PODCAST: PremiAir firms as GM homologation team

While no one would officially confirm it at last weekend’s Melbourne SuperSprint, the pitlane talk was that PremiAir Racing will be the next homologation team for General Motors.

Eric Warren, GM’s Executive Director, Global Motorsports Competition, visited Albert Park from the United States, and spoke to a number of invited journalists.

Warren, who is in charge of all motorsport for GM globally, saw Melbourne as the perfect opportunity to visit both Formula One – with Cadillac’s pending arrival in the pinnacle of the sport – and Supercars.

He said he wanted to meet with all of the key people on Supercars’ GM side of the fence.

“I haven’t met all the supercars teams in person so I really want to spend time with each one of the teams; try to get to know all the personnel and, work on our plans,” he said.

Warren refused to be drawn on whether a decision had already been made on the next GM homologation team, but admitted the Bowtie was pretty close to a final verdict.

“I think so. I want to see some of the cars, some of the teams in the garage and then continue some of our discussions. But, you know, we have a good sense of it but we want to make sure we can consider all the factors involved, not make a rush decision…we’re going to be in the series a while and we want to make sure we’re doing it right,” he said.

“We have spoken on the phone (to all of the GM teams) prior to coming here, but I think what’s important for GM and for myself is to really develop those relationships deeper.”

Warren, who is one of the most prominent global GM executives to visit Supercars in a long time, said an announcement was imminent.

“We’ll definitely make a decision before the next race, but in the next week or so is more likely,” he confirmed.

However, he stressed it was more than just about picking one team.

“We call it Team Chevy… it’s really important how we support our teams that we’re all working towards the benefit of each other and making sure all our teams are happy,” he said.

PremiAir Racing owner Peter Xiberass confirmed to SupercarXtra and Race for the Championship podcast that his team was keen for the role of GM homologation team.

“We put our best foot forward and just like every other team we’re all waiting for GM to make their own decision and make an announcement. I believe (the announcement) is not next week, it’ll be the week after, so it’s very soon,” he said.

Xiberass has employed a number of ex-Triple Eight staff including Team Manager Stephen Robertson, Technical Director Ludo Lacroix, Race Engineers Romy Mayer and Simon Hodge, and Commercial Manager Peter Jamieson.

“You can’t be the best without the best people and these guys have all won together, they’ve all lost together. They know what it takes to win. It’s the best bunch of guys and girls that we’ve had,” Xiberass said.

However, he denied former Triple Eight owner Roland Dane was consulting directly for PremiAir Racing.

“Roland has been basically working with GM, so he’s been doing a lot behind the scenes, trying to get GM to stay in the sport, so he’s doing a lot there at the moment,” he said.

Warren, meanwhile, confirmed that GM was in Supercars for the long haul.

“Well, first of all, we love the series. We’ve enjoyed being in it for a long period of time; there’s a lot of history there. We are continuing to be in Australia and we’ve just introduced to Cadillac Lyric and we have got Chevy products,” Warren said.

“We believe motorsports is a great platform for us for connecting to customers. And so we plan to grow that. And so in order to do that, we want to build that affinity to the brand and this is a great platform… we’re a global company and we race globally in motorsports, so there was no real thought about leaving.”