WALKINSHAW Andretti United faces a lengthy repair effort on Nick Percat’s charred Ford Mustang after a spectacular fire in Race 2 at Albert Park.
Percat arrived in pitlane at the end of the first lap with the left-front corner of his Mustang on fire.
Crews quickly extinguished the blaze, but not before it had done significant damage to the car’s left-front corner.
Percat first got wind of an issue halfway around the lap but had initially not realised it was a fire.
“I got a good start, no contact or anything through the first lap, obviously the Safety Car was out early,” he recounted.
“I thought I could smell something down the back straight and I thought ‘that’s weird’, but obviously the boys prep everything overnight, it could be a bit of CRC on the exhaust pipe, I didn’t think much of it, it’s a race car, they always have smells.
“Then I got to the third last corner and thought ‘oh my god I am on fire’. My natural reaction obviously was to get to the Supercar pitlane.
“I rolled in with no power with the extinguisher already running because I know how good this pitlane is.
“The Supercar crews, every team comes together when it’s a situation like that.
“Credit to everyone for bandying together but I could just cry for the WAU guys, it’s been a shocking start.”
The team declared the fire was caused by “a controlled electrical component failing”.
It’s the latest blow to Percat’s season following a Necastle shocker that included a wheel bearing issue that rendered him the first to bow out of a Gen3 race.
He’s mired at the bottom of the points standings which are led by teammate Chaz Mostert, who finished fourth today.
Percat though could at least draw one positive from his day.
“I’ve done my first enduro practice of getting out of the car, it was very fast!” he joked.
The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to the track for back-to-back qualifying sessions from 9:05am on Saturday morning ahead of Race 3 of the weekend at 5:30pm.
