For the second straight Supercars round Grove Racing have failed to deliver on what was a promising start to the season.
After being the highest ranked Mustang team in third after Wanneroo, just two rounds later the Grove squad sits 10th after a major drop in form.
The best result across the entire Darwin Triple Crown weekend was the P12 recorded by David Reynolds in the final race, while rookie Matt Payne could only get as high as 20th.
It is a step backwards for the Ford team, which had already lost a lot of momentum at the previous round in Tasmania following a decent start to 2023.
Recording just one top 10 across the eight on track sessions at Symmons Plains left Grove Racing scratching their heads after it “struggled from the moment it rolled out of the track.”
David Reynolds rolls his Grove Racing Mustang out of pit lane.
Despite going back to the drawing board ahead of Darwin, the team battled even more.
The highest either Mustang could manage across the first two races was 20th until Reynolds was able to salvage some points with a P12 in the final race.
It could have been much better for the 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner, who sat as high as ninth in the second race, but was spun around by Nick Percat at the hairpin, which relegated him to 22nd.
Whilst admitting the need for improvement, Grove Racing boss Stephen Grove released his frustrations about the parity debate post event, believing a “serious aero issue” must be fixed.
“Obviously, parity is not helping us,” he said.
“There is a serious parity issue with the aero of the cars that needs to be addressed. We just cannot get any life out of our rear tyres.
“But beyond that, we need to re-group and do a better job.
“It was a bad weekend for us. We made too many mistakes in the cars and outside the cars.”
Despite taking a step forward in the final race, Reynolds was also downbeat about his Darwin Triple Crown performance.
He said the inability to fire the Mustang up in qualifying was the difference with a best grid position of 19th across the weekend.
“I think practice went pretty well and we thought that the car was good overall,” Reynolds said.
David Reynolds had a tough time trying to figure out where to find pace at Hidden Valley.
“But our qualifying results were not very good and we struggled to get the most out of the tyre for single lap pace.
“In the races we don’t seem too bad. I was sitting ninth in Race 14 and got turned. Had I finished 10th that would have been a stellar result.
“Our race pace is much better, but qualifying is absolutely everything in this sport.”
As Reynolds was able to rise seven spots on the final race, poor Payne went the other way.
The young Kiwi qualified on the fringes of the top 10 for the first two sprints, but fell five and 12 spots once lights went out.
The first Sunday race was heavily impacted by a first-lap clash with fellow rookie Declan Fraser.
However, Payne still put his hand up stating his need to recover from “silly decisions”.
Matthew Payne racing around Hidden Valley Raceway for the first time.
“I certainly had more downs than ups in my first weekend at Darwin,” he said.
“The track is cool and has a good flow (but) I just didn’t quite get it right this weekend until maybe in the final race.
“I struggled and made some silly decisions. Just need to look over it and see what we can do better for the next one.”
Two tough rounds has seen the promising Payne drop from 12th to 19th in the championship, while Reynolds has also lost ground going from challenging the top five to hanging on to the top 10.
Grove Racing needs to get back to its early season form at the Townsville 500 on July 7-9.
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