PREMIAIR Racing will have a new driver when the Repco Supercars Championship continues in Townsville after parting ways with Garry Jacobson.
The team has confirmed Jacobson’s exit today following a torrid run at the weekend’s Darwin Triple Crown.
“PremiAir Racing wishes to confirm that effective immediately, Garry Jacobson and PremiAir Racing have parted ways,” read a team statement.
“Jacobson’s contract has been officially ended this afternoon (21 June 2022), and PremiAir Racing is exploring its options regarding a replacement driver for the #76 Subway PremiAir Racing Supercar.
“Announcements regarding the new driver for the #76 will be made at the earliest possible opportunity.
“PremiAir Racing will be making no further comment regarding Garry’s departure and wishes him well for his future endeavours.”
Tickford Racing Bathurst co-drivers Zane Goddard and Kurt Kostecki have both been linked to the now vacant seat, with the former having tested with PremiAir on May 30.
Goddard’s Queensland Raceway outing during a test day in which potential co-drivers also cut laps triggered suggestions that an in-season driver change could be on the cards.
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Last weekend at Hidden Valley marked 2016 Super2 Series winner Jacobson’s 50th Supercars Championship round start.
He debuted in the main game as a co-driver with Prodrive Racing Australia (now Tickford Racing) in 2017 and returned for the endurance events with Kelly Racing the following year.
Jacobson’s first full-time chance also came with the Kelly team in 2019, before he spent 2020 at Matt Stone Racing and 2021 at Team Sydney.
The Victorian continued with the former Team Sydney outfit this year, now under the ownership of ambitious PremiAir Hire boss and champion drag racer Peter Xiberras.
Jacobson sits 24th in the championship, one place behind Pither, after an incident-packed Darwin for the Subway-backed Commodore.
While Jacobson is yet to make comment on his split from PremiAir Racing, he was critical of his Hidden Valley performance in the immediate aftermath of the event.
His weekend included an incident with Zak Best in Race 3 that put the Tickford wildcard into the wall and landed Jacobson with a drive-through penalty for reckless driving.
We have a bp ultimate Safety Car!
— Supercars (@supercars) June 19, 2022
This could be disastrous for Mostert, who pitted on lap 9 for two tyres. Anton in P2 took four tyres on lap 19 #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/1aukrIfzVI
“I will wear my heart on my sleeve and the honest answer here is that I was trying hard to get back through the field today and while I made some good passing manoeuvres, I also made some passing manoeuvres I reckon I could have a bit of a rethink on,” he said.
“As a competitor I don’t want to be at the back and I will always want to be racing up the front and in my racing career I have generally been trying to be more aggressive as my career goes on, but unfortunately sometimes in practicing that you can overstep the line.”
Jacobson’s career-best Supercars race result of sixth came at Albert Park earlier this year, where he finished three of the four races inside the top 10.
