Richie Stanaway has completed his first test for Triple Eight Race Engineering, driving a Mercedes-AMG at The Bend in preparation for next month’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
However, it was recently announced that he will also race at Mount Panorama in the once-around-the-clock GT3 enduro before the Supercars season gets underway.
Then, Stanaway will share the #99 Mercedes-AMG with Jamie Whincup and Prince Jefri Ibrahim, the latter of whom is a regular for the Triple Eight/Johor collaboration in GT World Challenge.
They have now tested as a trio at Tailem Bend, a fortnight out from the Bathurst 12 Hour.
The 2023 event will mark Stanaway’s debut, although he is far from inexperienced in GT machinery.
The 31-year-old is a race winner in the LMGTE class of the World Endurance Championship as a factory Aston Martin driver, on top of victories in the GP2 Series (as the immediate feeder to Formula 1 was known at the time).
Whincup has been victorious in the Bathurst 12 Hour itself, prevailing in 2017 in the Maranello Motorsport-entered Ferrari 488 GT3 which was largely a Triple Eight-run car.
The Banyo squad can also boast outright victory in last year’s race when it ran the SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG, while Broc Feeney and Ibrahim prevailed in the three-hour Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS race at last November’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst International.
Whincup/Stanaway/Ibrahim will contest the Pro-Am class while Triple Eight will also compete in Pro with a Supercheap Auto-backed Mercedes-AMG, to be driven by Shane van Gisbergen, Feeney, and factory driver Maximilian Gotz.
The 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour takes place from February 3-5.
Pictures: Johor Racing Facebook
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