David Stone, the Australian boss of Alfa Romeo, is calling on the local car industry to get behind diesel car racing, to show it is possible to have exciting motorsport and use less fuel, while changing the public image of diesel cars to match their the reality of low emissions and low fuel consumption now provided by the modern generation of diesel cars.

“Motorsport is the ideal way to change the Australian perception of diesel cars as being slow and dirty,” says Mr Stone. “Today’s modern diesels are, with the huge amounts of torque, more than capable of providing convincing, fast, exciting motorsport, while using less fuel and producing few emissions than conventional petrol-powered racing cars. This will prove to car buyers that they are a real alternative to petrol cars in every way and help get more low emission cars on the road.”

David Stone has already put his money where he is mouth is by not only entering an Alfa Romeo 159 JTD in the recent WPS Bathurst 12 hour race, but also by getting behind the wheel along with Kean Booker and Rocco Rinaldo to guide the car home to a class win after 1351 km and 218 laps of the legendary race track in the Supercharge Batteries/Thomson Alfa backed 159 JTD. “That one drive changed so many people’s perceptions of what a diesel car can do,” says Mr Stone.
 

“Over the weekend we had a continuous stream of people coming up to us expressing surprise it was diesel and wanting to know more about how they could race similar cars. With so many car makers now offering advanced high performance diesel cars in cars that would make ideal racing cars, its time more car makers used motorsport to dispel the common belief that the only way to performance is a big V8!”

Following the success of the Alfa Romeo 159 JTD in the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour Alfa Romeo and Fiat in Australia are willing to talk to racing teams that would like to take up the diesel challenge. “Clearly we cannot finance anyone who wishes to go racing,” says Mr Stone. “But we will help put packages together for approved teams and help with sourcing development parts and data from Europe, where diesel cars form a part of racing and rallying at most levels. I firmly believe that our success with the 159 JTD at Bathurst is just the beginning, not just for us, but also for diesel cars as a whole playing a significant role in Australian motorsport.”