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Percat will be second-last out for tomorrow’s Top 10 Shootout at Hidden Valley Raceway after being pipped to Friday honours by less than a tenth of a second.
The South Australian started the 2024 season, his first at MSR, with six top 10s including a drought-breaking victory at Albert Park.
In the two events since, he has managed just the one top 10 – a seventh at Wanneroo – and finished no higher than 16th in the other three races.
“The MSR car and the whole team’s been amazing all year,” said the #10 Chevrolet Camaro pilot, who is currently sixth in the championship.
“The spacer between the seat and the steering wheel has made a few mistakes, the last couple of rounds, so it probably hasn’t really shown the speed we’ve had.
“I came up here early, had a bit of a reset, and it’s nice to roll out the truck well.
“We had a good test day recently as well, so it was nice to kind of validate a few things with the way MSR go about it.
“I’m kind of kicking myself for the last couple rounds of how that went because I think we could be comfortably probably close to the top three in the championship.
“But, the car’s been mega since day one so it’s nice to reward them with a good little result here on Friday.”
Percat guaranteed himself a top 10 starting berth for the first race of the weekend on Friday afternoon under the new format which included today’s qualifying session as a leg of the Darwin Triple Crown.
The 2011 Bathurst 1000 winner was still in a self-deprecating mood when asked to comment on the unusual weekend programme.
“I don’t mind it, only because I think I normally go half-alright in my Practice 2 and then absolutely spray it in qualifying, the next morning,” he quipped.
“So, I don’t mind. It’s different. Obviously, a few of us have been around a while and it’s always the same kind of thing, so it’s nice to mix it up.
“I guess it puts a bit more emphasis on making sure you do your preparation well, from the driver’s side and the team side, and the car rolls out well, there’s no finger trouble from the workshop when they’re building it and stuff like that… the attention to detail has to be extremely high.
“So, I don’t mind the added pressure of trying to make sure the boys have got a little bit more OCD on the cars to make sure they do roll out well because it does set up your whole weekend.
“Even if that was final practice and your down in 22nd, you have to drag yourself out of it [and] It’s really hard, so I don’t mind if it’s Practice 2 or qualifying; they both kind of spice it up.”
PremiAir Racing’s James Golding was fastest in Qualifying for Race 11 and is thus not only on provisional pole position, but the only driver left in contention for the Darwin Triple Crown title.
Practice 2 starts tomorrow at 09:35 local time/10:05 AEST, and the Top 10 Shootout for Race 11 at 11:35 local time/12:05 AEST.
