New Zealand’s Richie Stanaway is believed to have signed for a full-time drive at Grove Racing in 2024, joining compatriot Matt Payne in an all-Kiwi lineup. While no confirmation has been made, it’s believed the deal is done and will be announced early next week.
Payne remains contracted to the team on a multi-year deal, but David Reynolds goes off-contract at the end of the season. The 382-race veteran has been heavily linked to a seat at Team 18 to replace Scott Pye and will be succeeded by Stanaway.
Stanaway remains in the Supercars fold in 2023 with Triple Eight Race Engineering for this year’s enduros, where he will partner Shane van Gisbergen at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
He had indicated to the media he was open to replacing van Gisbergen upon his impending departure to the United States next year. However, Red Bull has instead signed Will Brown to fill the vacant seat.
That left the Kiwi as a free agent of immense talent who was sure to attract plenty of interest in the driver market during silly season. Grove Racing appears to have leapt at the opportunity to sign him.
Stanaway’s most recent Supercars outing was at the 2022 Bathurst 1000, where he partnered with Greg Murphy and qualified fifth in wet conditions.
Before that, the 2008/09 New Zealand Formula Ford Champion experienced mixed success with Tickford in 2018 and Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2019, following his 2017 Sandown 500 victory with Cam Waters.
His Supercars career came off the back of an extremely successful European stint where he claimed the 2010 ADAC Formel Masters championship, winning 12 of the 18 opening races to wrap up the title with a round to spare. In that field were the likes of renowned GT driver Sven Müller and current Formula E driver Pascal Wehrlein.
Stanaway won the German Formula 3 Championship the following year and also appeared in the GP3 Series for two rounds, winning on his debut race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. Future Formula 1 star Valtteri Bottas and Formula E star Mitch Evans were competing that year.
An entire GP3 season followed in 2014, with the Kiwi claiming wins at Silverstone and Hungary to finish the championship eighth.
In the years since, Stanaway has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Nurburgring and select rounds of the World Endurance Championship before making his Supercars debut in 2017.
Stanaway retired from the sport in 2019 before his remarkable comeback event at the 2022 Bathurst 1000, which has paved the way for a full-time return to the series.
Stanaway will return to action in the GT World Challenge Asia this weekend, sharing the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with Prince Jefri Ibrahim in Okayama.
Header Image: Red Bull Ampol Racing
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