{"id":426653,"date":"2026-05-14T03:17:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T03:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426653\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T03:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T03:17:21","slug":"supercars-news-grove-racing-snares-djr-talent-for-new-leadership-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/426653\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Grove Racing snares DJR talent for new leadership role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Grove-Racing-Ruapuna.jpg\" alt=\"Grove Racing snares DJR talent for new leadership role\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGrove Racing&#8217;s Ford Mustangs at Ruapuna. Image: InSyde Media <\/p>\n<p>Paul Riordan started with Grove on Wednesday having finished up his role as head of communications and business development at DJR after Christchurch.<\/p>\n<p>Grove created a new position at the top of its commercial structure for Riordan, titled head of media and commercial operations.<\/p>\n<p>Riordan had been at DJR since the start of 2025, having joined the team following a seven-year stint at Motorsport Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaul brings a lot of experience to our commercial department from his time at DJR and Motorsport Australia,\u201d Grove Group CEO Brenton Grove told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll bring some stability and experience to our current team and ensure it keeps improving and developing at the rate of our engineering side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Riordan is among a number of new faces at the Grove team, which has also recently brought on staff in operations, administration and mechanical roles.<\/p>\n<p>The Melbourne-based team has 24 staff, plus drivers and six part-time helpers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaul is one of the very few we\u2019ve recruited from within Supercars,\u201d Grove added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of our team has come from outside of Supercars or outside of motorsport altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1030407\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Paul-Riordan.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Paul Riordan during his time at DJR. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>Brenton Grove is responsible for the operations of the team as part of his wider CEO role within the Grove Group of companies.<\/p>\n<p>The team reshuffled its management structure at the end of last season following the departure of team principal David Cauchi, who was not directly replaced.<\/p>\n<p>It has continued to be a force despite the exit of Cauchi and the recent poaching of technical director Grant McPherson by General Motors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people we have in the business now are a nice mix of young and fresh to managing, but also experienced in that they\u2019ve been in the team multiple years,\u201d Grove said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a large amount of continuity but, let\u2019s say, a different approach in how we\u2019re going racing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far I think it\u2019s yielding some big culture gains as well as large amounts of performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grove Mustangs won three of the four races last time out at the Christchurch Super440, which included the team\u2019s maiden one-two finish.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-matt-payne-injury-mountain-bike-accident-brenton-grove-comments\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Payne on mend after mountain bike accident<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/250635\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/a\/250635\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grove Racing&#8217;s Ford Mustangs at Ruapuna. Image: InSyde Media Paul Riordan started with Grove on Wednesday having finished&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16901,28872,111,139,69,1058,213],"class_list":["post-426653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dick-johnson-racing","tag-grove-racing","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426653","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=426653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}