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Bathurst offers Andre Heimgartner last chance to reach Supercars finals series
Sport Nation • September 29th, 2026 3:17 pm
Andre Heimgartner has one last chance to make the Supercars finals series at the 2026 Bathurst 1000 | Photo: @BJRSupercars/Instagram
Andre Heimgartner’s hopes of qualifying for his first Supercars finals series will come down to the biggest race of the year, the Bathurst 1000.
The New Zealander currently sits 11th in driver standings, just one position short of qualification.
It is a familiar situation for the Brad Jones Racing (BJR) driver who missed the inaugural finals series in 2025 by just three points after being passed on the final lap of the Bathurst 1000.
“It's a great thing, this final series for the category, it adds another dimension to it, and another element to Bathurst,” Heimgartner told Sport Nation Afternoons.
“I think really, if we win, that obviously helps and fixes that problem.
“At the end of the day, it really just comes down to how everyone else goes that we're racing,” he explained.
“Wild things can happen and they do happen at the mountain, so you never know.”
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BJR has downsized from four cars to three and switched from the Chevrolet Camaro to the new-to-the-grid Toyota GR Supra, which has so far produced inconsistent results, leaving all their cards on the table.
Heimgartner has won once this season, in Tasmania, and will be partnered by Bryce Fullwood, who raced full-time for BJR in 2025. The duo finished 9th in the 'lead up to Bathurst' at The Bend last month.
Bathurst has often been unkind to Heimgartner, who says he has experienced plenty of misfortune across his appearances there.
“I've been there many times and I've had a lot of bad luck and unfortunate things happen.
“I think I've almost had a 50 per cent DNF rate and I've only caused that once out of the 12 or 13 years I've been going there.”
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Heimgartner says the focus is on delivering the best possible Bathurst weekend and hopefully everything else falls into place.
“We're going to give it our best shot and if we just look at Bathurst in isolation, we just have to go there and do the best job we can.
“To sort of have it all line up and have the perfect day for sure, there's many things that need to line up, and the mountain, I guess, in a way has to choose you and the racing gods have to choose you to surf your way through all the chaos.”
Heimgartner, who lives in Western Australia, said he has already begun adjusting his routine for the trip to New South Wales.
“I have to wake up pretty early in preparation for events. The time difference is about three hours for Bathurst, so I'm up nice and early trying to adapt the body.”
Listen to the full episode below:
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