The hidden moment that nearly cost Stanaway a Bathurst fairytale

Richie Stanaway will forever be a Bathurst winner following his 2023 triumph with Shane van Gisbergen, but it nearly wasn’t to be just seconds into the race.

Stanaway and van Gisbergen dominated last year’s Great Race, with the latter becoming a three-time winner.

It was Stanaway who started the race, with the New Zealander surrounded by fellow co-drivers to commence the 161-lap marathon.

Starting sixth, Stanaway carried the Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet down the outside of Tony D’Alberto’s Shell V-Power Ford through the left-hand Turn 1, better known as Hell Corner.

However, a dive by seventh-starting Garth Tander on D'Alberto created a three-wide that led to contact, and left Stanaway sweating over damage and a possible puncture.

Ultimately, the #97 won the race by nearly 20 seconds, but Stanaway revealed his day was almost over before it truly began.

“I didn’t realise we were three-wide,” Stanaway said on the Bathurst Preview Show, which will air on Fox Sports' Bathurst Channel from next week.

“Being the co-driver, your priority is not to be super aggressive, you know, you just want to get the car back in one piece.

“I had my head out of the seat, looking for D’Alberto, trying to give him a lot of room. But I didn’t realise we were three-wide.

“Shane blew the rear guards off it after the chequered flag, but luckily I didn’t get a puncture and do it on the first lap, because it would've been 161 laps too early.”

Throughout the day, the #97 also flirted with disaster with mechanical issues, as well as a scare with a "football" sized clump of rubber.

As fate would have it, Stanaway won, D’Alberto and Anton De Pasquale finished third, and Tander recovered to fifth with David Reynolds after a drive-through penalty.

On his version of events, Tander recounted: “Tony D was a bit tardy off the line, so there an opportunity to sneak up the inside.

"Tony fought it into Turn 1, and we did, we arrived there three-wide at the start of 161 laps. But I was on the inside, and that's the safest place to be."

Supercars action commences at the Repco Bathurst 1000 on October 10. Tickets are on sale now.