Heimgartner tops first Newcastle 500 practice

ANDRE Heimgartner set the fastest time during opening practice at the Thrifty Newcastle 500 in a remarkably clean start to Supercars’ long-awaited Gen3 era.

Brad Jones Racing, which had also flown out of the blocks when Supercars’ Car of the Future rules were introduced 10 years ago, took early bragging rights courtesy of the Kiwi.

Heimgartner posted a best of 1:11.9958s with six of the 45 minutes remaining, placing him clear of the field but nearly two seconds shy of the track record.

“In that session we were going around just trying to pick it up, it’s so different these cars, how they hit the kerbs,” he said.

“The confidence at this track especially, to bleed off the braking and carry the speed, you need to build up to that because obviously if you just misjudge slightly, you’re in the wall and with the limited parts we have here, I’m just building up.

“We won’t really see a true indicative time I think until we get to qualifying where people can put a few sets on and really try to extract that last half a second.”

The highly-anticipated session ran without a single red flag interruption; a series of drivers utilising the Turn 2 escape road the only notable issues.

Supercars CEO Shane Howard and Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess stood at pit exit and applauded the cars as they rolled out of pitlane at the start of the landmark session.

Walkinshaw Andretti United made a flying start to its time as a Ford team; Chaz Mostert set the early pace by clocking a 1:13.3132s inside the first five minutes.

That stood until almost the 19-minute mark, before Will Brown and then David Reynolds moved to the top of the order during their second tyre runs.

Nick Percat, Heimgartner and Shane van Gisbergen later took turns at the top before Mostert returned to P1, only to be knocked off by the ever-present Heimgartner.

Brown jumped to second in the final moments before immediately locking up at Turn 2 and stopping just short of the tyre barrier.

Reynolds ended up third ahead of Percat, Mostert and PremiAir Racing teammates James Golding and Tim Slade.

Bruce Fullwood (BJR), Will Davison (Dick Johnson Racing) and Mark Winterbottom (Team 18) completed the top 10.

Reigning champion van Gisbergen finished the session 11^th while Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney ended up 20^th.

Despite dry and sunny conditions, the Triple Eight cars had initially rolled out on wet tyres – saving the first of their slick sets for once the track started to rubber in.

Tickford’s four Mustangs ended up down the order; Cam Waters in 19^th and James Courtney, Declan Fraser and Thomas Randle filled the final three places.

Two more practice sessions will round out Friday’s Repco Supercars Championship action in Newcastle.

RESULTS: Practice 1, Thrifty Newcastle 500