Heimgartner holds onto top ten result in Townsville
Andre Heimgartner has converted his qualifying form in the first race of the Townsville 500 into a top ten finish for Brad Jones Racing.
The R&J Batteries driver opted for a two tyre stop during the 250km race to take the chequered flag in 9th position.
Garage-mate Bryce Fullwood joined the #8 Camaro driver in the Top Ten Shootout, however with the strong headwinds he locked up and ran long putting himself in 10th at the end of the session.
Both the Middy’s Electrical driver and Heimgartner were dicing through the field and enjoyed some intense battles over the course of the 88 lap race.
Ultimately the #14 Camaro came across the line just shy of the top ten in 11th.
In the neighbouring garage housing Pizza Hut Racing and SCT Motorsport, the race was a bit more turbulent.
Jaxon Evans in the SCT Logistics entry was caught up in a first lap incident, having started from 15th the Kiwi was left to hobble back to pitlane.
The BJR crew was able to repair the right rear corner and send him back out again but he was multiple laps down.
Evans came home in 22nd place.
Unfortunately Macauley Jones was also caught in the action and was given a 15 second penalty for his involvement.
Jones served that at his first stop but wasn’t able to claw back into the race, he finished in 18th.
The second 250km race goes green at 14:40 tomorrow, with qualifying leading the action for the day at 10:05.
Super 2
It was an interesting day for Cody Gillis and Elliott Cleary in the Super2 Series with the duo qualifying 15th and 16th for the race respectively.
Gillis was able to get himself up to tenth after avoiding an incident in front of him, but a penalty for an incident with Zane Morse dropped him to 14th in the #9 Tropic Petroleum Commodore.
Cleary had a clean race and was able to pass some cars and finish the race in 12th
The duo are back on track for qualifying at 9:30am tomorrow.
Supercars Quoteboard
Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"We had some good qualifying speed but I think we've got a bit to work on on the race car but it's all part of the new adventure. So we'll keep pedaling away and hopefully we can qualify good again tomorrow and have a bit of race car and hopefully a bit more of a complete package."
Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"Really positive start to the day with qualifying and the Shootout. I think the team really did a good job finding a bit of performance in our cars, unfortunately got a little bit caught out in the Shootout. Bit disappointed not to get my lap in there. But nevertheless, to start 10th, happy with that from where we've been. And our first stint in the race was really tough. Car was a little bit average and we sort of got bounced around a bit and tyre life is really bad. But Phil [Keed, engineer] crept a change in for the second stint, and the car was way better. And we were able to race our way back up. And to be honest, I think we passed more cars in that last stint than I've passed all year. So all smiles here today. I think we've got a few things we can work on for tomorrow. But ultimately really productive day here in Townsville."
Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Today didn't go to plan, unfortunately we just lacked the speed we needed in qualifying. So when you're back in the pack it gets a bit more difficult. I came together with Cam Hill and got a penalty, it was my mistake and I'll take ownership of that. But the penalty meant that we couldn't really make up any positions in the race. On to tomorrow."
Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Today started off better than it finished. I mean qualified 15th which I think is my best qualifying but it's tight so I was happy enough. Not happy with the lap that I did but happy enough to be close and close the margin from yesterday. My race start let me down and then got caught up in some contact at Turn 3, so had some damage. Had to come in and fix it, so big thanks to the team for getting that sorted and getting me back out so I could learn some stuff to hopefully benefit from tomorrow when we qualify further up and race further towards the front."
Super2 Quoteboard
Elliott Cleary
Super2 driver, #19 ZB Commodore
"Pretty good day today. Not the best quali but managed to make a few spots up in the race for a decent finish. Hopefully tomorrow we can fix up quali and that should see us with a better result."
Cody Gillis
Super2 driver, #9 ZB Commodore
"Results probably didn't show it. We lack a little bit in qualifying and probably didn't get the best lap out of it. So a better lap probably would have put us in top five. It's hard to race from back there but we ended up getting up to 10th and then got a penalty, but yeah, not too bad. Hopefully better tomorrow and we'll see we can do."