When Richie Stanaway left the Supercars in 2019, he had no intention of coming back.

The then 28-year-old had come to the end of an underwhelming two-season stint in the series, having returned from Europe to Australia after plying his trade in the World Endurance Championship with Aston Martin.

His first year at Tickford was unconvincing, but his switch to Garry Rogers Motorsport, pushing out Garth Tander in the process, was even worse. The change of scenery failed to revitalise him, and despite barely having had the chance to catch his breath and settle into being back Down Under, he was out of the sport at the end of the year.

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The driver widely tipped to be New Zealand’s next big thing, who had previously been billed for Formula 1 before breaking his back climbing the junior ranks, was without a drive for 2020.

Disillusioned and tired, he called time on his career.

But the memory of him refused to fade.

Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton was determined to see the Kiwi back behind the wheel and hatched a plan to jump start his career with a wildcard drive at Bathurst.

It’s a story recounted in the documentary Wildcard: One Last Shot, streaming now on Kayo.

It turned out the hardest part was to convince Stanaway to take the bait.

“Initially I wasn’t interested due to the fact that I was fairly certain when I stopped racing in 2019 that I’d closed that chapter,” Stanaway told…