DICK Johnson Racing has been through some big changes between Tony D’Alberto’s two Bathurst 1000 podium finishes with the team.
When D’Alberto climbed onto third-place on the dais alongside Fabian Coulthard in 2017, the squad was on a rapid rise under the majority ownership of Team Penske and leadership of Ryan Story.
Fast-forward to 2023, and DJR is majority owned by business mogul Brett Ralph and run by ex-AFL coach David Noble, fighting to return the team to the glory days of just a few years ago.
But amid the shifting sands, D’Alberto’s mind goes straight to one man when asked about the feeling of being back on that third-place step at Bathurst.
“I’ve been with this team now for eight years, I absolutely love the group of people,” reflected D’Alberto, 37, who co-drove with Anton De Pasquale.
“They’re passionate about it. DJ (Dick Johnson) comes to every race, and he still loves it. He’s as passionate as what the drivers are, the engineers and the rest of the team.”
DJR’s first Bathurst podium since 2019 was timely in more ways than one.
This year marked 50 years since Johnson first competed in the Bathurst 1000, and he was keen to point out that he attended the very first Great Race at Mount Panorama as a spectator 10 years before that!
But it was also a great reward for the hard-working crew at DJR, which has been under fire this year as the homologation team of the struggling Gen3 Ford Mustang.
“It’s a great group of people and to repay them with a podium… they’ve worked really hard this year to try and get the car towards the front of the field,” D’Alberto continued.
“It’s no secret that it hasn’t been easy, and we worked extremely hard this weekend to get in this position and to get a trophy is really nice.
“I thought maybe (we could finish in the) top five, but a trophy was going to be a real stretch.”
D’Alberto has now been a co-driver with DJR for eight seasons, making him one of the longest-serving drivers in the team’s history.
Having again performed sublimely on Sunday, it’s highly likely that he’ll once again be with the Shell-backed team in 2024.
