NICK Percat will take the next step as a motorsport team owner this weekend as JND Racing debuts in the Toyota 86 national scene at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.

The six-time Supercars race winner, who is hanging up the helmet as a full-timer at the end of this season, has already established a successful karting operation.

Now that will blossom into a karting-to-cars pathway following a merger deal which sees 6868 Motorsport and its Parolin Australia chassis importing responsibilities all come under the JND banner.

JND will dip its toes in the TGRA GR Cup via a one-car effort for Zane Rinaldi through the remainder of season 2025 (i.e. Gold Coast and Sandown).

That will be a prelude to plans to next year field two cars in GR Cup and at least two in the second-tier Scholarship Series.

“JND Racing now has a complete pathway from karts to cars, we feel like we offer everything a driver needs to succeed with a clear pathway,” said Percat.

Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh

“We’ll debut in GR Cup this weekend at the Gold Coast with Zane Rinaldi.

“He’s a good young steerer who runs at the front, so it works well for us to have someone like that in our car. And for him, it’s about getting him back on track at short notice with a tight turnaround from Bathurst to the Gold Coast.

“Then next year we’ll have two GR Cup cars running and two to three in Scholarship Series.

“We’ll try to lock in all our drivers in Scholarship and GR this side of Christmas and hopefully, the plan is one of them will be a driver that’s been running in karts with JND for the past 12 months or so.

“We’ll expand our factory karting team as well. The final number of karts we’ll field in 2026 is not confirmed but it will be somewhere around the 15 mark.

“With our JND karting team we look forward to helping all Parolin drivers across the country and make sure the Parolin kart is strong across the board.”

JND now counts Daniel Forkings and Deik Lack as co-owners, and has signed Pete Crossingham as team manager.

“Nick and the JND team are really big on their goal of facilitating a fantastic pathway in motorsport and that aligns perfectly with what we’re all about,” said Forkings.

“We are confident this partnership is going to really elevate our programs.”

Added Lack: “Having JND and Nick partner with us is a fantastic opportunity for Parolin karts to grow in Australia and really fight for more race and championship wins.

“We can’t wait to rip in and get started.”

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