{"id":523033,"date":"2026-07-13T00:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/523033\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T00:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:38:14","slug":"supercars-news-andre-heimgartner-concedes-tough-townsville-almost-kills-finals-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/523033\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Andre Heimgartner concedes tough Townsville \u2018almost kills\u2019 Finals hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026_Supercars_Rd7_PaceImages_22973-Social.jpg\" alt=\"Heimgartner concedes tough Townsville \u2018almost kills\u2019 Finals hopes\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndre Heimgartner at the Townsville 500. Image: Supplied <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/287093\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" onmousedown=\"this.rel=\" nofollow=\"\" sponsored=\"\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" alt=\"\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/287093.gif\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Brad Jones Racing Toyota star\u2019s second engine-related DNF of the season on Sunday compounded a horror weekend for the team.<\/p>\n<p>Heimgartner entered Townsville 12th in the standings, 124 points out of the 10th place cut-off, and leaves 14th and 175 points adrift with just four rounds to go.<\/p>\n<p>The #8 Supra had been 15th and 16th in the opening two Townsville races, before a ninth-place qualifying effort on Sunday had Heimgartner hopeful for the race.<\/p>\n<p>That quickly dried up, though, when the Kiwi was first involved in a Turn 2 melee and then forced to the garage with terminal engine trouble.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt like we really unlocked some speed and got a bit of direction,\u201d reflected Heimgartner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, I wasn\u2019t able to see if it came to anything in the race mainly due to some engine issues.<\/p>\n<p>    Tickets for the 2026 NTI Townsville 500 are on sale now. Secure your spot today.<br \/>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/ticketekau.pxf.io\/5kYxq9\" style=\"color:#de482e;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buy tickets<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s of course a DNF so it puts a bit of a dampener on our Finals hopes and almost kills that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo now just looking forward to try and execute some races and just try and build up for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1037469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026_Supercars_Rd7_PaceImages_18167-Enhanced-NR-Social.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The R&amp;J Batteries Toyota Supra on track. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n<p>Heimgartner was the hard luck story of the 2025 Finals cut-off, bumped out of the 10th place slot when he conceded a place on the final lap of the Bathurst 1000.<\/p>\n<p>The 10th place battle is currently being fought out between Matt Stone Racing\u2019s Jack Le Brocq and the Blanchard Racing Team\u2019s James Golding.<\/p>\n<p>Golding conceded the place to Le Brocq in Townsville after his own Sunday trouble, spun by Cooper Murray on the opening lap.<\/p>\n<p>Le Brocq is now 11 points ahead of Golding, while 12th-placed Jayden Ojeda and 13th-placed Thomas Randle are 137 and 156 points outside the cut-off respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The top 10 drivers in points after the Bathurst 1000 will score Finals slots, unless the Enduro Cup winner comes from 11th downwards and gains an automatic entry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andre Heimgartner at the Townsville 500. Image: Supplied The Brad Jones Racing Toyota star\u2019s second engine-related DNF of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[39415,17819,111,139,69,1732,213],"class_list":["post-523033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-andre-heimgartner","tag-brad-jones-racing","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot4","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}