Andre Heimgartner surged from 23rd to 15th on the road in the final stint of this afternoon’s second race of the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint, to conclude a tough weekend at Queensland Raceway on a positive note.
Across the weekend set-up was an issue for the #3 Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Commodore of Heimgartner, seeing him qualify 20th and 22nd respectively, and finish Saturday’s 120km race in 20th position. However, come Sunday’s 200km race it all came together for the 21 year old.
On lap 44 of the 65 lap stanza, the Melbourne-based Kiwi would re-join in 23rd after his second and final pit stop and go on to carve his way through the field to pass six cars (two others pitted late) to finish the race in 15th position.
“On Saturday we were just chasing that sweet spot for the set-up, and come Sunday morning, it seemed it was still eluding us when it came to qualifying,” said Heimgartner, who passed first Dale Wood, then Jason Bright, Will Davison, Tim Blanchard, David Reynolds and James Courtney in the final stint of Sunday’s race.
“When it came to the race on Sunday, it was still feeling a bit off in pace in the first stint, and so I was just hanging back and making sure I didn’t hurt the car in any way.
“When I came in for my first stop we had a lengthier one for a fair bit of fuel, and when I returned to the track I had fresh air in front of me so I was able to push and make up some time.
“At the end of that middle stint, I was right up on my team-mate Nick Percat before he pitted a few laps ahead of me. He had to take on more fuel than I did as I had had my longer fuel stop earlier, so that saw me re-join for the final stint a couple of seconds ahead of him on the track.
“From there, I knew I had better rubber than the majority of the racers out there and I wanted to make the most of it. It was good fun to pass some people, and to show the potential of what we can do.
“It was a good strategy by my engineer Campbell Little, and it meant we could do that at the end. I am really enjoying working with him, and I think there are more good things to come.
“Now, I am looking forward to the one month gap in racing so we can all regroup as a team and also to hopefully having some sponsors coming on board and some other exciting things happening in the future – stay tuned!”
Andre Heimgartner will next be on track for the Red Rooster Sydney SuperSprint, to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park across August 26-28, 2016.
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