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The Brad Jones Racing driver clinched a second career Supercars Championship race win in a treacherous inaugural encounter for the category at Taupo International Motorsport Park, almost three years after his victory at The Bend.
Since that triumph back on May 8, 2021, Heimgartner has become engaged, and fiancee Jemma gave birth to their first child, Summer, just over 12 months ago.
The family now lives in Western Australia, from where Jemma hails, but she and Summer both made the long trip to be at Taupo this weekend.
It was a financial decision which paid off.
“It’s awesome, anytime you can have your family here,” said Heimgartner.
“They almost didn’t come but I got called for another media thing last week at the last minute and we organised for them to come.
“So, very glad they came, and when you’re spending money bringing them to the track, you want to do well – not just get a DNF and it’s a waste of time and costs me five grand for nothing.
“Anyway, I’m glad I managed to get that done,” he laughed, before revealing some more family news.
“But, it’s great,” Heimgartner added.
“As they start getting older, it’s awesome to have your kid there and, for me, I’ve got a little boy soon, doing the same thing.”
With Supercars necessarily moving its New Zealand event from Pukekohe to Taupo, it continues to award the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy to the highest point-scorer over the course of the weekend.
Heimgartner’s R&J Batteries Camaro is the #8 BJR entry, which Richards happened to drive before he was diagnosed with cancer in late-2010.
While the trophy is coveted up and down the field, it therefore has extra significance for the Albury team, which won it courtesy of Jason Bright in Car #8 when awarded for the first time upon Supercars’ return to Pukekohe in 2013.
“I think firstly, just enjoy today,” said the present-day #8 pilot about being in the hunt for the honour.
“It’s the first win for BJR for a long time, and a long time since I won last.
“So, just enjoy today and then see what tomorrow does.
“Our car’s been pretty solid in all conditions so we’ll just see what happens.
“But, I think the Car #8 thing is very special and it doesn’t go unnoticed when we come to New Zealand; there’s extra emotion attached to it.
“When we raced at Pukekohe [in 2022, the last Supercars event before its closure], we finished third for the JR cup, I think it was, so we were close then and I’d really love to get it done this weekend but there’s a long way to go tomorrow.”
Heimgartner officially led 49 of the 60 laps but had to withstand heavy pressure from Chaz Mostert during the middle stint, which he put down to his car being better where it needed to be.
“I think Chaz was probably outright faster than me but I had a lot better drive which meant I could just keep him behind me,” he explained.
“So, I just had to not make any mistakes and then obviously his wheel fell off or whatever happened, and then that released me a bit.
“It wasn’t cruisy by any stretch – he was all over me like a dirty rag the whole time – but our car was good in the areas I needed, so if it wasn’t a good drive-y car, I’d be in trouble.”
The victory marks a major turnaround for BJR after the Albert Park event where, for example, its four cars finished 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st in the Saturday race.
The team took advantage of Jaxon Evans’ rookie testing allocation to spend a day at Queensland Raceway and address the issues which became apparent at the Australian Grand Prix.
“At the end of AGP on the Sunday, we really knew what our issue was, which was step one,” explained Heimgartner on broadcast.
“So, that’s half the battle sometimes – knowing what it is – so we went to a test day with Jaxon Evans at Queensland Raceway because it has big stops, and we managed to address our issues, and we actually had hard facts behind that.
“So, coming off that test day to this weekend, we had some good procedural stuff that I was confident would help and would help me drive the car how I wanted.
“So, we’re back to me being able to drive the car a bit more how I want, which is ultimately where you get the speed.”
