Coates Hire driver Nick Percat is seeking to repeat his previous Winton Raceway success, at this weekend’s Australian Porsche Carrera Cup round.
Last year, Percat raced the Coates Hire Commodore in the Dunlop Series for V8 Supercars and finished with two firsts and a second over the three races at Winton, to convincingly win the round.
Currently third in the Porsche Carrera Cup points table in his debut season, Percat has spent many hours lapping the Winton circuit, the test track of the Holden Racing Team, for whom he won Bathurst in 2011.
Winton Raceway has been a happy hunting ground for Percat since 2009 when he scorched to a comprehensive round win on his way to becoming the Australian Formula Ford champion the same year. He also scored his first V8 Supercar Development Series podium there in 2010.
Percat goes into this round having tested the Coates Hire Porsche 911 GT3 at Winton earlier in the year, giving him the advantage of valuable set up data.
Prior to the weekend Percat said: “As Winton is my home track I am feeling quite confident and last time I raced there we won two of the three development series races. I also won every race in my Formula Ford there back in 2009.
“When we tested the Porsche there earlier in the year we were quite quick, so I think this weekend is a good opportunity for us to put our best foot forward and get a round win”.
Percat has some great memories from Winton: “The Formula Ford wins were great as we had a lot of car pace and I won by a comfortable margin. But the Dunlop Series race last year was the best. I had a race-long battle with Scott Pye and got the win. It was very rewarding due to how precisely I had to drive with Scott on my back bumper. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake so it was probably my best memory”.
The Australian Porsche Carrera Cup features many of the V8 Supercars co-drivers including Craig Baird, Warren Luff, Percat and Steven Richards. In addition to his Porsche Carrera Cup races, Percat will also be behind the wheel of the Coates Hire supported Holden Racing Team V8 Supercar he will share with Garth Tander in the upcoming endurance races at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.
