A MAJOR career milestone this weekend could be the catalyst for Nick Percat to kickstart his season, if history is anything to go by.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver is due to chalk up his 300th Supercars Championship race start in the third and final leg of the Tasmania SuperSprint this Sunday.
He’ll become the 31st driver to do so, a list which includes eight current full-time rivals: Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney, Will Davison, Shane van Gisbergen, David Reynolds, Tim Slade, Scott Pye and Chaz Mostert.
What’s more is that Percat has tended to rise for milestone occasions.
He celebrated his 100th start by combining with Cameron McConville to jag a shock podium for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport at the 2016 Bathurst 1000.
Then in 2020, to mark his double century, Percat took victory at Sydney Motorsport Park – Brad Jones Racing’s first main game win in more than four years.
So, what might race number 300 hold?
Percat certainly could do with an extension of that trend, given he finds himself anchored to the bottom of the championship after a rocky start to life in a WAU Gen3 Mustang.
There were some signs of better one-lap pace for the #2 Mobil 1 NTI entry last month in Perth, where he outqualified Mostert on the Saturday and defied a power steering issue to book a top 10 starting slot the following day.
“Tassie proves another challenge, it’s another different track for us to learn at in these cars, so it’s going to be interesting,” said Percat.
“Back to a two-day format means it’s going to be on, haven’t had a two-day format in a while so we’ve got to make sure we roll out well on Saturday morning.
“Love getting down to Tassie, the fans down there are awesome, it’s pretty special to have my 300th race start at such a well-supported event.”
Track action at Symmons Plains begins Friday with support categories; opening Supercars practice will start 9am AEST on Saturday.
