Stephen Grove shifts focus after Bathurst win slips away
Championship leaders putting energy into Finals after Great Race
Matt Payne takes points lead into Finals opener on Gold Coast
Penrite Racing Executive Chairman Stephen Grove says his team must “regroup and focus” on the Finals opener, after Bathurst victory slipped away.
The Matt Payne/Will Davison Ford fought back to fifth after attracting two penalties — a five-second penalty for Payne, and a drive-through over a pit stop breach. Ultimately, long running under green flag conditions made it more difficult for the #19 Ford to recover.
The sister Kai Allen/Tim Slade car, meanwhile, was lucky to finish after a late brake failure, with brake issues putting the #26 on the back foot all day.
With Broc Feeney slumping to 11th, Payne secured top seeding for the Repco Supercars Finals Series opener on the Gold Coast next weekend.
For Grove, who watched Payne miss out on last year’s Grand Final, the mission is to hit the ground running at Surfers Paradise.
"We had good fast, solid cars, but just had a few issues that put us on the back foot. We had brake issues and had to change them quite frequently with Kai Allen,” Grove said.
"We just have to regroup and focus on Queensland. For now we’ll focus on getting the best possible results, with The Finals we’ve got two drivers and still have the opportunity to win the teams’ championship.
"We’ve got to keep getting good results so that is a big focus for the entire team.”
Allen dropped from third to fifth in the standings, jumped by Bathurst winner Brodie Kostecki and runner-up Will Brown.
Red Bull Ampol Racing clawed back 130 points on Penrite Racing in Sunday’s race, with the Grove squad's teams’ championship margin now 190 points.
Track action on the Gold Coast commences on Friday October 23.
