Heimgartner fastest in Supercars Practice 2 in Townsville

Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner has gone fastest in Friday practice at the NTI Townsville 500.

Heimgartner clocked the fastest two laps of Practice 2 for the Repco Supercars Championship field in the #8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore, ending the half-hour session with a best time of 1:13.4196s.

That put him 0.0985s ahead of Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) and 0.1179s up on championship leader Shane van Gisbergen (#97 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore), who completed the top three.

Waters was quickest at the end of the first runs with a 1:14.4286s and, despite a flurry of improvements around the 10-minute mark of the session, was back on top with a 1:13.5181s once the second runs were done too.

Triple Eight Racing Engineering’s van Gisbergen was 0.0194s slower and Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) third at 0.3041s off the pace at the time, which remained the case until the final runs.

Then, Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut ZB Commodore) jumped to third with a 1:13.7902s, shuffling team-mate Heimgartner to 11th.

The New Zealander then set a 1:13.4698s just prior to the chequered flag and made it consecutive fastest laps on his very last lap of the session.

However, he was not entirely happy with his efforts, saying the back-to-back improvements “shouldn’t have” been the case.

“The tyres were definitely better on the first lap, I think,” said Heimgartner.

“But, it’s so interesting, the track is evolving so fast, so we managed to make some good changes that went with the track evolution.

“It’s really nice this weekend, we’ve got a pretty solid base to start with.

“Obviously the BJR car around here is good but couldn’t be happier to end Friday.”

Behind that top three of Heimgartner, Waters on the aforementioned time, and van Gisbergen on a 1:13.5375s, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert took fourth with a late 1:13.7454s in the #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore, with Jones ending up fifth.

Davison was sixth-quickest all told and Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s ZB Commodore) made for three BJR entries in the top seven.

The rest of the top 10 was Todd Hazelwood (#35 Truck Assist ZB Commodore), Nick Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore), and Scott Pye (#20 Nulon ZB Commodore).

Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) took 11th and Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore) 12th.

The field is back on-track tomorrow for Qualifying for Race 19 at 09:50 local time/AEST, with the starting grid to be finalised by a Top 10 Shootout later in the day.

Results: Practice 2