The narrow margins that defined luckless Percat's Sydney
Supercars
25 Feb
Nick Percat missed top 10 starting positions by 0.044s. 0.022s and 0.170s
Matt Stone Racing driver finished 12th, 21st and 15th in Sydney races
Percat sits 17th overall, 12 months after leaving Round 1 in sixth
0.044s. 0.022s and 0.170s.
That’s all that stood between Nick Percat and a vastly different weekend in Sydney for the Matt Stone Racing spearhead.
12 months after leaving Round 1 in Bathurst sixth in the championship, Percat ended up 17th in the points after a rollercoaster Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.
The 2011 Bathurst winner finished 12th, 21st and 15th in the three encounters, with his Saturday result undone by a penalty over an incident with Jaxon Evans and James Golding.
Percat started the three races from 14th, 11th and 17th, but near-misses in qualifying held him back from bringing home a bigger haul of points, and starting away from mid-pack chaos.
In Friday’s two-part qualifying, Percat missed a Q2 berth by just 0.044s, before winding up 11th and missing a Shootout berth on Saturday by 0.022s.
Come Sunday, and the Bendix Camaro was 0.170s from the top 10 — a tiny margin considering Cam Waters went on to beat Broc Feeney in the Shootout by 0.109s.
“We were close all weekend, but not there. So, happy to leave and happy to go to the Grand Prix,” Percat told Supercars’ Cool Down Lap podcast.
“We'll regroup and try and tidy up a few bits and pieces. But yeah, felt like we missed the Shootout each day by a tiny bit.”
Percat admitted the races didn’t quite go to plan either, but was excited to head back to Melbourne, where he famously defeated both Triple Eight drivers to win the Grand Prix finale.
Crucially, Percat is 53 points below the Finals cut line, albeit with seven more rounds and 22 races left in the Repco Sprint Cup.
“The races with strategy…we should have zigged when we zagged,” Percat said.
"So it was just one of those weekends, yeah, we'll regroup and get ready to go again. Obviously got fast cars at the Grand Prix. We'll have a crack there.
"But, it felt like from both sides of the garage, probably one that kind of got away from us a little bit."
The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Melbourne SuperSprint, which will feature at the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 on March 13-16.
