Tony D’Alberto says that his closer ties to the Walkinshaw Racing family this year was a part of his career-high weekend at the Clipsal 500.

The single-car privateer entry has run his own V8 Supercars team since 2005 in the Fujitsu V8 Series, and has always competed in WR products.

Six years on, that relationship is beginning to bear fruit.

D’Alberto is now heavily involved with official WR drivers Garth Tander, Will Davison, Fabian Coulthard, Andrew Thompson and Nick Percat off the track, and this year, D’Alberto also has the engineering assistance of WR employee Jason Bush.

The Victorian says that all those small steps have contributed to his Clipsal 500 result, where he qualified in the top 10 for both races and finished seventh in Sunday’s race.

“My engineer Bushy (Jason Bush) is employed by Walkinshaw Racing, and we’ve got a closer link with them this year,” D’Alberto said.

“I’ve spent a lot of time a lot of time with Garth and the boys and hopefully feeding off them has improved my time and performance.”

Despite the great result, D’Alberto is a little miffed why things came together so well in Adelaide.

“It’s been a bit of turn around, and I’m not sure why too be honest,” he said.

“We’re a long way off the pace at Bahrain, but I think this circuit really suits our car and I’ve been pushing hard. We’re getting more out of the car this year than what we have.

“I’m just absolutely rapted to have a trouble-free race and be able to race with all of the good guys and make a few passes, rather than being passed by everybody else.”