{"id":152097,"date":"2025-09-18T12:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152097\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T12:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:56:13","slug":"tigani-motorsport-lays-groundwork-to-become-australias-next-gt-powerhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/152097\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigani Motorsport lays groundwork to become Australia\u2019s next GT powerhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tigani
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTigani Motorsport field a handful of Mercedes-AMG GT3 race cars in GT World Challenge Australia. Image: Race Project<\/p>\n

The team is the brainchild of Nathan Tigani, who raced karts competitively for the best part of 15 years. A mechanic by trade, Tigani worked on Radical Cup, Porsche Carrera Cup, and other GT3 cars across multiple teams before beginning his own endeavours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to see a lot of different teams from behind the pit wall and how they ran and operated,\u201d Tigani told Speedcafe. \u201cThe good, the bad, and the ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tigani stepped away from motorsport completely before moving to Wollongong. It was there that a former racing customer approached him to run a Porsche on his behalf. He rented a hoist in a 150 square metre workshop and Tigani Motorsport was born.<\/p>\n

With a wealth of experience at other teams, he believed he could do things differently and provide a better customer experience for amateur drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt snowballed from that to taking on the full premises, to running more cars,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne car led to two cars led to three cars, which led to buying a transporter. From there, it kept snowballing to a bigger workshop and just more infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started as a one-car team quickly grew. Now the team boasts a fleet of GT3 machines from multiple brands, including Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>\n

At any given point, the workshop is littered with upwards of 15 cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the guys that I had wanted to step up to GT3. We started that journey, running amateur guys just with a pure intent of customer satisfaction more than anything,\u201d Tigani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we decided to bite the bullet and move to a larger premises to bring everything in-house and consolidate it all to about a 300 square meter facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tigani<\/p>\n

Tigani Motorsport\u2019s eponymous owner Nathan Tigani.<\/p>\n

With growth came more personnel and seven full-time staff members, including an operations and logistics manager, two full-time engineers, and a bunch of mechanics.<\/p>\n

The team took its first step towards being a real force by stepping up to Pro-Am competition with highly-regarded Mercedes-AMG junior and Supercars co-driver Jayden Ojeda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what really transitioned us from that customer racing team to being results-driven,\u201d said Tigani of the transition to Pro-Am.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shifted the focus to not only customer satisfaction but to performance. We turned the team around from having reliable and solid cars to cars that can win at any given minute they step out on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, amateur racing is heavily based around the Am, so your results aren\u2019t always truly indicative of where you\u2019re at performance-wise. Given what Juice (Ojeda) has done the last 12 months, every time he hops in the car, he\u2019s either first or top three.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s starting to translate down the line of the Am and other guys. Having a team that\u2019s now performance-oriented and getting on track for results, that\u2019s just opened more and more doors for us in the future and currently.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Theo<\/p>\n

Theo Koundouris and James Koundouris raced an Audi R8 LMS GT3 with Tigani Motorsport before switching to a Mercedes-AMG GT3. Image: Race Project<\/p>\n

Racing overseas is on the team\u2019s radar, too. The team looks set to enter the Gulf 12 Hour at the Yas Marina Circuit, home of the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with an all-star line-up later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019ve started consolidating, our focus is GT3 in its entirety. That\u2019s our home and where we want to put out full attention,\u201d said Tigani.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe product is so appealing, given that what we race here in Australia we can fly anywhere around the world and race anywhere. For us, that\u2019s a massive plus to go and do that at a cool track like Fuji or Spa or Abu Dhabi. It\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia runs at a super high level, more than I probably realised. So to take that anywhere in the world and know we can be competitive is appealing to us as a team and compelling to the customers more than anything, so the business model makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midway through the 2025 season, the team has a throng of cars from different brands sitting in its Wollongong workshop.<\/p>\n

When asked if the team wants to continue down the path of supporting multiple manufacturers or aligning with one, Tigani said he was open to both models but has spoken to manufacturers about formal ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re exploring the next thing as a team and what\u2019s the next motivating factor and situation that we can transition into, whether it be manufacturer status or overseas in the near future, which is exciting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Tigani<\/p>\n

Tigani Motorsport has fielded cars for Porsche customers alongside its Audi R8 LMS and Mercedes-AMG GT3 drivers. Image: Race Project<\/p>\n

To date, the direction of what cars they\u2019ve acquired has been directed by customer preference, but Tigani Motorsport race engineer Matt Harvey believes customers would join them on the journey if they gained brand backing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe customers come to the team with what they want to do and what they want to race, but then there are other elements to it where you go, \u2018Okay, moving forward, it\u2019s good to be part of something that\u2019s building\u2019,\u201d said Harvey.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to achieve something great together, and if that means forming an alliance or falling into line with one manufacturer or one of the brands that we have in-house falls by the wayside to make way for a stronger Mercedes alliance or a stronger Porsche alliance, then you the customers are seeing the big picture there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMPC (Melbourne Performance Centre) is the benchmark. They\u2019ve got longevity in the game, they\u2019ve got a massive customer base, they\u2019ve got the fullest trophy cabinet \u2014 it\u2019d be pretty hard to see that all being possible without their alliance with Audi.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t win races without a fast Pro, you can\u2019t win races without a motivated and well-budgeted Am, you can\u2019t win races without the mechanical infrastructure and the technical knowledge, so if you align yourself with your manufacturer, you have more tools in the toolbox or more feathers in your cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s just a no-brainer. Nathan\u2019s risen with the appetite of his customers, and they also want to do bigger and better things. So why not? Why not find a way to do it where there\u2019s more scope? Why would you not want to have the affiliation with the manufacturer and provide more opportunities and a higher quality service to your customer base?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were to support a manufacturer in the region, it would be to do that job well, and then for that to flow into the knowledge base of the race team and the opportunities that open up for drivers and then to open up opportunities for customers to be on the receiving end of the newest, biggest and baddest race cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tigani Motorsport conclude its GT World Challenge Australia season at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park on October 31-November 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tigani Motorsport field a handful of Mercedes-AMG GT3 race cars in GT World Challenge Australia. Image: Race Project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85,101965],"class_list":{"0":"post-152097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tigani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}