This season marks a shift for Jake Camilleri by moving away from racing the Mazda brand and joining the ranks of Mercedes-AMG for this season’s Monochrome GT4 Australia.
Aligned with the Japanese brand due to the family dealership, Grand Prix Mazda, Camilleri was acknowledged as a giantkiller driving his familiar 3 MPS due to scoring some remarkable outright results.
After a stint in a Mazda 3-bodied MARC Car, Camilleri has been forced to change brand opening up the door to move to Monochrome GT4 Australia and Mercedes-AMG.
“We ran so many years running Mazda because it was our product we sold and won a lot of titles in the 3 MPS, but it was getting old,” Camilleri explained.
“I then went and raced MARC Cars running events overseas of which we competed for a decade in those primarily focused on endurance racing, with a Mazda 3 body ensuring we kept running the product.
“Mazda don’t really make a product anymore, so we were searching for what we were going to do next. Having raced alongside GT4 in Production Cars last year it was interesting to see how popular this category is worldwide and if it took off in Australia it’d be awesome to be involved with.”
Why did Camilleri choose Mercedes-AMG?
“We got in early to see what we could do and I’d driven a GT3 Mercedes before, which I loved the way it was,” he recalled.
“That was what made my mind up to go in the Mercedes direction and I hunted around for one, which I eventually found this one to now be competing in GT4. “Now the category has taken off, it’s been good.”
Currently, Camilleri sits fourth in the Silver Cup standings, but is targeting victories as more experience is gained with the Mercedes-AMG.
“Every category I’ve competed in I’ve won titles, so I expect to be there or roundabouts,” said Camilleri.
“We’ll just see how it goes.”