Percat relishing second chances

Nick Percat says having back-to-back events at the same circuit is helping development efforts with his Brad Jones Racing Commodore.

A COVID-19 induced calendar reshuffle has resulted in Sydney Motorsport Park, Hidden Valley and Townsville each hosting consecutive events.

The weekend’s second Hidden Valley meeting took place just a week after the first, with two hitouts in Townsville to follow over the next two weekends.

Percat is enjoying a strong season, sitting fifth in the championship after a second place finish in the weekend’s final race added to his two wins from the Sydney events.

Although believing having back-to-back events isn’t particularly helping BJR more than other squads, Percat is relishing the opportunity it has created.

“Normally as a driver we come out on the Sunday night or Monday and throw the list of excuses out and don’t have to worry about it for a year,” he said.

“Now if you come out on Monday and say you’d go better next week because you found problems with the car and you don’t, it’s a bit awkward.

“I enjoy it. Actions speak louder than words so us as a team, myself and AE [Andrew Edwards, engineer] dug deep during the week to try and keep developing our car.

“On car #8 we’re always trying to develop new parts and bits and pieces and take that step forward to try and catch the likes of T8 [Triple Eight] and Penske [DJR Team Penske].

“We kind of throw some pretty big changes at it, so it was nice to come back a week later and have the same conditions, the same track, that kind of thing.

“That makes that a bit easier for developing the car.”

Percat’s Commodore was quick across both Hidden Valley events, with five top-10 starts and four top-six finishes from the six attempts.

Both events though came with frustration, crashed out by Shane van Gisbergen in the opening race of the first event and spun by Chaz Mostert in the second race of the second.

One area the BJR Commodore appeared weak compared to the factory Red Bull Holden Racing Team entries in Darwin was speed on the circuit’s 1.1km front straight.

Asked if he noticed the straight-line speed of the Red Bull cars, which share the same engine supplier with BJR, Percat said: “Absolutely.

“I was behind Jamie [Whincup] in that second race and couldn’t tow up on him, which was annoying and when Shane or Jamie were behind me they had a big crack down at [Turn] 1, towing up on us.

“We’re a customer team to KRE and I think we get a very good engine and service they deliver, but there might be a few things we can do better with the panel gaps.

“There’s a lot of things that teams run different with rake and stuff like that which affects straight-line handling, so unless you have the same setup, rear wing angles… there’s so much that goes into it, you can’t really pinpoint it on an engine.

“If you look at [teammate Todd] Hazelwood this weekend, we thought he had an engine issue, tried to put another one in it and it’s not gone really any better.

“There’s so many other moving parts in the cars that you’ve got to make sure are absolutely perfect.

“That’s why they’re quick in a straight-line and it’s the same reason why the Penske cars are really quick in a straight-line too.

“The two big teams do a very good job at the one-percenters.”