D’Alberto toughens up at Ipswich -The Ipswich wrap-

Tony D’Alberto had his work cut out for him at Queensland Raceway, shouldering a hard nudge in the opening laps of Race 1 that sent the car off track. D’Alberto worked hard to win back lost ground, bringing the car to a finish in 20th position. D’Alberto battled on, confronting a host of challenges to finish 22nd in Race 2 and 26th in Race 3.

D’Alberto began Saturday with qualifying, notching up 14 laps and his fastest on lap 14 in a time of 1:11.4508. He was less than a second off the pace of the lead car, once again showing he could quickly get the measure of a circuit and produce tidy laps.

The start to Race 1 left D’Alberto at a disadvantage with contact occurring early on in the opening laps. D’Alberto fought to move forward, holding out his pitstop until lap 9. The crew performed a speedy pitstop, returning the car to the track in good time. For the remaining laps D’Alberto managed to gain a few more positions, bringing the car across the line in 23rd, which was corrected to 20th after penalties were handed out. The #55 Bottle-O Commodore clocked its fastest lap of the race on lap 14 in a time of 1:12.4803.

D’Alberto got away to a terrific start to Race 2, leaping up to 18th on the opening lap which he comfortably held through to lap 7. D’Alberto performed good passing manoeuvres through turns 1 and 2, but trouble surfaced when another car’s wheels made heavy contact with the wheels on the #55 Bottle-O Commodore, giving rise to a drop in steering performance.

The steering issue plagued D’Alberto for the rest of the race as holding position became increasingly difficult. D’Alberto did the best he could to support the struggling car, managing a finish in 22nd.

Race 3 presented the opportunity for a move forward. D’Alberto had made a tidy hop up to 20th by lap 5, pitting relatively early on lap 7 to settle smoothly into 19th by lap 14.

D’Alberto had an easy hold on 19th, maintaining the position for 15 laps before an unexpected dilemma arose when the brake lights seized on the #55 Bottle-O Commodore. This fresh bout of bad luck necessitated a visit to the pits to rectify the problem, costing valuable time. D’Alberto was forced to surrender his hard-fought position, finishing the race in 26th.

D’Alberto had succeeded in delivering strong drives across the weekend, despite having his progress stunted by challenges outside of the team’s control. D’Alberto now has a short turnaround before appearing at Winton for the next sprint round from 1st August. Winton will prove significant given that it is the last sprint round before drivers embark on the set of endurance races for the 2008 season. D’Alberto has had a lot of laps at Winton and the Winton circuit is the team’s home test track, giving D’Alberto a wealth of experience to draw from.

Copyright © Rod Nash Racing 2008

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