EVER the fierce competitor, Roland Dane has shown some rare vulnerability in explaining the motive for his return to Supercars team principal duties next year.
Next year, the Triple Eight founder will be at the helm of PremiAir Racing.
Having stepped down from day-to-day duties at Triple Eight come the end of 2021, when he handed the baton to Jamie Whincup, Dane says keeping his brain from rotting is at the core of his comeback.
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“(PremiAir owner) Peter Xiberras kept asking me first of all,” he explained in a broadcast interview with Mark Larkham.
“Secondly, there’s only so many NASCAR races you can go to as a spectator without an active involvement, even if it’s your son-in-law (Shane van Gisbergen) racing. I like it, but I miss the competition.
“I’ve stepped down from the board of PWR that I have been on for years, I’ve stepped away from that now, and I need to occupy my days usefully and stop my brain rotting, honestly.”
Dane also took the opportunity to fire back at Triple Eight co-owner Tony Quinn’s claim that the relationship between he and Xiberras won’t last long.
“Quinny reckons we’re going to fall out by March – so we’re going to make it to April come what may!” he chuckled.
Dane had an adventurous way of describing the job at hand to propel PremiAir up the pecking order.
“I regard race teams as a big jigsaw puzzle,” he began.
“You have got to try to put all the bits together, the component parts of it, which includes a lot of the right people, having a good group of people which fundamentally is here.
“There is a good group of people here; they need the right direction and so it’s my job to help with that.
“And when you have got the jigsaw together, you have got to then go and play chess. Both in front of the garage and behind the garage, it’s a big game of chess.
“And if you’re really, really good at it, you then play monopoly which is what Triple Eight do.”