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A standout performance from Tony D’Alberto Racing on Saturday at Surfers Paradise came as the team fights to find funding in order to remain on the grid in 2014.
D’Alberto produced one of the best performances of his V8 Supercars career to qualify and finish fourth alongside co-driver Jonny Reid in Saturday’s first 102 lap contest.
The result snapped a run of outs that had seen mechanical gremlins ruin the combination’s Sandown and Bathurst campaigns.
Big results could prove crucial in the final portion of the season for D’Alberto, who admits his team is struggling to stay alive for next year.
“I’m not that confident about next year,” D’Alberto told Speedcafe.com.
“It’s no secret that we are in negotiations at the moment to try and stay on the grid for next year.
“A result like this obviously strengthens that but it doesn’t put money in the bank so we are going to have to keep working hard.
“We are not selling up or anything like that but we need to find money to run the team.
“We can’t keep dipping into our own pockets, we just don’t have it.
“It (Saturday’s result) goes a long way in showing we can mix it with the best and put on a good show and get some signatures.”
D’Alberto said that his team’s finances have been “horrendous” this season.
Although not in the market to buy a second Racing Entitlements Contract, D’Alberto says that expanding to two cars next year could provide the way forward for his operation.
Several RECs are yet to have confirmed homes for 2014, leaving some potential for a funded second car to join the stable.
“This year has been pretty horrendous financially although next year is not going to be as bad, we need to make this team sustainable and at the moment it is not,” he said.
“As a single car team it is a bit difficult and we need some more corporate dollars.
“We have looked at the two-car operation. It doesn’t cut costs but you can share costs. If you had two cars you wouldn’t need to employ double the amount of people.
“We are definitely looking at it but the second car would have to be fully funded.
“We wouldn’t be looking at buying a license or anything like that. Its out of our reach.”
Tony D’Alberto moved back into the Walkinshaw Racing customer fold this season after two years running a Ford Performance Racing Falcon.
