How 'wild vibration' threatened to derail Percat
Nick Percat raced from 13th to fifth in Darwin finale
Percat Camaro suffered "wild vibration" in qualifying
#10 Chevrolet underwent overnight engine change
Nick Percat has hailed his Matt Stone Racing crew for engineering his Darwin turnaround after a “wild vibration” threatened to derail his Sunday.
A day after racing to seventh in Race 11, Percat struggled to 13th in Boost Mobile Qualifying after his #10 Bendix Camaro picked up a vibration.
MSR threw everything at the #10 Chevrolet before the race, and the changes worked as Percat powered into the top five.
It came after an overnight engine change for the #10, with the engine changed for precautionary reasons.
"I think we got a little bit lucky there,” Percat told the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.
“After qualifying we had this wild vibration through the car. Credit to Matt and the whole team.
“Changed transaxles, driveshafts, uprights, brakes, everything to try and make it drivable, because I could virtually in qualifying, barely see.
"I was surprised to be 13th, but to be honest the car was probably good enough to be on the front row.
“Can't speak highly enough of the team to knuckle in and do that much to the car to make sure we had it reliable, and got rid of the vibration for the race.”
The result helped Percat regain fourth in the championship, which he lost after New Zealand.
MSR backed it up on Sunday with Cameron Hill, who claimed his first top 10 finish since the very first race of the season at Mount Panorama.
"We had fast cars as soon as we rolled out of the truck, the team executed faultlessly all weekend, so just have to thank them for all the hard work,” the Canberran said.
"It’s all making sense — some more good results are obviously coming our way. It’s funny how you can be chasing the top 10 and then all of a sudden you’re in the top 10 and you’re saying ‘should have been top five’.
"Can’t wait for the next one.”
