PETER Xiberras has made the surprise revelation that PremiAir Racing still hasn’t officially committed to a manufacturer for next year’s Repco Supercars Championship.

PremiAir had indicated it would explore its options after losing out to Team 18 in the race to replace Triple Eight as General Motors’ new homologation team.

It has, however, long been considered a fait accompli that the team will continue running Camaros.

Even at their mid-week launch of a Holden Racing Team-inspired retro livery, PremiAir commercial operations manager Pete Jamieson expressed in a speech how Xiberras is a total and utter GM diehard.

But given the public silence over its future allegiances, V8 Sleuth put the question to Xiberras yesterday about the status of his Chevrolet alliance going forward.

Paul Morris chats with GM’s Simon McNamara. Pic: Ross Gibb

The answer raised eyebrows, less than six months out from the 2026 season-opener.

“We haven’t signed up,” said Xiberras.

“It’s getting pretty close. We’ll be making a decision very shortly.”

The broad expectation remains that PremiAir will ultimately stick with GM, especially given Roland Dane’s presence at the team.

PremiAir meanwhile is at the centre of the driver silly season, with speculation rampant that it will field an all-new line-up of Jayden Ojeda and Declan Fraser in place of incumbents James Golding and Richie Stanaway.

“Not at the minute,” Xiberras said when asked if there was any update on that front.

“We’ll make an announcement. Traditionally we’ll make our announcement between Bathurst and probably Gold Coast.”

It was a similar vibe out of the Blanchard Racing Team, where Golding is being tipped to land alongside the likely retained Aaron Cameron.

“We’ll let you know when we’re ready,” said Tim Blanchard.

Peter Xiberras, Tim Blanchard and Carl Faux front the media at The Bend. Pic: Ross Gibb

“…There’s still lots to sort out. So nothing sorted at this stage for next year.

“We’re probably a similar timeframe to Pete, that’s what we’re working towards: Bathurst/Gold Coast.

“There’s obviously a number of drivers, younger guys that are around as well, and we want to give Cammo as much time as we can to keep his development going.

“So we’ll see what happens over this weekend and Bathurst but that’s kind of the timeline we’re working towards.”

BRT is now resigned to the fact it won’t be able to talk champion James Courtney out of retiring.

“When all the jokes stop and you ask him seriously, he’s pretty content with his decision,” said Blanchard.

“It kind of always has been his plan right from the start, to do two years with us and help build the team from where we were and help us with our expansion to two cars, which he has done a fantastic job of and has been a key part of our team.

“We’re disappointed he’s retiring, we’d like to have been able to talk him out of it, but he’s very content and the transition to his (life) outside racing is going very well, so I think he is pretty happy with where he is at.”

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