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An uncomfortable seat fitting caused Andre Heimgartner to battle through pain during second half of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship season opener in Adelaide.
The Nissan Motorsport driver languished near the back of the field in the late stages of Saturday’s 78 lap race, with his day affected by pain in his legs, which grew worse before the New Zealander eventually finished in 17th position.
Heimgartner explained to Speedcafe.com the seat he was using created pressure around the area of his hips, where it became narrower.
Nissan will complete a re-fitting of Heimgartner’s seat overnight in a hope to resolve the issue ahead of Sunday’s action.
“I was having a few issues. I had my legs (which) were going numb so I was having to move around and also I was having a lot of pain under my bum, (and) my stabiliser muscles,” Heimgartner told Speedcafe.com.
“It was for the last 30 or 40 laps, it was pretty painful, but managed to get to the end. We’ll be doing a seat fitting tonight to try and fix the issue.
“Just on the side, where my hips meet the seat, at the moment it’s hitting a narrow part of the seat which is causing pressure in the wrong place.
“For the (Sydney) test day there was a few issues, but over one or two laps that we’ve been doing it hasn’t been too bad, but obviously 78 laps, it’s a little different to coming in and out, so we’ll have to change it.
“Especially around here, you don’t want to hit the wrong pedals or do the wrong thing.”
Despite the issues, Heimgartner admitted that the start to his 2018 Supercars campaign with the Braeside-based Nissan squad has been positive so far.
“They’ve been really good,” he said of working with Nissan.
“They’ve been a pleasure to deal with and the car’s been reasonably fast, so I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year. It’s a really positive start.
“Just looking forward to hopefully having a solid race (tomorrow), hopefully we can fix the leg issues and just be able to cruise and qualify in a good position.”
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship will hit the track on Sunday for Qualifying at 0940, before a Top 10 Shootout and Race 2 later in the day.
