Fiore Only 50 Per Cent
West Australian Dean Fiore rates himself only a 50 per cent chance of racing full-time in the V8 Supercars Championship in 2014.
But the 29-year old, who debuted in the Championship in 2009, is far more confident his family-owned Racing Entitlements Contract (REC) will find a home on the grid next year.
Fiore has had a challenging year driving a Dodo Insurance-backed Holden Commodore VF for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.
His REC, meanwhile, has stayed at Dick Johnson Racing where it underpins the #12 Wilson Security Ford Falcon FG II raced by Jonny Reid and Chaz Mostert.
But it is subject to a number of negotiations and is one of a number of RECs that are in circulation for 2014.
Fiore’s driving future in the category essentially boils down to funding. Dodo is his sponsor, but since he did the deal it has been taken over by another company, M2 Communications, and he is unsure of its intentions.
“I have to talk to my major partners because the discussions have been pretty slim of late because of what has been happening in terms of results and things like that,” Fiore told v8supercars.com.au.
“It is understandably quiet but I am doing everything I can to make it all better.”
Fiore rated himself “five out of 10” to be on the grid in 2014, but said he was philosophical about the outcome.
“My preference very much is to stay full-time in the Championship, but unless I can do it full-on properly to compete with these guys at the front then I don’t want to do it at all,” he said. “I’d rather sit out and get a nice endurance gig and work on some other things that I have had planned for a while to try and execute in the business world.”
LDM, which runs on limited funding, has struggled to extract pace from its Triple Eight Race Engineering-built Commodores. Both Fiore and team-mate Scott Pye’s cars have been seriously damaged in incidents this year which have stretched resources severely.
At the ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600 Fiore raced with Ian Walburn as his engineer, the veteran replacing David Cauchi, who resumed a role with weekday employer Triple Eight.
Fiore felt he made progress on-track with Walburn. He and co-driver Matt Halliday finished 16th on Saturday 19th on Sunday despite a broken shock absorber.
“We took a massive step in the right direction at the Gold Coast,” Fiore said. “Ian was part of that but there are some other things going on in the background which is all working well.
“It’s the best I have felt in a long time leaving an event and looking forward to the next event. I know it doesn’t look like it on paper but the overall feeling in the team is a lot better.”
Fiore was clearly at pains to stress his appreciation of the efforts put in by Cauchi, who is a good personal friend: “But the environment just wasn’t quite right,” he said.
Fiore said his REC could stay at DJR or move on. It all depends on the negotiations, as he manages the commercial arrangements for the licence rather than leaving it to the host team.
“I am talking to a few people and they are pretty healthy discussions so I am hoping to have that locked away fairly soon,” he said.
Fiore drove for the family-owned Triple F team in his first three years in V8 Supercars and then transferred to Dick Johnson Racing for 2012. While he moved on as that team faced financial issues early in 2013, his REC stayed put.
So far Fiore's best overall Championship finish has been 19th in 2012.
