New engine sees Heimgartner hopeful after tough Tasmania

Round two of the V8 Supercar Championship has been a tough weekend at the office for Kiwi racer Andre Heimgartner, but he isn’t giving up hope.

The 20 year old racer has been plagued by engine issues during the opening events and this continued on Friday, but come that evening a new engine was installed overnight in the garages of Symmons Plains Raceway (Tasmania).

Unfortunately, some niggling car issues and race dramas disguised the small steps forward, said Heimgartner. The Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport racer would go on to qualify 26th for a race finish of 25th on Saturday, before a DNF on Sunday when he and a number of the field succumbed to dropped oil on the road from another entrant.

While the pilot of the #3 ABRO/Repair Management Australia Holden did all he could to ensure he could continue the race, lady luck had other things in mind – he had run as high as 20th prior to the incident, having started 24th on the grid.

“We found some small improvements with the new engine, but you have to be able to get a good run in the race to really know how it is going and we just couldn’t get that this weekend,” said Heimgartner.

“We had some other niggling car issues over the weekend as well which didn’t help, and then today we unfortunately lost a lap in the pits.

“Then I was put out of the race in the final six minutes, running off the track at the hairpin with a heap of other racers due to dropped oil.

“I actually managed to pull it up before the gravel trap and hoped I could get going again, but then Jamie Whincup came in on the oil as well and hit me into the trap, from there I was stuck.

“It wasn’t a fantastic weekend, but there were improvements despite all that was happening and with more time now for the team to really go through the car and fine-tune everything with the new engine aboard, I am hopeful that there are better results ahead at Phillip Island.”

Heimgartner’s attention now turns to WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint at Phillip Island across April 15-17. For more information, please visit andreheimgartner.com