SUCCESS at Sandown has helped Richie Stanaway ease the pain from a disappointing 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign but he’s got his eyes on a bigger prize.
After missing out on a class victory in the world’s premier endurance event Stanaway turned his attention to Australia’s Supercars Championship, joining forces with the Prodrive Racing Australia garage to drive alongside Cam Waters.
Stanaway hopes the win at Sandown is the start of a successful partnership for himself and Waters.
“It was quite surreal for both of us. We definitely weren’t expecting it, but I think that’s normal considering we’re relatively young and inexperienced compared to the rest of the guys in the category,” he said.
“Hopefully we can get a few more of those results in the future so it can start to feel more normal.
“Bathurst is my favourite race in the world. It’s always good to be here and I’m really looking forward to it.
“It’s crazy how much the cars have evolved in the way that they’re set up compared to last year. It’s feeling really good at the moment.
“On top of that, we brought some engine upgrades to Sandown and that’ll obviously help as well.”
Aston Martin factory driver Stanaway was leading the LM GTE Pro class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans before locking up at Mulsanne during his out-lap.
Mechanical troubles then put the team out of the running.
More success in the Supercars Endurance Cup series will certainly help Stanaway turn his year from ‘mixed’ to ‘memorable’.
“I haven’t really done much racing. I did the three races with Aston, and these three [Supercars Endurance Cup] races will be the others, apart from the Super2 race I did,” he said.
“I’m working towards racing here full-time, and that doesn’t entail much racing in Europe.
“Le Mans was pretty disappointing for me, where we had an issue with the car while in the lead.
“Winning the Super2 race and Sandown has been a good couple of rounds to come off the back of that though.”
Waters qualified fourth for Saturday’s shootout.
