Teammate's front splitter comes to Percat's rescue
Teammate's front splitter comes to Nick Percat's rescue
Percat required repairs following multi-car crash on lap 1
MSR star suffered damage in Saturday qualifying crash
For much of Sunday’s Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 finale, Nick Percat carried teammate Cameron Hill with him — but not as you’d expect.
Matt Stone Racing star Percat was an unlucky bystander in Race 22’s multi-car pile-up on lap 1, with a dozen cars implicated in the Turn 11 incident.
Few cars picked up as much damage as Percat’s Bendix entry, which was forced into pit lane for repairs. There, MSR mechanics tore the front splitter — or what was left — off the car.
Percat first went up the rear of David Reynolds’ TRADIE Beer Camaro, before making significant contact with James Courtney’s Snowy River Caravans Mustang.
With Percat already destroying a front splitter in Saturday’s qualifying crash with Will Brown, MSR fitted the #10 Camaro with a splitter from Hill’s Tyrepower-backed car.
After repairs, Percat was on a tear, setting the fastest lap of the race by some margin and clocking a new Gen3-best — something that was bittersweet, given the speed he had.
Percat finished 22nd and four laps down, while Hill also survived the carnage to race from 20th to 14th.
“I had a good start and made up a few positions which was good,” said 2011 Bathurst winner Percat, who is now eighth in the drivers’ standings.
"Got down to Turn 11 and it’s really the story of our weekend — there were some crashed cars already there and nowhere to go — frustrating.
"Obviously damaged the front splitter, but the boys did a good job to get the Car #4’s on there and from there it added salt to the wound because the car was really fast.
"We came away with the fastest lap of the race and a lap record — I wouldn’t say I was aiming for that, I was just driving around. A bit frustrating that probably a top five result has gone wanting.
"That’s motorsport, we’ll go to Adelaide for the last one and try and have a good one there.”
MSR dropped from fifth to seventh in the teams’ championship, but is only 33 points behind fifth placed Dick Johnson Racing and 177 behind Grove Racing.
The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will be decided at the season-ending VAILO Adelaide 500 on November 14-17. Tickets are on sale now.
