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Stanaway is five events back into his first full season of motorsport since “call[ing] it a day” on his motorsport career in 2019, after which he was handed a lifeline with the Boost Mobile wildcard in the 2022 Bathurst 1000 then won the 2023 Great Race as Shane van Gisbergen’s co-driver at Red Bull Ampol Racing.
Now driving for Penrite Racing, he started the season with a fourth in Race 1 at Mount Panorama but that has proven the high water mark so far in 2024.
The New Zealander sits 10th in the drivers’ championship at the conclusion of the Betr Darwin Triple Crown after finishes of 14th and 10th in his first event at Hidden Valley since 2018, having missed that of 2019 due to a neck injury.
“[I was] certainly feeling the effects of that, especially rolling out in practice here and not having been here last year or for six years, then having the qualifying straight away on the Friday afternoon,” said Stanaway on Fox Sports.
“You always love to think you can just rock up and put the thing on pole but the reality is probably very different from that, as we’re seeing.
“I wanted to come back here and be fighting for race wins but it’s looking like it’s going to be a bit of a longer project.
“We’re just going to have to build on it and just keep chipping away at it and just take it one step at a time and hopefully, with a bit more time, we’re up the front.”
Grove Racing is currently enduring a rough patch of form, particularly with respect to one-lap pace, although Stanaway can at least see progress from his viewpoint in the #26 Ford Mustang.
“[It was a] Tough weekend for us,” he admitted.
“We’ve been trying a lot with the car and learning a lot.
“I feel like we made the car a lot better [on Sunday] but, unfortunately, we didn’t have much to show for it just with how tight it was in quali and we didn’t quite have the track position. But, pace-wise, was solid.
“I’m learning a lot every round. It’s still early days for me here at Penrite Racing and we’ve still got a lot of gelling to do, but I feel like we’re making good progress, which is positive.
“Everyone’s putting their best foot forward, we’re all working really hard to get back up to the pointy end of the field, and hopefully we get there sooner rather than later.”
On the other side of the garage, Matt Payne recorded finishes of just 15th and 20th at Hidden Valley.
He started the latter from pit lane after a pre-race fuel pressure drama and then had to serve a 15-second hold due to turning around Ryan Wood during that 48-lap encounter.
It could have been even worse, however, had the Grove crew not pulled off a “miracle” in pit lane before the start.
“Matt’s car wouldn’t start; it would start and then it would shut off,” said Team Principal David Cauchi in a team social media video.
“It took some diagnosis, we changed a couple of parts. The car wasn’t getting any fuel pressure — we changed some parts, it wasn’t fixing the problem.
“Eventually we had to change the two fuel main pumps, so the guys and girls did an amazing job.
“It was a miracle, to be honest, that we got the car out for the race at all, but Matt had to start from pit lane.”
Payne is ninth in the championship, with Grove to undertake a test day at Winton before the NTI Townsville 500 takes place on July 5-7.
