{"id":373219,"date":"2026-04-10T16:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/373219\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T16:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:57:13","slug":"supercars-news-grove-declares-position-on-matt-paynes-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/373219\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Grove declares position on Matt Payne\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Grove
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMatt Payne high-fives fans at the Sydney 500. Image: Jack Martin<\/p>\n

GM is believed to have been coveting Payne since midway through last year, eager to bolster its driving stocks following the defection of Triple Eight to Ford.<\/p>\n

But the apparent plan to place Payne at GM homologation squad Team 18 will not be possible until 2028, if Grove holds the driver to his current contract.<\/p>\n

Payne said this week that he \u201ccan\u2019t shed too much light\u201d on his future \u2013 which appeared an unusual statement for a contracted driver to make.<\/p>\n

Asked by Speedcafe at Taupo about Payne\u2019s future, Brenton Grove said the team\u2019s position remains unchanged.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatt\u2019s contracted until the end of 2027 \u2013 and as far as we\u2019re aware, Matt will be driving for us until the end of 2027,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not much more to say. Our agreement has been in place since 2024 and nothing\u2019s changed during that time.<\/p>\n

Win a limited edition 1:18 scale model #8 BJR Camaro. Enter Now. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe both have obligations to the agreement. As far as we\u2019re aware, nothing should change on that front.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments by both parties indicate Payne\u2019s departure from Grove Racing is a matter of when rather than if.<\/p>\n

Grove is adamant it will hold the driver to his contract, wanting to receive the full on-track benefit for the investment it made in his development.<\/p>\n

GM and Team 18, however, appear determined to snare the star, with the manufacturer\u2019s plans said to include overseas opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around long enough to not say anything is absolute, but at the end of the day, there are two parties to the agreement,\u201d continued Grove.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very clear on what our obligations are and we believe Matt is very clear on his. At that point it\u2019s out of our control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep going and have the expectation that he drives our car. If that doesn\u2019t end up being the case, I can\u2019t comment on that now, I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s nothing to indicate he shouldn\u2019t be driving for us next year.\u201d<\/p>\n


\"\"\/
<\/a>
\n<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Payne high-fives fans at the Sydney 500. Image: Jack Martin GM is believed to have been coveting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-373219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373219","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=373219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}