Stanaway philosophical despite tough Perth

Richie Stanaway believes Penrite Racing’s tough Perth weekend offered valuable lessons, despite the team and drivers losing ground in the championship.

While Walkinshaw Andretti United and Tickford Racing led the way for Ford with wins and poles, Penrite Racing’s best result was Matt Payne’s eighth in Race 9.

Payne qualified eighth and 16th, and raced to ninth in the finale. Stanaway, meanwhile, qualified 11th on Saturday, but dropped to 24th in the opener after a fuel pressure issue led to a crash.

All told, Payne dropped from 293 to 391 points behind Will Brown, Stanaway 289 to 459 points back, and the team 481 to 684 points behind Triple Eight.

The 2023 Bathurst winner raced from 17th to 12th on Sunday, and despite the “step back,” Stanaway believes the team took plenty away from the weekend.

“It’s been a challenging weekend for us, but I feel like we have learned a lot,” Stanaway said in a team social media video.

“But the positive thing is that we have a lot of information and data to take away from the event, and I think we can use that as we move forward.”

Team owner Stephen Grove said the track simply didn’t suit the Penrite Fords, admitting qualifying let the team down.

“It was a poor weekend for Grove Racing. We need to continue to work harder to unlock the speed in the Mustang,” Grove said.

“The track just didn’t suit our set-up this time and we look forward to the next round in Darwin.

“Our qualifying pace was a problem over the weekend, and you need to qualifying at the front to get any sort of result.

"The car had good race pace but that’s no good if you’re starting towards the back.”

Penrite Racing will test both cars next week at Winton Motor Raceway ahead of the betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 14-16.