RICHIE Stanaway will make his first international racing appearance for Triple Eight this weekend.
Stanaway, who has been signed to co-drive with Shane van Gisbergen at Supercars’ 2023 Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, will substitute for Broc Feeney in Round 2 of GT World Challenge Asia at Fuji International Speedway.
That comes amid a calendar clash with Feeney racing his #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro at the Darwin Triple Crown.
Stanaway thus will be called on to partner Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the #888 Mercedes-AMG GT3, just as he did at the GT World Challenge Australia round at Wanneroo Raceway in late April.
The Kiwi and Malaysian royalty also joined forces at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February along with Jamie Whincup.
Stanaway has prior experience at Fuji, in Japan, including during his Aston Martin days in the World Endurance Championship.
The 31-year-old believes the additional seat time will be valuable come the Supercars enduros.
“There’s very, very little that you can carry over between the two cars but I had basically just sat on the couch for three years not racing so anything I do this year feels like a massive bonus compared to how I rolled up at Bathurst last year,” he told V8 Sleuth.
Stanaway is starting to get more comfortable with the Gen3 Camaro Supercar and the right-foot braking technique, reporting a very positive test day at Queensland Raceway earlier this month.
Moreover, he’s relishing life at Triple Eight.
“It’s incredible. It’s hard to get the smile off my face because it’s a superstar team right from the drivers through to the engineers, mechanics, management, it really is just a superstar team and I feel very privileged to be a part of it,” he said.
“I’m just loving every minute of it.”
Other rounds where Stanaway could be in line for GT3 call-ups based on calendar clashes with Supercars include Sydney Motorsport Park (July 28-30), Okayama International Circuit (August 18-20) and the Adelaide 500 (November 23-26).
