The Brad Jones Racing driver was second-fastest in the first leg of qualifying behind Dick Johnson Racing’s Brodie Kostecki.
On what would prove to be his final flying lap, oil began pouring from beneath Heimgartner’s car approaching Turn 13.
Despite smoke entering the cockpit, the Kiwi kept pushing until he couldn’t any more and pulled off to the right on the front straight.
Though the engine failure will come at a cost, Heimgartner did not think twice about letting off even as it exploded.
“It was a decent lap there and then coming out of (Turn) 11 I just heard a vibration, a massive vibration,” Heimgartner said on the Fox Sports broadcast.
“I thought Brad would want me to lift off, but I just held it flat,” he laughed. “Hoping to get through the last corner, but it let go.”
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Heimgartner wound up qualifying 10th, with his nearest teammate Bryce Fullwood in 18th.
He heaped praise on his race engineer Tony Woodward for the uptick in performance.
“Really sucks. We had a fast car, did a good job tuning it,” said Heimgartner.
“It would have been a good result there, which this year has been hard to come by.
“Really happy with how Tony and the whole crew has tuned the car, how we’ve prepared. The car speed we had.
“It just wasn’t meant to be today. Still 10th, so we’ll see what we’ve got in the race and see if we can mix it up. The car’s fast, so that’s good.”
At the time of the interview, Heimgartner’s car had not returned to the pit lane – though a replacement engine was already on standby.
The team is in a race to complete the engine transplanted in time for Friday afternoon’s race, which begins at 4:20pm ACDT.
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