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Andre Heimgartner believes Brad Jones Racing’s pre-enduro Supercars test has “answer[ed] a lot of questions” which arose from a subpar performance at The Bend.
Heimgartner qualified on the front row twice at Sydney Motorsport Park and might well have had two podiums if not for a steering rack problem, consolidating sixth position in the championship with his second place in the Sunday encounter.
He left The Bend seventh in the standings, two points behind Cameron Waters, after finishing no higher than 10th in three encounters at the South Australian circuit.
Today, the New Zealander and co-driver Dale Wood shared the #8 R&J Batteries Camaro at Winton in their last outing before the Sandown 500.
Heimgartner said, “Our test today was good; we prepared for the enduros.
“So, we also got to test a lot of things and answer a lot of questions that we had from Tailem Bend.
“Overall, [it was a] positive day and was happy with our running.”
Team-mate Bryce Fullwood, who will again be joined in the #14 Middy’s entry by Dean Fiore, had a somewhat similar sentiment.
“I think the main goal today was to just get the procedures down-pat with driver change stuff; obviously new car, spike’s in different spot, everything’s very different from our last car,” explained Fullwood.
“So, had to change up our procedures quite a bit, so it was good to run through all of those today.
“Obviously, you can only do so many in the workshop, so to do some hot stops [was] really good; really happy with that driver change stuff today.
“Then obviously just continued learning with the race car. Through the race meetings, we don’t get a lot of time to make big changes, so it was good to get some big changes in the car today and try and learn.
“I feel like we answered some questions, but I feel like we also leave here with a lot more different questions, so it’s just the way it goes, but looking forward to going racing next weekend at Sandown.”
BJR had all eight drivers in its enduro roster at Winton, with Jack Smith/Jaxon Evans in Car #4 and Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys in Car #96, after it opted to postpone its running when rain fell yesterday morning.
Team 18 did likewise, with Mark Winterbottom/Michael Caruso in the #18 Camaro and Scott Pye/Warren Luff in #20, while the Blanchard Racing Team ran both of its Mustangs, with Todd Hazelwood/Tim Blanchard in Car #3 and Aaron Love/Jake Kostecki in the #7 wildcard.
Practice at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 starts on Friday, September 15.
