{"id":179156,"date":"2025-12-11T23:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:16:14","slug":"bathurst-12-hour-news-davison-to-get-early-grove-race-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179156\/","title":{"rendered":"Bathurst 12 Hour news: Davison to get early Grove race outing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765494970_407_image.jpeg\" alt=\"Davison to get early Grove race outing\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWill Davison will race a Grove Racing Mercedes at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-will-davison-grove-racing-enduro-cup-bathurst-1000-bend-500-contract\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fresh off being announced as a Supercars enduro driver with the Grove squad<\/a>, Davison will make his 12 Hour return in a Penrite-backed Mercedes AMG GT3.<\/p>\n<p>He will be joined in the line-up by Grove Racing Supercars regular Kai Allen and team CEO Brenton Grove.<\/p>\n<p>Davison and Allen have Bathurst history together having teamed up in a Dick Johnson Racing Mustang at the Bathurst 1000 in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The move to a Pro entry for Grove Racing means team owner Stephen Grove, who was involved in a spectacular crash during this year\u2019s event, isn\u2019t part of the driver line-up.<\/p>\n<p>Another notable exclusion is the squad\u2019s lead Supercars driver Matt Payne, who has made overseas GT starts during his tenure at Braeside.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-matt-payne-grove-racing-contract-gm-team-18-2027-silly-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Grove puts clamps on Matt Payne amid GM pursuit<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Bathurst 12 Hour effort will be underpinned by Grove Racing\u2019s senior engineering squad of Grant McPherson, Alistair McVean and Jack Bell.<\/p>\n<p>For Allen it will be a Bathurst 12 Hour debut, while Davison last took part in the round-the-clock GT enduro back in 2018 in a Competition Motorsports Porsche.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to be joining Grove Racing at the Bathurst 12 Hour for my first race with the team,\u201d said Davison.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe engineering depth and ambition they\u2019ve have is seriously impressive, and I can\u2019t wait to hop into the Penrite Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be part of their push for an outright Pro Class victory at Bathurst is something I\u2019m genuinely excited about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Grove acknowledged that the move from the Bronze class to Pro was a significant moment for the squad off the back of its Bathurst 1000 success in October.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReturning to the Bathurst 12 Hour, this time in the Pro class, is a statement of intent for our team,\u201d said Stephen Grove.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve proven we can win at Bathurst, and now we\u2019re taking the next step by targeting an outright result on the world stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReuniting Will and Kai at Mount Panorama is incredibly exciting and to do it with Penrite as our naming partner in their centenary year, in car number 100, makes this program incredibly special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Penrite partnership spilling over the GT program is a new addition as well with the squad\u2019s Mercedes traditionally running Grove Hire backing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPartnering with Grove Racing as the naming rights sponsor for their Bathurst 12 Hour campaign is an exciting step for Penrite,\u201d said Penrite CEO Toby Dymond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMotorsport is in our DNA, and this collaboration reflects our long-standing commitment to supporting Australian racing at every level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a proudly family-owned business, we see a strong alignment with Grove Racing\u2019s values of passion, performance, and family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith our 100-year celebrations approaching in 2026, this partnership is a powerful way to honour our heritage while looking to the future [and] continuing to innovate, compete, and drive excellence on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bathurst 12 Hour will take place on February 13-15.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1014928\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765494971_11_image.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1260\" height=\"773\"  \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1014927\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image-2.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1264\" height=\"711\"  \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1014926\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765494972_550_image-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1264\" height=\"638\"  \/><br \/>\n<a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.parcelprotect.com.au\/deliveryrun\/?utm_source=Speedcafe&amp;utm_website=EDM&amp;utm_campaign=Speedcafe_2025\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"328_Parcel-speedcafe_takeover_v1_728x90\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765147930_42_328_Parcel-speedcafe_takeover_v1_728x90.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Davison will race a Grove Racing Mercedes at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February. Image: Supplied Fresh&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[62853,28872,60311,111,139,69,9335,213,37751],"class_list":{"0":"post-179156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bathurst-12-hour","9":"tag-grove-racing","10":"tag-kai-allen","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-slot2","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-will-davison"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}