Very few opportunities remain and Stanaway is on the outside looking in having been dropped in favour of Super2 Series champion Kai Allen.
Stanaway, 32, has been linked to a full-time seat at PremiAIr Racing, which is yet to commit to a driver for the #23 Camaro currently steered by Tim Slade.
“Right now, I’m just focusing on trying to have a good round this weekend, to be honest,” Stanaway told Speedcafe when asked about his prospects beyond this year.
“There won’t be anything shored up until probably sometime between Sandown and Bathurst.
“I’d love to do another full-time season. I feel like I’m not at my full potential yet.
“I need to have a good round this weekend to show what I’m capable of.”
Last year, Stanaway joined Shane van Gisbergen at Red Bull Ampol Racing where they finished third in the Sandown 500 and won the Bathurst 1000.
After leaving to compete in NASCAR, van Gisbergen hoped Stanaway would land at Triple Eight Race Engineering full-time but the team ultimately went with Will Brown.
Stanaway landed at Grove Racing but a little more than halfway through the season it was announced he would not have his contract extended.
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Van Gisbergen spoke positively about Stanaway in the wake of his axing and of the “gutting” reality of his compatriot’s predicament.
“I worked really closely with Shane last year, obviously being his co-driver and I learnt a lot from him,” said Stanaway.
“He really coached me a lot about how to drive the car and it helped me massively and I guess he saw my potential.
“Whether it was lap time or whatever it was – but it’s nice to get a backing from someone that’s clearly shown that they can be so successful in the sport because when I was his co-driver, I guess you’re trying really hard to do the best possible job to try impress people like that. It’s nice to get the support from him.”
Sandown is Stanaway’s most successful circuit with two podium finishes at the historic venue, including victory in the 500 alongside Cam Waters in 2017.
Stanaway said familiarity will be the biggest benefit at a pivotal point in his career.
“It’s been a good track for me here but the key thing for me this weekend is just having the knowledge and the experience from being here last year, which I feel is quite a nice feeling relative to all the previous rounds we’ve had this year apart from the first round at Bathurst,” he explained.
“It’s nice to just come back somewhere that feels a bit familiar and I’m not going out in the first practice completely blind.
“Even though I’ve got a bit of experience with the Gen2 cars at a lot of these tracks, it’s quite a while ago so it sort of just long enough ago that it’s not at the forefront of my memory. It’s nice to have been here last year and in this generation of car.
“The car is quite different to the Gen2 car but I think it’s more just match fitness for me more than the style of the car.
“Everyone did all these rounds last year while I was sitting at home so it definitely makes it a little bit tougher than it than it should be. It’s nice to come to a round that I was at last year.”
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