Penrite Racing 2024 season review: Peaks and troughs in moving year
As 2024 winds down, Supercars.com is looking over all 11 teams and their performances in this year's Repco Supercars Championship, continuing with Penrite Racing.
Penrite Racing ended 2023 as the form team, winning on the Gold Coast and Adelaide. On paper, the stage was set to start 2024 on the front foot, and in the fight for both championships.
By year's end, the team's closest driver to champion Will Brown was 1041 points off the pace, with the team 2324 points behind Triple Eight Race Engineering.
Matt Payne finished sixth overall, which for a driver in his second season, was very strong. However, it could have been much better; Payne recorded nine results in 13th or lower, including DNFs in Melbourne and Bathurst.
Overall, it was a year of peaks and troughs for the young Kiwi; Payne soared to poles in Melbourne and Taupō, charged to victory in Townsville from 10th on the grid, and claimed three other trophies.
On the other side of the garage, the curious case of Richie Stanaway was a big talking point. The 2023 Bathurst winner left Round 1 in fourth overall, but managed five top 10s in the next 17 races.
After being released, Stanaway ended the year with speed in Bathurst and the Gold Coast, but an Adelaide crash sparked an untimely and early end to his tenure with the team.
Penrite Racing: 2024 season results and head-to-heads
Drivers' finish: Matt Payne 6th, Richie Stanaway 19th
Teams' finish: 4th
Best result: 1st (Matt Payne, Townsville Race 14)
Qualifying head to head: Matt Payne 18, Richie Stanaway 6
Race head to head: Matt Payne 13, Richie Stanaway 10, Kai Allen 1*
*Allen stood in for Stanaway in Adelaide
What’s next in 2025?
If it wants to challenge for championships, the Grove squad has to find the sweet spot earlier at events, rather than go missing. There were weekends when the team was fighting for wins, but there were others, like Tasmania, where cracking the top 20 was a challenge.
There's no doubt the team is willing to take everything head on; look no further than the team's willingness to protest its rivals over pit lane breaches on the Gold Coast.
On the driving side, Payne has proven he can nail it like anyone else over one lap and in the races. He's still only 22, and has achieved some big things already. However, when he looks back at 2024, he'll be most aggrieved by his crashes in Melbourne and Bathurst, and at the team's inability to put a fast car on track at all 12 rounds.
The arrival of rookie Kai Allen is a tantalising prospect. Allen was a revelation in the Dunlop Series, winning in 2023 and going close again in 2024. The teenager was luckless alongside Will Davison in the enduros, but gained valuable experience standing in for Stanaway in Adelaide.
Boasting the youngest line-up on the 2025 grid, Penrite Racing has one of the highest ceilings of all teams next season. It goes without saying that car speed will dictate where they end up, given the quality of both drivers.
