What Heimgartner is most impressed with at BJR

Brad Jones Racing’s commitment to set-up and engineering has both impressed and surprised Andre Heimgartner.

Heimgartner has scored podiums in the last two rounds in Perth and Winton.

Through five rounds, the Kiwi is just 23 points from ninth in the championship.

Heimgartner was on the pace straight away in Sydney, but it took some time to convert to trophies.

With trophies now in the bank, Heimgartner has reason to attribute his continued rise to a close-knit engineering group.

“When I first walked in the front door at BJR, I was surprised at how good their engineering crew was,” he said.

“Being at places like [Tickford] and Kellys for a long time… just the depth and knowledge they had.

“On the first test day here, I was saying, ‘I need a bit of this, I need a bit of that’.

“It wasn’t like they were confused at what needed to make what I wanted happen.

“It was like, ‘Shit, I can actually feel that [change]’. A lot of the time, it’s hard to get that.

“I didn’t expect it, but there were all the tools there to do well.”

Having had a taste of front-running at two vastly different tracks, Heimgartner has now laid down the gauntlet to the team to perform at form circuits.

Jones embraces Heimgartner

BJR scored a Darwin podium last year courtesy of Nick Percat, with BJR cars presenting strong race pace in Townsville.

For now, the target is to remain in the top 10, but the ambition is to get there sooner in the weekend.

“You can only keep trying to go better and better,” he said.

“We’re now going to tracks that historically suit our cars better. Winton wasn’t one of those, Perth wasn’t one of those either.

“It’s not so much of a position thing, more so a result of car speed and feeling amongst the team.

“The next thing will be trying to get the set-up closer earlier in the weekend. Then you’ll start having a better weekend overall.

“It takes a long time; Cam’s only just getting it sorted now, having a whole weekend at the front.”

The season will resume at the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown on June 17-19. Purchase your tickets now.