NICK Percat has lapped up the chance to get a feel for the Matt Stone Racing way at a pre-Repco Bathurst 12 Hour test day.
The 2011 Great Race winner had his first track day with the Yatala squad yesterday at Queensland Raceway, driving the brand-new IRC GT which he’ll share with Cameron Hill and John Holinger in next month’s 12 Hour.
On top of being given the honour of the car’s first ever laps, it was a valuable exercise for Percat to get up to speed with his new Supercars team.
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“For me it has been good to work with Jack (Bellotti), my engineer for the year, and the crew and just kind of get familiar with everyone’s faces and the way they go about it. It’s been quite fun,” said the 35-year-old.
“It was great to see the way the dynamic in the team works.
“I looked over at points during the day and Matt (Stone, CEO/owner) was on the car and getting his hands dirty and everyone chips in, so it’s good to see how the race team works.
“I’m looking forward to coming back in a couple of weeks’ time for the Supercars test.”
That Supercars test will come on February 5, proving Percat’s first chance to steer his #10 Camaro.
From there, it will be straight into competition, with the 12 Hour on February 16-18 followed by the Thrifty Bathurst 500 the following weekend.
Percat believes the transition from an invitational-class IRC GT to a Gen3 Supercar may be smoother than those who’ll go GT3 to Gen3.
“I think it is probably a bit closer to what we’ll have (than a GT3),” he said.
“Obviously we’re racing on a hard tyre this year at Bathurst in the Supercar so the lap time will be slower and this car within the rules is capped to a certain lap time of 2:06, so it’s probably more relevant to what we’ll be doing in terms of speed across the top and things like that.”
MSR isn’t the only Supercars team with a presence in the 12 Hour; Triple Eight will field two cars, while Erebus Motorsport is supporting M-Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG.
