First shakedown complete for PremiAir Racing

PremiAir Racing completed its maiden shakedown ahead of its first Repco Supercars Championship campaign.

Garry Jacobson and Chris Pither took their new-look Commodores to Queensland Raceway on Wednesday.

The team had initially scheduled a full test day. However, persistent rain forced the team to cancel the test day.

Pither and Jacobson were able to complete shakedown laps before leaving the circuit.

The team retains its test day allocation of three, with other teams now at two following pre-season tests in Ipswich and Winton.

Wednesday's running marks another significant milestone for the team, which launched its Subway and Coca-Cola liveries on Monday.

PremiAir Racing, formerly known as Team Sydney, will run upgraded Triple Eight Commodores in 2022.

Pither was left beaming after his first kilometres aboard the #22 Coca-Cola car.

“The team's done an amazing job, a lot of hours have gone into reaching this point,” Pither told Supercars.com.

“Today our focus was to simply to do a systems check.

“The cars have so much work done to them over the past month, it was really about just giving them a good shakedown and making sure there's no abnormalities to come from the cars.

“I made some adjustments to ergonomics and we had a slight vibration early on, but we were able to rectify straightaway.

“Today wasn't about speed, it was just about making sure the cars were working correctly.

“Even though the track was wet for the majority of the running, the car was responding well.

"I felt comfortable, so it gives me a lot of confidence going into the first round.”

It was a different story for Jacobson, who will run in the same chassis he raced for Team Sydney last season.

Despite the familiarity, the 29-year-old admitted he would take time to adapt to the upgrades.

“It’s a familiar environment for me, as like it's the same chassis with just some brand-new bits underneath it,” Jacobson told Supercars.com.

“In terms of mechanically, there was no vibrations for me and my car, but there were a couple of things on the dash setup that I wasn’t familiar with.

“I'm certainly happy. I think we've got to push as a team to just get more familiar with one another.

“I think that will be the goal for me going into Sydney, reading how the team are working today, we're still we didn't quite know each other.

“We are still learning each other's roles and those sorts of things.

“I think the car was really remarkably good considering how little we've worked together.

“I think we had no problems at all with the car, but just learning, who the data engineers and what information he's telling me and what I can understand.

“I think that's the next step for me is understanding the people around me so that we can get closer form a closer bond and understand each other.

“We are still building our own culture and understanding each other, but I'm sure that will come as the year goes on.”

It is understood the Gold Coast-based team will not be conducting another test day ahead of next weekend's Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

PremiAir Racing will make its 2022 Repco Supercars Championship debut in Sydney on March 4-6.

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