Grove will fight an extraordinary bid by Supercars organisers to have Kai Allen penalised for low tyre pressure at the Perth Super 400 despite the stewards having ruled no penalty was warranted.
The stewards launched an investigation into Allen’s car after it returned tyre pressure readings below the regulated minimum of 16 psi as it set off from the grid for the formation lap of Sunday’s race.
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Running with less than the minimum required pressure can result in disqualification.
Supercars champions Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown have described the breach as a “big performance advantage” for Allen, who recovered from 23rd on the grid to finish fifth.
However, after a lengthy hearing involving both Grove CEO Brenton Grove and head of performance Al McVean, the stewards opted against penalising Allen despite finding that the breach had occurred according to the rules.
But now Supercars has lodged an intention to appeal the decision in a bid to have the ruling revised and the 21-year-old penalised.
Team owner Stephen Grove said he was “surprised” to hear the sport was taking the team back to the stewards.
“Following a lengthy hearing on Sunday evening, the Motorsport Australia stewards determined that no penalty was warranted based on the facts and evidence presented, issuing a comprehensive public decision outlining the reasoning behind that outcome,” Grove wrote in a statement.
“To our knowledge, this is the first time Supercars has appealed a decision arising from a Motorsport Australia stewards hearing to overturn the decision and have a sanction imposed on one of its teams.
“We question the process moving forward and look to seek clarity around when Supercars will and won’t involve themselves in matters and outcomes that have already been determined by the sport’s governing body.
“If Supercars chooses to proceed with this appeal, we are fully prepared to contest the matter and once again present the facts that led to the original decision.”
If Allen were to be disqualified from fifth place, the 105-point loss would drop him from fifth to sixth on the title table behind Anton de Pasquale.
It would also reduce Grove’s lead over Triple Eight in the teams standings to just 150 points.
Payne triumphs after Kostecki crash | 01:40
‘QUITE A BIG PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE’
The incident has incensed 2023 champion Kostecki, who described the seemingly small difference in pressure as a potentially significant performance advantage.
“That is quite a big difference,” he told his Lucky Dogs podcast.
“As the temperature rises, that pressure actually multiplies with the temperature.
“The ambient temperature [for the pressure measurement] for the day was 27 degrees. If you put that tyre to 100 degrees, what it operates at [during the race], that pressure then multiplies.
“That’s 1.7 psi at running pressure, 1.6 psi, which is probably a 0.3-second advantage, 0.2-second advantage.
“This is quite a big performance advantage.”
Brown, the 2024 champion, said it was standard practice for teams to build in a buffer to account for pressure drops on the grid but that the lack of penalty in Perth would effectively rewrite the rules.
“If you go out on the grid and it’s cool on the grid or there’s cloud cover or something like that, if you start them at 16.2 psi, you can actually dip below the 16 psi minimum pressure — they can dip down to 0.1 psi below of 15.9, 15.8, 15.7 psi.
“A lot of teams are probably starting around 16.5 to 16.6 psi to make sure that when they go out of the pits, roll around and sit on the grid for 30 minutes, they cannot go below the minimum pressure.
“I don’t understand — and neither can our team or probably any team down pit lane — how Grove Racing got away with that.
“As me and Andrew [Edwards, race engineer] discussed on Sunday night before we flew out, let’s just set our tyres at 16 psi [from now on]. Now the precedent is set that if they drop to 15.7, [it’s okay].”
Feeney strikes back | 01:38
WHATDID THE STEWARDS SAY?
Though highly unusual, Supercars hasn’t launched an appeal as a third-party observer; the series is responsible for technical scrutineering, meaning it brought the infringement to the stewards in the first place.
Supercars alleged a breach article D17.1.18 of the regulations, which states that “the minimum permitted pressure of a control tyre when fitted to a car is 16 psi which must be achieved at any time that the car is on the circuit during any session.”
The category alleged that Allen’s front-right tyre was measured at 15.959 psi and his rear-right tyre was measured at 15.786 psi.
Regulation D17.1.19 subsequently lays out that tyre pressure is measured by the tyre pressure monitoring system.
Technical matters are normally open-and-closed cases that allow no room for grey area. A car is either compliant or non-compliant with the rules.
The stewards upheld the allegation that Allen’s tyre pressure were too low; however, they ruled that he didn’t deserve a penalty due to “mitigating circumstances”.
The first circumstance is that Allen’s tyres were inflated to 16.32 psi when the car left the garage and were at approximately 17 psi when it arrived on the grid after its reconnaissance lap.
The second circumstance is that sensors do not return data when the car is stationary. However, 20 minutes after reaching the dummy grid, when the car set off on its formation lap, pressure in the two affected tyres had dropped below the required minimum. By this time, however, teams are forbidden from adjusting tyre pressure, meaning there was nothing Grove could do to rectify the situation.
The third circumstance is that both affected tyres were back above the minimum pressure within 17 seconds of the car moving and that Allen started the race with all four tyres above the minimum pressure.
The fourth circumstance is that the loss of pressure in Allen’s right-side tyres appears to be due to that side of his car being in the shade — owing to the late-afternoon sun low on the horizon — while on the grid, as corroborated by temperature sensors that show both tyres cooled more than those on the left side of his car.
However, they found the rear-right tyre lost more pressure than it should have due to temperature alone, suggesting it may have been affected by a slow puncture.
The fifth circumstance is that the tyre pressure monitoring system mandated by the rules has a tolerance of 0.4 psi and both of Allen’s affected tyres were below the minimum by less than that amount.
The stewards effectively ruled, therefore, that Grove had made its best effort to ensure the car was compliant with regulations.
“As already observed, the team inflated the tyres to 16.32 psi to accommodate cooling while the car was stationary on the grid. That was a reasonable action,” they wrote in their ruling.
“Further, by the time the low pressures were discovered, remedy was beyond the power of the team.
“By operation of the rules, Supercars has proved the breach. However, having regard to all the circumstances in this case the stewards elect to take no further action.”
Kostecki and Allen clash in Perth | 00:31
NEW PRECEDENT SET
Kostecki said the precedent set by the stewards ruling was difficult to accept.
“It’s a performance advantage. It is huge,” he said. “That 1.5 psi — that would basically get to [be the] difference between other cars racing around the track — is a big advantage.
“It gobsmacks me, because obviously they’re trying to say in the report that the [tyre pressure monitor system] sensor is not a reliable source of information.
“A lot of people in the industry are pretty frustrated by this whole ordeal. It’s quite a big performance advantage.
“Supercars put this forward to Motorsport Australia [stewards] to penalise. They’re the ones that decide whether or not this deserves a penalty. This is a big performance advantage.
“I think a lot of people are in quite a bit of shock here, and it’s opened a big can of worms.”
Brown said the argument that Allen’s tyres were above the minimum pressure for the start missed the purpose of the regulation.
“They said by the end of the formation lap and the start of the race his tyres were at the right pressure — obviously they were,” he said.
“We go out and build brake temperature, it builds heat, it builds pressure. We can start at 15.5 psi probably for the warm-up lap and have 16.2, 16.3 for when the red lights go out.”
He added that his Triple Eight team was “extremely unhappy” about it, noting there were several instances of drivers being disqualified from races in previous seasons for similarly minor breaches of the minimum pressure rule.
“We run ours so far over to make sure we don’t get this penalty, because the precedent that has been set [previously] is that if it goes under by 0.1 psi at any time on the grid or anything, you get penalised.
“This opens up a can of worms. They’re going to cop flak from I imagine Dutto [Mark Dutton, Triple Eight manager], your team — every team is hounding Supercars this week saying, ‘How is this not being penalised?’.
“You’ve got two or three occasions that set a precedent that this is a penalty. To say it was in the shade — what do you reckon all the other 23 cars were doing out there on the right side of their tyre? They’re all in the shade as well. It’s just that you’ve put them low enough that it went under.
“Some people will go, ‘Oh yeah, why does it matter? It’s only 0.3 psi.” That’s a huge thing for us, because we’re running 0.6 to 0.7 psi over to make sure we don’t go under. It’s a big deal.
“It’s not a small thing that doesn’t give an actual advantage out there that they’re penalising; it gives a massive advantage.”
Kostecki talks role as Shell team leader | 07:01
GROVE STILL IN CONTROL OF BOTH TITLES
Allen had a barnstorming race on Sunday to finish fifth after a power steering problem knocked him out of qualifying in 23rd.
The comeback drive came despite him ending up off the track in an early battle with Will Brown, with Grove then opting to keep the young gun out for a long first stint that earnt him clear air with which to maximise his pace.
The fifth place capped off a strong weekend for the 2025 grand finalist, who finished sixth and third in the Saturday races to consolidate his hold on a high finals berth ahead of the last weekend of the Sprint Cup at Queensland Raceway later this month.
“Definitely a lot of positives to take away from this weekend,” he said.
“Coming away with a podium on Saturday was awesome.
“Unfortunate dramas saw me starting from the rear of the pack, but the team did an incredible job to get me in the fight and move up 18 positions.
“We will work on a few things and get ready to Ipswich.”
Teammate Matt Payne enjoyed his best weekend of the season, with two victories and a second-place finish, to extend his championship lead to 118 points over Broc Feeney.
Grove leads reigning teams champion Triple Eight by 258 points at the top of the title table.
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