The Darwin round of the V8 Supercars is known as one of the hottest events on the calendar and this year will be no exception for Tony D’Alberto as he heads north for the first time this weekend.
With temperatures in the 30’s, twice that of Tony’s hometown of Melbourne, and extreme humidity Tony has engaged a specific training routine to prepare himself for the conditions presented at Round 6 of the championship.
“We have really stepped up the heat training in the past few weeks,” Tony said.
Part of that preparation was participating in the public event at Melbourne’s new 53km toll-road, Eastlink, before it was open to traffic.
“They put on a ride / walk day and I thought it would be a good chance to change the scenery a bit and give the pushbike a blast up a brand new road just for something different.”
“It is so important to keep the training up, especially when we have races in really humid places,” Tony said.
With in-car temperatures as high as 60 degrees, each session saps a little more energy from the driver.
“Race 3 is where we are really going to feel it.
“If you are not fit Race 3 is where you will suffer concentration and fatigue issues and that can ruin the whole weekend.”
Tony arrived in Darwin on Wednesday just to acclimatise to the conditions and get a look at the track in his first visit to the top end.
“From what I can see the track looks pretty good but it will be one where qualifying will make a big difference to how the weekend goes.”
Coming off the back of his best qualifying of the year at Sandown Tony is hoping to repeat that effort, even go a little better.
“Each race meeting is different and there are a lot of new track this year but I would hope we can build on each event and get that little bit better every time out.”
Practice is on Friday with qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday followed by Race 2 and 3 on Sunday.
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