GT World Challenge Australia News Notebook

Tander Joins Shahin In Jamec Audi

Yasser Shahin will join 4-time Bathurst 1000 winner and reigning Australian GT Endurance Champion Garth Tander in the #777 Jamec Racing Audi R8 LMS Evo in the 2021 Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS.

Tander and Shahin have separately had race success in Audis and will come together for the opening round of the new format for the first time as a Pro-Am pairing.

Triple Eight Confirm Mercedes AMG for SVG and Prince Jefri Ibrahim

After seeing their GT World Challenge Asia and Asian Le Mans Series plans cancelled due to the global pandemic, Triple Eight Race Engineering and Johor Motorsports Racing (JMR), have now confirmed a 2021 programme in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS series.

Campaigning a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, the team will field a Pro-Am entry across the six events, headed by His Highness Prince Jefri Ibrahim of the Johor Royal Family as the amateur driver.

Joining as the professional co-pilot for five of the season’s scheduled events will be Triple Eight’s own Shane van Gisbergen, a championship-winning GT driver as well as former Supercars champion and 2020 Bathurst 1000 winner. It is yet to be decided who will take van Gisbergen’s spot for The Bend, which sees GT World Challenge Australia competing on the Supercars Championship card, the latter taking precedence for the Kiwi driver.

Triple Eight has run campaigns in the Bathurst 12 Hour on three occasions, winning the race outright in 2017 and taking a closely-fought third-place finish in 2020. The team’s other result was fourth-place in 2019.

The Brisbane-based squad joined forces with JMR in 2019 for a full-season assault on Asia’s premier GT racing category, GT World Challenge Asia. Prince Jefri and van Gisbergen claimed their first overall win at the category’s penultimate round in Yeongam, South Korea. The Triple Eight/JMR team finished the season with a total of four class podiums.

This year’s crew will comprise Triple Eight personnel based at the Brisbane factory, the same crew who run the team’s Dunlop Super2 campaign, spearheaded by Andrew Simpson as Team Manager and Martin Short as Race Engineer.

Roland Dane – Managing Director, Triple Eight Race Engineering: “It is fantastic to welcome Johor Motorsport Racing to Australia. Unfortunately, we were only able to compete at the Bathurst 12 Hour for our GT program last year, a year which should have been much more extensive but given the travel restrictions that we faced, we couldn’t do anything further. We looked at what we could do this year, and with the Australian GT Championship being revitalised under the umbrella of SRO, it gave us the opportunity to compete here.

We brought the car back from Asia and Prince Jefri has come down for the year to undertake an extensive driver training program as well as compete with us in the Championship. We’ll be testing extensively with His Highness, and Shane will be a big part of that program. We’ll be ensuring that we expose His Highness to as many tracks and environments in Australia as possible to ensure he’s well equipped.”

His Highness Prince Jefri Ibrahim: “I’m really looking forward to the year ahead. It’s a blessing in disguise for me as a driver to be able to learn so much and improve, and I’m also really looking forward to working closely with the team again. I’ve had a whole year without racing, so I’m really looking forward to jumping in the car again. I’ve been training quite a bit and working on things I need to work on, but I’ve also tried to stay focused, the last year has been hard not knowing if we’d be racing or not, so I tried to be on point and ready to go at all times.

Shane and I have been in touch quite a bit as well. Seeing him race last year made me quite jealous, but I’m really looking forward to racing with him this year. Two years ago was a learning curve for myself and the team and we created quite a good bond, and our aim is to clinch the championship this year. It’s going to be tough, but that’s our aim.”

Shane van Gisbergen: “GT is one of my favourite categories to race in, and I’m really excited that we’ve been able to continue racing these cars in Australia this year. It’s cool that Prince Jefri has made Australia his temporary home for the next year, which will allow me to help with his training programme and make sure he’s as competitive as possible after being out of the car and not competing for over a year. It will be awesome to work with him and get him back up to speed and continue to build on what we achieved in 2019.”

Grove Motorsport Confirm GT3 Porsche Entry

Grove Motorsport has confirmed an entry into Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS and revealed its livery ahead of the 2021 season.

A brand-new 2021 Porsche 911 GT3-R has been acquired for a two-driver Pro-Am campaign with team owner Stephen Grove forming a father-son combination with son Brenton.

John Russell will take on the engineer role with the Groves, having helped the team to claim its most recent two Bathurst 12 Hour wins and worked with Brenton in the Dunlop Super2 Series.

“The opportunity to drive alongside Brenton in a GT3-R was too good to pass up on and I’m really excited for the year,” said Stephen.

“I always enjoy driving the GT3-R, so I can’t wait to get stuck into the season.

“Previously we’ve spent quite a lot of time doing Carrera Cup, so to move into GT3 and try our hands at something else is extremely exciting.”

Nissan GT-R Is Hobsons Choice

Brett Hobson will make his return to full-time motorsport competition in 2021, driving a GWR Australia-prepared Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in GT World Challenge Australia.

While Hobson has contested a number of one-off events, including the Bathurst 12 Hour, in recent years, this will mark his first complete season since the 2008 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.

Hobson recently tested the Nissan GT-R at Sydney Motorsport Park, his first outing in the car since the 2020 Bathurst 12 Hour.

“It took me some time to dial myself into the car and get used to everything again, but the GWR crew have done a great job over the last few months to make sure everything is ready to go,” Hobson said.

“There were a few technical issues at the 12 Hour last year, especially with a fuel pressure glitch, but we’re confident that’s sorted now.”

Hobson will compete in the Trophy Class and is confident he will be competitive within the class.

“Because the Nissan is slightly older, it puts us in the Trophy Class rather than the outright class,” Hobson said.

“I like what the new (SRO) GT management are doing, they seem to be coming up with a series that’s friendly for the competitors.”

Since the 2020 Bathurst 12 Hour, the Nissan GT-R has undergone a full livery change and is now presented in a distinctive matte black scheme.

“We’ve gone into stealth mode for this season!” Hobson said.

“The paint job has come up really well and it will look great on the track.”

Audi Added For Bathurst Local Brad Schumacher

Bathurst local Brad Schumacher will contest his first full national championship in 2021, driving his Audi R8 LMS in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS.

Schumacher officially launched his 2021 campaign by revealing the livery of his R8 at his ‘home’ circuit.

He also confirmed that Supercars star driver Tim Slade will team up with him for the three-hour endurance race at Mount Panorama later this year as part of the Bathurst International. Slade will provide ongoing assistance to his privately-run team, ‘Schumacher Motorsport’.

Schumacher has steadily made his way through state-based GT racing, including winning the New South Wales Production Sports Championship in 2019.

This year marks his first full national racing campaign and says he is looking forward to the challenge.

“My racing has progressed at a gradual rate, and we felt that Australian GT was the perfect series to progress our team,” he said.

“These are the cars that interest me. GT based cars are really the only cars that I’ve driven, and having stepped up from state racing to the national level, we’re looking forward to testing ourselves against the best drivers and teams that this country has to offer.”

Schumacher says that it will be a huge advantage for him and his team to have the guidance of Slade in his camp.

“He’ll be assisting me at every test day and any round that doesn’t clash with his V8 schedule, acting as a driver coach and engineer, and co-driving with me at the end of year endure at Bathurst,” he confirmed.

“Tim and I met through a mutual friend Chad Parish originally. Chad recommended that we catch up and from their formed a friendship. One thing leads to another and we decided to work together to help progress my racing career, as I’ve previously never had any driver coaching as such”.

“Sladey was initially impressed with my progression as an amateur driver and thought I could use some advice to reach the next level. For me, having a guy like Tim in my corner is a massive confidence boost especially based on his experience in GT cars both Nationally and Internationally”.

The opening round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS will be held at Phillip Island in two weeks time, and fresh off a test at the Island venue, Schumacher is champing at the bit to get into race mode.

“I’ve raced at Phillip Island many times before, and we’ve had good results down there in the past,” he said.

“I felt I was able to get our Audi up to a comfortable pace during the pre-season test. It’s the perfect circuit for the car, with great aerodynamics and brilliant brakes plus high-speed sections requiring commitment. It should be a good combination.”

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