RESTED STANAWAY READY FOR SUPERCARS RETURN

Richie Stanaway ready for Supercars return – Photo: LAT

After sitting on the sidelines since stepping out of the car at Winton, a rested Richie Stanaway has confirmed he is looking forward to returning to the Supercars this weekend at The Bend.

Stanaway sat out of Race 14 at Winton back in May, with fellow Kiwi Chris Pither taking his place at the last minute to complete the remainder of the weekend. Garry Rogers Motorsport then enlisted the services of Pither and then Michael Caruso to drive the #33 Boost Mobile entry for Darwin, Townsville and Ipswich.

Following a successful test in an S5000 car last week, Stanaway has been given the all-clear to return to his regular Supercars drive at this weekends OTR SuperSprint at The Bend Motorsport Park.

“So really looking forward to getting back in the car, it’s been a long wait.” said Stanaway.

“When I withdrew from the event at Winton, I definitely didn’t expect the issue to be this much of a problem, so I’m really forward to getting back into it.”

“It’s been a long wait and a longer than expected recovery. So I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into where we left off with Boost Mobile Racing and chipping away at our project.”

Richie Stanaway last raced at Winton back in May – Photo: InSyde Media

Stanaway confirmed he wasn’t able to have surgery on his neck injury and the rehabilitation program was mostly resting the injury.

“So the main thing with the recovery has just been resting.” Stanaway continued.

“I haven’t been able to do much, apart from recently where we’ve been implementing a few more exercises to get me back into the shape I need to be in.”

“But for the most part, it was just been about resting and letting it recover fortunately, there wasn’t too much more to do.”

“We weren’t able to go down the route of having surgery, it was just a matter of waiting it out and hopefully when I get back in the car this week there’s no issues.”

With the recovery now complete, the former World Endurance Championship and GP2 racer looking forward to returning to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

“I think Tailem Bend is a great circuit, It’s obviously new so it’s still a little bit of an unknown for a lot of the teams.” said Stanaway.

“It’s not one of the more established circuits and going there with the harder tyre and the low grip surface makes it quite interesting. Its quite different to some of the higher grip soft tyre that we go to, so it makes for a much different experience and hopefully what we take there will be competitive.”

Supercars action at The Bend commences this Friday with two practice sessions and an endurance co-driver practice session.

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