Jessica Dane told Motorsport Week exclusively about leading Corvette’s GT3 racing programme, drawing on her valuable experience in Supercars.
As a co-owner of Triple Eight Race Engineering from 2015 to 2024, Dane helped steer the most successful team in Supercars history through a dominant spell, securing five Drivers’ and six Teams’ Championships during her tenure.
For that reason, the overall tally rose to 11 Drivers’ titles and 12 Teams’ titles.
But her impact extended far beyond silverware. Dane became one of the most senior and visible women in Australian motorsport, championing gender diversity and introducing initiatives like FIA’s Girls On Track initiative (formerly Dare To Be Different) to the country in 2018.
In 2024, she sold her Triple Eight shares and moved to the United States to join General Motors, continuing a long-standing relationship formed during her time in Supercars.
She succeeded Christie Bagne as Programme Manager for Corvette Racing’s new GT3 venture, now overseeing customer teams across major global series including WEC, IMSA, and GT World Challenge Europe.
Dane spoke at length with Motorsport Week about her success in Australia, joining General Motors in the USA, and she explained what it takes to lead a programme as one of the newest GT3 manufacturers in a highly competitive racing landscape, with this week’s Le Mans 24 Hours hosting a trio of their Z06 LMGT3.Rs.
Early passion ignites motorsport career
Jessica Dane formerly co-owned Supercars team Triple Eight Engineering – Credit: General Motors
“My earliest memories of racetracks are falling asleep at the side of the track when I was about three or four years old, while my dad, Roland, was racing,” she recalled.
“I had this amazing ability to fall asleep as soon as the green flag went and wake up just as the chequered flag came out.”
She attended her first Supercars round in Bahrain in 2007 — despite a double DNF in the opening race, one car bounced back to win the finale. It sealed her passion for the category.
“That’s what made it an easy decision to go to Australia during my gap year,” she said, while studying Multimedia Journalism at Bournemouth University.
She went about following her passion along with her father’s racing connections to pursue a career in motorsport, having earned a law degree since her undergraduate studies.
“Motorsport is such a family sport, so many people find their way into it through family.
“Having said that, he [Roland] didn’t find his way into it through family. He came from a family of doctors, and no real contacts or reason for him to have got involved in motorsport.
“But apart from the fact that he just loved anything with engines and wheels, and turned that passion into a successful career [in team management].”
Pushing for gender diversity in Australia
As she carved out a multifaceted role at Triple Eight — spanning legal, commercial, media and team coordination — Dane became a vocal advocate for gender equity in the paddock.
“In the more recent years of my career and the last eight years, I have been lucky enough to come across and work with and become close friends with a lot of really inspiring women in motorsport.
Jessica Dane stood as one of the most notable women in Australian motorsport – Credit: General Motors
“It’s not an industry that’s easy for us to be in. And I will never pretend that I have had to deal with a lot of the boundaries that a lot of other women have had to deal with, who’ve perhaps come into it without a family introduction.
“I’m so grateful for some of the friendships that I’ve made and the inspiring women that I’ve met along the way – from engineers to drivers to media personalities.
“I introduced ‘Girls On Track’ to Australia back in 2018, or back then it was called ‘Dare To Be Different’.
“And I was the inaugural chair of the Australian Women Motorsport Commission and things like that.
“So in Australia, it was an awful lot of work that I did.
“I was kind of the go-to for a lot of people who were wanting to do more initiatives and put things together… and I love that it took up a lot of time doing that kind of work, it’s so special and so meaningful.”
Showcasing herself as more than the ‘boss’s daughter’
“As the boss’s daughter, I had to prove eight times over why I deserved my place,” Dane admits — a reality that shaped her hard-working, hands-on approach across every aspect of the team.
“And it was really important to me that people saw that, and they didn’t think that I wasn’t taking it seriously [and] showing that I was willing to do the hard yards because I was the youngest, I had the least experience.
“And I think that stood me in good stead through the years to earn respect that otherwise might have been quite hard to, or it was hard to come by.
“I’ve done a lot of media, commercial and marketing work – all the stuff that doesn’t make the cars go faster, from team coordination through to partnerships, team management; I spent many years in those roles.
“Motorsport is a privilege, not a given.”
“That has been fundamental to learning the business side of how motorsport works.”
Dane added how this fed into her current role at GM: “You have to understand contracts and budgets because I basically run a miniature business, we as programme managers, that’s what we’re doing.
“We have our budgets, we have our team members, we have our goals, and we have our strategies, and we’re running little businesses inside of a bigger business that is GM Motorsport – inside of a massive corporation that is General Motors.”
Joining GM amidst her move to the USA
Before Dane undertook her new role, she joined General Motors as ‘Motorsport Integration Manager’, having moved to the USA in December 2023.
She sought out a job to stay in the States, for a Visa. A NASCAR contact six months prior sent Eric Warren – Executive Director at GM Motorsports Competition – her curriculum vitae (resume).
Corvette Racing competes in IMSA’s GTD Pro category as well as in GTD – Credit: General Motors
After ‘randomly’ receiving an email from Warren, inviting her in with Jim Campbell (Chevrolet US’s Vice President for Performance Vehicles and Motorsports), the integration manager role evolved and opened up.
This year’s Le Mans marks her third, having attended in her previous GM role, albeit her first as the leading figure in the Corvette GT3 operation.
“I’m good friends with Christie [Bagne], my predecessor, who did a fantastic job of establishing the [GT3] programme.
“When she told me she was moving, she was like ‘You’re the right person for this role’.
“And of course, I’d already been working on the contracts in my previous role as motorsport integration manager, because I have a law degree and a lot of experience in motorsport contracts, it made sense that I should help on the contractual side while they were renewing several contracts.”
“It’s a massive learning curve going from the team side to the OEM side.
“There are more people to consider, more processes, more approvals. That’s definitely been an adjustment I’ve had to get used to.”
Priorities in the GT3 programme
Corvette Racing oversees GT3 programmes with seven customers across 13 full-time Z06 GT3.Rs, having sold a total of 17 cars. They have taken six wins so far this year.
The manufacturer draws on 27 years of sportscar racing experience with nine Le Mans victories, including 2023.
Yet they are one of the youngest GT3 programmes reaching across the FIA World Endurance Championship, and other European, American and Asian GT series.
Corvette Racing runs in the FIA WEC and IMSA multi-class sportscar championships with their Z06 GT3.R – Credit: General Motors
She explained: “The programme was set up well, and to me, one of the worst things that a leader can do is come in and start changing things without a proper period of observation and understanding.
“So, priorities for me have been continuing the momentum of getting ourselves set up as a known quantity with reliable cars.
“We overcame a lot of reliability issues last year that the team worked extremely hard on.
“And now this year, the fact that we got through the Rolex [24] with four of our five cars finishing the 24 hours on the lead lap is testament to how much hard work went into improving the reliability there.
“It puts us in a really good position coming into Le Mans.
“But ensuring that as we grow, even though we are certainly not going to grow to the pace or speed or size of Porsche or AMG or anything like that [where] they have hundreds of chassis out there, we need to make sure that we are growing in a sustainable and successful way.”
“Winning championships is the goal, but we can’t forget motorsport is ultimately a marketing tool.
“So a big priority for me is supporting that (selling road cars), presenting opportunities like having multiple cars at events such as Spa 24.”
Sustaining customer partnerships, looking forward to Le Mans
Dane’s experience in teams helps her relate to Corvette’s customer partners. She believes in honest, two-way communication to build trust.
She said, “I make sure my teams know I come from a team background, so I understand their challenges.
“The worst thing would be for someone to stay silent instead of raising an issue,” she said. “It’s about people feeling heard, rather than being treated like a number.”
Ace content! Really grateful for the share.
You’ve done a great thing here.
Grateful for the positivity you spread here. Thank you for being amazing!