Tony D'Alberto

Racing career

Tony D'Alberto got his start in the early 2000s racing a Formula Ford in Victoria, with a short stint in the 2002 Australian Formula Ford Championship. The following year, he made his V8Supercar debut at Eastern Creek Raceway, driving a John Faulkner Racing Commodore in the third round of the Konica V8 Supercar Series. Within just six races, he cracked the top ten at Phillip Island, and wrapped up his first partial season with a fifth-place finish at the series finale in Mallala.

His first podium arrived on a big stage: the non-championship round supporting the 2004 Bathurst 1000, where he piloted a Ford Falcon for Howard Racing and took third place—his only time driving a Ford to date. In 2005, he launched Tony D'Alberto Racing and mounted a serious championship bid, scoring third-place results at Adelaide, Eastern Creek, and Bathurst to finish fifth overall. That performance earned him his first invitation to the main series endurance races, where he joined Tasman Motorsport in a second Commodore but failed to finish either event.

The 2006 season proved frustrating as his team expanded to a second car for Mark McNally but lost momentum. D'Alberto again shone at Bathurst with a third-place finish, yet otherwise stayed off the Fujitsu Series podiums. For the enduros that year, he moved to the championship-winning HSV Dealer Team, but a messy driver swap with Holden Racing Team left him in the squad’s fourth car, leading to poor results.