The former Triple Eight Race Engineering boss will officially join PremiAir Racing in the role from 2026.
Dane has acted as a consultant to the team this year and is at Sandown this weekend observing the team’s operations.
Speaking on the Supercars broadcast from inside the PremiAir garage at Sandown, Dane joked that he had gotten bored watching from the sidelines.
“Peter Xiberras kept asking me, first of all,” Dane told Mark Larkham.
“Secondly, there are 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) – jeez, I don’t know how I say that.
“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.”
In recent weeks, Triple Eight co-owner Tony Quinn took a jab at Dane.
Quinn said he was “disappointed” over an apparent retirement U-turn and said the relationship between Dane and Xiberras would not last.
“Apparently we’re going to fall out by March,” Dane laughed.
“Quinny reckons we’re going to fall out by March, we’re going to make it to April, come what may.”
Dane’s appointment as PremiAir’s team principal has been many years in the making, according to Xiberras.
Dane stepped down as Triple Eight’s team principal at the end of 2021, but remained with the team on its board – a position he relinquished at the end of 2024.
“I’ve known Roland for six years or more,” said Xiberras during Friday’s press conference.
“I like Roland. There are a lot of people that either like him or don’t like him.
“He’s very black and white, he’s very matter of fact – and I like that, because you just know where you stand with the man.
“It’s probably taken me about four years to get him, I just kept on slowly chipping away.
“To get him on board… this year, he’s been helping us back at the shop with debriefs and prebriefs, and that’s been great, but obviously it’s not enough.
“I think having him at the track as well, it’ll complete it and help us move up the order.”
Xiberras said PremiAir Racing hadn’t gelled as well as he would have liked, and that the results haven’t come as a result.
Dane said his job is to put all the pieces of the PremAir puzzle together, offering a nod to Triple Eight along the way.
“I regard race teams as a big jigsaw puzzle, you’ve 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,” Dane explained.
“There is a good group of people here. They need the right direction and so it’s my job to help with that.
“When you’ve got the jigsaw together, you’ve got to then go play chess, which is what we do – but 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.”
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