Tigani Motorsport will run Brad Schumacher and Sergio Pires in the final round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Series, aboard the Audi R8 LMS Ultra in Trophy Class.
Schumacher ran in Trophy Class at the start of the year but upgraded his Audi to an outright specification part way through the year. The Trophy Class points lead remains in the hands of Schumacher with one round to go, and so he will compete aboard the Valmont Racing owned Audi in a bid for the title.
Pires, who owns the Audi along with Marcel Zalloua, has competed in the previous two rounds of the series aboard the Valmont Racing Mercedes AMG, with the duo combining to win in Trophy Class on both occasions.
The combination of Pires and Schumacher is a tried-and-true method, with the duo combining forces at this year’s Bathurst 6 Hour where they took home fifth place in A1 Class. While Pires has mostly raced the Mercedes in 2022, he has experience in the Audi from starts in Super GT Australia and state level Production Sports car racing.
This weekend’s Adelaide 500 will mark the first time either driver has raced at the event, or even on a street circuit.
“I am super excited, it’s going to be an awesome atmosphere,” said Pires.
“I have done a few laps on the sim now and it seems like it will be pretty exciting in the Audi. We didn’t want to risk the Mercedes with the nature of the track, as we look ahead to the 12 Hour in February, so it will be good to get some more time in the Audi this weekend.
“Brad and I are good friends and he rang me up asking to see if he could jump in and we jumped at the opportunity to put together a fun weekend. Obviously he is fighting for the Trophy Class Championship as well, so I’ll be looking to support him as best I can in that area.
“I’ll be disappointed if we’re not competing right at the front of the Trophy Class field this weekend.”
The Adelaide 500 marks the final round of the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia season, and it sees the biggest field for the category in quite some time.
Track & TV Schedule
Thursday:
Practice 1 – 9:10am
Practice 2 – 1:20pm (Fox & Kayo)
Friday:
Qualifying 1 – 9:20am (Fox & Kayo)
Qualifying 2 – 9:50am (Fox & Kayo)
Race 1 – 2:05pm (Fox, Kayo and Channel 7)
Saturday
Race 2 – 9:35am (Fox & Kayo)
Sunday
Race 3 – 8:40am (Fox & Kayo)