Richie Stanaway will make his first appearance for Grove Racing before this year is done, joining forces with father and son duo Stephen and Brenton Grove for the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi on the Yas Marina Circuit. The trio will share Grove Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 for the race.
Six manufacturers are set to participate in the Enduro on Sunday, December 10, with the initial confirmation of 18 teams seeing Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes AMG and Porsche represented.
MotoGP legend turned GT star Valentino Rossi is amoung those already announced to compete at the event, with a full entry list expected in the coming week.
The Gulf 12-Hours will round out a busy year of action for Stanaway, who has fronted for Triple Eight Race Engineering in several rounds of the Asia and Australia editions of the GT World Challenge.
He also partnered up with departing Supercars legend Shane van Gisbergen for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, winning his first crown in the latter.
Despite Stanaway stating he was looking for a full-time Supercars drive after Bathurst, Triple Eight instead announced Will Brown as van Gisbergen’s replacement.
With David Reynolds departing Grove Racing, the vacancy saw Stanaway confirmed for a 2024 campaign with the Ford outfit, alongside compatriot Matt Payne, who took his maiden win for the team at the Adelaide 500 on Sunday.
His affiliation with the team will now begin early, ahead of a 12-round Supercars season in 2024 that includes a New Zealand round at the ITM Taupo Super400 in April.
Grove Racing are GT racing regulars, featuring alongside Anton De Pasquale or Earl Bamber in all rounds of the 2023 Intercontinental GT Challenge, which includes the Bathurst 12 Hour, Kyalami 9 Hour, Spa 24 Hour and Indianapolis 8 Hour.
The Gulf 12 Hours of Abu Dhabi begins on December 8 with three Open Practice sessions before Free Practice and Qualifying on December 9. The race starts at 10 am on December 10 and finishes under lights at 10 pm.
Qualifying and the race will be live-streamed on the Gulf Motorsport YouTube channel. Next Friday’s Velocity News Motorsport Diary will feature further viewing information.
Awesome news. Good luck Richie and Team