Andre Heimgartner and Devon Modell have put in an inspired drive in the wet to bring home second place in the final race of the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia Championship.
Heimgartner, who grew up in Dannemora, started the race, which commenced under safety car conditions due to the wet.
Tenth on the road when the first racing lap commenced, he dropped down to 12th in the #88 Craft Bamboo Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, when he was held up by another spinning car.
From there, the 22-year-old went to work – passing car after car in exceptionally tricky conditions over the next half an hour to put the #88 in fifth position by the time he handed over to co-driver Modell, with his efforts much-lauded by the series commentary team.
Modell then picked up where Heimgartner had left off, working his way up to 2nd position to see the pair stand on the second step of the podium today.
“That was a really good race, I am pretty stoked to stand on the second step of the Blancpain GT Series Asia podium in my debut with the series, with the team, at this track and in a GT3-spec car,” Heimgartner grinned.
“On the first lap we did get held up with someone spinning which saw us go almost to the back of the field. From there we had to fight back and that is what we did – it was fun passing cars, although by the end of it I was a bit sick of passing, especially in those tricky conditions,” he laughed.
“The car today was a lot better than yesterday and it was great to have something that we could fight with. It is a credit to Craft Bamboo Racing and Devon put in a great drive there as well.
“It is safe to say this weekend has been a fantastic experience and I would love to have the opportunity to race again in this series and with Craft Bamboo Racing in the future,” he says.
“I can’t thank the team enough for calling me up to the drive this weekend and I am really pleased that we have been able to give them a strong result today.”
Heimgartner’s drive with Craft Bamboo Racing this weekend came after their regular steerer Nick Foster was unavailable for the event after it was rescheduled from its original dates.
The Melbourne-based Kiwi brought home ninth in yesterday’s opening 60 lap race with Modell in wet conditions before the pair stood on the podium today.
Heimgartner will now fly back to his home base in Victoria, Australia, before travelling to the Gold Coast later in the week for the final round of the 2017 Carrera Cup Australia Championship.
In that title chase, he is currently second after winning the penultimate round at Mount Panorama last weekend.
