ENGINE FAILURE COSTS HEIMGARTNER eSERIES CHAMPS POINTS

MEDIA RELEASE/Kelly Racing – Photos: supplied

Kelly Racing made the virtual trip to North Amercia last night for Round Four of the BP All Stars Eseries! In an action-packed evening of racing, the line-up of fulltime Supercar drivers were joined by international stars including NASCAR Champion Joey Logano, Indycar driver Alexander Rossi and Aussie NASCAR legend Marcos Ambrose.
 
Kelly Racing drivers Rick Kelly and André Heimgartner saddled up the Castrol Racing and NED Racing Ford Mustangs for two races at Montreal Canada’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve followed by another two at New York State’s Watkins Glen. The formats for the evening included a reverse starting grid for one race at each of the two venues.

Qualifying saw André put the NED Mustang in fifth place for the start of race one and ninth for race three of the night. Rick meanwhile continued to battle with his simulator and qualified at the rear of the grid.
 
André had a solid race in the Montreal opener and enjoyed some solid battles with Will Davison and Cam Waters, eventually coming home in P6. Rick was caught up in some lap one chaos and finished P23.

Race two at Montreal was the reverse grid start which meant Rick started from P8 and Andre P24. Unfortunately Rick got tangled up in the multi-car pile-up on the race start caused by Logano (who isn’t used to standing starts). André thought he managed to get through with some minor bumps to the NED Mustang, however he later found his engine was seriously damaged after it died on track!
 
Fortunately André was able to roll into pit lane and have it repaired but it cost him plenty of time and he eventually finished P19. Meanwhile Rick was able to recover from his lap-1 crash by pitting early to repair his damage and making the undercut work to get his best Eseries result with a P12.

Race three saw the Supercars Eseries land at Watkins Glen for a longer format 14-lap race. André had a solid race and was able to maintain his qualifying position of P9. Rick was once again taken out during the course of the race and copped damage, he finished P24.
 
Race Four was a reverse grid format with Rick starting at the front of the gird. Unfortunately his lap one curse struck again and he was pointing at the fence by turn three. André was able to get a strong start and run as high as seventh in the opening lap, however bad timing of his pit stop let a train of cars through in front of him. André finished the evening in P14, while Rick was P23.
 
Next week the Eseries heads to Europe once again with two epic locations in Spa, Belgium and Nürburgring, Germany.

Rick Kelly, #15 Castrol Racing

“Last night was another tough Eseries round for me, I got taken out in every race which is frustrating. That was a result of not qualifying well which means you’re constantly trying to avoid big crashes at the start of the races – even in the reverse grid races you’re still starting around the same guys that are having big crashes on the first lap so it’s difficult to avoid that and stay out of trouble.”
 
“On a more positive note we got our best result finishing twelfth in the second race at Montreal which is good but we’re definitely lacking pace so I need to spend more time in the seat learning how to race my sim.”
 
“It was cool to be joined by some big names last night like NASCAR Champion Joey Logano and Alexander Rossi and race against them, I spent a fair bit of time around Joey as he seemed to struggle too!”

André Heimgartner, #7 NED Racing

“I had an average round last night, we had up and down races all night and finished as high as sixth in the first race and as low as nineteenth. We’ve still got a bit of time to find to catch the guys at the front but pretty happy to have got in the top-10 for both qualifying sessions.”
 
“Unfortunately there were a couple of races last night that didn’t go to plan. There was heaps of carnage in the second race with the reverse grid start and I thought we managed to avoid most of it but a front impact must have damaged the engine because towards the end of the race she let go! The last race we made a mistake with the timing of the pit stop and lost a whole bunch of positions which I wasn’t able to make up.”
 
“But overall it was a fun night and now looking forward to going to two more mega tracks next week with Spa and Nurburgring.”

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