Andre Heimgartner has claimed his first podium result for Kelly Racing, finishing a fantastic third place in Race 9 of the Supercars Championship at Phillip Island today.
The Plus Fitness Racing driver qualified fourth, and after initially getting swamped by his team-mate Rick Kelly at the start, was able to make his way through to finish on the podium. It is Heimgartner’s second career podium and his first as a solo driver, matching the third place he scored at the Gold Coast as Tim Slade’s co-driver in 2017. Kelly finished in seventh after making a great start, running third until the pit stops. He lost time during the race after a gear position sensor failed, bring the car home inside the top 10. Team Harvey Norman’s Simona De Silvestro finished in 16th place, making up a number of positions from her qualifying effort. RABBLE.Club rookie racer Garry Jacobson slipped off the road early, but fought back gallantly to take 19th place.
The final day of the Phillip Island SuperSprint will kick off with Practice 4 at 9:20am, followed by qualifying 11:10am and Race 10 of the Supercars Championship at 2:15pm.
QUOTES
Andre Heimgartner #7 Plus Fitness : « It’s great to be here on the podium. It’s awesome for my sponsors and the team We’ve had a difficult period finding balance in the cars over the past few rounds, so to be here and be the third fastest car in the field is a good feeling. I was surprised that I came out in front of Rick. He must of had a slow stop, and he definitely didn’t make life easy for me when I came back out on the track, but it was all very fair and I was able to build a gap. It was a shame that the Safety Car came out because at that stage of the race, I was slightly catching the Mustangs in front. But I’m really happy with the result. Now we’ll look at it all tonight and have a think about how we can go even better tomorrow. »
Rick Kelly #15 Castrol Racing : « It has been a great day for the team and for Andre. There’s no doubt about that Today is about that so a big congratulations to our guys and Andre who have worked really hard to turn around a difficult start to the year. On our side of the garage, we had a solid day. We weren’t quite as strong on a green tyre as we were yesterday, but we got a good run off the start, got into third and built a gap. We had a slow stop and then the gear position sensor failed which made my life difficult. We tried to fight to hold our position by losing a tonne of straight line speed and having to go old school and clutching on the upshifts. All that aside, it’s all about Andre and our team’s result and coming back tomorrow to back that up. »
Simona De Silvestro #78 Team Harvey Norman : « We went out with Rick’s set-up, but we didn’t have the same balance The race was OK to be honest. I enjoyed the race. We moved forward and that is a big positive for us. « In qualifying, we need to be much better and that is what we are going to have to work on for tomorrow. »
Garry Jacobson #3 RABBLE.Club : « My one lap pace wasn’t there, but in terms of my goal from this weekend, which is to improve my pace after the first few laps, that has been really good. I had an off and had to come in and pit, but I recovered really well. I’m stoked for the team. Andre and Rick are starting to get the right combination now, and hopefully some of that knowledge will filter down to my car and we can start to challenge some of the guys in front of me. »
Press release Kelly Racing
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