Andre Heimgartner is on the attack this weekend with a brand-new 5.0-litre V8 engine after a show of speed last round where he pushed into the Top Ten of a shortened Supercars race at Sydney Motorsport Park. This weekend’s BP Ultimate SuperSprint, Round 10 of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship, sees the #7 Ned Racing Mustang come off the back of its best results of the four-round ‘Sydney swing’ yet.
The Sydney circuit was the scene of Andre’s first Supercars career pole position, achieved in 2020, and while he finished as high as second at the track, this year the #7 Ned Racing Mustang has netted three Top Ten finishes and a best qualifying result of fifth.
This weekend, the Kelly Grove Racing Mustang – which was a brand-new chassis for the first Sydney round three weeks ago – benefits from a fresh engine that includes some performance tweaks to bring more speed to the flying Ford.
“Anything you can do helps” Andre said. “It’s not going to be the be-all and end-all, but it’s a good start. Having an engine that’s slightly better is just free [lap] time basically, so I think it will help push us in the right direction.”
While the two rounds at Sydney Motorsport Park so far have included races under lights, this weekend will see three 32-lap bouts in daylight, with a late afternoon Saturday race and a pair on Sunday.
All three – Races 26, 27 and 28 of the championship – will use the 3.93-kilometre 11-corner Grand Prix layout around the Sydney venue as per the previous two rounds.
A mandatory pit stop is required in all three races, with at least two tyres changed during the stop. Teams will be restricted to the soft tyre compound only, with five sets to get them through qualifying and all three races.
“It almost makes it simpler cause you don’t have hard and soft tyres, and that sort of makes it simple,” Andre says. “You’re definitely going to have to take the pain in certain races, but I think it’s very similar to the first round we did, so back to that format so more consistency. I think it will be good for us.”
There’s no change in the qualifying format for this weekend, with Saturday’s Race 26 grid determined by knockout qualifying with Sunday featuring a pair of 10-minute back-to-back all-in sessions to determine the starting order for Races 27 and 28.
“We found a couple of things last weekend again, so you know, we’ve got a good direction to go in this weekend and I’m looking forward to some more strong results. “We made some big steps last weekend, obviously two Top Ten results and should’ve been better on the Saturday too, so it’s all positive. We’ve got a new engine in the car – it has some new parts on it, so it should be even better.”
Part of the 2021 BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint is a family theme for the weekend, with Supercars providing more affordable tickets for families. A family pass (two adults, two children aged 15 and under) is available for a discounted $98. In addition, all spectators – with up to 10,000 permitted into the venue – will have free access to the main grandstand seating. Click here to purchase tickets.
The #7 Ned Racing Mustang will roll out for its first session of the weekend with Practice at 10:50am AEDT Saturday and qualifying at 2:10pm. Live coverage is via Foxtel with live streaming on Kayo.
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