The BP Supercars All Starts Eseries completed its third round of virtual racing at Bathurst on Wednesday 22nd April and NED Whiskey’s racer and Dannemora native Andre Heimgartner put on quite a show.
Known as a nail-biting track in real life, the mountain still lived up to its expectations and did not disappoint, albeit virtually.
The night included a qualifying session, followed by a Top Ten Shootout and three races. The NED Whiskey driver got off to a flying start and qualified 9th which saw him a place in the shootout, where he was able to pull a quicker lap-time and placed 6th. Race 1 proved a lot of carnage and although Heimgartner managed to get a great start he was taken out early on at the bottom of the mountain and lost his rear wing and was forced to make his compulsory pitstop early. Further drama unfolded later in the race forcing him back to P23.
Heimgartner was able to reset ahead of race 2, where the reverse grid race gave him an opportunity to make his way through the field and he managed to come away with 9th. Andre’s night continued to improve and with clean racing and clean moves; he was able to cross the line in 5th for the final race of the night.
The BP Supercars All-Stars Eseries goes international for round 4, Wednesday 29th April this time heading to Montreal Canada and Watkins Glen USA. Fans can watch from 6 pm AEST on Fox Sports 506 as well as Kayo, with live streaming available on the Kelly Racing, NED Whiskey, and Supercars’ Facebook pages from 7 pm AEST.
André Heimgartner reflects;
“Overall we had a pretty good night and Bathurst definitely put on a good show! We were able to make the top-10 shootout in qualifying which was cool and started sixth for the first race but there was a lot of carnage, we got clipped by Will Power on lap one, then I got taken out a second time after the pit stop, then I think I took myself out at one point as well so that definitely didn’t go to plan.
“The reverse grid race was a little better we were able to get a top-10 and have a pretty clean race. It’s interesting how much a little bit of damage affects the car performance, we got a bit of a graze on one side of the car on lap one and that really hurt us down the straights so it was a big challenge holding off Will and Garry behind me and quite fun.
“The last race was really enjoyable, I think we finally got the good result we deserved and there was some good clean racing and battles. Racing at Bathurst was awesome and looking forward to racing there again later in the Eseries season.”
Round 3 results:
Qualifying – 9th
Top Ten Shootout – 6th
Race 1 – 23rd
Race 2 – 9th
Race 3 – 5th
