MOTORSPORT: TCR lures Heimgartner from Supercars

Andre Heimgartner, a first-time podium finisher this year in Supercars, is the first crossover campaigner for the all-new TCR Australia Touring Car Series.

The transplanted New Zealander will do double duty in TCR and Supercars with the same team, Kelly Racing, and will jump into a Subaru WRX in addition to the Nissan Altima he campaigns in the main-game touring car series.

Confirmation of his TCR campaign comes after Kelly Racing signed Perth youngster Alex Rullo and Chelsea Angelo to drive its pair of Opel Astras and placed race rookie and rally convert Molly Taylor in a sister Subaru WRX.

The signing means there are only three unfilled seats on the grid for the season opener this weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.

“I’m really looking forward to getting into the new TCR Australia Series. It’s an interesting new category and to be given the opportunity by Kelly Racing, who I already have a great relationship with, is really exciting,” said Heimgartner.

His move comes after he finished third in his Altima at Phillip Island last month and despite a ban by leading Supercars teams on their main-game headliners joining the TCR series.

“I’m not allowed to do it. I’d like to, but I’m not allowed,” one former Bathurst 1000 winner has told carsales.com.au.

The other high-profile Supercars converts to TCR are endurance co-drivers Tony D’Alberto and Will Brown, who is also doing the full Super2 Series championship in a Holden Commodore with Eggleston Motorsport and scored a heat win at Barbagello Raceway in Perth.

Although only 23, Heimgartner is into his fourth full season in Supercars, after joining the series in 2015 with the now-defunct Super Black Racing team out of New Zealand.

He had earlier won the NZ touring car championship in a Toyota Camry and was a two-time national Formula Ford champion.

This year he has a packed program including the Blancpain GT Asia Championship, in which he currently runs second after second and fourth places last weekend sharing a Ferrari 488 with Yuya Sakamoto in Thailand.

But the TCR series will be a major change as he is taking on the new challenge of a front-wheel drive car.

“I’ve only ever raced in rear-wheel drive categories so I’m looking forward to taking on the new challenge and getting to grips with a new type of race car,” Heimgartner said.

“There are a lot of really high-level drivers in the category and some of them I’ve raced with before so I’m keen to get out there and start racing alongside them in Sydney this weekend.”