Andre Heimgartner is eager to reward his Brad Jones Racing crew for their massive rebuild efforts following the start-line shunt at The Bend.
An unsighted Heimgartner slammed into a stalled Thomas Randle at the start of Race 22 at the OTR SuperSprint.
Having been released from hospital later that day and afforded recovery time between events, both drivers will return at Sandown this weekend.
However, the impact left both cars with significant damage, so much so that the #8 R&J Batteries chassis named ‘Cathy’ will never race again.
While Tickford Racing has fallen back on the Zak Best Mustang for Randle, BJR has had to revert to a spare chassis for Heimgartner.
The Albury team has had little to no break in between rounds, transferring the salvaged components from ‘Cathy’ across to the spare chassis and rebuilding the car around it.
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“It was cool to see the guys dig in,” Heimgartner told Speedcafe.com.
“I came and hopped in the car and you wouldn’t even know it’s a different car; they’ve done a great job in converting everything to that older chassis.
“After a big crash like that the first you want to do is go out there and do well and try and put what happened behind you.
“Their effort has been amazing so like always I’m going to go out there and get the best result and try and pay back everyone for the work.
“It’s never nice when they have to do that thing, but that’s motorsport, unfortunately.”
Asked whether he is feeling fit to race, Heimgartner replied: “All good now, so no dramas as far as my body goes.”
BJR has left no stone unturned, with a spare engine fitted to the rebuilt chassis for Sandown and the damaged motor sent to KRE Race Engines to be looked at.
The 38g impact broke the rear engine mounts, forcing the oil and water pumps out of place.
“You only know the extent when you pull it all apart,” added Heimgartner of the damage.
“For sure as they went through it they realised different things were broken, quite a lot of things needed to be replaced.
“Luckily a lot of it was able to be transferred over.
“If anything the car has just had a complete rebuild so I think it will be a bit better than the car I hopped out of which hadn’t had a complete rebuild for a little while.
“They managed to build it from ground up and did an amazing job.”
Supercars’ opening practice session for the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint begins on Friday at 13:10 local time/AEST.
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