Primary duties for Pedersen at Super Black

Ant Pedersen has been nominated as the primary driver for Super Black Racing’s V8 Supercars wildcard effort, the team has confirmed.

The decision, which Super Black operations manager Greg Hahn says was made via a coin toss, ensures that the less experienced Andre Heimgartner will take part in the two dedicated co-driver practice sessions.

The co-drivers have 45 minutes to themselves on both Thursday and Friday, while the remaining four 50 minute sessions are open to all drivers.

The 26-year-old Pedersen has one previous start in the Supercheap Bathurst 1000, made in 2010 with MW Motorsport’s wildcard, while 19-year-old Heimgartner will be taking part for the first time.

“Between the two boys, I conference called them in on a call and tossed a coin as to who would go down as driver and co-driver and Ant got the toss,” Hahn told NZ’s Sunday News.

“It was literally decided by that. They are very close and they’ll go out there and drive ‘as one man’.

“Neither of them is a better driver than the other and we’ll see who is the best by Friday and we’ll be ready to go by Saturday.”

Hahn added that the team is yet to decide who will qualify the car or start the race.

Pedersen and Heimgartner will both enjoy plenty of miles throughout the weekend as they also compete in the Dunlop Series, which includes a 250km race on Saturday.

Heimgartner has selected Ford Performance Racing’s Steve Owen to co-drive his Dunlop car in order to ensure that he remains fresh for Sunday’s 1000km journey.

Super Black has also confirmed that South African-born Paul Ceprnich will race engineer the Ford Performance Racing-run Falcon throughout the weekend.

Ceprnich has a long-running relationship with FPR and stepped in to engineer Jack Perkins’ Ford at Hidden Valley earlier in the season.

The remainder of the car’s crew will be made up for current and former FPR staff, including lead mechanic Stephen Ryan.

Pedersen and Heimgartner enjoyed a single test day in the Super Black entry at Winton late last month.

The car will run alongside FPR’s four regular entries and its Dunlop Series Ford in the factory squad’s biggest ever Bathurst assault.

VIDEO: FPR’s six-car Bathurst attack