ANDRE HEIMGARTNER REPORT NZ SUPERTOURERS Endurance RD3 Pukekohe 29-30 Nov 2014

I arrived on Wednesday 27th into Auckland after the two and a half hour flight from the sunny Gold Coast. I’m always surprised when I walk out the airport just how cold it is here! You get so used to 30 degree days and balmy evenings.

Unfortunately Paul Morris wasn’t able to come over to race with us this weekend so Aaren Russell has stepped into the co driver duties. Aaren has raced the DVS (Dunlop Development Series) in Australia for the last 4 years. His dad raced the main game in the early 1990’s.

I spent a couple of days sorting out my Superblack driver’s contract and meeting with the new PR manager. All very professional and I soon learnt that at this level no stone is left unturned. Everything is discussed and dealt with in precise terms, which is a good thing considering the huge commitment. This is a full time employment role for me and l’ll have to move to a colder city to live. Mechanics and engineer are all full time too, we work and train together, it’s a true team. Not to mention operations and admin staff. All working towards the one common goal. If you do this you commit big time. Going to be an exciting experience and I’ll learn so much! I had a day to relax with the family before going to the track and preparing for the weekend. The format for the weekend is different then in Australia much more compressed with it being over just two days.

Friday Friday give Aaren and I a good opportunity to practice driver changes and get him comfortable in the car sitting in the garage. We spend most of the day tweaking the seat and harness and getting our routine just right. At the end we were able to do driver changes in 10 to 11 seconds. Obviously things are different when the blood’s flowing and your in a race but not a bad starting point.

Saturday Aaren and I had to get up early for the full on day ahead. Today we had two practices a qualifying and a race. We got to the track and suited up for practice, the weather was dodgy but staying dry for most of the time. I went out to set a baseline in the car, I handed the car to Aaren with still 25minutes to go in the session to get comfortable. We showed good pace but it was more of a learning exercise for Aaren. The old style Supercar in DVS is markedly different to our Supertourers. Car balance generally and, things like our E throttle and all that torque. Aaren had 25 min to get prepared to race against some very experienced Supertourer drivers, a big ask! Practice 2 went much the same with me getting a few laps at the end on some better tyres to get a baseline. We ended up P2 behind Shane/Simon in their rocket ship, not a bad result.

Qualifying First Qualifying session was for Aaren he was up against mostly Main Game Supercar drivers who had raced Supertourers previously, he managed 11th but not too far off the pace. I was up next in the main driver qualify- ing. It was really close between Simon Evans, Dominic Storey and my self. I ended up putting in a good enough lap to end up on the front row.

Race 1 The first race was 35 laps Aaren would have to do a minimum of 17 laps before he could pit to change over. No refuel- ling was required in this race. Aaren started well from P11 and we made a few places up putting us 7th overall. A little disappointing but not bad considering it was Aaren’s first race and we were using old tyres. Sunday

Race 2 We started race 2 from the front row next to Simon, we were set for a good race. This was a 70 lapper with a compul- sory fuel stop which mixed things up. I had a battle with Simon for a few laps, before making a move down the inside into the back chicane to take the lead. I managed to pull out a 3 second lead by the time I came in to pit for fuel. I did my stop then did a lap and came in again to swap over to Aaren. Our fuel stop wasn’t as quick as the Evans car and we came out second. Again there were rules that got regularly broken in pit lane. In Australia there would have been several drive through penalties but here it’s just a slap on the wrist the NZ way, but it breeds bad attitudes. The balance of the car was not the best, very taily and was a handful, hard not to burn the rear tyres up. Aaren did all he could to come home in 5th.

ANDRE HEIMGARTNER REPORT NZ SUPERTOURERS Endurance RD3 Pukekohe 29-30 Nov 2014

Race 3 The weather would play a big part in this one. Started on slicks, went to wets and back to slicks. In doing so, we did 1 more pit stop than many of the other cars which would have been great had the weather pattern stayed as we had expected. A gamble that cost us a good result coming home in 7th. By now Aaren had it sorted and was posting 3rd best laps by the end of the race in a well sorted car, no mean feat to go from zero experience in these cars to being that competitive in that company, in one race meeting.

Conclusion A good weekends racing, showing we had the pace to make a bigger impression. The only round where we didn’t podium. Always difficult changing co drivers during the season and Aaren did a mighty job putting him- self under a lot of pressure to match some of the best talent in this part of the world and bring back a straight car. I spent some time on Monday graphing speed traces and found an area where I can save 0.3 sec at Puke. Can’t wait to try it! Luke my engineer is working on another issue, the work never stops and the cars keep getting faster and faster.

Spectator numbers were best ever I think. The Supertrucks back after years in storage were a big draw card. The SanYonng Utes put on some good racing, now becoming more aggressive with one ute managing to roll 3 times before coming to a stop on its wheels and driving off to the pits!

That’s it for Supertourers this year. How much racing I can do here next year is in Superblacks hands but I’d like to do Puke again real soon and I’ll be back for the endurance rounds for sure.

Next weekend it’s Homebush at Olympic park Sydney in DVS. This will be my third time at Homebush, first time was in Carrera Cup on the hottest weekend on record. It’s a circuit where overtaking isn’t easy and the walls claim many victims. Rewarding those with excellent car control.

Best wishes, Andre