A rookie title in New Zealand, a dominant ADAC Formula Masters season, GP3 wins and a long Supercars career that ended in a Bathurst 1000 victory.
Stanaway is a New Zealander who took the rookie title in New Zealand Formula Ford in 2008/09, later raced in Europe and then Supercars. His Bathurst 1000 win came in 2023, and he now co-drives in the Ryco Enduro Cup.
Richie Stanaway is a New Zealand racing driver who competes in the Ryco Enduro Cup for Blanchard Racing Team, co-driving with James Golding in the No. 7 Ford Mustang. He won the New Zealand Formula Ford title as a rookie, raced in Europe's ADAC Formula Masters and GP3, and later built a long Supercars career that included a Bathurst 1000 victory in 2023.
How did Stanaway win the New Zealand Formula Ford title?
Stanaway was born in Tauranga and came to racing from motocross, switching to speedway at twelve. A brief spell in karts came before his formula car debut in 2007, which he made through the New Zealand SpeedSport Scholarship. In the 2007/08 Formula First championship he finished third overall and was the highest-placed rookie. He won the 2008/09 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship with fourteen race wins, only the second driver in its history to win the title as a rookie.
He raced in the winter series first to prepare, winning many races with the newly imported Mygale chassis. The title came with TSR Racing, a debutant team from Hamilton, where he drove alongside Martin Short.
He then moved across the Tasman for the 2009 Australian Formula Ford Championship with Team BRM, a squad with a long history in Formula 3. He finished sixth in that championship with one race win and six podiums, even though he missed six races while testing and racing in Germany.
In April 2009 he made a one-off appearance in the Toyota Racing Series at the Hamilton 400 street circuit. He scored both pole positions and won both races on debut.
A rookie title in New Zealand, a dominant ADAC Formula Masters season and a Bathurst 1000 win in 2023.
What did his European Formula Masters work look like in 2009 and 2010?
In July 2009 Stanaway took up a testing opportunity at EuroSpeedway Lausitz with Ma-Con Motorsport, a German team in the ADAC Formula Masters Championship. He impressed, and he was offered a race seat for the final six races of the season at the Nurburgring, Sachsenring and Oschersleben.
He made his European debut at the Nurburgring on 22 August 2009, and across those six races he scored two pole positions and numerous podiums. The budget had been raised by a group of investors, and the results led to a management contract with RRT Holdings, headed by businessman Martin Reiss.
For the 2010 ADAC Formula Masters he dominated. He took twelve race wins and finished no lower than second in the championship.
Tests followed with Koiranen Bros Motorsport at Barcelona, Van Amersfoort Racing at Oschersleben and Tech-1 Racing in Formula Renault 2.0. He then made his United Kingdom racing debut in the Formula Renault UK winter cup with Atech-GP at Snetterton and Pembrey, where he took a race win.
How did Stanaway reach GP3 and the Lotus ART seat?
He was released from the Reiss contract and signed with Gravity Sport Management, a group headed by Eric Boullier, the Lotus-Renault Formula One team principal. In 2011 he raced in the ATS-Formel 3 Cup with Van Amersfoort Racing, a Dutch team.
He replaced Pedro Nunes for the remainder of the 2011 GP3 season with Lotus ART, starting at the penultimate round in Belgium. He finished eighth in the first race, which put him on pole for the second, where he kept the lead and won.
Later in 2011 he tested the new BMW M3 DTM car as one of three young drivers. In December he topped the times on the first two days of an invite-only Formula Renault 3.5 test at Aragon for Gravity-Charouz Racing, and he finished the three-day test with the fastest overall time.
In 2014 he competed in GP3 for Status Grand Prix. He finished eighth overall, winning two races and scoring two additional podiums.
How did his Supercars career begin?
Stanaway made his Supercars debut in 2016 for Super Black Racing, co-driving with Chris Pither in the Pirtek Enduro Cup. At Sandown he fought his way up from a pit stop to third on slick tyres on a damp track, although his team was caught out by a safety car and dropped to 17th, a lap down.
In 2017 he won the final race of the Sydney round of the Super2 Series. Alongside Cam Waters in the Pirtek Enduro Cup, he won the Sandown 500 from pole. They led the Bathurst 1000 before an incident on a restart broke the rear wing, but they repaired the car and finished 16th, three laps down.
At the Gold Coast 600 they finished second in one race, then suffered steering damage in the second race and finished 21st. Early in December 2017 it was announced that Stanaway would drive full-time in the Supercars Championship with Tickford Racing.
How did the Supercars years unfold by team?
| Season | Team | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Super Black Racing | Enduro Cup debut, third at Sandown on slicks in the damp |
| 2017 | Enduro Cup with Cam Waters | Sandown 500 win from pole |
| 2018 | Tickford Racing | Full-time season, a poor year |
| 2019 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Missed seven races with a neck injury; retired in November |
| 2021-22 | Erebus Motorsport | Bathurst wildcard with Greg Murphy, postponed then revived |
| 2023 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Bathurst 1000 victory, two podiums in Supercars |
| 2024 | Grove Racing | Full-time drive confirmed in August 2023 |
Why did Stanaway leave Supercars in 2019?
Stanaway moved to Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2019 after a poor season in 2018. He aggravated an earlier neck injury, missed seven races and made a return at The Bend SuperSprint. He was stood down at the Gold Coast 600 for missing an autograph signing, and he was reinstated for the next round at Sandown.
After a difficult two years in the category, he retired from Supercars in November 2019.
What was the Boost Mobile Bathurst wildcard?
In 2021 Peter Adderton of Boost Mobile floated the idea of a wildcard entry for Stanaway and the four-time Bathurst winner Greg Murphy. The idea gained strong fan support, and on 8 June 2021 the pair were confirmed for an Erebus Motorsport entry.
The wildcard was postponed in November 2021 because of travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand. In April 2022 Erebus confirmed the wildcard would be revived for the Bathurst 1000. The pair had three test days before the race, with the first at Winton Motor Raceway on 7 June.
How did the 2023 season produce a Bathurst win?
In 2023 Stanaway joined Triple Eight to partner Shane van Gisbergen in the Supercars Enduro races, and he also raced in GT World Challenge Australia and GT World Challenge Asia. He took victory at the Bathurst 1000 that year.
He scored two podiums in GT and two podiums in Supercars over the year. On 21 August 2023 it was announced that he would drive full-time for Grove Racing in 2024.
Where does he race now?
Stanaway co-drives the No. 7 Ford Mustang for Blanchard Racing Team in the Ryco Enduro Cup, alongside James Golding.
His career has moved between single-seaters, touring cars and GT machinery.
