{"id":579757,"date":"2026-08-25T10:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579757\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T10:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T10:32:12","slug":"supercars-news-grove-discovers-major-valve-train-failure-in-payne-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579757\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Grove discovers major valve train failure in Payne engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Grove\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore details on Matt Payne’s engine failure have been revealed. Image: Richard Gresham<\/p>\n

The Kiwi was cruelly denied the minor premiership on Sunday when his Mustang\u2019s engine failed midway through the final race.<\/p>\n

The early diagnosis was that it was an electrical issue<\/a>, however a more detailed analysis at Triple Eight\u2019s engine shop has since uncovered a more serious issue relating to the valve train.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to go out to Triple Eight last night (Monday) as they were pulling apart the engine, they kindly invited us into their shop to have a look and we\u2019ve been able to discover there was a major mechanical failure in the valve train of the engine,\u201d said Grove Racing\u2019s head of performance Al McVean.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, once that happened, there was no chance of proceeding any further, so there nothing we could have done to have\u00a0 prevented it happening or got ourselves back out onto the track at that stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo obviously that was quite heartbreaking on Sunday to have that happen to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the group together, we all sat down and debriefed for a couple of hours at the pub and now we\u2019ve fully reset ourselves and we\u2019re out here at the test day all eyes forward to the enduros, having another red-hot crack at Bathurst and the Enduro Cup and then looking ahead to the Finals where we\u2019re well-placed for both drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Running a replacement engine, Payne and co-driver Will Davison ended today\u2019s pre-enduro test at Queensland Raceway fourth fastest.<\/p>\n

Valve train issues have been a big talking point in the Supercars paddock in recent weeks, although not related to Ford engines.<\/p>\n

Instead it has been the Toyota Supras suffering from top-end unreliability, leading to a B-spec engine being introduced for this event.<\/p>\n

A failure for Chaz Mostert on Sunday caused some concern among the Toyota ranks, however analysis on his failure pointed to a bottom end bearing issue instead.<\/p>\n

All of the B-spec motors were replaced by A-spec units for today\u2019s test for more checks to take place ahead of the enduros<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cameron Hill puts Toyota on top in Enduro Cup test<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More details on Matt Payne’s engine failure have been revealed. Image: Richard Gresham The Kiwi was cruelly denied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28872,28873,111,139,69,9335,213],"class_list":["post-579757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-grove-racing","tag-matt-payne","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579757","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=579757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}