Motorsport attracts a wide spread of competitors, sponsors and team owners. Since AVESCO launched the concept of a V8 Supercars franchise system some twenty-eight years ago, we have witnessed a fascinating array of owners of the coveted licence, or in its current form, the Teams Racing Charter.

Unsurprisingly, names like Larry Perkins, Tony Longhurst, Mark Larkham and Glen Seton were all early owners of V8 Supercars ‘RECs’, and to this day, Brad Jones and Dick Johnson continue to operate their teams under the charter of the day.

But along the way, we have witnessed many ‘interlopers’—mostly successful business people, and some not so successful —who turned large investments into small outcomes and disappeared.

Remember Craig Gore? David Thexton? While we might smile at some of those who have come and gone, the Supercars category has attracted international interest and investment from the likes of David Richards, Roland Dane, Roger Penske, Zak Brown Michael Andretti, and the Walkinshaw family. An impressive line-up.

However, while those famous global names bring international success and spotlight to the series, there is one name that is emerging as a top contender, albeit backed by a name that has built a powerful portfolio of businesses in Australia.

That name? Grove.

Stephen Grove took time out from a hectic Australian Grand Prix schedule at Albert Park to chart the history and objectives of his motorsport journey and, more lately, the Supercars and GT teams he owns with The Race Torque’s Dale Rodgers.

The most obvious question was, why motorsport?

“I’ve always had a passion for Motor Sport,” Stephen began. “I can’t remember not watching Bathurst at home, but I had been so busy building different businesses in different sectors,” he added.

But like so many entrepreneurial people, he was bitten after an outing in a Porsche on a race track for the first time.

“I tried Max Twigg’s car first. We went up to Winton, and I drove it and really, really liked it. For a bloke that had never driven anything like that before, I was hooked!” Grove said.

So, a race car was the next item on Stephen’s list, and, not surprisingly, it was not a Formula Ford or Hyundai Excel; Grove went straight to the Porsche marque as his first race car back in 2011.

An interesting insight from Grove was the genuine answer to the why motorsport question.

“I needed something to slow me down a bit as I had worked so hard. On the weekends, I spent a lot of time with my kids, going to their footy games and all of that, but I didn’t really have anything for myself,” he said openly about the purchase of the first Porsche GT3. “And we raced the GT3, and the natural progression was Carrera Cup, running for many, many years as a ProAm,” Grove added.

In addition to the Porsche Carrera Cup campaign, Grove also ran successfully in the Bathurst 12 Hour, claiming five class wins.

Coupled with winning the Carrera Cup Pro-Am Championship on three occasions, Grove looked to widen his racing and ventured to events overseas.

“I love long-distance racing, and I love racing overseas. The biggest challenge for me was going from a Cup Car quite competitively, which really is mechanical grip, to a GT3 car, which is all about aero,” Grove said. “If you have never raced Formula Ford or cars that rely on aero, you are really on the back foot. For me, that was the biggest step. It wasn’t about race craft, it wasn’t the ability to drive the car, and I always had pretty good stamina; the challenge for me was to trust the aero characteristics of the GT3.”

Grove’s international and long-distance campaigns saw a great group of young and established stars join the team. Names like Scott McLaughlin, Earl Bamber, Tim Slade, and, more recently, Matthew Payne shared the driving duties.

Grove believes a huge benefit of this was the engineering review and sharing of data. Grove has focused on picking up slight differences in braking distances, throttle position, tyre management, and mid-corner speed in these debriefs, and he believes it has helped his own driving immensely.

The Grove family entered a new phase in 2016 when son Brenton started racing a Porsche 944. He had shown little real interest in preceding years with his father’s exploits, but suddenly, the itch to go racing emerged.

“He really liked the engineering side, and as a kid, he said he never wanted to race. Then, around 16 years old, he came along and said, I want to race now,” Grove recalled. So, we said, OK, let’s have some fun, so we got him into a 944 and then GT3 Porsche. He didn’t do much Carrera Cup but then went into Super 2.”

Grove went on to say that after a while, his son was quicker than him, but he added with a smile, “I have just got to hang on as long as I can before he sacks me!”

While there is a light-hearted and relaxed discussion of various sports car campaigns, the seriousness and razor-sharp business focus are evident when we move the topic to Supercars.

Grove purchased 50% of Kelly Racing in 2021 and became the full owner in 2022. Once again, Stephen cites the challenge of stepping up to Supercars.

“If we talk Touring Cars, it is the most competitive category in the world,” he said. “For me, it is the challenge. The challenge against myself. Could we come in, could we run a team? Could we use the business principles that I have learnt over the last thirty years and develop them into a winning team? We had no illusions; we knew what we were getting into.”

Grove’s passion is evident as he explains how the Penrite Racing Supercars team has climbed the ladder in a few short years.

“People are everything. You have to grow your business by getting the best people,” he said. I have very little to do with the engineering side of the team, but we went and got the best people.”

The next decision was which manufacturer to align with in the Gen 3 era.

“Todd was very advanced with the Ford (to replace the Nissan Altima), so when we took over, we were on our own. Ford has been very supportive, and we really liked the brand, so that was the direction.”

Like many of the Ford teams, 2023 was a tough introduction to the Gen 3 Supercar, as parity was the constant argument up and down pit lane.  

“We had to learn the engineering side, and if you look at how the homologation is done, it’s very hard as a business person to have your whole opportunity to perform in someone else’s hands, and we really struggled with that,” Grove said. “We were beholden to another party. So, I always said to my people – we can’t control that, and we can’t change that. So, we need to think outside the square and develop the car with whatever tools we have. We spent all our time not worrying about the parity, as we could not change that, so we developed the car as best we could and learned as much as we could about it. I said let’s be the best Ford team first, then we will go for the best team.”

Grove is realistic and places Triple Eight as the benchmark and the ultimate target. He acknowledges that they are a long way ahead of everyone, but the astute team owner knows that to be ultimately successful in Supercars, then that is the goal.

“When we first got involved with the team in 2021, they were having all sorts of problems with the Nissan, and a Top 10 result was a great result, and it was,” explains Grove. “But now we don’t just want to be the best Ford team, and we have had some podiums and won some races. The culture in the team is that if we don’t win, sure we are disappointed, but we try and work harder and find ways around that. Being honest, we now don’t benchmark ourselves against the Ford teams, we benchmark ourselves against all the teams. From 2022 it was the Ford teams, in 2023, and now in ‘24 it is everyone.”

And so, to drivers.

“Matty (Matt Payne) is getting better and better and is clearly a future champion. I reckon he is a multi-time series champion,” Grove said of his young gun.

Grove was also effusive in his praise of the somewhat controversial decision to sign Richie Stanaway.

“Richie works hard and, in my view, just needs to be treated and respected as a driver. The day we signed him, I said to our team, ‘Build him a new car.’ The guys said, we have Dave’s (David Reynolds 2023 Gen 3 Mustang) and I said no. We need to build him a new car and show him that he has joined our team as a race car driver and he is part of the team,” Grove said. “I told him to just drive the car, that is your job, and you are one of many. The team’s not just you, you are an important part as are the engineers and everyone else,” he added.

So, what does success look like for Grove in 2024?

“For us, more so a Teams Championship because we have two drivers that I think can get us points all the time. If we were not in the top three in the Teams and Drivers Championship, it would be an unsuccessful year. But our minds are clearly on winning. Success? Under Top 3 would be a disaster,” Grove concluded.

Penrite Racing, under the Grove’s family development, is clearly emerging as a top-flight team. Stephen Grove’s passion, mixed with a strong business and cultural focus, is already delivering. Don’t be surprised if they surpass Grove’s bullish goals.