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Stanaway makes his return to full-time Supercars competition this year after a rocky road during his previous such period in the category, in 2018 and 2019.
Off the back of great hype due to his win in the 2017 Sandown 500 as Cam Waters’ co-driver, he finished second-last of the full-timers when elevated to a seat of his own at Tickford Racing in 2018.
They parted ways at the end of that campaign, with both parties pointing the finger at each other, before an arguably even more dismal campaign at Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2019.
It prompted the GP2 race winner to retire from motorsport, before re-emerging with a Boost Mobile-backed wildcard in 2022 and landing a plum co-drive at Triple Eight Race Engineering last year.
Even before winning the 2023 Bathurst 1000 with Shane van Gisbergen, Stephen Grove had seen enough to sign Stanaway up to drive one of the Penrite Mustangs this year.
About getting the best from Stanaway, he told the KTM Summer Grill, “Well, we just need to build the team around him.
“We’re building him a brand-new car [and] we need to give him the resources.
“I mean, he’s a huge talent, he’ll be fast in the car, and we’ve just got to make sure that he has all the tools he needs to get the job done, and I have no doubt [he will].
“I’ve spent some time with Richie, and he’s a great guy, and I’m very confident we’ll push on.”
Grove Racing finished last year with a bang, Stanaway’s predecessor David Reynolds taking victory on the Gold Coast before Matt Payne ended his rookie campaign in the top flight of Supercars with a breakthrough win.
After a mid-season slump in 2023, their cause not helped by parity dramas, Stephen Grove wants the squad to be challenging for titles this year.
“It’s a super competitive field, but we hope we get through the end of the parity issues and get them sorted for 2024, and then for us, we should be trying to really fight for top five every round, every race,” he declared.
“That’s certainly where we want to be and we want to sort of be trying to challenge for championships.”
He added, “To win the overall teams’ championship, you need two on-their-game drivers, and I’m extremely confident we’ll have that with Richie and Matty next year, so I think that’s a real opportunity for us.”
For more from Stephen Grove, check out the full episode of the KTM Summer Grill.
