Noble applauds Percat, unsure of #17 damage
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 11 October 2024
Dick Johnson Racing CEO David Noble thanked Nick Percat for his sportsmanship, assisting Will Davison after a heavy hit in qualifying, which has left the #17 in doubt for Saturday morning practice.
A dramatic Friday at Mount Panorama ended with Davison suffering a big crash in the Esses at the end of qualifying.
The DJR veteran hit the wall hard on the inside of the approach to The Dipper with both driver and car badly shaken from the impact.
Percat was one of the first cars on the scene and instead of driving past, he stopped alongside to undo Davison’s belts and assist him out of the car.
The pair embraced afterwards in a great sign of Supercars sportsmanship.
Davison has since been cleared by the medical centre.
“We checked on him and will get some fluid into him. Dr Carl will check on him soon but he has been through the medical centre and walked back here which is good,” Noble told AUTO ACTION.
“He looks okay at this stage (but) a bit disappointed and sore.
“The camaraderie was terrific.
“Nick got an activation in the car and was able to pull up and check.
“That was awesome for him to do that so our thanks to Nick for pulling up and helping Will get out of the car.”
Percat explained he had flashbacks to the infamous Tasmania 2017 pile up when Davison suffered a back injury.
“I’m very good friends with Will, basically grew up with him in Melbourne when I first joined Walkinshaw,” the MSR driver explained on Fox Sports.
“I just had flashes of his Tassie crash with his lower back
“I thought he’d had a head-on, to be fair and ‘this is no good for his lower back’.
“I just got to him as quick as I could. I know as a driver you don’t want to feel trapped or anything, so just try and help him out and he’s a good mate.
“The moment he said he was alright, I said ‘yeah, just have a seat here in case there’s a bit of adrenaline still coming off’.
“But glad to see he was alright, obviously probably a bit winded.”
Whilst Davison was able to walk away, there are doubts surrounding #17 Mustang as the left hand side suffered substantial damage following an impact that was reported at over 50G.
Noble was unsure on the exact extent of the car, but stressed the priority is to get the car tip top for Bathurst Day with Saturday morning’s Practice 5 at 10.05 AEDT.
“We are not sure and will know a bit later once we get all the panels off and have a good look at the chassis. Supercars will have to inspect it as well,” Noble explained.
“If we can, we will give it a good crack and get it ready for Sunday. The benefit is we have a full day tomorrow.
Will Davison with Jill Johnson in the DJR garage after Bathurst. Image: Peter Norton
“Fingers crossed. If we can we will get it going (but) we have experienced heads which always helps.”
What is expected to be a late night repairing the Mustang comes off the back of a frantic three weeks for all Ford squads to ensure all cars had engines fitted with updated GT3 crankshafts.
Leading the way was DJR with its Motorsport Powertrains engines division.
Although the #17 experienced overheating dramas on Thursday, Noble stressed there have been no dramas since.
“A little bit (of overheating dramas) but we have had no issues since then,” Noble said.
“After that we had three more practice runs and everything was fine.
“Our view in these certain situations is that we have just got to get on with it and get it done,” he continued on the engine preparation.
“We rallied troops from inside and had great support from teams to help and especially Ford.
“Across the globe we had three or four different continents involved from Japan to the UK to the US to here.
“It was a phenomenal effort. Massive thanks to everyone who helped us get to the point where we could deliver all the engines this weekend.”
Image: Peter Norton
2024 Bathurst 1000
Practice 1: 1: Matt Payne 2:07.2941 2: Cameron Waters +0.0366 3: Will Brown +0.0373
Practice 2: 1: J. Whincup 2:07.4788 2: C. Murray +0.0370 3: J. Ojeda +0.1860
Practice 3: 1: B. Feeney 2:06.7842 2: T. Randle +0.0614 3: J. Courtney +0.0700
Practice 4: 1: B. Kostecki 2:06.1820 2: C. Waters +0.1636 3: B. Feeney +0.3455
Qualifying: Fri 16.15-16.55
Practice 5: Sat 10.05-11.05 (co drivers)
Practice 6: Sat 13.05-14.05 (all drivers)
Top 10 Shootout: Sat 17.05
Warm up: Sun 8.15-8.35
Bathurst 1000: Sun 11.30 (161 laps)
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