Zagame Motorsport is set to join the Australian GT grid in 2017 with a brand-new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to be driven by Adrian Deitz and Cam McConville.
With close ties to a host of the world’s leading manufacturers, Zagame has built a business out of the prestige end of the automotive market, and from 2017 will take that expertise into the motorsport arena.
“This has come about through a meeting with Bobby Zagame back in September,” McConville explained. “He’d been contemplating doing this for a while so the timing worked well for both of us.
“It’s going to take time to get it where we want it to be, but we’re playing the long game and it’s great to have Adrian on-board to kick things off.”
McConville will play an integral role overseeing the Zagame Motorsport operation, backed by accomplished team manager Rob Crawford.
“Rob and I go back to the HRT days and we’ve kept in touch,” McConville explained. “I actually went to Macau to meet with Lamborghini and Rob was there as part of FFF Racing.
“We got talking and I think it’s a real coup to have Rob on-board because he’s team managed FFF Racing which has run two Lamborghinis.”
The team’s first car, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 which is set to arrive in Australia in mid-January, will be an all-new challenge for Deitz and McConville, but one they believe has a number of factors working in its favour.
“The Lamborghini has good straight line speed, and with so many turbo-charged cars it’s one of the few normally aspirated engines too,” Deitz said.
“We thought that gave us a known quantity, which we hope will be an advantage. It’s also got good aerodynamics.”
Initially, the team plans to focus on learning the car and, for Deitz, getting comfortable in his new office.
“We want to get some laps in it, to learn and understand the car, and our focus will be on the endurance championship. It’s what I as a driver enjoy most.”
“I’ve been very fortunate and I can’t speak highly enough of Adrian,” McConville added. “His driving has come a long way and he’s been very loyal to me.
“As part of this deal he asked if I could still drive, which Bobby has agreed to, so we get him into a new car and I get to be his side-kick again, which is great!
“We finished seventh at Highlands but we never qualify inside the top ten but we tend to race in the ten. What we’re hoping with this new car is we can qualify in the ten and race in the top five!”
“Australian GT now has a lot of depth,” Deitz agreed. “If you look at some of the GT championships internationally they’ve only got ten or twelve GT3 cars, with the rest of GT4s.
“In Australia we’ve got a grid of GT3 cars, and almost every one of them is the latest spec. It’s a real testament to the strength of Australian GT.”
After taking delivery of its car next month, Zagame Motorsport has targeted the second round of the CAMS Australian GT Championship at the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix as its debut event on March 23-26.
