Percat jets out, but revving up for Clipsal 500

He is in Germany this week collecting Porsche Cup accolades, but after an impressive performance at Sydney Olympic Park in his debut solo V8 Supercars drive, Nick Percat’s mind is already focussed on the start of the 2014 Championship at the Clipsal 500 in his Adelaide home town.

The 25-year old South Australian showed impressive form in the injured James Courtney’s brand new Holden Racing Team Commodore VF in the Sydney NRMA Motoring & Services 500, and if not for issues outside his control looked to have a big shot at top 10 finishes in both 250km races.

The event gave him a taste of 2014 when he will race in the category full-time in a fourth Walkinshaw Racing Commodore underpinned by the Racing Entitlements Contract (REC) of South Australian James Rosenberg.

“I cannot wait to get in there in my own car and have my own crew around me and home crowd for round one,” he told v8supercars.com.au. “I am looking forward to it.

“James’ car had really good pace so I am really thankful for everyone who made it possible for me to drive it. It has given me a massive leg up going into Clipsal next year. Now I don’t go over Christmas wondering what the hell is going to happen at Clipsal.

“I know what is going to happen, I know the guys I am racing, I know the cars, I have started to learn what I like in the cars. There’s no negative about it. I didn’t get the results I wanted but I think we showed there is good potential there.”

Percat had to dash straight to the airport after Sunday’s 250km race to head off to annual Porsche racing celebrations because of his second-place finish in the 2013 Australian Porsche Carrera Cup.

“The top three … are going to Abu Dhabi for a couple of days then on to Germany for the night of champions dinner with Porsche,” he explained.

Percat, who has been a Walkinshaw Racing driver since 2007, got the call-up for Sydney after James Courtney’s horror collision with Alex Premat at the Sargent Security Phillip Island 360 in which the factory Holden driver suffered a broken tibia and his car was junked.

While Percat has raced in the last three enduro seasons with Garth Tander and they won the 2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 together, this was his first solo V8 Supercars Championship drive.

He qualified 13th on Saturday and 12th on Sunday. In the first race he lost time when a Rick Kelly turn one dive-bomb forced him up the escape road and he finished 18th.

In race two a power steering issue ended his chances while he was comfortably sitting in behind championship contender Craig Lowndes in his Red Bull Commodore and was classified 24th.

Percat was notably more aggressive in race two, assertively passing teammate Garth Tander on lap one.

“We had good pace on Saturday but I was probably a bit more tentative and not on the front foot so much,” Percat said. “So you end up in those silly fights with people you shouldn’t be fighting with.

“But today I showed from the start I was there to race and wanted position to make sure I was ahead of Garth for pit stops.”

Percat was also encouraged by how well he coped with the hot conditions in the car at the concrete-lined circuit.

“I am feeling quite fresh actually, which is quite positive after seeing a few of the other guys this year getting out looking quite hot and sweaty.

“I am quite comfortable in the car, I need to work on qualifying pace. But I think the pace I had with the other cars in our team was not too bad in qualifying.”

Percat said he had set himself performance expectations for 2014, but the Sydney Olympic Park experience had taught him reaching his goals wouldn’t be easy.

“After this weekend you do learn how up and down this category can be,” he admitted. “Both days we really should have been in the top 10, but we don’t actually have a result from the weekend and that shows how tough it is. I wasn’t out there crashing and bashing, we had two very clean races and it just didn’t go our way.

“So it’s a hard championship … but I am just going to try and be consistent and keep my nose around the top 10 all year. There are going to be good weekends and bad weekends, but we have just got to take it as it comes and see what happens.”