Heimgartner 'over the moon' with maiden Bathurst Shootout
Andre Heimgartner "over the moon" with maiden Shootout
BJR driver seventh in chaotic Friday qualifying at Mount Panorama
Heimgartner seals first Shootout berth in 11th Bathurst appearance
On his ninth attempt, an elated Andre Heimgartner was "over the moon" to secure a maiden Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout appearance at the Repco Bathurst 1000.
Heimgartner will be one of two Bathurst 1000 Shootout debutants on Saturday alongside countryman Richie Stanaway, who avoided relegation after an investigation.
The Brad Jones Racing driver benefited from the red-flag interrupted session, clocking the seventh fastest time before a Will Davison crash ended the day.
Heimgartner hauled his R&J Batteries Camaro to a 2:05.9268s, which helped the New Zealander to a maiden Great Race Shootout and 27th overall.
For Heimgartner, it was welcome reward at a track that has been unkind, with the Kiwi on a string of three non-finishes in the 1000. In eight previous qualifying efforts at the Great Race since 2015, he had recorded results of 12th, 25th, 13th, 12th, 14th, 17th, 12th and 13th.
"Awesome result today to get in the 10, big group effort,” Heimgartner said.
"We didn't start today that amazing and we were sort of tracking the wrong way, but at the start of the qualifier, made some good tunes. And yeah, just really happy with the end outcome.
"It's great here to be in the Shootouts. It's one of the the things you want when you come to Bathurst. You want to do well in the race but the Shootout is obviously another thing as well.
"So it give ourselves a good starting position. And yeah, just over the moon really.”
Heimgartner and Fraser loom as a dark horse for Sunday’s race, with BJR chasing not only its first Bathurst pole, but first podium.
BJR’s best Shootout result was John Bowe in the infamous 2003 Shootout headlined by Greg Murphy’s ‘Lap of the Gods’. The team also has six Great Race podiums — but not since 2009.
Fraser hailed Heimgartner and Race Engineer Tony Woodward’s efforts to adapt in the session, with Matt Payne fastest overall amid the drama.
"Qualifying actually took a bit of a turn. We didn't really count for the UV and the track condition changing,” Fraser said.
"So T [Woodward] did an awesome job to get the set-up window back to where we needed it to be by the end of the session. Andre was able to put one mega lap together under pressure to come home in P7.”
Supercars will return to the track on Saturday morning, with co-driver only Practice 5 at 10:05am AEDT. Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are on sale now.
