Erebus and PremiAir explain contrasting Gen3 methods

Erebus Motorsport and PremiAir Racing represented the extremes of how to go Supercars racing in the Gen3 era and have opened up on their methods in the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

Gen3 was always meant to be a parity formula, one where brilliant engineering skills in a manufacturing sense don’t affect the racing outcome. It was an artificial way of introducing a limit on team spending while theoretically bringing the cars closer together on the grid. 

But it didn’t – and doesn’t – mean there is only one way to go about racing in 2023 and beyond. 

Brodie Kostecki leads James Golding at the recent Australian Grand Prix. Image: Mark Horsburgh/EDGE Photographics

Some teams were geared for manufacturing and will make their components, but few go to the same extent as Erebus with its chassis maker in Mount Gambier. Walkinshaw Andretti United and Triple Eight – after all, it did design the thing – made their own chassis and many of the components themselves. 

So just as Erebus represents one end of the spectrum, PremiAir does the other. PremiAir is essentially running a pair of Triple Eight customer cars in its second year of operation.

Both have pros and cons, and the results from the first round weren’t as different as the approach with both teams fighting at the front.

After an even more impressive campaign at the Australian Grand Prix, Erebus Motorsport and Brodie Kostecki have found themselves at the front of both the teams and drivers championships.

Erebus boss Barry Ryan believes a factor behind the team’s fast start to 2023 has been created by the confidence of racing its own cars.

Erebus Motorsport’s Barry Ryan with one of his Coke Camaros. Image: Thomas Miles

Unlike the majority of the field, Erebus built its two Coke Camaros in-house with the chassis constructed in Mount Gambier and completed at its Melbourne base.

Ryan said having total control of the car was the centre point behind the process.

“It (to have in-house built cars) is to have the most control over every component. To know all your parts will always be the best,” Ryan told AUTO ACTION.

“Because you know the components are better, you know they’re built properly, there are fewer questions with the car. So that was our philosophy and has been for a few years.

“In hindsight, we’d still do it again the way we’ve done it. We think there’s an advantage in doing it our way and having our total control because that’s the main thing, just having control. I don’t think plug and play would work for us.”

Doing things differently is PremiAir Racing, which is essentially running as a customer of Triple Eight Race Engineering.

James Golding leads PremiAir Racing teammate Tim Slade at the Australian Grand Prix. Photo by Mark Horsburgh

The two-car team enjoyed its best ever qualifying and race result at the season-opening Newcastle 500 with both Tim Slade and James Golding showing strong speed.

PremiAir Racing owner, long-time drag racer and inexperienced Supercars competitor Peter Xiberras explained the build method was about giving the team the best chance of rising up the grid.

“I’m not from the Supercars, touring car world. I’m from a different world of motorsports, so at the end of the day, there’s no point playing golf and tennis and using the same coach,” he told AUTO ACTION.

PremiAir Racing boss Peter Xiberras proudly stands next to James Golding’s NULON Camaro. Image: Thomas Miles

“To me, it was aligning us with someone that I felt could take us to the front. We looked at a lot of teams, and I firmly believe, for us anyway, Triple Eight is the way to go.

“Starting out on day one, it was always going to be extremely difficult for us to attract the right people because good, talented people want to be attached to success.

“With that in mind, if I’m not going to get the right people, and without the right people, it’s almost impossible to get to where you want to go or where I want to go.

“So you’ve got to buy your way in, if that is the right way to say it. The best way for me to purchase the tools, technology and data was to do what we have done. 

“There’s so many pieces of the puzzle that you got to put together.”

Read the full four-page feature in the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport.