In late September, CAMS revealed Australia’s representatives for the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games to take place in Rome next month. Ahead of the international competition, cams.com.au looks at the four representatives in a three-part profile series.
When Stephen and Brenton Grove head to Rome this year, it won’t be the first time they will fly the Australian flag at an international event.
The father-son team has enjoyed a colourful history in GT racing and the duo were able to show their skills off at last year’s inaugural FIA GT 2018 Nations Cup in Bahrain.
While they didn’t get the chance to strut their stuff during the race after being a victim of a rival’s crash, they showed a heap of promise and built the appetite to get there once again.
In November, they get to have another crack at some of the world’s best GT drivers and Porsche PAYCE Carrera Cup driver Stephen is raring to get back out on the world stage, despite never having been to the Italian track.
“After doing the FIA GT Nations Cup
last year, we were pretty determined to come back the following year and push on from where we had really good momentum in 2018.” Stephen said.
“It was really important for Brenton and I to go back and try and improve on the unfortunate circumstances we had last year in the main race.
“Once again it was really just having the opportunity through CAMS and the FIA to participate. We put forth our case from CAMS and said we had some unfinished business from last year and there was a reason why we wanted to go back,” Brenton said.
“I think racing with my dad always helps with an event like this because we’ve done so much together,
even when we’re not racing we’re always chatting to each other so we definitely know our strengths and weaknesses together.
“For us to be representing the country on the GT side is a privilege and it’s something that we take very seriously. We’re making sure we prepare well and do the best we can to represent Australia and hopefully go one or two steps better than we did last year.”
“Driving with Brenton helps a lot because we both understand the way each other drives. It really helps us with the car set-up, but it’s good because we can work together and we can understand what makes either of us a bit quicker and how we can tweak the car to get it right.
“Vallelunga is a track neither of
us has been to, but the bits I’ve seen looking at video, it’s a pretty technical track and there’s a fair bit in that track. To be quick there you need to be fairly committed, so I’m looking forward to the challenge, but it’s quite a hard track."
For Brenton, who is having a solid season in the 2019 Dunlop Super2 series, the Motorsport games is another opportunity to represent Australia and put last year’s unfortunate incident behind them.