Cooper Murray opens up on team swap whirlwind
Murray shifts from Erebus Motorsport to PremiAir Racing
Victorian makes PremiAir debut at Surfers Paradise next week
On Sunday night, Cooper Murray was reviewing a Bathurst top six in the Mount Panorama paddock.
On Thursday morning, he was wearing a PremiAir Racing team shirt, completing a seat fit in his new Camaro.
It has been quite the week for the Victorian, who was granted an early release from Erebus Motorsport to replace Declan Fraser at PremiAir Racing.
While it marks a premature end to his time with Erebus, it commences a new chapter with PremiAir, which has made yet another mid-season driver change.
Murray touched down on the Gold Coast and ducked across to Arundel to meet his new crew, and get comfortable in his PremiAir Chevrolet, which has been renumbered to #36.
"Finished the Bathurst 1000, we got a good result in sixth, and then on the Monday I got the call that I'll be swapping over for the rest of the season," Murray told Supercars.com.
"Obviously very exciting. We get to get a headstart on what we've got in the future with 2027, and so on.
"So, it'll be good to gel with the team, get to know how they operate and all the little one percenters that goes on behind the team to maximise the results going into next year."
Murray will be engineered by Simon Hodge, who previously worked with Fraser and James Golding.
The Murray-Jayden Ojeda pairing is now one of the most exciting in the field, with Ojeda the standout rookie of the 2026 season to date.
"There'll be a lot of preparation here in the workshop," Murray said.
"Obviously it's a new car for me, so [have to] do a seat insert. We've got to make sure all the pedals and everything's in the right position, so when I do go out there, we've only got two practices, so I gotta be nice and comfortable straight into it.
"And we've got a bit of sim work as well, so with Jayden and the engineers to make sure we're ready to hit the ground running."
Why Thursday's seat fit matters, is that Murray is starting life as a PremiAir driver on the fearsome Gold Coast streets, where he crashed last year.
"It's the most fun track to drive. Obviously it's the most risk as well, so I think that's what I love about it the most," the 25-year-old said.
"You've got to extract every little centimetre you can out of the track and the kerbs to make sure you're actually up the front in a decent spot.
"I'm sure there'll be a few changes this year compared to last year with the kerbs and what's gonna happen there, but, nonetheless, it'll be very exciting."
Track action on the Gold Coast commences on Friday October 23.
