GROVE Racing continues to impressively shoot for the stars and not be content with the form that has carried it into the lead of both Supercars championships.
Matt Payne is suddenly the clear favourite for the Repco Sprint Cup, having swung the title pendulum in his favour to be 92 points clear of Broc Feeney.
The difference in the teams’ standings meanwhile is 132 points, with the Groves again occupying the top spot in pitlane for the upcoming Perth Super440.
On top of the occasional pitlane slip-up – such as the loose wheel that derailed Payne in Christchurch, or the bungled stop that cost Kai Allen a chunk of time in Townsville – there is a growing trend which also may warrant attention.
That is, the fact Allen trails Payne 21-1 in the head-to-head qualifying stakes.
The #19 has been the lead Penrite Mustang on the grid for 19 consecutive races now, in a streak that has surpassed Payne’s 15 in a row over Richie Stanaway through mid-2024.
Granted Payne is one of the qualifying kings of Supercars, and Allen has shown an extraordinary ability to race his way forward by blending tyre/fuel conservation with overtaking and long-run consistency.
Nevertheless, it’s an area of potential room for improvement for an on-song squad that has sung its desires to keep improving.
Executive chairman Stephen Grove was relaxed in calling it simply “a process”, when approached by V8 Sleuth.
“It just comes with that experience,” he said.
“He’s a year and a quarter, I suppose, into Supercars. The guys that are putting it on pole are just so consistent.
“So we just need to continually help work with him on that.
“It will come. It’s just something that traditionally takes a bit longer.
Pic: Ross Gibb
“You can see Matt wasn’t there right at the start. It takes some time to be consistent in that area.
“He (Allen) is always in the top 10 now, which he wasn’t. Pretty well we normally get two cars in the top 10, so he has got that right, he is just looking for those couple of tenths.”
As indicated by Grove, Payne was outdone by David Reynolds more often than not in the Kiwi’s rookie season, including a horror 2023 Sydney SuperNight where he qualified second-last for both races.
He bounced back from that meeting to qualify inside the 10 for every remaining race that year.
Allen, for reference, has qualified in the top 10 for 13 of the past 16 races, after managing to do so just once in the opening six races of the season.
“Weird” was the word used by the 21-year-old to describe his Townsville 500 event.
“We had a good Friday, got fourth and then Saturday was a really big struggle for our side of the garage,” he reflected.
“Saturday’s qualifying was difficult and then in the race we had a few issues and ultimately didn’t get a good result coming home in 12th.
“It was good for us to bounce back on Sunday where I had a really, strong Top 10 Shootout lap. The Penrite Racing crew did a really good job getting the car back to where we needed it.
“In the race we were looking strong, had great pace with a different strategy, but just didn’t have a good second pitstop, which hurt us a little bit, but still earned some good points – but that happens and the crew will bounce back as well.
“I’m really looking forward to coming back swinging at Perth and having a really strong fight for the rest of the Sprint Cup into the Supercars Finals.”