News

30 April 2020 | Featured

Tony D’Alberto leaves commentary duties behind for ARG eSport Cup entry

TCR Australia Honda driver Tony D’Alberto will take on a new role for Round 5 of the carsales ARG eSport Cup tonight.

The factory-supported Honda TCR driver has played the role of expert commentator for the first four rounds, but after a recent simulator upgrade and a desire to get behind the wheel again, D’Alberto will compete in tonight’s fifth round of the series at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona.

A former Supercars Super2 Series winner and runner-up in the inaugural TCR Australia Series,  tonight’s event will mark D’Alberto’s first-ever race in a simulator.

D’Alberto’s place on the grid will increase the size of the field to 44 cars, including the 38 regular drivers from the Australian Racing Group’s stable of categories, three wildcard entries that won their way through a qualifying race last night, and ‘Star’ driver Oscar Piastri who is contesting a one-off round.

The three drivers to win their way through to tonight’s race are former Toyota 86 driver Luke King, Garry Rogers Motorsport representative Luca Giacomin and New Zealander Tom Alexander, competing for TCR NZ team Track Tec Racing.

With D’Alberto in the race, he will be replaced in the commentary box by regular Shannons Motorsport Australia Championship pit lane commentator Cameron van den Dungen.

The carsales ARG eSport Cup competitors will drive the Formula 3 cars for the second round in a row tonight, tipping the hat to ARG’s mighty VHT Australian S5000 Championship that will contest its inaugural championship this year.

V8 Touring Car driver Harley Haber leads the series from British Touring Car champion Ash Sutton and Trans Am ace Nathan Herne.

Round 5 can be seen live and free on the TCR Australia Facebook and YouTube channels, as well as supporting outlets. The broadcast starts at at 8pm AEST.

QUOTES

Tony D’Alberto
Honda TCR Australia driver

“I’ve enjoyed my time in the commentary box, but I haven’t been in a car race since November last year, so I need my racing fix!” said D’Alberto.

“There’s a lot of first for me tonight – my first sim race, first F3 race, but I very much doubt there will be any first place finishes!

“You can see how much the drivers have been improving over the past month. There were lots of incidents in the first few rounds, and there still are some crashes, but it’s clear that the field is lifting its game – in terms of speed and online race craft.

“None of that is great news for me! I’m a few weeks behind them, so I’ll try and be as clean and smooth as possible and drag my F3 rig as far as I can up the field.

“While we’d all prefer to be racing for real, the online racing that we’ve seen has been brilliant and I can’t wait to get onto the grid tonight.”

LIVE FEED FROM 8pm AEST

ROUND 5 ENTRY LIST

Car #

Category

SPONSOR

DRIVER

STATE

1

TCR AU

HMO Customer Racing Will Brown

QLD

2

TCR AU

Melbourne Performance Centre Chelsea Angelo

VIC

4

TCR AU

Carsales Mike Sinclair

VIC

5

Trans Am

Retractable Tarps George Miedecke

QLD

6

TCR AU

Garry Rogers Motorsport Jordan Cox

VIC

7

Wildcard

Team Valvoline GRM Luca Giacomin

VIC

8

Trans Am

Harris Racing Pty Ltd Aaron Seton

QLD

9

TCR AU

Ashley Seward Motorsport / AWC Jay Hanson

VIC

11

TCR AU

HMO Customer Racing Nathan Morcom

NSW

12

Trans Am

RTC Motorsport Peter Herd

NSW

15

TCR AU

Wurth Michael Clemente

VIC

17

TCM

Team Johnson Steve Johnson

QLD

18

TCR AU

Team Valvoline GRM Aaron Cameron

VIC

21

V8TC

United eSports Harley Haber

NSW

23

S5000

UCS Group Tim Macrow

VIC

24

TCR AU

Wall Racing John Martin

NSW

26

Wildcard

Track Tec Racing Tom Alexander

NZ

27

S5000

Milldun Motorsport Barton Mawer

NSW

29

Trans Am

Gulf Western Oils Nathan Herne

QLD

31

S5000

Team Valvoline GRM James Golding

VIC

33

TCR AU

Renault Sport GRM Dylan O’Keeffe

VIC

35

V8TC

Unit Jason Gomersall

QLD

38

TCR AU

Wall Racing Tim Mcreynolds

NSW

39

ARG

Michelin Ben McMellan

VIC

47

TCR NZ

Track Tec Racing Jaden Ransley

NZ

48

Trans Am

Melbourne Performance Centre Nic Carroll

VIC

49

S5000

ACT Fence Hire Thomas Randle

VIC

50

TCR AU

Wall Racing Tony D’Alberto

VIC

55

TCR AU

Signature Homes Rhys Gould

NZ

64

TCR AU

Garage1 / Morris Finance Tim Brook

NSW

67

TCM

Bilstien/JMG Racing Jeremy Gray

NSW

68

V8TC

Turbo Brisbane Jonathan Beikoff

QLD

75

TCR AU

Melbourne Performance Centre Garth Tander

VIC

77

TCR NZ

Track Tec Racing Stan Van Oord

NED

81

S5000

HP Tuners Oscar Piastri

VIC

89

S5000

SignageOne Braydan Willmington

NSW

92

S5000

Motum Simulation Ricky Capo

VIC

99

Trans Am

TPS Group Brett Holdsworth

VIC

116

TCR AU

Panta Racing Fuel Ash Sutton

ENG

117

TCR AU

Burson Auto Parts Racing Ben Bargwanna

VIC

133

TCM

Juice Plus + Cameron Mason

NSW

148

TCR NZ

Track Tec Racing Andrew Waite

NZ

222

Wildcard

PERTAMINA/Fast Track Comms Luke King

NSW

777

TCR

Declan Fraser Racing Declan Fraser

QLD