FOR Richie Stanaway, there will be a key difference about lining up for Grove Racing in 2024 compared to his first two shots as a Supercars full-timer.
Stanaway will replace David Reynolds at the Ford squad next season, following ill-fated campaigns with Tickford Racing (2018) and Garry Rogers Motorsport (2019) which he says feel like a lifetime ago.
“I just want to see what I’m capable of doing with the right group of people,” the Kiwi said on the Rusty’s Garage podcast.
“I guess I have had a bit of a chance to reflect over what went wrong during my first two full seasons.
“At the start of either of those seasons, I never went into it confident that we would be able to get results and that’s very, very different this time.
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“I don’t really know what it’s like to go into a season with an organisation that’s preparing themselves to win, so to come in as a driver in that environment is very new to me.
“That prospect is very, very exciting and I feel like it’s going to get the most out of me and I’ll try to do my best to get the most out of the team as well.
“I’m just really excited to see what we can achieve together.”
The 31-year-old will become the latest ex-Triple Eight star to join the Grove fold, following the likes of team principal David Cauchi, technical director Grant McPherson and co-driver/mentor Garth Tander.
Stanaway has enjoyed gaining an insight into what makes Triple Eight tick, racing for the Banyo juggernaut in GT3 machinery and co-driving with Shane van Gisbergen in the upcoming Repco Supercars Championship enduros.
He’s making no secret of his ambition to win with the Groves, with whom the 2024 opportunity came together quickly.
“They reached out after SMP and it all came together really quickly,” said Stanaway.
“The more I looked into it, I just couldn’t find anything other than green flags.
“Just with the people that they’ve recruited and the way they’re going about everything, I just was more and more impressed the more I looked into it and it just felt right to me.
“I just had a gut feeling and I’ve gone with that gut feeling and I think it should hopefully work out well.”
He will have Kiwi young gun Matt Payne as his teammate next season.
