Andre Heimgartner has posted another Top Ten finish in Sydney after a challenging weekend. Round 10 of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship was the third round in the three weeks at Sydney Motorsport Park, with Andre buoyed by a new engine and show of speed to post his third-consecutive Top Ten race result.
“To back up last week with another Top Ten was positive, but the rest of the weekend obviously wasn’t what we wanted,” Andre explained. “We were on the back foot early and the issues with setup left us chasing our tail in both of Sunday’s races.”
The weekend saw three 32-lap daytime races, with only five sets of soft Dunlop tyres to cover both all three races and their accompanying qualifying sessions. Qualifying itself saw knockout format on Saturday for Race 26, with two back-to-back 10-minute sessions for Races 27 and 28 on Sunday.
SATURDAY
Qualifying and Race 26
Knockout qualifying saw Andre easily make the Top 20 first cut, yet the pace of the Kelly Grove Racing Mustang wasn’t quite there to make the Top 10, Andre posting 14th fastest time for Saturday afternoon’s Race 26.
From his 14th grid position, Andre quick on his feet to take full advantage and maximise his race result. Conditions were much cooler than qualifying with significant cloud cover and winds from the north-west.
Heimgartner pushed to take 13th spot at the end of Lap 1 and set what would be his fastest race lap on Lap 2, before being one of three cars to pit on Lap 6 – the earliest possible – in an attempt to undercut the field.
Taking two tyres on the right-hand ‘working’ side, the #7 Kelly Racing Mustang rejoined in 23rd position ahead of Tim Slade and behind Cam Waters, who’d both pitted at the same time as Heimgartner.
Slade passed Heimgartner on Lap 9, and as the field completed their compulsory pit stops, Andre was still 21st when Cam Waters was pushed into the fence at the hairpin. The crash bought out the Safety Car, with Heimgartner taking full advantage to stop under Safety Car conditions for four new soft Dunlops.
From there, Andre charged: with the green flag waved as the field started Lap 22, Heimgartner was already 17th, battling with Slade to take 16th before passing Fabian Coulthard on Lap 26 for 15th. Slade retook Heimgartner, as the pair swapped places repeatedly and made short work of their rivals. Andre passed Todd Hazelwood on Lap 29, posting a personal-best first sector on Lap 30 while overtaking Chaz Mostert to storm into the Top Ten, finishing just 0.5sec off sparring partner Slade for a brilliant turnaround. It was his third consecutive Top Ten at Sydney Motorsport Park.
SUNDAY
Qualifying and Races 27 and 28
Andre headed out early on a roaded tyre for the first of two Sunday qualifying sessions before setting a 1:30.2669 for tenth, which panned out to 16th once the field had completed the session.
Race 27 itself was a scramble for the #7 Ned Racing Mustang, with the crew making setup changes that meant Andre made the starting grid with only seconds to spare. Kelly Racing’s Todd Kelly commented that the race would be tight on fuel for Andre, putting a question mark over whether the Kelly Grove Mustang could make the 32-laps – yet alone with pace!
Heimgartner’s opening lap saw him jump three positions to 13th, before passing Jack LeBrocq for 12th on Lap 2 where Andre stabilised his pace.
LeBrocq would be the first of the 24-car field to make their compulsory pit stop, entering pit lane on Lap 6 to give Andre clear air until he came in for his stop on Lap 8 from 11th place.
Rejoining in 22nd place, Andre patiently managed his tyres and fuel load before the final competitor – championship leader Shane van Gisbergen – pitted on Lap 19. Heimgartner was now 12th on track, facing fresher-tyred rivals and the question mark of fuel remaining.
Damage limitation saw Heimgartner impressively salvage 17th place after the team’s gallant effort to get the #7 Ned Racing Mustang on track in time. A 15-second penalty for Todd Hazelwood pushed Andre up to 16th, his starting position, in the final official Race 27 results.
Qualifying for Race 28 didn’t go to plan, with a 1:30.2699 for 10th early on in the session not being improved upon and putting Andre in P22 for the start of the final race of the weekend.
“We changed the car a lot between each race just to try and find something, and the guys did an incredible job to get it ready.
“We found some good stuff at the start of Sunday’s first race [Race 27], but unfortunately some of the cambers and stuff weren’t where they should’ve been during the rush. We’d used up our tyre allocation too quickly in doing so, which left us off the pace for rest of the weekend.”
Race 28 saw that bad run continue, despite Andre charging from his 22nd starting position to be 20th at the end Lap 1. An incident on Lap 7 saw Andre slide back to P24, with the threat of rain giving an advantage to those cars who hadn’t already made their compulsory pit stop.
Andre chose to stay out, climbing to P2 on track as the second-last car to pit when he came in on Lap 20. With only two tyres left from his five-set allocation for the event and in fuel conservation mode, Andre came back on track in 23rd and would come home in a disappointing 24th.
The final round of the 2021 Beaurepaires Sydney Cup takes place this weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, with the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight on Nov 19-21. Live coverage is via Foxtel with live streaming on Kayo, with tickets available via https://www.supercars.com.
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