As the days tick down until PremiAir Racing’s whirlwind debut in the Repco Supercars Championship, team owner Peter Xiberras has offered further proof of his commitment to establishing a top-class operation.
PremiAir Racing only officially entered Supercars in mid-January after finalising a deal to acquire now-defunct Team Sydney’s pair of Teams Racing Charters.
It made a positive impression last week with the unveiling of two keynote backers for its ZB Commodores, Chris Pither driving the Coca-Cola #22 and Garry Jacobson’s #76 sporting Subway branding for the opening two rounds.
And while it enters Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend a tad undercooked following the weather-forced cancellation of its pre-season test day, there’s an air of excitement around what PremiAir Racing can bring to the table.
What’s more is Xiberras is already thinking bigger and better for 2023, when Gen3 arrives.
The Gold Coast facility which PremiAir Racing will move into, likely straight after the Australian Grand Prix in April, has scope for an expanded programme.
Xiberras indicated to Speedcafe.com that the team could run in the Super2 Series next year as well as the main game.
“Obviously after this year, the cars that we currently have now will be Super2 cars,” he said.
“The flavour I’m trying to build here… sometimes we don’t always invest in our youth and the next champions and the next mechanics and engineers and stuff like that. The best breeding ground is the junior ranks, whether it’s Super2, Super3 and so forth.
“I’m not going to say exactly how it’s going to work but I’ve got a plan that we will run junior programmes and basically breed our own.”
PremiAir Racing is a customer team of Triple Eight Race Engineering, who Xiberras said had been an “absolutely fantastic” support.
But that has extended to the wider paddock, who’ve welcomed the successful drag racer and businessman with open arms.
“I haven’t spoken to every team owner but I have had plenty of messages of support,” said Xiberras.
“People have reached out and said ‘whatever you need, give us a call’. Whether it’s Triple Eight, DJR, Walkinshaw, there’s a whole host of them that have reached out and there’s guys even offering ‘if you need some personnel’.
“So between them and Supercars, it has been amazingly positive.
“That may change hopefully if we start to overtake them but that’s racing, it’s business.
“This is a sport that is very much a business and a lot of what I have learnt in business is exactly the same as this, so I think we’ll adapt quite nicely.”
The first practice session of the Supercars Championship season will start at 15:15 (local time/AEDT) on Friday.
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