Heimgartner claims race win in National Sports Sedans Series
Kelly Grove Racing’s Andre Heimgartner has added another race win to his expanding resume, accepting a last-minute call to race in the National Sport Sedan Series.
The recent Supercars race winner received the late offer to drive the Duggan Family Motorsport Aston Martin DRS9 at Wakefield Park this weekend, with regular driver Mark Duggan unable to compete due to illness.
WATCH: HEIMGARTNER'S EMOTIONAL FIRST WIN FROM INSIDE THE KGR GARAGE
Quickly adapting to the Aston Martin, Heimgartner qualified second for the first race of the weekend netting a 56.4-second lap, just 0.3 seconds behind Supercars wildcard Thomas Randle in his family-owned SAAB 9-3.
“It’s a nice change of scenery, the Aston Martin is a cool bit of kit,” Heimgartner told Supercars.com.
“Obviously quite different from a Supercar but really cool to drive something different and also at Wakefield Park, it’s a nice circuit, really technical and tricky.
“We have now ironed out a few little issues, but the car is well refined. We had a few brake things and a few things we needed to tune-up, but overall, it’s really enjoyable to drive.”
Claiming mixed results across the weekend, Race 1 saw the New Zealand-born driver putting pressure on Randle around the regional circuit before a last-lap spin netted him eleventh.
Returning for Sunday, heavy fog delayed the start of Race 2, before Heimgartner climbed through the field on the opening laps ahead of an early safety car.
An awkward restart resulted in a drive-through penalty for the 25-year-old, but he recovered to finish tenth while Randle was forced to retire with a gearbox failure.
Randle was unable to return for the final race with Heimgartner seizing the opportunity to charge from tenth to win the 12-lap sprint.
Returning to Victoria ahead of the Winton SuperSprint next weekend, the Melbourne-based driver acknowledged the benefits of diversifying his skill set once he steps back into the #7 Ned Whisky Racing Mustang.
Heimgartner claimed his maiden Supercars victory at the OTR SuperSprint
“Being able to drive lots of different things is really good,” he said.
“This week I’ve done two test days, one in a Supercar and one in an Audi GT3, I’ve been in a car more days than I haven’t so it’s been really good it give you seat time.
“We’ve seen people like Shane and Chaz driving all the time and you really need to do that to be able to operate week in and week out at that high level.”
Heimgartner will join the Repco Supercars championship field for the Winton SuperSprint from May 29-30. Tickets are available here.
The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo with highlights on 7 and 7 Plus. Check out the weekend schedule here.
