Stanaway puts his name on the radar

SURPRISED to see Richie Stanaway grabbing headlines during the past month? You shouldn’t be.

The Kiwi is actually one of the most accomplished drivers lining up on the Supercars grid this weekend on the Gold Coast – and you can bet your bottom dollar on his name becoming a hell of a lot more familiar in years to come.

Not that long ago, Stanaway was on the verge of making the big time in Formula One – the pinnacle of motorsport reserved for the best 20 or so drivers in the world.

He impressed in various European categories, winning the German Formula Three title in 2011 and scoring victories in Monaco and Russia in F1 feeder series GP2 in 2015.

“I was working at (multiple F1 champion team) Williams for a couple of years driving their simulator which is I guess the equivalent to being a test driver now and I was in the young driver program at Lotus,” Stanaway told the Bulletin.

“But it’s a bit of a lottery and you need all of the stars to align. It just didn’t quite happen for me but it was pretty close there for a while.”

With a promotion not forthcoming, Stanaway has turned his attention to conquering the Supercars competition that first fuelled his passion for motorsport.

“The whole idea of me going to Europe was to get into F1. The next best thing if that didn’t work out was always to come to Supercars and that is what I am trying to do now,” he said.

Teaming up with Cameron Waters for Prodrive Racing Australia, he won the Sandown 500 last month in just his fifth Supercars race.

He is widely expected to earn a full-time gig at Prodrive next year and has already been tipped for success.

“The stuff he has shown this year, he definitely deserves a main-game seat,” said Ford star Chaz Mostert, who went wheel-to-wheel with Stanaway in Formula Ford as teenagers.

Former Supercars champion Russell Ingall said that “he outstrips 95 per cent of the drivers who are in Supercars right now” despite his relative inexperience in the sport. The one person who doesn’t want to see him promoted is Waters.

“In Bathurst in the wet he showed that he was obviously a level above all of the codrivers … I really hope that he doesn’t get a drive next year so that he can be my (codriver) again,” the ambitious Waters said.

Stanaway loves “everything” about Supercars.

“It has such a big following here in Australia and really good fan engagement,” he said.