GT World Challenge Australia News Notebook

Former GT regular and race winner Peter Hackett will contest the final round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS at Bathurst, partnering Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Hackett replaces regular co-driver Shane van Gisbergen due to his Bathurst 1000 commitments.

Since partnering with Erebus Motorsport to give Mercedes-Benz its debut in the class more than a decade ago with the SLS GT3, his results include winning the 2017 Australian Endurance Championship and Australian GT Trophy in 2012.

Hackett also finished runner up in the precursor to GT World Challenge Australia, the Australian GT Championship in 2019 after finishing third the previous season, all with Mercedes.

“I’ve done a lot of cool things and to be asked to help Jefri with his campaign in the final round of the GT World Challenge Australia is a real honour,” Hackett said.

“The expectation is to come here, put it on pole and help Jefri win. I’ve driven lots of nice cars with plenty of cool people, but I’m here to do a job.

“The priority for me is to help Jefri win a championship.”

Hackett, Ibrahim and Triple Eight have taken the opportunity to get acquainted with testing miles at the Challenge Bathurst event at Mount Panorama this week, banking laps around the famous mountain circuit.

“It’s been great to get familiar with the team at Challenge Bathurst. Even in this short time already, it has been incredible to begin to learn new procedures, and understand new philosophies,” Hackett explained.

“When you come into the Triple Eight fold, it is so much more precise, so much more efficient, so much more professional than you could even imagine.

The final round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS at Bathurst is on November 30-December 3.

Mercedes-AMG And Triple Eight Establish New Racing Support Centre

Mercedes-AMG and Triple Eight have revealed a new central support centre for the brand’s racing operations in the Pacific region.

Working closely with long-time Mercedes-AMG development partner HWA AG in establishing the new operation, Triple Eight will provide comprehensive support to Australian and New Zealand customers.

This will include fast and reliable spare parts supply, opportunities to complete rebuilds or repairs to both Mercedes-AMG GT3 and GT4 models. A support truck will feature at selected race and test events on both sides of the Tasman will provide on-site parts supply and engineering know-how.

“We are really happy to be able to provide an even better service to our Customer Racing Teams and vehicle owners in Australia and New Zealand,” said Stefan Wendl, Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing.

“In Triple Eight Race Engineering, we have found the perfect partner for the implementation of this task. The company is working in a highly professional way and also has the engineering expertise to carry out repair and rebuild work, next to spare part supply and sales logistics, in accordance with our high-quality standards. The new motorsport hub pools all Customer Racing competencies for the region at the same level as in Affalterbach.”

The new venture ensures customers from Australia and New Zealand will benefit from a localised support program, featuring a comprehensive service in cooperation with HWA AG. This is highlighted by experienced HWA AG engineer Andrew Barrett remaining in a supportive role.

Creating this new hub in partnership with Triple Eight not only strengthens the Mercedes-AMG brand on track but will transfer across into its AMG Driving Academy activities.

“Having been a part of both the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing and Performance Racing programs over the last few years, everyone at Triple Eight is very excited and honoured by the opportunity to further expand our relationship with Mercedes-AMG,” said Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Roland Dane.

“Our GT program has enjoyed success both on and off the track under the AMG umbrella. We take very seriously the task of the expanded affiliation with the Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing brand with the provision of both factory parts and service for GT3 and GT4 cars in Australia and New Zealand. We look forward to helping to grow the number of Mercedes-AMG customer cars in the region by providing unrivaled backup for AMG racing owners.”

Triple Eight will continue to compete while fulfilling its role in providing service and support to customer teams, while it is also authorised to offer testing opportunities for both of Mercedes-AMG’s racing variants.