Heimgartner battles the heat to claim top 10 spot in first Adelaide race

Supercars

The Brad Jones Racing drivers have endured searing heat in the opening exchange of the Adelaide 500.

With three of the four BJR drivers in the top ten to start the 78 lap race, it was an exciting affair at lights out.

Unfortunately for Bryce Fullwood he was pinged for a false start and given a 5 second penalty.

The Middy’s Racing Camaro had some speed under it however, and Fullwood was able to race himself back to 11th.

His garage-mate Andre Heimgartner had a stellar race, dicing it out on the opening laps and making his way into the top ten.

The R&J Batteries finished 7th, which moves him to 9th position in the Drivers’ Championship.

Heimgartner has made some strides up the Championship order as of late and charged into the top ten at the last round.

The Kiwi is only nine points off eight position, making tomorrow’s race crucial for him.

Macauley Jones in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro had a slow fuel stop on his first visit to pitlane that hurt his race a little.

The #96 Camaro then spent a large part of his next two stints caught behind other cars and losing time.

Jones finished the race in 16th.

Evans wasn’t able to make the most of his excellent start position after putting in a remarkable lap in the Top Ten Shootout.

The SCT Motorsport driver lined up 7th on the grid but was bullied backwards in the opening exchanges and lost momentum.

He saw the chequered flag in 19th. 

BJR have also jumped Team 18 in the Teams Championship and go into Sunday looking to make further moves up the order.

There’s a full field reset tomorrow with qualifying starting at 10:10 ACDT and then the final race of the Supercars season at 14:15.

Super2

One day remains for the Super2 Series with both Elliott Cleary and Cody Gillis aiming to finish the season on a high.
 
The pair battled with car speed throughout today's race with both drivers finding it difficult to build momentum and fight through the field.
 
Wollongong-based driver Gillis made up a handful of positions over the 40-minute race and kept his nose clean coming home in 12th.
 
Young-gun Cleary is positive after finishing 13th  and hopes to find the remaining tenths out of the car in tomorrow's race.
 
The final race for the Series is tomorrow at 13:50 ACDT.

Supercars Quoteboard

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Solid day given where we qualified. To come away with seventh, I'm  pretty happy. So, good solid race and the car wasn't too bad. Had some good battles managed to pass some people which are nice. Overall solid day and a good day for our Championship, and  looking forward to tomorrow, finish off a year on a high."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"Look really solid day here. Unfortunately, made a mistake on the start and cost us a five second penalty and a little bobble in the pits with some strategy stuff. But the car was quite fast, and that's really what we've been missing the last few rounds. I feel a lot happier to come into tomorrow. Hopefully we can qualify the thing good, because we know we can race in the ten, which is where we want to be so. Really wasn't confident going into the race, but really happy to not fall too far back and if it wasn't for that penalty. we probably really wouldn't have moved from where we started, which would have been awesome. So, pretty good day for us. Really good considering last couple of rounds and excited to go for the last one tomorrow."

Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
""Got a good start. Fortunately, got roughed up a bit by Brodie Kostecki early on. Pretty happy with the way the car handled. I ran out of drink in the car, so I had to do a stint with no water, which really was difficult. We struggled with the first pit stop but by and large, pretty happy with the day and looking forward to tomorrow."

Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #50 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Obviously cool day started good, ended bad. Pretty cool to do my first Shootout. Felt like that was a pretty reasonable job as well. Started the race from seventh got a pretty poor start, unfortunately, and that was sort of set the tone for the rest of the race. I got bumped around a bit on lap one. And kind of got out of rhythm, and then just never really felt like I could get any clear air, which dictated our pace and ultimately left us sort of back where we didn't want to be. So feel like if we were able to get a bit more clear air or make some more moves, it would have been a completely different story. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case so we'll try again tomorrow. But, big thanks to the crew. Pretty good to line up for the shootout and be towards the pointy end of the grid so we'll be aiming for that tomorrow, but most of all aiming for a better race."

Super2 Quoteboard

Elliott Cleary
Super2 driver, #19 Sync Music ZB Commodore 
“Race 1 done here at Adelaide. Not too bad. Had a decent start and made a few spots and then on that first Safety Car restart I just didn't quite capitalize. It is what it is. Managed to gain a few positions in the end, but it was just very hard in the pack. You need a big pace advantage here to pass so it’s a bit of follow the leader. Hopefully try and get a good start tomorrow, make a few positions and try and drive forward.”

Cody Gillis
Super2 driver, #9 Perry's Fuel Distributors ZB Commodore 
“Another okay day here at Adelaide. We think we probably had the pace to be a little bit further up but it's Super2 and everyone's really, really close. So unfortunately when you're when you're in the pack, it's pretty hard to get out of it. It was a hot one. We made it through the race with the car straight. So, onto tomorrow and hopefully we can get a little bit better result.”