Last year Super Black Racing were the surprise package at the Bathurst 1000, this time they only lasted 35 laps.
The New Zealand team’s race ended when Karl Reindler’s Team Cooldrive Holden clipped the back of their car when Ant Pedersen was driving, spinning him off the track at Hell Corner and into a wall.
It was a devastating blow for the Wellsford-based team, who finished 11th last year, as a top 10 finish in their Ford Falcon FGX was on the cards.
“I got on the outside of another car and then the car behind has come through and tagged us on the left rear and put me into the fence,” explained a gutted Pedersen.
“It was frustrating, we weren’t even a quarter of the way through the race, so I’m just really disappointed for the team Andre (Heimgartner, his team-mate) and Tony (Lentino, owner) obviously.
“It’s disappointing for everyone involved, but this is motorsport, anything can happen.”
Reindler, who is back racing in V8 Supercars after a two-year break, was given a drive through penalty for taking Pedersen out, but that was of no comfort to the Super Black team.
“A lap round here is two minutes,” Pedersen said.
“He’ll spend 50 seconds going through pit lane and as soon as there’s a safety car he’ll be back in the race, for us, we’re out.”
For Heimgartner, who drives the Super Black Racing car on his own for most of the season, it was crushing to watch his race end so abruptly from the garage, especially when it wasn’t Pedersen’s fault.
“It was pretty disappointing, it was a stupid situation and I won’t understand why what happened, happened,” he said.
“That’s the way it goes and we have to come back next year.”
Lentino recently confirmed Super Black Racing would be on the grid again in 2016 and hoping next year’s Bathurst would be as good as their first attempt at the Great Race.
“Last year was spectacular and this year there was disappointment, that’s the balance of racing,” Lentino said.
“We probably shouldn’t have got out onto the grass, but that guy (Reindler) behind us punted us off, so it wasn’t our fault.
“Last year we were rookies, so there was more nerves and we just went slower and that was probably a better approach. This time there was probably more anticipation, more pressure for us to perform and more racing going on.
“It’s in that last 20 laps where we should start cranking it up.
“There were a few moments where we were ding donging with other cars, which I didn’t like.”
That Reindler is a bit of a plonker I think. Was gutted for Andre and Ants, good luck for the Gold Coast.