Tigani Motorsport will double its Pro-Am efforts for the 2025 GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season.
Am Class race winner Sergio Pires will make the step up to Pro-Am alongside British ace George King in a second Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo under the Geyer Valmont Racing banner.
This entry adds to the recently announced return of Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti’s in the race winning Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Pires finished off his 2025 campaign in impressive style by clean-sweeping the Am Class at Bathurst and scoring a pair of outright top 10s in what was his first solo start in the category.
Since making the switch from sim racing to circuit after the global pandemic in 2021, King has enjoyed a successful career in prototypes, headlined by winning the Ultimate Cup Series Outright and the LMP3 Class in 2023. King recently raced a GT4 entry in Middle Eastern events during January.
The addition of King to the team comes through an association with engineer Matt Harvey and comes as Pires’ regular co-driver Marcel Zalloua steps away from racing due to business commitments.
Tigani Motorsport’s dual Pro-Am campaign will get underway at the opening round of the 2025 GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS season at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries on April 4-6.
Tickets for the season opener can be purchased via motorsporttickets.com.au.
QUOTES
Sergio Pires
Geyer Valmont Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
“I’m super excited to be chasing overall wins this year, after a couple years in Am, I feel more than ready,” said Pires.
“I’m very excited to partner with George. He comes with a glowing reference from Matt Harvey, whose opinion I rate highly. Looking forward to having a Pro to help set up the car and hopefully George’s data and feedback will help me take the next step.
“I loved the Mercedes-AMG when I drove it for a year a few seasons ago but circumstances rather than preference meant we moved to Audi. I feel my driving has improved significantly the last couple of years so hopefully that translates into fast consistent times back in the Mercedes-AMG.
“Being up the front of your class always adds to the enjoyment so last year was definitely a fun year for me. I have definitely taken the sport more seriously over the last 18 months and I have been getting seat time in whatever race car I can and that has really helped.
“Over the six years I have been racing, I have only competed in two weekends without racing against Marcel or in the same team. Yes, it will feel odd, but I know we will be seeing him join the field for at least a couple rounds this year.
“Race wins where possible are, but most of all consistency across the season are my expectations for the season.”
George King
Geyer Valmont Racing, Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
“I’m super excited to be racing in Australia,” said King.
“To be driving with Sergio and in a team like Tigani Motorsport, it makes me even more eager to get started.
“I feel this is a great opportunity for myself. My first full season in a GT3 car against some of the best drivers in the game. It will be fun to learn and progress my knowledge and career to become a better overall driver.
“I’ve raced in the Dubai 24 Hour 4 times in both GT4 and GT3. In the Porsche GT3 991.2 I led the race for a few hours, and most recently in a BMW GT4 we were leading the race for 12 hours before an unfortunate DNF.
“My four years in predominantly prototypes have given me a whole toolbox to use which has helped me to adapt my style to new cars whenever needed.
“I first met Matt [Harvey] in my first season of racing in the Gulf Radical Cup, as part of the James Winslow Racing Team where he was my engineer. We went on to dominate and win the championship, ultimately helping me kickstart my career.
“I would love to get some wins, podiums and potentially fight for the championship with Sergio and the team.”
Nathan Tigani
Team Owner, Tigani Motorsport
“This program has been a while coming,” said Tigani.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while, but it’s good to have a second Pro-Am entry, especially alongside Jayden (Ojeda) and Paul (Lucchitti) in another Mercedes-AMG. This will now springboard our program to the next level and be competitive week-in, week-out.
“Sergio has been in the Geyer Valmont Audi with Marcel. Conversations last year were held with Marcel as he was busy on the business side and was unable to commit to the season, so we floated the idea of putting Sergio in with a Pro driver.
“He’s dedicated to being fast, doing the right preparation, having the right mindset and focus, which is showing. Sergio has improved leaps and bounds the last 12 months.
“Sergio’s has been absolutely on fire and he’s driving incredibly, so the idea was to find someone capable of winning races outright.
“We spoke to Matt Harvey, the engineer on Jayden’s car and he floated a young guy he used to work with back in Dubai by the name of George King. We got talking to him and from there we told him our ambitions, which led to us getting him across the line.
“Partnering Sergio with George will propel him to the next step to being one of the quickest Bronze drivers in the country. Switching back to the Mercedes-AMG will be a bot of a challenge, but we can give him the right package.
“Last year, we had one of the fastest cars at times throughout the year, so to put that knowledge and know-how into another entry will build both efforts to be better will be a massive bonus.
“We’ve been lucky enough to surround ourselves with some really good people in the crew. To be able to add to that in pursuit of more trophies is the end goal for us.”