After a mid-season surge, three of the last four rounds are among Penrite Racing's lowest round points hauls of the season.

“Overall a pretty solid weekend for us,” Payne said.

“Great to get my first surfboard here on the Gold Coast, that was an awesome day on Saturday.

“Unfortunately on Sunday we just didn’t quite get it right for qualifying – struggled with the wet.

“We had a great recovery back to sixth on a track that’s hard to pass, so credit to the guys we had an awesome strategy and really looking forward to Sandown with the championship lead and hopefully we can be strong there.”

Payne was eliminated at last year's Semi Final, following a clash with Cam Waters.

Round points: Penrite Racing 2026

*Four races were held in Christchurch, with 731 points available

**Two races were held in Taupō, with 423 points available