Lucas Dumbrell is confident that scaling back to a single car this season will help shore up his small team’s future in the V8 Supercars Championship.
The Melbourne-based outfit struggled for resources during 2013 having expanded to two entries for Scott Pye and Dean Fiore.
The team enters its fifth year in the category with a new driver in Russell Ingall and primary backer in Phil Munday’s Repair Management Australia.
The team will campaign a single Triple Eight-built chassis, albeit without technical support from the Red Bull team.
Although flagging a desire to one day return to a two-car model, Dumbrell says that handing one of his Racing Entitlements Contracts back to V8 Supercars will consolidate the team’s efforts.
“I’d definitely like to end up with two cars again,” he said when asked of the team’s long-term desires.
“We ran two cars in 2013 and really, we probably didn’t maximise and get the most out of what we had.
“It was so hard with the Car of the Future, we had to get two brand new cars and there was a lot going on during the year.
“On top of the mammoth workload we probably had 10 or 15 massive crashes which didn’t help the budget or the crew.
“Going back to one car is a way for us to refocus our resources and get all our crew onto one entry and make sure that’s run properly before we try and take on too much.”
LDM and Dean Fiore, whose REC ran with Dick Johnson Racing last year, both handed back licenses over the off-season.
The field will now be at 25 or 26 cars, pending ongoing discussions between Tony D’Alberto Racing and Tekno Autosports.
Dumbrell expressed his enthusiasm for the new season following the completion of his Ingall deal, which was orchestrated by Holden Motorsport.
“I’m massively excited. It’s been a big couple of months to get it all together but we’re both absolutely thrilled,” he said.
“It’s been a building couple of years and some testing times but it’s a sign of where the team’s at that we’re ready to push forward.
“I think that signing Rusty and especially a new major sponsor, it’s given us all the ingredients to have a red hot go and prove some people wrong this year.”
