Andre has three sisters, one older than him now perusing a medical related career at university. His mother is a Chartered Accountant and Mark his Dad is a Manufacturing Engineer and Company Director. Mark has raced extensively at club level with in New Zealand and has been a successful competitor in Super Sedans / GT1.
Andre currently attends Saint Kentigern Collage in Auckland and spends time playing the guitar. He has also played soccer for the Fencibles Club where he played premiere soccer for his grade.
Andre has been racing competitively since the age of 7 - moving through karting classes of Cadet, Junior Restricted and Junior Yamaha. Due to his father’s motorsport commitments Andre competed almost exclusively at club level, mostly with the Mount Wellington Kart Club where he won numerous podiums.
Progressing at the age of 12 he obtained his National Race Licence and spent two seasons in the New Zealand Formula First championship. Andre and his father purchased an undeveloped poor performing car and spent this period learning race engineering skills and engine development. Valuable track time and racing skills were developed by Andre during the two seasons he spent in the class.
2009 saw Andre’s entry into Formula Ford. The highly successful Caine Lobb Van Diemen Stealth was purchased in April and provided the platform for Andre’s assault of the Formula Ford Winter Series, the South island Championship and the National Championship during 2009/2010. Andre ran with the successful Motorsport Solutions team based at Ruapuna, Christchurch.
Andre went on to have a successful season, dominating the 2009/10 Winter Series, along with the South Island Formula Ford Championship - while finishing 6th in 2009/10 NZ Formula Ford championship despite missing the final round.
After the main events, it was time for Heimgartner to shine in the enduro’s - taking the number one spot in Mini challenge class at the Altherm 4 hour enduro, run at Hampton Downs.
This was before he would head to Australia and compete in the Formula Ford Fiesta championship, in which he would end up fourth.
The 2010/11 NZ Formula Ford season was a different story altogether as a step up into modern technology in the form of the 2010 Mygale chassis brought new life in the now 15 year old.
Heimgartner dominated the season, taking both the Ron Frost Memorial and Morri Smith trophies along the way. Taking eight wins over the season, Heimgartner went on to take the title with races to spare at the Grand Final at Taupo Motorsport Park.
As with the previous season, Andre is participating in the 2011 Enduro series – in a Class 1 Porsche GT3 Cup car. In the latest round, he was running in second place overall, that was until five minutes to go mark where the clutch failed. Nevertheless the pace from the 15 year old was more than evident.
While this is being written, Andre is also currently participating in the 2011 Australian Formula Ford championship with Team BRM.
Be sure to check back to Andreheimgartner.com for updates.
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