Motorsport: My hot lap with Andre Heimgartner in Taupō

Nathan Limm describes the feeling of whizzing around Taupō International Motorsport Park in a V8 with Andre Heimgartner.

Imagine you’re in a taxi. Except the taxi is really just the frame of a taxi, the engine is a V8 and you’ve got Supercars driver Andre Heimgartner behind the wheel.

A dual seat belt cuts into both my shoulders as Heimgartner slams the accelerator and the bright yellow Chevrolet Camaro roars out of pit lane onto Taupō International Motorsport Park, which - in April next year - will become New Zealand’s home of Supercars.

A stunning mountainous backdrop sporting plumes of geothermal gas would make for a peaceful, picturesque location, but right now it’s just picturesque. The thunderous V8 cuts through the serene atmosphere and the back of my head glues itself to the headrest.

The Taupō tarmac relentlessly poses corners, refusing to allow drivers the speed garnered on the straights of Pukekohe Park.

It’s all fairly pedestrian for Heimgartner, who has whizzed around Taupō Motorsport Park plenty of times growing up.

He says it’s a lot more technical than Pukekohe Raceway.

“It’s very much a new circuit. It’s probably got triple the corners and it’s very flat. So a very different style of racing.”

Heimgartner expected Hampton Downs to be the next home for Supercars in New Zealand, but facility upgrades and probable motorway blockages provided obstacles.

“To be honest, I didn’t really think about Taupō to any serious point. To come a bit further south and come to a cool area like this, you’ve got thermals coming out of the ground and people think ‘What the hell’s that?’”

The event is expected to attract over 100,000 fans and pump $6m into the local economy.

As Heimgartner steers the Camaro back into pit lane, I can hear the future chorus of thousands of Kiwis, all soaking in the smell of octane after a year left off the Supercars calendar.

Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. Limm covered the World Rally Championship in New Zealand and the Netball World Cup in South Africa and hosts The Big League Podcast. Growing up, he was never far from the footy field or the cricket nets and fostered a deep passion for sports media and broadcasting.