MSR made an unscheduled chassis swap after the Sydney Motorsport Park opener, moving Percat from his designated car to that which it had run as a wildcard for Cam Crick at Round 1.
That move followed a poor round for the team in Sydney, and particularly for Percat, who was said to have reported “driver feel issues” with the machine he’d debuted last September.
Stone says a subsequent analysis did not reveal any mechanical faults but reversing the swap isn’t on the cards.
“It would be nice to put him back in the newer chassis given there were no real findings there,” Stone told Speedcafe.
“But for the workload of swapping and the fact it didn’t have an impact, there’s no point swapping back.
“We’ll just leave it as is and carry on.”
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The ‘wildcard’ car that Percat is currently in was also the Camaro he won two races with during 2024.
Percat has endured a rollercoaster campaign to date with strong speed at Albert Park and Symmons Plains and struggles at Sydney and Taupo.
Teammate Cameron Hill has been the more consistent of the pair and, despite a tough run in Tasmania, sits eighth in the standings, five places ahead of Percat.
“Obviously New Zealand was a real unknown,” said Stone of Percat’s form.
“At Sydney we struggled a bit as a team and in New Zealand just one side of the garage really struggled, but we went to Tassie and had a good run there.
“For us it’s just qualifying consistency. If Nick qualifies in the top six, he can be on the podium and win a race. We just need to be qualifying in the top six more often.”
MSR’s wildcard program is expected to return with Crick contesting the Ipswich sprint round in August ahead of an Endurance Cup campaign with a yet to be confirmed co-driver.
The Percat chassis swap means Crick will drive the newer chassis, which has just five events to its name.
MSR’s Camaros are sporting their Indigenous Round colours at the Perth Super440 this weekend due to the tight turnaround before Darwin in a fortnight’s time.
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