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Kiwi completes Supercars dream at The Bend

Ed JacksonAAP
Andre Heimgartner has won his first Supercars pole position for Saturday's race.
Camera IconAndre Heimgartner has won his first Supercars pole position for Saturday's race. Credit: AAP

New Zealand's Andre Heimgartner has claimed his first Supercars win, less than three years after he was contemplating starting life as a finance broker.

The Kelly Grove Racing driver was days away from quitting racing in 2018 when he was handed a career lifeline to replace Todd Kelly at the-then Nissan Motorsport team.

On Saturday that faith was repaid when Heimgartner won the 24-lap race at South Australia's The Bend Motorsport Circuit - his first win in 161 races.

"I was literally four days away from stopping racing, so it was meant to be all over, but thank God it's not and turned out like this," the 25-year-old said.

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"Just really, really happy and relieved.

"It's been a long time. I've been in the championship, basically, since 2015.

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"That's really, really good."

Not only did Heimgartner end his wait for a race win on Saturday, the victory was Ford's first in 223-days, ending Holden's nine-race winning streak stretching back to last September's event at The Bend.

It wasn't plain sailing for Heimgartner, who started at the front of the grid after claiming the second pole position of his career earlier in the day.

His Mustang was slow off the line but after dropping two places, Heimgartner had reclaimed the lead by the end of the opening lap on a wet circuit.

With pace none of his rivals could muster, Heimgartner pulled away to eventually come home just under nine seconds clear of Holden's Chaz Mostert.

That margin was important after Heimgartner was given a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release after his pit stop which led to contact with Holden's Jamie Whincup.

Mostert finished second with Ford's Anton De Pasquale coming home third.

Apart from Heimgartner, the other driver to catch the eye was Nick Percat.

Starting at the back of the grid after a disastrous qualifying, Percat opted to start on slick tyres in contrast to the rest of the field who chose wet tyres.

Safely navigating the opening lap, Percat ate up the field and eventually came home fifth due to his strategy play with only a late mistake when battling with De Pasquale for third costing him an unlikely podium.

It was a less memorable day for championship leader Shane Van Gisbergen, whose Red Bull Ampol Racing Commodore struggled for pace in the difficult conditions.

Van Gisbergen made a bright start to climb from eighth to third on the opening lap but had to settle for a seventh-place finish, one behind teammate and main championship rival Whincup.

The Bend SuperSprint event wraps up on Sunday with two more 24-lap races.

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