With the weather forecast for the weekend predicting storms in the lead up to Round 2 of the National Formula Ford Championship, it was unusual for the race meeting to go without any rain. However they didn’t count on Tropical cyclone PERCAT to roll into town and destroy the field from the get go!
Friday morning was a chilly affair however Percat, highly motivated from his recent success at the Grand Prix, set about systematically dismantling any thoughts others may have had in challenging him over the coming races.
“ Not too bad really, the track is lacking a lot of grip after the rain here a few weeks ago so the lap time isn’t very Hollywood, however we are fastest in both practice sessions so I will take that!” said Percat after setting the benchmark time of 1 min 26.5 seconds in the second session.
Saturday morning was an early start for Percat and the SONIC team, with Qualifying held first thing in nearly freezing temperatures under a clear sky. With Percat rolling out onto the track first courtesy of his fastest Practice time, he soon got down to business setting an amazing 1min 25.84 smashing the Qualifying record with three laps under the magical 26 second mark.
“ I recently tested here and we did a 25.9 but that was pretty much in ideal conditions, so I’m rather happy to get that sort of pace out of the car today” said Percat after putting everyone on notice he was out to dominate the field.
Race 1 held later in the day on Saturday was a similar affair, with Percat showing a clean pair of heals after the side by side drag to turn 1 with Mostert. Percat going on to win easily, by what some paddock experts deem light years in Formula Ford a huge 2.7 seconds.
“Very happy to bag another win, I was stroking it along mindful that we need to look after these tyres for the coming races, so I was happy to build a gap and held that till the end. I didn’t realise how close we came to knocking off Jamie Whincup’s lap record, but a tenth from his 2002 time is pretty good going these days with the track surface showing its age”
Sunday Morning was another perfect day in country Victoria, and race 2 was looking like a copy of yesterdays race 1, with Percat winning the sprint from pole to turn 1, and was never close to being challenged, going on to win by a comfortable margin once again.
“I am getting used to this!” said Percat with little more to add on returning to the paddock.
The final race of the day was held in now warm sunny conditions, a far cry from the usual Winton chill, but it was Percat who had the opposition frozen as he once again went onto dominate leaving Mostert and team mate Evans to scrap for the minor places.
“I set about building a nice gap, and then just drove to the lap time on my dash for the remainder of the race, and when my pit board said I had 4.8 seconds on Chaz, I knew my weekend was complete” said Percat on receiving his second round win trophy from category manager Margaret Hardy.
Nick would like to thank his sponsors, fans, and technical partners for their continued support.
Who? Percat of course!!
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