Top Ten start for Heimgartner locked in for Sandown 500

Supercars

Andre Heimgartner’s Top Ten Shootout berth has earnt him eighth on the grid ahead of Sunday’s 500km race at Sandown.

The day was plagued by wild weather from torrential rain, bustling winds and even hail but Heimgartner braved the elements in qualifying to set a lap good enough to give him a shot at the Shootout.

In dry conditions in the evening’s TTSO, the R&J Batteries Camaro set a 1:11.1186 which Heimgartner wasn’t entirely happy with, but has him and his co-driver Declan Fraser starting tomorrow’s race in 8th.

Jaxon Evans qualified in 20th but feels like there was more in the #50 SCT Motorsport Camaro especially in the conditions.

The rain and hail made it tricky for everyone in qualifying with a red flag interrupting the session after only a couple of minutes.

Finding the right strategy throughout the session was difficult for the full field. 

While Bryce Fullwood wasn’t entirely comfortable in the car as the track dried, he had been quicker in the wetter conditions. 

The Middy’s Electrical Camaro will start from 23rd tomorrow.

Macauley Jones in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro unfortunately tried an alternate strategy in the hard to pick qualifying session, bolting on new wet tyres under green conditions with 5 minutes to go.

It was then difficult to get heat through the tyres before the flag, which put #96 in 24th.

Supercars will start Sunday with a warm-up (9:55 AEST) before the 161 lap race at 14:05.

Super2

 
It will be a long night for the Super2 crew with both cars requiring repairs following this afternoon’s race.
 
Elliott Cleary had strong pace in today’s single qualifying session and put his #19 Sync Music ZB Commodore in P9 to start the race.
 
The teen battled with a bent steering arm during the race but managed to hold onto 12th at the line.
 
On the other side of the garage, team-mate Cody Gillis also found some speed overnight and qualified 11th on the grid.
 
The #9 Bowser Bean ZB Commodore driver had some good battles in the race but a small error in the final minutes of the race from Gillis resulted in damage to his machinery.
 
The race ended under Safety Car as Cody was retrieved from the sand trap.
 
Both cars will be repaired ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session which kicks off at 9:20 AEST.

Supercars Quoteboard

Andre Heimgartner
 Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
“Solid day for us again. Didn't quite finish off the last sector in the shootout but nonetheless still went up a couple spots starting from eighth which is a big improvement from the previous year. Looking forward to the race, I think we've got a really good car, a good co-driver. Hopefully we can piece it all together and have a great day.”

Declan Fraser
Supercars co-driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
“It was a very crazy day for me. I ended up only doing four laps at the start of practice this morning, but it was good to get laps in the rain with the tyre batch that we've got this weekend. Andre did a mega job and got us into the shootout. He’s moved us one position forward into eighth, so we've got a good starting position for us tomorrow. We know our race cars quick. We worked pretty intensely on that on the first day of testing. We'll keep our heads down in the race and keep it clean. The guys and girls at BJR are awesome with our pit strategies and pit stops and I'm really excited for a good result.”

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
“It was a really tough qualifying for us here today at Sandown. Very disappointing. We had quite good speed in the rain earlier in the day, and didn't quite nail the car for when it mattered during quali unfortunately. We’ll be coming from the back tomorrow. Luckily we’ve got one hundred and sixty one laps of racing and have some time to try and work our way back.”

Jaylyn Robotham
Supercars co-driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
“My day was good, I got a bit of wet running this morning which was cool. It’s sketchy out here in the wet. We'll be starting from twenty third tomorrow, which is a bit unfortunate. We've had speed with the car throughout the weekend, so hopefully we can utilise it for the race and move forward.”

Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
“Not the greatest day for me today. Qualifying we really struggled with getting the tyres tempered as well as getting a good balance in the car. The end of the session was difficult with the drying track and trying to piece the lap together after taking a gamble with the strategy. Driver change practice was really good. Jordan gets in and out fast so that's a good sign because we've got to do it a couple of times in the race. Strategy will be important tomorrow, and anything could happen.”

Jordan Boys
Supercars co-driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
“Okay day today, got a few laps in during Practice 4. Macca did all the laps in Practice 5. It was good to do some driver changes and in the wet too. The boys were good in pit lane and are quick the stops too. We have some spots to make up but it’s a long race tomorrow to do it.”

Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
“Busy day, two practices and a quali with pretty exciting weather conditions. A lot of rain on track in every session except for the end of practice five and the end of quali. We were happy going into quali but weren't sure if it was going to be dry or wet. Then it obviously decided to hail and rain just before we went out. The track was drying, and I didn't quite maximize what we had when I needed to like everyone else and now find ourselves starting 20th tomorrow. Pretty long race ahead which we can hopefully work our way forward in. A bit more involved in strategy and driver changes so looking forward to getting into endurance mode and hopefully having a strong race tomorrow from 20th place alongside Deano.”

Dean Fiore
Supercars co-driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
“A good day today. It was good to get some wet laps in, just in case it does rain tomorrow. It's not forecast, but it is Melbourne. Had a bit of a moment into turn two that was a bit of fun. We practiced driver changes in the live practice 4 session during pit stops. It’s all running smoothly. Ready for a big day tomorrow.”

Super2 Quoteboard

Elliott Cleary
Super2 driver, #19 Sync Music ZB Commodore 
“It was a pretty good day today. Qualifying was in the rain and having not been in this car in the wet before, it went well finishing in ninth. That put us in a good spot for the race this afternoon. I think we had a lot better car in the dry for the race than we did on Friday. I was running well in ninth and then had an issue with the engine rack cutting out which put us back a few places. Then we got hit off which wasn't great but managed to fight back to 12th so all in all I think a pretty good day. I reckon we can go better tomorrow.”

Cody Gillis
Super2 driver, #9 Bowser Bean ZB Commodore 
“Not an ideal day for me. Quali started alright in the rain this morning. We probably rolled out a little bit better than expected considering we’d never been out in the rain before. The race was going okay but we just struggled a little bit with the dry conditions. Ended up having a shunt on the last lap. Hopefully the boys don't have to work too hard tonight and we'll fix it up and go again tomorrow.”