{"id":541909,"date":"2026-03-15T12:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541909\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T12:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:12:12","slug":"world-challenge-australia-news-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541909\/","title":{"rendered":"World Challenge Australia News Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Davison joinsOnlyfans Racing<\/p>\n

Two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Will Davison will make his GT World Challenge Australia debut this season, alongside Renee Gracie in the #181 Onlyfans Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.<\/p>\n

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The pair will compete in Pro-Am, with reigning Am drivers\u2019 champion Gracie making a return to the Pro-Am ranks after one season away. Gracie dominated Am last year as a solo driver aboard a Melbourne Performance Centre-run Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, winning seven races and sealing the drivers\u2019 title with one round to spare.<\/p>\n

Although new to GT World Challenge Australia, 43-year-old Davison is no stranger to GT3 competition, having made multiple starts at the Bathurst 12 Hour. The Australian finished third overall with Erebus Motorsport in 2014, and competed this year with Penrite Racing aboard a Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenee has done a great job progressing through the ranks and building her confidence in the category, especially winning the Am Cup series, so I\u2019m hopeful that bringing my experience can help her take the step up,\u201d Davison said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am also very excited to race the Ferrari, which is a fantastic piece of machinery, in a Pro-Am class that is full of strong drivers and produces really competitive racing, so I\u2019m looking forward to getting in the car and seeing what we can achieve together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role is to bring my experience, help maximise the package on race weekends and hopefully put ourselves in a position to fight for the Pro-Am Cup title.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall Racing to field Huracan<\/p>\n

Lamborghini squad Wall Racing has confirmed its entry into this year\u2019s GT World Challenge Australia, with the team set to field its Hurac\u00e1n GT3 Evo2 in Pro-Am with an unchanged line-up of Tony D\u2019Alberto and Adrian Deitz.<\/p>\n

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Longtime co-drivers D\u2019Alberto and Deitz took on their first full-season campaign in the series last year, after making multiple one-off appearances since debuting in 2022.<\/p>\n

Over the off-season, Wall Racing has benefitted from a closer relationship with Lamborghini Squadra Corse, which saw Lamborghini factory driver Marco Mapelli and a senior Lamborghini engineer join the team at this year\u2019s Bathurst 12 Hour, where they qualified sixth overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always great to continue the relationship with a familiar team in Wall Racing, and Adrian and I have been driving together for many years now. As a group we\u2019re getting stronger and stronger, and the Bathurst 12 Hour showed that with the speed we had in the car,\u201d D\u2019Alberto said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result there has given everyone a lot of confidence heading into Phillip Island. We\u2019re hopeful we can be competitive because the pace we showed proved the car is capable of running at the front if we get things right. That confidence runs through the whole team \u2013 the engineers, the mechanics, everyone involved \u2013 because we know the Lamborghini is capable of mixing it with the front of the field. There\u2019s some really tough competition and strong driver combinations out there, but on our day there\u2019s no reason why we can\u2019t be right in the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zagame commits Pro\/Am 296 to the series<\/p>\n

Zagame Autosport has reaffirmed its commitment to GT World Challenge Australia for 2026, following its one-off appearance at last year\u2019s Hampton Downs finale.<\/p>\n

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Cameron Campbell and two-time TCR Australia champion Josh Buchan, who raced for the team in New Zealand, will share its #23 Ferrari 296 GT3 in the Pro-Am class. The pairing scored a brace of top 10 finishes in Hampton Downs, during what was both drivers\u2019 first GT3 starts, with Buchan impressing with fourth in his qualifying session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say how excited I am to be racing the full season in GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS,\u201d said Buchan.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do it with any of the manufacturers on the grid is phenomenal, but to do it in a Ferrari is very, very cool. Last year\u2019s season finale in New Zealand was our team\u2019s shakedown and it was the perfect way to get our crew used to what we will be up against in the upcoming season. We probably exceeded our expectations a little bit due to being a single-car entry in what is arguably the most technically advanced model on the grid, we performed well as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell commented: \u201cI learned a huge amount last season, and every time I get back in the Ferrari 296, I see where I can improve. The focus for me is simple: be consistent, keep learning, and make small improvements every time I sit in the car. That\u2019s how you build real progress. The more seat time I get, the sharper I become. The goal is to keep narrowing the gap, execute clean weekends, and give ourselves the opportunity to fight further up the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 GT World Challenge Australia season begins with GT Festival Phillip Island, on 27th to 29th March 2026.<\/p>\n

Images courtesy of GT World Challenge Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davison joinsOnlyfans Racing Two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Will Davison will make his GT World Challenge Australia debut this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,147316,44],"class_list":["post-541909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ewan-wane","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541909","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=541909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}