Stanaway's two-pronged quest to win Jason Richards Trophy

Richie Stanaway is both determined to become a hometown Jason Richards Memorial Trophy winner and breathe life into his stuttering 2025 campaign at the ITM Taupō Super 440.

The 2023 Bathurst winner returns to Taupō as one of five New Zealanders on the grid, alongside Matt Payne, Andre Heimgartner, Ryan Wood and Jaxon Evans.

Stanaway is the lowest placed of the five in the drivers' standings heading to New Zealand, following a troubled run of luck across the first two rounds.

The Kiwi suffered an engine failure DNF in Sydney, before twice being knocked out of top 10 positions in Melbourne. To add insult to injury, Stanaway had qualified fourth for the race that was abandoned due to rain.

Stanaway sits 23rd overall, 134 points behind 10th placed Nick Percat.

With his season on the line, the PremiAir Racing driver is desperate to make Taupō count on a weekend he could join Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin as the only New Zealand-born Jason Richards Trophy winners.

"Winning the JR Trophy would be incredibly special to me," Stanaway said in a social media post.

"I was fortunate enough to meet Jason, before he passed on. I always just remember his charisma, great guy to be around.

"At that age, I was quite impressionable, and took a lot of inspiration from meeting him, and seeing him racing in Supercars.

"Winning it would mean I've done well in my home country, which you can't ask for much more as a Kiwi driver.

"Also, I need the championship points because I haven't had the best start to the season. So, having some success at home would be a great way to get my season back on track."

Stanaway was impressive last year, charging from 23rd to sixth in the dramatic rain-hit opener won by countryman Heimgartner.

After finishing 23rd and 20th at Pukekohe in 2018, Stanaway finished 10th and ninth in 2019, before ending up sixth and 10th last year. All told, Stanaway has four top 10s in six starts on home soil.

"For me, racing in New Zealand is quite special," Stanaway said.

"I've spent a lot of my career racing internationally. It's kind of like being a football player that only gets to play away games.

"It's nice to go back and race in my home country, I've got a lot of special memories from racing back there in my earlier days.

"And it's quite close to where I'm from, so I get to have a lot of friends and family around, which is something I'm not used to."

Tickets for the ITM Taupō Super 440, set for April 11-13, are on sale now.