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Heimgartner measured despite fast start

10 Apr
BJR driver fourth in the championship after AGP
3 mins by James Pavey
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Andre Heimgartner is remaining measured about his 2023 prospects despite an impressive start to his second season with Brad Jones Racing.

Heimgartner ended the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint with a smart drive to second behind winner Broc Feeney.

It marked Heimgartner’s 10th career podium and first of the season, and first since Pukekohe last September.

Critically, after two rounds, Heimgartner is fourth in the championship and within striking distance of the lead — a far cry to this time last year.

After two rounds in 2022, Heimgartner was already 306 points from the series lead.

After two rounds in 2023, the Kiwi is just 128 points behind, and already has a podium to his name.

BJR had been tipped to make a splash in 2023 with the new Gen3 cars, with Heimgartner the team’s spearhead.

After two rounds, three of the team’s drivers — Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones — have already recorded top 10 finishes.

The series now switches to Perth, where Heimgartner recorded his first podium for BJR last May.

Speaking after the Albert Park finale, Heimgartner said lessons learned in Melbourne could help in Perth — but there’s still an element of 'wait and see’.

“We’re still finding our feet,” he said.

“We’ve got a little while until we’re consistently up the front. We unlocked a few good things here.

“We came out of [Newcastle] not quite as fast as we wanted, so there were some things we needed to learn, which I think we did.

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“You juts don’t know with these new cars — whatever track you go to, it’s always slightly different.

“Two contrasting tracks, Perth’s a bit more in the middle, probably more this style of track [Albert Park].

“As we go, the different surfaces, different temperatures, it’s going to vary quite a lot.

“It’ll be who can adapt the fastest.”

After two rounds, Heimgartner is 11 positions and 130 points better off than 2022. Only Jack Le Brocq — 15 positions and 196 points — has made a better year-on-year improvement.

Heimgartner cited rivals’ struggles as to why there’s hope BJR can make an even bigger impact in 2023 — notably, Anton De Pasquale is 16 positions and 256 points worse off.

However, the new father reiterated that given the continued learning processes with the new cars, the narrative can shift just as quickly.

“I feel like if we continued on with the cars last year, we would’ve been fairly strong,” he said.

“We’re learning as we’re going. I think for us, it was much of muchness changing to a new car.

“It seems to mix it up. We saw quite a lot of the others struggle.

“Yes, it does give you hope, but at the same time, you can easily be on the back foot and struggling as well.

“You have to see how it goes. You can’t be expecting or hoping it’s going to work in your favour."

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint on April 28-30.

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