The kids who kept Percat in Supercars

Nick Percat revealed he was on the edge of quitting Supercars during some tough times at WAU, but some karting kids were an important source of motivation.

After being a consistent force at Brad Jones Racing, Percat went back to the future and wanted to race at where his Supercars career began.

Whilst a return to the team that he famously took Bathurst 1000 victory with Garth Tander in 2011 and made his full-time debut with in 2014 seemed like a fairytale, it did not play out that way.

After four straight seasons of finishing in the top 10 in the championship, Percat finished 15th and 20th in his two seasons at WAU.

But now the fourth generation Holden employee is back racing for General Motors and is enjoying the familiar feel with Matt Stone Racing.

So much so Percat ended a four-year spell between wins in the Melbourne SuperSprint finale on Sunday where he held off both Triple Eight Camaros in a thriller.

Nick Percat sprays the victory champagne on the F1 podium. Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography

In the aftermath of the emotional success, Percat revealed he was on the verge of stopping his Supercars career during the dark days at WAU.

But the South Australian said the kids in his JND Racing karting program provided a much-needed source of inspiration and reality check.

“The JND kart team kids are all 9-15 dreaming of being in a Supercar and they pretty much gave me a clip around the ears,” Percat recalled.

“They said ‘Nick you need to keep racing, we love watching you’.

“That gave me a lot of motivation and when I met Matt (Stone) and the team and understood what they were doing I thought ‘I need to be in this car’.”

Percat revealed that he limited his time at Supercars race meetings as much as he could.

“It got pretty low and I tried to avoid going to the track,” he said. 

“I got to the track as late as possible and tried to leave as quickly as possible.

“It was average but it’s cool when you have young karters who motivate you so much and give you a reality check there are only 25 seats available and they love watching you even when you come last.”

Main image: Nick Percat Facebook

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