Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner in box seat to fire into new Supercars era at Newcastle 500

Over the past four seasons, he has raced a Nissan, a Ford and then last year a Holden.

Now it's a Chevrolet.

He also joined Brad Jones Racing in 2022 after departing Kelly Grove, his team of four seasons, the year prior.

It is this constant change that the 27-year-old Kiwi driver hopes will give him an edge in the transition to Supercars' new Gen 3 era.

"It's the adaptability," Heimgartner, who debuted as a full-time driver in 2015, told the Newcastle Herald.

"Driving so many different cars makes you quicker to adapt to new ones.

"Most people have just driven two of the cars, but I drove basically every single model of the last generation apart from the Volvo and Mercedes.

"I adapted pretty quickly to the [Ford] Mustang and again to the Holden.

"We'll see if we can do the same thing again."

Heimgartner, like every Supercars driver, will begin racing the new Gen 3 cars, which have been designed to tighten up the competition, at the series-opening Newcastle 500 in a fortnight.

In encouraging signs driving his new Camaro, Heimgartner proved quickest on track in two test sessions at Sydney Motorsport Park this week. But as an experienced campaigner, he isn't getting ahead of himself.

"It was as the timesheets say, we ended up at the top which is good [but] you don't really know 100 per cent until we get to the first round," he told Supercars.com.

"People play games, you know, they don't show the hand as it always is. So yeah, we'll see when we get to Newcastle."

READ MORE: The Herald's complete Newcastle 500 coverage

Heimgartner was a commendable 10th overall last year.

He scored podiums at Winton, Perth and Pukekohe, the latter a second-place finish in what was the last race at the Auckland circuit in his home country.

The results came after he had a breakthrough maiden race win at The Bend the year prior with his old team.

Nearing a decade in the category, Melbourne-based Heimgartner is hungry for success.

He is hoping a second year with BJR can prove fruitful, but is expecting the unexpected given the introduction of the new cars.

"If we were going to go in the same car for a second year, you'd be looking to be inside the top five in the championship," he said.

"But of course, it's a different car, so we don't know how the year will unfold."

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