Penrite Racing recruit Stanaway settling in at new home

Reigning Repco Bathurst 1000 winner and Penrite Racing recruit Richie Stanaway has ticked off his first day visiting the team’s workshop, as preparations for the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship season continue to ramp up.

Stanaway will make his highly-anticipated return to full-time Supercars racing next month, more than four years after his last full season in 2019.

The 32-year old formally retired after two full seasons, but returned to the scene in 2022 in an Erebus Motorsport wildcard entry at the Repco Bathurst 1000. In a Boost Mobile-backed entry driving with Greg Murphy, Stanaway impressed in a soaking wet Friday qualifying where he was fifth fastest, before the duo took 11^th in Sunday’s race.

That effort was good enough for Triple Eight to snap up Stanaway for the 2023 enduros driving alongside Shane van Gisbergen, where they finished third at the Sandown 500 before winning the Great Race, becoming the first all-Kiwi pair to win the Bathurst 1000 since Murphy and Steven Richards in 1999.

For 2024, the Tauranga native joins an in-form Penrite Racing after the Braeside squad won two of the last three races of the 2023 season, including new teammate Matt Payne’s first career win in the season finale in Adelaide.

Stanaway moved from New Zealand to Melbourne over the offseason, and figures to be one of the stories to watch across the upcoming Supercars season.

Grove Racing is poised to be a breakout team in this year’s championship, boasting one of the strongest engineering teams in pit lane and significant operational investments from team leaders Stephen and Brenton Grove.

21-year old Payne has proven to be a potential star of the sport, and Stanaway’s pedigree as a winner in sportscars, single seaters, and Supercars’ biggest race, cannot be overlooked.

Should they find the right combination, there is reason to expect the Penrite Ford Mustangs to be regular contenders at the front of the field.

Stanaway and Payne will hit the track for pre-season testing at Winton Motor Raceway on Wednesday, February 7, before the season-opening Thrifty Bathurst 500 kicks off the 2024 Supercars season February 23-25.

The Supercars season opener forms part of the Bathurst SuperFest, which comprises the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour and the Thrifty Bathurst 500 across two consecutive weekends of racing.

Tickets for the Bathurst SuperFest can be purchased via Supercars.com and Ticketek.

Live coverage of the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour and Thrifty Bathurst 500 will be found on the Seven and Foxtel family of networks.