JESS Dane will remain a Triple Eight powerbroker well beyond her upcoming move to the United States.
Dane will join partner Shane van Gisbergen in heading Stateside sometime after the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship wraps up.
Triple Eight today announced it would release van Gisbergen from his 2024 contractual obligations to chase his NASCAR dream, with Will Brown signed as his successor.
Dane will join the Kiwi in relocating abroad – but make no mistake, she has her own goals and ambitions to achieve.
Much more than just the daughter of Triple Eight founder Roland Dane or the partner of SVG, Dane holds separate degrees in journalism and law, is a leading commentator in the Australasian rally scene and a passionate trailblazer for women in motorsport.
Oh, and she owns 30 percent of Triple Eight, with the remainder belonging to Jamie Whincup (also 30 percent) and Tony Quinn (40 percent).
That’s not about to change.
“I’m still going to be a shareholder of Triple Eight Race Engineering for the foreseeable future. I have no plans for that to change,” she told V8 Sleuth.
“I can still do a limited amount of work for Triple Eight remotely, as many directors do around the world, and I’ll still remain involved in Triple Eight.
“It’s still my family, it’s been part of my life since the 1990s in some form or another, so I certainly wouldn’t cut ties with Triple Eight.
“But also, moving countries isn’t straightforward and if something weren’t to go to plan, for example if I couldn’t get a visa or something, then I would have every intention of returning to Australia and Triple Eight.”
While mass interest swirls around van Gisbergen’s future prospects, Dane is excited by what her own next chapter has in store.
MORE: Trackhouse boss explains 2024 van Gisbergen plan
“I’ve had living in America in the back of my head since 2012/13 – it was over that new year that I read a book about an English girl who moved to New York to pursue a career in publishing,” she said.
“Although I have no interest in moving into publishing, that story really kind of sowed a seed in me on the idea of living and working in the US one day.
“I kind of hadn’t thought about making it a reality for various reasons, because I’m very settled here in Australia.
“But then when I went to the US for the Chicago race and we went to Charlotte and Nashville and Chicago, I thought ‘yep, this has reignited that inside me and it’s definitely something that I would love to do if the opportunity came up’.
“It’s exactly that and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be able to go over and do this, depending on, hopefully I can get a visa.
“There are so many opportunities; I’d like to think that my skillset, especially within motorsport, is quite broad.
“I have done many different roles and have got a few notches on the belt, I hope, that can show somebody that I’m hopefully worth giving an opportunity to.
“But also, I see it as a massive opportunity for me to grow my experience in a different motorsport environment and maybe in a different setting.
“This is an opportunity to maybe explore something in category management and administration and see motorsport from a different side of the fence.”
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