Andre Heimgartner, R&J Batteries Racing, 11th (1117 points): I think if you won a championship, but never won Bathurst, it\u2019d always be on your mind. I guess it\u2019s the same way the other way around, so they\u2019re both equally important.<\/p>\n
Richie Stanaway, PremiAir Racing, 20th (760 points): It was great to have had the win as a co-driver, but right now getting a podium or a win as a main driver is the next step for me.<\/p>\n
Matthew Payne celebrating victory in Tasmania this year. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Jaxon Evans, SCT Motorsport, 23rd (653 points): A Bathurst 1000 win would feature pretty high on my list. Maybe not quite as big as a championship win, but to be a Bathurst champion at some point in my career is definitely a goal.<\/p>\n
Fabian Coulthard, Walkinshaw Andretti United, (co-driver with Chaz Mostert): I\u2019ve got good memories from around here. I\u2019ve been fortunate enough to stand on the podium a couple of times with a second and third place. I\u2019d love the box set this year and get the winner\u2019s trophy.<\/p>\n
Why does this race bring the best out of the drivers?<\/p>\n
Matthew Payne: It\u2019s probably the layout and the fact that to go fast requires a lot of balls. Some people are probably willing to put it on the line more than others, but in saying that, you do have to have a good car as well.<\/p>\n
From left: Richie Stanaway, Jaxon Evans, Ryan Wood, Andre Heimgartner and Matt Payne in Taupo. Photo \/ Edge Photography<\/p>\n
Ryan Wood: I think it\u2019s just the atmosphere. It\u2019s our biggest race of the year and it\u2019s the one that everyone wants to win. No matter what they say, Bathurst is where you put all your eggs in the basket, and you have a crack.<\/p>\n
Andre Heimgartner: The history of it and the fact there\u2019s so many fans and stuff, It\u2019s wild. There\u2019s just something about it and the track is very challenging, too.<\/p>\n
Richie Stanaway: Everybody sort of elevates up when you\u2019re flying around here. I think it\u2019s one of the hardest races in the world, so you just rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n
Jaxon Evans: There\u2019s a lot of history here, but it\u2019s also the circuit. It\u2019s high risk, high reward, so unless you put everything on the table, you don\u2019t know what potential is there.<\/p>\n
Fabian Coulthard: We get so much practice here unlike a normal sprint round, so it gives everybody a lot of time to be able to get on top of their package and try and max out the best they can.<\/p>\n
Andre Heimgartner: “It’s wild. There\u2019s just something about it and the track is very challenging, too.” Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
How much does having a co-driver influence how the car is set up?<\/p>\n
Matthew Payne: It really depends on what level your co-driver is at. Someone who\u2019s a rookie just coming in will probably only drive what you\u2019re giving them.<\/p>\n
Ryan Wood: It\u2019s something that\u2019s super important. Jad [Jayden Ojeda] and me get along really well and he\u2019s super-fast. He\u2019s won the Bathurst Six Hour twice and I\u2019m looking forward to teaming up with him.<\/p>\n
Andre Heimgartner: Generally, you try and have both drivers the same, because you can\u2019t really change the car much.<\/p>\n
Richie Stanaway: It\u2019s always focused on the main driver.<\/p>\n
Jaxon Evans: “I know what I want, and know what I need for the car to be fast.” Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Jaxon Evans: I know what I want, and know what I need for the car to be fast. So, it\u2019s getting him [co-driver] to adapt to that.<\/p>\n
Fabian Coulthard: We like the same thing in the car and our feedback\u2019s been the same. We want the same thing from the car, and I think that\u2019s why it worked so well in 2022 [second].<\/p>\n
Do you worry much watching the co-driver in the car?<\/p>\n
Matthew Payne: It\u2019s more the rookies you might feel a bit of concern about. With Garth [Tander, his co-driver] he\u2019s had so much experience here, you don\u2019t have to worry.<\/p>\n
Ryan Wood: Yeah, you\u2019re nervous, but you don\u2019t pick the guy for no reason, so you\u2019ve got a lot of faith in them. We\u2019re out here to win, so if he\u2019s having a crack, I\u2019m right behind it.<\/p>\n
Andre Heimgartner: You just have to relax; however, I\u2019d much rather be driving than watching.<\/p>\n
Richie Stanaway: You get a little bit nervous depending on who the co-driver is. There are two styles of co-driver; the older guy that\u2019s raced fulltime a lot and he\u2019s no longer in audition mode and a bit more reliable, whereas when you get a young guy, he\u2019s more in audition mode, because they want to race fulltime.<\/p>\n
Matt Payne on the track in Sydney. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Jaxon Evans: I\u2019ve done so much endurance racing in my career that I\u2019m almost good at not watching, and whatever happens, happens out there. I have no control over it, so I don\u2019t want to raise my stress levels.<\/p>\n
Fabian Coulthard: I am the co-driver. I keep an eye on what Chaz is doing but don\u2019t worry.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s your biggest threat for the race win?<\/p>\n
Matthew Payne: It\u2019s probably myself. We just need to work on what we\u2019re doing. And make sure we get everything right and just go through our processes. If I was going to say someone, it would probably be Broc [Feeney]; he\u2019s been very close to winning this race the last two years. <\/p>\n
Ryan Wood: The guy and the other side of the garage [Chaz Mostert]. He\u2019s a two-time Bathurst winner.<\/p>\n
Andre Heimgartner: Brody [Kostecki] will be pretty fast here. They seem to always get that car in a good window and then you have [Cam] Waters, who is always pretty speedy, and the Red Bull cars.<\/p>\n
Richie Stanaway: It\u2019s probably just ourselves. It\u2019s our ability to tune the car throughout practice. It\u2019s really all up to us.<\/p>\n
Jaxon Evans: The Red Bulls will be strong as will Brodie Kostecki. The guys from the Ford camp are also going pretty well.<\/p>\n
Fabian Coulthard: The other side of the garage [Ryan Wood], the Red Bulls and last year\u2019s winner [Kostecki].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andre Heimgartner, R&J Batteries Racing, 11th (1117 points): I think if you won a championship, but never won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20299,836,214,15211,46351,2082,45432,54945,111,43,139,69,2122,54946],"class_list":["post-68599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-20299","tag-836","tag-bathurst","tag-drivers","tag-eric","tag-for","tag-goals","tag-mount-panorama","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-share","tag-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68599","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=68599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}