Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner has opened up on making his 100th Supercars round start, a milestone he admits he didn’t think he would reach earlier in his career.
The Kiwi will become the 51st Supercars driver to make his 100th round start when on-track action begins at this weekend’s NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, the fourth event on the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship calendar.
“One-hundred rounds is pretty epic,” commented Heimgartner. “I would never have thought that when back in the day I was watching the Supercars rounds at Pukekohe. It’s really cool.
“It’s been a crazy year. It’s beem up and down and I don’t think that we have seen a variety of winners and podium getters. We started off the year very well but then Perth was a massive struggle for us which was a bit of a ‘downer’ and we slipped back in the championship. Overal,l it has been a really positive year.
“Last year we really started to gain some momentum and this year we have a new challenge with the Gen3 cars. We have to go through those lows, like at Perth, where you really learn what you want and don’t want from the car.
“We definitely need to be challenging in that top five. The learning curve is so big we are seeing different teams come on at different times and at different tracks.”
First held in 1969, this weekend’s race event will be Supercars’ 50th visit to Symmons Plains Raceway, and the first time the new-for-2023 Gen3 Supercars will race on the Apple Isle.
Now revered as one of the top talents on the grid, Gold Coast-based Heimgartner endured a challenging initiation to the sport in 2015 and 2016, which saw the then 21-year old out of a drive for the 2017 season and contemplating quitting racing altogether.
A lifeline came at that year’s Bathurst 1000, where Heimgartner substituted for injured co-driver Ash Walsh at Brad Jones Racing and finished 9th in the Great Race with Tim Slade.
Two weeks later, the Kiwi put on a stunning drive in the wet at the Gold Coast 600, finishing third on the treacherous street circuit and showing the Supercars world his high-reaching potential.
Heimgartner was snapped up by Kelly Racing for 2018, where he spent four seasons and picked up his maiden race win in 2021, before returning to Brad Jones Racing full-time from 2022.
Now in his second season at Albury-based BJR, Heimgartner became a father in March, welcoming baby girl, Summer, with fiancé Jemma.
Fatherhood does not appear to be slowing the Kiwi down, though, as he sits sixth in the Supercars standings heading to Tasmania, highlighted by a podium finish at the Australian Grand Prix in April.
The Repco Supercars Championship returns to action this weekend at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, May 19 – 21.
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