It was a tough weekend for Andre Heimgartner and the #7 NED Whisky Mustang at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown, after a best placing of 13th in Sunday’s qualifying session before suffering a DNF in the final race.
The Kelly Grove Racing driver was unable to find his groove and come Saturday’s qualifying session, the tactics didn’t deliver the desired results. Opting for only one run in qualifying to save tyres for the race, Heimgartner missed his run and was forced to start in the final grid position for race 12.
Starting from the back of the grid, the Kiwi managed to stay out of the chaos and had an impressive drive, fighting his way through the pack to pick up 11 spots to finish 15th.
“We didn’t have a very good run in qualifying. We opted to stay in and only completed one run to save tyres, but that didn’t really work in our favour,” Heimgartner said.
“Considering we started from the back of the grid, it was great that we were able to have a good race and redeem ourselves to finish 15th.”
Sunday didn’t offer much relief for the #7 Mustang, qualifying 18th and 13th respectively in the back-to-back qualifying sessions. Race 13 saw a clean race from Heimgartner, where he managed to stay out of the pandemonium after starting in 17th to finish one position better by the chequered flag.
The final race of the weekend saw Heimgartner start from a hopeful top fifteen position and while the NED Whisky Mustang looked ready for a hard-fought race, suspension issues forced the #7 Mustang into early retirement.
“It really wasn’t our weekend. Our qualifying let us down and made it difficult to comeback for the races,” said Heimgartner.
“Obviously Sunday’s final race was really disappointing. We were in a position to do half okay, having qualified 13th but that didn’t go to plan when we were forced into the pits and our race was ended.
“A big thanks to the crew for all their hard work, we have a lot to take away from the weekend and it’s now onwards and upwards to Townsville. Let’s hoping we can have a good run there!’
The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship next heads to the NTI Townsville 500, Queensland, July 9-11.
Results
Friday 18th June
Practice 1 – 16th
Practice 2 – 19th
Saturday 19th June
Qualifying (Race 12) – 26th
Race 12 – 15th
Sunday 20th June
Qualifying (Race 13) – 18th
Qualifying (Race 14) – 13th
Race 13 – 17th
Race 14 – DNF
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