Australia’s most successful motor racing team, Triple Eight Race Engineering, will this year cross continents and categories to make its full-time GT debut in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia series.
Campaigning a Mercedes-AMG GT3, Triple Eight will have three drivers 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-pilots for three events apiece will be Malaysian driver Jazeman Jaafar, who currently sits third in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 class, and Triple Eight’s own Shane van Gisbergen, an experienced Blancpain GT champion in Europe as well as former Supercars champion.
The Brisbane-based squad has competed in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship since September 2003 and has cemented itself as the benchmark team in this time, securing no less than eight drivers’ championships, nine teams’ championships and seven Bathurst 1000 wins. In August last year, Triple Eight became the most-winning touring car team in Australia of all time, currently sitting on 184 championship race victories.
Outside of Supercars, the team has twice successfully leant its expertise to joint campaigns in the world-renowned Bathurst 12 Hour GT event, winning the race outright in 2017 and taking a closely-fought fourth place in this year’s race alongside Scott Taylor Motorsport.
The 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 Romy Mayer as Race Engineer. Van Gisbergen will be contesting three of the six events – Buriram (Thailand), Suzuka (Japan) and Yeongam (Korea).
Fans in Australia and across Asia will be able to watch the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia action live on FOX SPORTS, via SRO Motorsport Group’s YouTube channel, GT World, and the series’ Facebook page. To keep up with the team’s results, fans can follow Triple Eight Race Engineering on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Roland Dane, Managing Director, Triple Eight Race Engineering:
“GT racing is something I’ve been looking at for a few years now and our two campaigns in the Bathurst 12 Hour have cemented in my mind that it’s something I want Triple Eight to be involved in on a longer-term basis. Asia has always been a special part of the world for me, I’ve enjoyed doing business there for the best part of 30 years, and I’ve kept an eye on Asia’s Blancpain GT championship since its inception in 2017. There’s no doubt the category is going from strength to strength and it presents an opportunity for Triple Eight to broaden our portfolio and give the staff here a chance to build their own motorsport experience, which will hopefully only serve to improve the knowledge base within Supercars. Prince Jefri has been a big supporter of Triple Eight and we’re greatly looking forward to working with him, as well as Jazeman and the team at SRO Motorsports Group.”
High Highness Prince Jefri Ibrahim:
“I feel very proud and honoured to be part of Triple Eight and their project to expand into Asia. I’m also very happy with the partnership between Johor Motorsports Racing and Triple Eight, it will be an interesting journey for us. Having Shane on board as one of the drivers will be an asset for me to learn as much as I can, as he is a very experienced racer and also at the same time we all have a very good relationship between Roland, the team and myself. I will definitely be giving 100 percent.”
Benjamin Franassovici, General Manager, Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia:
“It’s fantastic to have an international team of Triple Eight’s calibre joining Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia in 2019, and especially given its royal driver line-up. Triple Eight’s domestic Supercars record speaks for itself, but the team and its Pro drivers have also enjoyed much success in GT3 racing. Indeed, Shane van Gisbergen is considered one of the world’s very best so it will be fascinating to see how he compares against our established local stars. Likewise, Jazeman Jafaar, who was the European Blancpain GT Series runner-up in 2016 with Mercedes-AMG. It’s a privilege to host His Highness Prince Jeffri Ibrahim who, by all accounts, is a very capable amateur driver. The championship, which is expecting 30 cars at Sepang, can feel very proud that His Highness and Triple Eight have chosen Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia as the platform for their first-ever Asian programme.”
Shane van Gisbergen:
“It’s really exciting that Roland and Triple Eight are expanding into Asia and GT racing. To be driving alongside Prince Jefri will be really cool, he’s come to Australia for a few of our races and I’ve been over to England with him for driver training, so he’s a good mate. Of course, my focus is still going to be fully on our Supercars campaign and making sure I’m giving myself and the team the best opportunity to win races, but it was in 2016 when I won my Supercars title, the Blancpain GT Endurance championship and the Bathurst 12 Hour, so racing as much as possible seems to be the best form of training for me. I feel like I’m at my best when I’m always in the car, so it’s a great opportunity for me to expand my racing in 2019 and have a lot of fun doing it. I think we’ve got a great platform in the Mercedes GT3 car, it seems to be an all-rounder that suits most types of tracks.”
