Surprise early WEC debut over Tassie for Groves

Penrite Racing owners Stephen and Brenton Grove will miss this weekend’s Tasmania round to make an early FIA World Endurance Championship debut.

The father and son duo will race a Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at this weekend's 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, marking their first WEC race starts.

The Groves will share the Mercedes-AMG with Matteo Cairoli, replacing Claudio Schiavoni in the line-up.

Schiavoni is being rested due to a “physical issue” that also kept him out of the Paul Ricard European Le Mans Series round in recent weeks. Schiavoni will sit out the Spa round in order to ensure he is fit to compete at Le Mans.

It marks an early WEC debut for the Groves, who had already been announced to join the Iron Lynx team for June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Andrea Piccini-led squad has brought in the Groves to further add to their preparations for their Le Mans debuts, where they will share Iron Lynx’s third LMGT3 entry with Luca Stolz.

The late Spa call-up ensures the Groves will miss this weekend’s Snowy River Caravans Tasmania Super 440 at Symmons Plains, having also skipped the last round in New Zealand.

“It’s super exciting to make our WEC debut this weekend in Belgium, Brenton Grove said.

“It’s a shame that it’s in these circumstances and we wish a speedy recovery for Claudio – we will do our best to make him proud.

“The team were great to work with in Portugal (in GT Open competition) and we took some big steps forward, so it made sense to continue our program in the lead up to Le Mans.

“For sure, it will be a learning weekend but Spa is always unpredictable so anything is possible.”

Penrite Racing driver Matt Payne is aiming for back-to-back wins for the first time in his Supercars career in Tasmania, and is third in points.

Track action commences in Tasmania on Friday May 9. Tickets on sale now.