ALL it took was 10 minutes at Matt Stone Racing’s workshop for Nick Percat to realise there’s still plenty of life in his Supercars career.
Percat has been open about the toll a dreadful two-year spell at Walkinshaw Andretti United took on him.
For one reason or another, his highly touted reunion with the Clayton organisation simply did not work out.
It left him at a crossroads, until opening discussions with Matt Stone Racing at the Tailem Bend round last August, after which he flew north to visit the Yatala squad.
“I walked in unsure of where I was at in my career and what I wanted to do,” Percat admitted.
“I think I was here for 10 minutes, then I was like ‘this is where I want to be next year and these are the guys I want to drive for’.”
Having punched above his weight at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, delivering the minnows an Adelaide 500 race win and Bathurst 1000 podium in 2016, Percat established himself as an ace during a half-decade at Brad Jones Racing.
The early signs are that the MSR environment will be conducive to getting Percat back to his best, and it wasn’t long before the 35-year-old wowed his new team at their Ipswich pre-season test.
“I think Nick can definitely hit the ground running, jump straight in with the momentum the team had,” Matt Stone told V8 Sleuth.
“I think the car is very different to what he was driving last year, in terms of the team’s set-up philosophy, but I think it’s a bit familiar with him from previous times at different teams.
“I think he is liking the car and fitting in well with the team and hopefully we’re on for a good thing.”
Percat’s first competitive outing in the #10 Bendix Camaro will come today with Practice 1 at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 starting 12:20pm local/AEDT.
