![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/JM1_2695-1620x1080-1.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRoland Dane with Peter Xiberras. Image: Supplied <\/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 with Peter Xiberras. Image: Supplied <\/p>\n
Dane officially took up duties on January 1 having spent the final stages of 2025 filling up his notepad while observing the team\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
The Triple Eight founder and long-time leader\u2019s return to the paddock just over a year after departing the powerhouse team\u2019s board is one of the biggest storylines of the new Supercars season.<\/p>\n
This time \u2018RD\u2019 is aiming to lift the Peter Xiberras-owned squad that has been winless in four seasons to date despite heavy investment from the hire king.<\/p>\n
PremiAir enters the year with a revamped driver line-up having signed rookie Jayden Ojeda and Declan Fraser, who returns to a full-time seat after two years as a co-driver.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s Chevrolet Camaros are receiving full rebuilds ahead of the campaign, while Dane\u2019s staff recruitment drive is almost complete.<\/p>\n
In the background he\u2019s also searching for a new premises to move the team out of the Arundel, Gold Coast, workshop it has been housed in since 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a couple of options right now,\u201d Dane told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We want to] give ourselves the best possible working environment, as streamlined as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
PremiAir recruits reveal race numbers for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n While the team will remain \u201cwithin the vicinity\u201d of its current location, the planned move is about bringing the squad\u2019s operations under one roof.<\/p>\n Dane\u2019s aversion to PremiAir\u2019s current two-building setup is born out of observing Tom Walkinshaw Racing\u2019s UK operations during friend Derek Warwick\u2019s time with the team in the 1980s.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were a mishmash of buildings in Kidlington and Oxford,\u201d recalled Dane of TWR.<\/p>\n \u201c[The team] worked surprisingly well but it wasn\u2019t optimised and I\u2019ve always liked the approach of having everything under one roof, hence the layout of Triple Eight at Banyo.<\/p>\n \u201cHere [in Arundel] we\u2019re operating out of two different units. It\u2019s not brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n Dane said there is no firm timeline on the move, only that it will be done \u201cwhen the right opportunity is there\u201d.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, Walkinshaw\u2019s Melbourne-based Supercars squad is set to move workshops in coming months, shifting into the Walkinshaw Group\u2019s new mega factory in Dandenong South.<\/a><\/p>\n
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