After a busy preparation period, Andre Heimgartner is ready to pull on the helmet for what is arguably the biggest Australian motorsport event of the year – the Bathurst 1000.
Heimgartner will compete in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia races during the marquee event at Mount Panorama across this Thursday to Sunday.
“Bathurst is a special, challenging and daunting place no matter what you are racing around it, and I can’t wait to get into it this week,” Heimgartner said.
“The last time I raced a Porsche around Mount Panorama was back in 2012 when I was 17! I have done a lot of racing since then both here and overseas, and with plenty of miles in the new-style Carrera Cup cars under my belt from this year adding to that experience I am confident it is going to be a great weekend at the track.
“Everyone at Sonic Motor Racing Services have been pulling out all the stops in preparation, and I have been working exceptionally hard on my fitness – I am the fittest I have ever been currently, so hopefully that will help when it comes to facing off against the Mountain this week.”
With just two rounds remaining for the 2017 season, Carrera Cup will hold a 16-lap race on Friday afternoon as the second instalment of the three-race Endurance Cup.
“It might not be 1000km, but at more than 99 kilometres Friday’s race will be the longest in Carrera Cup Australia history,” said Heimgartner, who is just 68 points adrift of the championship lead.
“I am always in favour of more racing, so I love the Endurance Cup format that Carrera Cup Australia have introduced – here is hoping I can make the extra laps work for me and use them to the max to ring in that championship lead further ahead of the Gold Coast finale later this month.”
Carrera Cup Australia Practice will be held at 3.55pm on Thursday, before qualifying and race one (16 laps) kick off on Friday at 10.00am and 2.05pm respectively. Saturday and Sunday will then host one nine-lap race each. Saturday’s race will start at 4.30pm before race three on Sunday gets underway at 9.30am.
Comments