![\"Dane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2025-Supercars-Ipswich-Super440-Z99_8482-copy.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoland Dane.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoland Dane.<\/p>\n
The former Triple Eight Race Engineering boss will officially join PremiAir Racing in the role from 2026.<\/a><\/p>\n Dane has acted as a consultant to the team this year and is at Sandown this weekend observing the team\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n Speaking on the Supercars broadcast from inside the PremiAir garage at Sandown, Dane joked that he had gotten bored watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n \u201cPeter Xiberras kept asking me, first of all,\u201d Dane told Mark Larkham.<\/p>\n \u201cSecondly, there are only so many NASCAR races you can go to as a spectator without an active involvement, even if it\u2019s your son-in-law (Shane van Gisbergen) \u2013 jeez, I don\u2019t know how I say that.<\/p>\n \u201cI like it, but I miss the competition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve stepped down from the board of PWR that I have been on for years, I\u2019ve stepped away from that now, and I need to occupy my days usefully and stop my brain rotting, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent weeks, Triple Eight co-owner Tony Quinn took a jab at Dane.<\/a><\/p>\n Quinn said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d over an apparent retirement U-turn and said the relationship between Dane and Xiberras would not last.<\/p>\n \u201cApparently we\u2019re going to fall out by March,\u201d Dane laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cQuinny reckons we\u2019re going to fall out by March, we\u2019re going to make it to April, come what may.\u201d<\/p>\n Dane\u2019s appointment as PremiAir\u2019s team principal has been many years in the making, according to Xiberras.<\/p>\n Dane stepped down as Triple Eight\u2019s team principal at the end of 2021<\/a>, but remained with the team on its board \u2013 a position he relinquished at the end of 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve known Roland for six years or more,\u201d said Xiberras during Friday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI like Roland. There are a lot of people that either like him or don\u2019t like him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very black and white, he\u2019s very matter of fact \u2013 and I like that, because you just know where you stand with the man.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably taken me about four years to get him, I just kept on slowly chipping away.<\/p>\n \u201cTo get him on board\u2026 this year, he\u2019s been helping us back at the shop with debriefs and prebriefs, and that\u2019s been great, but obviously it\u2019s not enough.<\/p>\n \u201cI think having him at the track as well, it\u2019ll complete it and help us move up the order.\u201d<\/p>\n Xiberras said PremiAir Racing hadn\u2019t gelled as well as he would have liked, and that the results haven\u2019t come as a result.<\/p>\n Dane said his job is to put all the pieces of the PremAir puzzle together, offering a nod to Triple Eight along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cI regard race teams as a big jigsaw puzzle, you\u2019ve got to try and 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,\u201d Dane explained.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a good group of people here. They need the right direction and so it\u2019s my job to help with that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got the jigsaw together, you\u2019ve got to then go play chess, which is what we do \u2013 but both in front of the garage and behind the garage, it\u2019s a big game of chess and if you\u2019re really, really good at it, you then play Monopoly, which is what Triple Eight do.\u201d<\/p>\n
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