NICK Percat has revealed the phone call he made to his former boss Brad Jones in the wake of his Walkinshaw Andretti United non-renewal becoming public.
It wasn’t to suss out a drive but rather to concede Jones was right.
Percat controversially left Brad Jones Racing at the end of 2021 to get out of his comfort zone and test himself at WAU.
It hasn’t worked out thus far, besides an emotional one-two at last year’s Adelaide 500, and Percat will head to Matt Stone Racing in 2024 as rookie Ryan Wood takes over his #2 WAU Mustang.
Asked if, in hindsight, there was any sense of regret about the BJR to WAU move, Percat gave an honest assessment.
“You’d be silly to think it was a great decision – which is nothing on the WAU guys, it just hasn’t worked out,” Percat told V8 Sleuth last month.
“Even this year we haven’t had a chance to show anything because of the niggling things with Gen3 cars… if you put your rose-coloured glasses on, you would have stayed put where I was.
“I rang Brad and said ‘yep, you were right, I probably should have’ after the announcement that I wasn’t staying at WAU and I’ve said the same to Bruce (Stewart, WAU team principal) as well.
“I have been open about it; it’s like, ‘well this hasn’t worked’.
“I’ve had a really good relationship with Bruce before joining, I’ve known him for so long and we’re very honest with each other. It’s not the outcome that either of us wanted.”
It’s a topic which also came up in discussions with MSR, too.
“I think the ingredients are definitely there to be back to where I kind of left off at BJR,” said Percat, who was a top 10 championship finisher in four successive seasons (2018-21) under Jones’ watch.
“Even Matt and a few of the guys there said, ‘far out, what happened in the last few years? When we look back at your results, you were always there’.
“I think the environment and the way that Matt runs the team there is definitely a way I like to go about my racing. It’s definitely exciting for both of us.
“Obviously it would be amazing if we could finish off the year with some strong results with WAU.”
WAU endured a nightmare start to the endurance season with both cars (Percat/Fabian Coulthard and Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth) finishing outside the top 20 in the Sandown 500.
The Clayton squad does however tend to be specialists at Mount Panorama, as proven by its impressive streak of six successive Bathurst 1000s with a podium.
Percat himself won the Great Race with the then HRT in 2011. He was back on the Mount Panorama podium with Walkinshaw Racing in 2014 and again in ’16 with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.
Ford too may have a better shot than at Sandown, with lightweight doors and panels introduced, and the lingering prospect of a last-minute aero upgrade.
