PERCAT STORMS TO ROUND 5 VICTORY

Queensland Raceway, 18^th - 20^th July 2008

With less than two weeks since the warm and sunny conditions at Darwin's Hidden Valley, where Percat rolled out an untouchable 3 wins from 3 starts, teams moved south to Queensland Raceway.

Practice 1 & 2

Good conditions greeted the field on Friday for the opening sessions in Round 5 of the National Formula Ford Championship. It was once again Percat who was keen to set the pace with the fastest time of the day coming in 1^st Practice.

"We tested here earlier in the year with some pretty good times coming from old rubber, and the boy's have made a few improvements to the car since then so I always knew I would be on the pace here at QR" said an increasingly confident Percat.

Qualifying

Saturday's all important 20 minute session was going to be a tight affair at the top with track position a key factor in race results here at the "paper clip".

With the benefit of rolling out first courtesy of his P1 Practice lap, Percat blazed his way around the 3.12km circuit, laying down an impressive 1 min.14.0214 taking his second Pole for the year in the Walkinshaw Performance / No Fear / High Roller Energy Sonic Mygale.

"Very happy with Pole! As the 1 point is the perfect start to my weekend. The gap to Laskazeski is still there, however if I keep scoring more than him the Championship should take care of itself" said a confident Percat on returning to the pits.

Race 1

Nick Percat lined up for race 1 sharing the front row with Scott Pye for the Saturday afternoon race. Percat led the field away for the first of 12 laps, which was soon interrupted by a safety car. With racing resuming it was once again Percat leading the field home with SONIC team mate Lindbom making up a couple of positions to finish 2^nd.

"I'm happy to bank another 20 points towards the championship, and the car under me is performing well, so more than happy with that" said Percat on taking the victory in race 1

Race 2

Sunday's two races were again held in ideal conditions with Nick once again starting from Pole, with SONIC team mate Lindbom along side.

A similar story to race 1 unfolded with team-mates Percat and Lindbom working together to extend a lead over the chasing pack. The lead changed numerous times over the closing laps, however Percat always had more in reserve, and led all but 1 lap at the start/finish line. Percat winning again, with Lindbom second followed a few seconds later by Graham and Laskazeski.

"Looking after Kristian in that race really helped me out also, as keeping another car between myself and Laskazeski is the name of the game" commented Percat on securing the win.

Race 3

Percat again charged off Pole in the final race of the weekend, leading the field into turn 1. This time there was no hanging about, and showed the crowd and other teams he is a serious threat, not only for wins in the coming races, but the overall crown. Winning race 3 by a comfortable 2 seconds and with the fastest lap of the race, Percat leaves QR with the perfect score!

"61 points! Now that has set the cat amongst the pigeons hasn't it" said Percat, clearly delighted with his efforts over the weekend.

Nick now sits 2^nd in the Championship, with the gap to Laskazeski which was only a few rounds ago an almost impossible 73 points, however it is now a very reachable 40 points.....

Percat, the teenager from South Australia showing everyone that impossible is nothing! Roll on Round 6.

Catch all the latest news on http://www.nickpercat.com/  with round 6 at the beautiful Phillip Island September 12-14