Andre Heimgartner drove to a top ten finish amidst some serious on-track action as Supercars returned for Round 8 of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
The Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight saw Heimgartner battle hard throughout the event, the first of four weekends in a row at Sydney Motorsport Park where grip and tyre life are more critical than at any other circuit on the Supercars calendar.
“Positive overall – it wasn’t amazing, it wasn’t a disaster but a good solid weekend overall,” said the Kelly Grove Racing driver. “Some good learnings to come from it, which was the main thing, and we should be able to take a couple of steps forwards, which should be good in the comings rounds.”
Races 20, 21 and 22 of the 2021 season saw three 32-lap races around the 3.93-kilometre Grand Prix, with the #7 Ned Racing Mustang coming home fourteenth, ninth and thirteenth respectively as choosing when to manage tyres and when to attack presented a serious challenge to the entire field.
Qualifying for Race 20 saw Andre just outside the Top Ten, with a tight midfield battle seeing the Ned Whisky Mustang line up 12th for Saturday evening’s night race.
With the sun fading for the race start, Heimgartner was in the thick of battle early, and made his first compulsory pit stop relatively early on lap 12 of the 32-lap race. With two fresh tyres in cleaner air, Andre set his fastest time, a 1:31.9368, on lap 15.
By half distance, with 12 of the 24-car field yet to pit, Heimgartner was in 22nd place, but by lap 23 he was back up to 14th, battling with Todd Hazelwood.
The final competitor to pit was Tim Slade, who pitted from 10th position Lap 18 and exited pit lane on the tail of Heimgartner, who was 14th and chasing Todd Hazelwood. On fresher tyres, Slade took 14th from the Andre on Lap 23, who came home 15th as the sun set for the weekend’s comeback night race.
Sunday morning’s back-to-back qualifying sessions saw different approaches, as the warmer conditions differed significantly from the late afternoon qualifying on Saturday and the cool night race, which had both offered better grip and tyre performance.
The majority of the field was on track early in the session as the drivers and teams learnt how to tackle the changing conditions. Andre rolled out with a 1:29.2779 lap, which he set early on and saw him park the #7 Ned Racing Mustang in seventh place for the start of Race 21.
“Nice to string it together” said Heimgartner in between two qualifying sessions. “We have extra tyres obviously from yesterday, so we were able to take advantage of that. Good to be back. There have been a few rounds where we’ve been struggling, so good to have some consistency and a good car.”
“It’s really hard. At the moment it’s quite balanced being unbalanced. I’ve got understeer, I’ve got oversteer – it’s just trying to pick the parts where you’re losing the most time.”
The third and final session saw half of the field stay in pit lane for the majority of the session, including Heimgartner. Impressively, saving tyres for the race, Andre drove only a single hot lap to be 14th on the grid for Race 22 with a good war chest of tyres remaining for both races.
Race 21 saw Andre rocket off his starting grid to be in an arm wrestle with pole sitter Anton DePasquale, who’d slid back after a poor start. Pitting from fifth place on lap 18, the Ned Racing Mustang rejoined in 15th position and began a charge on fresh rubber to be 12th one lap later.
With all pit stops complete, Heimgartner had pushed back into the top ten, passing Will Brown on lap 24 to come home in ninth place, before a post-race disqualification of Anton DePasquale elevated the #7 Ned Racing Mustang into eighth.
Race 22 saw Heimgartner start 14th and drive superbly to maintain the result as the field struggled with limited tyres. An intense opening set of laps saw Heimgarter rise to 11th place at the end of the first lap, driving around the outside of a stoush unscathed at the hairpin that saw Todd Hazelwood pit with damage.
“It was cool – a lot of action going on, a lot of biff and barging everywhere, so it was pretty cool to be involved,” said Heimgartner. “I just love racing, and especially when you come out on the right side, it’s even more enjoyable.” The #7 Ned Racing Mustang crossed the line three-wide into the third lap, as the tussles continued, Heimgartner seventh on the road when he made his compulsory pit stop on Lap 12.
Back in 16th, Heimgartner pushed hard, overtaking Kelly Grove Racing team mate Reynolds for twelfth place along the way on Lap 15. With all compulsory pit stops completed, Andre had made his way to an excellent tenth place, before fresher tyred rivals including Cam Waters and Jack Le Brocq saw Andre finish one-spot better than his starting position in thirteenth.
The #7 Ned Racing Mustang will race this coming weekend, November 6-7, for Round 9 of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship, The Armor All Sydney SuperNight, at Sydney Motorsport Park.
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