Bathurst 1000: Defending champion Richie Stanaway hopes to press case for 2025 seat with strong result at Mount Panorama

Richie Stanaway experienced the highlight of his racing career when he won last year’s Bathurst 1000 alongside Shane van Gisbergen. This year he returns to Mount Panorama fighting for his career.

He is the defending Bathurst 1000 champion without a seat on the grid for next season, but Kiwi Richie Stanaway is hoping another strong campaign at Mount Panorama can help save his full-time Supercars career.

Stanaway will be the only half of the 2023 Bathurst-winning pair on the starting grid for the Great Race next week after Shane van Gisbergen’s move to NASCAR in the United States.

Then a Triple Eight co-driver, Stanaway teamed with fellow New Zealander van Gisbergen to help deliver the triple Supercars champion his third Bathurst 1000 win.

Stanaway’s co-driving performance helped launch him back into a full-time Supercars drive this season with Grove Racing, but the Ford squad announced in late July it would not be renewing Stanaway’s contract for 2025.

Super2 young gun Kai Allen, currently campaigning as Will Davison’s co-driver at Dick Johnson Racing for the enduros, was soon confirmed as Stanaway’s replacement.

Richie Stanaway (right) won the Bathurst 1000 alongside Shane van Gisbergen last year. Picture: Mark Horsburgh

PremiAir Racing is in the hunt for a replacement for Tim Slade after the announcement last week of his retirement from full-time driving at the end of the year, although the rest of the grid appears mostly settled.

With just three races remaining in the 2024 Supercars season, Stanaway is hoping he can bounce back from a tough season and Sandown setback to press his case for a drive.

“It has been a disappointing season,” Stanaway said.

“But every race we go to we are developing and improving and I feel like Bathurst would be the perfect time to turn around our season and have a good result.

“That is my focus for Bathurst and the rest of the year is just to try and get some good results.

“Absolutely that’s my goal (to try and secure another full-time drive).”

Stanaway had his best result of the year in the season-opening race at the Bathurst 500 this year when he finished fourth, but has not been able to break into the top five since then.

As he fights for his career, the 32-year-old’s hopes of a strong finish at the Sandown 500 were thwarted when his Mustang suffered an engine crankshaft failure on lap 23 when he was running eighth, falling to 18 in the driver standings.

Richie Stanaway is still looking for a seat. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Stanaway, teaming with Dale Wood in the enduros, felt he could have been on track for a top-five result.

“Probably not a win or a podium, but I think we would have been in with a chance of a top five there,” Stanaway said.

“But even that relative to the rest of our season would have been a strong result.

“Then going to Bathurst we’d continue trying to improve and then hopefully we can be on for a podium next week.”

Reflecting on his 2023 victory with his good mate van Gisbergen, Stanaway said last year’s Bathurst 1000 win had been the highlight of his career.

“By a long margin, too. I haven’t really done anything in my career close to that achievement,” Stanaway said.

“It’s been a few years of, I guess, my career being a bit off the rails, so it was nice to get it back on track with a career highlight.

“It was an incredible experience really to be able to win it with someone that I have been mates with for probably 15 years or so made it even more special.

“I have really good memories from 12 months ago.”