Shane van Gisbergen will share a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in this year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia with Triple Eight.
The Kiwi leads the team’s new assault on the rebranded series, competing at five of the six scheduled endurance events across the year.
Van Gisbergen will be joined by His Highness Prince Jefri Ibrahim, only missing round three at Tailem Bend due to clashes with the Supercars Championship.
He will still get to race on circuits such as Mount Panorama, Phillip Island and Sandown.
“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,” said van Gisbergen.
“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.”
The New Zealander has previously won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2016, and the Blancpain GT Series the same year.
Other GT experience includes gigs at Sebring, Daytona and Spa in a variety of GT machinery. He was also due to make his Le Mans 24 Hour debut last year before the race was postponed to a date that clashed with a Supercars round.
“I’ve had a whole year without racing, so I’m really looking forward to jumping in the car again,” said Prince Jefri.
“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 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.”
The first round of the GT World Challenge Australia season is at Phillip Island on February 19-21, with the event to be broadcast live on Sky Sport.
