Nick Percat “threw everything at it” for Sydney Race 2 victory

Brad Jones Racing’s Nick Percat said he “can’t thank the team enough” following his Race 2 victory at Sydney Motorsport Park, his first for over four years in the Supercars Championship.

Percat made the most out of a strong start from sixth on the grid and an aggressive tyre strategy to become the first non DJR Team Penske or Red Bull Holden driver to win a race since Chaz Mostert at Albert Park last season.

“It’s amazing,” Percat told Fox Sports post-race.

“I can’t thank Brad and the whole team enough, obviously he can’t be here this weekend, but I want to thank Brad for having the faith in me, it’s taken a bit longer than I wanted but everyone did a mega job and the car was hooked up.

“As soon as we were in a good position, we just threw everything at it, because we live for now.”

BJR opted to change all four tyres on Percat’s at the mandatory pit-stop in contrast to Red Bull changing just two for Whincup.

The resulting grip advantage for Percat ensured he could hound Whincup in the second stint before taking the lead with 11 laps left and ultimately beating the Red Bull driver to the line by 3.181 seconds.

“I knew I had much better tyres [than Whincup] and I wanted to get it done before the pit-stop but I couldn’t quite get there. But the first lap after I passed Shane I though, ‘hang on there’s something going on here’ so I went straight on the radio and told the team ‘hey they’re not putting any tyres on’.

“But it was mega, we had a good battle with Scotty [McLaughlin] and Cam [Waters] and came away with the win, so it’s awesome.