Andre Heimgartner has to hold down a full time job while being a Supercars driver.

Sitting in between Shane van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard at a press conference in Auckland this week, it was hard for Andre Heimgartner not to feel envious.

Motor racing is a sport of the haves and have nots and it's no different in Supercars.

While van Gisbergen and Coulthard are with big teams earning large salaries, the 21-year-old Heimgartner is with a small, underfunded team, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport and doesn't earn a penny for driving his car.

The LDM team have struggled to bring in sponsors for Andre Heimgartner's car this season.

Just to pay rent and put food on the table at his home in Melbourne, the Kiwi juggles being a Supercars driver with holding down a fulltime job.

READ MORE

* Supercars to set up in NZ

* Coulthard eyes Jason Richards trophy

* Foot still flat for SVG

* McLaughlin has own war to win at Pukekohe

"Whenever I'm in Melbourne, I'm always working there. It's pretty boring, but you have to do what you have to do," Heimgartner said.

He works for Stratton Finance, a car finance broker company. He decided he needed to get into the nine-to-five world when it looked like he might not get a Supercars drive this season.

"It's something I started doing this year, when racing for LDM," Heimgartner said.

"Last year when I was with Super Black and I didn't have to do any work and could drive full time.

"But this year that hasn't been the case and I've had to get a second job.

"With what happened at the end of last year and not getting a drive three weeks before Clipsal, it made me think a lot about my life and that sort of stuff.

"When I was getting a second plan in place, just in case the racing doesn't go forward, you need something else, because you never know what could happen, you could break a leg and not be able to race."

Down the Supercars pitlane, less than half the drivers are taken on by a team purely because of their driving abilities.

While that's taken into account, an important factor is how much sponsorship money the driver can big with him to a team.

The going rate to bring in sponsorship to get a drive is between $700,000 and $1million and unfortunately for Heimgartner he can't bring anything like that.

"I've never had that sort of money to bring to a team, even at Super Black I was never anywhere near anything like that," he said.

"What I've brought to Super Black and LDM is very low numbers and unfortunately for the team that means they don't have a lot of money.

"Last year they had Tim Blanchard bringing in a bit of money which helped, but this year Nick (Percat, the other driver at LDM) is not bringing anything and I'm not bringing enough to do a lot, so it's been difficult for them and that's shown, but I can't complain too much."

Heimgartner isn't too down about his situation. He feels it's part of the process drivers go through to get to the position van Gisbergen and Coulthard end up in.

"Obviously you'd like to be in those positions, but they've all done their time in smaller teams and battled away for a few years," he said.

"It's only appropriate that you do your apprenticeship. It's annoying that you can't just drive a good car and work on yourself as a driver, but that's just the way it goes and you can't rush these things."

But Heimgartner's future isn't secure in Supercars and he's already contemplating that he might have to drop down to being a co-driver in the endurance rounds next year.

Team owner Lucas Dumbrell owns two Racing Entitlement Contracts (which are Supercars licences), but he may let one go next year.

Heimgartner's current team-mate is moving to Brad Jones Racing next year, but it's not a given the Kiwi will get to drive for LDM if it becomes a one-car outfit.

"I think it's preferential that they'd go back to one [car]," Heimgartner said.

"It's been a bit of a battle, we've had changes of the management, sponsors come in and out, but Lucas has done an awesome job managing it and giving me and Nick the best car he can.

"I think he'd prefer to go back to one car, but I don't want to put words in his mouth.

"I think we'll know in the next week or so what's going to happen," he added.

"Hopefully I can drive again in the main game and obviously that's the goal, but if not, I'll get a co-drive somewhere I'm sure."