Speedcafe has learned that Stanaway is poised to snare the seat currently held by Tim Slade, who last week announced his impending retirement.
PremiAir had for months been exploring options to replace Slade, chasing and missing out on a series of drivers including reigning champion Brodie Kostecki.
Stanaway emerged as a leading contender for the drive shortly after Kostecki’s move to Dick Johnson Racing was announced.
The 32-year-old Kiwi had been in the market since July, when Grove Racing made a surprise call to replace him with Super2 star Kai Allen in 2025.
That decision came just seven events into Stanaway’s first full-time season in five years.
Stanaway won the 2017 Sandown 500 as a co-driver at Tickford Racing alongside Cam Waters before enduring a horror debut full-time campaign with the squad the following year.
Another difficult season at Garry Rogers Motorsport followed in 2019 and ended with the driver quitting the sport.
He made a comeback as a wildcard at Bathurst in 2022 alongside Greg Murphy, before winning the Great Race with Shane van Gisbergen at Triple Eight last year.
Stanaway has largely struggled against teammate Matt Payne at Groves but shone in the Bathurst season-opener and again at Sandown last month.
He flagged to Speedcafe at Sandown that his future would become clear “probably sometime between Sandown and Bathurst”.
Although PremiAir had suggested it’d wait until after Bathurst to sign a driver, it was clear last week that a call had been made.
Stanaway gave little away when asked about his mindset heading to Bathurst at an event launch this week.
“We’re always under pressure whether you’ve got a contract or not,” he said.
“But putting in a big performance at the biggest race of the year definitely won’t hurt in terms of negotiating the future.”
A range of drivers had been in contention for the PremiAir drive, with the shortlist believed to have included Mark Winterbottom, Jayden Ojeda and Scott Pye.
The silly season isn’t quite over yet though, with movement still possible within Brad Jones Racing’s four-car line-up.
Winterbottom in particular has been linked to a BJR seat ever since news broke that he’ll be replaced at Team 18 by Anton De Pasquale.
Discussion about this post