Andre Heimgartner and co-driver Matt Campbell battled hard to the end of the 2021 Repco Bathurst 1000 despite a run of bad luck in what was Heimgartner’s final Supercars race for Kelly Grove Racing. The highly fancied driver combination showed speed and race craft but ultimately ended the race in 19th after technical issues thwarted their attack.
“It’s not the way I wanted my last race for the team to go, especially as I had a great co-driver in Matt and a pretty decent car under us,” said Heimgartner. “It’s disappointing, but at the same time we gave it our best shot, and it’s always great to be racing and battling wheel-to-wheel at Bathurst.”
The 61st running of the classic enduro, the 2021 Repco Bathurst 1000 was the 31st and final race of the 2021 Repco Supercars championship. At race end, it was the sixth-fastest in history, lasting 6 hours, 15 minutes and six seconds, despite six Safety Car periods where the field was under yellow flag caution.
The format saw 161 laps of the 23-corner, 6.213km Mount Panorama Circuit, with teams mandated to use two drivers and perform a minimum of seven pit-stops. Included in the stops between laps 55-120 was a compulsory brake rotor change, while most competitors needed fuel every 23 laps.
Ahead of Sunday’s race, practice kicked off on Thursday with Friday qualifying and a Top Ten Shootout on Saturday.
Thursday – Practice 1-2
Revealing a fresh ‘Sounds of Bathurst’ Ned Whisky livery, Heimgartner and Campbell quickly showed the strength of the driver pairing.
Andre completed 16 laps in the first practice session of the week on Thursday, with a best lap time of 2:06.2364. Hours later, the first co-driver session saw Campbell record a 2:06.4291 to be immediately on the pace and 11-fastest of the 25-car field.
Friday – Practice 3-4 and Qualifying
Andre’s first flying lap in the one-hour session saw a 2:05.5162, just shy of his practice best of a 2:05.4207. The entire field was battling for a place in the Top Ten Shootout, with the session settling positions 11-25. After the initial run, Heimgartner posted his fastest lap of the week with a 2:05.1969 before returning to the pits.
“The car doesn’t feel overly bad, but it’s just not outright fast,” Andre said following Practice 4. “There’s a few little things [like] the stability, hard on the brakes into the Chase, but just basically trying to get turn and drive.”
That afternoon’s qualifying saw Andre time his run perfectly as the chequered flag fell, heading back onto the circuit to post a 2:04.9394 for 17th fastest. Despite being almost a full second faster than his best practice lap, it was disappointing for Heimgartner and Campbell not to make the shootout. Provisional pole was set at 2:03.8989 and the time to beat to make the Top Ten a 2:04.4933, Heimgartner only half-a-second away.
Saturday Practice
Practice 5 and 6 took place on Saturday with the Top Ten Shootout the only other on-track Supercars activity for the day.
With only a short warm-up session on Sunday morning ahead of the race, the two Saturday practice sessions were the last opportunities to chase the final few tenths and hundreds of a second for lap-time, finalise processes and perfect pit-stops. Yet Andre and Matt’s plans were thwarted early on in Practice 5.
Campbell had taken the wheel of the #7 Ned Racing Mustang for the co-driver session, however contact with one of Mount Panorama’s famously brutal walls cost significant track time only 10 minutes into the session. Campbell had only completed two laps of the 6.213km layout before succumbing to the wall on top of the mountain at Sulman Park, suffering steering issues as he limped back to the pits that forced him into the wall on Conrod Straight.
“I feel sorry for the boys, but the car was feeling good,” Campbell explained. “Coming down the mountain, something started to break and started to veer to the right. Obviously after the crash, it has sheared a brake line or something. As I got to the brake pedal, it’s gone to the floor more or less.”
With only an hour between the day’s two practice sessions, the #7 Ned Racing Mustang was still being worked on as final for the weekend began. The Kelly Grove Racing crew worked tirelessly to ready the car for the final practice ahead of Sunday’s race.
“The boys have done an amazing job,” said Andre during the session. “With all the new components on the car, you need to make sure that the cambers are right, the wheelbase is right, all those sorts of things, so that’s what they will be checking now. Hopefully we get Matty out for the last 10 minutes to get back a bit more confidence, and maybe a practice start, then we’ll go from there.”
The #7 Ned Racing Mustang made it back with around 15 minutes left after a massive effort from the team, enabling Matt some invaluable time ahead of the following day’s race.
Sunday - Race
The 20-minute morning warm-up saw final checks completed ahead of the 161-lap marathon. The 12:15pm green flag was the latest in the Bathurst 1000’s sixty-year history, with clear weather providing a glorious backdrop even if Heimgartner and Campbell had been hoping for rain to level the field.
Campbell was chosen to start the race in the #7 Ned Racing Mustang, and battled hard on the opening lap, racing toe-to-toe with Kurt Kostecki two-wide into the second corner to settle into 19th place with a cracking race pace in the 2:07 bracket.
James Golding suffered issues on Lap 3 which forced him into pit lane, but the first strategic stop wasn’t until Jayden Ojeda pitted on Lap 14. Three laps later, Thomas Randle beached the #44 Tickford Mustang in the sandtrap at Hell Corner, prompting the first Safety Car.
Campbell took the opportunity to pit during the Safety Car period, Andre taking over on Lap 18 and jumping several cars during the stop to re-join in 15th as the racing resumed the following lap.
Immediately in the thick of it, Andre entered into a fantastic tussle with Russell Ingall and Kelly Grove teammate David Reynolds, with Reynolds literally pushing the #7 Ned Racing Mustang along Mountain Straight as the trio battled up the Mountain. Both Andre and David passed Ingall to sit 14th and 15th respectively. The following lap, Andre passed Webb with a brilliant criss-cross manoeuvre into Hell Corner. It was still only Lap 22.
Already, multiple issues impacted the Kelly Grove Mustang’s competitiveness. The first was the passenger-side window, which had separated from the car, costing around 0.3-0.4sec per lap.
The #7 Ned Whisky Racing Mustang was now in a train of cars running nose-to-tail, led by Jack Perkins in ninth through to Webb in 15th. Perkins suffered steering issues, dropping oil on the track and pitting, Heimgartner in ninth by Lap 35 before his second stop two laps later. With the second round of stops completed, Heimgartner and Campbell sat in 11th place after staring 17th.
The middle of the race saw Campbell back at the helm of the Kelly Grove Mustang on Lap 55, knocking on the door of the top ten as the field constantly shuffled as varying strategies unfolded. Completing a double-stint, Campbell was seventh on track when he pitted in Lap 98 for Andre to step in, the fifth of the minimum sevens scheduled pit-stops for the day.
The Safety Car made its second appearance on Lap 106 comically for an echidna on track. The Ned Racing Mustang was in 17th when Andre charged past Hazelwood on Lap 110, before another Safety Car intervention on Lap 113 when Ojeda hit the wall at The Esses.
The timing wasn’t ideal for Andre’s pit strategy – with Heimgartner and Kelly Grove teammate Reynolds both staying on track while others pitted. It gave the team a somewhat artificial one-two momentarily, before Andre came in on Lap 115 as the team battled an issue with the radio, forcing Andre to swap helmets in an attempt to remedy the situation.
The Safety Car would make four more appearances for a total of six during the race, with Campbell stepping back in on Lap 123 after a rival’s crash at Forrests Elbow, and another on 139 when Anton De Pasquale’s Mustang failed climbing The Cutting.
The final 16 of 161 laps were completed under green flag at a rapid pace, with Heimgartner in 16th before issues only two laps from home force him to pit. Admirably, the Kelly Grove Crew worked to get the car back on track, Andre gallantly finishing a tough race in 19th.
“Obviously we wanted a better result, but the team worked really hard, and Matt drove really well, so we can take that away from a tough weekend. We know we were capable of a strong result, but it didn’t come together for us.”
After what was his final drive for Kelly Grove Racing, Andre finished the season in 17th position on 1394 points. The year saw his first Supercar Pole Position and his first Supercars career victory, with a stunning display in wet conditions at The Bend Motorsport Park in May.
Andre Heimgartner joins Brad Jones Racing for the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship, with the season opening round at Newcastle on the weekend of March 4-6.
