Revealed: The last lap moment that killed Heimgartner's Finals hopes

With four corners remaining in the 2025 Repco Bathurst 1000, Andre Heimgartner was in The Finals.

Just four corners, after nearly seven hours of racing.

As attention focused on Matt Payne taking the chequered flag, Broc Feeney hounded Heimgartner for sixth on the 161st and final tour.

In onboard video from Feeney’s car published by Supercars.com, the championship leader ranged up behind the #8 R&J Batteries Camaro on the run to The Chase.

The two Camaros ran line astern through the fast right-hand kink, and Feeney had the position sealed before they turned left. However, Heimgartner ran off and sailed through the wet grass, his Finals hopes dashed in an instant.

Crucially, two laps earlier, Heimgartner held fifth ahead of Feeney, who hit Heimgartner at The Chase. Cameron Hill got by both, and Feeney redressed.

The Finals drama unfolded all race, yet reached a dramatic crescendo in the final six laps. Heimgartner, Hill and Kai Allen were the three drivers vying for the 10th and final spot.

At the end of lap 156, when James Golding sent Cooper Murray into a race-deciding half-spin at Griffins Bend, Heimgartner led Allen by 43 points, and Hill by 66.

When Hill got by Heimgartner and Feeney on lap 159, Heimgartner only led Allen by 13 points, and Hill by 16. Remarkably, Hill briefly looked like the one in the box seat, before Allen fought past Aaron Cameron on the penultimate lap.

Fifth offered 215 points to 198 for sixth, and 182 for second. The final lap swing saw Allen sneak in, with Hill and Heimgartner just three — yes, three — points short.

All told, it was a heartbreaking way for Heimgartner to miss out on a Finals berth, having sat in the top 10 for the balance of the season before dropping out at The Bend.

"I guess what could have been. Up to third at one point, just didn't do tyres in the stop. So it might be advantage, but ended up costing us in the end,” Heimgartner said.

"Pretty devastated, but cool to be in the mix and I've had the chance, but pretty pissed off when you couldn't execute it.”

Allen was the beneficiary, on a day his teammate won the race, and he was hit three times by Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown and Jack Le Brocq, all of whom were penalised.

"Unbelievable, if you said to me I'd be in the 10 at the start of the year, I'd tell you you're dreaming,” the 20-year-old said.

"We just kept chipping away, got all the basics right, and to get into the 10 is unreal.

"We just press on with the rest of the year now, we've got nothing to lose, so it's full steam ahead and we'll see what we can do in The Finals.

"A lot of people crashed in front of me, and I just kept chipping away, I had to pass I think it was one of the cars on the last lap. Two laps to go I passed him, and then I lost a spot because I made a mistake, and then I passed him back.

"Moral of the story is we didn't stop fighting, and we got the result that we needed."

Lap 157-161: The battle for the last 2025 Supercars Finals spot