Tony D’Alberto’s Holden will adopt Italian colours for the Sydney 500 as the team bids farewell to Hiflex, its major sponsor of two seasons.
The name of the hoses and assemblies firm’s parent company, Alfagomma, will be displayed on the doors of the TDR entry for the event.
Alfagomma and the D’Alberto family are both of Italian origins.
The team previously ran with a similarly national flag-inspired bonnet design at last year’s Armor All Gold Coast 600, where it fielded Italian co-driver Tonio Liuzzi.
D’Alberto sits 18th in the points standings heading to Sydney and is hoping to bounce back from a disastrous Phillip Island round, where his Walkinshaw customer Holden was dogged by unreliability.
“I really like the Sydney circuit and I’m looking forward to getting out on track,” he said.
“It’s probably the hardest street course that we go to all year. It’s so tight around there that you can’t afford to make a single mistake, otherwise, it’s game over.
“We’ve qualified really well there in the past but haven’t quite got the result we were after.
“Like everyone, we’ll be looking to end the year on a high and bring a trophy home with us.”
The small Melbourne-based team is currently searching for a replacement primary backer ahead of the new season.
TDR will also need to find a new pitstop partner for 2014 after Friday’s confirmation that Walkinshaw Racing will expand to four cars with the addition of James Rosenberg’s entry.
This year has been D’Alberto’s first back with Walkinshaw equipment following a two-year stint running as a customer of Ford Performance Racing.
D’Alberto is this weekend racing in the final round of New Zealand’s V8 SuperTourer Series at Pukekoke, where he is sharing a Ford with Mitch Cunningham.
