Brodie Kostecki leads the standings with 2696 points, 131 ahead of Shane van Gisbergen. There are two races in Adelaide - one on Saturday and one on Sunday - with the winner of each earning 150 points.
This weekend is van Gisbergen’s Supercars swansong. The three-time championship and Bathurst 1000 winner is heading to Nascar with Trackhouse Racing.
Heimgartner has battled fellow Kiwis van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, who between them have won the past five championships. With McLaughlin racing in IndyCar, van Gisbergen’s exit means Heimgartner will be the senior New Zealander in the field next year and an opportunity to challenge for the title without having to deal with the two best drivers of the past eight years.
“It’s crazy [being the senior Kiwi driver], isn’t it? It’s cool that he [van Gisbergen] is doing that and now I can finally step out of his and Scotty’s shadow. It was amazing the support I got last time we raced in New Zealand and I can’t wait to get back there.”
The Adelaide street circuit is one of the more challenging on the Supercars calendar with its scary monster turn eight. It’s one of those corners where drivers can make gains if they are brave enough, but one that will wreck man and machine if they don’t have the talent to negotiate it.
Heimgartner likes the place and is not shy in taking on the 230km/h corner. There is no room for error, with a narrow entry and no run-off on exit. Former Supercars champion Craig Lowndes dubbed it “probably the wildest corner in Australian motorsport”.
“Adelaide is an interesting track that has a few challenges,” said Heimgartner. “There’s a big mixture of surfaces and corners, and it’s very technical and tight.
“Then you have turn eight, which is a pretty famous corner, and if you overstep, you can easily ruin the car and your race weekend. There are plenty of white lines, kerbs and different cambers that make it an awesome challenge for the drivers.
“We’ve had a big gap since the last race and the engineers have had time to come up with some ideas to make the cars better.
“We’ve lost a bit of the qualifying speed we’ve had in the past and hopefully will have it back for this weekend, as qualifying well is important.”