Percat was bracing for Mostert 'showdown'
Nick Percat was bracing for Chaz Mostert "showdown"
Percat beat Mostert by 0.6s in Tasmania opener
Former teammates taken back to old Super2 days
Nick Percat said he was bracing for a “showdown” with old mate Chaz Mostert, with the former teammates just 0.6s apart at the end of Saturday’s Tasmania opener.
Percat raced away to his second win of the season after a slick Matt Stone Racing got him ahead of early leaders Broc Feeney and Cam Waters.
Mostert took three tyres at his stop, and passed Waters and Feeney before setting sail for Percat. However, Percat had enough to hold on, taking his first win since March’s Grand Prix.
“I was comfortably hanging out and then you came along,” Percat said, looking across to Mostert in the press conference.
“I could just see this black bonnet coming and thought, ‘No, it must be still Cam… oh, no'. So I had to get on with it a bit at the end there and use what we had left.
“It was going to be a good old showdown like we used to have, I was not going to make it easy. You're on for a race win, they don't come around very often in this game because it's so competitive.
“I think if it went another five [laps] it would have been like a classic Chaz, Nick, bit of a showdown. I would just park it down the inside, he'd try and over-and-under me.”
It took both drivers back to their Super2 sparring days, when Mostert and Percat fought for wins and the title in the development series in 2012.
Mostert replied: “When I got to the back of Nick I was like, ‘Is that a #222 Coates Hire Commodore?’”
"Am I in this old FG Falcon? Is this like the Development Series all over again?”
Percat said Mostert would have had the championship on his mind, adding: “It would have been fun. When I saw him get through the other two so easy I was like, ‘Can they just race the bloke?’
“Honestly, it's like when people used to complain when Shane [van Gisbergen] would come flying through.
“He obviously had a really fast car. I was lucky because we were together at the start… I could see where his car was fast and coincidentally we could both run a similar line at the hairpin, which was probably what protected me compared to the others.
“Obviously he's got the eyes on and hunting down the Triple Eight guys [in the championship], so I tried to not let him win every race lately.”
Mostert slashed Will Brown’s lead from 105 to 63 points, with Feeney 120 points behind his teammate. Percat, meanwhile, moved from ninth to sixth overall.
