The team has taken over from Triple Eight Race Engineering, who in 2021 assumed the customer agent role.
Tigani Motorsport competes primarily in GT World Challenge Australia with a Mercedes-AMG GT3 fleet, as well as the odd Audi or Porsche.
The new deal will see the Wollongong-based outfit supply parts as well as technical support to teams in Australia and New Zealand.
The agreement comes after Triple Eight Race Engineering relinquished the customer agent rights amid its impending switch to Ford in Supercars, opening the door for Tigani Motorsport.
The deal is the next major step for the team in its pursuit to become the preeminent GT racing powerhouse.
“It’s been in our thoughts to be aligned with a manufacturer for a while now, obviously given the success of other GT3 teams that have that alignment with manufacturers directly,” eponymous team owner Nathan Tigani told Speedcafe.
“We touted the idea and AMG stood out as the obvious one given how big they are in the country and how successful they’ve been up until this point.
“Obviously the tie-up with Triple Eight seemed like it was completely out of the question given their strong relationship. Jamie (Whincup) actually reached out, said they were looking at a different path.
“Expanding their Supercars program and other bits and pieces on their end meant that basically they couldn’t do it all, so toyed with the idea of moving it on.
“That was heavily dependent on AMG’s approval. You can’t give out the contract to anybody. Given the recent run of us in GT3, it was no-brainer for Mercedes to make that decision. They gave it the green light and then allowed us now to transact.”
Tigani said it will balance its commitment with existing customers who may use non-Mercedes-AMG platforms. However, his focus is on the German marque moving forward.
Tigani hailed the AMG GT3-focused expertise of the team’s technical director Matt Harvey as well as the amateur-friendly platform.
“For the short term, the biggest objective is to get the parts and car supply distribution side transitioned well and all the customer base in Australia and New Zealand confident in us,” said Tigani.
“We have plans in mind to up the level of customer support. I think we’re at a point in time where motorsport is getting more and more expensive. So you have to start matching that with customer support to warrant the spend.
“I’d like to think we could up that level of customer support. And first and foremost, GT3 is top of our pyramid. We’re involved in it day in, day out. So I think we can offer a bit more expertise across the board to all the customers here in Australia and New Zealand, and just piggyback off that, making sure everybody’s feeling the love for the cost they spend.
“So that’s personnel, performance-based support as well. There are early talks of us opening up the setup books and having outside customers access to that kind of performance side.
“Ultimately, we want all the Mercedes guys to be in the best shape possible, have the fastest car possible, be the most comfortable – a big part of warranting them coming back and having that spend in racing GT3. So that’s one aspect.
“There are ideas we have to up the level of manufacturer support and customer support, but first and foremost, it’ll just be transitioning at the minute, making sure we’re steady on parts and distribution and supply and all that. Then we’ll look at what the options are.”
The timing is also significant with a new Mercedes-AMG GT3 model on the horizon.
That car is expected to debut in 2026 before being rolled out to customers in 2027.
“From my perspective, it made the most sense to do it now, to shift this way,” said TIgani.
“The cars are fast, the product is so well known from the customer’s side, the portals are simple, it’s just a well oiled machine at the minute.
“It makes sense to transition to the part’s side now while that’s all good, get that up and running and seamless.
“Then when the new car comes, we can focus wholeheartedly on performance, because it’s going to be quite a different beast to what we currently have from what I’ve seen.”
Tigani lays groundwork to become Australia’s next GT powerhouse
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