Championship leaders commence Bathurst defence on song
Matt Payne, Kai Allen qualified 18th, 21st for last year's race
Payne charged back to win with Garth Tander amid rainfall
Penrite Racing has commenced its Bathurst defence in a better place, after CEO Brenton Grove ceded the team “sucked” last year.
The history books will show Matt Payne, Garth Tander and Penrite Racing as 2025 Bathurst winners, after what was a remarkable race.
However, all wasn’t what it seemed.
After rolling out third and fourth on combined Thursday practice times last year, the Penrite Fords slumped to 18th and 21st in qualifying.
Race day wasn’t looking much better, but the heavens opened, bringing both cars surging back into contention.
Come Thursday in 2026, the Kai Allen/Tim Slade Ford ended the day fastest, and while a power steering issue was a minor headache, Payne and Will Davison were comfortable despite ending up 17th.
“We're happy. #26 is a little bit different to #19, and they're comfortable. Both drivers did a great job, and yeah, somewhere to build on,” Grove told Supercars.com.
When asked how important it was to roll out strongly, Grove replied: “It was something we put a lot of focus on. We really sucked here last year.
"I mean, we ended up with a good result, but we were 43 seconds off after 56 laps, so that kind of said all it needed to say.
“If it didn't rain, there was a high chance we would've got lapped at some point if there was no Safety Car. So we put a lot of focus on understanding the package from last year and then rolling out something good again this year."
Thursday began with news that the Fords have received an engine tweak for Bathurst.
Payne laid down the gauntlet to the Chevrolet and Toyota camps pre-event, but maintained it’s not Ford’s race to lose despite the Blue Oval winning 23 of 29 races prior to Bathurst.
Grove remains confident of his team’s current position, but given the scenes of 2025 Bathurst Friday, wasn’t getting carried away.
"I mean, it's very early days this weekend, but the guys are very happy with the car,” Grove said.
"There’s a lot of work to go, but it's nice to come here and know that, alright, we've found something, but we're gonna have to keep working hard to make sure we're here by the end of the weekend.”
Track action resumes at 10:05am AEDT on Saturday morning.
