Grove Racing’s father/son duo Stephen and Brenton Grove will share their Porsche 911 GT3 R with Supercars ace Anton de Pasquale at the LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour on February 3-5.
The team has won its class on five occasions at Mount Panorama, including taking the Pro-Am win in 2020.
The race also kicks off this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli campaign, which is re-expanding to five endurance rounds on as many continents.
De Pasquale, who races for Dick Johnson Racing in his domestic Supercars series, is warming up for Bathurst by contesting the Dubai 24 Hour alongside the Groves and Earl Bamber, whose EBM outfit is overseeing the Porsche Down Under - just as it did at the Gulf 12 Hours in December.
This will be De Pasquale’s third appearance at the 12 Hour after debuting in 2019 at the wheel of a MARC Cars Australia entry that ultimately failed to finish. He returned in 2020 driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Yasser Shahin, Sam Shahin and Nick Foster, however the car was badly damaged in an accident on the bruising Saturday of the event and failed to start.
The entry, and specifically Stephen Grove, is also eligible to score IGTC Pro-Am Challenge points.
“We love racing the 12 Hour, it’s a demanding race and you need to have the best team behind you. Bathurst is one of those tracks you do,” said Grove.
“Whatever you can to race at and the 12 Hour is one of the best races of the calendar. To do the race with a strong crew is exciting. We’re bringing together our Supercar and GT team as well as EBM so I think we should be covered!
“Anton’s an exceptionally fast driver with a strong endurance background so we believe we have a solid line-up to bring home some great results.”
His son, Brenton, added “We’ve tried to focus more and more on endurance racing in recent times and that’s one of the most exciting parts about the event. Coming off Dubai we should be quite well prepared to take on the field at Bathurst.
“It’s an incredibly competitive race so we need to make sure we’re on the front foot!
“It will be a challenging race, however, we’re extremely excited for it and having Anton with us, with his experience in endurance will be another advantage that we hope to turn into a victory.”