The drama didn’t end at the chequered flag, either, with Percat’s Matt Stone Racing Camaro rolling to a stop, out of fuel, on the cool-down lap.
He ended up scoring a push back to the pits from Tim Slade, although even that wasn’t entirely straightforward.
Post-race TV interviews and the podium presentations have been taking place in the main pitlane, while cars outside of the top three have been exiting the circuit at Turn 13 on the cool-down lap.
That meant Percat’s push came to an end once Slade returned to the paddock, Percat then completing the rest of the journey on foot.
In the pre-podium waiting room, the broadcast picked up Will Brown explaining that he thought Percat was stopping to do a burnout.
Percat then later explained that he had been signalling to Brown that he needed a push, which went over Brown’s head.
“Will Brown thought I was waving to the crowd ecstatically,” said Percat.
“I was very happy, but I was signalling for him to push me and he’s not realised.
“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 [garaged] in pit lane so he could only get me to Turn 13 and we rolled in from there and ran up to the podium.”