RICHIE Stanaway has made peace with his full-time Supercars driving career seemingly ending, branding his new lifestyle a “refreshing” change.

A prodigal talent who won races in GP2 (i.e. Formula 2) and the World Endurance Championship (in class), Stanaway became Supercars’ ultimate enigma in a stop-start journey.

Starring co-driving performances including to win the 2017 Sandown 500 with Cam Waters and 2023 Bathurst 1000 with Shane van Gisbergen didn’t translate into cold, hard consistent results as a primary driver.

Accordingly, he bounced around between Tickford Racing, Garry Rogers Motorsport, Grove Racing and PremiAir Racing – all in one-year stints – showing occasional flashes of brilliance especially in wet conditions.

For a time, it seemed Stanaway might not return to the 2026 field even for the enduros, before the Kiwi signed with the Blanchard Racing Team to partner his buddy James Golding.

“The first time I drove the car at Sydney, I was pretty impressed with how it felt and then obviously they went out and qualified 1-2 which I guess confirmed why I thought it felt pretty good!” Stanaway told V8 Sleuth.

“The team is still relatively new. It’s not like most teams where they just change ownership; it was started from scratch so this would be the youngest team by a long way.

“It’s a good time to be here where they’re starting to find performance and hopefully in the enduros we can get the CoolDrive car right up the front.”

Stanaway lauded the BRT environment, indicated he’s unlikely to return to the GT racing scene, and spoke to his new life that has involved working on a range of projects.

The new-look CoolDrive Mustang which Richie Stanaway will share with James Golding. Pic: Supplied/Race Project

“Certainly by next year I’ll have a clearer idea (of a set direction),” he said.

“It has been a refreshing lifestyle change for me.

“When you’re a driver, you spend a lot of time in limbo and you don’t have much control. Really other than training and working on your fitness, you can’t have much influence on things.

“You sort of spend a lot of time waiting. It’s nice to have a bit of a pace change… but it’s also nice to come back and still be a part of racing.”

Supercars action at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend starts Friday.