THERE’S no hiding from the fact that Nick Percat’s Triple Eight debut did not go to plan, but that did little to take away from his long-awaited first impressions of the Banyo squad at the racetrack.
Percat was beaten up during the wet early phase of the AirTouch 500 at The Bend, including being spun by Lee Holdsworth and then clattered into by Zak Best – the latter incident necessitating a multi-lap repair in the garage.
From there, Percat and Broc Feeney could manage no better than 23rd.
“Being taken off the road three times was not ideal in the first 30-odd laps. I’ll just have to look at maybe what I could have done, if I could have put myself in different spots or whatnot, but I just felt like it was unlucky,” Percat reflected post-race to V8 Sleuth.
“Our car was crazy fast.
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“It’s annoying for the whole team and Broc obviously to have the car handed back in that position.
“I’ve been the main driver and had my car returned like that and it’s not a nice feeling.”
If nothing else, Percat was able to at least get plenty of race mileage to take into the Repco Bathurst 1000.
As for what he observed of Triple Eight, regardless of the result?
“The way they work is amazing and how calm it is,” he said.
“The way Jamie (Whincup) checks in on everyone, making sure it’s all going in the right direction is very impressive as well. There was not a lack of support, which is really good.
“And then when the car wasn’t where we wanted it during practice sometimes, there was never a panic. It was just like ‘okay, we’re going to do x, y, z’.
“When they rolled out for quali, that was probably the most impressive bit for me, for Broc to be fighting for pole when earlier in the weekend we weren’t in that position at all.”