Crowd made Andre feel like winner at Pukekohe
Will Davison won yesterday’s Supercars race, but for the bumper crowd, Kiwi driver Andre Heimgartner was the one who got all the cheers. David Long reports.
Andre Heimgartner says the crowd’s reaction made it feel like he won yesterday’s Supercars race Pukekohe Park, rather than finish second.
Kiwi motorsport fans came out in their tens of thousands for the final ever Supercars round in Pukekohe. They were there to cheer on the Kiwis, expecting Shane van Gisbergen to carry local hopes, but Heimgartner outshone the veteran Kiwi, finishing second to Will Davison.
It was Heimgartner’s best finish to a Supercars race in New Zealand and his highest placing this season and the local fans let him know how thrilled they were for him. ‘‘I was obviously happy that I came second, but they were acting like I’d won the race,’’ Heimgartner said. ‘‘It was cool to see that and I can only imagine if we won the race, what it would be like. As a young kid sitting there, being on the other side of that and having them cheering for you is a pretty awesome feeling.’’
Heimgartner was the big surprise this weekend, showing pace in his BJR car that hasn’t been there for most of this year in Australia.
‘‘As soon as we rolled out it was not terrible, so that always helps, you can make little changes and work on your driving,’’ he said.
‘‘We still have a bit in qualifying to work out, the used tyre pace is much better than the green tyre pace, so we’ll see overnight if we can tune that up and be a bit further forward to start tomorrow.’’
New Zealand motorsport fans had got used to cheering on a DJR Supercar with the No 17 emblazoned on it, but instead of the now departed Scott McLaughlin crossing the line first, it was his replacement Davison who secured maximum points and goes into the box seat to win the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy.
Van Gisbergen was fifth with a late charge and Chris Pither came home in 13th place.
It won’t go down as one of the greatest battles at Pukekohe Park, but a late safety car did spice up the finish. However, as had been evident all weekend, Davison was going to be tough to beat, while Van Gisbergen didn’t have the pace in his Triple Eight Holden.
Cameron Waters started from pole, with Davison joining him on the front row, and it was the latter who had the best start, with
Anton de Pasquale moving up to second and Waters third.
Heimgartner was fourth in the early stages and Van Gisbergen sixth. But the real drama involved Tim Slade, who went sideways around turn one, but miraculously managed to keep his car on the circuit and avoided a mass pile up.
Apart from Van Gisbergen, the leading drivers had all completed their compulsory pitstop by lap
21, with Heimgartner able to jump Waters during it, the real loser was Pasquale who fell from second to fifth.
Van Gisbergen was trying to run a different strategy, to find clear air so that he’d be able to come out ahead of others.
However, it didn’t work, and he rejoined in P9, although he had three tyres on his car changed, while nearly everyone else changed two.
With 10 laps to go, the safety car came out, due to Macauley Jones having an incident. Five laps later the racing was on again, with the cars all bunched up. So game on.
Heimgartner wasn’t able to sneak past Davison at the first corner, his best opportunity, but Van Gisbergen got up to sixth and was all over the back of de Pasquale.
He shoved his way past the Australian with three laps to go, while Heimgartner was feeling intense pressure from Waters.
However, there weren’t any further significant moves and that’s how they finished.
brother for the B&H. Every day after school we’d come to test a little Mazda 323.
‘‘I did motorbikes before I went into car racing and I was about 17 when it all started here.’’
Radisich’s favourite memory from Pukekohe Park comes from a special time he had with his father.
‘‘For me, winning the Grand Prix (1988),’’ he said.
‘‘It’s something my dad missed out on doing and he was on the spanners, doing the engines and we won it together.
‘‘I’ve had a lot of success here with two Nissan Mobils, lots of Atlantic race wins, so I’ve had my fair share of victories, but the Grand Prix is one that stands out.’’
Like Radisich, Richards has motorsport in his blood and remembers going to the circuit with his dad. ‘‘Dad would bring the sports sedan over from Australia during the summer, around 1979-80,’’ Richards said.
‘‘. . . other memories are my dad’s dad. It meant so much to him that dad scattered his ashes on an oak tree up the hill.’’