How Stanaway plans to amend qualifying deficit
Supercars
13 May
Richie Stanaway eyes qualifying gains in Perth
Penrite Racing driver fourth in points, 11th average qualifier
Teammate Matt Payne has two poles, leads head-to-head 7-1
Richie Stanaway is determined to get qualifying right from Perth, believing he will move forward once he gets tyre phasing "nailed" amid his quest to secure his maiden solo race victory in Supercars.
The Penrite Racing driver sits fourth in the championship after three rounds, but has an average grid position of 12.25, ranking him 11th of 24 drivers.
Stanaway has been out-qualified by teammate Matt Payne in the last seven races, with the latter qualifying sixth on average with two poles to his name.
After the last round in New Zealand, Penrite Racing Technical Director Grant McPherson backed Stanaway's "seat of his pants" talent, with the team eyeing race pace improvement following Payne's slump from pole to fourth in the finale.
The upcoming Perth round will expose drivers that don't get it right in qualifying, with 67 of 95 races won from the front row at CARCO.com.au Raceway.
Stanaway believes he will improve over one lap as the season wears on, which will prove crucial given three of the next five events are sprint rounds.
For Stanaway, getting the tyres to come alive in qualifying will aid his efforts to add to his 2017 Sandown 500 and 2023 Bathurst 1000 wins.
"I feel like when I drive the car in the race, I drive it a lot better and I think that's just a bit of my recent lack of experience," Stanaway said in a Penrite Racing team video.
"So I'm hoping the further we get into the season, the better I will drive the car in qualifying.
"I feel like once we get that tyre phasing nailed and then I improve my technique slightly in qualifying trim, we should hopefully move forward in the qualifying sessions, which is going to be very important through the middle part of the year.
"Because apart from the Melbourne Grand Prix, we've had longer races to have the opportunity to move forward in races.
"But through the middle of the year, we're going to have a lot less opportunity to move forward in races, so we really need to work on the qualifying speed.
"I have a pretty good idea of where that's going to come from, so hopefully I can implement that from Perth onwards."
The Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint will be the Bathurst winner's first Supercars event at CARCO.com.au Raceway since 2019, although Stanaway did race a Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG GT3 car at last year's GT World Challenge Round in Perth.
