Stanaway's aggressive Bathurst mindset amid uncertain future

Richie Stanaway is firmly focused on securing back-to-back Repco Bathurst 1000 titles amid uncertainty around his future in the Repco Supercars Championship.

Having won the Great Race last year at Red Bull Ampol Racing alongside fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen, Stanaway was thrown a full-time career lifeline by Grove Racing for 2024.

Stanaway immediately burst out of the gates with a fourth place in Race 1 of the season at the Thrifty Bathurst 500, but has largely struggled with a lack of qualifying pace this season.

The 32-year-old Kiwi entered the enduro season 14th in the standings, and looking for a new employer after Grove Racing swooped on reigning Super2 champion Kai Allen on a long-term deal.

After a strong showing in practice and qualifying at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, a catastrophic engine failure early in the race saw Stanaway grind to a halt before co-driver Dale Wood had driven a lap.

Having dropped back to 18th in the standings after Sandown, Stanaway is on a mission to send a statement to the Supercars paddock at Mount Panorama.

"We're always under pressure whether you've got a contract or not, but putting in a good performance at the biggest race of the year definitely won't hurt in terms of negotiating the future," said the 2017 Sandown 500 winner.

"Everyone is always pretty fired up when they are in the car for Bathurst, especially for the last three stints at the end.

"It's a time of the year where all of the drivers are very sharp because it's getting to the end of the season, we've all spent a lot of time in the car.

"And not only that, but there's a lot of practice and build-up, and you're going through so many fuel loads and sets of tyres.

"That last fuel load is probably the most intense time that you'll have in the car all year, so performing in that moment is very important. I just can't wait for it really."

Having realised a life-long dream of becoming a Bathurst champion, Stanaway says that he can now focus solely on attacking this year's race without the stress of losing an opportunity to win.

Whilst some might feel that being the reigning Bathurst champion would add pressure, the former GP2 race winner says that if anything it's the opposite, and he will relish in being a former winner on the grid.

"It's always an exciting time of the year having our biggest race. Definitely the memories of last year are flooding back in, and it is nice to go there having won it last year.

"You just worry that something will go wrong and take away that chance to get one under the belt, but having already got one under the belt I can just attack the race and see how we go without that stress."

Stanaway has been at the centre of much silly season speculation since Grove Racing confirmed the imminent arrival of Allen back in August.

Stanaway has been consistently linked to a seat at PremiAir Racing, a move that has now been made possible by Tim Slade's recent retirement announcement.

Should he not find his way onto the full-time grid in 2025, Stanaway would then become one of the most sought after co-drivers on the grid for next year's enduros.

Having won at Sandown and Bathurst with Tickford and Triple Eight respectively, the Kiwi has proven himself to be one of the standout co-drivers of the past few seasons.

"I've not been racing full-time that often since 2016, but I've co-driven almost every year, so since I started in Supercars, Sandown and Bathurst are the two tracks I've been to the most.

"We're pretty disappointed still with how Sandown went, so we really want to try and turn that around and bounce the morale back up and have a good weekend."

The 2024 Supercars Championship resumes at the Repco Bathurst 1000 from October 10-13. Tickets for the event are on sale now.