Repco Australia Superlastcar Championship: Early race Engine failure leaves Heimgartner last at Sydney Motorsports Park

Saturday, 21 February 2026

Early race Engine failure leaves Heimgartner last at Sydney Motorsports Park

Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Toyota) finished last after engine failure with 8 of 52 laps completed. The finish came in Andre’s 304th start.

Andre Heimgartner is a veteran of the sport, on his 11th full-time season. He started in 2016 for Super Black Racing, but lost his ride in 2017 and only ran as co-driver for Brad Jones Racing that year.

Heimgartner competed for Kelly Racing for four seasons, two in Nissan and two in Ford. He would switch manufacturers and raced a Holden for Brad Jones Racing starting in 2022. When Brad Jones Racing joined Toyota, Andre stayed.

Andre was 16th in Practice 1. He improved to 14th in qualifying.

Jack LeBrocq (#4 Sherrin Rentals/Tyrepower Chevrolet) started the race last. However, he wouldn’t stay last long and would finish 9th.

At turn 1, there was contact between three drivers, including Jackson Walls (#11 Objective Ford), who would suffer a puncture from the contact.

The other two involved were fellow Bottom Five finishers Macauley Jone (#96 Alpha Theta Toyota) and Rylan Gray (#38 Shell V-Power Ford).

On lap 9, running in the mid-pack, Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Toyota) would slow with engine failure near Turn 10. The failure triggered the only safety car of the race.

Shortly after, his teammate Macauley Jones would pull the #96 into the garage with under tray and brake duct damage. The damage costs Jones 3 laps.

Additional problems would hit during the pit stops, as Jayden Ojeda (#31 Mr. Umanji/Nulon Chevrolet) had a left-rear wheel come off. The tire loss would cost Ojeda a lap.

Rylan Gray and Jackson Walls would fill the last positions in the Bottom Five.

The Bottom Five

Andre Heimgartner	8 Laps	Engine
Macauley Jones	49 Laps	Running
Jayden Ojeda	51 Laps	Running
Rylan Gray	52 Laps	Running
Jackson Walls	52 Laps	Running

Driver’s Championship

Pos	Driver	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1T	Cooper Murray	1	1	1
1T	Andre Heimgartner	1	1	1
3	Macauley Jones	0	2	2
4T	Jobe Stewart	0	1	1
4T	Jayden Ojeda	0	1	1
6	Ryan Wood	0	0	1
7	Rylan Gray	0	0	2
8	Jackson Walls	0	0	1

Team’s Championship

Pos	Driver	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Erebus Motorsports	2	1/2	1	1
2	Brad Jones Racing	3	1/3	3/3	3/3
3	Premair Racing	2	0	1/2	1/2
4	Dick Johnson Racing	2	0	0	2/2
5	Walkinshaw Andretti United	2	0	0	1/2
6	SCT/Red Bull Racing	2	0	0	1/2

Manufacturer’s Championship

Pos	Manufacturer	#	Last	Bottom 3	Bottom 5
1	Toyota	5	1/5	2/5	3/5
2	Chevrolet	8	1/8	4/8	4/8
3	Ford	11	0	0	3/11

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How Juniorgeneric defines a Last-Place finisher

Australian V8 LASTCAR'S Official Definition of a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF)

For the purposes of the Australian V8 LASTCAR championship rankings and statistics, a "Last-Place Finisher" (LPF) is a driver(s) who, after qualifying for a V8 Supercars Championship Points-Paying race, the result must be confirmed from official sources, or unofficial sources failing that. Only one driver (or two in a endurance race) can be classified as the LPF for that race.

Meeting those requirements, the LPF can be any driver classified as such for any reason, including, but not limited to.
1) A "did not start" although it should be noted that there is a difference between my definition of "did not start" and Brock Beard's definition of "Did not Start".
For example, in Bathurst 2015 Chazz Mostert and Cameron Waters' #6 Pepsi Max Ford had a huge accident during practice that injured Mostert and all but wrote off the car. Car #6 was withdrawn, and therefore I don't count Mostert and Waters as finishing last. Under Brock Beard's definition, however, Mostert and Waters would have finished last instead of David Wall and Chris Pither.
2) An entrant who encounters an event once the race has started which prevents the driver(s) from finishing ahead of any other qualified entrants, including both DNFs and drivers who finish under power but laps down*

*Only when all the cars in the race are running ahead of the LPF

3) A decision to “start and park” the driver’s entry (Extremely rare in V8 Supercars)
(4) a disqualification handed down by V8 Supercars and/or track officials that subsequently classifies the driver(s) in the final position behind the unofficial LPF.

Australian V8 LASTCAR shall not consider the LPF as anything else, including but not limited too
1) Any DNQ's
2) Any driver's who's car withdrew before the race start.
3)The lowest-ranked driver who finishes the race under power (unless all cars finished under power, actually quite common in V8 Supercars)
4) A driver(s) who finished last initially, however post-race disqualifications usurped the spot.
5) A driver(s) who may be catagorised as finishing last for exhibition events (I may bring these back at some point in the near future, I need more accurate numbers for the events before I start them up again)
6) Anything in non-V8 Supercar Main game (again, insufficent historical data)
7) A driver who was running last when the checkered flag fell, however because they greeted the checkered flag but a drive who was in front of them at the end of the race, however was not running at the end of the race. In that instance the driver who doesn't finish the race will fall behind the driver whom is still running at the end of the race.

In the rare event where official results or a preponderance of unofficial results are later updated with more accurate information about who was the LPF for that event, Australian V8 LASTCAR rankings and statistics shall be updated to reflect that change.