Junior engineer Andrew Gilliam was handed the reins on the Kiwi’s entry ahead of Hidden Valley after five rounds shadowing Lacroix in the role.

Gilliam joined PremiAir midway through 2024 and in the back half of the year took over race engineering duties from Lacroix on the then Tim Slade-driven car.

However, the arrival of Richie Stanaway into the team this year triggered Lacroix to start the year in the role before an eventual handover.

A plan to make the switch ahead of Townsville was brought forward one round to this weekend.

The change allows Lacroix to focus on his duties as competition director, which includes overseeing strategy on both the Stanaway and Golding Camaros.

“It was always the plan to do that right from the start last year anyway,” Lacroix told Speedcafe of the handover.

“But sometimes when you’ve got a young engineer and a young driver in the category, it doesn’t give you the best chance to shine and understand the protocol, etcetera.

“Right now Gilly has followed me for six events, it’s time for him to step up, then I can step back, spend more time on doing strategy.

“The job is not simple. You don’t do the strategy call just on the feel, you plan them. You think on your feet but you pre-think everything already.

“That needs to be prepared and I can’t prepare it if I’m doing set up at home [between events] and doing that sort of job.

“That’s always been the plan and Peter (Xiberras, team owner) has been pushing hard in that direction.

“I wanted really to give Gilly as much leeway and forward push, [but] it’s the time [to change].

“We are going into the enduros, which is even more consuming in terms of strategy. I’ve been not too bad in the past, I’d like to get better at it now!”

Gilliam and Stanaway had enjoyed a friendship through competing on motor racing simulation platform iRacing before joining forces at PremiAIr.

Lacroix, who enjoyed stints at Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing ahead of moving to PremiAir in 2024, is full of praise for Gilliam.

“He is a fantastic young engineer. I compare him to Jeromy [Moore],” said Lacroix, referencing the Triple Eight technical director who will soon move to General Motors.

“These are guys who will be 20 years in motor racing, I can tell you, because they are passionate about motor racing. They live and breathe motor racing.

“When you have got that sort of quality you’ve got to give it a chance as early as possible.

“That’s what we did with Jeromy, that’s what we’re doing with Gilly. It’s as simple as that.”