The moment Heimgartner and Waters made wheel-to-wheel contact during the Taupo Super440.
In the closing laps of the race, Waters was about to complete a pass on Heimgartner for 10th at Turn 5 before they made wheel-to-wheel contact.
The #6 Monster Mustang was seen noticeably sagging in the left rear corner with damage to the damper.
Then, with three laps remaining, Waters’ hopes of a top 10 were dashed when Jayden Ojeda spun his #31 PremiAir Racing Chevrolet Camaro and took the Ford Mustang with him.
Ojeda, to that point, had been among the biggest movers in the race – up six spots.
Waters spoke with Heimgartner post-race, who brushed off the first incident.
“I don’t have any problem with it,” said Heimgartner on the Supercars broadcast.
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“I was just debriefing and he came in a bit upset, which I think I understand. He got taken out, but it wasn’t from me.
“Just saying something about something, I don’t know, but a bit rich coming from him.
“That’s not our problem at the moment, I thought it was some good racing.
“Everyone races hard out there and there’s contact and bent wheels and different things. It’s easy to snap dampers.
“Our problem is our car speed, so that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”
Waters lamented his qualifying performance of 13th for race one of the weekend that he said left him vulnerable.
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The damaging clash was one of two that Waters noted. The other was earlier in the race, when Waters locked up into the chicane.
“When you qualify bad you race with the people who aren’t at the top level and obviously that makes it harder,” said Waters.
“We’ve got to do a better job in qualifying. Promising pace, but obviously just disappointing to get a bit of damage with three to go. Just a pretty stupid move.”
Asked about his confrontation with Heimgartner, Waters said he was disappointed that the New Zealander did not leave him enough room.
“I’m all for hard racing and leaning on each other – but he did it in the first stint, Andre did – and then he just drove in my left rear in Turn 5 and broke my left rear damper,” Waters explained.
“Just kind of stupid. The pass was already done. Don’t really know why he did it.
“It is what it is. It’s probably a question for him. We’ll move on and make the car a bit faster and hopefully don’t have to race the b-grade drivers.”
Waters will start the weekend’s second and final race from 10th while Heimgartner rolls off 16th.
That race is scheduled for 1:30pm AEST with coverage live on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.
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