NICK Percat has fellow South Australian Tim Slade to thank for being able to celebrate his breakthrough Supercars victory in a timely manner.
Percat capitalised on a clash between Ford drivers Chaz Mostert and Matt Payne to claim the fifth main game race win of his career, on Sunday at Albert Park.
His #10 Matt Stone Racing Camaro was running on fumes after taking the chequered flag, to the point where he needed a push to get back to make the podium ceremony.
That eventually came from PremiAir Racing veteran Slade.
“Just on the in-lap, he was stopped just before Turn 9 with his hand out the window,” Slade told V8 Sleuth.
“I think (Cam) Waters pulled up beside him and I was like ‘he’s obviously out of fuel or stopped for whatever reason’ so I just pushed him back and gave him a bit of a boost before Turn 13 just so he could make it through.”
Percat eventually was able to make it partway down pitlane before getting out and running to victory lane – hi-fiving various people along the way – to complete his post-race interview.
“Will Brown thought I was waving to the crowd ecstatically, which I was very happy, but I was signalling for him to push me and he’s not realised,” he laughed on the broadcast.
“But Sladey – (another) South Australian, me and Sladedog go way back – he figured it out pretty quickly and gave me a push back.
“Annoyingly we’re not in pitlane so he could only get me to Turn 13 and we rolled in from there and ran up to the podium.”
Percat is fourth in the championship and finished third in the Larry Perkins Trophy standings.
