After a thrilling weekend driving in the famed Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup around the streets of Monte Carlo, Stephen Grove is still relishing the once in a lifetime experience.
The Melbourne-based driver, who piloted a Pro GT by Alméras run Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, climbed from 26th outright on the grid to finish the 16-lap race 22nd outright and fifth in class.
Grove’s result comes on his first ever appearance not only in Porsche Supercup, but at the Monaco Grand Prix as well.
“I was really happy, it was an excellent result, to go over there and race with those boys in this sort of event is incredible,” exclaimed Grove.
“Monaco is the best track I’ve raced on, one-hundred percent, just from the prestige and history of the track.
“It’s very technical and it’s a circuit I really like; it’s very, very challenging and certainly up there as one of my favourites, for sure.
“I obviously started towards the back of the grid in the race, so we were quite conservative through Turn 1 on the opening lap – didn’t want to get involved in anything silly.
“I just sorted of bided my time there, pushed on hard through the first lap and managed to make a pass on another car and to pass on a circuit like that, it’s near impossible.
“So, I managed to get the pass done coming out of the tunnel and then I just kept building and getting some places and ended up with a fairly good result.
“Once people settled into the race it became a lot harder to pass because once the tyres came up to temperature it was a lot more difficult to stick a move.
“We had some oversteer towards the end of the race because you’re punching out of slow corners so you get a fair bit of wheel-spin, which you try and limit, but that heats your rear tyres up.
“I was happy with the laps times though and I was happy with where I ended up – I made up five positions which is really good.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to Australia next week and then we’ll get ready for Carrera Cup in Darwin and getting back into the rhythm of things over there.”
Grove now gears up for the next round of Porsche Wilson Security Carrera Cup Australia, which takes place at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway from June 15-17.
