Family first for Xiberras
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 8 April 2025
PremiAir Racing boss Peter Xiberras will not follow the team across the Tasman this weekend, but for a good reason.
Xiberras will miss the third round of the 2025 Supercars Championship, the Taupo Super440, to attend his son’s wedding.
“I won’t actually be on-track for the Taupo Super440 this weekend and instead will be keeping up with all that is happening with the team with our WhatsApp Channel,” Xiberras said.
“While I am of course going to miss being part of the action, it is for a good reason – my son James is getting married this weekend!
“Carmen and I are very excited to see him and his beautiful partner Jamilla celebrate their nuptials.
“It truly is going to be an amazing weekend on both sides of the ditch – last year the debut Supercars event at Taupo was truly a remarkable event, and I am expecting plenty more of the same this time around.”
The news follows the announcement Xiberras will park his Top Fuel drag racer for the remainder of the 2024/25 National Drag Racing Championship, plus further intrigue as to what is next for the Supercars squad.
With Roland Dane behind the scenes, early speculation hinted PremiAir could be the next General Motors homologation team after the Australian Grand Prix.
However, as the next Supercars round beckons, Auto Action suggests the building team could actually be ditching Chevrolet all together in favour of Ford.
On the track PremiAir is hoping for a change in fortunes as numerous different factors saw potential strong results disappear at Albert Park.
Xiberras has highlighted qualifying as the key with lots of attention to be focused on new recruit Richie Stanaway.
“It is no secret that qualifying has been a bit of a bug bear for us of late – while we have had plenty of highlights including numerous shoot outs, starting positions in the top ten and top five, and even a pole position, we have also often found ourselves struggling for that one lap pace,” he said.
“With how competitive this game is, starting down the grid is a real quick way to hold yourself back, so it is of course something we are really focusing heavily on and that will be especially true this weekend for the Taupo Super440.
“Doing so will help us to unlock more of our true potential and performance on the track – especially this weekend if we can improve our qualifying while also keeping or advancing the race pace we had there last year.
“The race results showed that we had what it takes when it came to the racing at Taupo, and so did Richie with the team he was driving for at the time – so we need to make sure that we qualify well so we can really make the most of that pace.”
More detailed analysis in Auto Action Premium, on sale from Thursday April 10th, at participating outlets.
Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.
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