Triple Eight Race Engineering-JMR will field two cars in the next two rounds of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS season.

Jamie Whincup will share the extra Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim, younger brother of Prince Jefri Ibrahim.

The latter is joined by Broc Feeney at The Bend before regular driving partner Shane van Gisbergen returns at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International.

Triple Eight has fielded just the one car in the Australian competition until now, but ran two in the already completed GT World Challenge Asia season this year, with an Ibrahim brother in each.

“With our racing in Asia wrapped up for the year, we’ve turned our attention fully to the remaining rounds of GT World Challenge Australia and that means running two cars under the Triple Eight-JMR flag,” said Andrew Simpson, who runs the outfit’s GT programme.

“Prince Abu Bakar has done a stellar job in his first full season of racing and we’re looking to capitalise on that momentum. He’s in very good company with Jamie Whincup as his co-driver, so it will be a good opportunity for him to learn.

“Prince Jefri is returning to Australia after sealing the Pro-Am title in Japan, so he should have plenty of confidence coming into the weekend and it’s a track he knows fairly well.

“He and Broc took a couple of podiums at The Bend last year and they’ve got a good chance of going a spot or two better this weekend.”

This weekend’s round at The Bend is a sprint affair, while the encounter at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International is part of the Motorsport Australia Endurance Championship.