Nick Percat will depart Brad Jones Racing at the conclusion of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship in a major silly season twist.
Percat confirmed the news in a statement supplied to Speedcafe.com.
“I will be parting ways with Brad Jones Racing at the end of the 2021 Supercars Championship season,” read the statement.
“This has been a difficult decision to make.
“Brad has always backed me and had faith in me to do the job for the team, and I can’t thank him and the whole team at Brad Jones Racing enough for the last five years.
“Together we’ve battled the highs and the lows, added trophies to the cabinet and had plenty of good times.
“Most importantly I’ve built some very good friendships which I hope will continue on.
“In regards to next season and beyond, I’ll be announcing mine and Nelson’s plans in due course but I can confirm Nelson will not be relinquishing his role as the unofficial dog of Supercars anytime soon.”
Percat had generally been ruled out of any silly season talk given BJR had only announced on June 30 he would stay with the team for 2022 and beyond.
However, rumours began to surface last week that maybe he would indeed be a factor in the driver market, with sources indicating the new BJR deal was far from concrete.
The 2011 Bathurst 1000 winner’s departure makes sense with Andre Heimgartner’s expected arrival at BJR from Kelly Grove Racing, the Kiwi to take over the status as the Albury squad’s new spearhead.
Percat meanwhile is strongly linked with a move to Walkinshaw Andretti United.
Tickford Racing is also a possibility; however, WAU is the firm favourite. Lee Holdsworth was previously the front-runner to land next to Chaz Mostert.
WAU incumbent Bryce Fullwood is understood to be more or less a done deal to join Tickford Racing in 2022, although he moved to downplay that suggestion last week.
The potential of a Percat shift to WAU would complete a full circle for the 32-year-old, who was long a Walkinshaw protégé before parting ways when James Rosenberg Racing handed its Racing Entitlements Contract back to Supercars at the end of 2014.
From there, he spent two seasons at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, and is now in his fifth year at BJR.
The possibility of a Mostert/Percat driver line-up would make for arguably the strongest pairing in the championship as WAU looks to come good on its intentions to move up the pit lane order.
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