Personal mission driving Penrite Racing's rapid progression
Matt Payne fell agonisingly short of Repco Sprint Cup
Team owner Stephen Grove affirms plans for long-term success
Stephen Grove has opened up on his personal mission to 'dominate' Supercars, as his Penrite Racing team enter the Ryco Enduro Cup in the lead of the teams' championship.
After claiming marquee wins in the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy, Repco Bathurst 1000, and bp Adelaide Grand Final last year, the Grove family's squad has continued to go from strength to strength to become what many are calling the benchmark in Supercars.
Whilst Matt Payne's heartbreaking engine failure in Ipswich cruelly denied the Kiwi the Repco Sprint Cup, his ruthless consistency across 2026 still has the 23-year-old firmly positioned as one of, if not the favourite for the championship.
Kai Allen, meanwhile, has gone to the next level following his stunning Grand Final run as a rookie in 2025, winning the first two races of his career, and picking up a further five podiums.
Speaking on the Rusty's Garage podcast, Grove was quick to affirm that the desire for Supercars dominance is a personal one, though also admitted that it's more of a dream than a reality given how closely matched the competition is..
“In context, one thing it didn’t pick up was that’s what I want," explained Grove.
“But I’m a realist and understand the level of competition, so I didn’t want to put anybody down and say I think I’m going to dominate, because that’s far from what I meant. That’s craziness.
“The question I was asked at the time was is a championship all you want now, or maybe one more Bathurst, and my answer was, ‘No I want to dominate.’
“Of course, I want to win every race. Every time we roll out, unless we’re 23rd and 24th, I really believe we’ve got a chance to win.
“Now that doesn’t happen that much, we’ve won seven races. However many races there’s been, we’ve won seven, so that hasn’t worked out too well for me.
“But that’s all I want, in every session I want to be the fastest, in qualy I want to be on pole, and it’s what I want to achieve."
Penrite Racing's impressive run has come despite the team continuing to evolve as key personnel have departed, namely former Team Principal David Cauchi and former Technical Director Grant McPherson.
International recruit Riccardo Corte has slotted in seamlessly as Allen's engineer, whilst the team is also set to welcome former Porsche engineer Alexander Leichske ahead of Bathurst in a brand-new Head of Simulation & Performance Engineering role.
With the championship an obvious goal to complement their extraordinary Bathurst win from 2025, Grove insisted that there isn't a number of Bathurst or championship wins he wants to achieve as a team owner, merely that he wants long-term success.
“It’s not saying the team has to do that or they’re doing a poor job, nowhere near it," Grove declared.
“We work very, very hard on our pit stops to get the pit stop timing down so we can be better at that.
“Surely yes, the answer is I want to dominate. Can that be achieved? Time will tell, but you’ve got to aim really high to try and achieve your goals.
“Because if it was one more Bathurst or one championship, if you won a championship and said, ‘I think I’m done now,’ well I think you’re in the wrong sport.”
Penrite Racing will take a reduced 67-point lead over Red Bull Ampol Racing into the Ryco Enduro Cup, with two new driver pairings of Payne/Will Davison and Allen/Tim Slade.
Enduro season begins at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend from September 11-13. Tickets are on sale now.
