The problem Heimgartner needs to fix in Finals hunt

When it comes to chasing a Finals spot, Andre Heimgartner knows he is far from safe, despite piecing together one of the more impressive campaigns of 2025.

Remarkably, the Brad Jones Racing driver sits eighth in the championship despite being ranked 18th on average in qualifying.

The Kiwi's charge to a provisional Finals berth has been centred on making the most of his chances in the big points races. Heimgartner is ranked seventh in 200km races, and 14th in sprints.

“When I sit back and think about it, it's been rather frustrating, the last six months been quite tough,” Heimgartner told Supercars.com.

“But we’re P8 in the championship, which is pretty solid. We've been able to manage damage limitation quite a lot, which is good.

“We're able to sort of maximise our Sunday results, which have been the big points races. There’s been some big positives, crew's working well together, pit stops are fast. Our race car seems pretty speedy.”

In The Finals, there'll be nowhere to hide. Qualify poorly, and you're immediately under pressure to extract results, and score enough points to progress to the next round.

If anyone knows how to turn qualifying disaster into gold, it's Heimgartner. On Sunday morning on the Gold Coast last year, he buried his Camaro in the Turn 12 tyre barriers in qualifying and ended up 17th. By day’s end, he had pulled off a superb recovery to sixth. On that occasion, it was a result good enough to move back into the top 10 in the championship.

While going without a podium through 25 races seems a "little bit uninspiring," the New Zealander is adamant his #8 crew is on the right track.

“Our big sort of issue at the moment is that, particularly my car, is no qualifying speed,” Heimgartner said.

"I feel like we made a bit of headway on the test day, but you never know until we actually go racing again.

“It's been one of those years where the lack of podiums and stuff like that have been a little bit uninspiring. But, we're still chipping away and still aiming to get to the front and try and be in The Finals and get amongst it.

“When it comes to The Finals, you can't afford to really qualify badly. It’s a new landscape, and everyone's trying to figure it out.”

The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend from September 12-14, before the Repco Bathurst 1000 from October 9-12. Tickets for all 2025 events can be found here.