Dane, 68, is currently in what he calls “semi-retirement” having in 2022 handed over the day-to-day running of Triple Eight to Jamie Whincup and divested his remaining equity stake in the team.
The chairman position remained his last official tie to Triple Eight.
A polarising figure within the sport during his time spearheading the powerhouse team, Dane has been an outspoken critic of Supercars’ current RACE ownership group in recent years.
Asked on the KTM Summer Grill whether he holds ambitions to join the RACE Board, Dane laughed: “Do you think they’d have me?”.
Rumours that Dane could be eyeing a position within RACE circulated late last year to a mixed reaction among existing stakeholders.
“The environment, the Supercars environment as a whole, is still something I’m a passionate follower of,” continued Dane.
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“I really want to see it succeed as a whole, not just whether it’s Triple Eight or anyone else driver-wise and things, the whole environment, I want to see it maximise its potential and that hasn’t really happened for some time to be honest.
“I’d love to see that fulfilling the potential, especially with Toyota coming, etcetera, but for me, those days have passed.”
Dane sat on the Supercars Board as a team representative for 12 of 14 seasons from 2004.
Current Triple Eight co-owner Tony Quinn is among those who feel Dane’s experience and expertise would be of huge benefit to RACE.
“Personally, I would love to see Roland Dane on the board of Supercars. I think he would add a wealth of knowledge of motorsport,” Quinn told Speedcafe late last year.
“I’m sure the sport would benefit and I think Roland would rise to the challenge. But I think there’s a few personalities there that have to settle a few scores or whatever…”
Dane’s criticisms of RACE last year included a blistering column for Speedcafe in the wake of the Tasmania SuperSprint, for which he declared Supercars should be “ashamed” of the poor attendance.
The fallout to that included RACE chairman Barclay Nettlefold penning a letter defending the event, and particularly its winter calendar slot.
Asked on the Summer Grill for his take on the current health of Supercars, Dane said: “The nadir for them really was Tasmania, that was just a joke.
“Being there at the wrong time of year, pretty average event from a spectator point of view, however you dressed it up, it wasn’t a good look, at a venue to be honest that is a terrific little venue.
“Since then there’s been some really positive stuff come out… and hopefully something to build on for [2025] and in particular 2026 when there’s got to be some sort of new media deal and there’s Toyota coming in.
“There’s some pretty good news out there to be taken advantage of hopefully to grow the appeal of the category.”
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