Heimgartner crowned NZ V8s champion

Dannemora’s Andre Heimgartner has claimed the 2018 BNT V8s Championship following a strong and consistent end to what was an impressive season in the New Zealand touring car category.

The final round at Hampton Downs this weekend (March 9-11) saw the 22-year-old Kiwi put in a solid performance despite suffering a lack of power in his Richards Team Motorsport Camry to claim the top honours.

After taking 2nd position in Saturday’s race one, the Melbourne-based Supercars driver needed to only finish fifth in each of Sunday’s two races to secure the title.

Heimgartner got that campaign off to a great start with fourth place in race two and was preparing to chase another top five in the final outing before the stewards intervened – handing his title rival and team-mate Jason Bargwanna a post-race penalty and removing the championship pressure from Heimgartner’s shoulders all together. He would finish the final race of the weekend in fourth.

“To say I am happy with that result is an understatement, we went out there and did what we had to do, and brought home the championship,” Heimgartner said.

“Going into the final race of the weekend knowing that the title was secure was a relief, but with a fourth position we would have been okay either way which is good to know as well!

“Even though the title was wrapped up the goal is always to do the best we can – unfortunately we had a bit of a power issue this weekend which continued today, and I lost a mirror yesterday so that saw me be a bit conservative then; but at the end of the day what we had done over the course of the season and then again this weekend ensured we were in the box seat to bring it home.

“The BNT V8s is a great championship to have under my belt, and I can’t wait to come back and do some more racing here in New Zealand next season.”

Heimgartner will now head back to his Australian base to prepare with Nissan Motorsport for round two of the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, the Australian Grand Prix across March 22-25.