A late off-track excursion for Andre Heimgartner in the #3 Plus Fitness Holden Commodore has taken away from what was an otherwise strong weekend for the Kiwi and his co-driver Aaren Russell at the Wilson Security Sandown 500.
After struggling with qualifying and car set-up at recent events, the Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport driver reported he felt the car – which started today’s race from a season’s second-best 16th – had a strong endurance set-up on board.
The progressive grid format certainly played in the pairing’s favour yesterday, seeing Heimgartner qualify 22nd in the first 20 minute session, before Russell took it to 19th during the co-driver’s qualifying race, which Heimgartner was again able to advance in the primary’s driver’s qualifying race with a result of 16th.
Come Sunday’s big race, Russell put in a strong performance across the opening stanzas of the race, running in the front half of the pack and keeping out of trouble despite a number of race incidents for others, including a heavy lap one crash for James Golding which saw the race suspended for quite some time. This suspension would see the race distance shortened from 161 laps to 143.
Heimgartner took over on lap 77 from Russell, re-joining in 20th and working hard through varying weather conditions to run as high as 12th before returning to the pit lane for the entry’s final stop of the race.
With the car steadily improving and Heimgartner feeling well in the groove at this point of what had been a very solid race, hopes were high for a strong run to the finish.
Unfortunately, on returning from the pits on lap 106 to a damp track with cold tyres, Heimgartner would find himself going straight ahead on the first corner to become momentarily stuck in the slippery and muddy grass.
Through sheer determination, he was able to re-join, and pushed on to bring home 19th for the race which was action-packed from start to finish across the field. In the final laps, the 21 year old was lapping a second faster than the three cars in front.
“The two qualifying races went well and I was feeling pretty confident in the car, both cars for our team were reliable this weekend and 16th was a good place to start for us,” said Heimgartner.
“Doing so many kilometres over weekend’s like this is great for us, and I felt like we were on the right track with the car with both reliability and speed – we are certainly heading in the right direction.
“When it came to the race, Aaren did a very good job. He was in the car a lot longer than he should have been and he really held his own against some of the main drivers. He did a great job and had great speed.
“I was feeling pretty good when I took over, the car was feeling pretty speedy and I was looking forward to having a good race.
“Unfortunately I made a mistake coming out of the pits and I got stuck in the mud, and that cost us a good result.
“It is a mistake that I made, and is very disappointing, but we still have a lot to be grateful for. The car was pretty speedy and we were in a good position, and are in a good position to work from here to continue improving, so it isn’t all bad.
“The car wasn’t damaged, we just lost a lot of time trying to get back onto the track, so from there I brought her home. At the end there we were going faster and faster so I was a second of a lap quicker than the three guys in front of me, so if we hadn’t of lost that time who knows what could have happened, it certainly could have been quite a strong run to the finish line.
“Even though it didn’t all go to plan, we made some fair improvements and the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 can’t come soon enough!”
The Wilson Security Sandown 500 was the first of three events for the 2016 Pirtek Enduro Cup, part of the 2016 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. Next up for Heimgartner and co-driver Aaren Russell in the #3 Plus Fitness Holden Commodore is the prestigious Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, to be held at Mount Panorama across October 6-9.
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