LUNDGAARD MAKES SUPERCARS DEBUT WITH KELLY RACING

June 4, 2020
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MEDIA RELEASE/Kelly Racing – Images: supplied

Last night the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries hit its penultimate round. With just one week remaining in the virtual series, the heat was on as we hit the Michigan Speedway for three big NASCAR-style oval track races.

This week Kelly Racing was joined by Renault Sport F1 Academy Junior Christian Lundgaard in the #98 Castrol BP Ford Mustang. Christian competed from the Renault DP World F1 Team headquarters in Enstone, UK on the team’s F1 Virtual Grand Prix simulator. Christian’s Supercars wildcard entry was organised thanks to Kelly Racing and Renault Sport partners, Castrol and BP after full-time driver André Heimgartner raced alongside Christian in the Albert Park Virtual Grand Prix earlier this year.

Christian was extremely competitive given his lack of experience with the Supercar and oval tracks and scored some solid results despite struggling qualifying.

André Heimgartner and Rick Kelly also battled through qualifying, with André in particular getting taken out in his heat race and sent to last position. The starting grid for Race One was Rick P23 in the Castrol car, André P24 in the NED Mustang and Christian P29 in the wildcard car.

Race One saw all three drivers make great starts and collect a few spots from the opening lap carnage. André ran as high as P5 before dropping down to P11 for the finish. Christian and Rick were taken out during the race – Christian finishing P22, Rick P31.

For Race Two’s reverse grid start, Rick was on pole! Christian started P10, while André was P21 for the rolling start. The green flag dropped and Rick led the field for a few laps until he dropped back to P5 and was caught up in drama between Christian and James Courtney. Courtney fired across into Christian who then gave Rick a nudge – luckily Rick was able to hang onto it and only drop five or so places. Christian wasn’t so lucky and got launched into the air and sent to the back of the grid.

The safety car came out with 13 laps remaining and André sat in P3 and looked good for his first Eseries podium! The race restarted and André was then taken out by Whincup and sent rearwards. Rick finished P13, Christian P26, André P27.

We then went into the final longer format race with André starting P19, Rick P24, Christian P25. Rick and André did a phenomenal job to fight back into the top-ten while Christian continued to battle with other drivers and couldn’t improve on his starting position. André came home P9 while Rick claimed his best Eseries result to date in P10.

The Eseries season finale will be held next Wednesday at iconic Australian circuits, Oran Park and Mount Panorama, Bathurst.

André Heimgartner, #7 NED Racing

“Last night was a lot of fun on the ovals, with the damage turned off in the game, everyone was really going for it and there was some really close and good racing at times. We got pretty unlucky and were taken out a few times during the night which stopped us from getting a podium which was unfortunate but I had a heap of fun.”

“In qualifying I kind of stuffed up the heat race and drove across Bryce and took myself out which put us in a bad spot to start. Race One was quite good we made up a lot of ground.”

“Race Two I thought we were on for a podium at least when I was leading the race after the safety car period but Whincup got a little loose on the restart and ended up driving into the side of me and ended up coming almost last, it just shows how exciting this stuff is, you never know what’s going to happen!”

“Last race again we made up a lot of ground, and were top-five towards the end there until I turned Reynolds around in front of me and I was pushing him along the track whilst also losing a lot of speed so we ended up just in the top-ten.”

“Overall a really fun night and looking forward to the season finale next week, Bathurst is always action-packed.”

Rick Kelly, #15 Castrol Racing

“The oval track racing is pretty exciting particularly when they turn the damage off so if you crash you can still race back and have a decent result. We were taken out in some shape or form in each race but did quite well in the second and third races to recover and get some OK results.”

“It was fun starting off pole in the second reverse grid race after I came last in the first one when Reynolds put me on my roof! Unfortunately we didn’t have the pace to stay there but we managed to get a pretty good result. It was cool to finish the final race alongside André.”

“Next week should be fun at Bathurst, then full focus on return to real racing at the end of this month, I cannot wait!”

Christian Lundgaard, #98 Castrol BP

“I had a lot of fun last night in the Castrol BP Supercar, it’s such a nice car to drive and everyone is super competitive! The oval track probably didn’t suit me too well as I did most of my practice on traditional circuits, but had a lot of fun anyway.”

“I felt like I was fairly competitive albeit with a few incidents that knocked me down the order. The oval tracks are definitely pretty crazy and takes a lot of skill to be fast.”

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